Leon, Valeria, Maia, and Red tore off after the roc, with Singer and Cloud not far behind. The latter two had to pull the Lightning Lances back into their soul realms, so they were a minute or two behind Leon and his small group as they pursued the roc-in-human-form back into the mountains.

The roc moved fast, his injuries making him desperate, but he didn’t move nearly so fast that Leon in his avian form couldn’t keep track of him. However, it was fast enough that Leon was having trouble closing the distance. The roc wasn’t helping matters as he inundated the air behind him with his power, pulling and slicing at him and his three hunting partners with blades of wind.

Leon and the ladies didn’t take that lying down, however, and Leon constantly fired off bolts of lightning from the sky at the roc. Some of them hit, but most of them the roc managed to dodge by the skin of his teeth. Still, the burns were accumulating, and soon enough, he began to slow.

In the end, he’d only managed to flee several miles before he stopped in a clearing and turned to face Leon’s group closing in on him, a look of mad desperation in his one remaining eye, blood pouring down his face from the empty socket where his other eye used to be.

Slow down, Leon ordered as he fired off another couple of lightning bolts, but the roc made his move as he summoned a twister around his form, and Leon’s lightning was lost within the wind. Spread out.

Valeria and Maia did as commanded, but Red swooped in, her killing intent soaring. She closed with the now-stationary roc and the twister he shrouded himself in and let loose with a massive breath attack, a tidal wave of flame crashing down upon the roc. However, the roc’s wind took the flames and pulled them away from him, and Red’s fire was simply carried upward into the sky, away from the roc.

A moment later, a lance of wind came peeling out of the fire and slammed into Red, hitting her just below her right shoulder and nearly severing the wing entirely. Red roared in pain and Leon dove in to rescue his wild retainer. He called up all of his skill in wind magic and dove into the twister, the wind tearing at his feathers and opening even more shallow cuts and ripping away even more of his feathers, but he made it through and, with a quick beat of his wings, he sent a silver-blue lightning bolt down upon the roc.

The roc had been in the act of gathering wind for another attack at Red, one that would’ve like left her maimed if not dead, but Leon’s bolt struck true in the moment before Red might’ve departed for the Kingdom of the dead. The roc reeled back as he was struck, his magic dissipating as his right arm was charred to the bone by the heat of Leon’s strike.

“Fuck!” he shouted as he fell to the ground, and Leon’s eyes widened in shock about as much as they could.

Hold! he shouted to Valeria, Maia, and Red. For Valeria and Red, he didn’t so much need to make the order as Red was in no position to move for at least another minute or so, and Valeria was already seeing to her with healing spells and potions. Maia, on the other hand, had formed half a dozen large water dragons, all of which were circling the rapidly-dying twister just waiting for the chance to fall upon the roc and tear him apart.

The roc was horribly wounded, all of his wounds on full display thanks to his lack of clothes. If he saw no medical attention, Leon estimated that he would bleed out in a matter of minutes—and not very many at that. Making matters worse for the roc, there was a startling lack of bright red mana seeping from his wounds, nearly all of his blood being mundane crimson indicating a lack of magic power in his body.

‘At the least, he’s no threat anymore,’ Leon thought as he circled about once more and landed close to the roc. He returned to human form, armored up, and cautiously approached, sparing only a moment to see that Maia was still keeping watch above, while Valeria was having some success treating Red’s wounds. Leon frowned in anger and displeasure at seeing his wyvern retainer so injured, but he bit down on his anger and approached his quarry.

“You can speak?!” he shouted at the roc, who glared back at him with his one good eye and tried futilely to drag himself further away from Leon. “I heard you speak!” Leon shouted again as he drew within comfortable speaking range.

The roc continued to refuse to answer, but he at least stopped dragging himself away—though that seemed more due to weakness than lack of will. He simply lay on the ground, the debris of his landing and the last few exchanges of their battle scattered all around him, his one eye tracking Leon unerringly with a hateful glare.

“I can save you,” Leon said as he pulled a powerful healing spell from his soul realm. “But I have some questions I want answered.”

The roc glared at him, not a word passing his lips.

“Where did you come from?” Leon demanded. “Why have you been attacking the Hawks?”

Again, the roc remained silent as his wounds continued to bleed.

Leon frowned, then began to slowly approach the beast-in-human-form. He was intending on using the healing spell on the roc anyway just so that he could continue to ask some questions of the curious creature, but as he took a few hesitant steps forward, the roc suddenly opened his mouth and began to scream incoherently. Backing up his scream was what seemed to be the last of his power, and the air that carried his voice flexed and vibrated powerfully enough that Leon was hurled backward.

