A Mysterious Roc

It was like time itself had simply stopped for Leon. The bird stood still with its vibrant feathers and electricity spreading to kill all that stood in its way.

At first, Leon thought to himself.

'Is this what happens when a person is about to die? Where are the past memories flashing before my eyes? Where is the sense of danger?'

He knew he should've been scared and probably soiling his pants, but some instinct coming from his body and blood told him that he would be fine.

That was when a voice rang out with such intensity and authority, Leon could've sworn a god had descended upon the world and spoke to him.

"How pathetic can you be?"

The voice reverberated throughout the air as it seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously.

Turning his head, Leon looked everywhere for the owner of the voice, but couldn't find a single person moving yet alone talking.

Snorting with a hinge of amusement and mockery, the voice spoke again.

"You have to be kidding me. Are you telling me, that I who used to conquer the many skies across the universe am now bound to a weak, bumbling fool?"

Leon had no clue what was going on with the combination of time freezing and the fact that he couldn't find the origin of the voice so he couldn't refute the words.

The voice sighed and suddenly a giant birdlike figure that had few details and looked ethereal appeared from within his chest.

"Can you see me now? You stinking clown."

Seeing the figure made out of what seemed like light, Leon realized it was one of his bloodline creatures and gaped in awe at the sheer power it commanded.

The figure stood proudly as it sighed again.

"Fortunately even if you are too gobsmacked to talk, I can read your mind since I am a part of you. I'm going to make this short for you."

The Roc explained to Leon that the reason that time had frozen was that it used its many powers to do it, however, it was too weak to do it often and hold it for long.

It then went on a rant about how stupid, weak, and pretty much useless Leon was for the remainder of the time until it reached the end of its speech.

"Essentially, the only reason I'm helping you out now is that I've barely regained enough power to barely stay conscious and the moment I awoke. You were about to die to some ant. Do you know how embarrassing it'd be for someone who owned my bloodline to die to some watered down, weak, coward, dust-like existence of a bloodline that would end its own life if I saw it with my real body? I mean come on if I accidentally sneezed this entire city, no, the entire state would be wiped out."

While listening to the berate of insults being thrown, Leon gleaned some information through his bloodline's words.

'She's strong.'

The Roc never explicitly said she was a female, but instinctively Leon could tell that the Roc was a female while the Bear was a male.

After finishing her rant, the Roc sighed and looked directly at Leon.

"Times running out, so let me just say don't expect me to help you out every single time your pathetic strength fails you. You are lucky the bear hasn't recovered enough to be out here or he might've just ended up eating you whole."

Leon wanted to ask the Roc what she was but before he could say a word the mythical creature flew back into Leon and time resumed again.

The frozen electrical bird started to move again as it neared him, but unfortunately for the bird, it wasn't its fate to take his life.

For a millisecond, the Roc appeared behind Leon and roared at the bird who saw the Roc and started trembling as it was pressed onto the ground like it was groveling for its ant-like life.

The bird wasn't the only thing that was affected either as everyone in the throne room. No, everyone in the city felt like the gravity has been multiplied by a million, and instinctively everyone fell to the floor.

The only people who weren't completely pressed against the ground were Crushing Fang and General Xenophon who had stopped fighting as they used all their strength to prop themselves on one knee.

Disappearing just as fast as it appeared, the ethereal figure of the Roc re-entered Leon and snorted as it grumbled in his mind.

'Hmph, I couldn't even get those ants to grovel with my current powers.'

Everyone finally regained their composure as the overwhelming pressure disappeared while they looked around with fear in their eyes to find where such a terrifying roar originated from.

Although everyone had been pushed to the ground, none of them had actually been injured. All except one person who currently spewed blood. It was Chief Knight Arulo!

His bloodline bird was nowhere to be found as it instantly imploded after the roar and the recoil of his bloodline animal being completely destroyed had backfired horrendously on its owner.

Arulo was keeling on the ground with a puddle of blood as he barely clung to life. Little Lightning and Raging Bull looked at the man with contempt but didn't even finish the man off.

Although they weren't remotely close to medical experts, they could easily tell that even if he survived. Arulo would be completely crippled for life and would struggle to even eat a normal meal.

In their minds, they would rather have him suffer by living on with such pathetic circumstances rather than giving him the easy way out of dying now.

But before Leon could celebrate, a loud crash of sound erupted from the opposite side of the throne room.

General Xenophon took advantage of the confusion of the roar and had managed to get a sneak attack in at Crushing Fang.

Although the warrior had reacted, it was slightly too late, resulting in a nasty gash that exposed his entire deltoid.

All the warriors present looked horrified at the result, but before anything else could happen an old, but the familiar voice spoke from the broken down main door.

"It seems I've arrived slightly late."

All the warriors who turned around to the voice suddenly erupted into relaxation like a messiah had arrived to save them.

Leon also turned around and saw the owner of the voice. It was Radiant Light!