Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV:
Our next mission was to escort some merchants to a city in the north, chosen so that Ray and I could meet with a proper leatherworker and get a harness, saddle, and maybe even some proper barding! I hadn’t actually known what barding was until it was explained to me, but I was not about to turn down armor!
Well, some very light and limited armor anyways. My best traits were my toxicity and my flight, both of which would be actively hindered by heavy armor that covered my entire body. However, some protection for my eyes, throat, and some of the more vulnerable parts of my legs would be nice. It was too bad that there probably wasn’t any way to protect my wings, but that was just probably how it would be.
We weren’t alone on this escort mission either. There were several teams helping to guard the caravan, although we were getting better paid because our team had the advantage of a - outrageously beautiful and smart, might I say - wyvern. Ray and I were able to provide extra security which meant we were more valuable, which meant more money!
And more money meant, well, not all that much, honestly. I suppose I needed enough money to get my barding, but as much as I had craved civilization while I was in the wild I now had to come to terms with the fact that civilization was not designed with wyverns in mind. And civilization was especially unprepared for an intelligent wyvern that wanted to participate in it.
As a rule of thumb - not that I had those - I could basically only go where you could take a horse, which really wasn’t very many places. And that was only talking about the physicality of movement, the amount of places that you could both fit a horse into and that it would be socially acceptable for me to go was even less. It basically amounted to stables, and while that was better than my previous home I still was sleeping in a stable.
Plus, there was the thought that I didn’t actually need to stay here. Sapients needed money because they needed to participate in the economy to live. A [Tailor] can’t build a house nor farm for food, but neither can a [Builder] or a [Farmer] make a warm coat for winter, so they all need to work together. I, on the other hand, could make my home basically anywhere and I could always return to my little valley where I would be the apex predator.
I felt a poke on the back of my neck.
“Hey, what are you thinking so hard about Hewka?” Ray asked me as we soared over the landscape. I wasn’t surprised she had noticed my introspection over our bond.
“I just was wondering what the point of this all is, suddenly.” I replied. Well, the point was points, but that was an overall goal. “I will never actually be able to live in society, will I?”
“Of course you will!” To my surprise, Ray laughed. She noticed my confusion and explained her amusement: “Hewka, both of us are young - you are practically a baby when we talk about your experience in this world!”
Well, that was technically true… But practically I did have a lot more experience than she knew about, and the more I thought about it the more dubious I was that I could ever be accepted and find a way to live in society. Again, she could sense my skepticism and again, she laughed.
“Hewka, try and imagine this: imagine we work together for the next thousand years, or five thousand, or ten thousand. What do you think people will think of us then?”
I don’t know really. I suppose I have never really thought about it, or rather I presume I will be killed long before I live even a hundred years, so thinking about events ten thousand years in the future was kind of pointless. Still, if I did live that long I would become incredibly strong… Too strong, perhaps.
“I think they would post a bounty on me and try to kill me,” I answered. “I really can’t imagine humanity living peacefully with a being so capable of killing them. Even if I was too strong to hunt down, who would want to interact with me? People would run as soon as they knew I was nearby.”
“If you were violent, definitely,” Ray agreed. “However, if you become a famous adventurer it is more likely that you will be viewed as a hero. There are other monsters that were view-”
“Did you see something, Ray?” I asked, scanning the ground ahead of us for whatever she had noticed. I didn’t see anything though.
“Hewka, turn back to the caravan,” Ray replied. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her movements as she checked her quiver. “There is a flock of Bronzebirds up ahead, we will need to coordinate with the other teams.”
“Bronzebirds? What, do they have metal wings?” I asked as I turned around aiming for where I estimated the caravan would be by now. “How would they fly? Magic?”
“They aren’t completely made of metal; just their beaks and parts of their feathers. Individually they are fairly weak and easy to kill - don’t underestimate them though, their feathers are sharp and they can launch them pretty far. A flock of them can be very dangerous, especially to low level adventurers without ranged options.”
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Huh, well they certainly seem unpleasant. I wonder if there are monsters that aren’t terrible killing machines? Probably not, they would hardly be “monstrous” if they weren’t, right? This world is much more hostile than my previous ones…
“They are pretty fast - could you go a little faster?”
Actually, I had been thinking, I bet I could go a lot faster. Ray sounded - and felt, through the bond - a little bit nervous. Well, having seen a bunch of small birds bullying a crow before and now being a larger flying creature, I could see why it would be bad to be caught by the flock in the air. Ray, without my durable hide and without a saddle to hang on to while I maneuvered, was especially vulnerable.
