75

Flying at near mach 1 exhausted the young Empresses after two hours, so Pef took out his pimpmobile, the Anaconda One, and kept going in more luxury.

Not as fast and a bit of course, to account for winds, but still better than waiting.

After a small snack and some rest, they sped again, until they reached a huge pigeon flock, going at some 100 kilometers per hours, from just above the sea and reaching kilometers in height, and containing...'6 billion birds, or so' the glove answered after a quick density estimation.

The four cultivators stopped and wondered.

"We'll have to go above, I guess." a wiser voice commented unfazed.

"So much meat!" a younger man exclaimed.

"There must be many beasts inside. Right?" a young woman's voice asked trembling with excitement.

Pef nodded and took out two Sovereign bear claws, shaped a little to allow for a grip. "They aren't ready and were supposed to be your Tyrant gift, but what the hell!" he proclaimed heroically and handed each of them to the Emperor ranked wives.

Yuan sighed and took out her own bear claw, crafted into a 5 meters long polearm.

Pef warmed his wrists and elbows for a minute, then held out his palms to the sides. Two ankles landed inside, and he grabbed them gently but firmly. In his vision, the glove began marking targets, Emperor and Tyrants and even a Sovereign ranked Traveling Glorious Pigeon.

Pef sped up and dove into the torrent, not using sword qi for now, just double wielding his wives like nunchakus. With Sovereign claws at the end.

It was enough for mere Emperor ranked pigeons, Pef being more concerned with dodging most of the small animals and looting the killed birds into his glove.

A few qi skills here and there emerged from the startled beasts, but Yuan expanded her fire qi to block the worst of the trills.

She also did well, collecting Sky and Emperor ranked pigeons when in range, but her own focus was to keep the husband safe-ish. Like when a dozen Tyrant ranked beasts turned and came for a counter strike, slashing wildly with sharp claws and wings.

Pef escaped unharmed, but his wives were gashed and bloodied from this attack. He used Jian a bit more, exterminating these Tyrants and gaining her rank in a minute of Sword qi mastery.

He just couldn't do that with both hands, yet.

Then he flung the older Fire disciple out from his right hand, and took better care of Qin, while Jian laughed in delight and sped outwards, flapping her almost formed fire wings.

It was right then that the Sovereign pigeon made its move, at this rank and size its brain wasn't quite a pigeon brain anymore. Pef was too far away and battling more Emperor and Tyrant beasts, so Yuan grit her teeth and sped up to intercept the other Sovereign.

Her polearm parried and diverted the first and second attack, but this beast was faster in the air, using Air qi like a club and wind turbine, and Yuan began taking hit after hit, her body becoming a mess of wounds and gashes, her helmet and face gouged and spurting blood.

Jian was hit by the aftereffects of this fight, and struggled to speed up and distance herself, her armor shredded and helmet blown away by the razor sharp winds.

Then Pef arrived, and threw his knife desperately, the spinning blade slicing off the pigeon's wing right before it eviscerated Yuan with its Wind qi covered wing.

The Fire Sovereign yelled and expelled a huge white-hot fire torrent, bathing flash frying the pigeon beast. But it didn't last, only a couple of seconds. Even her huge qi supplies were dwindling, focused mostly on self repair and life support.

The knife floated in midair, annoyed at having been discarded again. 'Idiot user! Use the teeth!' it yelled in its Legion code, but this recruit was too stupid to know it. Kisses and hugs were not battlefield orders! Damn moron.

Still, it wasn't an old war hound for nothing. There was a workable strategy to use, so the knife floated and landed in the weakest female's free slot extension, meaning Qin's left hand.

Pef grinned at his trained puppy's well-behaved conduit, and sped up slicing and cutting and dicing, shaving off wings and claws, then the worrisome beak, and lastly driving Qin through the pigeon brain, then storing all the weapons and bones with a wide glove swipe.

