Chapter 79: Chapter 78

There was no way he was going to make it in time. The bird, which looked ridiculous in the air with its two long legs trailing behind it, was already diving down at the wagon. It would be seconds at most before it made contact, and Nym was still the better part of a mile away. Even pushing as hard as he could, it would take him almost a minute to catch up.

Just as the bird was coming in for a landing, a huge spike of stone shot up from the ground. The bird crashed into it and the stone shattered, sending shards slicing through its feathers and biting into muscle beneath. There were some cries of pain from the humans nearby as well, but it looked like the bird took the worst of it. It bounced off the now broken spike and landed on the ground.

Once it was no longer flying, it looked much more intimidating on its two legs. The bird recovered from the impact far too quickly, and was already moving by the time the ground opened up beneath it. One leg fell into a hole, but it lifted itself out with a quick flap of wings which now seemed ridiculously long for its body.

Then it was on them, with the four exhausted mages working in concert to hit it with a barrage of stones while tripping it up by reshaping the ground under its feet. The bird lifted into the air more than once, but someone had seized advantage of a weakness and pointed out that its wings were far more vulnerable while it was flying than when it was on the ground with them tucked up tightly against its body.

Nym finally got within range and started building up the construct for a lightning bolt. As soon as he had a clear shot, it arced out through the air to smite the bird. His avian foe twitched and popped in a full-body spasm surrounded by the stink of burnt feathers and muscle, but it recovered from the powerful attack just as fast as it had the stone spike.

Undaunted, Nym started forming another construct. That fell apart almost immediately though, as the bird did not take well to his interference and immediately launched itself into the air at him. The rest of the group took advantage to take free shots at it, but they were already running low on strength and the bird easily moved out of range.

Without the backdrop to compare it against, the monster looked much smaller as it winged through the air. Nym revised that thought almost immediately though as it rapidly grew in size when it came straight at him. A few hundred feet was not nearly enough space to feel safe from the feathered monster, and Nym promptly switched to a full reverse to add to that distance.

While it seemed like a solid strategy at first, Nym quickly realized he was isolating himself from his allies. Already they were too high up for anyone to reach them besides Analia, and Nym had never seen her throw anything heavy. The worst she’d demonstrated in front of him was a paralysis spell that didn’t even work on him, let alone something the size of a house. The bird probably wouldn’t even feel those hail stones she’d used in Thrakus.

On the other hand, it also meant Nym was free to shoot lightning at it without worrying about hurting anyone else. He launched another bolt at the monstrous bird, causing its beating wings to falter and it to fall about fifty feet before it recovered. Enraged, it let out a shrieking roar laced with arcana. Nym’s own flight spell popped and he kept sailing backwards on momentum alone.

Flying was his most used and most practiced ability. Nym did it instinctually at this point. He wanted to be in the air, and so he was. Recovering from the sonic attack took no more effort than thinking about it. And while he was doing that, a third lightning bolt slammed into the bird, which was chasing him down as they both went lower.

Nym was deliberately leading it towards the trees now, so that when he shocked it again, it crashed into them and got tangled in the branches. His hope was that it would impale itself on four or five trees at the same time and get pinned there, but he’d underestimated the monster’s durability. It took it a few seconds to orient itself, then launched back into the air after him.

Another lightning bolt struck it, this time in the face. “Oh come on, what are you made out of?” Nym said as it shrugged the attack off and continued climbing after him.

Since lightning wasn’t doing the trick, Nym switched to fire. The distance was too great for him to lay down arcana directly, so he left it hanging in the air like long ribbons as he flew backwards. It started sticking to the bird when it flew through them, and once enough of it was coating the monster, Nym ignited it. With a flash of heat and light, eight separate streamers of fire burned in the air and immolated the bird’s head, chest, and wings.

It let out another strangely deep screeching roar and plummeted from the sky. A trail of shed feathers drifted in the air behind it, black and charred. It crashed back into the trees, thrashing and screeching as its limbs swept about, destroying branches and even whole trunks in explosions of wood. The fire continued to burn, and even spread to some of the branches it was caught up in.

The monster fought, but Nym kept the pressure on by feeding even more of his arcana into the fire. It was a bit harder since the wind wouldn’t just take it where he wanted it, and he didn’t want to fly above it both because of all the smoke coming up and because if it managed to break free, he didn’t want to be that close. Fortunately, the fire seemed to distract it quite nicely.

Unfortunately, the flames were starting to spread into the forest and Nym’s skills in putting fires out remained negligible at best. Pyrokinesis was not his strong point, so instead he started casting his kinetic cutting spell over and over to lop off branches that fire had spread to. He then used telekinesis to throw them back to the bird. If he couldn’t put the fire out, he’d at least keep it contained and make it do something useful.

