The birds were fast. Kyle suspected that, were he back in E Grade, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up without HASTE fully active. Before the guards could get fully into position, three of the feathered monsters jumped into the air, then somehow kicked off of it and plummeted towards the ground like obsidian meteors. Despite their poor positioning, Kyle was prepared. Tendrils of mana extended between him and the riders, and individual domes of protection erupted to life as Kyle activated STORM SHELTER.

The birds crashed into the barriers and bounced off as the riders gained their bearings, confused by the sudden appearance of the skill. Red eyes fixed on Kyle as the birds fell back, not seeming eager to continue their assault as they looked him up and down.

Kyle took the opportunity to size the birds up as well. They were each just over two meters tall at their standing height, though now they kept their torsos low to the ground. They had jet-black feathers that didn’t budge in the breeze, standing in stark contrast to almost bone-white beaks the size of Kyle’s forearm.

Their chirps almost sounded like the low croaking of frogs as they swayed back and forth, and IDENTIFY showed Kyle mana building in their leg muscles as they prepared for another attack. The impression from the five E Grade birds was that of deadly pack hunters. Their sharp beaks and powerful kicks likely allowed them to hunt all types of prey, and their abilities appeared to fall firmly in the realm of the physical.

The D Grade, however, was another story. On the surface, it looked very similar to the other birds. In fact, Kyle could barely detect any differences in the physical attributes. Instead, Kyle could see a wide spectrum of distinct mana types flowing through the bird. It was undoubtedly a caster, and Kyle’s eyes widened as he saw the mana begin to shape into a skill.

Without thinking, he reached out with tendrils of mana to disrupt it. He wasn’t sure what the creature was up to, but he didn’t like the complex tapestry of energy it was weaving. The bird let out a surprised squawk and jumped back and out of range, flaring its wings as it activated its skill. Violet sigils appeared across its body, glowing brightly even in the midday sun. The same markings began to appear on the other birds, and Kyle realized what it was doing. It’s boosting them.

He was reminded of the RALLY skill he passed up at the end of E Grade. It was powerful, certainly, but it also came with drawbacks. Kyle expected that this was likely a D Grade variant of a similar skill, and considered the possibilities as he focused with IDENTIFY.

“C.H.A.D.D., let me know when you start seeing inconsistencies within the birds. Anything odd moving forward could be valuable.”

[CERTAINLY, DR. MAYHEW.]

Good, all we need to do now is be patient and not do anything rash –

“CHARGE!”

The voice of the convoy leader rang out, and Kyle wanted to strangle the man. While they had the birds outnumbered, their individual attack power was already potent before their buffs. The intelligent play would have been to take advantage of their numbers with a defensive formation. Unfortunately, the riders were loyal to their commanding officer. The soldiers didn’t hesitate for a moment before spurring their dro’khar directly towards the birds, who croaked a loud challenge as their adversaries approached.

The first rider spurred his mount onward as he leveled his lance at the nearest avian, which blurred into motion and caught him square in the chest with two clawed feet, dismounting him and taking him to the ground with a sickening crunch. Kyle was there in a moment, baton flashing as he lashed out at the bird, while simultaneously connecting to the fallen man with PARASITIC RESONANCE and using his own mana reserves to heal the broken ribs and punctured lung.

A crossbow bolt managed to clip one of the birds as it tried to dodge a lance, though Kyle had to toss up STORM SHELTER to protect the Ranger from being run through by another charging bird. The battle was absolute chaos, and Kyle found he was spending most of his time trying to keep the seemingly suicidal guards alive.

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Between the guards and their mounts, Kyle didn’t have enough tendrils of PARASITIC RESONANCE available to form a significant connection to the giant birds. C.H.A.D.D. projected a top-down view of the battle to the corner of Kyle’s vision, and he liberally deployed STORM SHELTER to protect against the boosted attacks from the avians. As soon as a shield would drop, Kyle would be in the center of the fray, baton flashing back and forth as he kept the enemies at bay long enough for the guards to regain their position.

