Chapter 26 - Red Stripe Falcons

Once Jamie and Amber exited the elevator, a average sized male in an ironed out police uniform was waiting for them, a black swordpistol and red longsword at his waist, and led them to the top of the roof. As they entered the roof, they saw three more officers standing on the flat, grey roof, with large, silver sniper rifles strapped to their backs, and a glowing gold gem embodied on the handles, with a III symbol underneath it, along with swordpistols sheathed at their waist. The three officers turned to look at them as they entered the rooftop. A man with a black, circle beard with frown marks on his brow holding a black portable radio stepped forward and gave Jamie, Amber and their beasts a quick glance before frowning slightly.

"Hello. We are just waiting for the beasts to arrive. We will react accordingly."

Amber and Jamie stood near the entrance, with their beasts, while the four officers stood together in silence. Five minutes later, the radio at the waist of the man with the mustache crackled to life. The man listened to it, before responding back and cursing afterwards.

"What did they say Kumar?"

"Noah's location is unknown. "

The man with the longsword at his waist snorted "That coward. He has the biggest mouth, but he's quick to run when it's time to risk his neck."

An officer interjected "I'm sure it isn't like th..."

The man with with the longsword sneered "Ohhh, really? Five days ago when we were alerted for the possible attack from Harpies, he conveniently disappeared as well. And the time before that was the Momos...."

"Enough!"

The two looked at the Kumar, and stopped bickering. Kumar continued "Noah will be dealt with afterwards. For now, we repel the Red Stripe Falcons,"

Everyone was silent for a moment, before Kumar turned to look at Jamie and Amber. "Have you two fought alongside Martial Warriors before?"

"No." "Yes."

Kumar looked at Jamie. "Like your bonded beasts, at stage 1, we gain access to an energy pool inside us, along with upgrades to our body. Each time we increase our stage, our basic physical attributes increase, and the amount of energy we have available increases along with it's purity, just like your bonded beasts. Also like your bonded beasts, we can inject our energy into objects, strengthening it, although it's energy usage is horrible compared to using a skill, and the energy poured into objects disperse eventually. These sniper rifles on our back..." At this, he gestured to himself and two other officers "we can each use three to fifteen shots consecutively before needing a rest, depending on how much energy we use to empower each shot, and the best we can manage is to give a flesh wound to a stage 4 creature. If you get the chance to, it would be efficient if you can drive the beasts to our range so we can kill them with our skills."

Kumar hesitated, before continuing "We will let the two of you divide the bounty of all the Red Stripe Falcons we kill that have been driven to us, "

Jamie's eyes widened, then he nodded. He then looked around the rooftop, before asking "Can't we salvage anything to launch at the Red Stripe Falcons to drag them to the ground?"

Kumar shook his head. "We don't have enough raw materials that are sturdy enough to withstand the might from a stage two beast to craft into a net, and quite frankly, it would be easier for us to use it to make a bullet. As for injecting something with energy to do the job, far less energy is used to concentrate it on a bullet and gun, and blow their brains out."

"What about their skills?"

"That we know of, they can send out a gust through their wings, put up a barrier that can help them blunt an attack, and empower their talons with fire."

Twenty minutes passed as they waited. Suddenly, one of the officers pointed towards the sun.

"Over there."

Jamie quickly looked in the direction the officer was pointing towards, spotting two large grey falcons with red stripes quickly approaching their general area. He gave a mental command to Blackwing, who launched himself off the roof, followed shortly afterwards by the Red Line Eagle. The two rapidly closed in towards the two eagles, side by side.

"Three o'clock. Two more."

Jamie frowned, sending mentally to Blackwing "Just empower your bite. Save your Ember. "

Jamie watched as the Red Lined Eagle and Blackwing closed in. Blackwing zoomed in on the Falcon on the left, when it and the other falcon suddenly halted their forward momentum, then they started beating their wings furiously, and a grey gust started to form beneath their wings, before moving towards Blackwing and the Red Line Eagle rapidly. A grey, rippling circle flashed around the eagle momentarily, dispersing after absorbing the gust, while Blackwing just took the hit, being knocked back and downwards. The Falcons shrieked, and they closed in on their targets.

"Blackwing, just try to gain altitude."

Blackwing beat it's wings furiously, as it moved forwards slowly, while trying to gain altitude. The Falcon closed in and fire started to flicker around it's talons before it landed on Blackwing's neck from above, trying to dig in to Blackwing's neck through the scales. Blackwing twisted it's body and neck furiously, and managed to dislodge the falcon before biting down on one of it's wings. A sizzling sound could be faintly heard before the falcons wing Blackwing was clamping down on caught fire. The fire spread as the falcon tried to twist it's body furiously, trying dislodge from Blackwing, to no avail. Eventually, it started to stiffen, before stopping.

Jamie looked towards the Red Lined Eagle. It had the falcon in it's talons as it hovered in the air, the falcon starting to corrode. "It certainly doesn't need any help" Jamie thought.

"Cover your ears everyone!"

Jamie and Amber hastily covered their ears just before a loud booming sound erupted from the two silver sniper rifles held by two of the police officers, leaving Jamie's ears ringing as a result. As the sound rang throughout the area, Jamie rubbed his ears and turned to look towards the last two Red Stripped Falcons and saw them dropping on the ground, landing on a house that had part of it's metal picket fence uprooted, and the corpse of a mangled dog lying on the lawn.

Blackwing and the Red Lined Eagle made their way back, dragging the remains of their kills along with them. As they drew near, Jamie could see the charred feathers on the underside of the Red Lined Eagle. He inspected Blackwing carefully, and as he drew closer he and saw a faint drop of blood around his neck.

"Eve, I need you to heal the two after they land."

>>>>>

After roughly an hour later, Jamie and Amber managed to kill twelve Red Stripe Falcons each. The officers were required to intervene on three separate occasions, killing nine eagles in total. Kumar looked towards Jamie and Amber and said "We will wait one more hour. If nothing else shows up, we will be done for the day."

Jamie and Amber nodded, and they looked down at the town. Two of the houses had been on the receiving end of the Red Stripe Falcon's attacks. One looked half demolished, with it's picket fence completely uprooted, and one of it's walls dented inwards, along with various indentures and rips on the roof. The other, a wooden house on a green lawn, was reduced to charcoal, a result when a falcon empowered it's talons with fire to tear through the wooden roof.

Behind Jamie and Amber, in the background, some of the officers could be heard talking.

"I wish every day was like this. Nice and easy."

"I know, right? It's a pity we don't always get Battlepet Master Trainees willing to help."

"Even without them, we could deal with this. It would exhaust us, sure, but we won't have to risk our lives. It's not like the Momo."

An officer shuddered. "Don't get me started about that monster. What are you going to do once our shift is over today?"

"I'm grabbing a beer and watching the match between Cleahset and Kiafving."

"Are you serious?! You haven't watched that basketball match yet?"

"No, after I got home yesterday, I..."

Jamie turned to Amber "Once this is done, what are you going to do?"

"After I head home and sleep, I'm going to pick up a gift I ordered for my aunt. It will be her birthday on Monday."

"What are you planning to give her?"

Amber smiled and looked beyond the outskirts of the town.

"It is a golden dragon ear...."

Amber raised her voice and pointed "What is that?"

Jamie and some of the officers looked in the direction Amber was pointing towards. A bloody, red mist could be seen heading towards their direction from the distance, trailing behind a barely distinct humanoid figure. The officers eyes bulged when they saw the red haze approaching.

Kumar held up the radio and said "We may have a Momo approaching."