Chapter 267: Quick Quarrel

AN: We're so back

The Thunderbird soared low, its man-sized feathers grazing the grass of the fields below its cloudy domain. As it flew, bolts of lightning crackled off the surface of its skin like supersized static electricity, dancing across solitary trees that were instantly roasted to a crisp, or striking random spots in the ground that were blackened by the beast’s unimaginable power.

It was headed straight for us.

Countless adventurers from the other side of the field charged at the Thunderbird—and, therefore, also charged at us—as we stood to take its attack head-on. Mission one was to survive its attack, mission two was to find a way to keep it from fleeing back to the skies afterward, and mission three was to actually kill the damn thing and take its pelt for ourselves before anyone else could. We had our work cut out for us.

As it hurtled in our direction, I stood back and counted the distance. It must’ve been seventy paces away from us. Then sixty…fifty…and…

The moment it got within range of forty paces, I hit it with Crippling Chill, sapping its Strength and Dexterity. It barely seemed to notice. But then, ten paces closer, and it was in range of Gravity Well. I toggled the Spell on, and the beast instantly lurched toward the ground, not expecting to suddenly grow 80% heavier and weaker in a single instant. It hit twenty-five paces as it crashed into the ground, and for good measure, I aimed my hand and shot it with a Ray of Frost, debuffing its Dexterity by an additional 9. And with the Coating Ray Upgrade I’d taken for the Spell, the portion of the wing I hit was covered in a layer of ice. With the beast being as large as it was, a single layer like that wouldn’t do much at all, though.

Regardless, the debuffs all added together to make it borderline impossible for the bird to fly, and with a ground-shaking crash, the monster plowed into the dirt of the field, spraying rubble everywhere. Instantly, Ainash leapt out and grappled the beast, straddling its neck and digging her fingers into its eyes. Erani shot at it from afar, targeting its wings to ensure it couldn’t move. And I stood on the outskirts, looking for an opening to close in.

If I could drain its Stamina, surely it would get low enough that it couldn’t take to the skies again. The damn things flew around so high up, it must’ve taken an incredible amount of energy to get back up there after descending. So, after circling around to its backside, where its massive man-sized talons were kicking uselessly at the dirt, I dashed in, leaping over one of the claws, and grabbed onto its side right by the base of its leg where it wouldn’t be able to reach me.

I activated Noxious Grasp and Sanguine Bond the moment I made contact, listening to its surprised squawk as it surely felt its energy suddenly leaving its body. I expected it to flail around even harder against our attacks, but surprisingly, it stilled itself, halting its attempts to push Ainash and I away from it, or even to try and move out of the way of Erani’s Firebolts.

For about two seconds, all was calm, and hopes that this would be an easy victory began seeping into my mind. But then, suddenly, a deafening crack of thunder echoed through the air and my vision went black.

You have been electrocuted. 153 damage.

Your Health is 587.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the ground, my skin smoking. The bird had scrabbled its way a few paces forward, with Ainash still managing to hold onto its body through the shock—not that she hadn’t been damaged; I could see her skin smoking as well.

No contact. Got it, I thought as I pulled myself to my feet and held my hand out to shoot it with a few Rays of Frost. If I couldn’t use Noxious Grasp, draining its Stamina in order to prevent it from taking to the skies before my Mana for Gravity Well ran out wouldn’t be as functional. So I’d need to keep its Dexterity low and hope Erani and Ainash’s combined damage outputs could run it out of Health before I ran out of Mana keeping it in their range.

Though, if it had more of those electric shocks in stock, Ainash would likely be forced away from it as well.

Index, can it just do that whenever it wants? Is there a time limit, or something?

“It has a limited number of uses. Sort of like Time Loop can only be used a certain number of times per day.”

Is that number high enough to kill Ainash?

“No, not with her Stats. You, however…”

Yeah, got it. I’ll keep my distance.

I shot it a few more times and checked my Mana. I’d passed below 1k/2.19k already, leaving me in the high hundreds. With a cost of 16.7 per second, Gravity Well wouldn’t last forever. But if we could just focus it down with sheer damage before that time limit ran out—

A chorus of shouts rang out from behind us. I turned and saw the entire group of adventurers drawing closer. Several dozen men and women of assuredly a wide range of Levels were running at us, weapons drawn.

“Kill it before it gets away!” one of them yelled.

“I’m getting that pelt!” another screamed.

