Hunter watched the eagle, and it studied him in return. They both didn’t know what to expect from each other, and there was a heaviness to the air that Hunter didn’t expect from an animal. He gingerly used his newly armored hand to flip open the clasp on the cage, and then he stepped a couple of paces backward. If the bird was going to come out in a storm of talons and feathers, then he wanted nothing to do with it.

The eagle used its beak to nudge the door to its prison gently. It creaked open on its hinges, and then the bird was free. It turned its head to study Hunter as if it were a trick. The young warrior raised his palm to show that he meant no harm.

“It’s okay big guy—err, or girl. You’re free like Willy. No need to stick around.”

The eagle waddled out of the rectangular opening and shook itself to ruffle its feathers. The eagle looked like it was trying to forget its experience within the cage. Hunter smiled, happy that he had been able to accomplish this minor good deed.

Hunter turned to walk away, and he heard a loud crash behind him. Hunter turned his head and saw that the eagle had forcibly thrown the cage to the ground. The young warrior didn’t know if the bird had used its wings, talons, or beak to accomplish the act of petty anger, but he didn’t really care. Hunter probably would’ve taken his anger out on the prison as well. Shrugging, he continued to walk while pulling up his mini-map.

As he was checking the closest group of targets, Hunter heard the sound of wings beating the air. He glanced over and then let out a gasp of breath as he felt the weight of the eagle land on his right shoulder. Hunter was surprised by how heavy the large bird was. He could already feel the talons of the eagle piercing his cloak and tunic before sinking into his flesh. Hunter hissed in pain but cut short when the eagle leaned its head close to his mouth, and Hunter got an up close and personal look at its flesh-rending beak.

“No, no, you need to go,” Hunter implored while reach his hand to shoo away the bird.

The eagle shrieked and nipped the young warrior’s unprotected hand.

“Ow, fuck!”

Hunter pulled his hand away and pressed his bleeding finger to his mouth. There was a small gash in the skin, but he recognized that he could’ve lost his finger if the bird wanted to. Hunter looked over at his feathered companion and saw that the bird was calmly running each of its feathers through its beak.

Hunter had no idea what he should do with the eagle. He didn’t want to keep it, and he didn’t like its beak so near his sensitive eyes. Not even his mask would protect him from a direct hit to the eyeball. Hunter sighed heavily.

Hopefully, the bird flies away when I increase my speed. I still need to check my next target anyway.

The plan decided, Hunter opened his mini-map and saw close to fifty red dots scattered around the map. There were more targets than he expected. If they were ghorum, then that was a significant number of enemies. He hadn’t actually checked what his next quest would entail, and James hadn’t elaborated. Since the lopsided ring of red dots was in the same range as the ghorum, he put two and two together.

Hunter guessed the closest ghorum was less than a mile away, so he broke into a sprint. The eagle lost its balance and clenched its talons out of reflex. Hunter grimaced but didn’t try touching the temperamental creature again. Instead, he focused on pouring on the speed until the whipping wind chilled his body. Despite Hunter’s plan, the eagle remained firmly latched to his shoulder, and it showed no signs of leaving anytime soon. It even lifted its wings a little bit to catch the breeze caused by Hunter’s passage. The action only caused the talons embedded in Hunter’s should to shift and elicit new waves of pain. If he couldn’t get rid of the animal, then some sort of shoulder protection would be his top priority.

They continued traveling like this until they came upon Hunter’s target. Like he had expected, it was a single ghorum that appeared to be sleeping. At the sight of the demon, the eagle relinquished its hold on Hunter’s shoulder and flapped its way into the air. Hunter didn’t miss its presence. He could already feel trickles of blading snaking their way down his chest. He looked at his shoulder and lifted the edge of his cloak away to assess the damage. Sure enough, crimson blood was starting to seep through the fabric of his tunic.

I’ll never be able to keep good clothes at this rate.

Hunter set his gaze on the ghorum again and froze when he realized the monster was not very far away, and its eyes were fixed on Hunter. The demon’s bovine nose was twitching in its stupid head, and Hunter hoped that it wasn’t the blood that the beast was smelling.

Who am I kidding? Of course, it smells me.

Hunter’s first run-in with the ghorum had revealed their advanced sense of smell when the demon had been able to track his scent even though Hunter had concealed himself. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that his blood would alert the foul creature.

