Confrontation Amidst Chaos

'I'd never thought I'd be so happy to hear birds, aside from the ducks I haven't even heard a cricket.'

Chester slowly approached the bird and got into position to throw a stone. 'I should also start incorporating the calibration path for skills and passives. Practicing [throw] should work. Tutorial skills barely require mana, and the stamina cost shouldn't burden this body. It's more fit than my real one.' Keeping in mind that he might only have one shot, Chester started to imagine the path for the skill. For the first time, he felt his mana pool slowly mix with the calibration energy and move automatically through the planned path.

A surge of strength surged from Chester's lower abdomen as his hand moved automatically to throw the stone. His eyes quickly scanned for the bird, the explosive need to throw the stone coming out of nowhere. When the throwing motion was halfway, he felt an otherworldly focus come into being. As all the strength flowed from his body through the arm and into the stone, he could feel the explosive power and trajectory the stone would follow. A faraway silhouette moved between the trees, and the stone flew true.

-Ahck- Two of the three heads turned to stare at Chester. 'What?' A horse-sized bird with the body of a parrot and three chicken heads dived a distance of thirty meters in an instant. Before he could react, half of his mana disappeared, and a wave of exhaustion almost dropped him to the floor. A gust of wind flattened the bushes around him, and he heard the flapping noise of the beast behind him. 'What?' He started running between the trees, trying to unsheathe his sword. One of the dried-up trees exploded into wooden chips, and the greener ones bent and snapped like twigs. 'Shit, that's like a level thirty, and I haven't even cleared the tutorial.'

Chester ran down the mountain, and when the beast dashed at him, he zigzagged between trees and doubled back with the hike. The animal's momentum opened up the distance between them, giving Chester the time needed to come up with a plan. 'First, I need to see how much damage I did with that stone toss. Although I'm not even level 1 yet, I'm sure the power behind that toss was at level 5. If it did some damage, I could aim for the eyes.'

After a few more attempts of diving at Chester, the parrot-chicken started hopping towards him while flapping its wings. 'I'm faster than him this way, but I'm not sure who's going to get tired first.' Chester saw a small natural cave formed between two jagged boulders and changed his direction. 'If he can't fit well, I might be able to stack some damage.' When the bird saw its prey heading into a hole, it abandoned the hopping and dove at him again.

Chester saw the bird coming closer; he wasn't going to have enough time. He moved the sword up to block the central head that had the lead. He pushed with his hand on the blade, matching the lower beak, using the force that came from pushing against the chicken head. Chester flew back as he did a flip. Halfway through the flip, he felt his legs land on the wall. 'This isn't a cave!' There was only enough space for Chester and one of the heads between the boulders.

Using the wall as a springboard, Chester then tried to use another skill and lunged at the head. The skill he attempted to use was called [Lightning Step]. It was a combination skill that came from the Magician's [Teleportation] and the [Lightning Mastery] passive that the upgraded class Battlemage had. Although one of Chester's mastered classes was Battlemage, aside from [Mana Throw] and [Staff Mastery] which he maxed for the passive bonus, he had no other offensive skills he could use right now.

The MP he had used for the [Throw] had already recovered, but it was quickly drained. Chester felt the burst of power from his legs and the strain on his muscles as he put everything he had into his sword-wielding arm. 'I don't have any skills I can use with this, but I can use [Throw].' Betting everything on this attack, Chester put his remaining mana into his hand and pushed the hilt of the sword in the direction of the attacking head.

The sword entered the chicken's mouth and came out of its throat. From the splash of blood and feathers, the sword pierced through and, with the same speed, entered the parrot's body between the wings. A loud shriek came from the two other heads. Chester's body made contact with the upper beak and was sent flying against the wall like a ragdoll. Chester fell to the floor, losing his consciousness. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he saw the other two heads struggling to squeeze into the hole, while the chicken head that almost killed him blocked the way with its eyes closed.