Broken Wings

Shay moved away from the group expecting the group to attack first, but this was not the case. They now knew that Shay had an ability that slowed them down and in order for the last support not to die, they decided that they would let Shay attack. Shay was aware of this, but his last opponents weren't that smart and didn't adapt to the fighting style either.

Shay took Inferno and Bloodlust and sprinted ahead. This time the lineup was a bit different, since the guard can block Shay's shots, he was now in the front. Shay noticed this and did not waste his shots. Shay collided with the guard and tried to take him out with his dagger, but the Griffins intervened and swung their axes, which Shay had to dodge. He went back again, feeling that they were a complete counter against them. And then also the supporter, which makes everything much harder.

Shay walked back up to the guard. The guardian smirked, thinking that Shay would try the same thing, but he was wrong. Shay used cursed time just before he collided and then attacked the gryphons who were supporting the guardian. The gryphons were surprised and couldn't react well in the second, so Shay managed to fire several shots with Inferno without being blocked.

Of the six shots Shay fired, four hit. Two griffins were hit and died shortly after, as vital organs were hit. Unfortunately, Shay could not collect these souls because the angels were standing in front of them. When the angels saw these souls, they got angry and became less focused. They left their positions, which was a big mistake, because Shay now had more possibilities to defeat his opponents. Especially the elf in the back was neglected, which pleased Shay. He passed the gryphons and went for the elf. The guard wasn't around either, so Shay had a clear path. The elf tried desperately to protect herself but to no avail and thus Shay slit her throat and immediately a fountain of blood came out of her neck, splattering Shay. He took her soul and waited eagerly for the gryphons and the guard, who were only 10 meters behind him.

Shay turned around and took Inferno and Bloodthirst in his hands. Immediately the gryphons attacked with their axes and Shay tried to dodge, which worked quite well at the beginning. Every now and then he tried to inflict small wounds with his weapons, but he didn't succeed because of the guard. Since Shay was not used to fighting in a defensive posture, he got slight injuries on his arms and legs, but they healed quickly. Shay also noticed how they fought more coordinated again. First came an axe from the right that tried to chop off his arm, then a sword from the left, which tried to impale Shay and that in quick movements, which made Shay sweat. He just couldn't manage to make attacks otherwise he would suffer serious injuries. Although his talents were activated, it was very uncomfortable to stand in a circle from which he could not get out. Then it doesn't matter how much morale you have if you can't do any damage.

Shay, however, was beginning to see the fighting pattern of the Griffins. They didn't vary their attacks as if they had only practiced one way of fighting to quickly defeat their opponents, but what about now...if they don't do anything else, eventually you find a gap and then exploit it to strike back and that's what happened. Shay took advantage of that gap and attacked two of the griffins, one of which he sliced open the stomach, causing the guts to whirl outward and create a cracked puddle of blood. The other griffin, he shot him several times in the head and ripping out its heart. Two more souls for Shay, however, he felt an excruciating pain in his wing.

Shay turned around and saw a griffin holding a bloody axe. Shay then noticed that something was missing from his body. It was one of Shay's wings. He immediately noticed heaps of blood leaving his body and how his eyes went black because there was a lack of blood. Shay went crazy and became more aggressive than before and started killing his opponents as fast as he could. He first went for the guard who was not paying attention and got stabbed in the neck. The knife went through the neck and the gryphons could see that. Shay didn't kill the guard though, so he decided to cut off the head. He turned the knife and cut through the across the neck. Blood spurted out of the neck and the neck was completely loose, which Shay used to rip the head off. Shay now had a head in his hand, which intimidated the opponents, but one less wing, which encouraged the opponents.

Shay tried to fight on, but it was getting harder by the minute, so he had to kill the remaining angels quickly, and he did it with Inferno. There was now no one left who could deflect his bullets. Shay shot at the angels and hit them, but was not enough to defeat them, so he went into close combat again. The griffins were now injured, which made it easier for Shay to defeat them. First he slashed some of them in the neck, then some in the belly and the last one he tortured in which Shay first tore off the legs, then cut open the belly so that its guts would come out, which Shay then took and pulled out of the body to throw away. Shay had gone so crazy that he was digging all over the body and taking out all the organs to sample them...everything was gross and he spit the chewed up on the griffin. He cut off the ears and ate them. A short time later, a soul flew out of the griffin and Shay was relieved that it was finally over.

Unfortunately, his injury was not over and he had to treat it immediately. He opened a new page in the system and drew two potions. One was for stopping the bleeding and the other was for encouraging blood regeneration. Together the potions consumed 10 souls and Shay took them immediately. Shay still noticed how he slowly fainted and slept for a while.

...

Shay slowly woke up from his sleep as he looked around and noticed that it had been some time, flies were already on the dead bodies. His wing has stopped bleeding by now and his body has produced enough blood for him to walk normally again. Since he was tired despite fainting, Shay decided to find a small place to stay and try his best to create a replacement wing. Shay walked for a while, looking for a small cave. While searching, he met a few angels, which he killed to collect souls. Shay was sure that a wing was not cheap in souls.

He eventually found a small cave to sit in.

