The wind rulers started eating the fresh Bloodbeak corpses. The vile creatures were barely considered food, but meat was meat. As they enjoyed their first feast in a long time, an annoying sound of wings came from the side. It was a loud sound, with no finesse. It came from creatures who had long forgotten about how to use the wind for their flight. The wind rulers flew up with some pieces of meat still in their mouths. This was their meal. They came in here first, and no one was going to steal it from them. As their opponents got closer, several wind feathers appeared in the air and flew towards the incoming griffons.

With a howl, the talon rulers dodged the spells and dove towards their assailants. They already spread all their claws out in an attacking position aimed at the wind rulers who had such a bountiful feast in front of them. After killing those lesser creatures, the talon rulers would have a meal like they never had before. By getting rid of those pests, they could finally have enough strength to kill the others. For too long, they have been weakened by hunger, and it was but a matter of time until the lack of food made them become the prey.

Another wave of spells attacked the talon rulers. This time it wasn't just wind feathers, but they also mixed a few larger blades in the attack. The projectiles struck one of the smaller talon rulers, making it fall to the ground. In response, the wind rulers piled on the fallen griffon. A flurry of spells rained down on the creature, ripping it to shreds. The other talon rulers cried and dove into the other monsters, causing a large brawl to start.

From high above the clouds, another group of griffons watched as the rulers fought. When the mayhem started, they came down, carrying the clouds with them. Only after they got close to the fresh corpses, the other griffons noticed the invaders. They were called Cloud Rulers, and this is how they always got food. They waited for the rest of the griffons to kill their prey and would wait for the inevitable fight to swoop in and take some of the meat for themselves. A Cloud Ruler was an expert in hiding and disguising itself, but being in such close proximity to another creature who had an acute sensitivity to mana made it easier to be noticed. Still, two among the three grabbed a bite before being discovered. Even after being attacked, they were still covered in clouds, making it harder to see their form.

As the wind rulers had to change targets, the talon rulers jumped at the opportunity to grab some of the meat. The other two groups attacked the magic-less griffons, who got their own piece of meat. A standoff began with all the different monsters staring at each other. Striking with their talons and spells, but no one seemed to be willing to go in too deep.

On the other side of the plains, a griffon watched the fight. Soon it would have enough food to last awhile, but it wasn't the moment for it to strike.

Not just yet.

Hera and the other dwarves watched the entire fight, hidden by a small rock formation created by Lija. The three cloud rulers were all level 8 and had cloud affinity. Not that this was a surprise. Even while they were walking on the ground, they still wrapped themselves in the same dark cloud that was in the sky. The team used that situation to study what each monster did to develop strategies to fight each group. When the standoff began, Hera could feel her poison in more than half of the creatures. Apparently, after eating the corpses, they were infected with her spell. That only meant that things could work even better for them.

"Should I try to make the poison stronger?" Hera asked. The griffons were still staring and snarling at each other. Some animals could do that for hours, and she wasn't in the mood to wait that out.

"That spell. Am I correct to assume that it can be increased with intelligence?" Pyrrick approached her. It was a bit uncomfortable to do so since they were all lying on the ground with almost no room to move around.

"Yeah. At least, I think so. There is nothing that says otherwise. Why?"

"Let me change your buff for the moment. Instead of increasing all your attributes, I'll focus solely on your intelligence. Then you can improve the poison."

"I'm not sure if it would work. If the poison control spell only affects what's already on the target, increasing my intelligence might not do a thing," Hera replied, after thinking for a moment.

"It is not even worth a shot?" Totrak asked.

Hera looked to her left, "Oh, it is. I'm just warning that it might not do anything," Hera turned back to Pyrrick, "Whenever you're ready."

The mage nodded and cut off the buff, putting another one in place that focused on intelligence alone. Instead of having a buff that got close to double all her attributes, this new spell turned her 30 points into 85. It was almost triple Hera's base stat. She could feel her mind going into overdrive and her thoughts moving at such a rapid pace that it was overwhelming. She had to take a moment to get used to the speed she was thinking, but after close to a minute, she got comfortable enough to change her focus to the griffons. There were a total of 9 monsters in that standoff, and among them, only three weren't poisoned. If she killed all the ones with her poison mana inside, there would be one of each type left.

Hera pulled 300 mana from her mana stone and triggered the spell. She increased how deadly the poison was as much as she could without making the reaction too sudden. The griffons seemed smart. They were protecting the food or waiting for a moment to sneak around. The last thing they needed was for them to realize that someone was messing with the creatures. A new idea popped into her mind. It was something she never tried before, but doing a small simulation in her mind seemed to work. She created an extremely dim floating light and sent it towards the griffons. During that time, some of the monsters were already gasping for air and clearly weaker than they were just a moment ago.

"What are you doing?" Blue asked.

"I'm trying to trigger my new skill."

"The ailment thing? How?"

"Blinded is also considered an ailment. It's been a long time since I used it, but I have the equivalent of a flashbang spell," Hera explained.

"Isn't that going to warn them of where we are?"

"Maybe, but I doubt any of them will leave the corpses for a less guaranteed meal."

"Be careful. I understand you are excited about this new skill but do not put my team in danger," Naka stared at Hera.

"I won't, don't worry," Hera turned to Pyrrick, "After I use this spell, can you put the other buff back?"

"Sure. It will take just a moment."

