The matriarch took flight.

Holding on for dear life, Riaz buried his face in the fur on the beast's back while rapid winds brushed across the entirety of his backside.

It was difficult to keep his eyes open as the bird launched itself into the sky like a flying arrow; when met with the wind, his eyes would water and further disorient him.

Riaz had failed to kill the beast, to both his and Tigris' surprise.

His every action leading up to now had banked on one attack to kill the beast, yet, when the time came to deliver the fatal blow, his blade couldn't pierce the matriarch's sturdy hide.

Was he too weak or was the matriarch just too strong? His confidence faded with the dawn of his failure.

Much too late did he remember that wildebeasts were classified by their strength, similarly to how human cultivators were.

In terms of cultivation realms, a wildebeast such as the Razorquill Matriarch could be viewed on par with an early-stage Expert warrior. Its true strength however lay in utilizing her flock to wear down the mark.

Tigris, while theoretically able to contest the matriarch, fell prey to the flock's attrition tactics and as long as they remained airborne, he faced a disadvantage as a close-range fighter.

The same could be said about Riaz while, as the weaker of the two, he never held a realistic chance to walk out of this alive in the first place.

Was he foolish to oppose the flock? Perhaps.

Just dealing with the matriarch's flock had left him spent, so how could he, in his fervor to slay the beast, not once consider it out of his league?

As thoughts of self-blame raced through his mind, the matriarch violently tossed around mid-air, attempting to shake Riaz off as if he were a nasty gnat.

Occasionally, Riaz felt a loss of gravity and had long stopped making sense of what was up and down.

He could slowly feel his stomach churn; how fortunate that he had not eaten much on this day.

As if it wasn't enough to be shaken like a rattle, he had to suffer the matriarch's infernal screeching from up close.

Clearly, this beast took no pleasure in being mounted like such and so the matriarch rolled, then cut back and forth through the air, exerting no small amount of effort as it grew more furious with each passing second.

Back on the ground, Tigris watched with great excitement and raised his glaive at the airborne comrade.

"Haha, Brother Sword, how could you leave me out and have fun all by yourself?" he shouted amidst boisterous laughter.

Little did he know that there was not a smidgen of fun felt up there and Riaz felt his heart racing for a different reason that couldn't be further removed from fun.

Fearing for his life, his heart rate spiked to the point of hurting when the beast withdrew its wings and sharply descended.

Riaz's body had begun to separate from the matriarch's, prompting him to pour all of his strength into the two arms wrapped around the moderately long neck.

When the matriarch eventually unfurled its wings and broke its fall with a mighty beat of its wings, Riaz's entire body remained in motion, destined to plummet towards certain death.

No way could Riaz possibly allow that to happen.

He fiercely held on, hugging the matriarch's neck, even when he could feel the bones in his arms and shoulders crack ever so slightly.

"No!" He trembled from the shoulders to the fingertips, his joints threatening to snap.

Just when he felt weakness overtake him, his most primal instincts kicked in and screamed at him, as if to protest.

He couldn't allow himself to die; not like this. He had to keep on fighting.

Almost like words of encouragement by another, the words resonated in his head, stoking the fading fire in his chest.

As a result of his intense desire to live, his body began to change. His chest pulsed with a searing heat as the white of his eyes gradually turned black, revealing a pair of vertical slits.

Unaware of the changes to his body and the faint wisps of red mist, that subtly gathered around him, he roared at the top of his lungs; it was a roar filled with rage and sorrow, emotions so dense that it put his sanity into question.

However, the power behind his roar couldn't have painted a clearer picture: no amount of pain could discourage him from fighting to hang on.

Gritting his teeth, he ignited every smidgen of qi in his tank while the matriarch cried in response to the heavy pull on its neck.

He overcame the force behind his fall, but then, hovering more than a hundred feet above the ground, the matriarch began to aggressively launch attacks with its beak.

It screeched and clamored mid-air, clamping down on his armor from various angles while Riaz dangled and sought to avoid injury by swinging back and forth.

"Piss off, you vulture! I ain't dead yet!" he complained loudly and cursed at the matriarch.

It didn't take long for him to realize that the matriarch's beak was capable of leaving dents in his armor, therefore he pulled himself closer to its chest and neck, limbs drawing in so fast that one would think him a frightened turtle.

The matriarch's anger surged in absence of any success and led to the creature soaring higher with Riaz dangling in front of its bosom.

The two opposed gravity and Riaz labored to breathe. He felt a pull on his insides but never let go of the matriarch's neck; he wouldn't dream of it.

He hardly had time to find his bearings before he was subjected to the next disaster.

