Leon, Singer-in-Caves, and Cloud-Runner split the sky in avian form, the two Hawks flanking Leon’s much larger body—he’d assumed his natural form rather than the Thunderbird’s form as it amplified his power more than simply copying his Ancestor did. Below them flew Red in wyvern form, dwarfing even Leon in size as she almost lazily glided upon the wind Leon had summoned. Valeria and Maia, on the other hand, flew above them, the only two of their party who looked human, despite the truth of the matter.

They’d made good time since leaving the village that had been Singer’s base of operations since this crisis had started, coming close enough to the roc for Leon to see it with his magic senses within a couple of hours. It took about half a day more for them to come within visual range of the great flying beast, and Leon had to admit that he felt no small amount of jealousy.

His body in his cloudy silver and blue Thunderbird form was by no means small, but Red was much larger, and the roc was even larger than her, and by so wide a margin that it wasn’t even debatable. Its wingspan was easily three hundred feet long, and its body was the size of a warship. So large was it that if it weren’t for the veritable tornado of wind magic beneath each of its wings, there would be no doubt in Leon’s mind that it would’ve been entirely incapable of flight.

That much, however, brought a small measure of relief to him. Knowing that it was using wind magic meant that it essentially couldn’t use any other magic while it was flying, if it could even use other elemental magic at all. Leon decided not to assume it couldn’t, however, for it was ninth-tier, and more likely than not possessed sapience on par with humans at least.

Still, as they’d approached, he’d already started to formulate a plan of action.

With a quick burst of darkness magic, he called his flying party to a halt on a mountaintop about fifty miles away from the roc. It was enormous and quite powerful, but all of that enormity was working against it somewhat, and it couldn’t fly very fast. Leon estimated that he and his people could fly more than four times its speed if it was already flying at its limit—which, again, he forced himself not to assume.

Upon landing, he transformed back into his human form, followed shortly thereafter by Singer, Cloud, and Red. Valeria and Maia landed a moment later.

“So, there it is,” Leon said as he stared at the roc in the far distance.

“There it is,” Singer-in-Caves repeated. “It’s been quite an annoying twig in my feathers over the past few months. I’ve tried to bring it down, but it’s tough and strong, and it’s been able to fight me off every time I’ve come at it, even when I’ve come with others.”

“How much can you tell me of its capabilities?” Leon asked.

“It focused on wind magic almost exclusively,” Singer said. “It’s even stronger than I am, I would say. When attacked, it showed a keen awareness of its surroundings and shrewd and ruthless decisiveness when selecting opponents; it would create a wind barrier that the attacks of the weaker members of my Tribe couldn’t penetrate, and then it would target the strongest of us exclusively. For all its power with magic, though, I think most of its power is used just keeping itself in the air. Whenever I tried to stop it, it would attack me with wind magic, but everyone else would only be answered with beak and talon.”

“Hmm,” Leon hummed in thought. “You know, I have something that I understand is similar to what at least some in the Ten Tribes use…” As he spoke, he retrieved one of his anti-magic gems, the one that targeted wind magic. “I can use this to try and disrupt its use of wind magic.” He quickly explained to Singer and the others how the gem worked, though only the elder and her son needed the explanation.

Or perhaps Red needed it too, Leon knew that she didn’t pay that much attention to anyone else during his retinue’s training sessions.

“Really…” Singer whispered in surprise. “I didn’t know you could make things like that. Most of our anti-magic devices are created by the Ravens-of-Hail-Hall, and they are some of the only weapons that they aren’t willing to export to any of the other Tribes…”

“Huh,” Leon grunted in similar surprise. “I would’ve thought that such weapons would be spread among the Tribes given just what kinds of threats you face from the Imperials.”

“The Ravens aren’t stingy with their use when the need calls for it,” Cloud said with a hint of bitterness in his tone, “but they never let anyone else so much as touch one of their anti-magic weapons. They’re terrified of just what might happen if such capabilities are spread outside of their Tribe.”

“Well, I hate to say it, but such magic exists in many places outside of Kataigida,” Leon replied. “Not just with me, but Heaven’s Eye has been experimenting with them, and many Kingdoms on the mainland have ways to prevent prisoners with magic from using their powers to escape…” Leon’s thoughts drifted back to the Bull Kingdom, which possessed manacles that could interfere with a mage’s ability to call upon their magic, though what little of them that Leon remembered, he knew that they were fairly primitive and had severe restraints. Jormun, too, had similar bindings that could interfere with a mage’s control over their own power, though Leon spent less time dwelling on that particular memory.

“Perhaps something to bring up with them once you reign, King Leon?” Singer said half-jokingly, but Leon took her serious half more seriously.

“I’ll bring it up with them when I visit,” he said. “We’ll have much to discuss, I’d wager. But for now, let’s focus on that roc. I can try and force it to the ground with this gem, but then we’d have to bring the pain. And that’s assuming we even want it on the ground. Is there anywhere in its path that might serve as a good ambush point? We have other methods we can use to attack it…”

Leon quickly reminded Cloud and Singer about his Lightning Lances, two of which he still had in his soul realm after distributing the rest to the other members of his retinue as they left on their own hunts.

