Chapter 83 - Forest Of Belgard (2)

"Seriously, I'm supposed to be the demon in your head, yet it feels as if I am acting as a moral compass instead. Can you think ahead for one second, sure these two are expendable, but isn't there a higher chance of survival if all three of you are alive. Isn't it too early to already be sacrificing teammates?" asked the dark figure.

"Think Arya think." thought Arya before he finally got an idea.

"Marya can you cast that spell you used earlier to manipulate the Roc's trajectory?" asked Arya in between heavy breathes as the group ran for their lives.

Marya's spell made use of small changes in air trajectory to manipulate the Roc's flight path, however it wouldn't work if she tried to force it into a certain direction. The Roc was a massive bird, and the amount of mana needed to create a wind force powerful enough to force it in a direction would probably deplete Marya's reserves if she held it for more than 30 seconds.

"Yes, but why? The spell isn't powerful enough to completely change the Roc's path. Plus it seems like the Roc can manipulate air as well, nullifying my spell." replied Marya, as sweat ran down her face.

"It's okay, just cast it as powerfully as you can when I say go" replied Arya before starting to chant an ice spell.

"Now, go! Make it dip down as hard as you can!" shouted Arya before Marya tried manipulating the air around the Roc to make it come down, however the Roc counteracted her spell, using air magic to push itself upwards.

"Now release and use air magic to shoot me at it!" shouted Arya, however, Marya was confused by his request.

"Just trust me!" shouted Arya as Marya stopped manipulating the air around the Roc and used air magic to shoot Arya at it.

Due to the sudden change in the equilibrium of the air around the Roc, it shot into the air. In order to quickly balance itself, it changed the air trajectory to allow it to stop ascending quickly, however it was too late.  A human boy was already flying towards it with a beam of ice shooting out one hand and a dagger in the other.

Arya shot a bolt of ice at the Roc's wing as he was approaching it, and used his dagger to break the ice that he had made on the Roc as he landed on its wing, causing a hole in the Roc's wing. Due to this small hole the Roc was sent off balance and had to adjust the wind around itself to keep itself in the air.

The Roc began charging lighting from its feathers in order to kill the human that clung onto it. However, Arya quickly froze his hand into the hole in the Roc's wing in order to prevent getting shocked by lightning. Arya was supposed to be an engineering student before he was reborn into this world, and he knew all too well that ice was a bad conductor of electricity.

The Roc was surprised that the human hadn't died yet and begun spinning viciously inorder to shake the human off. Arya stabbed his dagger into another part of the Roc's wing and froze that hand there as well, hanging onto the Roc with both hands frozen.

"N-now, manipulate the wind around it," shouted Arya as Marya changed the wind trajectory around the Roc again. The Roc was so focused on getting rid of the human that it hadn't realized that the wind around it was being manipulated until it was too late.

*Boom* The Roc crashed to the ground. Due to its spinning action, the Roc had dug deep into the ground meaning it probably broke its neck.

"Up here, save me quick!" shouted Arya as he plummeted to the ground. He had broken the ice and jumped of the Roc just as it was plummeting. And due to the spinning action, he was flung higher into the air, giving Marya more time to help him. He had survived, but it was completely due to luck.

"T-this kid has balls." thought Calder as he watched Marya slow Arya's descent.

"Do you fight Roc's often?" asked Marya, astounded by what Arya had done.

"Only when I'm helping elves," replied Arya, making Marya blush.

"Well done, if you're weak make up for it with courage. Plus if you broke every bone in your body you would've been forced to rely on my help. So please, continue to fight in this reckless manner." said the dark figure in Arya's mind.

*kwaa* Cawed the downed bird. Apparently the fall wasn't enough to kill it. 

"W-what do we do?" asked Marya, it was pleasing for Arya to see Marya with a expression other than disinterest. 

"We run!" said Arya before bolting forward. Although the Roc was still alive it had still sustained damage, no matter how large a creature was, a fall like that would certainly break a few bones.

After the group had run for a while they finally stopped. They couldn't hear the Roc following them.

"Sigh that was close." thought Arya as he and the rest of the group caught their breath.

Meanwhile, another Roc landed next to the crater in which the previous Roc was embedded. The new Roc was two times bigger than the adolescent Roc.

"They defeated you?" asked the bigger Roc.

"Sorry, sis. There was a crazy human amongst them who got me by surprise." replied the adolescent Roc.

"It's okay Shay, our goal is just to test them. If they managed to do this to you then I say they passed this test." replied the sister Roc as she used her lighting to heal Shay.

"Thanks, sis," replied Shay.

"I wonder how they will fare against the Ryens," thought the sister Roc before her and Shay flew off into the air.

"Two hundred and fifty people made it past the second stage. Two hundred are dead and around one hundred ran out of the forest. Of the two hundred and fifty that made it through only ten were able to take down an adolescent Roc." said the sister Roc.

"It seems that this year there are some interesting students.." said a voice from the sister Roc's amulet.