Chapter 24.

Raphtalia POV

Raphtalia was surprised to realize that she was starting to get used to the monsters. was really, really strong and he killed a lot of monsters very quickly but then he went to each one of them, butchered them like Sadeena used to cut up her prey and then used his sword to absorb them.

In the beginning, they had scared her, most of the monsters were bigger than the filolials were and they all looked really, really scary and smelled bad whenever cut them open. She had shivered whenever she had seen them and she had worried about one of them getting up and hurting her.

It took thousands of monsters for her to figure out that was much scarier than them. He barely took five minutes to kill thousands of them and then spent a long time cutting them to pieces and he didn't stop. Raphtalia was tired despite the fact that she had been sitting on one of the Filolials for most of the day, so he must have been super tired but he was just killing them again and again.

Right now he was cutting up a huge dragon whose head was bigger than was, but she could easily see the massive wounds on its body and the large pool of blue blood that surrounded it. The setting sun made it a little difficult to see but it was still obvious that it was dead. Raphtalia had seen the glowing blue swords that was using right now to cut the monster into smaller pieces flying into the air a few minutes before they had reached the dragon. No doubt they must have killed it.

She felt a little bad for it, it must have just been sitting around here when a huge swarm of swords came down from the sky and killed it. It must have been really scared.

The black filolial she was riding on started to walk towards . The man was still cutting into the belly of the massive monster, and he made a quick slash with the small knife he was using. Immediately a huge set of gashes opened up and a horrible smell spread around the area. Raphtalia quickly pinched her nose shut with one hand while gripping the feathers of the filolial more tightly with the other.

"Guee?" asked the bird.

"No food for now," said , his eyes straying towards the large wooden disk that the filolials had been eating from "you have just eaten. Wait for a few minutes before I give you a refill."

The bird continued to plead with him but stayed firm until he finished harvesting the dragon. Once he was done though he called the disk to himself and held the knife over it, the shiny blue gemstone lit up for a second before a huge amount of hot, tasty smelling meat appeared on it.

"Enjoy," he said nodding at the filolials, who immediately jumped into action and began to eat. Raphtalia giggled a little when she saw that even the White Filolial who had been standing aloof was eagerly eating.

She had noticed that though both filolials looked very similar except for their colour, the way they acted was very different. They were both really cute though and they were always hungry, Raphtalia hadn't realized that filolials needed so much food. Though it might have been because they were special filolials.

"Raphtalia," said , turning his attention towards her, "would you like to eat now as well?"

She shook her head quickly and he nodded before starting to walk again. She held on tightly as her ride began to move. The filolial was just following the disc and was really not paying any attention to where he was going. She hoped that he didn't crash into something.

They took a long time to just walk around, going from monster to monster before called for them to stop. By then the sun had set and she was feeling really tired and a little sore. The black filolial was comfortable and his feathers were really soft but sitting in the same place was making her legs hurt.

led them to a clearing and then said, "All right. We'll camp out here for a few hours. There's a river over there," he said pointing," it has no monsters. Get yourselves cleaned up while I set up dinner."

He handed Raphtalia some towels and another pair of clothing and said," Raphtalia wear clean clothes but make sure to bring back what you're wearing."

She was about to say yes but the filolials started to move before she could.

"Guee!" stated the filolials before they both went running. Raphtalia quickly grabbed on tight. She was used to the sudden accelerations by now.

When they reached the river, the filolial bowed down to let her get off and then joined his fellow filolial in the river. Both of them had just jumped in but Raphtalia slowly took off the clothes that had given her, kept them and the new clothes in a dry spot, and then jumped in herself.

The water was a little cold but that just made it better. Raphtalia submerged herself into the water and found it a little odd that it didn't smell like she was used too but then remembered that this water was not like normal water. It wasn't from the sea but it still felt nice. For a moment she relaxed, just letting the water wash away the fatigue.

Then a massive splash of water pushed her towards the river bank.

Raphtalia sputtered as she turned to look at the culprit and found that it was the Black filolial who had thrown water both at her and at the other filolial. Raphtalia grit her teeth in irritation until she turned to see that the splash of water had managed to completely soak the clothes.

She swallowed. had given her those clothes, she knew that they were magical, she had seen them change size after she had worn them and he had said that they had defensive properties. He was going to be so angry that she has spoiled them.

Raphtalia walked out of the river and moved towards them, her worry just spiked again, she had been right. Everything was completely soaked.

"Guee?" came an inquiring sound, Raphtalia almost jumped and turned to see the wet black filolial. How had something that big managed to sneak up on her?

Raphtalia tried not to feel angry at the bird but the clothes in front her just made her rage rise again. It didn't last long. She knew that liked both the birds she had seen him pet them and feed them whenever they wanted, he would be angry at her and then he might take the clothes and the food away and hit her. Then she heard his voice.

"Don't play pranks like that again," he said sternly to the filolial who tried to look small, " something that is funny to you may not be to others. Apologize to Raphtalia."

The bird nodded and then looked towards her and then walked towards her and lifted up the wet clothes in his beak.