The birds appeared to be growing wary of Kyle’s shield, and two tried to attack him directly. Annoyingly, the soldiers didn’t even try to intercept them, instead chasing the remaining three creatures. While their speed and power eclipsed what E Grades should be capable of courtesy of their boosts, there was still a vast chasm of ability between them and Kyle. He ducked under an aerial pounce, allowing the second bird to peck him with its pointed beak. He turned his shoulder to take the blow, and it didn’t even break skin.

Kyle retaliated with three quick strikes, and the birds retreated from him, appearing to have learned a painful lesson. Kyle was about to give chase, only to see another soldier dismounted as another of the birds evaded pursuit and counterattacked. He extended tendrils of mana and activated STORM SHELTER once again while channeling HEAL to the downed fighter and his dro’khar.

The D Grade, for its part, stayed back. In addition to the boosting skill, it also had a variety of different healing and protection abilities. Kyle felt as though he was fighting a proxy war, with he and the D Grade battling through their allies. Unfortunately for the giant bird, wars of attrition were Kyle’s specialty. He was constantly draining and distributing mana across his own fighters, while the other D Grade had to use its own reserves.

Soon, the violet sigils began to fade. The beast let out a croak, and the birds disengaged, running back through the swaying grass with impressive speed. Kyle’s work was far from done, however, and his next several hours were spent treating the heavy injuries that both the soldiers and the dro’khar received. Miraculously, nobody was injured beyond his ability to recover, though the group would not make any more progress for the day.

Kyle took his seat off to the side of the group as he reflected on the fight. He felt that he’d gained a level afterwards, though he’d need to wait to enter meditation to confirm it. There was a heated discussion happening among the soldiers, and soon the convoy leader was making his way over towards Kyle. He expected the man would come talk to him at some point after the fight – after all, Kyle was right in offering the advanced warning. He’d already prepared himself to handle the conversation with grace, and hoped this would be a fresh start.

The man approached within three or so meters of Kyle, still in full armor. “You have to be the most useless D Grade I’ve ever come across. Any real warrior would have dispatched the birds, any real sorcerer would have destroyed them before they ever got close. But you, you weren’t even able to fight. You’re a complete waste. If it wasn’t for the birds’ mana draining ability, we would have ended them easily. You’re taking the whole watch tonight, so the real fighters can rest.”

With that, he turned on his heel and went back to his place. Kyle sat, mouth slack, at the audacity of the convoy leader. Suppressing the urge to show the man exactly how competent he was in a fight, Kyle sat and composed himself. If he weren’t concerned about sparking a diplomatic incident, Kyle would just take the damn egg and run it to the next city. It would be faster…

~~~

Suerrillax watched with wide eyes as she replayed the scene. Ebon pterix were incredibly dangerous pack hunters, and the ones that attacked the Archdrake Supremacy caravan were particularly high level, even having a flock leader in the mix. Typically, an attack like this so early into Phase Two would result in either an outright failure, or at minimum force the applicant to abandon either the caravan or the treasure for a time.

Monsters like Arhades wouldn’t have any problems, of course, as they would just slaughter the beasts and go on their way. Indeed, that’s exactly how a handful of applicants handled the situation. In contrast, this human had somehow managed to keep the entire team of fools alive while hardly engaging the hostile creatures at all.

Ordinarily Suerrillax would have chalked it up to the creatures being weak, but she knew that wasn’t the case. Watching the replay, she began making a tally of each time the human’s actions saved one of the caravan members. Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine. His timely interventions had essentially prevented each of the guards from being killed three times over.

Once more, the human had impressed her. Rupiniax had convinced her to write him off a bit during the end of Phase One, and she had to admit he was dreadfully boring to watch. Even now, his performance was far less flashy than many of the other applicants. Still, for those with a trained eye, his results were every bit as outstanding as the major powerhouses. For a moment, she wondered what he could do if he was supporting somebody like Arhades instead of a squad of nobody E Grades…

Suerrillax shook her head as she focused back on the screens. She noted the times on the replays for her superiors, and fixed her dark eyes on the real time feed. There was still a long way to go in Phase Two, and she was interested to see how the human would handle what was coming next.