As the two continued to walk further and further out of the thick and dense forest, the number of birds following them stopped increasing, but their numbers were over five times what they were before. Furthermore, there was no change in their actions even if their numbers overwhelm the two. They still were maintaining a distance, closely observing them.
“What's going on? Why haven't they attacked up yet?” Thiera questioned. “We're about halfway out of this forest and they still aren't coming. They could easily overpower us with their outrageous numbers.”
“I don't know.” Arah responded. “My best guess is that they're still waiting for something, probably their leader. Only something really strong would be able to control all those flying monsters. And from the way he is ordering the others, he probably has greater intelligence.”
Thiera face looked more serious after he said that. Normally, monsters would only follow their instincts and attack person that comes their way, but as time passes, some monsters gain intelligence and the ability to think, making them much more deadly.
“We’ll definitely have to run when he shows up. I don’t think we’ll be able to take on that flock, much less their leader if he commands almost 500 of those bir....”
“Quiet.” Arah interrupted.
Thiera looked towards him to ask why because she did not sense anything, but stopped when she saw that he had a serious look on his face that was gazing back towards the direction of the pack of birds.
She was beginning to turn to look in the same direction when Arah pulled her in the opposite direction and screamed “RUN!”
After having a blank look for half a second, she started to run on her own. They ran for a few seconds before she asked Arah “Why?” Immediately after she said that a bird’s cry rang throughout the forest.
Thiera turned backward out of curiosity, while Arah turned back to confirm his fears. Towards the distance was a giant bird, maybe 20 times the size of the standard eagle came gliding towards their direction. It looked to be some sort of condor that had deep blue feathers and possessed a dark aura around itself.
“THAT’S WHY! NOW START RUNNING!” Arah screamed.
Once again they started running, but this time the birds that had always maintained a distance were now speeding towards them and it would not take long before the group caught up to them.
As they were running and leaping around the forest towards the exit Thiera asked Arah a question.
“Hey! Can’t you do something about that big guy? He has some of your abilities inside of him, so can’t you just take it away?”
“To do that I need to get close to it and it has to stay still. Do you think it’ll just let that happen!?” He responded. The condor that was currently chasing them was one of the few demons and devils that survived the Demonic War.
After Arah released his energy throughout the world, this demon absorbed a good amount of darkness when it was a young chick. It spent years growing and gathering up more darkness by consuming others but was nearly killed near the end of the war. The condor retreated into the mountain where it subjugated most of the avian monsters and began to recuperate.
After the years passed and it had become the parent of many other birds, the wounds it sustained was permanent and he would never be able to return to his strongest. Since he could no longer help itself physically, it buffed itself magically by eating young birds, if any of them were born with or awakened to the magic of darkness within them.
Soon after Arah and Thiera descended, the condor felt their presences and ordered some of its flock to investigate. When what remained of the group returned, one of the vultures who personally saw them said that one of the two felt similar to to the condor. After hearing that one of them potentially housed the power of darkness, the condor began to take action and ordered everyone under him to move out.
Returning to the present situation, Arah spoke up after a while. “What about your light? Even if it's just a lightbulb, it should still do damage.”
“What good would a tiny bit of damage do? It’ll just piss it off and I don’t think it will do any good in this situation.” She sneered. “All we can do is continue running.”
While Thiera said that, it did not take long for the flock to catch up since they were smaller and faster than the two and the condor. It would seem that Arah and Thiera would need to somehow deal with them while running.
Seeing them come closer and closer, Thiera unwrapped her lance and threw it backward slicing those that came into contact with it and Arah started cutting off branches and launched them towards the birds, piercing some in the process.
They kept doing this for a while since they knew that normal monsters did not have much intellect, but then they were surprised when they saw the birds begin to dodge their attacks. As the spear and branches were being thrown backward, less and less birds were dying. It turned out that the condor was ordering the birds, having them do maneuvers.
“Damn this bastard!” Arah cursed and looked at his partner. “Thiera. Maybe we should split up. He’ll most likely chase me cause of my darkness, so you escape first and come back for me later with some sort of plan.”
“No way. If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to face our mothers and the others.” As he looked like he was about to say something, she continued. “I said no so stop trying. You know you can’t stop me once I made up my mind.”
He felt helpless and sighed. “Fine then. Let’s die together. To fail on the first day, we really are unlucky. I wonder if Dice had anything to do with this?”
Thiera and Arah were beginning to feel the exhaust setting in as they have been running for quite a while now and have been throwing things backward. Luckily, they ran far enough and were nearly out of the forest. There, they would have more options on what to do.
“Finally, we’re getting out of this god-forsaken forest.” He thanked the Goddesses. “Stop throwing your spear, it’s basically useless now. Just focus your strength in running out.”
The demon condor was getting quite frustrated chasing two people all this way outside its territory and when he noticed that they were nearing outside the forest, he cawed and decided to go all out. It released its aura, spreading darkness and affecting the flock. The birds squirmed for a bit before soon revealing their red eyes and started to charge at the two with greater ferocity and speed.
“Damn! That crazy bastard made the other monsters go berserk! We gotta get out of here now!” He shouted.
“Stop yelling and run!” Thiera screamed back. “We’re nearly there!”
As they were nearing the end of the forest, the beasts were diving straight towards them without a care for their lives. Their survival instincts were being suppressed by their berserk status. All of them were diving straight towards the two, causing them to turn around and block or slash at them. Some were off their mark and dove straight into the trees or ground, causing them to suffer fatal damage or die. If there was any bright side to this situation, it was that the number of monsters chasing them was drastically decreasing.
By the time the two made it out of the forest, it looked like the bird’s numbers decreased to about one to two hundred, but both Thiera and Arah were not unscathed and covered in scratches and minor wounds.
Entering a plain field, the two no longer had to deal with the thick trees and were able to move around freely and fight. They turned back to face the oncoming horde and properly faced them with all of their physical abilities. Thiera put all her effort into spinning her lance and using it as a big shield cutting the birds to pieces, while Arah went into a stance which enabled him block, dodge, deflect, or counter almost anything coming his way.
Due to the birds going berserk, it made it easier for the two to take them all down, but not without being completely exhausted and sustaining even more wounds, some major. After around 10 minutes defending against the raging flock, all the birds were either dead or on the ground, unable to move.
Arah dropped down and laid on the blood-stained grass. He had scratches all over his body and had been pierced on his shoulder and on the side of his stomach. Thiera dropped down on one knee, using her lance to support herself. She had blood all over her body which covered several cuts that made it onto her body. If it wasn’t due to them creating their bodies to be sturdier than the normal person, their physicality, along with a bit of luck, they would have never survived.
“Huff~ puff~ We’re finally done with that group.” He said while clutching his side.
“Haah~ haah~ Catch your breath. We still go the boss to deal with.” She said as she sat down and started to remove the blood off of her spear.
“What’s the point? You know we can’t kill it in our condition anyway, even with your light.” He sighed.
They would have had a chance to kill it in the past if they didn’t have to deal with its flock first. The hundreds of birds almost completely drained their stamina and injured them enough to decrease their capabilities.
“You really want to die on our first day? Stop whining and get ready we got around five minutes.”
Sure enough. Around five minutes later it arrived.