Light crested the horizon as the world came alive, with the rising sun ushering in a new day. Their group went through the usual preparations as they started to pack up, getting ready to break camp.

They were now at the last rest point before Mysthaven and had done another day of travel without issue.

Thanos was sitting on top of one of the large walls of their small fortification, looking out at the sharp mountain peaks and rolling hills. He was eating nuts and berries and enjoying the morning sun when movement caught his attention.

In the distance, a massive figure flew out from behind a taller snow-coated mountain. He could tell it was huge just by the fact he could see it from this far away.

A flash stung his eyes before he heard an explosion and an angry screech reverberating around the surrounding mountains. As the figure drew nearer, it grew more distinctive, and he could see it was a giant brown bird the size of a small house.

It wasn't flying directly towards him but moved closer as it progressed from his left to right, swerving across the sky. A smaller figure he hadn't noticed until now became known as a lance of golden energy fired out from it towards the bird. The attack missed due to the bird's erratic flying and hit a nearby mountain, causing a booming rockslide.

Is that a human?

The small shape trailing behind the large avian creature looked humanoid, but it was still too far away to get a clear view.

"Everyone move. Let's get packed up and going. An expert is fighting nearby, and we don't want to get caught up. Little Than, get down here. We're leaving." Marcus shouted orders as his voice travelled around camp as people moved into overdrive.

Just as he stood and was about to go down and get ready to leave, he heard the bird let out a large cry, causing him to look over his shoulder. It had unexpectedly changed its direction of travel and was now heading roughly at them, and he felt a sudden sense of fear as he watched it grow closer.

*Sizzle*

*Pop*

Another golden lance of essence flew past the bird to the side of their camp, landing dozens of metres away, impacting nearby trees and shattering them into thousands of wooden splinters that rained outwards.

*Screech*

The strike wasn't a complete miss as the bird momentarily fell through the air before rapidly flapping its massive wings, and he could see its enormous bald head looking around furiously and returning silver attacks of its own the pursuing expert dodged.

Before he could take in any more, he felt himself get picked up as Marcus grabbed him, jumping off the wall and onto the back of his mount, Nox. Their group was almost ready to move, and more explosions sounded nearby, echoing off the surrounding landscapes like thunder.

The rough road they had been using wound across the sides of two adjoining mountains, so they were pretty high up. This was unfortunate as it also put them at a rough level with the battling duo as the sounds of combat rang out nearby.

The fighters had dropped in altitude, so they were no longer visible from where he was. Only the repeated sounds of battle carried up to him, causing the ground under him to shake.

Their group was moving now, their actions spurred on by the increasing threat of being caught up in the titanic struggle nearby. They had moved about a hundred metres down the road when a mighty crash rumbled from ahead as the defeated shape of the giant bird tumbled through a line of trees, uprooting many of them.

It stopped roughly a few hundred metres away from them, resting on the left side of the road they were using.

"Hold," Marcus said, holding up a hand as Nox uneasily trotted around, snorting in anger at the sudden destruction ahead.

The avian stumbled out of the broken trees covered in blood that dyed its feathers red as it limply dragged a broken wing behind it. Opening its beak, it fired a stream of wind across the road into the oncoming shape of a floating man.

He didn't notice at first, but feathers mixed in with that wind cut apart the landscape like metal shrapnel. A thrill went down his back at seeing this, and luckily, they weren't the target, or that attack would have wreaked havoc amongst their massed numbers.

"Just accept your fate. Struggling is pointless." The powerful cultivator said as his form became visible to the right side of the road after the carnage from the attack cleared.

Stolen novel; please report.

The expert wore an outfit that reminded him of an eighteenth-century military officer's outfit, with a long flowing grey jacket adorned with silver finery contrasting with black trousers.

He wore no headdress and had a rugged face with dirty blonde medium-length hair sweeping backwards into a small ponytail. Overall, his looks were average, with a solid jawline and slightly tanned skin.

The bird that looked like a much larger version of a sparrow back on Earth seemed enraged at the man's words and returned a shimmering silver energy ball as a reply.

A gold-glowing defensive barrier sprang to life before the man, taking the shape of a kite as it received the attack. His feet slid backwards slightly as the orb of energy smashed into it and exploded.

Small bits of stone shrapnel were launched sideways by the blast, with some reaching their group, and he heard surprised cries as people ducked for cover as they whizzed past.

Marcus whipped Nox around as tentacles made from either light or darkness sprang up around them, lashing out and batting away any incoming projectiles.

