The Siren’s Alcove grew smaller and smaller as the angel ascended. Current Control gave Brivaria the sensation of being caught in a perpetual updraft taking her ever higher into the air. This was one of the most wonderful feelings in the whole universe for anyone with wings. Brivaria’s joyous laughter went unheard by anyone save herself as she raced up toward and through the clouds. She truly loved flying.
It was the perfect day for flying too. The weather was clear. The temperature was cool but the sun was warm. She could drift through the clouds for hours while enjoying the scenery. Sadly she couldn’t let herself do that. The world looked as though it were almost standing still below her but she knew that she was moving very fast. The higher up she went, the more deceptive her flight speed became. This was doubly true with Current Control also letting her somewhat shape the wind around her so it wasn’t buffeting her face as she increased speed.
Tragically the forest was below her in practically no time. The Zenith Marauders had some sort of magical alarm or ward on the forest. It would detect her entering if she was at ground level but how far up could that ward go? Could it go above the clouds? The angel thought it unlikely. That didn’t mean that she would descend within easy view of those watching the forest. Thankfully, unless they spotted her among the clouds, it would be pretty difficult to see her so long as she was well past the tree line. The trees were incredibly tall and somewhat densely packed. The view from the forest edge quickly became obstructed meaning the guards would have to see her, assume she was landing in the woods, and guess at where her landing spot was.
Well, whether they did or did not come for her was moot now. She was already descending down toward the forest. The various birds and other winged creatures that called the forest their home screeched in protest as she passed but didn’t chase after her. The angel broke through a canopy of reds and yellows as the fall coloring was already in full swing. Her boots touched the ground and crunched on fallen leaves. Now on the ground and surrounded by the red trees, she began walking east. She had to find her dog.
Trixie was not hard to find as it turned out. More accurately, Brivaria was not hard to find for the dog. She hadn’t gone far before spotting a fluffy, golden missile heading toward her. The angel knelt and spread her arms. Trixie barreled into the winged girl and she closed her arms around the shaggy pooch.
“Good girl,” Brivaria crooned while hugging her dog, “very good girl.” She descended into giggles as Trixie licked her face. She enjoyed the attention of the golden sunchaser, periodically gazing back where the golden came from. A minute went by then five then ten. No one was coming up behind the dog. Brivaria placed a gentle kiss on the side of the happy dog’s head then stood up. “Okay, let’s go find a deer.”
Several hours later, she’d found no deer. It turned out that finding a deer in the woods was extremely difficult. Finding deer tracks among fallen leaves was nearly impossible. Though the rangers from Sparrow’s Revenge talked about it being near the town, Brivaria had no concept of how close to the town that really was. She mildly cursed herself for not asking better questions the day before.
That didn’t mean she found nothing. The forest was home to a lot of different creatures. One of which was a herd of boar. A bunch of piglets trailed behind a number of adult boar. They had reddish-brown coats and reached up to Brivaria’s stomach height-wise. She and Trixie veered off and away from the boars but it was too late.
One of the things noticed the pair and decided they’d ventured too close. The angel and dog were now walking away from the animals but this one decided to follow them. The thing was an enormous slab of muscle and as soon as Brivaria heard the leaves crunching, she knew it was moving.
“Trixie go!” the angel cried and lifted into the air. The golden sunchaser moved quickly and both got out of the way as the boar charged. Since it couldn’t chase the angel into the air, it chased Trixie. The golden hound was far faster than the boar but the leaves on the forest floor made it hard for the dog to turn without slipping. Trixie ran straight and the boar thundered after her with Brivaria flying at the rear.
Brivaria had to protect Trixie. This was her only thought as she raced forward and slashed down at the boar with her sword. The thin blade bounced off the boar in comical fashion. Withering magic was infused into the weapon giving it a black glow but Brivaria wasn’t certain she’d even made a cut capable of transferring the decaying magic. The boar’s hide was that thick and the winged girl’s sword lacked a cutting enchantment.
The angel tried to use Wind Formation to trip the thing but that failed. The leg snapped right through the magical, wind construct like it wasn’t even there. She tried again but timed it better. The wind barrier came into place when the boar’s legs were furthest back and had no momentum. That worked and the boar tripped. Trixie let out a confused yowl which made the angel look up and her eyes widen.
Trixie scrambled to veer off course but the boar had already lost balance. The poor creature tumbled straight into the hind quarters of something far, far larger. Angel, boar, and dog looked on in horror as the mountain of black fur and muscle rippled then shifted. It was taller on all four legs than Brivaria was and a paw the size of the boar’s body rose into the air. The great paw descended and batted the poor animal to the side. It was a casual swing but the boar’s entire left side was crushed and compressed as it was lifted into the air and sent flying. The red boar landed hard and began groaning in pain. In an act that gave even the battle-hardened angel pause, the creature stood and roared. It was a bear.
