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Chapter 145 - More Potions For Sale
As soon as Liam put up the next batch of fire resistance potions, another uproar erupted in front of all the auction houses in the Gresh Kingdom.
The various guilds went into a frenzy once again and players scrambled to purchase these potions.
Everyone had been eagerly waiting for this to happen ever since the shutdown and restart of the game but the seller of the potion did not reappear.
Some had even concluded that this was a drop that was being sold. But now finally the potions were back on sale and once again by the anonymous alchemist!
All the guilds that wanted to find out the person's identity and recruit him or make some sort of direct dealings with him were disappointed because of this.
Did this guy not want to earn money or join the big guilds? What was his motive here?
Unfortunately, they could only wait and see.
While everyone else was thrown into disarray, Liam alone casually walked over to a shop and made some purchases, refilling some of his staples.
This time he did not hang back to watch the show in front of the auction house.
Time was something he was short on and he had far too many important things to accomplish rather than spend time on these silly things.
After finishing his purchases, he directly started walking out of the royal city.
He didn't mind patiently mentoring his sister and Shen Yue but when it came to paying attention to the auction house shenanigans, it was just a waste of time.
As he neared the gates of the city, Liam whistled.
Fwoosh.
Talon immediately dove out of the sky like an arrow slicing through the air and landed in front of him.
The bird was slowly becoming bigger in size with every level it gained. It could now easily support even two fully grown human beings.
Liam hopped on the back of the bird along with the fox and the three of them disappeared into the forests again, blasting forward with tremendous speed.
This was the advantage of having a flying mount.
Liam casually flew above the swarm of players outside of the royal city and covered acres and acres of forests with ease without having to deal with all the beasts that crawled below him.
He also didn't have to worry about the rough terrain, the bandits, and also the speed of the bird was boosted with a skill that overall almost doubled his travel speed across the kingdom lands.
As the bird flew relatively high up in the sky, Liam carefully paid attention to the scenery below.
This time he ventured towards the eastern parts of the Gresh Kingdom, almost near its boundaries.
This was also the area where the Javi village was located, the village the beast trainer had told him about that worshipped the eternal flame.
However, Liam did not come here for this reason today.
Instead of traveling all the way to the eastern borders of the Kingdom, he leaned forward and patted Talon as soon as they approached a mountain.
When the bird circled around, lowering further down, he could see more clearly.
"There. Go to that swamp."
Besides the mountains, there was a vast swamp area filled with brownish green fungus, moss, stagnant water, densely packed trees, and their unruly wild vines which entwined everything in sight.
The whole place was a mess, but that was not the issue here.
As soon as they entered the vicinity of the swamp, almost instantly a suffocating nauseous smell hit everyone's noses.
The bird screeched in agony and, the fox puffed its cheeks, not wanting to breathe the disgusting air anymore.
However, Liam did not care about the smell.
He patted the fox and gave the two pets a few instructions.
"In a second, I will be bringing monsters over. Be ready to attack. Luna, stay on Talon's back and attack from the air. Do not get down. I am counting on you both for this fight."
He whispered and then quietly jumped down onto a tree that sprawled around in the swamp waters.
Promptly, he received a couple of notifications.
[Ding. You have been poisoned by the swamp air]
[Ding. Your level is temporarily reduced by half]
[Ding. Your vision is blurred]
[Ding. You feel weak]
[Ding. Your stats are reduced by half]
Liam wryly chuckled and ignored these notifications.
He already knew about these debuffs so there weren't any surprises. This was also why he had asked Luna and Talon to stay in the air.
His stats were reduced but theirs would still be the same. So they could potentially do a lot more damage than he could.
However, this trick alone was nowhere enough to clear this place.
Liam cautiously looked around, his sharp eyes searching for the creatures that ruled this swamp.
But before he could spot one, it looked like the enemy beat him to it.
Meeerrrrrr! Meeeerrrrrr!!!!
A screeching voice suddenly sounded from behind him and as Liam turned around, a long spear hurled towards him, just narrowly missing his head.
