The gnolls had stopped at the forest edge.

In their city they had giant nets hung between buildings, and the guards had looked at him like he was mad for staying out in the open.

Most explicitly, Krystyna had emphasized that he would die a quick and horrible death if he went into the plains.

The reason for all of this turned out to be the giant pterodactyl thing that was swooping down towards them. Or, as the people of this world called it, a ptau.

What was it about this shape that made people think ‘pt’? Was it the sound of the victim’s breath leaving them as the beast grasped them up in its talons and prepared to disembowel them mid-flight?

Okay, Jerome didn’t actually know how the ptau attacked. Maybe like a pterodactyl? The initial resemblance was striking, but the ptau were twice as big as a human, covered in shimmering feathers, and had an unusually large head for a thing that flew.

This biggest distinction between this thing and a pterodactyl, however, was that this thing wasn’t dead and laying in some museum.

He tried casting Hold on it, but it seemed to have no effect on the ptau’s flight.

Then he tried casting Crystal Overload. The two seconds it took to charge seemed like an eternity as the beast hurtled towards them, but Jerome had reason to hope. Lightning was good against Flying, right?

When the spell finally took effect, that’s when Jerome knew they were doomed. It had no effect on the ptau’s flight and almost no effect on its HP. Even if he wasn’t interrupted he would run out of MP before the creature lost even 10% of its health.

Why wasn’t it working? His Flows skill level was low, and this form had low Focus and Connection, but surely it couldn’t be that bad. Did the Ptau simply have that much health?

He concentrated on the message that was on the edge of his vision, bringing it to the foreground.

Ptau are resistant to magic.

So this would be a battle of wing and claw.

That was bad for one obvious reason: wings fly and claws don’t.

No wonder the gnolls avoided the plain.

Jerome used the last of this form’s MP to refill his HP and SP… and then the ptau was upon them.

He leapt up, trying to intercept one of the wings. That was a mistake. The wings were the thinnest, most vulnerable part, but they were also the most immediately mobile. The ptau was able to simply lift the wing that Jerome had targeted to get it out of the way. If Jerome targeted the wing at the top of its range, the ptau could simply flap it downwards to get it out of the way.

It wasn’t all bad. The ptau’s maneuvering had thrown it off of its expected course, leading it to veer sharply away and tumble onto the ground. It pulled both wings into itself and tucked its neck. Apparently rolling on the ground after a botched attack was, if not ideal, something that the ptau had learned to cope with.

The ptau quickly righted itself and flapped its wings, creating lift and separating itself from the ground. It kept itself just out of claw range, studying its prey.

Calculating how to kill something that fought back.

Let it try. It had never seen anything like him before.

Jerome used Portal Hands to claw at the ptau’s wing. He didn’t hit exactly where he wanted, but he still did some damage. The thing flapped its wings harder, causing a vicious wind and taking it higher and further away.

How intelligent was it? Could it tell that the attack came from the gnoll body on the ground?

Better not to give it time to figure it out.

He used Portal Hand to get his hand above the creature, palm face-down, then lowered his hand until it rested on the thing’s back. At that the ptau flapped even harder, bringing both of them upwards — lifting Jerome off the ground temporarily. However, he quickly put a stop to that with a Recoil Burst.

The ptau dropped towards the ground, outstretched wings creaking under the stress. Jerome hoped that one of them might burst or something, but he had no such luck. Instead they stopped the thing’s fall before it hit the ground.

That was nothing a second Recoil Burst wouldn’t fix. If he could keep the ptau on the ground he might be able to win.

However, his next attempt at Portal Hand wasn’t quite as accurate and he portaled his hand two feet above the ptau. He couldn’t reach down far enough to make it happen.

There was a frighteningly intelligent glint in the creature’s eye. Was it figuring out the game? It had only lost about 15% of its health. Sure, given its anatomy it seemed unlikely to grab his portaled hand and trap it like the gnoll had, but even so, he had already used his most effective strategies. If it learned, then Jerome might not be able to get off the dozen or more hits that would be required to bring it down.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Enough theorizing.

Doubt wouldn’t win battles.

Nothing to do but try.

Jerome leapt up for a flying claw attack, using Portal Hand halfway through. That gave the attack more momentum, and he happily scored another hit. This one was powerful enough to knock 8% off of the ptau’s health — his strongest attack yet!

The ptau pulled back… was it running away? Jerome tried another Portal Hand + Claw attack, but the creature was now far enough away that success was unlikely. Accuracy of a portaled hand fell off drastically with distance. Sure enough, the attack missed.

Was it running away? Jerome hoped so, wished fervently that this problem would just disappear, but it wasn’t to be. After getting some distance and considering its options, the ptau swooped in quickly toward them, trying to avoid getting hit through sheer speed.

