The screaming from above was from the bird that terrorized Corith at night. It only came out at night because they knew that during the day, they would be much easier to track. The darkness of the forest, with its massive trees created enough shade to cover their attacks.
However, the problem with Cassobans wasn’t that they attacked at night, or even that they were large birds who could easily claw out one’s throat.
The problem was that they attacked in groups with one singular mission.
They wanted to lift you into the air.
And they wanted gravity to do the rest of the work for them.
***
“RUN!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and pointed forward into the woods. The best chance of survival was staying as a group.
We began to dart through the trees, jumping over branches as the screams were heard from above grew closer.
I turned back for a second to finally see the bird that was chasing us. The Cassoban’s eyes were like black marbles of glass that were entirely focused in on me. With black plumage on top and a mix of black and brown on the bottom, it was perfect for blending into the dark forests of Corith. When the bird had started crying, that meant it had decided on a target. Judging from the fact that it was just behind me, and there appeared to be one not too far overhead, the primary target was me.
The bird made the final dive in my direction just as I was leaping over a branch. I could feel it start to dig into my right shoulder, cutting through the flesh with its barbed talons. It began to pull against my movement to hold me in place so a second Cassoban could grab me.
My best shot was with the burner I still had at my hip. I could feel my hold on the ground starting to slip as my left hand reached across to pull out the burner. I lifted up my right hand to pull on the rod as I awkwardly twisted my grasp to aim at the Cassoban, but felt a sharp pain as its beak stabbed into it, cutting into the webbing between my thumb and index finger. The pain caused me to flinch, and my right hand fell back as I continued to push against it. I tried to hit it with the burner physically, slamming it against its chest, but it just kept digging further into my right shoulder. I could hear the sounds of another cassoban growing ever closer as I struggled.
I tried one last time to hit the creature, aiming higher for the head, only for it to slap the burner out of my grasp with one of its powerful wings. Along with the sound of an approaching cassoban, I could hear thundering footsteps draw close. Like a crossbow bolt, Mell’s fist rammed directly into the cassoban holding onto my shoulder. Slamming directly into the breast, I could see the bones buckle under the weight and power of his punch. It crumpled under the pressure, and its wings stopped flapping as it went limp.
The cassoban from the sky was approaching, and Mell dove in the way. He raised up his left forearm to block, and the cassoban’s barbed talons dug into his skin. Using the fact that it was attached to him, Mell overpowered the bird’s flapping and smashed the bird against a nearby tree. The force of Mell’s slam caused the body to explode as guts and bones were shattered against the tree, leaving only the mangled claws of the cassoban intact. Without a second thought, he ripped the talons out of his forearm and tossed them onto the ground before turning back to me.
“Sir, we need to keep moving.” His serious tone snapped me out of my confusion as he quickly yanked the dead cassoban off of my right shoulder. Grabbing onto my left hand, he began pulling me behind him in the direction of our comrade’s voices. My entire right side hurt, and the only thing I could do was hope that the panic would overwhelm the pain.
I could hear Sera and Silva yelling orders to each other as they decided to stand their ground. The cassobans were circling overhead, preparing to drop. I could hear them constantly crying and sending messages in between each other to decide who was the best prey.
Silva was forming ice and launching them into the air, but they were too high up for any of them to hit. Ruby was also attempting to use her attunement, grabbing rocks and hoping to launch them with wind. Seeing them struggle as I got closer, I reached down to my hip and felt my heart sink to my feet.
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I had dropped my burner.
“North!” Sera yelled out my name upon spotting me, relieved to see that I was alive. We quickly made our way over to her side, with Mell continuing to watch the hunters in the sky.
Might be dead soon, considering our current state.
There were possibly 10 cassobans all circling up above our heads, preparing to attack us. We had located ourselves in a clearing, an opening between the massive trees where the sky was in view. As long as they didn’t have the cover of the forest canopy, that made it possible to track them.
“Do we keep running?” Alex asked in between panicked breaths. All of us were out of breath and barely holding together except for Mell, who appeared to be untouched by fatigue.
“No. I don’t think any of us have the ability to.” I was holding my left hand over the talon marks on my right shoulder, hoping to stop the blood. “From what I remember back in Corith, we should stay in a group. They’re less likely to attack people if they’re together. That's why we were never supposed to go out at night. Sera, any ideas?”
Sera looked away from the sky, her hands still crackling with electricity.
“Other than staying in a group? No.”
Silva scoffed even as she kept up her useless volley of ice.
“You still have no plan? What was all that shouting earlier about?”
Alex stared at her completely befuddled. “Silva, stop. This isn’t the time!”
Alex, pick a side!
“Both of you, we can’t do this right now!” I attempted to stamp my foot down, but I stopped when I noticed them coming from the sky. I didn’t have my burner, but I still had my attunement. As several cassobans began to dive down, I raised my left hand and focused a beam of light in their direction. It threw some of them off, but they continued diving.
Wanderer ran over to my side with his blade, and Mell prepared himself with his fists.
The problem was that they weren’t targeting me. They were targeting Sera. Two of them dove on her in perfect unison, digging their talons deep into her shoulders and beginning to lift her off. Alex and Silva continued to launch projectiles at them as they started to lift off, but nothing seemed to stun them. Sera kicked and screamed in their grasp as she tried to wrench herself free.
As she began to lift off the ground, her kicking stopped. Something inside of her seemed to switch as she brought all of her focus inwards. I could see sparks start to form around her rapidly all over her body. The lightning that she had only emitted from her palms now started to surround her like armor, and it only grew in intensity. The birds went from struggling to grab her to actively convulsing as they became unable to fly.
She’s going to fall.
I could see smoke coming from the heads of the cassobans, and they soon lost their grip as they plummeted alongside Sera.
“RUBY! CATCH HER!” I ordered her at the top of my lungs. She got my message and ran under her location. The air started to contort as Ruby built up a force to slow down Sera’s descent, but the real fall was broken once the two collided.
“Ugh… North, stop ordering me to act as a cushion!” She reprimanded as Sera slowly got off of her chest.
“Not the time to argue this!” interrupted Sera, who was still recovering from the experience of electrocuting herself. If she hadn’t been burned so severely from her own attunement, she’d probably be crying from the pain.
She was right on that too, as another duo of them came down, this time targeting Silva. Seeing the opportunity, I focused my light and aimed it directly at the eyes of the descending cassobans. Since they were still diving and were on a target who could actively fight back, blinding them hurt their movement. Silva used the opportunity to successfully launch two knives into them. One of them was hit directly in the wing, and the other was stabbed right through its dark breast. They collapsed onto the ground, having lost their balance and missing their target. Silva took the opportunity to quickly move over to one of them and smash in its skull with her foot.
Our eyes turned up to the sky again to find the cassobans screaming a sound we hadn’t heard before. Soon, it looked as though they had begun to disperse. They flew in the direction of the sun and away from our group.
Everyone collapsed onto the forest floor, exhausted and completely out of energy. It was only the first fight we’d had in Corith, and it had already put all of us in danger. If it weren’t for Mell or Ruby, Sera and I would both be dead.
In between gasps, I asked the question that I expected was on all of their minds.
“Who needs healing?”