How to bait a magical beast in to its death was something I had no idea on how to do, but I would have to learn on the fly, quite literally, nothing of the memories passed down says anything about bait probably because it wasn’t something deemed as important to remember at a generational level, apparently some taboo towards livestock of sorts with an apparent loophole being if your servants did all the work and giving food as offering, no idea why this was like it was but I would need to deal with it one way or another and getting the dang beast to bully the goblins for a while was my best shot at getting them on my side.

There are too many things to take into account to plan around this and the behavior of a being capable to wielding mana was too unpredictable as magic itself tends to be, the dangers of magic are well registered in genetic memory due to the threat it poses, your skill or power doesn’t matter when your flames can be undone and can’t get close enough to use your claws or weight on them due to extremely fast gusts of winds and sometimes even throwing rocks at some ridiculous speeds, one either had to be cunning and take it by surprise or overpower whatever was thrown at you, in both cases it was best to not hold back once you finally strike.

Of course everything depended on the knowledge of the user but the fact remained that fighting one head on would be extremely dangerous, but I wasn’t planning on doing a one on one fight at least not yet, all I need to do is to wear it down and get it to flee towards the direction of their village and perhaps that would be all the opportunity I need for them to join me willingly, even with all the intelligence granted to it by magic it was still an animal and as such if placed in a panicked state it would attempt to attack anything in its path, including the goblins and their homes, what I needed to do was show up in the right time for most if not all of the buildings to be completely unrepairable but not too late for the all to be crippled and or killed as it would make all the trouble I went through be completely useless.

Now what was left to do was finding the damned thing again, by now I should be close to the area I first spotted it, all that remained was to search the area surrounding it as I would have to stumble unto it eventually or vice versa, either way I must not underestimate it unless I want some injury that might cripple me for the forthcoming months or even worse, being cautious wasn’t a choice but a necessity.

However after hours of flying in circles there was finally something of notice, bones and a cracked tree but of most interest, dried blood, it was here recently and seemingly ate whatever the bones were off, well, most likely whatever remained of the animal considering that whatever is threw pierced through its body and hit the tree, descending to search for any marks as to where it left to I noticed that the stone that the magical beast struck its prey with was still dodged deep within the trunk after going through an entire body and it’s hide on both sides, a most terrifying power.

Sniffing at the ground for any clue as to where it might have gone I noticed the smell of blood as it led south of here, focusing more on the ground noticing the traces left by paws in the soil, now all that was left to do was follow the path, for this I chose walking as it would be safer, for both approaching as it would be more silent without the beating of my wings and my shadow won’t be spotted as easily, whatever of the both it was that caught it’s attention a few days ago but the second reason was simply to not risk getting my wings pierced, I very much needed them and losing them for possibly months wasn’t a risk worth taking.

Of course, I was sacrificing my advantage of coming from above, including the superior visibility that comes from my vision not being disturbed by shrubbery and trees but well, burning them all out would just get its attention… ah, of course how did I not think of this earlier?

I did not need to bait it at all, I just need to cut it off from one side with fire and force it to go wherever I want it to, now the only problem left would be to make sure it reaches the village and doesn’t try to avoid it, actually, does it really need to reach the village fully? those goblins will stumble upon it eventually and that should be enough for a fight to start, a magical beast was something more than a nuisance but a power to be harvested as well, how does one harvest its power beyond eating it was beyond me but goblins and humans knew secrets of magic that eluded me, both of them with radically different approaches to harnessing its power.

However that power was often times temporary due to the diluted the magic was once it was in a state that could be safely consumed for those that lacked the nature to digest it in full, as an energy as dense as magic could cause great pain and even death on those that try to harness it without the adequate body, and this is one of the things that made humans more unique than other creatures, the ability of some of their species to use this power, no passed memory knows as to how some humans can use magic instead I got the memories of her minions explaining all of that to her, but it was what it was, there was no point of understanding something that couldn’t be changed, a few may try but it was more of a waste of time that could be used better for the gain of power.

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But at last, I had to focus once more as the smell grew in intensity, dropping my posture to get closer to the ground keeping my wings folded to my sides as to not be as visible I slowly made my way closer to the smell, slowly pushing my head between some bushes trying to see what was beyond, a few meters away, laid down leaning against a tree seemingly sleeping was the exceptionally big wolf, the same canine I spotted while flying, this was my perfect chance, slowly retiring myself from the bushes as to not make any sound I carefully moved around until I was sure the valley was roughly in front of me, soon enough it will be the only place safe from flame.