Then he gathered his injured wives in his arms and fled backwards a dozen kilometers, and summoned the hospital ship, again, the Anaconda One.

He began triage immediately, storing the shredded armor and clothes, and cleaning the wounds with rice wine and his water qi. Qin was mostly fine, having been safe in his arms the whole time.

As a Tyrant rank now, and with the Legion method, her broken bones and the surface wounds would heal nicely in a week. Pef left her for last.

Jian was somewhat worse, Pef having to extract bits of bone from her lungs and clean her wounds even more thoroughly. Her pretty face was marred with a thousand cuts, and her chest was caved in.

He set her gently on a side, and popped the broken sternum into place. Then gave her a bit of mouth-to-mouth, and the Tyrant began breathing again.

But Yuan was a total mess, only kept alive by her will and Sovereign resilience.

He could see the floor through the holes in her body.

Pef cleaned her as best he could, then set a plate armor as a temporary organ holder.

Yuan's face was half gouged out, missing an eye and nose, and even half her jaw.

'This looks bad, my glove.' the battlefield medic mused, holding his glove in contact for a more detailed wound assessment.

'Eh, you get used to it. Her brain and dantian are intact. We can rebuild her, we have the technology.' the glove replied in a serene manner. It didn't bother to list the system failures, merely pointed out the surviving bits. Much shorter list that way.

Pef sighed in defeat. 'Damn it. A mere bird almost wrecked everything.

It is my fault, I wasn't strong enough', he admitted in shame.

The glove stayed silent at this, as it was the obvious truth.

Instead, it waited for the suspected skill to manifest.

Nobody on this planet had the right to look this pretty and youthful at her age.

Not even recruit Pef would look like this, in 350 thousand years. Perhaps like Saren, if he was lucky and held on to a wife that long.

The young hero scratched his cheek deep in thought. Yuan should have died already. She didn't even have a heart, anymore!

But in his qi sight, she looked peaceful and resting, her meridians intact and still circulating qi.

The fire tattoo on her palm was glowing a little, like she was in communion with her god.

He called his own fire sprite, and held it closer to her palm. The sprite hesitated, then jumped off, changing hosts.

Yuan's chest rose, and she trembled a bit, possibly in pain.

Pef shrugged and began feeding her penicillin and willow bark extract, sort of the neolithic version of aspirin he invented.

Then focused on his water domain, and tried to copy the Wall healers he had seen years before.

Supplying the brain with blood, and pumping it through her lungs and body, replacing the missing heart.

Possibly one day later or the next, Qin awoke and gasped in surprise at the mess.

She checked on Jian, but her mentor seemed to be healing fine, the skin already closed and scabbing.

Then she checked on Yuan for a second and backed away, afraid the slightest touch might end her life.

"Make some porridge and tea, my dear. I should stay here and help..." Pef spoke while still keeping his eyes closed and cradling the broken Sovereign.

Qin nodded unnecessarily and rushed to follow the instructions, finding her movements swift and precise, and maintaining balance easily, even with the moving ship.

Then she glanced outside of the nacelle, through the transparent window made of some tooth.

A pair of huge hawks were flying beside them, with people on their backs.

"Pef, we have company..." she said in a bit of worry.

Her husband opened his eyes and glanced towards the side, then closed them again. "The female druid can come in" he said in a mild voice, but a bit cold and threatening.

The new Fire Tyrant glanced at her naked sisters and herself as well, and smiled a bit.

Even in this sorry state, and he still thought about their dignity.

Qin dressed in a new robe and covered Jian with another, but left Yuan alone.

There was plenty raw meat exposed there, and cloth wouldn't help, except make it worse, maybe.

Then she opened the nacelle hatch, as Pef called this door, and stepped out to meet the druids.

"Hey, I'm Qin Xi, and a Fire Disciple." she said in a weak tone. There was a Sovereign druid here, and their two mounts they were riding were Sovereign ranked hawks.