“How effective might these weapons be?” he asked.

“Hard to say,” Singer replied. She grinned and added, “We’ll just have to try them out and see what happens…”

“Just going to wing it, then?” Leon laughed. “I can do that. Now, we just have to decide on where to have our ambush…”

—

The roc flew the air like a mountain with wings. It was primarily brown and gray when seen from above, its feathers aiding it in blending in with the ground. However, its undercarriage was an almost pearlescent white that flashed blue depending on the angle it was seen from. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the creature could be mistaken for a cloud by a weak or inattentive mage on the ground had it not required such intense wind magic just to get its bulk into the air.

The tempest it had conjured to hold itself aloft could be felt for miles, and as it came closer, the wind that heralded its arrival tore whole trees from the earth and lifted them into the air, spinning them and hurling them for miles before they hit the ground again.

Leon watched the incoming monster with nervous anticipation. He was fully armored and invisible, with Valeria and Maia close by, also invisible. Red lay on the valley floor in human form, waiting for a chance to strike. Singer and Cloud were on nearby mountaintops with Leon’s Lightning Lances, having been given a crash course in their use as Leon set them up. Each of them had applied some invisibility salve made by Helen before Leon’s entire retinue had gotten armor with invisibility enchantments, so while they couldn’t be seen, in the wind that raged throughout the valley, Leon couldn’t quite say that the stuff would hold up.

Regardless, they were about as ready as they were going to be. After setting up the Lightning Lances, Leon had then scattered about the valley a number of other traps. He hadn’t been able to set up as many as he’d have liked since the roc wasn’t being so accommodating as to wait around for Leon to finish, but he felt like he’d gotten a good spread of traps set. Now it was only a matter of waiting these last few minutes.

The roc soon became visible as it flew through the mountains and into the valley. About ten miles further west was the Hawk village it seemed intent on reaching, so Leon knew that they had to stop it here or Hawk civilians would undoubtedly die.

‘Just another thing to add to the stress,’ he thought as he took a few deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. This wasn’t his first hunt, though it was fairly unique in its own way. He wasn’t an unblooded chick yet to leave the nest, he was a ninth-tier mage and had seen his fair share of war.

On the other hand, it wasn’t that hard to feel at least a little nervous about a titanic bird-of-prey flying through the mountains on tornados.

Still, that anxiety dissipated as it ponderously flew closer, Leon and his ladies having posted up above the center of the valley, right in its path. Leon raised a hand, the gauntlet bearing his anti-wind magic gem, and after waiting only a few more seconds for the roc to get into range, activated it.

Magic poured into the gem and the enchantments in his gauntlet that projected its power, with some upgrades compared to the last time he’d used his anti-magic enchantments. This magic then spilled from his fingers like a ray of light visible only to his magic senses. The ray struck the roc, piercing its tempest with ease, and for a moment, Leon thought it hadn’t worked.

And then the roc shrieked in surprise and panic as the wind spiraling about it and beneath its wings cut out. It, being carried only by lingering momentum, immediately lost what little speed it had and began to plummet, gliding beneath Leon, Valeria, and Maia and coming to a crashing stop on the lightly-forested valley floor.

The roc hit the dirt in range of three of Leon’s traps. Almost immediately, it was bathed in lightning as one of Leon’s old Thunderblast spells, now significantly upgraded with much greater power, activated. The roc shrieked again, but this time in pain, but as it slid across the valley floor, another trap activated, and this time it was a fiery explosion that rolled over a wing, burning away a goodly number of its feathers.

The final trap, another upgraded Thunderblast spell, was activated when the roc finally came to a halt, though this one was a little further away and only struck the roc with a few arcs of lightning. Still, some damage had been done, and though the massive monster’s impact had kicked up a tong of dirt and dust—to add to the haze its wind had brought—it was made immediately obvious that neither Singer nor Cloud had lost track of the creature, for a pair of bright flashes of golden lightning were followed by the iron bolts the weapons fired almost immediately slamming into the roc, having cut highly visible paths through the dirt cloud on their way.

The roc screeched in pain again and flooded the valley with killing intent. Leon was largely unaffected, and so was Maia by his own estimation, but he heard Valeria’s breath hitch for a moment in response. Immediately, any hint of pride and elation at the plan having gone as planned until this point evaporated, replaced with white-hot anger.

Leon pulled a weapon from his soul realm that he’d been dying to use for a long while now: his thunder wood bow. His old bow of red-painted wood had long been replaced with this new one, marginally larger than the bows he’d given the rest of his retainers, and more heavily enchanted. He didn’t take a moment to appreciate his handiwork, though, and simply pulled back the bowstring, allowing his power to flow into the bow. An arrow of silver-blue lightning formed, crackling and hissing as if it were begging to be released; so, Leon did just that, loosing it at the roc.