The ghorum rose to all fours and bellowed its challenge. The primal sound raised the hair on Hunter’s neck. He realized that this would be the first time that he faced a ghorum without the element of surprise. After the monster announced itself, it rose until it was standing on its hind legs. Hunter had to crane his neck to peer into the demon’s bovine maw.

Maybe, I should have tried to sneak up on it.

Hunter was considering fleeing and then surprising the demon later when a piercing shriek split the air. Hunter’s jaw dropped when he saw his eagle launch into a dive. It tore through the air in a blur of brown and black feathers. In seconds, it had collided with the ghorum with its talons outstretched. The bird’s dagger-like weapons tore the flesh around the monster’s eyes before it laboriously beat its wings to get back into the air.

Hunter gasped as the ghorum lifted its hands to smash the offending animal. He realized that he couldn’t let that happen. He flipped his staff from one hand to the other and then used his left hand to pull two throwing spikes from his bracer. He channeled his mana into his hands and used a sidelong throw to propel the first spike.

The thin metal rocketed from his hand as the black wind stabilized it’s flight and turned it into a spinning airborne drill. He threw the second one hand a second after the first. The spikes crossed the distances in a couple of seconds as the ghorum was preparing to turn the eagle into a bird pancake.

The first spike pierced the right hand of the demon before punching through and burying itself in the monster’s face. Hunter winced in sympathy as the black wind whipped from the projectile and started draining the ghorum’s vitality. Part of its face went slack and then shriveled before the spike evaporated.

The demon forgot about the eagle and tried to cover its face. It was just in time as the second spike plunged into the ghorum’s left wrist and lodged itself in the bone. It roared in pain as the same debilitating absorption worked its magic on the limb. Black wind flooded the wound, atrophied the ligaments and tendons within. When the magic dispersed and the spike evaporated, the demon was left with a useless left hand.

Hunter winced a second time. He and his left hand were quite close, and he empathized with the demon for its loss. Thankfully, the eagle had finally capitalized on the distraction to get airborne once again, and Hunter wanted to take advantage of the demon’s momentary weakness.

Hunter yelled a battle cry as he stormed toward the ghorum. He had never screamed like that before, but he had seen it happen in movies, and he had to admit that it made him feel better for rushing into certain death.

Hunter’s first attack was a wind-augmented sweep to crack the demon in its knee. He felt the bone shatter as the impact reverberated through his staff. Thankfully, he had the strength and presence of mind to hold on to the weapon even though the recoil hurt his hands. Part of him whispered that he should use the recoil to launch further attacks.

Taking his own advice—or, more likely, the advice from his Kata of the Black Wind—he whipped his staff around to land another blow on the ghorum’s other knee. Instead of losing the force of the recoil, he let the staff rebound in his hands so that he could spin the staff overhead until he settled into a position with his knees bent and his staff leveled toward the ghorum like a spear.

The entire exchange lasted less than a second and a half, and the attack hadn’t gone unnoticed. The ghorum bellowed like a cow with a voice modulator as it shakily tried to compensate for the damage to its limbs. Unsuccessful, the demon started to topple, and Hunter hopped back to avoid the impact.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Hunter charged his staff with his mana until a black whirlwind spiraled around the tip. Instead of throwing the staff, he thrust his newly made wind lance into the skull of the ghorum. It pierced through flesh and bone until the miniature hurricane exploded within the monster’s head. Hunter was pelted with a shower of gore, and he wanted to throw up.

I think my mouth was open.

As Hunter was distracted by the mess, the beast flailed out with an arm that caught Hunter in the chest. He was propelled from his feet and flung a short distance away before crashing into the ground. His staff remained lodged within the dying corpse.

Hunter’s existence became an infinite moment of white-hot pain. The tortured scream that slipped from his lips surprised even him. His eyes wide in agony, he peered down at the damage. What he saw made the acid in his gut rise to his throat. Even though he had only been struck a glancing blow, he could tell by the misshapen lump in his tunic that some of his ribs had been broken. Blood was pooling into the fabric, and the sight was increasing Hunter’s nausea.

He checked his health and saw that the hit itself had wiped out three-quarters of his health. What he had left was slowly trickling away due to the bleeding.

Okay, don’t panic. You have the tools to get out of this