Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 4
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch4
Kazuki spotted something large speeding towards him and the others out of the corner of his eye.
“Look Out!”
Kazuki’s warning came too late and this creature swooped down from above the trees and slammed into Sam’s chest.
*Thud*
The impact sounded heavy and it was. Sam’s body lifted several feet from the ground and the force knocked him back dozens of feet until his back slammed hard into a towering tree behind him.
*Bam*
Sam collapsed to the ground but the creature’s momentum didn’t slow down for even a second as it ascended upward, disappearing into the night.
Kimi’s instinct was to rush toward him but Asuna grabbed her arm.
“Stop, don’t separate from the group.”
Kimi shook Asuna off.
“I need to go to Sam.”
Running over to Sam, Kimi helped support him up.
“Sam, are you hurt?”
Sam shook his head but it was clear as day that he was unsteady on his feet. The sound of the world fell silent and everyone could feel the beating of their own hearts pounding terribly fast.
*SCREEeeeeeee*
Once more Kazuki spotted the creature from the corner of his eye. Its target was the same.
Kazuki circulated his ki and pushed his power into his legs and kicked off the ground. The ground sunk several inches as his weight shifted and he accelerated to his utmost. He was nearly at Sam and Kimi when the creature’s back appeared in front of him. As the creature tried to ram into Sam and Kimi, Kazuki’s blade was already descending at this large being’s back.
*Clank*
Kazuki had used all of his strength in that blow but the back of this beast was as hard as metal, causing Kazuki’s sword to be repelled. Still, although the monster appeared to be uninjured, it definitely felt Kazuki’s blow and its movements paused briefly.
Kazuki didn’t sit idle though. With his first attack appearing to do very little, Kazuki swung once more but this time changed his target.
(If the back isn’t vulnerable then maybe the nape of the neck.)
Before Kazuki’s sword swung forth, the creature’s head turned around a full 180 degrees. Before Kazuki could finish his strike, a large black wing flapped out and collided with his sword. The power behind this wing was incredible and forced Kazuki to go flying backward.
Asuna saw Kazuki’s trajectory was on a direct path with a tree and feared he would hit it the way Sam did and severely harm himself but to her astonishment, Kazuki suddenly did a flip in the air and changed the angle at which he would hit the tree and instead of his back hitting it, his feet landed on the side of the tree first.
Kazuki had managed to brace himself perfectly and absorbed most of the impact before he landed on the ground. Looking at his sword, it had bent at a slight angle from the creature’s blow.
The large creature returned its focus to Kimi and Sam. Sensing a free meal before it, its mouth opened up nearly a foot and its jaws separated. There were several rows of sharp teeth lined within. Kimi saw this and felt her knees grow weak.
The creature could wait no more and had already snapped its mouth shut at the prey in front of it.
*Crunch*
Blood began to pour out like a fountain and with a taste of fresh blood in its mouth, the creature grew excited and shook its head violently trying to tear flesh away.
Kimi felt her blood run cold and tears welled up at the edges of her eyes.
“Sam, no.”
Sam didn’t reply to Kimi as he concentrated fully on his magic. Just before Kimi had lost her head, Sam had shoved part of his arm into the creature’s mouth and added a layer of earth armor overtop his skin. Still, the creature’s teeth had penetrated through the armor and tore into the flesh of his arm, all the way down to his bone. Had this been Kimi’s head instead of Sam’s arm, death would have been the result.
*Erh*
Sam released a small grunt. Knowing how much pain he could normally tolerate without a sound showed how much agony he must be in now if it caused him to make a noise.
The creature unfolded its wings and extended them to over 15 feet before flapping them violently in an effort to take off with Sam. A large gust of wind was kicked up, which nearly pushed Kimi who was directly in front of it, to the ground.
Kazuki realized the danger Sam was in and rushed forward.
“Everyone stop it!”
Shin and Kazuki arrived at nearly the exact same time and the two jumped on its back. They could not allow this creature to take and devour Sam. Sam as well began punching it with his free arm but it still began to slowly rise up.
Asuna teleported in front of it and stabbed her two daggers into the creature’s chest.
*Schick*
Although the wounds weren’t very deep, her daggers did do something, as the bird-like creature started to thrash about violently in the air. Asuna and Shin were both thrown to the ground by this but the bird refused to let Sam go. At this time, a soft blue glow shot forward from Danny with a follow up from Nunully.
A large glob of water landed on the bird’s left wing and with the second power coming from Nunully the entire left wing began to freeze at a noticeable rate. The bird, Kazuki, and Sam all crashed into the ground at once.
*Bam!*
The bird finally released Sam from its jaws but it quickly recovered and tried to bite him once more. Sam was swift and dodged the large snapping mouth and back up a few steps. But the bird seemed solely focused on him for some reason and chased after him.
Kimi saw this and became horrified. Readying her power she called out to the others.
“I’m going to blind it! Everyone shut your eyes when I say.”
1…2…3…
“Now!”
Everyone slammed their eyes shut and Kimi released a blinding orb into the air.