"Fuck! It already started!" He cursed as he gazed at the creature behind him.
[Merfin] (Level 38)
It was not intimidating per se as the creature was nothing other than a walking fish.
But the body of the fish was bigger, its fins sharper and more elongated and its teeth protruding out.
More importantly, it had a pair of legs, using which it scurried behind him making loud screeching noises.
Liam instantly moved from the spot he was squatting on and dodged another spear that shortly came afterward.
The tree branch trembled and his body sprang forward, jumping from one branch to another, running across the swamp like a lithe monkey.
However, the thing that had screeched behind him was not too far away.
To make matters worse, the creature that was standing alone had now multiplied somehow and suddenly an entire horde of walking fishes was chasing the intruder in the swamp.
Chapter 146 - Chased By Fishes
Liam grinned. He did not look back anymore. He knew what he was being chased by and what was about to happen.
He also knew that his chances of success were not that great.
In a way, this was even more challenging than when he had faced the numerous trolls.
Nevertheless, he dared to come here as he desperately needed the item that dropped out of these creatures.
So even with the risks involved, he still willingly walked into this trap zone.
As Liam churned his mana to boost his physical state, he narrowly missed the several attacks that were being hurled at him.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Sparks flew and more attacks landed with every step he took.
By now the entire swamp was filled with screeching noises and hordes and hordes of merfins were slowly starting to gather together.
The loud screeching noises attracted all the colonies of merfins residing in the swamp area and hundreds of fishes started chasing the single human being.
Moreover, they were not chasing him simply.
They constantly hurled various attacks at Liam. Several spears came for him. Numerous tridents were aimed at him.
But the worst part was the spells.
Merfins had a very unique fighting pattern. They had a weak defenseless body and all their attributes were also piss poor.
However, the advantage they had was their numbers and this swamp they resided in. Here, they were the rulers and others were intruders.
While everyone else was affected by the swamp debuff, these walking fishes did not suffer from the same.
Along with these two strong points, there was also one more final nail to the coffin, which was the spell casting merfins.
Some of the merfins were naturally gifted and they were able to cast a variety of trapping spells.
[Mana Nets]
[Freezing Lattice]
[Tar Pit]
[Drunken Earth]
The merfin's specialty resided in movement control spells and attack after attack landed on Liam.
This was their approach towards all their prey.
They attacked as a horde and used their control mechanisms to trap and prevent their targets from escaping their grasp.
This coupled with the poisonous nature of the swamp, any intruder would slowly be squeezed out of their health.
And when they finally fell, the end result could only be one, death!
The merfins would swarm over to them like ants and not even bones would be left behind.
But Liam was not working alone.
He had already come here prepared for this.
As he held his life in the palm of his hands and jumped swiftly from one branch to another, suddenly fire started raining from above.
It came just in the nick of time, helping Liam gain some sort of momentum.
"Good job, Luna! Keep going!" He shouted in his hoarse voice, panting in between.
The merfins who had been energetically chasing him so far started slowing down.
They screeched loudly and looked up to see why it was raining fire, but alas, they couldn't see anything past the dense canopy of leaves and vines and the drab smog.
Liam used this confusion to put more distance between him and the walking fishes.
This was it. This was his plan. He took the time and trained the two pets and now it was time for the results to show.
As Liam skillfully kited the fish gang, jumping around the groove of trees, Luna bombarded them from above with fireballs.
In this way, they slowly brought the enemy's health down and killed the merfins one by one.
But this was easier said than done. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.
While Liam ran around the swamp and Luna took down a few merfins, more and more colonies started joining in.
Within a few minutes, the entire swamp full of merfins were running behind him, all sending out several attacks aimed at him.
Liam dodged a few but inevitably several landed on him.
He took some of the spear attacks and physical attacks head-on but he made sure to avoid all the control type attacks.
They were the most dangerous, as even being hit by one would lead to his sure death.
But because of this, his health was dropping every second. He dunked one health potion after another and kept going on.
"Don't stop. Attack. Attack!" Liam shouted and continued moving.
