Thalion shot to the sky with incredible speed. He didn't even have to beat his wings once. It felt marvelous. He was now only two kilometers above the jungle and would soon arrive at Kael's base. The position they were in was not good. It looked like a big ring had been built around the man's fortress, with the occasional high tower in the mix. The orcs must have planned this for a very long time. He already saw his two friends standing on one of the high towers integrated into the wall, ready if the orcs would try something. When he was above the base, he went into a dive, holding his wings close to his body. Just before impacting the ground, he transformed into his human form and dashed upward to slow his fall. Kael and Sylas spun around with a surprised look on their faces when they saw him land on one of the battlements.
"What? How did you get here?" Sylas exclaimed, already drawing his staff.
"Well, I flew. I said I wanted a flying form, and since there was no way to kill more orcs, I went for it," Thalion said, since Kael was still in shock.
"Ah, on the flying stuff, did you ever try to put some heavy rocks out of your spatial ring when you were high up in the sky?" Thalion asked, hoping the Ork problem would be solved very fast.
"Yeah, we already tried it," Sylas said. "It doesn't work at all. You can only put it out near the ground."
"Oh, did you try digging under the orcs' buildings?" Thalion asked, wondering if they could go on hunting trips. Then most of what the orcs had done was straight-up useless.
"Yes, Jakob is currently with three other earth mages on it, but no one has a skill that is very good at it, so it will take at least two days until they are finished," Kael said. "So, what happened since you breached the blockade?"
Thalion told them about the red Ork that had almost killed him and that he had met Evelyn, Kargul, and that mage woman, and that they were currently trying to get some help.
"This is very good," Kael said.
"What? Very good? This is perfect!" Sylas exclaimed. It couldn't have gone much better. Anyway, you didn't tell us about what flying form you took.
"Oh, it's a wind eagle," Thalion said, telling them about what all the flying beasts were doing in the past weeks.
"By the way, do you have some stuff like wind or storm crystals?" Thalion asked them.
"Not anymore. We used most of it since we can't go out hunting," Sylas said.
"Could you fly over to the base Evelyn and the others were traveling to so we can coordinate an attack plan?" Kael asked. "We need to attack as soon as possible if we don't want to fall behind any further."
"Sure, I can be your messenger pigeon," Thalion said with a grin. "Since it will come out that I am a shapeshifter, can you tell everyone that the bird is my only form if someone asks?"
"No problem, we will cover for you," Sylas laughed.
"Okay, then I am off," Thalion said. "If they are not attacking this night, I will come back tomorrow. I mean, you are prepared for war anyway."
"That should be totally fine as long as you arrive a few hours before the attack. We will be ready," Kael said looking pleased to finally be able to do something against the orcs.
With that brief interaction, Thalion transformed into eagly, as he called his new form, and used sky dive. With incredible speed, he shot straight into the air until he reached a kilometer in height. Then he made his way to the city in the distance where the others should reside if everything had gone to plan.He only needed a few beats of his wings to reach top speed. Then he just glided on the wind without doing anything. It felt like sliding down a big waterslide, just that he could freely move where he wanted to, and he didn't slow down; on the contrary, he even got a bit faster. Soon he arrived at the base, which didn't have enough runes on the wall, so he could just easily fly over it. He made the same move he had back at Kael's camp. The guards were turning around on hearing the gust of wind, and when they saw him, one screamed in surprise while the other drew his weapon.
Thalion created a mana barrier between them just to be safe; after all, they were the same level, and he spoke, "Come down. I am just here to talk. If I wanted to kill you, I would have had enough time to do so."
"How did you get up here?" one of the guards shouted, still spooked.
"I flew here. Listen, I don't have much time. Is Evelyn and Kargul here?" Thalion asked the guard.
"Yes, they arrived yesterday," a woman said. "What do you want here?"
"I am from Kael's base. Since they are still here, I guess you have accepted helping us against the orcs," Thalion asked, kind of ignoring their question.
"Yes, we will help you against those orcs," one of the guards proudly announced. "After all, we humans need to stick together."
"Great! Can you call your leader so I can have a talk on the specifics? I promised Kael that I would inform him at least a few hours before the attack," Thalion asked the guard.
"Sure, sure," the guard said. "I already sent him a message. Until he replies, can you teach us how to fly?"
Since it was the nice humans-need-to-stick-together guard, he answered, "I am a shapeshifter and can transform into a bird."
"Wow, that's so cool! How does it feel to fly?" the guard asked with interest.
"It's a bit like swimming, just way cooler," Thalion said with a grin.
"Oh, Garrick!" answered the guard. "Just fly over to the big building in the center. He is waiting for you," the guard said, also grinning.
After a goodbye, Thalion jumped off the tower and dashed over. It was not far, and he didn't want to show off his powers yet.
The big doors opened for him before he could knock, and some kind of servant invited him in. After opening a few other doors, he entered a giant entrance hall where already Evelyn, Kargul, the mage woman, and a man who was probably Garrick were waiting.
