Amon

Avic's body shuddered. He took a step back looking up at the sky with fear caught in his eyes. He was at a loss for ideas. Nothing he could think of would save him from his newfound predicament. Just fighting a single harpy had taken almost everything he had. Fighting twelve more all at once was far from rational.

Avic glanced down at Lori who was hooked behind his leg. She too was terrified, not knowing what to do. Her eyes screamed with fright and her fingers trembled as they held onto Avic's pants.

Avic cursed himself under his breath. If only he hadn't taken pity on the mother harpy and her young then they would have been able to escape without issue. The sole reason for their current predicament was the mother harpy's shriek which was an obvious call for help from the other harpies nearby.

Avic didn't know what he was supposed to do. All he had in his arsenal was a single Bloodline Art that would not affect the harpies given their ability to fly. Just when things looked as if they couldn't get any worse, the harpies began flapping their wings, creating a powerful gust of wind.

This quickly caused the air around them to begin moving in a circular pattern, creating a powerful rotational force. The wind swirled, picking up dirt, dried grass, small stones, and other debris. The harpies were creating a tornado.

"No way..!" Cursed Avic, gritting his teeth. "They're strong enough to manipulate Hemo Energy..? This isn't good!"

"What's happening, Mister Avic? Please tell me you can beat them!" Pleaded Lori.

With cold sweat running down the side of his face, Avic turned and gave a reassuring smile to Lori.

"They're using Hemo Energy to create a tornado. In short, they're combining for a powerful Bloodline Art. But no need to worry! I can handle this!"

In truth, Avic had lied. He only wanted to prevent Lori from panicking. He knew they had better chances of survival jumping from the cliff than fighting twelve harpies all at once. However, despite this, he knew he had to try something. It was better to die trying than doing nothing at all. Avic then steadied his dagger firmly in his hand and took a deep breath.

With a bright flash and searing hot heat, a massive ball of flame slammed into the harpies, crashing into the side of the cliff with a massive boom, turning them into cinders. The cliff shook like a magnitude six earthquake, throwing both Avic and Lori to the ground. The heat that followed threatened to melt their skins like plastic. Even the harpies' Bloodline Art had been dispelled in the blast.

"Urgh... Hey, are you okay?" Asked Avic to Lori.

"I... I am..."

"Good... What was that anyway?"

"Someone shot a powerful ball of flame at those harpies..!"

"Huh..? Who would do such a thing?"

Just then, Avic looked up a few meters ahead, squinting his eyes at the blinding sun above. This was when he saw the silhouettes of three figures. However, Avic couldn't tell if they were enemies. Due to this, he clenched the dagger tightly between his fist and prepared to fight. This was until one of the figures called out to him.

"Avic!! Are you okay?!!"

To Avic's astonishment, it was none other than Eliisabet. By her side stood both Custos and Amon. They were the ones who had saved them from the harpies' wrath.

"Eliisabet, Custos, Old Man Amon! It's you!" He exclaimed with relief.

"Of course it's us! Who else would risk their lives to save your lazy ass?!" Argued Amon.

The three then hurried down into the nest toward Avic and Lori. Amon immediately smacked Avic in the head, visibly upset.

"Ouch! What was that for, you Old Geezer?!"

"Don't you know that you're supposed to find shelter when you see people panicking?!"

"Well, yeah... But it was complicated, okay!"

"We're just glad you're okay, Avic! Things could have been a lot worse. You aren't hurt, are you?" Queried Eliisabet.

"Nah, just a few cuts and scratches. Nothing serious."

"Well, that's good then. Fortunately, we heard all the commotion in the town and went to see what was happening. The townsfolk told us that a harpy abducted you and a little girl. I swear I don't know how you get yourself into these things... Sigh... If we had arrived any later, you'd probably be harpy food by now," stated Custos.

Lori then stepped forward in defense of Avic. She folded her fists and brought them close to her chest with a cute frown spread across her face.

"Don't be mad at Mister Avic! We only ended up here because he was trying to protect me!"

Eliisabet sighed, "Of course... Well, while that's a good thing, you should ensure that while trying to save someone else, you won't need someone to save you too, Avic!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Amon then turned toward the mother harpy that was now desperately crawling towards its young.

"I see this harpy is injured by a dagger wound. That means it wasn't one of the twelve I incinerated earlier. Did you defeat this one, Avic?"

Avic braced his arms by his side and stood proudly with a smirk across his face.

"Yup! I defeated it all by myself! Pretty awesome, right?"

Instead of being met with praise, Avic was met with a slap to the top of his head.

"Ouch! Why do you keep hitting me, you Old Geezer?!"

"Don't you know that you should always finish off your enemies?!"

"Well, yeah... But it had chicks so I felt a little bad killing it..."

"Foolish. As a Sicarius, you can not allow sympathy to cloud your judgment. Sure you will be faced with sad times ahead but you should never allow it to cloud your vision. In this world, it's kill or be killed. These chicks may be young and harmless now but give them a few years and they'll turn into vicious monsters, ready to kill innocent people in the blink of an eye. You must kill all entities, no matter if they're young or old. Being soft in situations like these will only get you and those around you killed. This is a lesson for all of you."

Amon then created a small flame in the palm of his hand before tossing it onto the mother harpy and her chicks. The flame immediately grew massive, burning the harpies to a crisp. They cried and squirmed in agony but before long, they were reduced to nothing.

"Honestly, both of you are lucky that these were harpies of lower bloodlines."

"Lower bloodlines? What does that mean?"

"Just like humans, entities such as monsters, demons, etc, have different bloodlines. For example, someone of noble standing may have a better Bloodline Trait than someone of commoner standing, making them stronger. The same can be said for every entity out there. You have the weaker classed entities and then the stronger ones. The harpies you fought are known as Lesser Harpies. But there are other harpies that are a lot more powerful, referred to as Greater Harpies. They're from the same class of monsters but are a lot more dangerous."

Everyone nodded in acknowledgment. However, the final test was about to begin.