164. Ascending Izmittor III

There was a moment of silence, a quiet peace where Tercius counted eight new arrivals, fast-moving, slender and long, white-scaled and gilded with a colorful crown of feathers. Three of them were bigger than the rest, yet they stayed centered in the moving formation, with five slightly smaller protectors running around them in concert. All of them screeched as their short forelimbs, each bearing three long and sharp talons, slashed the air in anticipation.

Then the children screamed and shouted again and the quiet moment passed.

The woman below him remained where she was, kneeling at the edge of the small pool, her hands holding tights fistful of green grass, as she looked up at him and ignored both the children behind her and the rushing danger. She just spewed words, but where she used to be slow now she rushed through them and Tercius couldn’t understand a single word.

Tercius swallowed hard. What the hell was going on?! Why was she speaking at him when Steel Beaks were rushing at the children?! She had moments to act, so why wasn't she moving?!

Tercius pointed at the Steel Beaks. “Move!”

The woman below stirred. While her head was turned towards him, her eyes had been looking at the water. Now she raised them to him and Tercius saw that her eyes bore the same color as her cherry red braids of hair. At the sight of him, the young woman’s eyes widened. Below him, Lucky stirred in place. It took Tercius a moment to remember the word in Old Sogean, but when it finally came to him, he unleashed it with all the power his lungs had.

“Move!”

The power behind the command made Lucky move back a little in distress, while the woman’s beautiful eyes went completely round. She opened her mouth, stammering something. Confusion warred with something else across her freckled cheeks, but then her face grew grim and hard, the mouth tightening into a line. Scrambling up, she shouted something at him, then turned around and ran towards the children and the prone man, sprinting like a cheetah.

It took him a moment but the meaning of one word struck him as familiar. Deceiver. Liar. Imposter.

What?

Tercius shook his head. Now was not the time to brood over her words. His help would be needed down there, as soon as possible.

Throwing one leg over the side, he slid out of the saddle. Free from a part of its burden, Lucky bleated. Tercius patted Lucky's side, as he reached for his new hunting spear and slid it out of the holder. His new bow was next, along with a quiver full of arrows and a large metal vial.

His gladius and his shield were left behind with Mistress Kalina, but it wasn’t as if they would have been of much use in this situation. In fact, mere possession of them could have been a significant detriment.

“Shields and swords are weapons of the Empire,” his Mentor had argued when she saw what Tercius wanted to pack for the journey, “and having either in the mountains is almost as dangerous as professing worship in the Divines of the Empire. Spears and bows and arrows are the weapons of the mountain tribes, a rare few dabbling in knives and slings.”

Luckily, he knew the basics of both the spear and the bow and had some experience handling them.

A few years back, the eldest brother of his father, Lux, arrived at their home and found his younger brother, Septimus— who had been presumed dead by the rest of the family for over a decade— was not only alive and well, but had married and had children of his own. For trespassing into their home in the darkness of the night, Tercius had broken both legs of the noble-born wanderer. After the older man recuperated, rather than retaliate or hold it against him, he had insisted that Tercius be trained in at least some basics of the commonly used weapons, spears and bows being the prime among those.

"Learning to wield different weapons will not only allow you to see how your sword and shield could be applied against other weapons, but also you could find that you have a talent in some other field, like I have," The dark-haired man had thrown a knife high up in the air then, and then, on its way back, he caught it perfectly between the thumb and middle finger, holding it up for Tercius' inspection. His brown eyes had glinted then, like the polished edge of a good, thin blade. "The most important thing is that you will live longer than most. Unlike some in my family, who prefer to keep their eyes blind and noses raised as high as their fat necks allow them, I both see, acknowledge, and know how to use the long reach of a spear effectively. Most of them mock me for it, but always behind my back. That alone should tell you all you need to know. So, then, why stop there? A well-thrown flying knife reaches even further, and an arrow goes even beyond. Both are much harder to trace back to you, too. Learn of the many poisons out there and of their antidotes, then learn to properly handle them and your coated weapons. Cover all your weaknesses, nephew, and in time the one that's left bleeding out after an engagement will rarely be you."

Leaning on the wisdom of the old warrior— more a rogue, really— and reacting to the information of an even older mage, Tercius got himself a spear, a bow, and a couple of quivers full of arrows.

His true weapons, however, were the eighteen throwing knives that circled his thighs, nine on each leather-made sheath. Nine of those knives were a gift from Lux himself, the dark, slender, elegant, and incredibly sharp blades seemingly ready to spill blood at all times.

Tercius smiled. At times like these, he wished the man was at his side. A few glints of thrown knives and those rushing raptors would have been sizzling over a cooking fire in no time.

