Chapter 445: Shot out of the Sky

Joshua didn't waste any time as he started racing directly towards the injured bobcat that was being forced to stay up in the air by Cinder. In its current position it was hard for any of the mages to attack it with spells since it could easily just dash out of the way or climb higher up into the air, but there were two people in the group that were able to keep attacking it while it was trying to keep some distance.

Natalie was able to shoot off several arrows that she empowered with her telekinesis so that the cat wasn't able to dodge them. She made sure that each arrow slammed into the wounds that had been created by the vines and thorns that Titus had used earlier. Each of her arrows were strapped with explosive that detonated on impact to only cause the wounds to become more gruesome as the overgrown cat was starting to have trouble with staying up in the air.

Katsumi was also hitting the bobcat from a distance as her elemental arrows locked on from long range. Julia was currently shooting small fireballs at the barrier that Katsumi had set up around herself so that they would absorb the element and help her form flame arrows that seemed extremely effective against the large cats since they relied on their fur to help them use their aura the way that they did to leap in the air. The more burns that were spread all over the bobcats body the more trouble it was having maintaining its place high up in the air like the other bobcat.

Now that the bobcat was falling lower to the ground Joshua planned on taking the opportunity given to him as he ran underneath the giant creature and leapt up into the air. He still wasn't close enough to it even with an empowered leap so he blinked further up before shooting out an aura string that wrapped around the bobcat's back leg. Joshua was immediately taken on the ride of his life as the bobcat tried shake him off as it leaped around in the air vigorously. Even so it wasn't able to avoid all the incoming attacks from Natalie and Katsumi so the beast's struggles were getting weaker and weaker.

Eventually Joshua was able to pull himself up to the creature's leg where he stabbed his scale blade into its foot just to get some stability. The bobcat hissed in pain as it started kicking its leg weakly, but it had been long enough for Joshua to blink again as he got further up the creatures body and slammed his scale blade into its side at a nearby wound. Joshua tore his blade downward gouging open the wound even more before creating another aura string and connecting it to one of the throwing daggers that Naomi had made for him. He quickly coated his arm in a larger amount of aura before throwing it towards the shoulder of the beast he was hanging onto.

The aura string was just long enough for him to leap off the cat's leg with his scale blade and grab onto the end of the aura string that was connected to the dagger that Joshua had thrown previously. The dagger wasn't large enough to deal any real damage to the massive beast, but it fulfilled its purpose as Joshua was able to hold onto the aura string so that he could climb up to a higher portion of the creature.

Soon it seemed as if the vulture realized that one of the bobcats was in great peril of being taken down so instead of helping it out it started to send several feathers in its direction. Joshua was certain that the vulture was trying to take them both down at the same time seeing as Joshua clearly didn't know how to fly, but what he was more worried about was the possibility of one of the feathers killing the bobcat before Joshua or someone from his group could take it down. They'd lose out on a ton of experience because of one annoyance that didn't know when to quit.

Joshua quickly climbed up on to the back of the bobcat with his scale blade dug into its muscles so that he couldn't be shaken off by the weakening struggles of the beast. He was rapidly trying to think of the best way to get the bobcat down to the ground so that the rest of the group could start attacking it. With their combined efforts Joshua was certain that they would be able to take it down before the vulture could still the kill from them, but he needed to put his group in the best position possible to get that done. So Joshua braced himself by lowering his body as he tore the scale blade out of the creatures back and quickly rushed up towards its head.

The bobcat noticed the pain from the scale blade being removed and started thrashing around once more, but Joshua used an aura string to keep himself from being knocked off as he approached the neck of the bobcat. He knew that he couldn't just cut through the thick neck and if he tried to on his own he couldn't be sure if a bunch sharp feathers would end up finishing the job for him while he got to work. So instead of going directly for the kill Joshua covered his scale blade in aura once more as he swung down with all his strength directly into the spine of the bobcat.