"Perfect. I'll let you know when I trigger it," Hera kept moving the floating light that was even smaller than a firefly in the middle of the day until it reached the corpses, staying in the middle of all the griffons, "Count to 10 and swap the buffs."

Pyrrick nodded and started counting while Hera activated her blinding flash spell. All the griffons were staring each other down and were hit by the effects. At the same time, a notification appeared in front of Hera.

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Ailment Mastery triggered

Cloud Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

Cloud Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

Talon Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

Talon Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

Wind Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

Wind Ruler ailment bonus effects x 1

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In response to the flash, the three griffons that weren't poisoned jumped to corpses. Hera couldn't tell if they did that out of fear of losing their meal or to try to snag another bite. The others might have thought the same thing, but the moment the blinding flash hit, the poison inside them became stronger. Even worse, the blinding flash also became stronger. It didn't simply hinder their vision but made the affected griffons lose grasp on the direction they were facing. The monsters started coughing and attacked anything and everything around. Their movements helped the poison move through their bodies, while the ones in the middle began a fierce battle.

The wind rulers noticed that there was something wrong and turned to the rock formation. They might've been blinded, but their sensitivity to mana was still working perfectly. Hera and Blue looked at each other. Despite trusting the walls created by Lija, they had no idea if the monsters would break the rocks. If they did, the team could have to deal with the structure's collapse.

"Lija, open this up. You guys fall back while Blue and I fight them," Hera ordered.

The mage didn't miss a beat, and in a moment, the entire construction went back inside the ground. The dwarves headed back while the humans intercepted the creatures. They were still affected by not just the poison, but also the blinding effect of Hera's spell. Not wanting to give them any chance to fight back, Hera lunged at the first of the wind rulers, brandishing her handaxe. The creature evaded the attack, but the explorer didn't let up. With a flurry of blows, she pushed back the monster and start damaging it. It was a bit weird, the griffon was still blinded, and Hera could see that using her [Observe], but as she moved her weapons, the wind ruler shifted to evade the attack. It was as if it could see her attacks coming, even despite the blindness.

Hera went for another strike, but she prepared a paralyze spell on her other hand this time. The moment she had a clean shot, she would let it fly. After a couple of misses, the opportunity arrived. The wind ruler stepped back, and Hera sent off her spell. The green claw snapped around the monster's mouth, who couldn't change its direction. This was a bit of a disadvantage the creatures had. Since their feet never touched the ground, it was hard to make consecutive small bursts of movement. Their wings were too big for that.

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Ailment Mastery triggered

Wind Ruler ailment bonus effects x 2

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The notification appeared before the wind ruler even touched the ground. Now that it was paralyzed, it couldn't maintain its height. Hera jumped on top of the creature, slamming her handaxe on its neck, finally killing it. She didn't expect to take so long to kill it since the poison already weakened it.

Looking to the side, Hera saw Blue grabbing a Wind Ruler by the wings and started pulling, ripping them out of the body before slamming her fist against its head repeatedly.

"Holy crap, Blue!" Hera gasped.

"What? You did worse," Blue finished killing the monster and jumped off of it.

The other monsters were still in the middle of their fight, but aside from the three still engaged in a battle, all the others were in terrible shape. The blind effect had gone away, but during that period, the monsters thrashed around wildly, harming even their own kind while trying to recover their senses. After all that, it looked like they weren't even able to keep fighting.

"Lija, do you want to try to hit one of them?" Hera asked the mage.

"Is that a good idea? What if they turn on me?" Lija asked.

"I agree. I should be the one to test that," Naka chimed in.

"No, you shouldn't. You have to get closer to them. While Lija can strike from a long distance. It gives us more room to kill them before they reach you," Hera replied.

Naka stared at her for a moment, "You are not wrong. That is a better option."

The group turned to Lija and gave her some room to attack. She created a giant boulder and flung it at one griffon that was a bit far from the rest. A cloud barrier enveloped the creature just before the impact, but instead of destroying the stone, the monster was pushed back several meters before stopping. When the cloud barrier vanished, the talon ruler was still there, heaving and trying to recover from the poison. Its eyes remained the same, and there was nothing else happening. There was no burst of strength, no angry cry, and no armor appearing around it.

"Is the barrier weaker?" Totrak asked.

"I guess," Blue replied.

The monsters fell to the ground, one by one. They were still alive, but too weak to keep moving. At the same time, the three who were fighting continued their struggle. The battle was even on all sides, and it seemed like the only way to end was with a 3-way K.O. As Hera and the dwarves watched, something moving from beyond the clouds descended quickly. It was an enormous creature, much larger than any of the other griffons. If the ones they saw until now were the size of horses, this new arrival was mammoth. Almost twice as tall as the rulers or the bloodbeaks. It had dark feathers and a long, curved neck, but its head was white and completely naked.

The monster landed on top of the three creatures that were fighting and crushed them beneath its feet. Following that, it created several cloud daggers around the area. The spell hit every one of the griffons, with two of the daggers even flying at Hera and Blue, but they dodged them without an issue. All the wounded creatures perished, and the monster started grabbing all the corpses with its four limbs, even picking some up with its mouth. It gathered all the bodies on the ground, leaving only the one bloodbeak that was already mostly eaten, and flew up. This time, it didn't bother to go above the clouds and headed to the north side of the plains.

Before it left, Hera managed to use her [Observe] on the creature.

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Scavenger Ruler – Level 12 – 2% (Decay Affinity)

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