Steel Beaks. Humans are under attack. Right. Better get back to handling that…

But… Tercius glanced at the ram that followed after him. What should he do with Lucky if he were to head down?

Tying the ram down to something would be pointless. He had seen Lucky chew through arm thick branches. If Tercius was being generous, the beast was only half-trained. For all he knew, without his immediate presence, Lucky could bolt for the hills and disappear into the Wilderness, taking almost everything that he needed both for his trip and for when he reached his destination. He had spent time training the beast to stay put where he told him to stay, but the command only worked half of the time. Lucky was affectionate. He liked to stay close to Tercius and get his pats and scratches and nuzzles— almost as much as Amber did, if not more.

So… Take him along? He shook his head. Now was not the time to test how a herbivore reacted to danger from multiple, presumably previously unknown, predators. He would just have to leave Lucky here and hope for the best.

{Running} to the edge, Tercius looked down into the valley. A rush of relief ran through him as he saw that he wasn’t late. While he went to arm himself, the people down there had relocated into the safety of the cliffside, the land itself shielding their group from three sides. They had also taken the maimed man with them. He could see that the long spears they had and the formation they implemented was able to hold four beasts at bay.

Tercius’ eyes glanced at where the other half of the newcomers were feasting their dead, tearing out chunk after chunk of flesh and devouring entire pieces.

Good, that's good. Divided, they will fall easier. He glanced around, searching for a good spot to target the Steel Beaks that harassed the humans. From where he stood now if he were to miss the beasts, there was a small chance that his arrows would end up deep inside a human. Avoiding that should be as big a priority as getting rid of the Steel Beaks…

He ran along the edge, an agitated Lucky following closely behind him. Finally satisfied with his position, he stabbed his spear into the ground near his feet and readied himself. To start with, he crouched and unscrewed the top off the fat vial he brought along, dipping only ten arrows into the dark gelatinous mixture within while making sure to give each tip a nice glistening coating.

He arranged the coated arrows onto the grass away from him, before he carefully sealed the vial and put it away.

Swallowing, he took the bow firmly into his hand, nocked an arrow, and took in a deep breath. The wood groaned and animal tendons tightened, the arrow slowly pulled back. His dark green eyes narrowed at his target. Distance. Angle. Wind. The Steel Beaks were moving around, but the central mass of their combined bodies was considerable. He couldn't miss a target that big, even if he wanted to. Not with both proximity and his high {Precision} to aid him.

He let his breath go and his fingers let the feathered arrow’s end loose. The bow twanged.

The arrow was a blur of momentary motion and then he saw it clearly again, the feathery end wobbling from the side of the closest Steel Beak.

The beast looked up at him, the others following suit as well, their beady eyes locking onto him. As one, they screeched his way, their feathered crowns flaring and shaking. Out of nowhere, a long spear appeared and stabbed one into the neck. The stabbed beast screeched even more, the taloned forelimbs swiping to the side. The red-haired woman tore the spear out with a roar and stepped back into the protection of the others. The Steel Beaks turned away from him and attacked with vigor.

Tercius didn’t wait. As his spine ran with shivers, he reached for another arrow. Breathe in and pull. Hold the breath and aim. Release the breath and let it loose. The bow twanged again and he saw the arrow sprout on the back of one of the Steel Beaks.

Two down, six to go.

With their thick protection— which merited an entire page in one of the books he read— Tercius suspected that normal arrows and knives were nearly useless against Steel Beaks if perchance you didn't hit a sensitive spot like the eyes. An arrow was to them what a mosquito's bite was to him— a tiny nuisance. Yet even mosquitos could be dangerous. His coated arrows would do their job in the next couple of minutes. The first effects should be occurring even earlier…

He could have used his throwing knives for this as well, which his {Small Blades Mastery} made a deadly threat, but he only had so many knives…

Two more arrows flew from his bow quickly, raising his score to three. One Steel Beak, however, managed to avoid the arrow meant for it. The beast was centrally located within the group, hidden behind the shifting mass of others. One more arrow flew the beast’s way, only for another beast to jump and collect it with its back.

Tercius frowned. The others around it would fall down any minute now, and he could deal with that one then— if the blood loss from the spear wound didn’t finish the beast off first.

He picked up his remaining coated arrows carefully and ran around the edge until he arrived back near the stream and the waterfall, and laid his eyes on the still feasting foursome. Blinking rapidly, Tercius couldn't believe what he saw. The three females and the sole male had devoured their way deep into the sides of their fallen brethren, their feathered heads and teeth-filled beaks visibly expanding the dark caverns of blood, gore, and bones with each bite.