Every time he got a second lead, he used it to put more distance between him and the horde.
This continued on for a while and Luna who was attacking from above became a total nervous wreck.
The fox did not want to disappoint Liam and she could see that his life depended on her efforts.
So she did her best and even targeted those fishes specifically whose health was about to bottom out.
Because the spirit beasts had naturally high mana regeneration speed, she was easily able to keep up with this for several minutes and by then the number of fishes started dwindling.
Seeing this, Liam once again shouted. "Luna, attack the ones with the red fins first."
These were the spell casters and the ones that needed to be filled first.
Luna understood his command and quickly did the same. Now that the numbers were starting to become lesser and lesser, it was easier to target.
And the merfin spell casters began to drop dead.
[Ding. You have gained experience points]
[Ding. You have gained experience points]
[Ding. You have gained experience points]
…
…
…
As time passed, the number of fishes chasing behind Liam was steadily decreasing and no more new colonies came out to join the fight.
However, there was now another issue that had cropped up. Because of all the fireballs, the tree cover was becoming more and more negligent.
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The fishes were finally able to catch sight of the culprits who were responsible for all of this chaos.
There were still a few spell casters left, so the merfins began targeting the huge bird circling in the sky.
They wanted to bring the fight down to the swamps where they were unbeatable.
Chapter 147 - Unexpected Bounty
Liam saw this and immediately knew what was going to happen.
"Talon, use your whirlwind attack."
He pushed his mana reserves and jumped forward, putting more distance between him and the fishes.
The wind ripper bird screeched, its cry louder than the merfins and it flapped its huge wings, sending out several forceful gusts of wind that combined together to form a huge whirlpool.
Liam jumped ahead right on time and half of the fishes that were chasing behind him got caught in this whirlwind.
They couldn't handle the slicing winds and were tossed around mercilessly.
Meeeerrrr. Meeerrrr.
The fishes screeched and tried to fight back but one after another they down into the swamp waters.
Plop. Plop. Plop.
Everything was in shambles and the fishes were scattered everywhere.
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Liam stopped running away and before the whirlwind completely subsided, he used a branch to jump towards the fishes that had been hit by the attack.
He had kited enough and the number in front of him was nothing that he couldn't handle, especially when they were waddling around helplessly.
Before they could regain their balance, he slashed at them with his sword and chopped down one fish at a time.
Liam hunted for every spot of red that he could find and finished off all the merfin spellcasters first.
Watching his actions, Luna and Talon as well used this chance to pick away the floundering fishes one by one.
Their combined efforts halved the remaining number of merfins within seconds.
Unfortunately, all of them received the debuff now but it didn't matter because the messy fight was almost over.
They pushed more and more and as the last fish dropped down dead, Liam and his two pets were only barely standing.
All three of them rested on the shores of the swamp looking at the massive destruction in front of them. Just like that, the entire colony of fishes was dead and belly up.
Liam let out a long sigh and then picked himself up off the ground. He bent down and picked up a small blue crystal ball that was near him.
"1" He smiled and looked around to see several of these blue crystal balls lying nearby. He chewed on the recovery berries, and slowly moved here and there to pick up all the drops.
Luna and Talon as well helped him.
All of them together covered the vast swamp and collected the loot that was scattered and submerged in the dirty waters.
It was quite a chore and a few merfins were still alive, caught here and there in between brambles.
Liam finished these leftover remainders and collected all the crystal balls not leaving even a single one behind.
These were special crystal cores that formed only in these walking fishes. They were not worth anything, save for a single purpose.
And that was the reason for Liam's visit to this swamp.
As he combed through every inch of this swamp carefully looking for these special blue balls, Liam also noticed a few treasure chests around.
"Damn. What a good haul!" He whistled and quickly hurried over to these chests.
Normally, in other games, treasure chests respawned but in 'Evolution Online' once a treasure chest was used, it would disappear forever.
It was 'first come first serve' and available only once.
However, it didn't contain anything groundbreaking, or rather the chance of that happening was very low.
These mainly had gold coins, gemstones, precious herbs or minerals, skill books, and recipes.
