Liam couldn’t believe his eyes. That monster truly looked like a giant version of the malhuhns, covered in blood all over. It stood over two meters tall, had talons as long as Liam’s forearm, and emitted a terrifying killing intent.
“A Beast King.” Somebody muttered behind Liam.
A few curses were thrown around in the caravan wagon, as people realized what they were faced with. Even though Liam didn’t know what a Beast King was, a sense of unease spread in his stomach, amplified by the worry in the faces of the people around him.
Only Blue looked calm. He went over to his desk and pushed a button. A faint blue sheen sprang up around the caravan wagon immediately. Soon after the other wagons followed suit, and one after another they were covered in a thin protective bubble.
The big Malhuhn didn’t care much though, its eyes focused solely on the mercenaries in front of them. The men regrouped and collected themselves. Four of them stepped forward, building the frontline.
It didn’t take much guessing as to what this group constituted. Liam had heard the stories of caravans employing cultivators. The handful of people blessed by gods who fell through the cracks.
There weren’t many other places for them to turn to and their aid was highly sought after in the caravans. Oftentimes they could mean the difference between life and death in wild situations like these.
Liam wasn’t surprised to see that Marten was one of them. He had suspected something like this since the moment he saw the man, there was just this air of power he carried, setting him apart from the other mercenaries.
Two of the other cultivators Liam had never really noticed before, it was the fourth one who made his eyes widen in surprise. Amid these battle-hardened warriors stood Bilby, grim determination on his face and a crackling energy surrounding him.
Liam’s stomach dropped. That man was a cultivator?
Marten stood at the head of the small four-man group, locking eyes with the giant killer bird. He cut an imposing figure, covered in beast blood all over his body. For a brief second, the two sides faced off against each other. A small squad of mercenaries on one side, and hundreds of little killer birds on the other. Then the thing let out another shrill battle roar, and the army of killer birds charged forward.
Hundreds of them had gathered at the tree line now and streamed past the giant bird. They didn’t aim for the small frontline composed of cultivators though, instead, they swarmed for the caravan wagons.
The rest of the mercenaries didn’t sit idly though, and countercharged them, intercepting the army of birds. There were only so many of them though, and most of the Malhuhns managed to run straight past them.
Liam had faith in the wagon's materials, he had seen firsthand how thick and impenetrable they were. But he still panicked as a score of killer birds streamed towards their wagon, their sharp beaks glinting in the fiery light. The thin blue shields sprang up again and the birds started pecking against them aggressively. With each of their beak attacks, the shields flickered for a second.
The birds were close enough now that Liam could lock eyes with one of the birds. Dark little dots, full of bloodlust but without any hint of sapience. Liam froze for a moment as he realized the fierceness of the thing.
“We can’t just let them attack the shields,” someone's voice ripped Liam out of his thoughts. “We have to fight back.”
Blue was already acting though, and had activated another hidden button. Out of a drawer from his desk, he procured one small hand crossbox after the other and handed them out to the people. Another view barred windows, exactly like Liam, sprang open around the wagon, giving them good openings.
Blue handed Liam a small crossbow as well. “You know how to use these?”
Liam nodded.
“Good,” Blue pushed a small quiver with a few dozen bolts in Liam's other hand. “Then let's give those turkeys hell.”
The crossbows were a common weapon for nonfighters like the merchants. Meant to be used with one hand, but Liam used his own with both hands. With his left arm, he stabilized the front of the weapon, loaded in a bolt, and took aim out of his window.
The weight felt good in his hands, the metal cold against his skin. With it came the feeling of power.
The battle outside was picking up speed. Liam didn’t get to see a lot of it, his attention focused elsewhere, but he couldn’t stop his curiosity enough to not at least glimpse at the battlefield in between shots.
The mercenaries waded through the endless flood of small killer birds. Their weapons sang songs of death as they left corpse after corpse in their wake, still, it was only a small drop against the waves of beasts.
The truly breathtaking battle was the one between the giant Malhuhn and their small elite group of cultivators. Their small squad of four was caught in constant clashes with the giant beast. Even if there were four of them, they weren’t able to overwhelm their lone opponent. The Beast King proved to be a truly terrifying opponent.
Liam tried to discern their abilities, but the battle was just too chaotic. What he clearly noticed though, was the superhuman speed and strength with which the cultivators moved.
Marten, Bilby, and one of the other mercenaries rotated around the beast, attacking it from all angles. They were faster than they should’ve been, with lightning-quick reactions.
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While they occupied the giant malhuhn, one of the group stood at the back behind them. At first, Liam wasn’t sure what the man was doing, but then he realized that he was concentrating. He could almost feel the slight shifts in mana around the man.
Another screech drew Liam back to what was happening in front of him.
The killer birds pecked at the barrier, waiting for it to break down and get a chance to slaughter them. He heard bolts ripping out of weapons around him. The sound was answered by the death screams of malhuhns. He saw a few of them dropping around him, exploding in small clouds of blood and feathers.
Still, there were so many of them.
Liam took a deep breath and calmed his nerves. This was about survival. This was what he was doing all his life. He picked out the bird he had locked eyes with before. It stared back and gave Liam a screech of challenge. But it was interrupted in the middle of its outcry by Liam's bolt hitting it squarely in the chest.
The bird went down with a thud. Lying quiet and bleeding.
Liam wasted no time and loaded another bolt. He aimed, and let it loose directly aimed at the next bird. Thud. The small recoil against Liam's shoulder confirmed the power of his weapon. As did the sound of the next bird going down.
