Once R47 made its way back, it was surprised to see a whole horde of eyes working together to make the clearing more habitable. Some were slowly building a wall out of rocks and crystals. Others were using their wings to rip out grass and pile it up. The final couple were in torpor on a pile of grass.
R47 flew, with its recruits in tow, towards R01. It was at this point that R47 started to notice an unfamiliar sound. It was a bit like the sound of an Eye’s corpse falling to the grass, but quicker, quieter, and less crystalline. Looking back it saw something clear falling from the sky. Lots of something. The falling somethings was approaching so fast that R47 and the other couldn’t react before their lenses were being covered in the something. The Eyes could still see, somewhat. Everything was a bit blurry and messed up due to the liquid.
Most creatures would blink, but Demon Eyes are nothing but an eye freely moving inside a protective crystalline lens with a pair of wings. Still the lens was water proof so they weren’t in direct danger of blindness from the falling liquid, but some of the Demon Eyes with more delicate wings were starting to struggle. Thunder rumbled.
A powerful mental voice shot out from the center of the foundling encampment. Look up, foes. Not Us. R01 somehow had gotten a substantially clearer and louder voice. But ignoring that, R47 looked up. The falling droplets made the illusion of falling upward towards the floating purple ‘32/10,’ standing in sharp contrast to the grey clouds. And right in front of the numbers, descending quickly, were the Not Us. They were similar to the Demon Eyes in that they both had wings, but the Not Us were significantly more uniform; they were feathered with black feathers and grey highlights. R47 recognized the wings as the wings of a corvid, based on the grey highlights, likely Storm Ravens. R47 didn’t know what a Storm Raven was just that the Not Us had wings very similar to it.
Focusing back on the falling forms R47 noticed that the Not Us were increasing in speed and starting to sparkle. R47 heard R01 shouting about ‘impact,’ but couldn’t react before one of the Not Us suddenly turned to a small bolt of lightning and shattered one of R47’s recruit’s lens. The Not Us reformed and pecked at the crystalline pile that had been R11, eventually exposing its globulus eye which was promptly pecked up.
R47 was annoyed. R11 could’ve gotten R47 gifts, now it wouldn’t ever. R47 shot a flaming thread at the Not Us, but it was quickly extinguished in the rain. Still the thread was scorching hot, and sticky. The Not Us screeched, and desperately tried to flap away, the thread connecting the Eye and Not Us started going taught. Before being pulled into the skies against its will, R47 shot the other end of the thread at a nearby Not Us. The shot missed but startled the targeted Not Us, causing it to flap away from the Eye it had been targeting.
R01 mentally screamed Aim for the wings. Before shooting itself, iris glowing teal, into a bird's wing at just the right time to knock it out of the air. R50 was able to disable some foes by turning their feathers to stone, but there seemed to be some factor that made targeting the birds with the calcifying ray weaker than compared to the grass. When not directly targeted, the stone fell off in sheets and the parts of feather that were turned to stone were turning back to their natural black.
While the fight raged on, the mental orders from R01 grew scarcer and scarcer as mana conservation became more important, even as the cost decreased due to fewer and fewer Eyes to connect to. The sound of thunder became almost omnipresent. The only positive thing about the rain was it helped maintain R47’s temperature while firing flaming hot threads. But quickly enough, the Eyes started to lose their mana. Surprisingly, R01 was the first to run dry despite having the largest mana pool and no external signs of mana usage. Next was R50, who only realized it could save mana by turning the Not Us to stone then using their ability to manipulate stone to stack them. R47 managed to hang on and still had mana by the time an unexpected party joined the conflict.
Very few of the Not Us actually died. One was hit with a scorching sticky ‘fire’ ball—however, the attack couldn’t really be called ‘fire’ anything considering the weather immediately put out R47’s attacks—while under R50’s stun, and was cooked before it could wash off the offending goo.
[Your party has slain foe: Storm Raven level 6. Experience earned.]
[Thresholds met: leveling up. Level 3 -> 5. Free stat points available.]
