A chick for a chick

Rushing down the main road, it took only seconds for Jay and Sybill to reach the top of a small hill and get a look at where that scream came from.

And what they saw gave even Jay goosebumps.

On the field next to the main road was a small group of people, defending themselves from a swarm of oversized carrion birds.

The swarm wasn't that big, just five of them all together, but one of them was nearly double the size of the rest, with a body size of over ten feet what Jay guessed from the distance they were at.

Running down the hill and towards the dusty plains the fight was taking place on, the two Adventurers went full throttle.

This resulted in Jay arriving at the first Vulture way before Sybill but still slightly late for the poor guard that got taken down.

The monster picked its massive beak through the mans robe, leaving a massive hole where his heart should have been.

Awed by the sheer force and size of those birds, Jay slowed down a bit and tried to analyze the situation as well as his new opponents.

Those carrion bird were called Roc's and had a level ranging from 16 to 18, at least for those with a wingspan of nearly 5 yards.

The one doubling that size was a whole different story.

__________

Vultros [lvl. 26 (Named)]

(Vulture)

HP 920/920 Mana 0/0

[Swoop]

__________

The level difference was absolutely stunning and Jay wondered what a monster this strong had to do in this region. As far as he learned, it shouldn't have been possible for a monster to rise that much above the average level for a region.

But he had no time to think about that.

The last three people of the entourage attacked by the vultures were getting hard pressed by the giant Vultros.

It had just landed on their carriages remnants and swung down it's massive beak to hack at one of the men. Getting the hit in and ripping off the armed man's left arm together with the shield he was holding, Vultros spread it's wings and leaped into the air.

At the same time, Jay had taken out his Wingblade, enhanced it with fire magic and slashed at the closest Roc still feasting on one of the corpses littered around.

With more than half of the birds health gone in one strike, it jumped up and tried to flee into the air.

A sudden combustion ended his escape abruptly and had it crash to the ground.

(Scorch) had been Jay's spell of choice: enhanced by the still burning wound on the Roc it dealt even more damage and set it on fire.

It's last health point ceased with the vultures hard contact to the ground though.

A bird without feathers won't fly...

Hurrying on to the broken carriage where Vultros had left only devastation, Jay finally saw the pitiful survivors of the entourage.

The only one left standing was a veteran looking man with plate armor, shield and mace. His torn, previously white tabard depicted a rising golden sun.

Next to him knelt a small figure wearing priest robes and was tending to the man who lost his arm.

As Jay arrived she turned around and gave him a pleading look.

Without asking further, Jay covered for them as the next Roc attacked from the side.

The normally inefficient earth magic had it crash into a suddenly appearing wall, dealing quite some damage. The following fireball to it's right wing made sure it won't flee for another attack.

Jay had kept an eye on his surroundings and had seen Sybill engaging in a fight with one of the carrion birds on her own, covering his rush towards the survivors.

Her Arrows were perfect for hunting the Roc's as they had to keep their distance and attack in a swoop. But that was exactly what made them easy targets for the female Archer.

Glad they had ordered the Saldemas to stay back, Jay got surprised how efficient his temporary companion got rid of the flying threat.

But just as he shot another fireball to the last remaining of the smaller birds, a giant shadow covered him from above.

Ducking down at last second he dodged Vultros's swoop that was way faster than the other ones.

Only because he had left dealing the final blow for the dying Roc to the armored man and went to the last monster, dodging had been an option.

Activating his relatively new (Arcane Blast) just as the giant vulture passed him, Jay gave him a nice greeting. But the damage he did to it was less than he had hoped for. And of course he got the wrath of the last remaining opponent on him with that.

Just as Jay had hoped for.

Vultros made a quick turn and flew towards Jay only feet above the ground. The speed it archived was insane and gave Jay not much time to plan his next move. Only yards before the giant beak closing in on him would hit, a wall made of earth suddenly rose up.

The wished for impact never came.

Not that Jay had believed in such a trick working twice.