A crash sounded, and he caught sight of a wagon tipping over slightly, its front right wheel shattered into bits by one of the flying pieces.

Turning quickly towards the ongoing fight, he saw the man step through falling dust and debris, holding a golden energy spear aloft. Before he could even register what had happened, that spear was already piercing through the head of the bird while the man was still some distance away. The lights of its eyes faded as it limply fell to the ground dead, its tongue rolling out the side of its beak.

The spear fizzled out of existence, and the man suddenly appeared next to the corpse, creating some kind of sharp golden blade that grew just above his right hand, extending outwards. With a swing, he brought it down, cleaving the head of the bird in two and bent down to fish something out.

He didn't get a chance to see it clearly before whatever it was vanished into a storage device. With his enemy defeated, the man turned to their group as if sizing them up.

A few blinks later, he was hovering above him and his father, as Nox swayed uneasily at the sudden appearance.

"That defensive skill you used just now, are you a clan member?" The expert asked, his eyes roaming over them.

"Elder has seen right. I'm Marcus of the Darklight family," Marcus said as he produced a black and white medallion and held it out for the man to see.

Craning his neck, he saw that the medallion looked like a black-white four-pointed star overlayed on top of a disk. A sun and moon icon sat on opposite sides. The sun was on the white side, and the moon was on the black side. He wasn't sure what it was constructed from, but it looked like expensive stone.

"Then you know how to prepare and cook an essence beast so the meat doesn't lose its potency?" The stranger asked as he glanced at the medallion.

"I do, But I don't have the equipment to do it," Marcus nodded.

"That's fine, I do. Help me process this essence beast whilst I recover, and I will leave a portion for your group." The man said in a tone as if the deal was already struck.

"Elder, why don't we head down the road a little? We have a spot set up that we can use to funnel the heat." His father said to the man, who nodded and followed them back to the safe point they had spent the night at.

"I'll leave it to you, then." The man said as he floated forward and waved his hand, depositing the enormous corpse of the bird and some equipment in the centre of the walls.

The rest of their group stayed back where they had come to a halt as if they didn't dare get too close to the man now seated on one of the walls crossed-legged with his eyes closed as if in meditation.

His father wasted no time jumping down and going through the equipment and setting it up, leaving him sitting on the back of Nox, who just stood like a statue.

It didn't take long before Marcus had the kit ready. The entire thing looked like a giant cooking spit that sat above grey square metal plates covered in orange runes.

Some of the other more robust members of their caravan came over to help get the bird plucked and set up on the large metal rotisserie. Everyone seemed subdued by the sitting man and kept the noise to a minimum as they worked.

Fiddling with something he couldn't see to the side of the equipment, Marcus caused the metal plates to glow as intense heat and a mouthwatering smell started to waft over.

With his father's supervision, the group set up more plates surrounding the cooking beast, but these glowed white instead of orange. He wasn't sure what their purpose was as they did nothing but glow as far as he could tell, but it must have a use, or they wouldn't have bothered.

Marcus then manned the handle of the cooking spit as the group of helpers soundlessly retreated into the distance as his mother retrieved him from the horse.

After that, it was just a silent process of watching his topless father sweating as he worked the rotisserie as he had taken his top off not long after starting. The day ticked on, and it was past noon when the expert woke.

Throughout all that time, he had refrained from using his essence sight to try and look at what was happening in case he somehow disturbed the man and caused a calamity. Even then, he could still feel the ambient essence in the surroundings pull towards the strong cultivator.

"It's ready." The man called out, opening his eyes and jumping down from his spot.

He sliced the corpse into neat sections, storing the most significant part away. He took one section to the side and began to eat it as he sat cross-legged on one of the walls, ignoring everything else.

Marcus and some of their group took the final smaller section away like it was a treasure before cleaning the equipment and packing it away. The man waved his hand with a nod, sweeping it all up into his storage device.

"Go and get the eating utensils," Marcus said, and the wagons rolled back down as their group set up to eat by the side of the road.

It seemed that someone had replaced the destroyed wheel during all this, so they had no issues getting moving. Before long, they were all sitting around, plates at the ready, looking like a group of hungry chicks as a worm got dangled in front of them.

"Only take a small piece and see you cope. This is an essence beast, so its meat will be very potent." Marcus said as he diced it up and handed it out to everyone.

Looking down at his plate, he could see a tiny square cube of meat no larger than his thumb, and he couldn't help but wonder if getting so little was necessary.

Let's see what all the fuss is about.

He picked up the meat, placed it in his mouth, and began to chew.