The first week of training went much in the same way as the first day with a few added rituals.

In the mornings, under the safety of the light, Jude and Iris would spar. To make sure she wouldn’t hurt him, Iris covered the blades of her daggers with fabric. The points could still pierce, but the fabric prevented her from slicing him.

They grew accustomed to fighting each other, and eventually started weaving skills into their moves, making them even more deadly.

After sparring, they each went their separate ways. Iris would go to intensive Mana Life training with the queen, and Jude would take to the skies with Rost to repeat the process of his first hunt.

Eventually, both Jude and Iris leveled up and even received new skills. Jude received a Barehanded skill, which increased his proficiency fighting without a weapon, and Iris received a Dagger skill, which also increased fighting proficiency, but this time with daggers and knives.

Fly and Shadowstep also leveled up. Fly allowed Jude to stay in the air longer, and Shadowstep allowed Iris to cover a longer distance with each use.

They were much stronger than when they first entered the forest, which gave Queen Millicent hope that they would succeed in slaying The Devourer.

Rost and Jude also went hunting a couple more times that week. Iris was trying to learn Mana Life, but the birds needed to eat, and the corruption within the Anhangas wouldn’t stop just to wait for them, so they continued to hunt the aged and most rotten. At the same time, every time they brought a new corpse, Iris would spend the time collecting samples before cleansing it, and every time she cleansed it, nature would suddenly sprout from around the corpse.

Because the sprouting happened more than once, Queen Millicent and Rost were sure that the cleansing would work on a live Anhanga. Meanwhile at night, after her long days trying to learn Mana Life, Iris analyzed every sample she took.

The process of learning the spell didn’t get any easier. Every day, she would come close to dying, shutting down most of her organs before healing herself up again. However, while in the beginning of the week Queen Millicent had to tell her when to stop, by the end of the week, Iris had gained such an understanding of her body that she became able to tell without anyone’s help when she needed to start healing. Gaining a level also increased her mana, which allowed her to maintain herself in a rotting state longer. She even started doing research while the rot overtook her, able to manage her decaying body much better than the first time.

The second week, however, was more complicated.

For Jude, nothing had changed. His goal was to be strong enough to take point during the hunt for The Devourer while Iris kept a safe distance and healed. For that reason, the sparring sessions didn’t stop, but after sparring with Iris, Jude would spar with Rost. Fighting the bird king allowed him to focus on his speed and increased his flying ability.

To his surprise, and while he knew that Queen Millicent was strong in her own way, he hadn’t expected the same level of skill from Rost. Jude hadn’t understood, at that point, that to rule over the birds of the forest meant that one had to be the best and strongest hunter of all. The sparring sessions also allowed him to get used to fighting non-humanoid enemies, which Jude guessed would come in handy against The Devourer.

For Iris, however, things got increasingly more difficult. After her sparring sessions with Jude every morning, Iris, instead of continuing her training with Mana Life, would join Queen Millicent in the cocoon with her people. There, Queen Millicent would pluck one or two of the Fae awake, and Iris would have to heal and cleanse them. The first two to be woken were the two weavers that had helped the queen create the cocoon: Arachne and Ariadne. It was the first time Iris was seeing wingless Fae, but the sisters had developed multiple arms to better do their work instead. They had relinquished their wings for two pairs each of extra arms. When they woke up, healed and clean, and saw their queen in her full splendor, they wept tears of joy. Then, they put themselves to work on the queen’s next garment. For though her sacrifice had saved them, she deserved more as their queen.

After waking the Fae, Iris would return to her training in Mana Life, which became increasingly more difficult since she would deplete her mana significantly before starting training by healing the newly awoken Fae. At night, however, she continued her research into the rot. Though she was limited on what she could actually learn, she did manage to create a liquid purifier that would counteract the condensed liquid rot. The new panacea also lasted longer in liquid form, so she would be able to bring it in the hunt for The Devourer.

They had all agreed that on the last day of the second week, Rost, Queen Millicent, Jude and Iris would leave to attempt to heal the leader of the Anhangas, and it was finally that day.

Arachne and Ariadne had already finished the queen’s new royal garb, making it of the magic silk they had created themselves. It wasn’t as powerful as the one Mythrini had made, which had actually managed to hold all of her people in safety, but it was powerful enough for one being.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

That morning, Jude and Iris didn’t spar. There would be no mana training either. They were completely focused on the task ahead, and the severity of it was clearer to them now. Rost’s flock would follow, for they would have to maintain the herd separated from its leader, while the four would focus on the leader itself. The possibility that some, if not all, of the flock would be injured or infected in the process was great. The herd would be more violent and aggressive to protect its leader, but the birds, according to Queen Millicent, had all volunteered once they learned that Iris would be going as well. They felt that no harm should come to the savior of their people.