Basically, anything that could be obtained from hunting down monsters could be found in a treasure chest but compared to the low drop rates from a monster, these were sure-shot loaded.
And typically there was more than one treasure chest lying around grouped together, so if a player chanced upon these, there would be several good things waiting for them inside.
Liam knew about the merfins but he had no idea that this was a treasure chest spot.
Luckily, he had already obtained the [Unlock] skill at the beginning of the game itself, so he now had no problems opening these treasure chests.
He hopped over to the floating puddle of treasure chests and started hurriedly popping them open one by one.
[Ding. You have obtained 10 gold coins and 200 blue crystal balls]
[Ding. You have obtained [Swamp Vines] skill book and 200 blue crystal balls]
[Ding. You have obtained [Mana Net] skill book and 200 blue crystal balls]
"Heh. This is getting good." Liam's eyes gleamed in happiness as he had never expected to find so many blue crystals within these treasure chests.
From the entire colony of merfins, he had only managed to obtain around 200 blue crystal balls but every treasure chest ended up giving him the same amount.
And these were 10 treasure chests to boot!
He quickly unlocked more and more chests and found 200 blue crystal balls in each. By the time he finished opening them all, he had obtained a whopping 2200 balls!
Liam took it all and quickly left the swamp even though it was a good grinding spot for experience points.
If he stayed here for some more time after the merfins respawned he could repeat the same set of moves to grind them all down again.
But that was not his first priority at the moment. Besides, he had better ways to farm experience points.
He quickly hopped onto Talon's back and they rose up, flying out of the disgusting and suffocating swamp air.
Only now were they able to breathe freely and the debuffs as well disappeared.
"Let's gooo!" Liam grinned and patted the wind ripper. "I will get you guys something good to eat when we return to the royal city."
His mood was very good as this mission had been a resounding success.
The bird chirped in delight and they flew onwards reaching a small patch of land that was away from the pungent swamps.
"Get down here," Liam muttered.
The wind ripper nodded and the fox smiled. However, it didn't last long.
As they descended down, the air became thick and heavy and this patch of land was even fouler compared to the swamps.
Chapter 148 - I Have More Nasty Things
Eeeek!
The small fox buried her head into Liam's back and her big round eyes were filled with tears to the brim, a few drops even leaking out.
She was able to bear the stink of the swamp but this…
Especially because of the beast's heightened sense of smell, this was pure torture!
She looked at Liam pitifully, but he only smiled back. "Just for a few minutes. Bear with it."
He then patted the wind ripper, pointing to the small isolated hut that was the only thing present in the vicinity.
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"Land near that hut."
The bird chirped quietly and circled once to check if there was any danger around. It then gracefully glided down and landed in front of the hut.
On the ground, the foul smell became several folds thicker and now even the bird's eyes were dripping with tears.
Liam also choked a little, before mentally strengthening his resolve. He hopped out and walked to the broken rusted wooden door with a calm expression.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
He lifted his hand and politely announced his presence.
For a few seconds, there was no response, but soon a set of footsteps echoed.
The door banged open suddenly and in front of Liam stood a short skinny old woman with a hunched back.
Her nose was crooked as if it was broken and rejoined and her entire face was covered with pustules.
The woman eyed Liam from top to bottom and cackled obscenely. "What a good piece of meat? Ke Ke Ke. You dared to come here?"
"You are not afraid that I would chop you up and throw you into my cauldron? Ke Ke Ke"
The woman revealed an extremely ugly grin and licked her lips. The aura that she had been suppressing earlier was now fully out in the open.
It was a terrible eerie ominous aura that could make anyone shiver subconsciously.
Liam, however, did not flinch on seeing her. He did not show any fear and tapped his inventory calmly, starting to take out the items. "I have something that you want."
He held a bunch of small blue crystal balls in his palms that shone brilliantly.
"I have more of these and I want to make an exchange. Are you interested?"
The old hag who had been eyeing Liam all this time as if he was a sacrificial lamb that had knocked on her door, suddenly looked dumbfounded.