The blow caused a loud cracking sound which told Joshua that he had accomplished what he was after. The bobcat shrieked in pain once more, but instead of being able to thrash around it started plummeting to the ground below with its body paralyzed from the neck down for the briefest of moments. Joshua jumped off of the creature just before it crashed into the ice covered ground. He landed with a roll and used his scale blade to pick himself up so that he wouldn't end up sliding around on Cinder's ice.

The vulture seemed enraged that Joshua was just fine and started sending down several feathers in his and the downed bobcats direction once more. Luckily Joshua didn't have to worry about blocking them as vines shot out of the ice and started knocking aside the feathers. Another gun shot went off and the feathers stopped as the Vulture was forced to fly up higher into the air so that it wouldn't get hit by Aito all over again.

With the vulture held at bay Joshua turned his attention to the downed bobcat once more along with other members of the group that had already rushed in and started going for the kill. Joshua could already see large fireballs, ice spears, and blast of lightning shooting across the air in the direction of the bobcat. Before it could even get up it was bombarded with all sorts of attacks. The finishing blow came from two sides as Adrian sliced its neck open while Vince appeared next to its eyes and stabbed through one of them and piercing into its skull. The moment Joshua felt the familiar surge of experience he knew that the bobcat was down for good.

The other bobcat that was still leaping around in the air was hissing at them in anger as it charged down towards their group intending to ignore Lilly's beast companions in favor of taking some of them out. Joshua wasn't sure if the creature planned on just getting a little payback before fleeing or doing something else, but there was no way that they were just going to let it swoop down and attack the members of the group that weren't currently behind a barrier.

As the bobcat charged down and attempted to go after Adrian after he had slashed through the lower neck of its partner it didn't take notice of the fact that Titus and Cinder had already locked onto its current path. The two beast companions had gotten used to the movements of the erratic bobcats and were planning to take it by surprise with a tag team attack. Tank helped as he forced many of the bubbles that he formed to surround the path that the bobcat was currently taking and making sure that it wouldn't go off course.

The bobcat leaped around all the bubbles as it lengthened its claws in preparation to attack Adrian who only smiled up at its foolish mistake. The moment the cat got within range it was met with Titus's vine covered fist that slammed into its side. The bobcat twisted its body so that the blow would only glance off of it, but even so the thorny vines stabbed into its shoulder and created a large injury that forced the beast to try to leap away, but this time around it wasn't going to climb back up into the sky so easily.

Cinder was currently shrunk down in size to the point where she could run along Titus's arm and she used that as a launching point so that she could leap up into the air and stab her legs into the bobcats back as she grew back to her full-size. Although the bobcat use its aura and wind affinity to make itself float in the air it wasn't the same when it had to try to carry another creature that was just as big as it was on its back. Cinder even started coating her body in ice to make herself even heavier causing the both of them to fall out of the sky and slam into the ground. Cinder made sure to shove the cat down as well so that it hit first and took most of the damage from impact.

With the second cat taken out of the sky and being restricted by Cinder the rest of the group was easily able to go in and take it down without much trouble. It did put up a struggle but without its agile movements it stood no chance in a close quarter's confrontation the second Titus rushed over and started pounding it into the ice covered ground. The group still had to block wave after wave of feathers that kept getting shot down from the sky, but in the end they killed both of the bobcats without losing the experience to the irritating vulture.

Joshua frowned as he watched the vulture stay up near the clouds as it annoyingly kept throwing down feathers at their group every few seconds. It clearly wasn't going to run out of feathers any time soon, but Joshua didn't want to wait around until it did. 'Brook can you start creating some rain clouds up above that annoying vulture. Lilly have Tank help her out.' Joshua said as he continued to glare up at the bird. He didn't even have to tell Robin what to do as a giant smile blossomed on her face.

A few minutes later there were several rain clouds up in the sky above with some water already starting to fall to the ground below. The vulture seemed annoyed as it tried to stay up in the air, but it continued to shoot down feathers that were being blocked by Jayce, Abigail, and Katsumi at the moment. The Second Robin finished charging her spell electricity started gathering in the clouds above before a lightning strike shot down directly into the back of the vulture. Knocking it out of the sky and sending it down into the waiting arms of a grinning Joshua.