No other Fae would be going, however, since they had all just woken up and were still very weak by comparison. All others looked much like the queen, but smaller: winged humanoid creatures. Only Arachne and Ariadne had been different.

When they took off for the herd of Anhangas, Queen Millicent flew herself. Rost had Iris on its back, and Jude rode another bird until they got close to the end of the tree line. Once there, he took to the skies as well since the flock would be splitting off from the four. Enforcing the plan would be much more complicated this time, but they had to try.

Iris saw the rotten fields for the first time, with liquid rot bubbling from the broken wood on the ground. Jude had told her about it, but seeing it was much more shocking. It also put things in perspective for her. If the damage the Anhangas had done to the forest had been this severe, maybe they would be just as aggressive when healing the forest. If she could pull off cleansing one, then the forest would have a chance. She had hypothesized earlier that even if they took out The Devourer, the forest would eventually crumble to rot since there was nothing to indicate that simply killing The Devourer would heal it. The Anhangas were the forest's only chance.

The flock swooped onto the herd like they had done many times before, and the herd struggled to lose the birds. Eventually, an older, more rotted Anhanga split from the others. Nevertheless, the flock did not stop. Noticing that, the leader of the herd bellowed, and the others stopped. Then, the Anhangas moved themselves into a circle with their antlers out as protection. Looking at them, Jude thought the herd looked like a Roman testudo, focused entirely on defense, hoping to tire the birds.

Inside the circle of Anhangas, were the young and the weak, for if they took position in the circle, it would be easier for the birds to break their formation. All of this also told Jude and the others that the members of the herd still had a lot of awareness in them despite the advanced level of rot they carried.

Seeing the birds surround the flock, it was time for the four to act. Jude and Rost would go first, while Iris and Queen Millicent would join them once the leader was subdued. For that reason, Iris dismounted Rost and joined the queen, who simply floated above ground. Iris had to land, but she had already taken some panacea beforehand, so she wouldn’t be affected by the rot surrounding her. She had also grown accustomed to rot due to her Mana Life training, not fearing any kind of infection that might befall her.

Jude replaced Iris on Rost’s back, and the bird king took off like a bullet, faster than Jude had ever seen it fly. The flock, hearing Rost’s approach, parted just in time for Rost to dig its talons into the Anhanga leader and drag it away from the others. As soon as Rost left, the herd, in disarray, tried to rush after the bird king, but the flock closed the gap it had opened again, initiating a war of attrition between bird and Anhanga. The birds’ talons dug into the hides of the Anhangas, while the Anhangas’ antlers buried themselves into the birds. At that rate, all of the birds would be infected.

Before leaving, Rost and the others had compromised on a single point. Iris had demanded that no bird be lost in the operation, so the flock would hold out only for so long, which meant that Jude and Rost had a time limit much shorter than if the birds held out until death. However, Iris had been adamant that no sacrifices be made to pull this off. She could heal almost anything, but not death. So, Rost had given the flock an order to retreat before any bird was too far gone.

While the flock was doing its job, Rost dragged the Anhanga leader across the field in the direction of Iris and Queen Millicent. However, the Anhanga leader did not stay still as it was being dragged. Instead, it bucked and shook, and in a stroke of luck, it managed to stab Rost’s side with its massive antler. The leader had the longest and strongest antlers of all of the herd.

The pain made Rost buckle, and while the bird king tried to hold on to the leader, its talons gave up involuntarily, and the Anhanga managed to break free, crashing onto the ground below them. Seeing that happen, Jude immediately jumped off from Rost’s back and landed in front of the massive creature.

The Anhangas he had hunted had already been big, larger than him, but they had also been the old and the extremely sick. The leader was neither. It was nearly twice as big as a normal Anhanga and it still looked relatively healthy. Its antlers were reddened, but they didn’t ooze liquid rot yet. The fight would be significantly harder.

For now, the Anhanga leader could not be reasoned with. Because Anhangas were the forest itself, the rot had made them angry and violent. A fight that started would not stop until their opponents were completely immobile. Iris would have to heal it first before they could come to any kind of agreement.

The creature stared down at Jude in front of it and huffed and kicked the ground in anger. Jude hunched down low, fully aware that he would have to give his all to bring down the giant being.

The leader stormed forward, and Jude attempted the same move he had tried the first time hunting an Anhanga. He broke off to the side, and as the animal passed him, he tried to dive against the animal’s side. However, the leader was more experienced in battle, and as soon as it noticed Jude make his move, it dug its front hooves into the ground to make itself stop and swung its hind legs in the direction opposite Jude, stretching its antlers toward the human it was fighting.

Jude crashed against the Anhanga’s antlers, unable to completely stop his momentum. The antlers pierced Jude’s left shoulder, side and leg, but Jude made sure not to collapse. The Anhanga had raised its front hooves to come down on him, but Jude managed to get away because he still had his wings. He was bleeding now and he would be slower.