As the matriarch rose higher than before, it retracted both of its wings without a warning and layered them on top of Riaz.

About a dozen razor-sharp feathers cut into Riaz in various ways, but the latter was too out of it to feel the pain anymore.

Meanwhile, the situation on the ground was no less of a mess.

Tigris fought over a dozen birds and stood his ground with just one glaive held firmly by both hands. Having slain another bird, he then caught sight of a winged creature's descent.

His eyes narrowed and a glimmer of bestiality took shape within them as he spotted Riaz's head sticking out from the bird's bosom.

Seeing Riaz hold on the entire time, Tigris felt relieved and smiled spiritedly before sprinting in the direction the matriarch was heading.

Back in the sky, Riaz struggled under the cutting embrace of a fully grown razorquill matriarch and left a trail of pearly blood drops in the sky.

He wasn't dead yet. It was a fact he testified with another maniacal roar while the sound of his heart reverberated loudly.

The blood oozing from his wounds gathered. It felt good when it did. He knew it shouldn't, but it did.

Just like that time in Gridan, the raw emotions began to pour out from his chest, enticing him to lean into his anger, to let go and tear his enemy apart without a shred of human mercy.

The resistance in his mind grew weak, and, ever so slowly, lean in he did.

His instincts told him what to do, and before he knew it, multiple holes had formed in the matriarch's wings, wherefrom pearly strings of crimson writhed like tendrils.

A resounding screech drew the attention of all the birds while Tigris had long been focused on catching up with Riaz and was surprised by what he was witnessing.

The matriarch had been wounded by this warrior shy of reaching the realm of an Expert.

Startled by the pain, having not expected this weak human to injure it like so, the matriarch hurriedly spread its wings with a misty spray of blood.

After being forced to take the brunt of what was yet another sudden stop in the bird's momentum, Riaz didn't struggle as much as before and jumped into action as soon as the matriarch came to a halt.

He released one hand and placed it further up the matriarch's neck before twisting his body to lift one leg with the intention to climb up; but how could it be that easy?

The matriarch wasn't going to just let it happen.

It snapped at him viciously, blinded by a frenzy, and once more assaulted Riaz with a series of beak attacks.

Against such aggression, any maneuver, such as climbing the wildebeast, became extremely difficult. Luckily, the matriarch was too preoccupied with flying and couldn't direct all of its efforts into attacking.

In addition, it wasn't just the matriarch's fury that rose, but Riaz's as well. The desire to mount the wildebeast and slay it nearly drove him to madness.

It wasn't before long that he successfully slipped onto its back and clung to it tightly, blind to the injuries he had sustained to come this far.

Tigris shouted from below, "Too far, you are too far. I cannot help you!"

Riaz could hardly hear the words but reached for his leg regardless. He then drew his dagger from the holster on his thigh and raised it high.

Tigris saw the prominent gleam of the metal and his instincts told him to get ready.

The dagger in Riaz's hand came down with swiftness and precision, gouging the wildebeast's right eye.

A vicious laugh mixed with the rampant sound of gale winds blowing.

Riaz rejoiced at the success and watched the wailing matriarch recoil mid-air before her flying path turned unpredictable.

Up and down, in spirals, loops, and circles, they flew. The matriarch screeched, with her flock chiming in before it eventually took a nosedive.

On the way down, Riaz squinted his eyes and braced himself for impact.

Despite all of his fury, he feared that he might have pierced the matriarch's brain, which is the equivalent of cutting the rope he was climbing.

He had no intention to turn into a pancake, thus instinctively clung to the matriarch while letting go of the dagger in a bid not to injure the bird further.

"Die alone, damn it... but first let me down safely! Fuck!" he cursed loudly.

Would praying to the Gods make up for his impulsiveness? Somehow he doubted it and thus continued to spew profanities at the bird to vent his misgivings and regrets.

At the very least he felt reassured when he heard the matriarch's cries, confirming that it wasn't dead yet.

Finally, he had found a ray of hope to cling to.

So long as the matriarch was forced to land, he would be fine, or so he thought, but then he directed his gaze down to where he discovered a flashy display of sparks.

It was Tigris. He had bested numerous flying wildebeasts, culminating in a slew of dead birds at his feet.

As he led his glaive in an elaborate series of movements, the entire extent of his body was used while producing a varying amount of lightning energy.

He was scraping the bottom of his tank, much like Riaz, but he knew that the latter was relying on him to pick up some slack already.

"Haha!" he loudly exclaimed. "Just wait, Brother Sword, this Tigris won't leave you waiting for long."

Tigris drew a sharp breath and, with a tremendous amount of willpower, subdued his trembling limbs, only to be assaulted by the rampant flock of razorquills.

