Pandora Unchained: B1C14 - Steelfeather Sparrow

Hey Everyone,

I was originally going to start posting on RR this month, but I was unaware that it would coincide with the writeathon. As a result, I'll have to start posting next month with greater frequency.

I will, however, make an announcement soon to readers about starting this new series and the pause on Painting the Mists so no one has to step on eggshells.

Many thanks for your continued support. I'll be posting 5 chapters a week this month. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoy writing it.

Best,

RedMirage
--

A screech pierced the cold morning air, rousing Sorin from his slumber. He reached beneath his pillow, grabbed his mithril dagger, and crawled to the side of his tent to peek through its worn canvas.

The campfire was on its last legs, and sun was just starting to rise above the forest canopy. A sickly haze of demonic mana clung around their campsite, threatening to engulf what was left of the fire should it go out before morning came.

Sorin looked from tent to tent and saw that Stephan and Lawrence were already awake and battle ready. Daphne and Gareth were keeping third watch; one had his bow in hand and an arrow nocked, while the other had the bleary eyes of a person who’d been secretly napping, along with a ball of fire in hand, ready to chuck.

A second screech sounded, and this time it was followed by a gust of wind. A large avian demon dove down toward their camp, wings spread, and razor-sharp claws extended. Gareth loosed an arrow at its soft underbelly, yet it bounced off without accomplishing anything. “I can’t do anything,” Gareth called out top Stephan as he walked out of his tent.

“That’s only natural,” said Stephan. “A two-star demon’s defences are difficult to pierce.”

“Watch while I turn that two-star chicken into a roast chicken,” said Daphne, pulling back her hand.

“Hold!” commanded Stephan. “Fire might just work, but it’ll be impossible to hit it unless its mid-dive.

“Wait, are you saying we’re going to fight this thing?” asked Sorin. “That’s a two-star demon!”

“I don’t think we have a choice in the matter,” said Stephan. “Unless you know of a cave nearby where we can hide? Lawrence, this should be a steelfeather sparrow. Tell me its weak points.”

“Like you said, fire should do the trick,” said Lawrence. “It’s also much weaker on the ground than the air, assuming we can keep it tied up. Its weak points are its wing joins, the area just between its legs. Eyes, of course. Vertebrae, assuming you can pierce its steel feathers. Arrows will be useless unless you can hit its eyes. Sorry Gareth.”

“That’s life,” said Gareth.

“Wait a minute,” said Sorin. “Why don’t we try something the next time it comes down? You said it’s a steelfeather sparrow? How literal is that name?”

“Fairly literal,” said Stephan. “The wings are made of metal. Not steel, as the name might imply, but pretty close.”

“That sounds perfect,” said Sorin. “Gareth? Ready an arrow. Try to hit its wing. Everyone else, get ready to duck.” The steelfeather sparrow circled above them and let out a screech as it prepared to dive a third time. Sorin grabbed a knife and cut his hand, then smeared it on Gareth’s arrowhead. The metal smoldered under the effect of his poison.

The sparrow was over ten feet wide and far too powerful for any of them to take head on. It was therefore taken completely by surprise when Gareth stood in its path and let loose and arrow at its right wing.

Gareth rolled out of the way of its talons, and the bird, not to be deterred, made a wide circle before coming back. It had just begun its descent when suddenly, it faltered mid-air. “Nice!” said Lawrence. “Poison blood, for the win!”

“Daphne!” shouted Stephen.

“Fireball!” intoned Daphne, launching her most potent spell. The bird, clearly worried about the dissolving feathers on its wing, didn’t notice the fireball on time to dodge it, and was knocked out of the sky.

“Let’s catch it on its way down!” shouted Stephan. “Lawrence, keep it busy! Gareth, get more of Sorin’s blood!”

“Way ahead of you,” Sorin said to Gareth, tossing him a vial. He’d already finished bandaging up his palm.

Gareth let loose three arrows this time, and the sparrow, enraged by its ruined wing and its half-melted feathers, barely noticed when the arrow struck into the featherless spots on its body.

Lawrence followed up a half-second after Gareth’s attack, but when attempted to stab into its back, it spread its wings out by instinct and smacked Lawrence aside. But that was when a second fireball struck it, melting another portion of its feathers and completely grounding it.

The steelfeather sparrow let out an angry screech and zeroed in on Daphne. Yet before it could attack her, t found itself under attack by four hundred pounds of armored bear.

“Lunisolar Paw!” roared Gareth. The attack smashed the sparrow into the ground, damaging its beak. It cut at Stephan with its sharp claws as it rose from its prone position and cut a deep gouge into his bear leg before smacking him aside with a wing.

“Careful!” shouted Stephan. Daphne’s eyes widened as the wounded bird picked itself up off the ground and flapped its wings to close the gap. It reached out with its steel-like claws to crush the life out of her.

Fortunately, Gareth had already expected this. He shot out an arrow from behind Daphne and knocked the sparrow back with a gust of wind. Sorin took advantage of the opening Gareth had bought him and circulated mana according to the method he’d observed form Stephan’s technique. “Poison palm!” he shouted as he slammed his hand into the creature’s chest right where its lungs should be.

A white poison rushed into its body and infiltrated its internal organs. The bird twitched and shivered, then staggered as its body began to immobilize.

“It’s paralyzed! Attack while you can!” shouted Sorin. He shot out a thread and used his mana to tie several loops around the creature’s body. Poison poured from Sorin into the bird through his connection to the mithril string and reinforced the paralysis.

Several more arrows landed with a thunk, missing Sorin by a few scant inches. Gareth had improved on his shooting skills significantly over the past few days, just as Sorin had improved his own skills.