 That only kind of worked, but fortunately there wasn’t an overabundance of dry wood in the forest and while there was a lot of smoke coming up from the monster’s impromptu funeral pyre, it wasn’t spreading all that fast. Nym worked diligently to keep it trimmed back and, to his great relief, it eventually started to die out.

The bird monster was thoroughly cooked. Nym didn’t want to say it smelled good, but he’d eaten food that smelled worse. If he cut away the burnt spots, he expected there was still enough for a meal or two there. It would probably be more work than it was worth to harvest meat off a creature that size though, and he honestly wasn’t sure if it was safe to eat.

He flew back out towards the road and found Analia flying his way. Nomick was with her, his eyes glued shut as they weaved and bobbed through the air. Nym couldn’t really blame him for that, as Analia’s flight was far less smooth and having to carry the weight of a full-grown man in addition to her own was straining her terribly.

When she saw Nym, she immediately started descending, much to Nomick’s relief. He joined the pair a moment later just outside the treeline, touching down and asking, “Is everyone alright?”

“Are we alright! Are you alright? What were you thinking? Where did the monster go?”

“I wasn’t trying to fight it on my own,” Nym said. “I just threw my strongest spell at it hoping it would die, but it mostly seemed to make it mad. And then, well, you know, running away. More lightning, which didn’t work. And then I set it on fire, and that did it in.”

“You killed it?” Nomick said, surprised. “I guess that seventy-four rating isn’t just for show.”

“I… er, yeah. I guess.”

“We’re safe?” Analia asked, peering into the trees. The road had curved where they were standing

“Unless there’s a third one somewhere.”

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“Won’t be,” a new voice said. The man with the two swords stepped out from behind a tree. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt. Just letting you know shakheis birds only come in pairs. Thought the second one would come right at me when I killed its mate, but you guys were closer and got its attention.”

“Who are you?” Nomick asked, stepping forward to put himself between the man and Nym and Analia.

“Name’s Cavil. Monster hunter. I’ll be on my way now. Gotta take both skulls back to Valcort and collect my pay.”

“Hold on now! You only killed one of them,” Analia pointed out. “Wouldn’t that mean half that pay goes to us?”

“Hah. If you want to do the butchering and haul the skull back. Otherwise it’s mine. Not worth much though. One crest five for both of them, nothing for just one.”

“Why not just give us half now, and collect the full reward yourself,” Analia said.

“Analia, it’s fine, really,” Nym told her.

“Hush you. That thing attacked us, and you’re the one who killed it. If there’s a bounty for it, you deserve to get paid.”

Cavil held up his hands in surrender. “Give you five shields. That’s a third of the bounty, and you can be on your way right now. I’ll deal with getting the proof back to town. Deal?”

Analia regarded him shrewdly, then nodded once. “Deal.”

The monster hunter paid out the coins and waved them off. Without another word, he disappeared back into the forest. Analia handed two shields to Nym and said, “We’ll put the rest into the pot for communal expenses like food.”

“Just put it all in,” Nym said, trying to hand the coins back. She wouldn’t take them though, and he gave up with a sigh.

“I wish I’d asked him why he had two swords,” Nomick said. “Still, I get to shove it in Ophelia’s face that I was right.”

“That’s the important thing,” Nym deadpanned. “Everyone still being alive is just a bonus.”

“Exactly! See, you understand how life works, don’t you?”

“Why are you here again?”

“I was the least wiped out of the four of us, and Analia didn’t think she could bring more than one person with her,” Nomick explained.

“Oh… right.” Nym felt like a jerk. Nomick had come to fight with him.

“Not that you needed help this time,” Nomick said. “But just you wait until some monster mole pops up from the ground and we get our chance to shine. We’ll fillet that thing in seconds. But birds, that’s just not an earth mage’s area of expertise.”

“Plus most of your magic is defensive in nature,” Analia pointed out. “Very good for long-term fortifications. Not so great for immediate defense, and not good at all for offense.”

“Harsh!” Nomick said, clutching at his chest. “You wound me so.”

“Let’s head back to the wagon,” Nym suggested. “I’ll carry you this time.”

“I’d rather walk,” the earth mage told him. “We’re not in any rush now that those bird things are dead. What did that guy call them again? Shack hiss birds? No, that wasn’t it.”

Nym picked all three of them up, ignoring Nomick’s protests, and started flying them back towards the rest of the group. He had a feeling it would be an early night, with everyone needing the rest, but probably not unless they got far away from the forest first.

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