Her eyes widened and now her gaze was only fixated on the small blue balls in Liam's hands and not on his body.
"Merfin crystals? Ke Ke Ke Ke!"
"Good. Good. This is too good. How many do you have with you?"
"Give me everything. Ke Ke Ke."
"What do you want in return? I have several nasty things on hand."
"Ke Ke Ke. What do you want?"
The old hag became too excited and she began cackling, licking her lips. It was an extremely unsightly scene that would have made anyone want to puke.
Liam, on the other hand, grinned. This was what he was waiting for. "I want the cursed rings." He muttered immediately.
"Oh. You know about my famous rings? Ke Ke Ke."
"Good choice. Ke Ke Ke."
"When a girl wears my ring, she will never be too far from you. She can never run away from you. In the blink of an eye, you can always reach her. Ke Ke Ke."
"Use it wisely and enjoy! Ke Ke Ke."
The witch patted her chest and proudly spoke.
She then acted as if she remembered something and added. "As of yesterday, I also buy young girls. Don't forget."
"If you are done playing with the girls, you can always bring them to me. K e Ke Ke." She winked at him and licked her lips.
"Sure." Liam shrugged.
Nothing that came out of the old hag's mouth was a surprise to him. This place was as such.
It was a special place meant for perverts and degenerates. The items here were all degenerate items that could be used for both good and bad.
So he didn't bother arguing with her and simply agreed with everything. After all, it was just a shop exchange and he was not accepting any quests.
The old hag grinned contently watching him nod and then reached out under her skirt.
Watching this, though Liam already knew this was going to happen, he still couldn't keep a straight face.
He cringed as he saw the old woman's hand move under her skirt and after swimming around there, she pulled out something from in between her legs.
It was a disgusting wet slimy pouch that was still dripping.
And the stench became worse.
Liam couldn't help but take a step back.
Eying Liam lecherously, the old witch cackled and she then opened the stinky pouch to take out some rings.
"How many do you want?"
Huh? Liam's eyes brightened up. He could buy more than one?
The last time around everyone was allowed only one purchase with her. This was why he was planning on auctioning the other blue ball that he had collected.
But now that things were different… he was definitely not going to let this opportunity slip by.
"Give me 20?" Liam tossed out a big number.
"Ho Ho Ho! Have your eye on more than one girl? Good Good! I like you. I like you a lot!" She licked her lips.
"But each ring costs a hundred balls! Do you have that many merfin crystals with you?"
"Yes." Liam nodded. He handed her the set of blue balls in his hand and tapped his inventory to take out another set of blue balls.
The old woman's eyes sparkled as she greedily accepted everything that came her way.
"Do you have more? Do you have more? Just how many do you have?!" The witch gasped, clutching her hair and screeching like a maniac.
"Give me everything!!!"
"I have more nasty things. Want to take a look?"
"As long as you give me enough crystals you can buy everything!"
Liam was once again shocked.. As far as he knew, this woman should only have two items, but it seemed like things were not that simple.
Chapter 149 - Pervert Paradise
As the witch finished speaking, a prompt appeared in front of Liam, listing a bunch of items.
[Love Candy]
My love is a powerful drug!
On consumption, the target is unable to move for a short period. The effect time varies depending upon the soul strength of the target.
[Cursed Ring]
I am coming to get you, my darling!
On consumption, a permanent ring is bound to the target. The target can then be reached instantaneously at will. Cooldown period. 5 hours.
[Toad Spray]
Who are you? You are just a toad!
On consumption, the target becomes a toad for a short period. The effect time varies depending upon the soul strength of the target.
[Stink Ball]
Why so stinky?
On consumption, the target is covered by the unimaginable stink, making others unable to breathe and die of suffocation.
[Girl Juice]
Pure power!
On consumption, the target is invigorated and all stats are increased by 100% for 5 seconds. Cooldown period. 5 hours.
Liam's eyes twitched on seeing the various nasty questionable items and their ludicrous descriptions.
No doubt every single item was perverted but at the same time, they were also overpowered.