The lightning arrow sped faster than any lightning spear he could’ve thrown, slamming into the roc’s back with all the power of Leon’s bow and his ninth-tier strength. The arrow erupted so powerfully upon hitting the roc that the previous Thunderblast spells were made to look small in comparison. Lightning rolled over the roc in a great wave, burning away feathers and searing flesh.

The roc shrieked once more, but this time, while Leon heard pain, he also heard an equal amount of anger. The roc flexed its wings and sent a wave of wind rolling through the valley. Trees were torn from the ground and boulders ripped from the earth, both thrown like weapons. More concerningly, however, was the wind itself, which formed into sharp, invisible blades that rent the air like millions of tiny claws.

Leon’s group was hit, but their armor wasn’t even scratched. They were, however, rendered visible, and the roc’s massive head turned in their direction, its pale yellow eyes wide with fury and hate.

Scatter! Leon shouted mentally to his ladies, and Maia immediately took off into the sky, shedding her human form to assume that of a flying ice dragon that matched the roc for size. Valeria plummeted as she drew her glaive that Leon had made. He felt it flare up with her ice magic, and he knew that if it managed to pierce the roc’s flesh, it would attempt to freeze everything within the monster’s body.

He didn’t follow them, instead shifting into his natural Thunderbird form and flying toward the roc as it fully turned to face him, intending to clash with the creature head-on. Silver-blue lightning danced over his feathers as storm clouds gathered above, and another pair of bolts from the Lightning Lances struck the beast in the back.

This time, the roc didn’t shriek. Instead, it flapped its enormous wings and seized control of the air around it. Another wing flap sent a hurricane-level gust of wind in Leon’s direction, the massive wave of air picking up dirt and debris and becoming opaque.

Leon flapped his own wings and pierced through it, though the wind bit and tore at his body, and he lost some blood and feathers within. As he reached the other side of the wind wave, he found the roc waiting for him, and the beast lunged at him with its massive beak.

Knowing that it could swallow him whole, Leon rolled out of the way as he flew towards it, and called upon his Ancestor’s lightning. Silver-blue bolts of lightning began to rain down from the storm clouds above, and the roc, after taking the first couple, responded by making a loud war cry and causing the wind to pick up much more dirt and dust and sent it flying upward. Leon’s bolts penetrated the roc’s wind but lost most of its power.

But Leon wasn’t deterred, and instead of relying upon his magic, he dove in and began tearing at the roc with beak and talon. The roc retaliated, but it moved too slowly to catch Leon, and with its magic tied up in shielding itself from Leon’s magic, it had little other recourse.

Its capabilities were tested when Maia came barreling in from above, her ice dragon form crashing into the roc like a frozen meteor. The roc let out a strangled cry as Maia’s icy jaws sank into its neck, while at the same time, Valeria made her presence known as she sprang upward from the ground and began slicing at the roc’s muscles around its scaled legs. Red made her move at the same time, springing forth in wyvern form and bathing the roc in a storm of fire.

The roc once again shrieked, but managed to twist its head around and tear Maia off of its neck, though the fountain of blood that sprang from the wound she caused didn’t seem promising for its future plans to remain in the land of the living. Leon didn’t spare it much thought, but as the roc snapped at Maia and crushed the ice dragon in its beak, he dove in, his anger growing exponentially. He could feel Maia panicking a bit as she jumped out of the ice—she was physically fine, but her panic was enough for him.

He dove at the roc’s face, slamming into one of its massive eyes and letting loose with a torrent of silver-blue lightning. The roc’s eyes immediately filled with blood and popped, its cry of pain nearly rupturing Leon’s eardrums. It beat its wings again and summoned a twister around itself, hurling Leon, Valeria, and Maia away. Red, however, had managed to latch her jaws onto one of its shoulders and barely managed to stay attached as it moved. However, it jerked its head and tore her off of its wings with its beak, and threw her away like an unwanted worm. Red peeled off and, though she was bloodied and one of her wings looked rather torn up, she remained in the air.

Turning its attention away from Red and now missing an eye, the roc glared balefully at Leon and snapped in what he guessed was anger, Leon’s bolts from the sky still falling and largely failing to penetrate the beast’s feathers with its wind shield still in the air.

And then the roc began to rapidly shrink, and just in time to have two more bolts from the Lightning Lances bounce off its shoulders rather than penetrate into vulnerable flesh.

Leon realized just a moment later what the roc was doing as its features became more and more human. He dove downward, attempting to finish the job now that the monster was so weakened and injured, but a last-second burst of wind magic sent him careening backward.

When he righted himself in the air, he found that the massive roc had disappeared, leaving a naked man standing on the ground, one eye burned out of his skull as blood poured down his face, several other burns and injuries plain for him to see. The man had long, wiry hair and a long scraggly beard that looked like it hadn’t ever seen any grooming. He was tan and hairy, with gaunt features and an aquiline nose that put even Leon’s to shame. His one remaining eye kept its yellow coloring.

He stuck around to glare at Leon for a single moment before he tore off toward the mountains, apparently deciding to cut his losses and run.

After him! Leon shouted to the others.