Well, I hadn’t given too much thought to my [Aerokinesis] before, but as any educated individual might, I did understand roughly how flight worked. Up until now, I had been using my [Aerokinesis] in two ways: first, adjusting the speed of the air flow going over or under my wings to help me ascend or descend more quickly and second, to part the air as I moved through it. It is the second one of those that was responsible for my speed in the air, because as I sped up drag became a more and more difficult enemy to combat.
In some ways, it was embarrassing - in that it took me this long to think of it - but I had an epiphany. I realized, in a conversation with Ylma, that the way I had been using [Aerokinesis] had been lacking imagination. I had a magic ability that an aerospace engineer would kill for, and turned physics on its head - what if I could do more?
I caught the air around me and pushed it forward - pulled it forward? I couldn’t think of a good way to describe what I was doing. I used the ability and my mana to tether the air around me to my body, so that in a bubble around me the air would always be moving at the same speed and direction that I was going. What made it so exceptionally odd for me was that I didn’t experience any drag when doing this, instead as I moved the more air would be caught in the area around me and moved with me.
This allowed me to move fast. I had never tested it over a very long distance before, but so far I wasn’t actually sure how fast I could go doing this. It was a bit like rowing a boat down a stream instead of across a placid lake; every time I flapped my wings, I added my speed to that of the streams and then my ability made the stream go faster.
So the perhaps the only limit to my speed was my mana. Well, that and -
“Goddddsss! Hewwwwwka!” Ray screamed as she clung to my back.
“You don’t need to worry so much Ray,” I laughed back. “No air resistance means nothing to pull you off me, right? We will be back at the caravan in a second!”
Well, a few minutes, but what is a little hyperbole between friends? Unfortunately, as impressive as my speed was it had an unintended effect…
BOOOM!!
I stopped maybe a few tens of meters above the caravan, but I had failed to account for the fact that I had essentially created a ball of compressed air around me. When I stopped and released my ability all that air expanded at once. The wave of pressure shook the trees and even knocked a few people to the ground!
“That is… Pretty impressive actually,” I spoke to Ray. “Maybe I should have just charged those Bronzebirds?”
Ray swatted me on the back of the head in response and then asked me to go help round up the horses, considering I had scared more than a few of them off. For herself, she seemed happier than usual to be on the ground. Maybe I wouldn’t try that again until she had a proper saddle, although I don’t think the speed is particularly dangerous to her. Or perhaps I could modify what I was doing, if I could release some of the air as I moved I could save mana and prevent that compression…
Something for me to think about anyway!
Passingly, I wondered if I wasn’t taking this very seriously. Ray seemed worried by the flock, but while they would be unpleasant for Ray and I to fight alone and in the air I didn’t think they would be a problem with Ylma around. Between Ray’s arrows and Ylma’s AoE I figured that the biggest concern about the birds would be whether or not they were edible.
Corralling the spooked horses was rather easy. Not that I calmed them down, but I was able to make them run back to the caravan. Maybe I would unlock a Border Collie evolution next? That would be funny.
When I returned, I took care to land behind one of the wagons so that the horses couldn’t see me. They probably could smell me, so I doubt my hiding would help much, but I tried at least. More importantly, I wanted to talk to my team about my upcoming fight.
“Bronzebirds…” Rauvin grimaced and groaned.
“Are they really that dangerous?” I asked, “They sound annoying but not particularly deadly to a group like us.”
“They aren’t too dangerous to us, Seeking the Horizon, specifically.” Chaurl replied as Rauvin continued to groan, “but for the other teams and the merchants? Bronzebirds are a menace to teams without ranged and healing options, more importantly our job is to protect the caravan. Our personal safety is not really the issue here, but whether or not we can keep our clients alive.”
As we were discussing, a rather angry looking man wearing mixed leather and metal armor walked up to us.
“Oi, Rauvin,” the man growled. “Keep a leash on your monster, mate. The fuck kind of shit was that?”
Mentally, I was about to label the man an asshole and add him to my internal, “may eat if possible list,” before Ray elbowed me. Ah, yes, I had just detonated an air bomb above him, hadn’t I? Woops.
“Sorry about Hewka,” Ray stepped forward. “I asked her to use her ability to bring us back to the caravan more quickly and I didn’t anticipate that result.”
Awww, Ray! You don’t have to take the blame for me! Although, since you offered I won’t stop you. I’m fine pretending that I am an absolutely innocent wyvern here.
“Shut up, Sharpear.” The man snapped, “I am talking to Rauvin here.”
I hadn’t heard it before, but I knew a slur when I saw it. Forget the “may eat if possible” list, you are going on the “will eat if possible” list buddy!