They could be used for lecherous purposes and they could also be used for defeating overlord bosses.
Especially the item girl juice that could increase his stats by 100%. This was completely broken!
Liam was not one to judge. He also did not want to think about what these items were actually made of.
From what he could see, the inside of the witch's hut was nothing short of terrifying. There were rotting dead bodies, petrified creatures, bones, bloodstains, and hair.
There was no doubt in his mind that some or all of these items were probably used to prepare, but he couldn't care less.
This was a really good opportunity that he did not dare to miss.
At first, he thought that he had a lot of merfin crystals, but now that he saw the full available item list, the crystals he had were not nearly enough.
Even if he farmed those fishes again, it would still never be enough.
Liam narrowed his eyes and gazed at the list carefully from top to bottom. He couldn't make up his mind on what to buy.
Each was more powerful than the previous one and he could think of several uses for every single item.
After a few seconds, he could no longer think clearly because of the smell and he hurriedly made a decision.
Except for the Love Candy, he ended up buying 10 of each item. That was all he could afford now.
Not that the Love Candy was not a powerful item, but the method of application was complicated and the effect was variable.
"If I have more time, I should pay this hag a visit again." Liam quickly handed over all the merfin crystals in his possession and finished the transaction.
He carefully placed everything that he purchased in his inventory, glanced at the old witch one more time, and stepped out of the hut.
Even if it was him, there was only so much one could stand the foul smell. It was extremely corrosive to not just the body but also the mind.
So Liam did not linger and got out.
The old witch watched him leave as she stood outside the hut and cackled loudly.
However, he did not bother waving her goodbye and hopped onto the wind ripper, who was more than happy to fly away from the damned place as soon as possible.
Its speed was in fact much faster this time as it blasted away from the danger zone.
Only when they were completely out, all three of them let out their breaths that they were holding for so long and took fresh deep breaths.
Liam saw that his two pets were close to tears. "Sorry, I will make this up to you guys." He smiled and patted the two, gazing at the vast lands ahead of them.
Now he just had one more stop before he returned back to the royal city.
"Go there." Liam instructed the bird, pointing to the north.
Their next destination resided in the north and they were traveling from the eastern part of the Kingdom to the far north.
These areas were largely unexplored and were home to several dangerous beasts.
Only the central part of the Kingdom was mostly safe. Both Yleka city and Royal city were in the center of the Gresh kingdom.
The farther one ventured away from the center of the Kingdom, the more dangerous it was.
This particular stretch of the continent where Liam was headed was mostly mountainous and barren, with very little greenery.
The wind ripper flapped its huge wings and the three sliced through the air for a few hours before arriving close to their destination.
Liam circled the mountainous region making sure that he was in the southern part of the northern ranges.
In the very far north, there were strong gales and terrifying monsters. He did not know what they were as no one had explored them.
But he knew that he wouldn't be able to handle these enemies at his current level.
In fact, most parts of the continent couldn't be explored as everyone was kicked out of the tutorial when the strongest player's level was still in the early 70s.
If Liam could somehow touch 100, he knew that he would be able to plunder every single inch of this tutorial world, including the dangerous mountains that laid ahead.
But this was only a distant dream and was not on his priority list. He was not naive or stupid to try and be a completionist.
This was war. His sole aim was to get as much as he could before he was kicked out. As for taking everything that these lands offered, that was a laughable notion.
However, just as he thought about these things, a small sprout of ambition couldn't help but rear its head at the bottom of his heart.
Level 100.... what if he could reach that?
Chapter 150 - All Fall Down
Liam's eyes gazed at the huge tall mountains, lying one beside the other, calmly and indifferently as if what was happening in the rest of the world had very little to do with them.
He sucked in a huge breath and then patted Talon, asking it to keep going.
He was not exactly sure where in these mountains the spot he was looking for was located.
The mountain range itself was quite spread out, their vast structures weaving up and down sinuously across the landscape.
The bird circled the area for a few hours, ever so often Liam asking it to take a detour as he could see the outline of several monster nests lining the area.
