166. GRIFFON: WIREMU

I think Otto needed to die, but I doubted the Kingdom's reaction. We would be prime suspects even if there were no evidence. There were too many witnesses to the altercation at the caravan. They would not take kindly to their rare affinity users dying. I doubt we can successfully pin it on the empire. Could I blame it on the griffon? I don’t know what it would take to turn bonds against each other.

It has been a long time since the quarry where I was using Identify to examine the slave bond and Tāoke and my bond. My Spiritual perception is much higher now than it was. I examined my bond with Tāoke. It was very strong with a sense of flowing poisonous rock, not that that made any sense logically.

My Elemental Bond with Puia was a lot weaker. That equates to the lower level that it is. It had a sense of flowing rock. Poison was foreign to an elemental. It wouldn’t be affected by it and couldn’t use it. Then I found the bond between Tāoke and Puia. It seemed to be a little stronger than the one between Puia and myself. Should I be embarrassed about that?

Time to get closer and see what opportunities can be made. The ranch hands were setting up a camp beside the road to the ranch. It looked like they had given up on saving the buildings and were just trying to keep the fire from spreading to the grasslands. Otto seemed to be directing the wind, and a gentle breeze blew toward the fire from all directions keeping it contained. The smoke went straight up into the air. My Sense Spiritual caught the flow and flavour of the large area he was manipulating. It had a sense of strength and indifference to others. I chose not to enter the area in case he was like Tabitha and could sense what was there. It was a possibility.

Otto was standing on the edge of his wind working. I swung wide from him. He was on alert and could probably sense changes in the air around him. I put on the mask that Tabitha gave me. It would help mask my breathing from his senses. When I was on the opposite side of the camp, I moved closer, so my Hearing Aid could pick up conversations. Most of the Ranch hands were setting out bedding under the stars, indicating they were not going anywhere tonight. Someone had saved a tent, which was set up in the centre of the camp. The griffon was lying beside it, and everybody gave it a wide berth.

The conversations were mostly speculation on how the fires started and what Otto would do next. I wanted to get closer to the griffon to examine its bond. I had totally neglected my experiments with seeing the bonds back in the Quarry. This was possibly a way to help free slaves, and with so many bonds around me now, I could use it to help those around with bonds. I didn’t have a Skill for this and could sense bonds back in the quarry when my attributes were low. Spiritual Perception enhances it, but how could I do it in the first place? Identify indicated I was sensitive to bonds from my Hunter Class, but only because I had a bond. There might be some personal tendencies there as well. If I worked at it, Skills would be available.

I worked my way closer to the camp. There was a bedroll and pack abandoned near the edge, so I went through it. There was a slightly too-large jacket for me, so I slipped it on, used Veneer to change some of my features, hoping to look like the owner, and stood up and walked boldly further in. Several riders went out. I assume to look for the horses or the culprit. Most of the others were tending the horses that remained or watching the fire. A few were resting on their bedrolls.

I approached the tent from the side away from the griffon and slipped inside. I sat in the corner shadows. The griffon bond was weak on the griffon side but very strong on Otto’s end. I assume he had bonds before the griffon and levelled his skill, whereas the griffon was either a new bond or had been mistreated. Otto could have got a healer in to fix the griffon’s wings. What hadn’t he?

The bond itself felt like a very strong current of air blowing from Otto to the griffon. It seemed very one-sided when I compared it to my bonds. I would almost call it forced. Not quite as the griffon had accepted it, what had it taken? Had he worn the griffon down like he wore down Lyla? Like an animal tamer, there was possible starvation and control until the griffon became compliant and accepted the bond. I had never seen such a bond. It wouldn’t grow very far. There had to be trust for a bond to grow. This wasn’t a healthy bond.

What could he do about it? The griffon accepted because the alternatives were worse, and he couldn’t fly away. If I could slow the power coming from Otto, would the griffon choose to break the bond? Could I break the bond? I examined my bonds closer. I am pretty sure I would feel it if something, or someone, tampered with my bonds. As soon as I started tampering, if I could, then both Otto and the griffon would know. What would they do?

Otto was fairly predictable. He would come rushing back, ready for a fight. What would the griffon do? Would it attack me? Would it attack Otto? Would it go rampant in its rage? Would it try to escape? Would it do nothing? The last option was not likely, and it had been trained to stay as it couldn’t fly. It was going to attack something. My coins were on it, attacking everything. Did I want to do this?

As my old Hunt Master used to say, “Traps are the great equaliser.” I wasn’t interested in trapping the griffon. I was interested in trapping Otto, the air affinity user. I didn’t have anything on me in the way of traps for this, so I had Granite, Lava, Poison and two bonds. Wind affinity users had wide area Skills, as Otto has shown, Shields and Movement Skills. If I couldn’t restrict his movement, he could run, and I could not catch him. This means I have to bait him to be in a certain place to spring the trap. I started manipulating Granite and Petrifying wood.

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It took me two hours to create something that might work. It took me another half an hour to recover. The griffon was restless. It could probably sense the Spiritual energy I was using so close to it. Being in the tent was great cover for me. It would take all three of us to spring the trap, and Tāoke’s job was also as a griffon distraction if required. This was quite dangerous for him as griffons were natural predators of snakes. My job was to be the bait and then survive to deal damage.

