"If you don't hurry... it'll be bad for you," Jenna cheerfully reminded the two who instigated the change in plans - and her requisite need to search the cluttered room. "Just one more step."

Both turned to see the golems they defeated reform and slowly slog forward into the passage.

Lisanna and Mathias jumped at the same time in the gale that nearly knocked them back further than they started. They just barely stepped on loose dust and leaves when the golems stopped.

And the birds locked their eyes on them.

Mathias paled when the first dove hopped into the air stream, extended its wings, and was launched like a bullet towards them.

He instinctively swung the staff - and feathers, blood, and gore covered them both.

The rest of the doves' eyes burned red and there was a hyena laugh from above.

The harpies who seemed to create and ride in the air streams grinned savagely as they licked their lips. They were still in the passage, but it was two meters across. There was more than enough for another to navigate - except the first that saw them hovered, swung its forearm (and wing) down, and a gale launched five of the doves that did not move in time tumbling forward.

Mathias hit two of the five, and Lisanna's blade bisected another. Two slammed into their chests and exploded in a mass of blood, feathers, and cartilage.

Both wheezed at the sudden force, but the laugh grew higher and higher pitched; two more joined in on the fun as twenty doves were launched by their airstreams.

And the first harpy dove forward.

Mathias gritted his teeth, taking a step back as he angled the staff slightly, sharpening its edges disproportionately, and spun it. Normally a useless parlour trick to help one train spear handling, it caught in the wind, and he barely managed to keep a hold of it as the wind forced it to spin faster and faster - and the staff released a stream of blood, gore, and feathers like a windmill.

And then he saw the extended talons a few meters from his face.

He stopped the staff, covered his face, and ducked.

He took three blows of the erupting birds on his chest, thigh, and shin, and the screech from above marked the first in a new series of scars on his back - the talons gouged out vertical lines from each shoulder before releasing at the shoulder blade.

And Lisanna cried out as she was launched back five meters into the muddy pools they just came from.

A harpy's body twitched as it rammed her full-force, talons cutting deep into Lisanna's stomach before the blade finally reached its heart.

The wind stream forced the talons to marr her stomach and blood slowly tricked out of the torn uniform.

She did not have time to lament about the sudden restyled, frayed crop-top she was wearing she heard a dull thump behind her. She dragged herself up and stepped into the wind as the golems stopped again - with a final parting gift of a scatter-shot of projected, hardened mud causing her to lurch forward, head narrowly missing a dove that voluntarily joined at the sight of the bloodied bodies that caked themselves on the walls.

Mathias was back on his feet, weakly relying upon the gale to keep the staff spinning as he concentrated on keeping his hold with each sudden force threatening to knock it aside.

He was already down to a single knee and the two harpies charged down a newly formed wind-stream.

They were targeting him since the doves couldn't breakthrough.

He groaned, waited to the last second, and dove to the side, using the wind to push him back. New claw marks appeared adjacent to the undine's inflicted wounds, but the two pulled themselves up just in time for the first to be crippled by Lisanna's blade.

One thrashed its sole, remaining wing, knocking the other that rode tightly beside it into the wall, and Lisanna managed to side-step the first body as the wind calmed for a moment.

She took both of their heads from behind - and a force pounded her back. Mathias was slow to restart dealing with the doves and a few got loose, even managing to pause the staff before it could generate momentum and clip his body. Thankfully, their trajectories were almost entirely out of their control and they crippled themselves by the nearby walls.

"... Of all possible birds..." Lisanna groaned, barely turning around in time to see new talons flying over Mathias and towards her.

Her blade managed to cut both talons, but the force pushed her hard into the wall. The harpy screeched right in her face as one wing broke from the force and the other coiled around Lisanna tightly.

Her sabre was pinned against the wall by the force of the torso and the wind that held her.

And then the screeches stopped. A dove followed after her, exploding against the harpies all-too-human face.

Its neck was snapped to the side and blood and feathers entered into Lisanna's mouth.

She gagged at the sight, but the body was just the first.