The system also told him that wings are the most important thing about an angel. Wings also partially determine how you are rated...they are there to assess what level an angel is on. Normally, wings are not present on the lowest level of angels because they say that you have a high level bloodline in you. However, since Shay did not have a consistent bloodline, the system also wondered why Shay had wings to begin with. A lowest level angel, with proper angel wings, is also often focused on because they are then used as a triumph when they get defeated.

He opened a new page and started drawing the outlines for the wing. They were wings, which had a span of 2 meters in total, so he could at least glide. The wings didn't have feathers, but the material used could be called scales, so Shay wouldn't lose his wings again later.

The color was mixed, it was supposed to have a dark touch, so the wings on his body started dark red and gradually transitioned to the color black.

"A good design I drew, but whether the souls will be enough...I don't know. Through the fight from earlier, it should be enough to at least renew the wings. If not, I must go tomorrow once again on the hunt, however, I must not be so cocky, otherwise something like before happens again and that would not be good for me."

Shay gave the wings skills:

Glide: With enough strength and height, it is possible for you to glide in the air.

Stab and Protect: The spikes of your wings are extra strong and sturdy, allowing you to inflict damage on your opponent. The wings are so sturdy due to their material that normal attacks do not cause much damage.

He saved this template and tried to materialize it. Unfortunately, his souls were just enough for a fifth of the required souls. Conversely, this meant that he would spend the next few days collecting souls. Shay decided to go to sleep to regain his strength.

...

When Shay woke up the next day, he smelled an unfamiliar scent in his nose. He immediately went outside to see if anyone was around, but he didn't see anyone in around the cave. Since the smell bothered him, he set out anyway to find the origin of this smell. He walked through the forest, where he saw many animals on the trees but especially moths were common here. Shay thought that there might be a nest of an insect here and continued to look around.

The further Shay went in one direction, the more moths and butterflies he saw, which lured other insects and then killed them. These were not normal insects, but these critters also had ways of killing their opponents. Here, just like with the angels, "the strong defeat the weak". To make the strong insects feel how weak they actually are, Shay killed one of them and got a soul from it. Shay heard a screaming in the distance, which became louder and louder. Shay thought of an animal being hunted and did not show much interest to the sound.

Shay continued to follow the moths that were in the forest and was sure that he would then arrive at the owner of these bugs. Shay watched their hunting style and saw that they placed their killed hunt on everywhere and as soon as other insects feasted on the corpse, they ambushed and killed their prey and again from the start. While watching this process, Shay noticed something dripping on his head. He looked up and saw a moth bigger than Shay, about 2.50 meters, drooling on his head.

[Oh, I had never consumed an angel this early in the morning. It's time for you to take out my soul fragment and die! But before you die, I'll let you run away so you can feel despair. And your pathetic little wing will I attach to my back so everyone can see how powerful I am. HAHA]

Shay, who was shocked by the size of this creature, felt a strong and scary aura coming from the moth and also decided to run away, as he was sure that this moth lives in this forest for quite a long time. What Shay had to laugh about, however, was the fact that she couldn't fly well, since her wings weren't real angel wings. She was a moth without angel wings, but with elytra wings.

...

This was the first time Shay felt such an aura. No one before gave such a feeling of what to be afraid of. Shay wondered if everyone had such an aura. He would say yes, but why does he feel this aura so intensely now? Is it some kind of warning so you don't die and know which one is stronger? But that would confuse Shay, because then he would have noticed something like that in the fight yesterday.

Now is not the time to worry about that, though, but to get to safety. So Shay sprinted away from the moth, just as she hoped she would, and sent her little helpers after her to "annoy" Shay a little bit. These little insects were not to be underestimated. Just because they are small doesn't mean they couldn't keep up with Shay, even worse, they were catching up to him, which worried Shay.

At first Shay was looking for an exit out of this forest, since this is their terrain and therefore has advantages that Shay does not have. He can use cursed time in the worst case to get back some advantage, but this way he will never survive this day. And then he remembered that in his memory you can do absolute damage to your opponent with a part of their soul. You can even weaken your opponent to have better possibilities. In the best case, one defeats the opponent so. That was also the reason why the moth screamed earlier. She didn't want anyone to get her soul, but Shay didn't know how to put the soul into other insects. There must be a technique for that.

This moth loved to play with her prey and make them desperate to get a desperate soul and Shay knew why. Desperate souls were worth much more than normal souls and since she apparently only hunts when big angels are around, she only ever gets very small souls from her insects. However, she has no system...why else would she get such a soul...to devour? Then surely a normal soul would do as well.

...

Shay finally saw the exit and was about to escape when the moth stood in front of him to block the way. It showed a stinger on its tail, which looked poisonous. Shay definitely was not to be hit by it, but too late, the moth lunged for the sting, but he luckily reacted and put cursed time so he could dodge and escape from the forest. Thus was finally out in the open, but was still pursued by flying beetles, which kept trying to bite him to slow him down. The bugs, in fact, had a curse that "bound" their opponents so that they would be easier prey.

Shay was also unable to hit this critter and so the only thing he could do was...run!