"You're heading towards Green Gea, lady. Change course." the Sovereign demanded, politely yet sternly.

Qin glanced around, and found the one female druid, with long black hair and green highlights. "Lady druid, Pef says you can come inside." she told the Tyrant ranked druid, and held the hatch door open.

The other druids coughed in surprise, but Qin held her ground. If Pef said so, then maybe that druid lady could help. She didn't care about the others.

It took the druids some time, but after a minute of qi pulses, the lady flew off her mount and entered the ship's nacelle.

Qin closed and locked the hatch, then returned to making tea and porridge.

"Here, lady. Maybe you'll be of use." Pef said in his weird tone again. Gentle, yet not at all.

The woman knelt beside Pef, and waved his hand aside, holding her palm over Yuan's shoulder and meditating for a minute.

"Your Fire Sovereign is doing fine. A bit of pain, but she'll heal in a month. Perhaps a bit sooner, if you keep helping." the druid said calmly, pretending not to notice the missing heart or other gaping holes.

Pef chuckled as if amused. "I can also diagnose a patient, lady. Can you help or not?"

"Not even the Druid Lord Sovereign can help. The Goddess might, if she can spare the energy." the druid answered politely.

"Okay, tell Gaia I want a spine and a heart. Flying blindly is dangerous on this planet." Pef said with a head shake, and a glance at Qin, who was coming with a teapot.

A cup appear in his hand, and a stream of hot tea filled it on the go. He sipped his tea patiently while the lady druid communed with her goddess.

Soon, Yuan's missing spine portion reformed, as her heart and a bit of jaw.

As the healing stopped, Yuan drew a gasp and her fire sprite lit up even stronger.

Pef checked, but the glove said it would be just a week now, and not very painful. It didn't seem pleased at this, for some reason.

"Lord Pef... Gaia said to tell you '25'. I would guess, you know what she meant?" the druid asked hesitantly.

Pef patted her hand in assurance. "Lady Green Blossom Yen, Earth Tyrant, age 13 thousands. Fifth circle of Gaia and confirmed to fly ranked war mounts. Over 700 kills of Emperor ranked spiders and 14 Tyrant ones. Halfway to your next rank and the prodigy of the Druidic Order. Here's a hint." he said with a tilt of his head, producing the last Blue pill in his storage.

The woman took the pill with a surprised look and hid it into her storage ring.

"A Blue pill? Not saying it won't help but..."

"Nah, that was the last Blue one, a gift for you, since you were kind, Lady Green. Those 25 pills will be White, once my uncle Saren crafts them." Pef said in a softer tone, raising up and escorting the druid to the hatch.

Then he opened it and waved bye-bye with a pleasant smile.

The druid smiled awkwardly and waved a bit, before flying away from the strange young Xi and his airship, and three Fire disciples who all seemed married to him.

Soon after, the Anaconda One unfolded huge airwings and changed course, heading towards Red Dew continent and away from Green Gea airspace.

As the two patrol hawks returned to their base, the druids were left a bit confused at the encounter, although at least they found out why the predicted pigeon wave and its Sovereign beast were so easy to divert.

Someone else took the hit, and got injured in the process.

"They'll be fine in a week, my lord, but if they truly plan to give us 25 White pills..." Lady Yen said thoughtfully.

"That could have been me, or dear Hawkeye. We won't forget Lady Ignited's sacrifice or those two new Tyrants. Guess it's time we craft some Green pills for these young heroes." The 6th Circle druid mused out loud.

"And, Lord Pef gave me a Blue pill too." Lady Yen added after some deliberation.

"He's too young for you, my daughter. Maybe his father..." The druid Sovereign said in a doubtful tone.

Wixtal was of age, but still only an Emperor. But still near the peak, and the right pill might cross him over.

Then again, his son was on the brink of the Sovereign rank. The Druid leader looked after the vanishing airship, with a thoughtful face. 'Maybe my daughter should choose for herself...'