Raphtalia felt her anger and worry fade away when whacked the bird upside his head and said, "I didn't mean to give her the clothes you ruined brat."

Then he turned towards her and then some clothes appeared in his hand with a larger cloth that was thicker, "Wear these Raphtalia," he said and then turned away and looked towards the white filolial who was floating in the river and called her out.

Raphtalia looked at the clothes in her hands and then turned to who had taken out a really big cloth and was drying out the filolials a little after he absorbed the clothes into his knife.

For a moment she felt odd, something was off, then she realized that he wasn't angry at her. He had barely even cared about the clothes.

Was he that rich or...could be a member of the nobility?

Dinner was amazing. Raphtalia was happily munching on the food that was kept on the table in front of her. Mr Adrian was sitting to her right, while a floating disc was used to hold all the food for the Filolials. The campfire was enough to make sure that there was more than enough light to see.

Mr Adrian had made a lot more food than normal. Instead of it just being some roasted meat, he had made a lot of different types of food and some really tasty bread, all of it hot and ready to eat. Even the water was really cool and clean.

She didn't know what sort of magic he had but it was amazing that he could use his sword to make enough of it for the two filolials to be satisfied. Both the birds were eating a lot of food, while she and had eaten two plates worth of food, the birds had eaten even more than them in plates that were at least thrice the size of the one she had eaten in. And they were still eating more.

It was kind of scary how much the two of them ate.

Raphtalia picked up a small piece, broke it up into smaller pieces and ate it. She wasn't really hungry anymore but it tasted really good. She didn't want to waste any of it.

"Adrian!" said a boy's voice, "Can I have some more pleeease?"

Raphtalia looked up from her food quickly, she turned around in her chair but found no one, then she looked at who was looking at the black filolial.

"...so you've gained the ability to speak. Can you transform into your human form?" he asked.

"Yup," said the filolial cheerfully.

Raphtalia stared at the massive bird who was somehow able to speak.

"What about you?" asked , looking to the other filolial.

She nodded before opening her beak and saying," I can speak as well father." Then she closed her eyes and began to glow.

A pale yellow glow lit up the clearing, making the campfire look like a dim candle before she changed and girl her size replaced the giant bird. Raphtalia stared at the pretty young girl with glowing silver hair and wings of the same colour that was standing in the same place that the white filolial had been in.

It was like from mama's story of spirits taking human form. She was pretty and was glowing just like the Princess from that story.

"It's good to see that you both have grown up fully." said , "Would you mind transforming? I need a measurement for your clothes."

"But big bro…" he started only to pause as raised an eyebrow," I want to eat first," he finished more quietly.

"You can eat in your human form," he stated plainly.

"Fine," said the bird, clearly annoyed but he transformed as well, once he was done, he immediately looked at Adrian, his now human form looking at the man intently.

rolled his eyes, drew out some food from his sword and placed it on their plates but before they started eating. He held out two sets of clothes that were more like large cloaks.

"Wear these for now." he said, "I'll get you something better soon."

The white filolial nodded and took the black coloured cloth but the other filolial said, "No need!," and changed back to his filolial form. The massive bird expanding to fill up space, it immediately began eating.

sighed but hung the clothes on the chair he had been sitting on and said," Just wear them later when you transform."

"Okay," the filolial said before continuing to inhale the food.

Raphtalia just stared at the absurd conversation in front of her. She rubbed her eyes and then stared again. For a moment she couldn't believe what she was seeing but the winged girl was still eating her food.

This was real.

"Surprising isn't it?" said quietly as he sat down at her side again, " Royal Filolials have a powerful ability to transform but it is always amazing to observe something like this."

Royal Filolials. The words rang in her head, so that's why they were so different from normal filolials. They were special and were like Kings and Queens.

Raphtalia had assumed that was special and strong but maybe it was not just him but these two as well. Was that why they had grown so fast?

"I'm afraid that their growth is my doing," he said, and Raptalia blinked in surprise when she realized that she had spoken her previous question, "This sword has the power to boost experience gain. It's why you're growing so fast as well."

Raphtalia's eyes widened and she looked at her hands and then at her body. She was going to become like them! Was she going to become huge as well? Or would she be able to transform?

Mr Adrian broke her out of her panic by rubbing her head, "I meant that you shall age faster Raphtalia, nothing more. Please don't worry about it. You've grown a fair amount already, I suspect that you'll be grown fully by the day after at most."

"O-okay," she said, but internally she was stunned, she had been feeling stronger, better but she had not realized that she had been growing up. Mama had told her about the fact that demi-humans grew up quickly if they leveled but she had seen Zach grow up after he started hunting with his father back in the village. He had taken months to grow up a little.

Was using some type of magic on her? She swallowed, looking at her hands again, wondering if he was changing her into something else. He had promised her that she would not fight but maybe he wanted to make her into something else so that she could fight properly. Maybe he was just waiting until she changed fully.

Raphtalia knew that everyone outside her village was dangerous, was really scary but she was almost sure that he wouldn't hurt her. She was still scared of fighting but maybe she could fight some of the weaker monsters.

It would be better to fight them. Raphtalia was sure that they would be easier to fight them than to run from .