So the creature ran straight for her, shrugging off another volley of bolts with its metallic spikes. But the rampaging beast only made Ana smile as Lia so eloquently ripped off a movie by saying that they weren’t alone with it, but that it was now alone with them.

As she was already working on an earth spell, she quickly changed focus, snapping her hands as the beast hit the ground and skidded for a few meters, losing all the momentum of its charge. The high gravity making the beast unable to get up on its feet.

That gave her companions plenty of time to surround it and to aim the crossbows at its head. Seven seconds later she dropped the spell, the bolts struck the beast's head as Hammer’s maul struck the beast back, denting the spikes. It roared in pain and fear, but it was too late. A few more hits and it went down for good.

With the monster dead, Ana took her time in creating a fort around it, and the rest of the day was used to dissect the beast while resting up. Angel went around healing any scrapes and bruises. Looking at the girl working was an enchanting sight, as she prayed to some deity unfamiliar to Ana, making all the injuries vanish, leaving only small scars in their place.

Her situation made it difficult, even if she liked the girl, she was still technically in a relationship. Marriage didn’t really exist in this world as many races had their own cultural way of celebrating a union. But polygamy, harems, and same-sex partners were also the norm. There was also a separation between sex and family. One was a fun way to pass the time, while the other was for making offspring. She liked the relaxed view there, but her thoughts were culturally engraved over decades and it was hard to let go.

The team in charge of harvesting parts was running out of daylight, but Ana came to the rescue once again by shaping the earth in the form of hooded lamps around the carcass. She then placed wood to act as fuel inside and ignited them, having the light exit only in one direction, and with several such constructs, rudimentary flood lamps were created.

She kept the heat high with the use of magic, which took some effort but it was good practice for her. That also meant her experiment had to wait. Back in the previous fort, there was some leftover iron from the gate, and with help from Crow, she was able to craft an iron snowboard.

Her idea being flight. She did hit herself in the head a few times for not thinking of that before. There were dangers of course, but she could always use air magic to descend more slowly instead of crashing down in case of a fall. But the problem was also controlling the iron while she was on it, and it took some mental gymnastics she needed to work on.

They stayed the next day, letting the tough hide they got cure in the sun. Ana didn’t know any process to cure hides but any help the team needed, she was happy to provide. The free day did allow her to practice more on her flight, but when she got good enough to hover without the risk of falling off, another job came her way.

As they traveled the next day she would rise above to get a good view of the surrounding area. Being new to the whole thing meant she didn’t know what was important or not, but she needed more time to practice before she could safely bring someone with her.

Lifting more mass also meant using more energy and creating stronger magnetic fields, which meant leaving anything else metallic back. But the trick did help her spot smoke in the distance, and after telling Ghost, Nimble and Pops rode ahead to check it out.

The others continued forwards as the smoke came from quite the distance away, and if it was indeed a monster they needed a better position to set a trap in. An hour later the group was dug in, nothing fancy crafted as Ana might be necessary for the coming fight.

Three hours after that the two riders came back, finding a large camp of some clansmen that inhabited these regions. They weren’t a threat, in fact, some even traded monster parts for steel weapons with Ghost’s band. This not being that specified clan they just avoided running into them as they continued.

Two more days passed and while Ana got to know each member better, everyone was still divided between calling her Silver or Rose. For some reason the name Silver annoyed her, and thinking that she knew magic better now she was contemplating on trying to change her hair color again.

But Lia nipped those thoughts in the bud, revealing that Ana’s first time using the spell had destroyed her original hair and that allowed Lia’s to emerge, so unless she wanted to go bald she would lay off those kinds of spells. And that was enough for Ana, as the long hair did get in the way quite a bit, she loved having it and it was worth the trouble in her opinion.

Three days later boredom started to kick in, as they hadn't encountered a single monster. Nimble did hunt some game for them, and a few traps did fetch food overnight, so their diet wasn’t only on preserved food, still, Ana didn’t mind much. She never had an appreciation for food, eating anything offered.

Besides the constant walking, the tasteless food, and the boredom, she found the experience to be well worth it. She was learning which plants were safe to eat and which weren’t, what leaves made good tea and for what purpose, she learned what to keep an eye out, what tracks belong to which animal, and the best of all how teamwork easily took down a monster.

Her being there only sped up the process, as they could spend less time setting up the camp, and traps became a quick fix instead of an hours-long process. They were quite ahead than they would usually be without her. Even monsters became a little safer to hunt. She did notice that none of them were required specifically, but their combined efforts made everything easier.

