Chapter 258: The Thunderbird

Chapter 258: The Thunderbird

At first, Kai had been convinced that the Bludshard elves must be hiding some horrible secret. They'd all turn out to be cannibals, or they transformed into monsters every month, or they were hiding some slave caste. If not for the steady presence of Zae Zin Nim's qi, he would have been checking on her regularly. Days passed and his anxieties gradually eased.

As far as he could tell, these elves were honestly relaxed.

Once he'd adjusted to that fact, it was clear that he needed to be more aggressive. Zae Zin Nim was pushing toward a major jump and Omilaena had plenty of progress to make with physical training, so he needed to keep up. Given barriers in his human soul, that meant developing his monstrous side to keep up - the Banchlain was an excellent essence, but he couldn't figure out how to use it. After so long trying elven arts, he decided that he wanted to go back to basics and went to ask the guards about monster problems.

"I mean, you can hunt them if you want." The guard they had first met was one of the regulars, commonly napping in the outer corridors with his hat over his face. At the moment he shuffled with his hands in his pockets. "But we mostly handle things for ourselves here, so there's not a lot."

"Not even with the Inverted Oasis to the east?"

"That's half-way across the continent. Anything makes it this far, we have a problem."

"Back in Deadwaste, sometimes stronger monsters escaped and kept causing problems," Kai said. "Is the Inverted Guard so strong that never happens?"

"Oh. Oh, huh." Abruptly the guard turned on him with a curious expression. "If you're that serious, I guess there's one old problem. Now, I haven't gotten a perfect look at your soul, but it seems like trying to fight this one would be suicide for you. That's your business, but I'd feel a bit bad sending you out to get yourself killed."

"I wouldn't have to hunt it alone. Please tell me."

"Well, a few years back there was a big flying monster we've taken to calling the Thunderbird..." The guard told him about the monster and some of the others joined in, sharing a scattered but overall coherent story.

Generally the incursions were so contained that the rest of the continent didn't even notice, but two incursions past the Thunderbird had emerged. It could fly unbelievably fast, and could ascend so high that no vessel on Rosemount could follow it. When it moved further inland it had been threatened by some of the great powers, so it prowled the coast killing where it could.

As far as he could tell, the Thunderbird was a major threat just peripheral enough that no one could justify the hunt. It had only killed a few people locally over the years, but even a few lost loved ones were a tragic for those impacted. None of the elves thought he had a chance, but those that didn't warn him off told him everything they knew about its hunting patterns.

So he gathered supplies, checked in on the others, and then trekked out north. The tundra grew icier, but as he drew closer to the ocean he also saw more dark blue plants that persisted despite the cold, flowing with their own subtle chakra. It took him a day just to reach the right region, then several more days to stumble across the monster.

Kai swung a Tyrant's Claw, but he didn't even get close - the Thunderbird changed direction in midair as if it controlled the wind itself. He was trying to figure out how to fight it when its wings snapped with a sound like thunder and it vanished up into the sky.

At first Kai thought that it was retreating, so he helped the elves gather together and urged them to get to safety. He began heading south away from them, searching for the shadow overhead again. If the Thunderbird was cowardly he probably didn't have a chance at chasing it down, given its insane speed, and he wasn't sure if an ambush would work again.

He shouldn't have worried: the Thunderbird attacked again less than a day later.

This time there was another flickering shadow, a lightning bolt hurled from nowhere, and then a booming sound. Kai only barely dodged it, and from that point on he could never rest. Even as he headed south, the Thunderbird attacked him regularly. Sometimes it would be minutes, other times many hours, but it never let him rest. As far as he could tell, it had no need for sleep.

Well, he had Behemoth's Heart driving him, so Kai wouldn't rest either. Over time he managed to adjust to the Thunderbird's striking patterns: even if he couldn't match its raw speed, he was adjusting to fighting something that fast. He'd never succeeded in pinning it with Void Gaze again, but sometimes he thought he got close. Once after the attack he even saw a metallic feather float down, crackling with lightning.

After that it didn't return for a day and he wondered whether it had changed its mind. If he'd spent two weeks hunting a single monster for nothing, he would have been frustrated... but he needn't have worried.

When he next saw the Thunderbird it was flying in the distance, far slower than before. A line of black clouds followed it, roaring with unnatural power, lightning bolts arcing within. Even though he couldn't feel the power with his human senses, with monstrous sympathy he could feel how the Thunderbird was drawing the storm along with it.

As soon as it was in range he focused Void Gaze on it, but the Thunderbird dropped back faster, disappearing into the clouds. Pushed by unnatural forces, the storm swept toward him and lightning began to rain down in a line of pure destruction. Even though he sprinted to the side he was still caught in the edge of it and blown off his feet.

On his back Kai groaned as he realized one of the bolts must have hit him: it had passed through his shoulder and burned off half his shirt. He'd endured worse than that, so he would be fine, but if he had taken the destructive storm head on...

This was a hunt he wasn't going to finish alone. Kai adopted stealth tactics and headed back as quickly as he could. A day later he barged into the tunnels, ignoring elves until he found Omilaena in the middle of her training. She was wearing her shabby sack-like clothing, so he just grabbed the front of it and lifted her into the air.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked.

"Come this way," Kai told her. "Help me get lunch."Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com