My first job was to see if I could halve our opposition by disrupting or breaking the bond between Otto and the griffon. I sat against a tent pole and extended my Spiritual Perception. The bond felt the same, a strong, forceful wind flowing in one direction. Bonding with something is primarily a Mental exercise. It requires Mental Strenght and Agility, so I also extended my Mental Perception. It felt strange with my Mental Perception being carried, or empowered, by my Spiritual Perception. My Mental Perception was my weakest attribute. I had no free points to bolster it, so I pushed it as hard as possible. The bond took on a much more nuanced flavour. Otto’s domineering nature shone, but the griffon was a hunter and fighter. I sensed he tolerated the bond while waiting to dive onto his prey. Maybe that was why Otto hadn’t healed his wings. I learned a new Skill, Analysing Bonds. I got a sense that my Mental Perception was barely adequate. With the new Skill helping to interpret what I was sensing, I felt Otto and the griffon were mentally strong but perhaps not so Mentally Agile.

The fires were dying down, so I was running out of time. Hopefully, Otto was also low on energy because this could come down to who had the most Spiritual Energy. The Wind takes much less energy to manipulate than Granite or Lava, and my mind was returning to my fight with Lavaman. The roles are now reversed.

I overlaid my mental agility on my Spiritual strength and poked holes in the bond. At least, that is what I tried to do. I figured with their mental strength, I wouldn't be able to break the bond, but what I was trying to do was disrupt it.

The griffon let out a mighty screech which was a skill, and stunned everybody in the area, including me. My hearing aid did blunt the skill for me, so I was only momentarily stunned. I poked the bond again, and Otto was coming fast.

I poked at a weak area, and the griffon ripped the bond apart and pounced on Otto. I ripped a hole in the canvas tent so I could see and readied my bow.

The griffon's beak penetrated Otto's shield but didn't get through his armour. Otto had a sword and moved away from the griffon's claws slicing with the sword. Everybody else was scattering to the hills. Otto's sword slid off the griffon's feathered neck, and he punched with the air that, caused the griffon to lose a couple of feathers. I could only see Otto's wind strikes with my Sense Spiritual Skill.

Otto wasn't the only one with wind skills, and the griffon shrieked again right in front of Otto and then swiped with its wing, which was sharpened in some way. Otto was stunned momentarily even though his wind armour blunted the skill. The wing didn't cut through the armour, but the momentum threw him across the camp. He controlled his fall and rolled with it striking back with a wind blade. Otto had high agility. I definitely needed to lock him down.

Time for the bait to wiggle on the hook. I heated my arrow so it looked like it was on fire, and as Otto circled the griffon, I fired at his back. It had no skills except Sudden Strike, which meant it went through his Windshield and lodged in his armour. He looked around, and the only cover was the tent. The griffon came at him, claws extended, and he rolled out of the way, putting the griffon between us. He ripped open a water skin at his waist, and the water spilt out, getting caught in his Windshield. This meant that it was partly a water shield, a good tactic against a fire affinity. I want to continue him thinking he was fighting a fire affinity user.

He cast a huge wind blast that pushed the griffon back and ripped the canvas from the tent. I was still wearing the borrowed jacket and Veneer changes. I let loose another "fire" arrow at him. This one sizzled out against his water and Windshield. I was lying flat on the ground, minimising my profile to his wind attacks, and I had my foot braced against the tent frame, which was still standing. I had reinforced it to keep it standing.

Otto had taken the wind blast to try and finish the griffon, but the griffon still had wings even though they were clipped. He managed to get a deep slice into the griffon's leg, as the griffon flapped up and dove at him, beak first. Otto rolled out of the way straight at me, trying to surprise attack me with a wind-assisted sword strike. I rolled away, but he still sliced my arm to the bone. Granite Bones was the first affinity Skill I got, and they have saved me so many times.

Unfortunately, he rolled right through my trap, and I didn’t have time to trigger it. I let loose another heated arrow, but this time he deflected it with his wind, and the griffon was back on him, clawing at him with a Skill that ripped through his Windshield and drew blood. I slipped a Venom Arrow into him while the Skill was disrupted. I would conserve Triple shot for a while. I need to get him in the trap, or he is going to do a runner. I also hooked him with my Hunters Marks, but when the Windshield came back, it tore through them, and I lost them.

I couldn’t tell how badly Otto was hurt, but he was still moving fast, and without my Hunters Marks, I couldn’t slow him down. The Venom Arrow will be having some effect, but he probably has Regeneration. We need to layer on the damage, but he is too fast. I start using my Triple Shot with my Quick Strike Skill to try to overwhelm his shield. The two skills are not completely compatible, but my rate of fire certainly improved. It was also sucking energy, but I needed to get his attention. I started to get a feel for his shield’s reactions to my arrows and slipping arrows when it was weak. Between the griffon and I disrupting his Windshield, he had lost most of the water.

The griffon was bleeding and slowing now. Come on Otto. I am just a ranged fighter with fire and venom. Come and get me.