But as the monster had to dodge the sudden hindrance in it's flight path, Jay was ready for the next step. The moment Vultros appeared with wide spread wings and shot skyward, he shot his fireball followed by a blast of (Scorch) towards its torso.

Though the latter missed due to the sheer speed the vulture flew with, it still got incinerated.

During this short exchange of blows, Sybill had killed the last, burning Roc. It was the one with the lowest level and a bit smaller than the others.

The problem was, this had directed the attention of the giant carrion bird Jay was fighting towards the small Archer.

Somehow the last Roc must have had a connection to it, and it hurled itself towards Sybill.

Jay jumped on its trail but had no chance to reach it, even though it was still slightly burning.

With a last arrow shot to distract Vultros, Sybill jumped to the side and dodged by a hairs width. But the vulture flew a turn and rose to the air, getting ready for a swoop.

Jay was still running over towards Sybill as he knew she had no chance in a direct confrontation.

From higher up in the sky, Vultros could see the human that had recently hurt him and its current target still a bit apart.

Going into a swoop, the earth raced closer and closer until the tasty looking human was only five yards away, and then four.

3 yards.

2 yards.

Having opened its beak wide to bite off her head and grab the body with its strong claws as it was only a yard away, the world suddenly started to spin.

It only stopped after Vultros made a hard and involuntary contact with the earth.

The monster did not even have the chance to get back up as Jay arrived in front of it and slashed with his fiery sword at the vulture, leaving a long burning cut on it's right wing.

It was not only the bird thad didn't get the situation though.

Everyone who witnessed it was staring at the young man slashing at the giant monster like a madman.

The monster itself no longer had the ability to fly, as a good chunk of it's feathers had turned to ashes and the cut on his right wing disabled it completely.

The next second a hard metallic object hit Vultros head, pushing the whole monster back a few steps.

And then it rained arrows onto it.

What had lead to this shifted situation was Jay activating his latest skill.

As he saw Sybill let with no chance of escape and knew there was no chance to reach her in time, Jay noticed the vultures shadow was covering her.

With nothing to loose, he took two more powerful steps to get into reach while simultaneous boosting his whole body with mana.

The giant bird was only three yards away from her as Jay had reached the distance of ten yards and activated [Shadow Step].

He panicked at first as his feet felt like they sunk into the ground and the time seemed to have slowed down.

The whole experience was so unreal as his body dissolved into the shadow and he lost the feel of it. Somehow his vision was the only thing he kept at that moment and his view was affixed to the spot he was aiming for.

Like jumping up from under water surface he exited the shadow of Vultros slightly to the side.

The feel and color of his body returned only as the monster was not even two yards from Sybill and Jay was glad he had already started his punch.

It connected some milliseconds later and hit the side of the vultures head, right beneath it's eye. The sheer force of Jay's all out punch, even though it was no perfect hit, but enhanced by mana, turned the monster into a living Frisbee.

One that turned in all directions after two full spins and crashed to the ground nearly twenty yards away.

The impact was of course not that hard because of Jay's punch, but the kinetic energy the bird itself carried upon impact.

Jay had just slightly redirected it, but his action had taken a toll on him as well.

His mana was still plenty, even though the move had cost quite a lot and he had taken not much damage though his right arm was completely numb from the impact.

The problem was, he felt like he had no energy left and like his body was enormously tired.

Still getting it to move, Jay hurried over to the bird lying on the ground as it started to move and was trying to get up. His new skill was still on cool-down and he wouldn't have used it anyway as he felt completely drained.

Picking up one of the metal shields from the fallen soldiers lying on the ground, Jay rushed on toward Vultros.

A part of his energy returned while he jogged a few meters but the numbness of his right arm remained. Taking no more risks, Jay equipped his Wingblade again and reloaded it with fire magic.

As the giant carrion bird barely managed to get back on its feet, Jay used another movement skill. That was the original reason he picked up the shield.

