8 Chapter 8 : Birds

Raigo then began to accelerate his ascent, jumping from grip to grip as quickly as possible.

But despite all his efforts, a black raven-like bird with a wingspan of about 2 m suddenly screamed and headed towards Raigo at full speed.

"Damn it!"

Because of the fog, Raigo didn't notice the bird until he was a few meters away from him.

Without hesitation, he let go and fell, dodging the beast's sharp claws as fast as he could.

The bird that missed its target did not get discouraged, it changed direction and attacked again. At the same time, two other birds came out of the fog and headed towards Raigo whose fall was stopped by the rope wrapped around his arm and the knife stuck in the rock.

Clenching his teeth, he quickly removed his boots and then used the rope as a support to run horizontally over the rock face, dodging the giant bird again, but before he could react, one of the two newly arrived birds attacked.

*CROA*

He still managed to lower his head at the last moment, avoiding the bird's claws, which tore the fabric of his backpack, causing several cans to fall into the void.

The third one, who also attacked at the same time, grabbed the backpack and flew away with Raigo who was firmly attached to the rope.

The knife stuck in the stone barely gave way under the brutal pull of the bird.

He panicked and felt like giving up his backpack, but quickly gave up the idea.

"My backpack contains the material to pick the flower, as well as my food and the map to leave the forest, I can't afford to lose my material!"

He put his arms behind him and clung to the bird's leg and then concentrated his aura in his left feet, using the Gyô.

"Dead bastard!"

He turned around holding the bird's legs firmly and used all his strength to give a powerful kick to the bird's left ribs.

*Creack*

*CROAR!!*

The beast cried out in pain and let him go, but Raigo, who was still holding the beast's legs, gave it a second kick, but this time he hit its left wing.

The bird screamed in pain again before turning around frantically and falling into the void. Raigo let go of the bird's legs and pulled on the rope, bringing his knife back in his hands.

Holding the knife and falling down at full speed, he removed his turbant that covered his left eye, revealing his sharingan, and closed his right eye.

Time seemed to pass slowly, he looked at one of the two remaining birds that were flying towards him trying to kill him as he fell and then aimed at the belly of one of them before throwing his knife like a Kunai.

The knife came violently stabbing the belly of the bird which was roaring with pain while trying to stabilize its flight.

Without hesitation, Raigo bent his legs and then swung forward towards the rocky wall thanks to the rope attached to the knife, whose teeth prevented the blade from coming out of the flesh of the beast, which was howling in pain.

"Ah!"

He came to hit himself violently against the rocky wall below, cushioning the shock with his right arm which was then dislocated and injured by a stone, he hurriedly grabbed a hold with his left hand before biting the rope with his teeth and pulled it brutally.

The knife instantly came out of the belly of the dying bird with its intestines and a large amount of blood gushing out of its wound, the bird could no longer bear it, it lost consciousness and fell into the void disappearing into the fog.

The third beast shouted several times before flying away quickly to the unicorn if it had been frightened by the death of its two companions.

"I can't take it anymore..."

Raigo out of breath and strength watched the last bird disappear into the mist and making sure it was well and truly gone, he relaxed.

He placed his feet on holds with his teeth clenched and continued to climb with one arm less, he was tired and out of breath, but he only had two choices at the time: climb or die.

Time went by, one hour, two hours, four hours.

He was at the end of his strength, his arm was swollen, his fingers were covered with blisters and wounds.

In spite of everything, Raigo continued to climb the wall, he advanced slowly in the fog that was decreasing and finally, after several hours of climbing, he saw the edge of a huge terrace higher up, he accelerated his pace and climbed the wall at full speed.

A few minutes later, he clung to the edge and climbed up.

He fell to the ground with his sweaty sticks, feeling an adrenaline rush.

"Haha, I'm alive!"

He laughed like crazy before looking more attentively at the terrace, he then saw to his astonishment several flowers with blue petals about fifty meters away.