The next two weeks passed on without much happening, they would make camp, scout the surrounding area and when they were certain no monsters were present, they would continue.

With her skills, it was too dangerous and frankly a waste to join a scouting team, and while she understood the logic of it, the desire to learn what they did when scouting was ever-present. But one can’t always have what they want. They were approaching the first-month line, having killed two monsters meant that they were doing good so far.

They had made it around the mountain, not going too far up as not all mountain clans were peaceful, only those on lower elevations didn’t attack on sight. And with there not being any settlements for them to visit, their journey continued with them circling back for the trip back. The plan was to visit five more villages before heading home.

Before leaving the mountainous terrain they had met the Skullsplitter clan, at least that's how Gramps had translated their name to her. Ana wished she could do the same language spell Nathaniel did, but magic influencing the mind was tricky at the best of time and she simply didn’t have enough fine control to pull it off. But she was getting there, each fort formed a little faster with less energy required, each time she took the skies she got better at it. So the idea of joining this group turned out to be an excellent one.

They traded the spare weapons they brought with them, mostly axes, pikes, and arrowheads, for two large hides. If the clans had decided to work for the kingdom, Ghosts band wouldn’t even be necessary. The hides looked normal but Ana could sense that even after the beast was slain the skin remained infused with magic, the same way her armor was.

Two days after trading with the clan, trouble had found them. Ana was in the sky with Nimble, as he had the best eyesight in the group when they noticed an enormous bird in the distance. Sounding the alarm they descended, Nimble jumped off getting his things from the cart while Ana remained in the air. She had enough practice now to cast other spells while she hovered, thanking herself that she had decided to pursue electromagnetism so long ago.

Taking a better look at the bird it showed that it was just that, a big bird of prey. Not being an ornithologist she didn’t know if it resembled a hawk, falcon, or an eagle, but it was the size of a bus that sent chills down her spine. And what's worse it was airborne, meaning only she and five others could target it.

Still hovering near the ground she heard Pup say: “So that’s Rhymo’tek.” And the pieces of the stories she heard in the past few weeks clicked together. The team had encountered this monster several times, but it always flew off if it felt it was in any danger. A year ago a dedicated group was formed to hunt the beast down with no success. It was smart enough to avoid a trap, and with good eyesight, it had a good view of their group even if it was several kilometers away.

With their small group and two loaded wagons, to the beast, the group must have looked like easy prey. The bird was still in the distance and coupled with them leaving the stony ground gave Ana the chance to form large sharp cones from the earth around them, protecting the group from an aerial attack.

So instead of swooping down, it started circling above them. In the extra time that provided Ana reinforced the spikes as much as she could before starting to lift up. Several voices of protest sounded behind her but both she and Lia were tired of playing it safe.

As she started to gain speed, her thoughts wondered for a moment. A year ago she would have hidden under the cart while screaming, a few months ago she would have played it safe and listened, and now she was charging to fight a monster that a group of a hundred dedicated personnel couldn’t. It made her heart pump the same way it did the first time she lost control, that evening she was returning home with Eva.

But Lia was there to help her now, the friendship with the spirit meant a lot to her that she now considered them one and the same. The few seconds of remembering had passed, and now the bird had noticed her and changed its trajectory, leading it straight towards Ana.

But that was part of the plan. A simple plan was born from Lia’s idea, as the bird wanted to eat her and could do it in one bite, she would make it so. Turning direction she let the bird chase her, making it work for its final meal. Focusing more on the flight she started releasing as much wild magic as she could, forming a bubble around herself as she hugged her knees.

The bird was fast, she had to give it that, catching up to Ana in a few seconds but by then there was a solid bubble of unstable magic around the platinum-haired wizard. White gold, now there was a nickname.

In a blink of an eye the bird swallowed her, she imagined it must have looked terrifying to her teammates and it made her feel bad for a second. But that feeling was gone as she flew through the other side of the bird, leaving a hole covered in blood and dust from its mouth to its sphincter.

“Chew on that asshole!” She yelled in triumph as the bird fell towards the ground, her aim was good enough that the bird landed in an open field with a loud bone crashing boom.

She descended to mixed sounds of anger and congratulations. While the team went to check on the bird she got chewed up by Ghost for not following his command, to which she played dumb, saying she did not hear the order. He most likely knew she was playing dumb, but also knew that she wouldn’t have risked death without a plan so the lecture wasn’t a lengthy one.

