Elevation of Mana Chapter 133 Winning

Chien and I were taking the smart route, and getting as far from the ongoing battle between the beasts as we could, but I couldn't help but look back at them every now and then.

The bird amalgam was soundly winning, furiously ripping at it's hated foe as it sent up a terrible racket. Had the dino been at full strength, or even half strength thing might have been very different, but it wasn't. That monster had been going for far too long with serious injuries that hadn't healed in an unfriendly environment, and it was showing hard now. The creature which had been so potent, so powerful against our own forces was moving at a fraction of the speed it had before, its spells even beginning to flag.

As for the terrible monster of ice feathers and beaks, it may have had a breaking point on the weird regeneration it possessed, but it hadn't reached that yet, and was showing not a shred of mercy to the invader that had stirred its constituent parts from their normal lives. Instead it thrashed like an angry weed-whacker spitting bits of itself everywhere.

Nope, I wanted nothing to do with that, nothing at all. The only thing I really wanted at this point was to see which one won, so I'd know if we would have more problems in the future. Regardless I guessed that it would be a long, long time before anyone could safely fly a blimp over this section of land, enough of the regular corvids had survived to ensure that.

“Wow boss, they're really going at it aren't they?” Chien asked.

“Indeed, though it looks like...” there was a massive crash as I spoke. “It's about over.”

With a mighty blow the ice beast had defended its home, sending the dino sprawling to the ground. From that point there was no more fight. Misshapen appendages rose, then fell like an angry drummer doing a solo. Each got more and more red every time I looked back, and eventually they started flinging chunks.

More and more goblets of flesh flew into the boreal winds, offerings of the slain foe to the land itself, staining the pure white world with crimson. As they did the sun glinted brightly off the feathers of the victor, sending multicolored light out across the landscape, a celebration of success against the invader. Even steam was beginning to flow upwards upon the wind, curling like smoke from a funeral pyre.

“That thing seems rightly pissed boss,” Chien observed.

“Wouldn't you be? Those birds were minding their own business when that overgrown lizard came to call. I'm just glad my gamble paid off there. Personally I wasn't sure that they'd be able to get that big or take that thing down.”

“Not good odds?”

“I was betting on some injuries, maybe the beast falling into the chasm. Even a distraction would have helped though.”

“CAW!” the winner cried, echoing as one through the wastes.

“Let's just hope that it remembers that we fed it, and didn't try to hurt it...” Chien said.

For its part the creature didn't seem that interested in following us. Unlike the reptiles the birds here didn't seem to go out of their way to wreck everything they could find and kill any creature that so much as looked at them. No, they fiercely defended their home and themselves, but in both of our encounters had seemed perfectly willing to live and let live, unless you pissed them off.

It was my guess that this propensity was why we weren't being chased down like dogs now. Sure, some of the birds were flapping in our general direction, but many more seemed to want to go back to their little home, their tons of ice, whatever they had before appealed more to those. Disagreements seemed to keep it from doing much of anything, other than drip red to the ice below.

“Think it'll separate again?” Chien asked as we looked back again to see the creature had finally made a choice and was limping home.

“Honestly I don't know. I hope so though, it's innocent in all this.”

“Not used to someone calling the blood-covered monstrosity innocent boss,” Chien chuckled.

“Well, think about it, it's no enemy to really anyone, and the thing it killed deserved killing.”

“Would've loved us to do that killing.”

“Chien, defeating your enemy with your mind is no less than defeating it with your arm or your magic. That's what we did today, not some half-baked charge into a creature more powerful than us, but a planned trap. Winning is seldom glorious or noble, but it is what counts.”

“I know, just saying though.”

“We get to go home, let's take that and enjoy it.” I'd finally slowed to a stop as I spoke, smiling.

He too stopped, laughing and grabbed me by the shoulders. We spent a few minutes there, finally done, finally finished with this horrid mission. It was such a relief that all we could do was laugh as the adrenaline left our systems. We'd need to move further away before actually resting, but we could stop and catch our breaths now for the first time in a good long time.

Both of us sat there, weaving small heat spells around ourselves and rubbing our faces. As we did I pictured what I could do next. Some of the council had been with us, and they were gone now. All the Ancients were too, leaving huge power vacuums, something that we'd need to sort out sooner rather than later.

Someone (Not me) would also have to make the traditional trip around to tell everyone about who had died. We'd pawn that off on one of the council members, and if they objected, well, they couldn't do anything about it, weakened as they'd be.

Firth though we should tell the Icehome elves that they should move south. There was plenty of room for them now, and no reason for them to limit themselves in this awful place. They'd need help, but that was the least we could do for Neera's people.

“We did it didn't we, we really won,” Chien said.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“No you silly boys, I won,” a voice interrupted, feminine, cold, and full of confidence.

We turned to see her, the matriarch. She was floating there, one arm gone, a leg missing, and her face covered in burns, but no less dangerous for it.

“And I will be having my due.”