Chapter 268: Risky Retry

“Are you flamin’ kidding me?!”

The crowd of exhausted, beat-up adventurers all stared at me, clearly in disbelief I would try to take the Thunderbird for myself after they’d done so much to kill it.

“My ally fought and died against this thing, and you say it’s yours?!” another shouted. “All while you stood on the sidelines doing nothing. No flamin’ way.”

“You all were the ones to run over here trying to kill the Thunderbird we lured over to us,” I said. “I’m sorry for your loss, but those were the consequences to your own actions.”

“Our own actions?!” He thrust his sword out, blade pointing right at Ainash. “That monster of yours led the damn thing right on top of us! It should be put down.”

Erani stepped forward. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about her like that.”

He scoffed. “That thing is a monster that clearly has nothing going through its head but plans to murder every last one of us. And if you can’t see that, you should be put down too.”

I stepped closer to him. “If you don’t walk away right now, you’re going to be the one that gets put down.”

“Threatening me? Over the life of a flamin’ monster? You Koinkarians are all the same, eh? Come to our empire, practically invading us, ruining our cities and killing our people. All because you couldn’t defend yourself from a couple measly Demons.”

“That has nothing to do with this. We brought the monster down, you tried to steal it, you failed. So get out, or I will make you.”

“Go die in flames!” someone shouted from the back of the crowd I faced. A chorus of shouts followed, screaming about a dozen different arguments for why we shouldn’t get the pelt.

A couple people walked up to me, yelling in my face and telling me to leave. I stood still and stared them down. They were obviously tired and hurt, hoping they could intimidate us into leaving without a fight.

The moment they grabbed me and tried shoving me away, I activated Noxious Grasp, and they all instantly backed off. But their shouts only grew louder, yelling about me attacking them.

A few people peeled away from the chaotic crowd, clearly recognizing that they’d get nothing from participating in the riot, but not everyone. For some, they only grew angrier and angrier every second that passed.

Soon enough, some got confident enough to approach Ainash, who had been standing by the Thunderbird corpse this whole time, weapon in hand as she gazed at them. I’d instructed her not to attack unless they attacked her, and as a group of a few people got closer and closer to her, I saw in her eyes that she was preparing to slaughter them all. Erani was pushed back as well, the confidence of the core dissenters growing more and more.

I’d hoped that if we stood our ground solidly enough, they’d realize there was no hope and leave, but that didn’t seem to be happening. At least, not with the people in front of me. More direct measures would have to be taken. And, really, I was in the mood to take some direct measures anyway, after the repeated shouts and insults.

Enough time had passed that I’d reclaimed a few hundred points of Mana, meaning I was back above 1k. And with around fifteen people having stuck around trying to harass us into giving the Thunderbird up, I had enough Mana to give them quite the fight.

“Hey buddy,” I said to the man in front of me. “You’ve got three seconds.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked. “Three seconds before what? Before you go and steal something else that’s rightfully—“

My count hit three, and I threw my fist into his face.

I wasn’t sure how much Health he had missing at that point, but I was surprised regardless at how weak this guy was to be standing there threatening us. The Level 14 man went stumbling back by my 40-damage strike, falling straight into a couple other people standing behind him and sending all three of them tumbling to the ground.

Instantly, everyone sprung into action. A couple people were sent running at the first sign of real violence, but everyone else hefted their weapons and moved to attack. Erani instantly stepped back to put some range between her and the people in front of her, but they closed around her, preventing her from moving away. They grabbed at Ainash, attempting to hold her down as well, but she leapt through the air and landed several paces away from them. 

You have been bludgeoned. 37 damage.

Your Health is 550.

A strike to my head brought my attention back to the Classers in front of me. Glancing at the man who was lowering his warhammer after hitting me with it, I supposed the force behind his attack was simply not enough to actually move me with the Stats I had and the Health I had remaining.