A bird's talons came swooping down and closed in on his shoulder and heart; the attack was barely thwarted by Tigris' qi armor which he solely deployed to protect his vitals.

His body was riddled with wounds, both deep and not. However, he complained not even once and focused on conserving his strength.

Whenever the matriarch changed course, he would break into a sprint but now that the matriarch was sharply descending, he chose to hold his ground and prepared to make his move.

The situation was critical and Tigris knew that his lightning arts needed time to reach full potency. He could ill afford to be interrupted by the enemy during the sequence of movements.

He sliced at the bird clinging to him and killed it but another arrived shortly after to pester him. With birds continuously interrupting, it was near impossible to execute the lightning arts on time.

Tigris felt a hair-raising sense of urgency and quickly lost his temper when yet another bird flew at him.

His hand stretched out in front of him and snatched it by the throat.

"Get lost, you oversized chicken!" he yelled, slamming his head into the bird's and cracking its skull. He then tossed the bird and walked aside by a few paces.

The hairs on his scalp stood up and a subtle light flashed through his eyes.

"First form!" he took a stance and gauged the distance to the matriarch, but eventually forced a stop to his movements, visibly caught off guard.

"No! No no no no," he shuddered visibly and shouted, "you're too fast!"

Tigris quickly realized that he was one step too late and the matriarch was rapidly closing in.

His gaze involuntarily panned over to all the carcasses around him. These accursed birds had completely thrown off his timing.

His empty hand grasped at his hairs, pulling at them as his forehead wrinkled.

"Think, think!" he began to pace back and forth.

To no surprise, the matriarch was clearly swooping towards him. His flashy performance must have alerted it to the danger posed by him.

Less than a hundred feet away, the frenzied bird's remaining eye fixed itself on Tigris, its cold talons already curling in anticipation.

"Aghhhh, I hate thinking!" he yelled, then raised his weapon to meet the matriarch directly.

Such absurdity. Riaz could tell that Tigris would likely suffer heavy injury if not perish if he took this attack head on.

Fearing for his comrade, his inhuman eyes widened with mad resolve.

He pulled himself up, dragging his body along the wildebeast's neck while he gave a bellowing shout and his fingers bled from all the strength he was exerting against the tough hide.

No longer hesitating, he grasped the dagger lodged in the matriarch's eye and violently twisted it.

Immediately, the matriarch stalled under excruciating pain and threw its head back. Riaz, too, cried out in pain as his eardrums nearly burst under her most jarring cry yet.

"Hah! Brother Sword!" blurted Tigris out in near disbelief, but his keen eyes spotted an opening and so he took immediate action.

Quickly, while the matriarch's torso was exposed, he gripped his glaive like a javelin once more and infused all of his remaining lightning qi into it.

He trained the tip on the matriarch's blindside and hurled his weapon with everything he had, following which the glaive left his hand with a crackle and whistled across the air.

His strength left him along with that weapon and so it seemed as though his entire soul was pulled out by the weapon.

The small time window afforded by Riaz was all Tigris had. Brittle in body, his consciousness shaking, he nearly fell to his knees as he observed the glaive.

Everything rested on this shot, but this time they were in luck.

The glaive reached the intended mark and struck the part connecting the wing to the torso and punched a hole right through it.

The results showed quickly.

A partially mutilated matriarch now swerved without warning and, loosely flapping its broken wing, struggled to maintain flight as it threatened to crash into the large rock formation nearby.

"Ah... B-Brother Sword," uttered Tigris then willed for his tired feet to give chase.

Barely a handful of seconds passed since the matriarch crashed sideways into the large rock in which one of Tigris' glaives had remained stuck for a while now.

The matriarch's entire body plowed through the largest rock and disappeared behind rubble and dust while the upper half of the rock formation collapsed with a rumble

Tigris soon reached the foot of the rock formation. He ran unhindered by the flock, of which the last birds were either dead or had fled in face of the matriarch's fall.

He called out with a raspy voice, "Brother Sword!" and his head turned to search the area.

A few moments later, his surroundings shook and Tigris was struck by the sight of dark, shiny metal wings.

The matriarch emerged from the rubble, wings first, then came the torso, and finally the head.

He couldn't see Riaz anywhere and his brows furrowed as a result. He put his infirm body into motion, his blood boiling with anger.

Tigris stomped in the direction of the matriarch and the matriarch focused its remaining eye on him around the same time as the dust around them began to settle.

"Brother Sword! You've died bravely!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he approached, "Rest now as you drink at Rahut's table!"