Leon landed on his feet, coming to a skidding halt as the roc continued to roar, his voice like a hammer and nails taken to Leon’s eardrums, and it was all Leon could do to stay upright. He began to channel his magic, summoning a bright silver-blue lightning spear in his right hand and preparing to hurl it, but a moment later, an arrow of wind passed right past him carrying Singer’s avian form. The Hawk elder sank her talons into the roc’s chest and buried her beak in the monster’s throat, bringing the roar to a swift and strangled end as she ripped and tore into his flesh.

The last light in the roc’s one remaining eye went out, and he slumped over dead. He would not be answering any of Leon’s questions now.

—

Leon and his party reassembled on the mountaintop where they’d planned their ambush. They’d had to do some clean-up work after the roc was finally put down, with Leon having to head out and remove all of the remaining traps he’d planted all across the valley while Singer and Cloud-Runner had to visit the village the roc had been threatening and make sure they were all safe and sound.

Singer took care of the roc’s body, though Leon had made a cursory examination of the corpse before she’d taken it, his curiosity unsated. However, he’d not learned anything from his examination—not that he’d expected to, of course, but he had to try.

Maia, Valeria, and Red, meanwhile, took to licking their wounds while Leon, Singer, and Cloud were busy. By the time Leon joined them on the mountaintop, Red had just about fully healed of the grievous injuries the roc had given her.

That didn’t stop him from grilling her on her physical condition as soon as he arrived, though, to her consternation.

Once Singer and Cloud joined them, however, Leon got down to business.

“That roc was intelligent,” he said. “Sapient. And not just that, but he understood human language enough to curse.”

“You heard that?” Singer asked with a deadly serious look about her, contrasting with her otherwise easy-going attitude. “You confirmed it?”

“I heard it plain as day,” Leon replied, a touch annoyed. “He swore as he fell.”

“So what?” Red growled. “The flying feast could speak. This changes nothing.”

Leon sighed. “I suppose not, but it’s still something I found… disquieting.”

“It’s not the first time we’ve killed an Ascended Beast,” Valeria softly pointed out.

Won’t be the last, either, Maia added.

Leon sighed again and repeated, “I suppose not. I would’ve preferred to get a chance to speak with him, though.”

“He was attacking you,” Singer pointed out. “Would you have rather I left him to continue?”

“No,” Leon firmly responded. “Let me make one thing clear: I will sleep well tonight knowing that we’ve made the Hawk Tribe safer. What bothers me is that for an intelligent being to choose this… well, I guess what I’m saying is that I would’ve been even more satisfied had the roc given us just a few more seconds, that we could’ve been more certain he was just a beast acting on his base instincts instead of… I don’t know what, but something other than that.”

Leon scowled as a possibility entered his mind that he was loath to consider. However, when he glanced at Singer, the contemplative look on her face was one that screamed that she’d had the same thought.

“Are we certain these are random monster attacks?” Leon quietly asked.

“You’re implying they weren’t just random?” Cloud-Runner asked, his mother remaining silent for the moment.

“How often do these sorts of attacks occur?” Leon asked.

“Fairly often,” Singer replied. “I believe we’ve been over this before, but if we haven’t then that’s my oversight. But the Titanstone quarried in the east makes for extremely magical territory. Monsters and terrible beasts often breed out there in large numbers, which is one of the reasons why the Booming Brown Bears first settled in this region eighty thousand years ago. Not to mention the Titanstone itself can induce changes in a beast generation-to-generation like nothing else natural can. Powerful monsters coming from the east are nothing new, but our army is usually enough to handle the threat they pose.”

“And with our army on the Sword…” Cloud-Runner finished.

“Right, right,” Leon nodded in understanding. “But do these attacks usually occur in a group, like these have? Or are they more one-time affairs?”

“They’ll sometimes come fairly soon after each other,” Singer said. “It’s not unreasonable to think that some event that gave one beast power wouldn’t give another beast power at the same time.”

Leon frowned briefly, thinking for a moment of Tusk and how it handed out power for any beast that gave it sacrifices. He didn’t think there was anything like that out here, but he supposed some vaguely similar process could occur in a place with so much concentrated Titanstone.

“Fine,” he said. “If you don’t think there’s anything wrong here, then I suppose I’m just being paranoid. Maybe I’m just too used to people trying to kill me that I can’t help but wonder if this is some scheme, too.”

“We’re friendly enough with the Booming Brown Bears,” Singer said aloud with a thoughtful look. “I can’t imagine they’d move against us in any systemic way like this. I’m sure they’d love it if we were to grow more dependent on them for any reason, but I can’t see them intentionally weakening the Ten Tribes. They’re the ones who put the Thunderer in his position, you know.”

“I’m aware,” Leon replied. “The same Thunderer who’s been undermining the traditions of the Ten Tribes for decades, now—or so the Jaguars claim, at any rate.”