I reached into my mind and cursed the one who’d hit me with Crippling Chill and nothing else, watching the reactions of everyone else as he shouted in surprise and stumbled backward. These people were still clearly hesitant to attack all-out, and while I’d escalated things to violence, my goal was still ultimately to scare them away, not kill them. Even if they were more damaged and had a lower average Level, they still outnumbered us. And we still weren’t sure what everyone’s Levels were. It was still totally possible that there was someone here whose power could rival the combined force of all three of—

You have been stabbed. 229 damage.

Your Health is 321.

A spear’s tip pierced into my chest from the back of the crowd, the force of the strike throwing me back, and instantly, the crowd surged forth with newfound confidence. Hands grabbed me and pushed me even further back, they brandished their weapons and prepared to strike me all at once.

Shit, who’s here that can hit me that hard?!

I wasn’t even sure whether I wanted to fight harder and risk escalating things further if there was someone here who might be able to kill him in two more hits.

Activating Noxious Grasp, hitting the people in the front with Crippling Chill to slow them down, and backing up, I scanned the crowd for someone who looked like they may have been capable of such a thing. It’d come out of nowhere, so it probably wasn’t anyone in the front. So a bladed weapon with a long reach…

Then, in the back, I caught a glimpse of an ornate halberd. In fact, the specific decorations and shape of it looked familiar. I followed the handle of the weapon downward to see who was holding it.

A mean face stared back at me. A face I recognized. Was that…the Cavalryman I’d had a fight with in that previous timeline? Godo? Holy shit, I knew he was a couple Levels higher than me, but he can deal that much damage in a single attack? What kind of Martial Arts does this dude have?

The halberd shifted and twisted in its owner’s hands, like it was itching to change shape into something else. It was clearly Enchanted, but I had no idea what its Enchantments were—maybe they were what caused it to deal so much damage? I hadn’t actually seen it hit me, so maybe he’d done something with its shape-changing to hit him harder than normal. And despite being a Cavalryman, the man’s mount was still nowhere to be seen—just like last time. Did he just not have one? How? Wasn’t mounted combat the whole point of the Class?

Still, with his strength, I was pretty confident I’d end up seeing Godo in the tournament—there was a possibility I’d be fighting him. And he seemed like a tough match. Now was the perfect opportunity to fight him and figure out what was up with his build, and how that halberd worked. Plus, I was really just in the mood to fight that guy. Who in the hells stabbed someone with a 200 damage attack without being provoked, anyway?! What would he have done if I had less Health and he ended up a murderer? What an asshole.

I stumbled a couple steps further back, then pointed at him where he stood in the back of the crowd. “Duel me.”

The crowed hesitated for a moment at my words, and Godo blinked, realizing I was speaking to him. “What?”

“Let’s fight, one-on-one. You’re strong, and I wanna see who’s better.”

“I…” His eyes unfocused for a moment in the way they would if he was looking at a System notification. “You’re a Level 21 Minute Mage? What in the gods’ names is a Minute Mage?”

“Why don’t you find out?”

He chuckled, adjusting his grip on his spear. “You know what? I’ve had a stressful day. I could use a moment of respite pummeling this entitled foreigner into the ground.”

“Great. Let’s—”

You have been sliced. 62 damage.

Your Health is 259.

A blade hit me from the side, and I stumbled back, my Health no longer enough to protect me from feeling the pain. Blood began seeping through a shallow slice in the side of my stomach.

Looking over, I saw some random sword-wielder standing ready to hit me again. I instantly hit her with Crippling Chill and started raising my hand to shoot her with Ray of Frost, but then another man stepped forward and swung his warhammer straight at my head. I managed to duck below his strike, but several others came forward and attacked all at once. Spells and steel rained down on me from a dozen different sources, and I was far from able to avoid them all.

In a flash, over 100 more damage was dealt to me, all in a whirl of motion so chaotic I could barely tell what was going on at all.

I managed to escape from the crowd, backing away with my arms out, ready to shoot anyone that approached. 

“I wasn’t even hurting any of you!” I shouted, clutching my bleeding gut, not that it did anything to help the pain, or anything about the injuries that covered the rest of my body. “What part of ‘duel’ do you dumbasses not understand?!”

“Don’t let him get away!” someone from the crowd shouted, and they all surged forth. In the back of the crowd, I could barely see the face of Godo, who seemed somewhat annoyed that the duel had been so quickly interrupted.