Jerome’s first attack missed. A claw and forearm swiped through empty air.

His second attack, close enough to be done without a portal, hit. It raked across the ptau’s chest, ripping out shimmering feathers and doing some damage but not slowing it down in any appreciable way.

Jerome braced for impact but it never came. Had the ptau missed? No, it simply hadn’t been aiming at him. It was heading for a different, easier target: Rayi.

The boy let out a yelp as the ptau grabbed him. One arm in each talon, lifting him off the ground and carrying him swiftly away.

Right, the ptau was wasn’t a soldier: it was a predator. It didn’t want to defeat Jerome: it wanted to eat.

Jerome used Portal Hand to try and grab the boy’s leg. He got lucky and his hand showed up pretty much exactly where he hoped it would.

However, the ptau could pick up both of them almost as easily as it could pick up one. Jerome’s feet lifted off the ground, eight feet away from the escaping ptau and three feet below. It did nothing except stretch Rayi’s body, making his cry of fear turn into one of pain as well.

Jerome let go and dropped a couple feet to the ground, taking a small amount of damage.

He picked himself up and sent a portaled claw to rip at the ptau, but that did nothing to stop its escape.

He ran alongside the thing’s flight path, but he wasn’t nearly as fast, even when running on four legs. Even if he could keep up on the ground the flying beast could just go higher and escape that way.

There it was. The last of his mission. His salvation. The kid who had sacrificed to save him. The kid who believed irrational stupid things that kept him smiling.

He was flying away in a misshapen dinosaur’s talons, screaming bloody murder.

If only the thing hadn’t thought to go for Rayi he might have had a chance. If only it had been a dumb beast. If only….

That was it. It wasn’t a dumb beast. Krystyna had said ptau were one of the three Great Civilizations.

He transformed.

It took him a second to find his wings, but when he did… the lift was glorious. He chased after the escaping ptau. Despite his skills being only half that of the creature whose form he inherited he wasn’t burdened down with carrying another being, so he was able to fly a bit faster, gain height a little bit faster. Within half a minute he had caught up.

They were only a hundred and thirty feet or so in the air but it felt like a huge distance. It took everything Jerome had to trust this new form and not give in to the vertigo and fear of falling.

“Jerome!” Rayi yelled against the wind. “I can’t believe you’re a dinosaur! You said you couldn’t be a dinosaur! This is so fucking cool!”

Good, he could still understand human speech. He tried to respond but it came out as a vicious caw.

Where did you come from? the ptau thought into his brain. Which faction are you?

Let him go.

The conglomerate’s wings do not stretch this wide. Are you an upstart?

Jerome attacked, scratching the ptau with its talons. It was unable to fight back because it was holding on to Rayi. Its wings were needed for flight (and not great for attack anyways), and its beak could only face the front.

The boy is mine. Let him go.

The ptau knew it couldn’t fight in this position, so it complied.

It dropped Rayi.

Only then did Jerome realize his error: they were a hundred and thirty feet in the air.

The ptau, freed of its burden, turned to attack Jerome.

Its first attack took 23% off of his health bar, but he didn’t care. He dove towards the falling boy, hoping against hope to rescue him. Could he fall faster than an unwinged body caught by gravity? Was that possible? He tucked his wings against him, at least trying to minimize the wind that slowed him down.

It wouldn’t be enough.

But he could use Portal Hand. He stuck out a wing and used the move, hoping to catch Rayi… but it was a foot to the left, and stretching out the wing slowed his descent and sent him spinning, so Rayi quickly passed by.

No.

This couldn’t be happening.

This was supposed to be his redemption for the botched rescue.

When Rayi hit the ground he tried to catch himself with stiff outstretched arms. All that did was rip his shoulders from their sockets a split second before the rest of his body crashed into the ground and broke, irreparably.

Fuck.

No.

After risking detection to save the kid. After risking his soul at the gate. After all of that he’d failed the boy just like he’d failed the boy’s sister. Just like he’d failed the other half dozen prisoners that had been broken against the wall.

For the first time in his goddamn life he had cared, he had sacrificed, he had tried… and it hadn’t been enough.

Jerome crashed into the ground and his life bar went down to 15%, but he didn’t care. He was numb. It was pure self-preservation that made him switch to a fresh gnoll form.

The ptau gave no thought to the anguish of its defeated enemy. It was a predator first and an intelligent being second. There was no victory dance, no assurance that Jerome wouldn’t come after it.

Jerome was no longer a threat, and it had already captured its dinner. What else was there to do?

The ptau picked up Rayi’s shattered, lifeless body with its talons and flew off into the sunset.