The matriarch postured with an arched back and one wing spread wide, a mere display with no substance, as both Tigris and the wildebeast were nearing the brink of death.

It was evident that the situation was worsening but Tigris was neither discouraged nor intimidated in the slightest.

He gave a war cry in form of a lengthy "Brother Sword!" as he placed a foot in front of him, but then a long, whirling object came in between beast and man, with one end driving into the ground at an odd angle.

This sudden event put a stop to his heroic moment and made him widely open his eyes.

What was in front of him was his glaive, more precisely the one that he had first discarded to aid Riaz in his jump.

His eyes lit up with understanding and turned towards a nearby pile of rocks, where he could make out a human silhouette leaning against a rock within the settling dust.

The first thing visible was the usually ashen grey hair that was now discolored by blood.

Overjoyed, Tigris wanted to call out to the silhouette but knew he had to prioritize the threat and thus promptly raced toward his weapon.

The matriarch opened its beak and showed its sharp tongue with a cry as all the hairs on its fur rose.

The weakened Tigris grew closer, stepping through thick dust that made it hard to see.

Under such conditions, he tripped and fell, bashing his knee against one of the rocks before getting back up.

He faltered slightly but had yet to give up.

The matriarch chose the moment of his fall to attack, but a rock projectile struck its neck and drew its attention momentarily.

Riaz whistled and picked up another rock to grab the matriarch's attention; however, the matriarch disregarded him completely, turning its attention back to Tigris.

Seeing Tigris reach for the weapon, the matriarch flicked its healthy wing towards the weapon and fired a flurry of feathers.

Tigris grit his teeth and leaped in the direction of his weapon.

As his hand made contact with the cold shaft, he pulled himself closer and faced away from the incoming feathers.

His left hand tugged at the glaive, dislodging it while his right arm was riddled with sharp feathers.

He howled with pain and charged forward and everything that followed happened quickly.

As soon as the matriarch sensed danger, it tried to strike with its beak in a desperate attempt to kill Tigris, but he evaded with ease and swung the glaive at its throat.

It was a fatal blow, followed by a splatter of blood. Tigris, however, was not reassured and thrust his glaive towards the matriarch's heart.

He buried half of the blade inside the bird's chest before he finally let go of the shaft and stumbled backward.

He had done it. The matriarch was finally slain and collapsed to the side.

Riaz, too, felt like a rock had been lifted off of his shoulders. His frantically beating heart finally showed signs of calming down.

He slowly hobbled toward Tigris, who broke out in cheers, despite looking like a bloody, old rag.

It was then that Riaz remembered his sword. He postponed the celebrations and scanned the surroundings with shaking eyes.

He continued to drag his feet across the rough terrain while his eyes focused and unfocused repeatedly until he eventually spied the shine produced by the blade of his sword.

It reflected the glaring sunlight towards him, almost like in an attempt to call out.

"There... you... are," whispered Riaz with dry lips, the only wetness in his mouth being that of blood.

It didn't take long for him to arrive next to it, after which he picked the sword up and inspected it.

His breathing stalled as he stared at himself in the reflection.

The eyes reflected on the blade couldn't be farther away from a human's. It was a grotesque sight framed by unkempt grey hair that was heavy with blood.

'Am I really a devil? Am I a monster?' he asked himself when face to face with the image of his current self.

It was odd how calm he remained, but then again he was tired. He closed his eyes and by the time he opened them again, his eyes had returned to normal.

The dense smell of blood permeated the area and Riaz eventually realized that it would only attract more wildebeasts as time passed.

As if to prove him right, he spied a moving wildejack through the corner of his eyes.

"Look at you," he scoffed and scrutinized the lone wildejack. It was clear that the rest of the pack was hidden underground.

The haggard wildejack gnawed at a razorquill's carcass and furtively pulled at it with its teeth.

It seemed as though the wildejack was trying to drag the dead bird down and into a hole while nobody was looking.

Riaz couldn't tell whether this wildejack was the same he had fought before but it mattered little. He was resolved to correct his own mistakes.

Drawing closer to the wildejack, his sword trailed behind him with its tip scratching the ground along the way.

Riaz had lost much of his strength and was close to passing out. In a sense, it was foolish to engage the wildejacks but he was numb to logic.

Something deep within was driving him to move forward. As he did, he breathed and gathered the rich qi in the surroundings and circulated it throughout his body.

He had overcome the sickness and at some point learned to process the untamed energy as it entered his body. He couldn't convert all of it into strength but just a little was enough.

One more task. He had to complete it. Until he did so, there was no time to rest.

As he approached, the wildejack took immediate notice of him. It yipped and then transitioned into a light growl as if to warn him to stay away.