I shot at the people as they came, but my dwindling Mana reserves couldn’t keep up with the amount of people attacking me. Nor could the amount I had remaining support something like an Expedite-fueled retreat, considering the likelihood that many of these Melee-Types probably had movement abilities of their own to keep up with me. Plus, with the number of people who’d just seen my Class, I’d have to kill everyone here anyway.

From the sounds of explosions and screams in the background, it seemed like Erani and Ainash had probably also gotten into fights of their own. A use of Time Loop would have to be spent here.

But I couldn’t figure out what we’d have to do, other than just give up on killing a Thunderbird and returning home. Technically, we’d already gotten entrance into the tourney since we’d completed the crystal collecting challenge before, but if we were able to get even one Thunderbird pelt and take it back, that’d mean one of us would be able to fully skip the free-for-all opening round of the tourney. It’d be a great perk to have, if we could find a way to accomplish it.

But maybe it simply wasn’t possible. After all, we’d have to find a way to not only kill the thing, but also skin its entire corpse while fending off attacks from our fellow adventurers the whole time as well. And then transport it all back to the city.

As the tip of an arrow flew right toward my eye, I decided I’d had enough pain for this timeline, and activated Time Loop.

**********

And then I was back. Erani, Ainash and I were on the road toward the same Fields of Lightning, and the moment I returned to my own body, the two of them stopped and looked at me.

“Is something the matter?” Erani asked. “Are we in danger right now? Or was it with the Thunderbird?”

“Thunderbird,” I replied.

“Is bird too strong?” Ainash asked.

“Not quite. It’s pretty tough, but we had it handled. The real issue is the competition. Way too many people there ready to scavenge off our kill. We ended up getting overwhelmed.”

“So what’s the plan, then?”

“I’m honestly not sure. Really, I came back ready to ask you two for your own input. Let me transfer my memories of everything over to you, and hopefully we can come up with something on the way.”

Ainash nodded and I grabbed her arm, closing my eyes and focusing inward to send my memories to her. I kept as much detail as possible at the cost of time, considering my hope was for one of them to see something in the memories that could help them come up with a new strategy.

As the minutes passed while I walked along with my eyes closed, hand clasped around Ainash’s arm while Erani guided us, I suddenly got a message from Ainash in the middle of the transfer. Instead of anything specific, it contained a strong feeling of warm emotion. Like a swell of pride. I frowned, unsure what that was about, but then seconds later…

Threshold reached. 

Your Bond with Level 33 Draconiad has deepened.

Due to your Bond being deepened, it has undergone the following changes:

Stat Increase: From 26 to 28

XP Gain: From 13% to 14%

Heat Resistance: From 55.3% to 57.9%

Mana Increase: From 130 to 140

Mana/Minute Increase: From 10.3 to 11.1

“What was that about?” I asked, sending the message slowly as I was forced to focus simultaneously on both it and the memory transfer.

“You liked my bird plan!” she replied. “In memory, I used bird to attack the bad guys, and you thought, ‘Wow, she is good!’”

She must’ve gotten to the point where she’d ridden the Thunderbird into the line of the adventurers and crushed them. It was a pretty awesome move. Seemed like she really appreciated whatever compliments I had been thinking at the time.

“Also,” she continued, “think I have good idea. We need way to get bird feathers without fighting Humans?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Anything to avoid a fight like that one, pretty much. You can see how poorly it went.”

“Then this is really good idea! You will like it a lot.”

“What is it?”

“We will fly the bird all the way back to Human settlement!”

In my surprise, I lost my focus and the memory transfer almost fell through. After recollecting my mind and ensuring it wouldn’t suddenly fail, I sent, “...What? Like, riding the bird?”

“Yes!”

“Riding on its back? All the way over this entire desert, back to the city?”

“Yes!”

“The vicious, powerful monster? The one that can use a special ability to deal damage to anyone touching it whenever it wants?”

“Yes!”

A grin spread across my face. She was right. I did like this idea a lot. “Alright, kiddo, let’s hear it. How are we gonna pull this one off?”