Behind Mathias, a flurry of blood, feathers, and gore dyed the wall he pressed himself again near the entrance as another harpy directly charged him. He responded too late.

Its talons gripped the spear deftly and pressed him against the wall, both rolling back and rotating three full times as doves dove into the positions he was just standing in. Lisanna bolted forward and stabbed the harpy through the heart and it finally let loose.

"... Th... that's five..." Lisanna said numbly.

"..."

Both groaned, not understanding how this could be done alone. The buffeting wind alone would destroy anyone's agility.

However, a simultaneous impact on their chests goaded them to concentrate.

More than three-quarters of the doves were gone; five of the ten harpies remained, laughing at the sight as they circled around the arena.

They were waiting for the two to enter.

"... Uh, ladies first?"

"... If I get hurt, who'll deal with the fire one?"

"... True. That's why I'm keeping you around."

"... But then you're dealing with the water one, idiot."

"... Like I said, is that necessary?" Mathias shook his head and refocused. His body begged him to stop, but he pushed forward just the same. He had a little time to fix his fracturing spear, but not nearly enough to help mend his wounds. His left arm alone was almost unusable.

Lisanna pulled him forward with her and had no energy to refuse.

----

The moment they stepped into the arena proper, the remaining twenty-five doves settled into groups of five around each harpy.

There was a collective laugh as one dived just-out-of-reach of the two, and another's wings brushed against their necks.

Lisanna reacted quickly and turned to cut, but there was no give.

The winds generated from the three that flew around them up high set up a buffeting barrier that bit into their skin as they tried to bypass it.

And the other two harpies circled slowly, tauntingly, as they hovered twenty meters on their left and right. Their doves were set forth and they charged in right after.

Mathias swung the staff horizontally, knocking two doves from the air, and cutting the harpy's chest before she reeled back. His back was pushed into Lisanna's - and both stumbled from the force, spinning around drunkenly.

Lisanna saw the hovering harpy and weakly jolted forward after scrambling to her feet. She cut off a third of its wing, causing it to crash down as another thump was heard behind her. With another half-step, she slashed open its neck, and the screech it opened to release collapsed in its gurgling throat.

Lisanna cringed at the sight, half-keeling over and turning her body part-ways.

And she was pushed down.

Lisanna saw the flash of scarlet talons, the scattering of blood, and then another - and another. Mathias' face twitched with each strike as the cold spear was pressed against her exposed stomach, pushing up into her chest.

Chips of ice drifted on her face as the three harpies narrowed their encirclement. When the first came to swoop again, she pushed him aside - and their assaults sent him sprawling further.

The harpies talons scraped against her cheeks gingerly, but she managed to stumble upwards and cut down one that swept past her.

The doves that accompanied her dove down to the crippled body and began pecking away at her neck. Another seemed to stop as Mathias was dragged three meters, back pressed against a shattered tree, as the harpy's sternum shattered and it vomited blood on him. He was only a few feet away.

The doves were more excited this time and they challenged each for a taste, all launching themselves at full speed at the stationary body held aloft by the broken spear.

And the last harpy screeched in primal fury as it charged Lisanna.

The doves were at her side and Lisanna could only blankly see the talons coming as a bloodied body fell into her line of sight. The harpy reeled back at the sight of the corpse launched her way, but with the doves scattered and the harpies reaction too late, it became tangled up in the other as Lisanna was pushed aside roughly by the flailing wings, and there was a clear crack as it hit the ground.

Mathias groaned as he pulled himself up and pointed to the yellow orb that was sitting in a perch in the harpies nest of broken trees. "Your turn."

High in the air.

Lisanna limped across the broken tree branches, trunks, and scattered leaves, before finally pulling herself up to a large base, and knocking off the emerald orb so she did not have to exert any more strength than necessary.

She stared at it blankly. While somewhat bulky, she managed to stow away the orb safely.

The flickering flames rekindled themselves and the dull blue light on the leather grip burned more brightly. She found herself with a little more energy than before. Energy that would be needed as she saw the embers and ash which was spontaneously swept into the air through the next passageway.