Spleen. Heart clavicle. Gizzard. Sorin’s dagger pierced out with deadly precision along the vital spots he’d identified with his initial palm strike. Identifying a patient’s physiological structure and internal condition with a single touch was a core skill for physicians, and now, he was using this precious healing skills to destroy.

Yet Sorin had miscalculated the toughness of a two-star demon. Though his poisons infiltrated its internal organs, they weren’t nearly as effective against it as they would be against a lesser demon. Even the paralytic Sorin had applied was wearing off despite the mithril string. A sharp claw came tearing towards Sorin, and it was only thanks to Lawrence quickly pulling him back at the last minute that he was able to escape.

“Keep at it,” called out Stephan. “It’s in no shape to fly, and we can kite as need be.” His bear form launched itself at the bird and began mauling it with its paws. He suffered several deep gashes in his shoulder and even suffered heavy damage to his chest armor. But in exchange, he bought time for Sorin and Lawrence to land a devastating blow.

Heart paralysis, thought Sorin as he stabbed its dagger straight through two of its ribs and injected another dose of opaque white paralytic. The sparrow twitched as lost control over its body as its heart contracted abnormally. Temporary petrification is technically more accurate, but the effect is pretty much the same.

In its incapacitated state, Lawrence was finally able to let loose. He stabbed the creature multiple times in the back of the neck where a few feathers were missing. A two-star demon’s vitality was impressive, and the bird still wasn’t about to give up. Yet two magic missiles in the eye didn’t leave it much choice in the matter.

Blinded, crippled, and mostly featherless, the sparrow thrashed about until it expended the last of its energy. “Don’t touch it yet,” said Sorin, stopping Lawrnce just short of the bird’s reach. “It’s faking death.” They waited two full minutes until finally, the bird shivered one last time and slumped to the ground, dead. “You can go ahead now.”

“We’re rich!” shouted Lawrence, rubbing his hands gleefully. “Rich!”

“It’s just a two-star demon bounty,” muttered Stephan. Yet even he looked quite pleased at the result. “Adventurers at our level rarely run into two-star demons that are this easy to handle.” Then he sighed. “The meat is ruined, and most of the feathers are gone. And my armor…” The shoulder of his half plate was a mangled mess, and he had been forced to peel it off. Sorin shuddered to think of how much the damage would cost to repair. “The only thing of value is the two-star demon core and the bounty. Both are worth somewhere between 500 and 1,000 gold apiece.”

“Hey, let’s not forget the feathers,” said Lawrence. “Those are perfectly good materials for smithing, even when melted.”

“But they’re very troublesome to remove,” said Stephan.

“We’ll take what we can, but we need to leave,” said Gareth, looking around worriedly. “Ten minutes tops.”

“Good point,” said Stephan. “Other two-star creatures might come sniffing about.” He grabbed his bloodied shoulder and winced. “As much as I’d like to patch up my wounds, let’s get out of here first And Lawrence, what in hope’s name are you doing?”

“I’m a bird!” said Lawrence, flapping about hits arms with a handful of undamaged steel feathers. “Look at me, I’m a bird!” Even Sorin had to admit that the childish act was getting annoying.

Sorin made quick work of his tent and packed up his belongings. The others weren’t quite done, so he walked up to the bird’s corpse and began cutting it apart. The paralytic poison wasn’t as effective as I thought it would be, thought Sorin. Is it a mana issue or an application site issue? The tissue was too badly damaged to answer the question, but he made a few careful inquisitions to confirm its inner structure before putting away his knife.

“You know, you don’t have to kill it a second time,” said Lawrence as he removed feathers from the beast. “As much as I hate it, I wouldn’t stab its corpse. It’s insulting.”

“It’s called dissection,” said Sorin. “Your attacks are very dependent in striking critical areas, and the texts in the guild are far from accurate. Shouldn’t you be joining me instead of criticizing me?”

“I don’t think I have the stomach for it,” said Lawrence. “You let me know what you find out though. I’ll wholeheartedly accept your recommendations.”

Sorin shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He continued cutting up the demon corpse until the rest of them were gathered.

“Everyone ready?” said Stephen as the rest of their party trickled in. “Gareth, any luck?”

“Empty nest,” said Gareth, shaking his head.

“Too bad,” said Stephen. “Demon eggs are worth a fortune even in big cities.”

“So where to next boss?” asked Lawrence. “I thought you said we were going to go do an actual mission.”

“That was the plan,” said Stephen. “There’s an extermination request for a nest not far away. But I’m wounded and Daphne’s out of mana.”

“What’s the target?” asked Gareth.

“Rats,” said Stephen.

“Rats?” said Lawrence. “Gross.”

“Seconded!” said Daphne in a rare show of opinion.

“Well too bad,” said Stephen. “Rats are a big problem every demon tide. Whenever a nest gets found, it needs to be exterminated.”

“Because of Disease?” asked Sorin.

“Because of Disease,” confirmed Stephen. “Rats are weak, but a common tactic in a demon tide is to throw rats at a city and let plague break out. Disease fans the flames and makes the plagues much more virulent.

“Sometimes, the residents manage to survive the demons but lose half their population. Besides – weren’t you all telling me how money is money? Well one-star rats are 5 gold apiece, and their cores are worth about the same. Not bad, given that there’ll probably be well over a hundred of them.”

Everyone grew solemn when they heard the number. “A hundred rats? Isn’t fighting that many insane?”

“Not all at once, obviously,” said Stephen. “But I digress. We should find a place to rest before making our way over. If we try storming the nest now, rat food is all we’ll be good for.”