Stolen story; please report.
Small bears were dangerous. It didn’t matter if one could throw fire as a sufficiently strong bear could rip a throat out, crush limbs, and kill a person very dead. For all the advantages the System gave, it also gave these natural predators something in the form of unimaginable durability. With enough fireballs, one could kill a bear but what happened when the bear had more health than one had mana to spend on fireballs? The end result was that natural predators were always threats to be taken seriously.
Take one of those small bears and grow it up. Give it arms the size of entire people, bodies like small houses, and mouths that could bite a horse in half with room to spare. For an extra dose of suffering, give it magic. These were the monstrosities that silver and gold ranked adventuring teams were sometimes contracted to hunt. Brivaria had seen some of the requests to hunt things like this back in Keaton’s adventurers guild. The payouts were high but so were the mortality rates.
That was fine. She and Trixie just needed to run. The bear couldn’t outrun them, surely. The angel was about to tell Trixie to run when she saw it. Just beyond the bear was another animal. It was wounded with a part of its side opened up and bleeding profusely. It stood on wobbly, unsteady legs. The parts of its fur coat not stained dark with blood were golden. This was what the angel had been looking for. The golden hind that the Count, the marauders, and that hundreds of guests were pouring into Barton to see and, in some cases, eat was dying to this bear.
Brivaria and Trixie could run but the hind would die. That was the math of the situation. It was simple. Even if they stayed, it might die. Those were pretty terrifying wounds it had and it wasn’t regenerating those with health, suggesting it had none left. Land spirit or not, unique or not, this bear was undeniably the ruler of everything in the forest. The fact that it was so close to Barton was terrifying.
“Trixie, get back,” Brivaria called before casting Bolt of Decay at the bear.
The black projectile splashed against the bear and it moved. Despite its great size, the bear was not slow. It shuffled forward in a burst of speed that had to either be a skill or an expenditure of stamina. The angel barely had time to blink before that massive paw was already rising again to swat her out of the air. A beat of her wings, a bit of stamina, and an activation of Current Control yanked the angel out of the way in the nick of time. There was an audible sound as the paw missed and a second swipe from its other forepaw came immediately after.
Brivaria sent a black Withering Ray into the beast but it did nothing. The angel didn’t have near the offensive power to put a dent in this creature. She was chiseling away at a mountain and said mountain was not at all content to sit idle. The bear roared and the forest shook. Spears of wood burst from the trees next to the angel forcing her to move to the side again and again. She tried gaining altitude but they poured from the branches overhead forcing her back down. The bear’s roar had turned every tree around them into a sea of porcupine-like quills. One stray flap of her wings and she would be impaled in almost any direction. The only way to go was down.
The ursine monstrosity stood on two legs, roaring louder as the deadly flora pushed the angel downward and toward her death. A golden blur slammed into one of the beast’s legs and it toppled backward. Its claws were flung outward to catch itself and Brivaria’s heart stopped as it nearly caught Trixie with one of them. It recovered quickly and roared at the dog that dared interrupt its battle. Brivaria used the time to cast Luminous Desecration. The trees around her began dying and, more importantly, shedding the spears of wood.
Luminous Desecration had a large radius. It had been large back at level 14 when Brivaria’s arcane attribute had only been 32. Now that she was level 35 and her arcane was up to 66, it was bigger and stronger. This entire section of the forest was going to decay and die as desecration touched everything from the trees to the grass to the creatures around her to even the insects in the dirt. Despite the horrendous mana cost and the damage to the environment, it was saving her life again and again.
Trixie was fast but the bear was faster. It was only thanks to the sheer density of trees that the bear couldn’t catch up to and kill the dog. This was temporary at best. Trixie would tire before the bear and then it would catch her. Brivaria needed to do something. She infused her sword with decay, the regular kind, while activating Bleak Radiance. Separate sources of decay had diminishing effects that normally made those beyond the first one or two not worth the mana cost. An opponent this strong was an exception to the rule. It wasn’t about being optimal with her mana, it was about driving this thing off because Brivaria wasn’t certain she was even physically capable of killing it at her level.
She landed on its back, trying to drive her sword into the thing. She failed. The bear’s hide and muscle were too thick and her sword was enchanted for durability, not penetration. The blade dug in just enough to maybe transfer the decay from Infusion (Light) but the beast rolled immediately. Brivaria was thrown off and lost her grip on the sword. It tumbled into the brush while she bounced on the ground. Trixie took the opportunity to jump at the bear and give it a powerful shove from behind. The bear’s attention once more changed from the angel to the dog.
Brivaria went to stand up and found something wet beneath her palm. It was blood. She looked behind her and the golden hide was laying on the ground. The deer was far smaller than the angel expected. The hind looked like a normal deer, a young one, despite its golden fur. It was also dying.