Letting loose my flames on to the plants making sure to get as many of them burning as to not let the fire extinguish itself out so soon, the cracking of flames and heat has surely awaken it by now and just as I thought that a yelp came out from the location of the wolf, perhaps stunned at the sudden fire that wasn’t there when it came to sleep after it’s meal, I hurriedly crossed the growing wall of fire, my providing sufficient protection against the otherwise scorching heat and immediately let out another torrent of fire, a sudden wall of rock elevated from the ground blocking the fire before it could reach it, moving my head to the sides as to put to the torch the surrounding forestry and elevating the heat, my plan wasn’t to attack it directly after all, but to keep it occupied while I push it out.

The temperature seemingly to high for it to bear it brought a gust of wind, however that wouldn’t put the fire out, just spread it to the opposite direction, making it’s only available escape route where I wanted it to go, so far it was going as I wanted but I did not know for how long I could keep throwing fire at it, my fire gland as it was commonly referred to while being more developed than before it wasn’t infinite and couldn’t keep up in a prolonged fight, I needed it to run, to believe it was outmatched and the faster the better.

Charging in with a roar with hope that my confidence was enough to make it believe it couldn’t win, perhaps it was even true if I actually wanted to kill it right here but as for now I still needed it alive, breathing fire to cover my charge as to force it to use it’s magic on the fire instead of me and unfolding my wings to allow me to pounce on it from a further distance, as if realizing my apparent intent it backed off, I punished it by throwing another torrent of fire.

Finally it seemed that it noticed that it was outmatched, mainly due to the surprise ambush I reckon, all that’s needed to do now, it’s keep it on the path, flapping my wings to take to the skies and follow it, setting fire the the surrounding area as needed, the resulting smoke will probably be enough to hinder its aim if it even though about launching rocks at me rather than running before the fire caught up to it.

Keeping up with this overgrown wolf was easier than I previously though, all I needed to do was to set fire to a nearby area before it could even start to think about switch paths while trying to be conservative about my breath, while in a constant fight the strain would empty to a degree that it would cause an inflammation that would make it rather painful to use it for a while, this was from actual experience and it wasn’t hard to say that this was rather unpleasant, however with eventual uses like this I learned it gave time for my gland rest and keep up throughout the day, of course this was tested in shorter burst but the fire will expand naturally in this environment with so much fuel to consume, there won’t be way back to run to soon enough.

From behind, plumes of smoke had already risen and started to darken the sky, hiding my figure, it would most likely be seen for kilometers around but for how many I had no clue, perhaps the humans might take notice, but if they did would they even bother to send someone to search what the cause was? but the goblins in other hand, they would care and definitely noticed, perhaps they will think it was the magical beast that did it with a rather volatile spell of sorts and be more aggressive towards it but I couldn’t guarantee that, however they will definitely know the cause after I show up, how would react to me would depend on how I can play my part in the fight to come, appearing as their savior as the wolf tries to seemingly defend itself from more aggressors was the ideal.

Otherwise a deal to force them in to servitude one way or another was the next thing in line, eventually the forest came to an end and the wolf seemed to search for another entry that wouldn’t be on fire as soon as it tried to go through but to no avail as I scorched the treeline forcing it to go further out, but I cut chase as this task was done, all that needed to do was wait, flying back into the cover of the thick smoke keep my eyes on the magical creature to see it’s decisions, first it seemed to calm down due to my apparent lack of interest on continuing chasing it, but not relax completely, as goblins quickly approached, probably first to inspect the cause of the fire and see if it would reach their settlement before the large wolf appeared with parts of it fur burn and seemingly in panic, thankfully it seemed that I wasn’t noticed yet.

Now what I did all of this for, the goblins quickly paused in their step observing the oversized wolf as it snatched stone from the earth with magic forming a shield facing the goblins, but instead of the fight I was expecting, the goblins started do move their palms back and forth as in attempting to appease it, now of course with the shield blocking its view it didn’t exactly see what was going on, however as the expected attacks never came it lowered the shield enough to see through perhaps I shouldn’t had underestimate it’s intelligence instead of focusing that much in to the magic part.

But it was done, the mayhem that I wanted from this hasn’t yet begun but if it didn’t start soon enough, I will force it to happen.