Chapter 3: Battle on the highway

Looking above I only saw was a yellowish shadow bearing down on me. I closed my eyes since it was moving too fast. Luckily, Anton held onto me and then we moved. After coming to my senses, I realized that we had just made use of the tabletop RPG spell Teleport. Looking at the creature that attacked us, I saw a bluish bird with magical symbols floating around it and there was lightning traveling throughout its body. The only possible thing I can think of is that it might be the mythological creature, Thunderbird. In the lore of most games, thunderbirds are only a step lower than phoenixes. No wonder it tracked us down. Even if Anton did the best he could, it is still not a match for the bird with literally lightning-fast reflexes. It must have heard something when Anton sent out lightning earlier or maybe it could see through our force field. While I was having this thought, cold sweat ran through my body, and then I shouted, "Why did you attack us?!" The Thunderbird just screed loudly. Anton sent out a red beam while shouting “disintegrate” towards the enemy. The Thunderbird looked at the red beam and one of its lightning bolts slammed towards it, piercing through it, and destroying our force field that kept our scents intact. After that, I saw a lot of monsters coming at us; goblins, hellhounds, blobs, trolls, ogres, gryphons. Looks like everything from around a few kilometers was heading our way. I ran and used my shoes with misty steps for short-burst teleports. It eventually fizzled out. I then had to run normally with Anton beside me. For an old man, he didn’t seem to be short of breath like I was. It seems awakening also improved his stamina and endurance. The Thunderbird seeing as other creatures were after his prey, screeched loudly. Lightning bolts rained down from the sky, killing everything in sight. After that, some sort of energy was released and the Thunderbird huffed it all in, extremely happy for itself. It felt like we can no longer run away.

Anton could try to fight this out. But as for me, what can I do? I can’t do anything. Anything that I think of will be overturned by the bird’s absolute strength. If only I could also awaken. If only, I could also stand up and fight. After thinking that, I heard a voice inside my head saying, “Do you wish for power? If you forsake your companion and hand him to me, I will turn you into a king in this new world.” The thought of how and should I knock Anton out flitted through my mind. But ultimately, I decided against it. Anton was the one who helped me calm down when I thought all hope was lost. He was also the one who showed me the way to survive. When I snapped out of my thoughts, the fighting had begun. It was a battle between the mage Anton and the Thunderbird. Anything Anton threw, the bird didn’t care for it; be it lightning, earthen spikes, fireballs, or even beams of light. The Thunderbird looked like it was playing with Anton. Now that Anton is running out of strength, a lightning bolt ran out from the bird and cut off Anton’s arm. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Anton’s screaming was so loud in my head and along with that, my hope for living dwindled down immediately.

Streams of light were filling up the surrounding roads and streets, and then the most incredible thing happened. Anton shined up and killed the bird with the strange light. After seeing that, I finally thought we were safe. But then I saw that Anton stopped glowing. I saw him run out of energy. I approached him and said, “Anton, are you okay? Do you need anything? Anything at all?” I was so scared for him to leave me at that time, but he just smiled at me and said “How did you like that? Literally my flashiest move, yeah? It is a homebrew spell I cooked up for my wizard after earning mythic ranks” Smiling politely, I said, “You can tell me all about it after you are healed up. For now, we rest”. But then Anton said, “I can’t rest until we get to our destination so my mind can feel at ease. Let me just heal up for now.” Just mere moments after that, a bird made of lightning formed from the carcass of the Thunderbird. It is about to pierce through Anton. Before the bird could get to him, with reddened eyes, Anton shouted, “Wish!” In a flash, everything around us changed. The moment I came to my senses, all I could say was, “It’s you!”