“Back off!” I shouted back at them, holding my hands out as I heard explosions and squawks continue to echo from behind me. “This is our kill!”

The adventurers barely even acknowledged me. A few slowed down at my words, but then glanced at the others that continued sprinting forward, and sped back up to match their competition’s pace.

I’d known they were going to try and take the pelt from us. Originally, I’d at least hoped it would happen after we’d killed the damn thing so we could form a united front and maybe use a few explosions from Erani’s Firebolts to intimidate them into keeping away, but that was clearly not the case. And with the amount of resources it was taking just to kill the thing, I had no idea how we’d be able to spare not only the Mana, but the time and attention to keep them away while also keeping the bird out of the air.

“Move out of way!” Ainash said to me. I glanced back and saw her sitting, legs straddled around the Thunderbird’s throat and holding onto its head with a tight grip as it thrashed around. “Then turn off gravity Spell!”

“What?” I asked. “Why? We can’t let it fly away.”

“No time! Do it!”

Trusting she had a plan, I shut off Gravity Well, glad to save some of my rapidly-decreasing Mana, and stepped off to the side so that I was no longer between the bird and the group of adventurers. Erani did the same, apparently having received a similar message.

“That’s right!” one of the adventurers shouted, watching us step out of the way. “Leave it to me! No need for a fight!”

“No, it’s mine!” A woman yelled at the first, grabbing him from behind and pulling him back as she ran ahead.

Was that what Ainash was doing? Leave the Thunderbird alone, let all of these people fight amongst themselves to see who’d get it, then swoop in and clean up the resulting mess and claim it for ourselves in the end? It was surprisingly subtle and underhanded for her, but seemed like it might actually work, considering how desperate they all were to—

The Thunderbird crashed through the field, between Erani and I, straight toward the group of people. Its wings flapped frantically, beating the dirt and throwing whirlwinds of air our way, as its talons dug into the ground and pushed it forward. Atop it, Ainash still rode, and as I stared at her graveled atop it, I spotted her whip looped around the base of its wings, thorns stuck firmly into its skin.

Every time it flapped its wings, trying to take flight, she pulled her whip as tightly as she could and forced the angle to shift, so it propelled itself straight forward, back into the ground and closer to the group of adventurers rather than into the air.

The adventurers quickly realized that the gigantic bird monster was on a collision course with them and their demeanors instantly changed. A portion of them turned and ran, others took a few steps back, raising shields and weapons to take the beast on, and a third group froze up for a second, unsure which of the other two groups they should join.

Of course, within that single second they were frozen, the Thunderbird closed the distance and crashed straight into the adventurers, so they were never able to come to a conclusion.

While most were thrown aside by the gigantic monster, some of the higher-Leveled Melee Types were able to keep themselves from being totally overwhelmed. One dug his feet in and held his footing, only being pushed back a few feet and ready to swing at the thing the moment it stopped, another stabbed dual daggers into its skin and rode its crash like Ainash did, and a third simply dodged the whole thing with a short-range teleport. And they quickly tore into it, each swinging their weapons as all the long-range fighters cast their spells and shot their arrows. 

The rest of the adventurers got up soon after. At this point, Ainash had changed her grip on the vine wrapped around the Thunderbird’s wings, pulling constantly to prevent it from ever effectively flapping them. And it seemed like the beast’s legs were too weak to carry it around on their own—really, it seemed like its whole body was built exclusively to fly, with walking being an afterthought. And with my debuffs plus its injuries ravaging its body, it didn’t seem like it’d be running away any time soon.

Staring at her, I couldn’t help but feel impressed. She’d taken complete control of the situation in mere seconds the moment an obstacle presented itself. Of course, her method in doing so included steering a raging monster straight into a group of innocent people only trying to win a competition, but still, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do something like that. Besides, they were trying to fight the thing in the first place. Ainash had just accelerated their planned timeline.

The Thunderbird thrashed around in the throng of warriors as the rest climbed up to their feet and readied their weapons. Within seconds, it was surrounded on all sides by an armed battalion of Classers all mercilessly attacking it. Swords, daggers, and other assorted blades stabbed into its skin, flames and ice alike were thrown from Magic-Types on the sidelines, and arrows stuck into its eyes. And, slowly, as its Health was shaved away, the attacks started harming its body more and more. Soon enough, blood began spilling out onto the grass.