The next bolt he missed, his anxiety taking over and making him fire too quickly. He chided himself for his fears and took another breath to calm down.
The next three or four shots still took a little overcoming for Liam. But he soon started to get the hang of it. He got faster at loading the crossbow and soon settled into a routine.
Loading. Aiming. Killing.
He wasn’t sure for how long they were doing that. The rhythmic sounds of bolts and screaming birds were the only thing present, pushing everything else away. Between shots, Liam stole small glances at the fight raging outside. But only for moments, before the intensity of the bird's assault needed his full attention again.
This went on for what felt like an eternity, but slowly the incoming waves seemed to thin down. The horde of killer birds mercilessly assaulting the row of caravan wagons was slowly winding down. There still were dozens of bloodlusty beaks peering over the small hill of corpses, but Liam could afford enough of a breather to pay closer attention to the battle between their gimmicks and the giant bird.
They were in the middle of a clash. One of their mercenaries baited the beast to attack and dodged away at the last moment. Now the malhuhn was exposed.
Bilby used the opening. He darted in with superhuman speed and swung his neck for the beast's unprotected neck with impressive force. His sword crackled with electric energy and the swing seemed to almost tear the air itself apart.
It wasn’t enough though. The blade was stopped dead, as the beast caught it on its mighty beak. For a split second, they stood frozen like that. The giant malhuhn blocked the sword with its beak and Bilby struggled to push his weapon forward. Despite the man's divine blessings, the weapon didn’t move an inch.
Then the malhuhn had enough. Without any sign of effort, the beast flicked the blade away, sending it scattering over the forest floor.
Bilby looked up at the beast in shock, his eyes wide full of fear.
Before the terror bird's beak could snap down on its victim, the defenseless mercenary was pushed out of the way. Instead, Marten stood there, directly in line of the attack.
Liam stared in mute horror, expecting the malhuhn to turn Marten into pulp. Something else happened though.
Martens's shoulder began shimmering, and a spot transformed into metal. The beak thundered into it, but instead of ripping straight through Marten’s shoulder, the man was simply pushed back a little.
The creature was bewildered by how quickly the tables had turned on it, and before it could recover, Martens's shovel slammed into its face.
It staggered a step, when a small shockwave from the side caught it, paralyzing it for a moment. Not a second later the other two cultivators were upon it again.
They backed the creature away, one swing of their sword after another, acting in perfect superhuman synchrony. Liam got his hopes up as the tides seemed to be turning. But then he realized something.
The cultivators left barely any wounds on the beast’s tough skin. Sword swings left nothing more than small gashes, and even the terrifying crackling energy of Bilby left the beast stunned for only a few seconds.
It proved what Liam had heard about the beasts of the wild. They were more durable than one could imagine, strong and dangerous after cultivating mana for too long. Whatever stage this malhuhn had crossed to become a Beast King, it seemed to have amplified its power considerably.
The hordes of normal-sized malhuhns seemed to be slowing down to the point that the mercenaries didn’t seem at risk of being overwhelmed any moment. More and more caravans were even getting some breathing room to support them. But what would they do if the cultivators didn’t manage to stop the giant beast looming over them?
They held the initiative at the moment, but despite numerous small cuts that had appeared on the beast's body, there was no sign of it slowing down. Quite on the contrary, it started coming back into the fight, putting the attackers on the back foot.
And while it grew more desperate, and put more and more power into its attacks, the real discrepancy between Marten and the rest of the gimmicks became apparent.
Marten was still holding strong, managing to block most of its beak attacks and countering with heavy swings to its head. Whereas Bilby and the other cultivator had trouble even keeping up with the pace the malhuhn was starting to put on them. More and more times they had to evade instead of countering, leaving inflicting damage solely to Marten.
At one point, they were too slow though. The nameless cultivator was attempting to dodge a kick from the beast but moved not fast enough. As a result, he was thrown to the ground just in front of the malhuhn.
The Beast King didn’t hesitate. It drew its head back to end the man’s life with one mighty peck. Just as it was about to connect, a green beam of light exploded through the clearing. The spell hit it squarely across the chest, blasting it away.
The malhuhn was flung back so hard, it crashed against a tree and shattered it entirely on impact. Wood creaked and a small cloud of dust rose.
Liam stared in shock at the force of that spell. The tree had been a thick one, not a young sapling, but an old oak thick enough that he wouldn’t have been able to put his arms around. Yet now it was destroyed by the spell's explosive power.
Liam looked back to the cultivator who had stayed behind to concentrate. It seemed as if all the time had been worth it.
What really shocked Liam though, was the fact that the giant bird simply began rising again. Heaving itself out of the splinters and dust of the broken oak. His body was littered in wounds, one of its wings clearly broken and blood stained all of its feathers now. But rise it did.
Before it was fully up, Marten was there though. His killing intent suddenly rose to unexpected levels, and Liam could feel his hair standing up on the back of his neck. It felt as if Marten himself had turned into the predator.
Even the Beast King felt the changes of mana in the man. Just as Marten drew back his shovel to prepare for one terrifyingly heavy swing, Liam saw fear in the beast's eyes.
It didn’t help it though. Marten smashed his shovel down towards the bird. Where he connected the malhuhns chest caved in as the bird was flung back once again.
This time, before it could rise, Marten was upon it again. Soon another mercenary joined. He wasn’t blessed, but a sword is a sword. Then another one joined. And another one, all hacking down on their downed opponent.
The death cries of the Beast King filled the air.