“The Jaguars are sticklers for their traditions, that’s for sure,” Singer whispered. “That we’re threatened by four powerful monsters when our army is away is an unfortunate coincidence. Our army has been away for years now, so there were bound to be some beasts that grow in their absence. Unless I see hard evidence to the contrary, that will be my official position. The Jaguars might be more than willing to fight the Bears, but the Hawks only want peace within our confederation.”

“Understandable,” Leon whispered. “Then I’ll drop the matter for now. Why don’t we head back to your base of operations and see if the rest of our people have been met with similar success as we have?”

“Sure,” Singer replied, but she then held up her hand and continued, “but first, why don’t we all share in the spoils of our hunt?” With a dramatic flourish, she pulled several huge feathers from her soul realm. Each one was about as long as Leon was tall, and was a pearlescent white with streaks of blue visible in the right light.

“These…” Leon whispered in awe.

“… are that roc’s feathers,” Singer confirmed. “I picked them up on my way back here. They don’t seem to have any functional purpose, but they’re quite beautiful, aren’t they? Worthy trophies, I’d say.”

“That they are,” Leon whispered as he took one of the proffered feathers, Maia, Valeria, and Red doing likewise. Red seemed the least sentimental out of all of them, simply tossing the feather into her soul realm with hardly a care in the world. Maia wasn’t too far behind her, but at least took a moment to look the feather over before throwing it into her soul realm. Valeria’s reaction was most like Leon’s: staring at the feather for several long seconds in awe and appreciation of the beauty o the thing. Only after several long seconds did she put the feather away.

“How many feathers do you think are still out there?” Leon asked curiously.

“Not many in such condition,” Singer replied. “Most were burned or broken in some way. Finding six intact feathers was a pain in my ass, let me tell you what…”

Leon chuckled. “Your gift is appreciated, Singer-in-Caves. Thank you.”

His words were echoed around the group, to lesser or greater enthusiasm depending on who was speaking. Fortunately, Singer didn’t take any offense where some might’ve, and without too many more words, the group took once more to the skies and began their flight back to the village where Singer had made her base of operations.

—

“… and the thing just kept regenerating!” Alcander exuberantly exclaimed. “Nothing we did seemed able to do much permanent damage to the damn thing!”

“But then we shot it with the Lances!” Anzu picked up with equal enthusiasm. “The bull kept healing for a while and was able to fight, but another shot hit it in the head and killed it!”

“Its horns could stop magic, but not a bolt from a Lightning Lance!” Alcander finished with a proud look as he presented the horns of the eighth-tier bull to Leon.

“Well done,” Leon said to his little brother and his retainer. “Did the bull… by any chance… happen to transform into a human, or exhibit anything resembling human-level intelligence?”

“Uh, no?” Anzu said as he cocked his head in thought.

“No,” Alcander confirmed. “It acted as a beast does, not as a man does.”

Leon hummed in acknowledgment and took the horns.

It had been two days since the roc had been felled, and Alcander and Anzu’s small hunting party were the last to return to the staging point. Gaius and Anshu had killed the sea monster faster than even Leon and his group killed the roc, arriving back in the village an hour or two before Leon did—much like with the bull, the Lightning Lances proved decisive in the fight, with several shots penetrating the monster’s brain and shutting it down permanently. Unfortunately, they didn’t take many trophies since the shark-squid-frog thing didn’t have much in the way of parts good enough to be a trophy.

Alix and Marcus returned the day after, the giant serpent also rendered lifeless at their hands. They’d run the thing down with MALLs given it had posted up in a wide, forestless valley; perfect terrain for the mobile weapons to be used. Unlike Anshu and Gaius, however, they came back with the serpent’s fangs—that happened to be about twice as tall as Leon—and venom glands, the latter continuing to produce venom even a day after the beast died. Apparently, their group of elders and Chiefs was interested in the hide and other parts of the beast, so Leon didn’t hold it against them that they didn’t bring any of that back, he was happy enough with the trophies they did take.

Like with the bull, neither of the other two beasts had transformed into a human nor showed any sign of intelligence on par with a human. Leon was a little disappointed, but he supposed it was better this way.

Regardless, once Anzu and Alcander were done giving him the horns and making their report, Leon had them both get some rest—which largely meant Alcander dragging Anzu off to flirt and drink with the locals—and Leon turned to Singer-in-Caves, who had been present for the meeting.

“I think we’re done here,” Singer said. “Shall we return to Raikoraki? You asked my Tribe whether or not we would support your claim to the throne your Clan once held, and I think it’s time for us to give you our answer.”

She smiled at Leon, her expression promising much once they returned to the capital of the Hawk Tribe. Many of the other elders and Chiefs who hadn’t immediately agreed to test the transformation enchantment were now building it in their soul realms since those who did agree to use it were showing that it was safe, and Leon imagined that the enchantment he’d given Singer would spread throughout the Tribe, now, as would their gratitude.

He smiled back at her and simply said, “Tomorrow morning, then? I’m eager to have my answer, too…”