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"You are back! How is Kael doing?" Evelyn welcomed him happily.
"Fine. The orcs have strengthened their defenses, but other than that, everything is okay so far," Thalion answered. "What are your plans for attacking?"
"We will attack the orcs with all of our might," Garrick said, "with multiple magic circles to empower our mages, and we have charged shield arrays from the past weeks that can shield us.“
That didn't sound too bad, but Thalion worried about what would happen if the red orc made a move. They needed to concentrate their attacks on that guy.
"Do you have something prepared to take out elite warriors?" Thalion asked, hoping for an easy solution to this dilemma.
"No, this will be on us. We couldn't prepare more than that," Garrick explained. "We will attack tomorrow at midday. Then everything should be fully charged."
"Great! I will inform Kael that you are coming so he can also attack the orcs," Thalion said. This had gone better than expected.
"Excellent! Do you want to stay here for the night, or do you need to travel? Garrick asked with a lazy wave of his hand.
"I will leave after catching up with Evelyn and Kargul. I need to prepare some things on my own," Thalion said after a moment of thought. He didn't want to give the man too much information about him.
"Understandable. Good travels," Garrick said, nodding along. With that, Thalion, Evelyn, and Kargul left the big hall and entered their room.
"So, what do you say about that guy helping us so freely?" Thalion asked Evelyn. He found it odd. There would be a lot of dead tomorrow, and he was helping without asking for payment or anything like that.
"Something is wrong here," Evelyn whispered. "Lisa told us stories about him killing some people without making a ruckus, but since we are here, he has been very professional and helpful. I think his true goal is something else."
"Are you in danger?" Thalion asked, now worried.
"No, we should be fine. If push comes to shove, I am confident we both can at least run away."
"Okay, I will tell Kael to stay back and let the others fight. There will definitely be something happening after the fight is finished," Thalion remarked. "If that is all, I want to do some more hunting before tomorrow."
"Yeah, we also need to prepare some last resorts," Evelyn nodded.
"Okay, great! I will see you tomorrow. And Kargul, why have you been so silent?" Thalion asked the orc.
"I am tired. So much smashing and talking," Kargul said, exhausted.
"Haha, never mind. See you," Thalion said while jumping out of the window. He instantly transformed into eagly and shot into the sky.
He needed to gain more levels as fast as possible before the fight tomorrow. The problem was he didn't know where to hunt, as the mountains were too far away and he didn't want to fly for hours. So, he flew over to the grassland and the river. It didn't take long for him to spot some beasts with his high perception. A group of vine horses were eating some green, bioluminescent plants while some mudwallers were munching on some sea grass in the shallow waters of the river. Thalion not only wanted to gain some levels but also test his new abilities and how to fight against someone on the ground as eagly, which was not that easy because he couldn't use his melee attacks and needed to watch out that he didn't get hit by a single spell, or it would be over.
Thalion activated both Feather Glide and Tempest Shroud, and his speed increased by a large margin. A small thundercloud began to build around him, loaded with electricity, which should make it harder to spot him. Next was skybolt barrage, and the air around him was overloaded with intense electric energy. Shortly after, while he was flying above the horses, over eight lightning bolts erupted and hit the horses, throwing them off their feet. The ability was very powerful. The only problem was that he could not aim with it. He just overloaded the air with electric energy until it created the lightning bolts that shot out at random targets. The horses got back on their feet and started running, glowing with a green aura, but their top speed was nothing to him as eagly, and he easily kept his position above the horses, shocking them over and over until he cast eye of the storm. Strong wind was unleashed, even making some of the lonely trees bend a bit, and constant lightning bolts erupted from the sky until the horses were dead. Thalion landed beside them and fed their blood to the sanguine thorn, putting the free points he got from the last level up into wisdom. The synergy between his lightning skills was incredible. The pure damage was just insane. The problems were, first, he couldn't aim with the lightning bolts. Second, he was the eye of the storm, meaning every skill was cast around him, and he needed to move very fast so he did not get hit by an attack. The final issue was the mana cost: the skill eye of the storm was powerful, but it almost cost half of his mana in his eagly form, which was bad since he got no free points with the level-ups and couldn't improve his mana pool this way. Luckily, in his human form, the mana was regenerating very fast. It was pretty funny that by using over 100 mana in his bird form, which was a bit over half his total mana, transforming back into his human form meant he had lost 800 mana since he had a bit over 1500 mana.
He really needed to watch out. His bird form didn't have much health as well, and he didn't want to find out how the proportional damage transfer would feel.
He spent the rest of the night purifying his blood while sitting under a tree. He didn't want to waste more mana as eagly, and he was tired. The day had been very long. Normally he didn't need to sleep anymore, but this only counted when he was in his human form, which was a side effect of the sanguine thorn and the amulet. He already felt how his tiredness was swept away by a warm feeling in his chest. He hoped his strength was enough to make a difference in the upcoming fight. After a few hours of meditation, he took to the air back to Kael's base. He wanted to give them enough time to prepare, and they needed to know about that Garrick fellow.