Riaz ignored any and all attempts to deter him and continued to drag his sword towards the jackal-like beast.

Then he stopped, still plenty of distance between the two, and lowered his head.

The ground before his feet was distinctly different and thus he raised his sword without hesitation, following which he stabbed through the dirt.

Something hard barred his blade from digging deeper and, immediately after, the earth shifted with another wildejack lunging towards him from below.

Riaz reacted, having expected such, and stabbed down once more. His blade entered through the wildejacks mouth and pierced its brain.

The wildejack died on the spot, following which its dead body slid down the blade, leaving a perforation on its head.

This time it was Riaz who firmly held the initiative and, in order to retain it, he resumed the circulation of his qi and stepped towards the other wildejack.

It stood its ground admirably, for a time, but grew more restless as Riaz drew closer.

When Riaz was almost upon it, the wildejack chose to flee and quickly turned to face the hole, but how could Riaz allow it to escape?

Riaz snatched the wildejack's tail and lifted the sword in his other hand while the wildejack struggled to burrow into the ground; its long hind legs and claws scratched at the dirt but gained no ground.

The eyes with which Riaz gazed down at the wildejack were emotionless. He quickly thrust the sunbathed blade through the wildejacks anus and twisted the blade.

To ensure that he successfully penetrated the wildejack's vital organs, he repeated the process a few times then stopped once another hidden wildejack made its appearance to help their brethren.

Riaz released the tail and dodged barely while another claw mark formed on his leather chest piece.

He made eye contact with the enraged wildejack while the injured one successfully dug away.

"Was that your mate?" Riaz taunted his opponent, knowing that, while it could not understand his words, it surely must have at least understood his intention.

A crunching noise came from under the wildejack's claws and then it jumped.

It tried to confuse Riaz by leaping to the side before finally lunging toward him, but Riaz remained calm. He minimized his movements when he dodged, though it could be attributed to exhaustion rather than skill.

Finding an opportunity, he cut the area behind the wildejack's joints in a passing and turned around to see the wildejack's legs cave.

"Not... fast anymore, are you?" huffed Riaz and increased his power output, rushing the wildejack and finishing it off before it could get up.

Once it was all done, Riaz didn't bother to harvest any materials and simply turned around.

He slowly walked towards Tigris, feeling the heaviness of each step. It felt like his boots were damp from sweat and his clothes and armor stuck to him like glue.

Just seeing clearly felt difficult in the current heat with the exhaustion piling up, not to speak of the salt of the sweat on his brows, which burned in his eyes.

He grew irritated and bemoaned his current state with a drawn-out groan as he arrived in front of Tigris.

"Brother Sword this, Brother Sword that." he ranted and stopped in front of Tigris. "I have a name, you know?"

He looked down and found Tigris on the ground, motionless.

Riaz proudly declared, "I am Riaz, the one and only disciple of the Blade King."

His back straightened as much as he could in his injured state, but the prideful display served none other than himself.

He looked down again and realized that Tigris still remained motionless and gave no reply.

"How bothersome." Riaz sighed.

Those were his last words before he lost consciousness and plopped down next to Tigris, their heads almost touching as they lay facing opposite directions.

After a while, the subtle noise of footsteps and the clacking of horseshoes rang from nearby, growing louder as they closed in on the duo.

Eventually, a hand reached down and grabbed Riaz by the armored chest piece before lifting him up from the ground.

The hand belonged to a tall man who was none other than Aldean.

He wordlessly threw Riaz over his shoulder and a white horse approached to smell the boy's head.

"Relax," said Aldean to Adel. "Why don't you carry the brat for a while?"

He approached the horse with Riaz but the horse withdrew with chattering teeth.

"What's this?" Aldean insisted and placed his palm on Adel's head. "Don't tell me, you don't like seeing blood?"

Aldean did not need verbal confirmation as the evasive actions of Adel spoke for themselves.

He snickered in ridicule, "Well aren't you like two peas in a pod..."

Aldean assumed a gentle tone and chastised Adel, saying, "Listen, Adel. Your owner is too weak. The brat needs a loyal beast to carry him in moments such as this. This won't be the first time either, do you understand?"

Adel's head panned over and he gazed upon Aldean with glassy eyes. The horse's eyes seemed intelligent from the calm way it looked at him as if understanding what he said.

Aldean tried again and this time Adel allowed him to haul Riaz onto his saddle.

"Good boy, I am sure the brat will give you a nice wash later, so put up with it for now."

Aldean gave Adel a couple of friendly pats and then directed his attention toward Tigris.

For the briefest of moments, a smile formed on his lips.

"How curious."