As Jay had no sort of bash or leap other than shield bash, he had to go with this one. The only problem was, it required a shield to be equipped.

It worked out well as the bash made Jay rush forward even though the massive bronze shield didn't collide with anything. But he was withing reach for his sword and the following slash got in perfectly.

The critical hit disabled the monsters right wing and incinerated it's feathers.

What followed was a flurry of swift strikes all over the birds body, stripping it of most of its feathers either through force or flames.

The moment it got a chance to retaliate, Vultros hacked towards Jay who was cutting at it without break.

But it got countered by another shield bash. This time it connected to Vultros's head and had it pushed back a few steps again.

At that time, Sybill had exited her stupor and was shooting with her bow again. Her target was the one wing that remained mostly intact until then.

Within seconds it had numerous arrows sticking into it.

Glancing to the monsters health bar, displayed in his field of view, Jay saw it decreasing fast. His actions from before had already dropped it to about half and it was a good chunk below that from their combined attacks.

It was then, the plate armored soldier came to aide with his shield and took over the front of the raging vulture.

Jay moved to the back sliding beneath it and jumped to it's back. While still airborne he charged the shield he was still holding with lightning and gripped his sword in a backward grip.

What made contact first after the high leap was not his feet or knees but the shield. It hit square on the back of the bird's head, making it slump forward and pushing back the soldier barely holding out the few exchanges he had with the monster.

And then Jay stabbed down his blade with all he got. The missing feeling in his arm left him no option to adapt his move, so Jay went with knocking Vultros off balance first.

His blazing blade entered the monsters torso with not much resistance, piercing deep and spreading the flames far within.

It was a critical hit.

The health bar dropped down to zero in one single move and ended their opponent.

After confirming it's death again, Jay stepped down from Vultros body and helped the armored man up.

He thanked him first thing for saving them when Sybill arrived and Jay stated they both had been saving them.

Walking over to the young priestess who was still tending to the wounded man, the armored man fell forward down on the broken carriage. Jay knelt down to him and used healing magic without asking, earning him wide eyed stares from the two women to both his sides.

"Like I stated way to often by now, you never cease to surprise..." S.

Ignoring her and tending to the man, the priestess knelt down opposite to him and casted her healing as well.

After a few seconds the mans health was no longer dropping and they could stop their treatment. The wounds he received at least got closed with this.

Pulling back her hood and revealing her beautiful face and blonde hair, the Priestess looked Jay directly into the eyes with her warm brown ones.

"Thank you so much for saving us! I am Priestess Kylie and those were my escorts. You don't know how glad I am you saved them..." K.

"You're welcome. What happened by the way?" J.

"We were traveling down the main road towards Sentinel as the swarm came flying from the west. Our driver steered the carriage onto the field and tried for us to flee, but suddenly the big one appeared and took down our horse. The rest was..." K.

Not finishing her explanation, the young woman started to cry. Holding her shoulder, Jay tried to soothe her, but she kept on crying.

Sybill only shook her head and told Jay she would go and fetch their escort clients.

It had taken them long enough to fight off the vultures and the Saldemas were still unguarded.

A few minutes later, the farmer couple arrived with their carriage next to the field and the female Archer came back to Jay. He was supporting the veteran soldier, brother Myres how he learned, who had by then dropped off his armor, while Kylie was supporting the then one armed soldier.

Jay had gotten surprised of how busty she seemed as they stood up after healing Myres some more.

The carriage on the field was broken beyond repair, so Jay and Sybill decided to take on yet another escort request. They would guard the two soldiers and Kylie together with their previous clients.

As they neared the Saldema's carriage, Jay had the farmer take over the soldier and went with Sybill to the loading area.

Even though she still hadn't thanked him for saving her, Jay somehow had the feeling he could trust the stubborn woman and decided to do just that. He turned around to her while touching the scavenged Harvester.

"Don't say anything! And no word to anyone please..." J.

With those words, he stored the whole construct inside his inventory, leaving a blank carriage and a equal look on Sybill's face.