Chapter 260: Chapter 237 – Gale Rippers

"Vicious flightless birds with powerful legs and wicked talons, Gale Rippers are aggressively territorial creatures, and usually lead their less developed brethren as a flock alpha.

 

Considered one of the more dangerous threats in the plains, they were a disaster for small caravans that ran into a large flock, yet rarely persisted for long, as usually they were hunted down shortly after the news that a flock had approached the roads were disseminated." - Farid Vestrane, mercenary based in Alfheim.

The moment Cal's students joined the battle for real, the tides quickly turned. Within a short moment around ten of the oversized birds lay dead or dying. Some killed by the adventurers they fought, but most felled by Cal's students.

 

As they witnessed the deaths of their brethren, some of the remaining birds of the flock stepped back in fear, and appeared as if they were about to withdraw. That was not to be, however.

 

A shrill, loud shriek came from the largest of the birds that watched from further away. Its shriek was echoed by the other four beside it, and they ran down the hill on powerful legs while shrieking all the way.

 

Those shrieks seemed to invigorate the rest of the flock, which intensified their assault on the adventurers once again. Some adventurers were kicked away, some injured quite badly, which prompted Dan and the two healers in the adventurer group to immediately work on them.

 

Willa, Ognar, and Giselle intensified their assault, as they slew five more beasts before the larger Gale Rippers threw themselves into the fight.

 

Gliding on their widespread wings, the five beasts would have originally crashed into the adventurer formation with gruesome results. Instead, they were intercepted before they could do so.

 

Ognar and Giselle each bodily tackled one of the incoming monsters and brought them to a crash landing to the side. Another was forced to drop down and land prematurely when bolts of lightning and an orb of magma almost hit it.

 

Willa herself tackled the largest bird with such force she caused it to crash with another, and the three of them went tumbling together in a heap. They quickly extricated themselves and began tearing at each other moments later.

 

With her students occupied by the Gale Rippers, that naturally left the adventurers on their own against the remaining twenty five or so birds. It was a situation which presented them with difficulties, given that some of them were already knocked out of the fight.

 

Cal exchanged a look with Kyara, and they nodded to one another, as they decided to lend their aid more directly.

 

The therian champion of ash had drawn her weapons for the first time, a pair of large daggers with blades shaped like a beast's claw - and like were a beast's claw originally - which she held in reverse grip.

 

Kyara nimbly dashed in, her movements fluid and light, and deep gouges opened on the flesh of any beast she passed by. Gouges which often found themselves stuffed with scalding ash, to boot. Some of the beasts collapsed from the pain alone.

 

Cal was far more direct, as she whipped out her halberd and struck down beasts with almost every strike. One beast's head was cleanly severed by the crescent blade of her halberd, while another took the beaked hammer on the back deep into its torso, gurgled, and died promptly.

 

Their rampage was short and vicious, and in a mere few moments, only half or so of the remaining birds had survived. Those survivors turned and fled on the spot, thoroughly intimidated by the slaughter. The adventurers had not given chase so Cal let them run.

 

The Gale Rippers had been too busy to rally their flock, as they were fighting for their lives against their opponents. Elaina, Sidonie, Fheeri, and Leila had teamed up with Ashani, and together they harried one of the beasts from four sides.

 

Elaina would prod it with her spear or a bolt of lightning, Fheeri would hurl one of her throwing knives, or Leila would hurl a blob of magma the bird's way, to create openings for Sidonie and Ashani who would charge in and score the bird's flesh with cuts and stabs.

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The bird was already bleeding from many wounds, and was clearly weakened. Before too long, its strength failed it and it fell on its knees. Ashani baited it by approaching and easily swayed back when the dying bird tried to peck at her.

 

That gave Sidonie an opening to take its head off, as she used the blades of her katars like a scissor to slice through the bird's thick neck muscles. The decapitated beast collapsed on the spot.

 

Ognar had driven his bird a good bit back, as the beast walked with a limp, clearly in pain. Despite how he only wore regular clothes instead of his armor, Ognar had expertly used his shield and hammer to deflect or block the bird's strikes, and atood unscathed.

 

Cal had told her three blood mage students not to use their armor in this fight, as it would not have served as good training for them if it was too easy.

 

The bird tried to kick with its one good leg at the half-orc boy, but he deflected the blow to the side with his shield, which sent the bird off-balance as its injured leg failed to support it.

 

Its head fell down, low enough for Ognar to reach, and he viciously struck it from the side with a roundhouse swing of his hammer. A sound of bone breaking could be heard, and the bird flopped down to its side, bleeding from every orifice on its head. It was as dead as it could be.

 

Giselle had her bird down on its last legs as well, as the beast bled from many, many stab wounds all over its body. Its large size had prevented her from landing a fatal blow to vital organs, but blood loss took its toll nonetheless.

 

Unlike her fellow students, Giselle was patient, and had not minded waiting for the beast to drop on its own, rather than go in and attack unnecessarily. Eventually, when the beast's head drooped down, she dashed in and skewered it from below with her longer sword, swiftly ending the beast's life.

 

In contrast to her fellow disciples who finished their fights cleanly, Willa's fight was a display of raw savagery. She had tackled the beasts at once, at times exchanging wounds to hit back harder at them.

 

One time the smaller of the two birds had managed to pierce her chest with its talons. Willa had just smiled, as she clenched her muscles around those talons, and grabbed the beast's leg with both hands.

 

Then she swung the beast around and used it to bludgeon the other, larger beast repeatedly.

 

By the time she had to let go of her impromptu bludgeon because the leg she held had torn off at the knee, the beast she used as a makeshift weapon had long breathed its last, most of its bones broken apart in the violence.

 

The other beast, the largest of the flock, eyed her with some evident fear. It too was injured by the beating, but to a lesser extent as it was bigger and sturdier. Even a foolish beast like it had their instincts, though.

 

And every instinct it had screamed for it to run for it faced a predator far beyond its capability to deal with.

 

The bird tried to run away.

 

Willa was faster.

 

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