Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Northern Siratha

- Bjørn ~ (Back a few minutes)

We were making our way along the path to Morva Asari and making great time, but I had a bad feeling in my gut. -What is this uneasiness..-

Right as that thought crossed my mind, I glanced towards the ground ahead of us and saw three massive wyverns walking towards the base of the tree we just hopped to.

-Sh*t.. what are the odds..- As I cursed my worries coming to light, I looked up and saw Thyra holding back anger. I couldn't tell what it was, but something about her anger seemed odd. -What is she..-

But before I could think about it, we got to the next tree and climbed into the rest area.

"Why are we stopping?" Vasilias was quick to voice his curiosity.

"Shh.." Thyra quickly shushed him with her now suppressed irritation. "It's a few wyvern.. some big ones too... Hooh.. lets just take a break here. If we continue, we'll get caught in a bad spot.."

Once again, something about the way she was acting was unusual. -Just what are you planning..-

Vasilias didn't seem to believe her either. "What do you mean we'd be in a bad spot?"

-Right? We could definitely outrun them through the canopy..-

"Couldn't we just kill them?"

His voice was filled with a bottomless confidence that just made my mind stutter. -W..what?!-

Not only me, but everyone in the group looked at him like he was crazy. "Not only are we not strong enough to take on three, fighting wyverns is far too risky."

"Haah.." Vasilias's sigh was full of disappointment.

Almost as if expecting it, Thyra gave an immediate and provoking response. "If you’re so confident, why don't you just kill them yourself?"

-Are you insane?!- "Don't you think that's a bit much?!" -Are you seriously going to send an overconfident kid to their death?!-

Sadly though, it seemed like I was the only one in disagreement. "If he thinks he's strong enough to go kill those wyverns, why don't we let him?"

"Yeah, if he wants to jump to his death, let him."

I couldn't believe it. "But-"

"Its fine Bjørn. Thanks for your concern though." I was cut off by Vasilias as he turned to his wolf. "Stay here for just a moment okay?"

"Woof!"

Almost like he understood what the wolf said, a seemingly unbreakable smile came to his face. "Haha, alright, alright. I'll be right back."

His smile was pure like an angels and reminded me of my nephew. -I need to jump down and save him..- I steeled my courage as he walked outside.

Just after he left though, the entire tree shook.

*BBAAANNGGG*

It was such a violent explosion that it cleared my mind and knocked me to my ass.

-What was that?!- Breaking out into a panic, I hopped up and tried to go outside, but as I did, I was tripped and pinned to the ground by one of the elves in the group.

"What are you-" Instantly filled with a mix of panic and anger, I turned my head to the side to see Thyra pouring a vial of black liquid onto a metal arrowhead and oozing killing intent.

As she looked up at me, she gave a threatening look. "Stay out of this Bjørn. This doesn't involve you."

*Crackle*

*Rumble*

The distant noise of the fight could be heard clearly, but my thoughts were too distracted by a sharp pain in my back to recognize it. -W..what the?!- My head quickly started getting dizzy and my thoughts became slower. -P..posion!-

Doing my best to hold the poison at bay, I watched Thyra walk out of the rest area. No matter how much I wanted to save Vasilias, my own life came first.

Just as Thyra walked out though, Vasilias's wolf stood up and did a little stretch.

To keep him from messing up their plans, the other elf got up to stop him.

She gave the wolf a look of annoyance. “Damn do-”

*thud*

Without making a single sound, her head turned into a bloody mist and her body fell to the ground next to me.

"What th-" The voice of the elf on my back rang out before getting abruptly cut off.

*thud*

Feeling the weight on my back lighten up, I felt a mix of pure horror and admiration. It was a complicated feeling to say the least.

Hastily pushing that feeling to the side though, I tried to crawl to the entrance of the rest area to look outside.

Standing there on the edge of the limb with her bow drawn was Thyra, oozing a crazed bloodlust.

*fwip*

Seeing the arrow vanish off the string, I felt a mix of emotions, but they were immediately erased.

Walking up behind Thyra was Vasilias's wolf.

-W..what is it..-

Before I could finish thinking, a horrific tingling feeling washed over my body and a massive wall of white light appeared in front of Thyra.

But before even a single thought or feeling could come to mind, the world turned to a black and abyssal darkness.

- Vasilias ~

*BRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMmmmmmmmmm*

Slowly quieting down, the cone of light thinned and dissipated.

Finally being able to see behind the cone of light, I saw Thyra with a massive, cleanly cut hole in her torso and blown off arms.

In the next instant, her facial expression eased and she collapsed at the stomach before falling to the ground.

-What.. was that?-

Looking back up towards the edge of the branch, I saw Ilios looking down at me with a proud smile.

-W..what did he do… Was that.. light magic?!- Although at first I thought it was lighting magic, too many things didn't add up for that to be the case.

*Crunch*

The crunch of Thyras dead body slamming against the ground snapped me out of my thoughts.

-Right.. I need to go up and figure out the situation first... It'd be bad if I don't have a guide anymore..-

*Pshh-Fwoosh*

Tapping some low power thrusters as I jumped, I was launched all the way back up to the branch.

Ilios was sitting there with a look of anticipation as I landed.

“Good job buddy!” Unable to hold myself back, I petted and fluffed him for a moment before turning back to the rest area.

-Oh good, Bjørn is still alive.- Not paying mind to the elves with missing heads in the rest area, I walked up and did a scan of Bjørn.

His condition was alright currently, but he had been poisoned. -It shouldn't be lethal, but I'll break down some of it so he can heal faster..-

It only took a few minutes to break down most of the poison in his system, but I was too lazy to try and find the rest. -I'm sure he'll be fine.-

Standing back up, I moved over and nonchalantly tossed the dead elves off the branch.

*thud-thud*

“Haah..” -Now that everything is done and I have time to kill, let's get to figuring out how Ilios did that!- I glanced over at Ilios with an inspired look.

The next two days ended up passing in a flash.

I spent every waking moment experimenting with light magic and photon manipulation but didn't make any remarkable progress.

To put it simply, everything I tried was incredibly inefficient and consumed far too much mana to be usable.

That doesn't mean it's totally unrealistic though.

In theory it would be more efficient to create new photons on top of using those already in the atmosphere to use in a beam spell, but I still hadn't figured out exactly how to create them in any efficient manner.

-I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually..- Finally taking my first break since I started experimenting, I walked out of the rest area and looked towards the ground.

-They're still there huh..-

There was a huge flock of monsters still fighting over the wyvern corpses, with most being above A rank.

Most of the monsters looked like weird supersized hybrids of forest creatures like bears, jaguars and fishers, but they only shared resemblance at a glance.

The closer you looked, the more you realized was different and the more that didn't make sense.

Among the group, there was one with long brown fur and razor sharp horns sprouting from its joints. Its body resembled a deer, but it had carnivorous teeth and reptilian eyes.

-How does that monstrosity even appear in evolution..- It looked both disgusting and beautiful, like a bad car wreck you couldn't look away from.

*Cough-Cough*

Hearing coughing from inside the rest area I slowly stood back up and headed inside. -Its about damn time he woke up..-