*Crunch*
The bird was completely unaffected and bit down on Sam again, this time digging its sharp teeth directly into his shoulder. As her light dimmed, everyone opened their eyes and caught sight of the bird’s face. To their dismay, this bird had no eyes whatsoever. Instead, there was merely sunken in skin where two eyes should have been.
Kimi’s powers posed no threat to this creature at all and only hindered her everyone else in this fight.
The bird slammed its frozen wing into a nearby tree, breaking the tree in half while at the same time shattering the built-up layers of ice upon its wing. With a flex, the feathers on its right-wing twitched a bit and it knew that it could take flight.
*Flap*
5 feet 10 feet. The bird rose up and up.
“I don’t think so!”
Kazuki leaped from the ground and once more gripped the creatures back. Taking his sword, he inserted it between Sam’s shoulder and the inside of the bird’s mouth. Grabbing his sword from both ends, Kazuki pulled the sword toward himself, causing the blade to cut deeply into his hand as well as slicing apart the cheeks of the bird.
*SCREEeeeeeeee!*
The bird became alarmed but it still refused to let Sam go. Instead, it proceeded to ram its body, along with Kazuki and Sam’s, into a nearby tree.
*Bam Bam Bam*
Over and over again it repeatedly rammed the three into several trees, breaking quite a few along the way. Kazuki though refused to let go and pulled his blade back further and further. Slicing his own hand to the bone while at the same time now cutting into the creature’s head.
The creature could no longer take it and spat Sam out. Its full concentration now was on trying to fling Kazuki away. It was at this moment that Danny and Nunully once more fired their magic together. The bird although it couldn’t see, somehow sensed the magic approaching it and twisted its body out of the way.
Though their power missed, it caused a slight distraction in the bird and Kazuki was able to change the angle of the blade and managed to shove it through a soft pallet in the roof of its mouth. The blade found the bird’s brain and the bird’s movements in mid-air suddenly ceased.
If this bird had eyes then now is the exact moment that they would have gone wide. Its wings paused mid-flight, its neck went completely limp and its body fell from the sky.
Thankfully it had only been 20 or so feet up, otherwise, the fall could have been dangerous for Kazuki. The two fell to the ground about 200 feet away. Everyone ran over to help continue the fight but when they arrived, they could already see that the huge bird was already dead. Kazuki sat next to it and breathed heavily.
Although the fight had lasted less than 3 minutes, the danger everyone felt and the adrenaline pumping through their bodies brought an odd exhaustion. Everyone was sweating and their nerves were on edge. This was a different fight entirely. It had come from nowhere and brought the danger of death right to their faces. Looking at the dead bird before them, it left them more confused than anything.
Shin walked over to the dead bird and kicked it a few times.
“Why the hell did this stupid thing attack us?”
Kimi felt a little wronged by that statement.
“No, it attacked Sam and it kept going after him for some reason.”
Kimi tore away the shredded cloth over Sam’s wounds and examined the bloody areas. None of them yet had the capability to use healing magic nor did they have any medicine or potions and so the best she could do was stop the bleeding and wrap it.
Nunully and Danny came over and helped her out. The two summoned water and helped clean the wounds out.
Danny began thinking while he was helping Kimi and Nunully.
“It probably attacked Sam because he’s the biggest amongst us.”
Shin didn’t understand and retorted.
“What, this isn’t a lightning storm and he’s not a tall ass tree, what does him being big have to do with this stupid bird.”
Danny went silent for a moment before he said.
“Well, some birds back on earth have a predatory sense. One in which when they see a group of prey, they’ll aim to pick off the biggest one first, that way the flock will no longer have a protector. You take out the biggest threat, It makes getting future meals that much easier. When it found us it must have identified Sam as the Alpha due to sheer size. But it made a mistake hunting humans. When it comes to this world it isn’t size alone that determines strength and power. I wonder if it’s not used to dealing with people.”
Danny proceeded to ramble for a few more minutes, losing everyone in the process but the main point of his was clear. The creature saw Sam as the biggest threat and wished to remove him to make hunting easier for it, later on down the line.
Everyone looked at the bird and examined it curiously. Its neck was long and its body was slightly over 7 feet tall. Covered entirely in dark black feathers, its back was as hard as metal and its teeth were sharp and deadly. The only thing that seemed vulnerable on it was its stomach and its insides.
This bird without eyes was something from nightmares. Hunting people in the middle of the night and that terrifying screech. Not only that but the way it could remove sound. Even now, everyone wondered how it achieved that, well everyone but Kazuki. Although he had never seen or even heard of such a creature before, he had extensive knowledge of magic and could come up with a theory or two.
(To silence the world around it, this bird obviously has wind magic, with possibly earth magic as a secondary element. It probably makes an enormous barrier around its targets and similar to an anechoic chamber, it completely absorbs sound and electromagnetic waves. Therefore it makes the surroundings completely echoless and prevents the reflection of sound. Its unusual screech is probably what amplifies its ability, otherwise, I don’t see how it could cover such a large area without an enormous power source of some kind. This ugly creature is actually quite interesting.)
While everyone was in mid-thought a familiar sound rang out two times above them.
*SCREEEeeeeeee!*
*SCREeeeeeeeeee!*
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