Once again, it looked like the battle would easily be won. But I knew what was coming. And it seemed like Ainash knew as well. As everyone else stuck their metal blades into the beast’s skin and climbed all across its body, Ainash glanced down at it for a moment, like she could feel something coming, and leapt off of the bird.

Instantly, a flash of lightning blinded me, and a crack echoed across the plains. A chorus of pained shouts came soon after as every nearby adventurer was simultaneously electrocuted. A second later, another crack and another shout of pain. The adventurers dropped like flies, either stumbling back or—in the case of a couple—falling to the dirt, immobile and presumably dead. 

Sure enough…

Level 33 Draconiad has offered minor contribution toward the slaying of Level 11 Swordsman.

Due to having a Bond with Draconiad, you have earned 6 XP. Your XP is 113.

Seemed like the System considered Ainash’s guiding the Thunderbird over to the adventurers to be enough contribution for her to earn some XP for it killing them.

Which, I supposed, was probably her goal in all this. Force the Thunderbird to go all-out in a fight where all the people are grouped up, it kills most them, and we’re left unharmed enough to force the scant survivors to flee while we reap the rewards. Ruthless, and certainly not the right thing to do, but once again, I couldn’t help but admire the clever plan. Had she figured out in that little time how much damage the monster would be able to do with them if she flew it into their group with its electricity?

That said, it didn’t seem to be a perfect plan. The moment it was no longer surrounded and Ainash had been kicked off its back, the Thunderbird instantly flapped its wings, pushing itself up into the air. The ranged fighters continued their assault, trying to damage it enough that it would fall back down, but the damn thing just kept ascending.

I stepped in at that point, not eager to use my limited Mana but recognizing it wasn’t an option. I activated Gravity Well before the Thunderbird could leave my range, applying just enough downward force that it dipped, allowing another volley of projectiles to hit it, which seemed to finally be too much. I had to wonder how we were ever gonna kill this thing if it was able to survive so much punishment from this many enemies at once.

But it began careening back toward the ground once again, headed straight for the crowd of adventurers it’d just electrocuted. Some were still lying on the ground, and began shouting and trying to get away from the impact zone.

“It’s coming back!” One shouted, crawling across the dirt to escape. Someone—one of his allies, I assumed—grabbed his hand and started desperately trying to pull him away.

I’d let up Gravity Well at that point, but the Thunderbird’s momentum was carrying it to the ground regardless. Before many could escape, it crashed back to the ground, crushing at least a dozen people beneath its weight. But the shouts of pain from the injured were outweighed by the shouts of conviction from everyone else, charging in for one last assault.

They were clearly far more cautious now than before, waiting between strikes to try and keep themselves from being electrocuted. Sure enough, the Thunderbird did let out one more shock as it lay there, but it didn’t hit nearly as many people as it did before. Still, with people still pinned underneath it as it unleashed its attack, I wasn’t surprised as I received another couple notifications of Ainash sharing XP with me from the few people that died. 

And with everyone tearing into its exhausted body, Ainash fighting five times as hard as everyone else, the monster soon laid its head down and gave up.

You have offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of Level 33 Thunderbird.

You have earned 241 XP. Your XP is 354.

Level 33 Draconiad has offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of Level 33 Thunderbird.

Due to having a Bond with Draconiad, you have earned 32 XP. Your XP is 386.

With the battle finally over, everyone took a step back and caught their breath. Well, everyone except for Erani, Ainash, and me. We strode forth and took a stance between them and the monster carcass.

“Thanks for the help, guys,” I said. “But like I said before, this one’s still ours.”

A lot of heads snapped over to look at me, and I got a feeling they weren’t going to accept my claim just like that.

AN: Sorry for the impromptu hiatus everybody! I may end up making a longer standalone post explaining things in-depth, but the long and short of it is that I wanted to take a short, ~week long break after I got done with finals, and once on that break quickly realized how burnt out I really was with Minute Mage. The week ended up stretching out into a much longer time, while the whole time I was fully intending to get back to it "in a day or two." I definitely should've made some sort of official post at least letting everyone know I was okay and wasn't dropping the series, but I never foresaw it taking as long as it did to get back into things. So I'm sorry for that.

However, I am happy to announce that I believe I've found the motivation to keep writing at a consistent pace now! So expect more chapters to come. Thank you all for your continued support, and as always, than you for reading :)