"Humm hmm hum hum huhmm"

Relaxed humming came from within the vehicle bumbling across rocky grounds, the driver used but a leg to steer it leading to many bumps, some sending the big spiked ride a few meters into the air while others only caused it to skid a bit

No matter big or small though there came a rattle with every bump, armors and weapons flying around in the back causing much noise, YuJu however seemed oblivious to that and merely surveyed the road with a casual look about him

Though sometimes he could be seen clenching his right hand before letting loose, clearly feeling uncomfortable

"I should have taken someone with me to load the stuff back in"

He complained, using his functional right hand to move things from the secret storage back into the car was painful more than it was tiring

"Maybe I should have left all of them inside the vehicle to begin with, not like I could have transported them without it if it got stolen"

The thought lingered in his mind for some reason, that is until he realized why he couldn't store said weaponry

"Ahh, darn I forgot to leave the crow back at Hortus… this is going to be a bother"

Sure it would be a good while before the spatial feather got filled up to the brink of rupture but it would mean he couldn't store anything in it, unless he wanted to gamble on the corrosive liquid not damaging the equipment that is

"? Bad things always appear concurrently"

Peering into the distance he saw a trail of dust led by a pack of birds, well featherless bird like creatures to be exact, the beasts looked to be chickens only with a slimmer body overall, a very, very, large beak and speedy legs kicking up a storm

'That's some speed they got, can't outrun them and looks like their locked onto me, a frontal clash it is then'

Pressing down the throttle pumping more speed out he made up his mind to clash with the ugly birdies

"Hugaa!"

The one leading the charge squalled, then with two of its comrades split to the left while the remaining two went right, they slowed down while making some distance as he approached until they came to a semi halt, seconds before he passed them they rotated and shot off into a sprint making it look like a race more than a chase

'Avoiding a frontal assault, cautious and has a semblance of intelligence, it's not one of those mad beasts then'

It made sense that the creature would be somewhat intelligent to survive in these lands since it didn't seem that strong

'Weird though, how come I've never heard of it then? With that speed it shouldn't have been overlooked as it would make a great mount'

Thinking he might as well try to tame one he slowed down allowing the birds to flank him

The one who squalled from before approached the side steadily, seeing as it was spiked at several different locations from both the sides and the front it decided to move to the back of the vehicle and peck, or rather smash, at it to whittle down whatever this sliding thing was

Its comrades weren't as cultured as they rammed themselves into any spike free part they could find almost sending the vehicle tumbling if not for its heavyweight

'Wild in their attacks, no special ability it appears?'

He continued to observe from within as they took turns sending it left and right, after the outer shell received a good beating he decided the beasts had nothing but physical strength and great speed

'This should b easy'

Without any tricky skills to watch out for, at least none so far, he decided it was time to end this bullying session

Grabbing a spear from the messy pile behind him he used it to fix the steering wheel exiting out of the hatch

The beast at the back could see it open but the others were none the wiser, not that it made a difference anyway for his stealth was beyond these bird brains

Pshhpshh "GUU!"Guh-"

Soft sounds of flesh being popped drowned quickly in the screams of the victims, at least until one of them was abruptly cut as it continued in its ramming trajectory, slamming face first into one of the spikes for a quick, somewhat painful, death

Following the poor fellow's death there remained only the sound of wheels and quick heavy steps for an eerily long while, it was the calm before the storm however as all grieved for their comrade with a menacing squall, ramming into this treacherous enemy with anger and frustration in hopes the hard shell crack sooner than their brain

'Facing an unknown enemy and in the circumstances where their comrade died without them even knowing how they chose an all out suicidal attack rather than retreat, I see now why this species wasn't known back then'

Such filial species never lasted, if they went into a craze each time one of them died and fearlessly assaulted the enemy they would die eight out of ten times, most other species had preservation instincts as top priority, well at least those who survived the Infidome did

'Time to-' "Huaa!"

All of a sudden the leader jumped at the hatch with surprising speed, its large beak prying into the content of what it thought to be a hard shelled beast

'Almost hit me'

YuJu dodged by a hair's breadth, spontaneous actions like these were the hardest to avoid

'I should keep this one alive, as for the rest…'

Looking at the crazy beasts slamming themselves into a meat pump he decided to be merciful and end the misery right here

What followed was grief stricken squalls as blood blended marred the yellow ground for but a moment before being buried under the trail of dust, wiping any evidence of the encounter in this vast desert