**
R01 was so tired, even to the point its mana pixie wings were starting to flicker from its vibrant teal to a dull weak blue. Every movement cost R01 so much mentally. R01 just wanted to crack and die, No I don’t. It reminded itself. The tiredness was other, the desire to lay down was not but another foe for it and its cohort to face. Thunder rumbled.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
While R01 couldn’t see the future anymore, it had spent enough time observing the behavior of its cohort’s foes to know their movement. It tried to rush to knock another foe from the air, but its wings finally betrayed R01. Turning a translucent blue R01’s wings stopped all lift, only providing a gentle gliding force. It couldn’t even call for aid, so scarce was its mana reserves. The foe squawked and flapped up, avoiding R01 hurtling form. With nothing to stop it, R01 only flew far away from the fight. The storm obscured the visage of its cohort.
R01 quickly looked over its notifications, only a few of which mattered.
[Your party has slain foe: Storm Raven level 6. Experience earned.]
[Your party has slain foe: Storm Raven level 5. Experience earned.]
[Your party has slain foe: Storm Raven level 6. Experience earned.]
[Experience postponed due to Achievement [Passifist]. In order to gain this experience, you must lose the Achievement [Passifist].]
[Duty fulfilled, experience granted.]
[Duty fulfilled, experience granted.]
[Duty fulfilled, experience granted.]
[Duty fulfilled, experience granted.]
[Thresholds met: leveling up. Level 3 -> 6. Free stat points available. Class stats distributed.]
[New skill available, select skill?]
Yes. R01 accepted the prompt trying so desperately to ignore the lulling feeling of the wind against its lens.
[Choose a skill: [Martyr], [Soul-Bound Gaurd], [Endling General]]
R01, as quickly as it could, skimmed the effects of each. [Martyr] allowed R01 to sacrifice its energy pools to fill its cohort, though with diminishing returns the larger the cohort. [Soul-Bound Gaurd] allowed R01 to anoint a Gaurd who it shared a bond with, allowing a much stronger energy pool sharing effect, teleportation, sharing of certain skills. [Endling General] gave R01 a boost to defence, regeneration, and strength based on the will of its cohort; as long as another ally was flying, so would R01.
R01 ignored the feeling that this decision would impact future skill choices, and chose the one it liked most, considering the scenario.
Soul-bound Gaurd.
[Choose a guard.]
R01 thought about who was strongest in its cohort. R47.
[Offer sent…]
[Offer rejected. Choose another guard.]
R01 was hurt but chose to ignore the rejection till later. Who was the loyalist among R01’s cohort? R50.
[Offer sent…]
[Offer accepted.]
R01 allotted all its free stat points to dex and wisdom. And through its new bond, R01 used its ability to teleport to its guard. Only to be surprised by what it found.
**
R50 was tired; it lacked the foresight and observational abilities that allowed R01 to fight without mana nor did it have the mana saving skills of R47. R50 desperately tried to avoid being struck by the birds. The only good thing about fighting long enough to run out of mana was that the Eyes weren’t the only ones to be low on mana; the birds no longer used their attack where they turned into lightning and zapped straight through an Eye.
But despite not having the advantages of its friends it did have one thing they didn’t—physical strength and clawed Dragon wings capable of slashing—It raked its claw through the flank of one the Storm Raven. The cowardly corvid fled, fast. R50 wasn’t fast, at all. Using the dregs of mana it gained since the last time it used mana, R50 manipulated the fallen stone flakes to obscure the vision of a Raven midair. R47 quickly shot a claw-width burning thread above the blinded bird, then immediately below with. The entangled slightly scorched bird fell, screeching.
R50 heard the ping of the [foe slain] notification, but didn’t have the time to look at it. Three birds were coming from the distance, their forms backlit by the floating purple 14/10 behind them. The thunder was getting louder, almost deafening. R50 only had enough time to wonder why it was so loud before a familiar massive form intercepted the three corvids. A massive flash and the delayed rumble of thunder. The cooked bird carcasses fell, feathers glowing like fresh embers.
R16 had arrived. And it was mad. YOU: NO: ATTACK: WEAK!
