Chapter 443: A bird comes back for Vengeance

After making their way out of the previous area Joshua group cut through a patch of tall grass to avoid the large group of prairie chickens along with the large porcupine that was resting on the hill up ahead. Although Joshua had no plans of attacking creatures that weren't aggressive towards their group he couldn't know for sure if the deadly porcupine would allow them to just pass right by without any issues. Its defensive capabilities along with its ability to shoot out quills that seemed to have the piercing power of spears in every direction made it extremely dangerous to get close to it.

The tall grass they cut through was the same grass that the pack of starving coyote had come from and that made it much less likely that they would run into any other predators in the small area any time soon. It didn't take very long for them to cut through it into another area with shorter grass so they moved through it quickly so they would be safer overall. The porcupine was a couple of hills away now which made the group fill a little less threatened. Outside of the owl and the large bison that they had seen at the watering hole, the porcupine was the strongest beast they had seen in comparison to everything else. It might not have been as high level as the other two creatures, but its abilities made it so that it didn't have to worry about any of the creatures of similar levels to its own.

After a while of walking through the new area Joshua noticed that there were a lot less animals to worry about after leaving the last open clearing. It was becoming clear to the group that beast around the prairie tended to group up in bunches instead of being spread out evenly throughout the prairie. Of course there were certain groups that seemed to set up their own territories, but for the most part roaming animals seemed to stick close to one another. Docile animals tried to stay together with large herds while predators tended to follow those herds while looking for their next meals. It explained why Joshua hadn't seen a single beast for the past hour after they had left the porcupine and vultures behind.

Joshua smiled a bit at the fact that he was learning more about the prairie from such a small thing, but then he felt something at the edge of his aura sense that caused him to tense up a bit as his body naturally got prepared for combat. "What's wrong Josh?" Adrian asked since he was the first one to notice the change in his friend since they were both closer to the front of the group.

"Natalie I need you to set up a mental link between everyone here so that we can talk without making much noise." Joshua said in a normal leisure tone without stopping. He didn't want to give their followers the impression that they knew they were being stalked at the moment.

'Alright the mental link is up, what's going on?' Natalie asked back.

'We've technically got three followers at the moment. Two of them are in the tall grass to our left following a short ways behind us. I don't know how they're not being deceived by Vince's illusions, but they have been following us for the past few minutes for certain. The other one is that vulture following us from above the clouds.' Joshua pointed out. 'Don't try and look up at it though since it will realize that we've taken notice of it.'

Joshua was a bit surprised that the vulture was still hell bent on following them. He thought it would have given up at this point after seeing its partners get killed in their last confrontation, but it seemed to have some sort of vendetta against them at the moment. It was trying to be stealthy by hanging above the clouds, but every so often it would have to lower itself down just to make sure it was still following their trail. Whenever it did this it would enter the range of Joshua's aura sense by just a bit, but that was more than enough to give Joshua all of the information he needed on what the overgrown bird was up to.

The more dangerous threat at the moment was the pair of bobcats that were currently following them. They were closing in on them and Joshua had no idea why they were able to see through Vince's illusions. He could understand why the vulture wasn't having much of an issue with seeing through the illusion since it was flying from up above and would easily be able to see much more than Vince was able to hide with his abilities. Therefore whenever they entered a new area and the view from the perspective of the vulture would shift it was a sign that an illusion was moving through the area. The bobcats didn't have that kind of perspective though so there had to be another reason why they were able to follow them.

Thinking about it for a few seconds Joshua finally had a good idea of why the bobcats were able to follow them even though they couldn't actually see them thanks to the illusion. 'I think they are following the smell of blood rather than just straight up following us.' Joshua explained. 'They would probably lose track of us eventually as the smell fades or after we're given the chance to clean off our weapons, but even so we'll have to keep this in mind going forward.'

'Do you want to just wait them out or are we going in for the kill?' Madalyn said with a large grin on her face. 'After the amount of experience we gained in the last fight I think we should go for it. Don't have to worry about these beast trying to fly away the entire time so things should go easier.'

'I agree, besides we did come here to gain strength after all.' Laura simply replied. Joshua agreed with both of them and started thinking of how they should go about confronting the two large predators. It was obvious fighting them in the tall grass was not a wise decision. Even now Joshua could only tell that they were following them because of his aura sense. The grass wasn't moving any more than usual as they made their way through it and that was a good sign of how stealthy the creatures were. Even if they were able to gain the advantage against them in a fight in the tall grass the bobcats would more than likely be able to get away after getting injured. The only person in the group that could keep up with their speed would be Cinder.

'Let's keeping leading them on until we reach the next open area. I can feel one up ahead past that hill with my aura.' Joshua replied as he kept leading the group with the same pace towards the hill. He didn't know how the bobcats would react once the tall grass was taken away as an advantage for them so he planned to make it seem as if they still had the advantage of surprise so that they'd still chase after Joshua's group.

It didn't take long for them to make their way over the hill and Joshua had Jayce move to the back of the group so that he could shield the first strike. He knew that attacking them the moment they first got into the clearing was the best chance the bobcats were going to get so he was preparing for it. Joshua's understanding of the situation seemed to be right on point. The moment the group made their way over the hill the pair of bobcats came charging right behind them at high speeds.

The two large beast were a bit bigger than the pack leaders of the coyotes they had faced in the past and their bodies were filled with thick muscles that already told Joshua that the bobcats were a lot larger threat than the coyotes had been. What surprised Joshua was the fact that the coyotes didn't charge directly at the group at first, but instead were heading straight for him instead. He had positioned himself a little off to the side so that he could react to the situation more easily and run to the back of the group the moment they were under attack, but that didn't seem to be the situation that they were being put in at the moment.

That's when Joshua noticed that they were probably following the smell that was still lingering on his weapons and armor from the last fight. After all he actually got up close and personal when taking down the vultures and was the only one to do so outside of Lilly's beast companions who were currently in her soul realm. It made since that the bobcats were following his smell of all things, but he didn't have much time to think of that as he planted his feet into the ground and blocked one of the large cat's claws that slammed down on him. The beast was trying to smash him into the ground with its far superior size, but it was surprised when Joshua stood his ground.

Joshua's aura flared out before he knocked the large clawed hand away and sent an aura blast directly into the chest of the large creature sending it skidding backwards directly into its partner. Now that the creatures were so close the large illusion was fairly useless so Vince took it down and focused on shrouding his smaller group in individual illusions so that they could go in for sneak attacks. Jayce had already set up a shield wall preparing to block any attacks that would come for the back line while the other close ranged fighters all prepared to go in for the attack.

Lilly brought out the same beast companions that she had brought out for her last fight and they all seemed ready to go after the pair of bobcats that were starting to realize they weren't going to be able to get in a sneak attack like they had planned. Just when things seemed like they were going to permanently swing in Joshua's favor suddenly a barrage of feathers came slamming down into the ground in front of him before he could go in for another attack. He was forced to leap back away from the sudden attack as he looked up into the air and saw the same vulture hovering high above them preparing to send out more feathers to continue to harass them.