Without wasting time, he embedded a coated arrow into the side of each of the large beasts, one at a time, missing only once, and from what he saw it was only by a hair. The beast's backside had moved after he shot at it. The interesting thing was that not one of the beasts pulled away from eating, the feeding frenzy tightly gripping what little mind they had.

Tercius' eyes narrowed at the beasts below. Mistress Kalina initially didn't want to confirm it, but given the warnings she gave him, it was rather simple to put two and two together. After he asked her directly what he suspected, she caved in and told him plainly. Simply put, each time a being practiced cannibalism, the channels of that being received a temporary growth boost from consuming a set of channels that were very close in likeness to itself. The boost wasn't anything major, but the true danger of it came from the fact that it could occur no matter the age you were in. For people whose channel growth slows as their body reaches the peak of maturity and then starts to fall as they age even further, cannibalism could be a powerful draw.

That same appeal was present for beasts too.

Tercius looked down at the feeding frenzy with a frown. For some, that was more true than for others…

In any case, seven out of eight were done. He better get to the last one and get those people out of there. More Steel Beaks arriving was a real possibility… He glanced at the hills from where he came from and the stream he followed. They could easily come from his side, as well.

Tercius used {Mana Sight} briefly to glance around him and breathed easier when he failed to spot large mana signatures, Lucky excluded.

The first group that he rained arrows on was already wobbling on their two long legs and the woman and children did not miss the opportunity. Before his eyes, moving in complete silence, they had moved out of their little natural hideout and made some spear-shaped holes in the barely responsive Steel Beaks. Two were on the ground and bleeding out by the time Tercius returned above the humans, the other two following moments later.

Tercius nodded when he saw that and turned to Lucky. The anxious ram had followed after him without fail, almost like a lost puppy. Tercius’ free hand patted the strong neck. The rectangular irises narrowed then expanded. Bowing his massive head down, Lucky pushed the horned head against his chest and Tercius nuzzled the beast in return, all the while careful of the curling horn at his side. If that thing poked him in the front or the back of his head, the result likely wouldn’t remain a superficial one…

“Well done,” Tercius petted the gray muzzle one more time and carefully moved away from Lucky’s head and horns.

He searched at the back of the saddle and his eyes lit up when he found what he sought. Finding a good rock to tie it to proved harder, but he managed even that. The children climbed up the rope with ease. As they arrived, one by one, they came with smiles and tiny laughter of survival. Their painted faces found his unmarked one strange, which erased the cheer.

Tercius ignored that and focused on the last two humans down there.

Getting them up proved a bit more troublesome. The woman— Leavara, if he heard the name right– struggled to hold the unconscious man– Murain– who was both taller and of stockier build and by all metrics considerably weightier than her. It took willpower, endurance, and strength from Leavara and some ram-power from Lucky, but they did manage to do it.

When they ascended, the cherry-haired Leavara didn’t spare him a glance. She just laid Murain on the grass and wept on his chest, her closed fists gently hitting the man.

Below the face paint, the thick dark beard, and too many scars to count, Murain was pale. Tercius’ mouth opened a little. He didn’t want to provide false hope if he was wrong, but the man’s girthy chest did move a little. Tercius waited for it… There it was again! He just wasn’t sure if that movement came from Leavara’s fists or the man’s lungs…

Slowly, he moved away from the group, two pairs of young eyes observing him intently. Tercius ignored the children questioning gazes. He reached for the saddlebag made of hardened leather, whose inner compartments were inlaid with cushions of soft wool. He returned the vial he had at him to its safe spot and reached for another one, though this one was of a different nature.

He swallowed. Should he do this? The man could already be dead…

He glanced at Murain. What would he like for others to do for him in a situation like this?

There was no such thing as free help, at least not in his book. If he was in the position of that man on the ground and someone offered this potion and stated the price of the potion in a form that he could comprehend, eventually pay, and most importantly was willing to pay… then he might just take it.

If the conditions weren’t met, then he would have to pass.

But not everyone was like him, he knew. Some people would take the provided help without thinking through and weighing the costs. Then again, some, like Murain there, didn’t have the time or capacity to think it through. If there was one thing he wished for himself, it was that he always had both of those, when decision time came. If he didn’t… then he just wasn’t sure what could happen.

Come to think of it, if someone asked him this question right now and he was in Murain’s situation, then even he would have to take this deal too— regardless of what the price was. He couldn’t leave this trip unfinished, no matter what or who stood in the way.

Before he knew it, he was walking to the prone man and silently sobbing woman with the vial in his hands.

“Do any of you understand what I’m saying?” Tercius asked.