These were high levelled monsters clustered together and he didn't want to provoke them and die unnecessarily.
Even as such, he was clearly pushing his luck, but Liam decided to do it anyway.
If he could somehow accomplish this, then he could be at ease and continue doing his own things without having to accompany his sister everywhere.
Not that he minded doing it.
Perhaps when everything was taken care of he could afford to live such a life of leisure but now there were too many things that he still needed to take care of.
He wouldn't be able to do those if he was constantly worrying about his sister.
This was why he had taken the time to get the 'Cursed Rings'.
Both Shen Yue and his sister would be able to equip these rings and with this he could instantly teleport next to them in the event of an unexpected dangerous situation.
But the rings had a cool down period. There would also be some inevitable time delay for him to teleport next to them.
It would just be a second at the most but a lot can happen in a second. For a powerful expert it would just take a second to destroy a hundred souls.
Moreover, there were several mysterious places in 'Evolution Online' and beasts with strange abilities.
And some of these were more than capable of negating the item effects of players.
So Liam didn't want to take any chances and decided to get another backup bodyguard.
This way he could focus on his task at hand without any other thoughts at the back of his mind.
As they continued flying around for a couple more hours, Liam's eyes finally widened and he patted the bird to slow down.
There in the distance was a small black dot moving.
As the bird glided down and flew more closer, several black dots slowly became visible.
"That's enough! Talon! Don't go any closer." Liam immediately warned and the bird came to a screeching halt.
But it was still too late.
Just as Liam finished talking, a barrage of bullets and bazookas came for them, shooting straight from the base of the mountain.
The black dots were all already aware of their presence. The entire mountain base was abuzz with activity with the black dots clustering together.
Liam took one look at the situation and saw that things were going to undoubtedly take a turn for the worse.
If it was him, he could have reacted fast and somehow gotten out of this situation, but unfortunately, Talon's reaction speed was not that great.
It was after all just a common grade flying beast. It was not realistic for him to expect too much from the bird.
However, their situation was perilous and they were right now staring at the god of death riding towards them. He had to do something soon.
Otherwise… they would simply plummet to death.
Liam's brain spun and he quickly acted. He didn't know whether this was going to work but it was worth a try.
If they were going to plummet anyways why not do it a little sooner?
His hands moved nimbly and he grasped the bird's left wing with the maximum strength and power that he was capable of.
SCREEEEE!
This time, the bird's reaction was instantaneous. The wind ripper screamed in pain and misery.
Its balance was disrupted and it began to fall abruptly from the sky, along with Liam still holding onto it tightly and the fox holding on to Liam for its dear life.
The three of them came crashing down at immense speed, only narrowly missing the bullets and bazookas.
However, they were not yet out of the danger zone. They were still continuing to plummet, death dropping all the way to the hilly coarse terrain that awaited them.
"Talon!"
"Talon!"
"Get it together" Liam screamed. His voice was only barely audible as the air screamed loudly in their ears.
The bird understood what he meant and also understood why he had done what he did on seeing the bombs raining down on either side of them.
But the problem was that it could only understand and not do much.
It tried to twist its body and struggled hard, fighting its very best to regain its balance but unfortunately, it was all a bit too much.
Perhaps if it was alone. With Liam's and the small fox's extra weight added on, it was too much for the bird and it just couldn't recover.
Not helping the matter, the bullets and the arrows now raining down after they had obviously missed their target were also freaking the bird out.
The trajectory of those items was luckily different as they had started falling sooner and the weight distribution was different.
So at least nothing was piercing anyone, as the various weapons fell around them. But that didn't change the fact that they were still falling.
SCREEEE! KYUUUU! SCREEEE! KYUUUU!
The two pets screamed at the top of their lungs. They slowly neared closer and closer to their inevitable death.
The two looked at their master anxiously, holding on to very little hope, to see if he had something up his sleeve
But Liam seemed to be too calm. He even had his eyes closed.
The two pets gulped in fear. It looked like their master had already made peace with his death.
Maybe it was time for them to do the same?