“The introduction of foreign species had always been one of the greatest threats to a stable ecosystem, as the foreign species would often out-compete some of the local flora or fauna and occupy their niche in the ecosystem, or worse. In some cases these had resulted in some local species dying out wholesale, as could be seen during the wheat crisis of Elmaiya, year 117 FP.

At that time, it was hypothesized that some seeds of a rare Alcidean weed had been accidentally brought over along with a ship’s cargo, and later germinated in the fertile lands of the Empire’s north-east. The weed later spread far and wide, and took over a decade of concentrated effort to finally eradicate, but not before it had ruined many harvests and threatened half the empire with famine.

That an Island managed to keep its indigenous ecosystem over such long periods like Greenmeadow Isle was a rarity among rarities, which was one main reason why so many biologists dared the jungles of that island just to sate their thirst for knowledge.

Local legends claimed that there were guardians who kept the balance on the island, and some researchers believed that it might well be partially true, as many of the island’s elven tribes dabbled in druidism and might well have contributed to such legends.” - Alina Knizhnyycherv, Researcher of Therian Cultures at the Verozgrad University, circa 672 FP.

“The hell!?” cursed Vark as he ran to his wife and children’s side, with a relieved sigh when he saw that they were all right. His children’s animal companions had reacted much faster to the threat and had moved to safety, with Lumi having pulled Krystal along with them with her tail as well. The rest of the party was safe too, having leapt back or been pulled back in time.

Of the juvenile Grizowl, there was no sign, however, other than a slight bump that moved down the gullet of the scaly beast that had suddenly barged in. The beast looked like a snake, if with a pair of small horns behind its eyes, and four pairs of strangely feathered wings that somehow kept its massive form aloft. The beast was at least thirty meters from end to end, with its maw large enough to have swallowed a creature Ida’s size whole with ease, and it looked at the party with some annoyance.

The annoyance of a predator that failed to snatch as many prey as it had wanted.

“T-that’s a Cor D’amo… why would one of those be here???” Tal said with bafflement even while Cal shoved him further back, where Vark and Krystal, and their children had gathered for safety along with Dan. “Those things are supposed to live in the eastern seas! What is one doing so far west, much less inland!?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” said Cal in reply as she brought her halberd out. Around her, her students and nieces had also brought out their respective weapons, as had Kyara and Ashani. “What matters is that it seems like it thinks of us as dinner, and I don’t feel like getting eaten today.”

The beast had not immediately struck again, as it eyed the shiny weapons on the party’s hands with some wariness. Clearly it had encountered people before, and had gained that wariness from the previous encounter. Cal used that little bit of time to have the little group arrange themselves to better prepare to deal with the beast.

“Leila! Work with your father and keep the non-combatants safe! Elaina, Sidonie, Fheeri, pester it at range!” commanded Cal as she prodded at the beast with her halberd, which it avoided with agility that belied its size. She gave no orders to Kyara or Kino, trusting them to know what to do anyway. “The rest of you kids, with me!”

Her students nodded as they brought out their respective weapons. The problem was that the Cor D’amo was fast and extremely agile in the air, and they found it hard to even land a hit on it. Fheeri, Elaina, and Sidonie tried their best but had similarly little success. The beast was fast enough to avoid the latter two’s javelins, and Fheeri’s sling projectiles simply bounced off its scales without causing any harm.

Kyara and Ashani had nimbly climbed up some nearby trees before they leapt to strike the beast but their daggers only left white marks on its scales and little more. While both of them landed safely with ease even from heights a human would have injured themselves falling from, it took time for them to climb a tree to try for another ineffectual strike. Kyara had also tried to strike the beast with a lance of ash, which did little more than leave a slight scorch mark on its scale.

A couple times the beast tried to snap at the non-combatants, but Kino remained by them, and after it took a couple deeper cuts from straying too close to her, the beast gave her a wide margin out of fear. Sadly, while Kino’s void magic worked wonders on the beast, her range was too short to strike at the beast unless it came at her.

Cal and her students tried the trick with the trees Kyara and Ashani used to strike at the beast, but they were worse climbers than the two, and while they could get up pretty fast with brute force, they couldn’t do so as swiftly, which gave the beast they fought more than enough time to distance itself from them. One time it even tried to snap at Willa as she leapt up at it, only to receive a nasty gash on its snout when she landed a good hit on it for once.

“This isn’t working,” Giselle grumbled. The last time she tried to strike at the beast, it swatted her down to the ground hard using its tail, which annoyed her more than anything, as by now her physique was far too sturdy for such a strike to do much against her.

“Let’s try something different then. Willa, Ognar, help throw me up,” Cal said to them. After a moment to process what she meant, Willa and Ognar cupped their hands as they stood across each other, and Cal stepped on their cupped hands as she bent her knees. Both of her students also lowered their knees, before they raised themselves up and heaved with all their might.

At the very last moment Cal also kicked hard against their hands, propelling herself up high into the air at speed, which was clearly something the beast above had not expected as it failed to dodge away from her. As she passed by the beast, Cal struck with the beaked end of her halberd, the force of her ascent combined with her swing punching through the beast’s sturdy scales and into its flesh.

She used the halberd as a pivot to alter her trajectory and landed roughly on the flying beast’s back, where she immediately pulled out one of her dwarven knives and plunged it deep into the beast’s flesh, to use as an impromptu handhold. Then she stored her halberd back and plunged in a second knife with her freed hand, and crawled up the beast’s back even while it tried to shake her off.