Salvaging parts from the bird was an impossible task. The bird had plenty of good parts which would go to waste but they didn’t have space on the carts to lug so much behind them.

Thankfully there was lumber around, enough to create another wagon. The problem was that their tools were not up to the task as they had given most of their spare supplies which included saws, to the clansmen.

The feathers and the beak were still intact and were the prime target to collect, alongside the talons. Anything else would be buried as monster meat was toxic to those who couldn't digest magic-infused meat. Ghost could stomach a little bit, but Ana didn’t have an issue, except that even she had standards.

From what Nathaniel had told her, monster meat could revitalize the mage and allow them to use more magic, but she avoided the act so far. No luck today though, as she needed to get a lot done. While Jic prepared a meal for her, she helped the cart building team.

The problem was they needed supplies they didn’t have, such as nails and a way to make planks and wheels. Nails could be solved with the iron from Ana’s hoverboard, and the planks could be made as well without a saw, but crafting wheels and an axis was an issue.

And the biggest issue was how to move the cart, as the beast of burden was already quite busy. But having access to a lot of monster meat gave Ana an idea that made Ghost laugh but he gave her the go-ahead to try. While sounding impossible, it was only improbable.

Using her earth magic she created a platform out of dirt and clay that acted as a proof of concept. Seeing that she could do it, the crew had built a platform out of wood, some three meters wide and fifteen meters long. It took them a full day and night to construct the platform. Once it was done, Ana used air magic to create more air pressure beneath than above the platform, achieving lift.

It was a strain to keep the spell active, and without a good material for a skirt, Ana had to use magic to maintain the pressure difference. She had tried the already prepared meat and was surprised how good it tasted, and what was better it had enough magic in it that made her plan plausible. Loading the parts was easy with a movable platform and with people like Hammer and Mane, who could most likely have lifted an actual bus.

She couldn’t maintain the air spell for long but the next village was only a few days away and the road leading to it didn’t go through any forested areas, so they decided to use the platform until another cart could be acquired. It was the best idea out of a bunch of bad ones, so they went with it. The good part is she didn’t need to walk anymore, the bad part was that walking was easier.

With Jic riding with her, preparing food as they went she endured. Still, it took some time to digest the meat, and while in theory, she could eat the meat live, she refused. It was enough that she ate it at all.

Their pace had slowed to a crawl as Ana couldn’t make the platform move at higher speeds. Building fortifications had become a routine, but for the next two nights Ghost refused as Ana had done enough, and the group set up camp the old-fashioned way.

While not as safe as a dirt fort, their perimeter was solid and she could see the experience the group had. They reached the nearest village as the sun was setting. Keeping the spell active through the day had been exhausting, but also rewarding as it gave her a new perspective on using magic.

The village in front of her was quite different from the last one, as the walls, houses, and even the streets were peppered by tall wooden stakes. The whole village looked like some post-apocalyptic society but having used the same defense against the bird she understood the necessity.

And the joy of people when they saw the large beak and feathers was immeasurable. That night they all enjoyed some rest and relaxation, as the village threw them a party. Even their request for a cart and an animal to pull it was accepted without a second thought.

The feathers were too big for any existing carts, but that was soon rectified as they connected two wagons with all the spare wood they had once the platform became obsolete. Not wanting to rush, the group had decided to stay the next day in the village, taking this night off and using the day to check the surrounding areas for any other monster activity.

That night while having a conversation with Angel she learned why Ice had been avoiding her so much, the woman apparently had a bad experience with a wizard. And from the story, Angel told her she understood why, and yet still had the desire to befriend the Icy woman.

In the few weeks, they were traveling Ana spent most of her time with Angel, the girl providing excellent company. In that time Ana only grew to like the girl more but had kept a professional manner to not send mixed messages. From what she knew of elves from Nathaniel and from watching Angel, Ice, and Nimble, she knew they didn’t believe in getting tied down. Nimble and Angel's parents had known each other for a long time before they decided to have a child one day, and then a few decades later the same happened.

They didn’t live together, and Nimble had grown up with their father while Angel with their mother. It was common for a couple to stay together only until the child learned to walk, and then it would be up to the decided parent to take care of them.

They were around the fire with songs and drinks passing around, with everyone in a great mood. Ana was in a discussion with Angel, laughing with one arm around the girl when in the middle of Ana’s sentence Angel leaned closer and planted a kiss on her lips.