Mysterious Death

A pair of dragon wings soaring high in the air. With its chicken head until its belly decorated with chocolate brown feathers. Transitioning into pale green feathers on the thigh, wings, and tail. The height of the creature is 2 times of the average adult.

Lynel moves out from the bushes. Runs into the Cockatrice general direction. Not two footsteps in, the monster already sets its gaze to the three of them. It is hard to initiate a surprise attack against this kind of creature. Sharp hearing in addition to keen herbivore eyes makes it always wary of incoming threats.

Shervo in front while Lynel in the second row. The red drake compfreund charges straight with Lynel side step to strike it sides. The purpose is that the creature's attention will be on Shervo as a [Tank] compfreund. If not, then the creature's concentration will be halved. Having to focus on two separate targets.

Fortunately Niva's throat is all cleared up due to the soothing mint he bought earlier in the item shop.

As a support class, he is able to see the stats of his friends. The stat swapping earlier goes into his slate compendium and saves it. He now can see his friend's stats whenever Niva looks at them.

It is different for offensive classes, as they are only able to see the stats of the species that they had killed. If they had killed a certain amount of the slime species in the past, they would gain a complete stats of the creature's species. If there is a different species that belongs to the same creature or animals, they won't know unless they kill them.

The same also applied to humans and non-humans. Unless your class and profession allows it, you will be frowned upon for doing such an act.

The question is whether Lynel had already killed a bunch of cockatrice in this species or not.

[Bard] are mostly support channeler class. It means that [Bard] needs to continue chanting for the buff to take effect. And of course, the chant must be heard to the recipient if they want to get the buff benefit. Enemies of the [Bard] won't get buff even if they heard the hymn.

[Bard] also needs to concentrate on the vocal note. The tempo, up and down of the notes should be precise with the prerequisite hymn. Perfect hymn will generate the initial buff and additional random buffs.

The vice versa also applied. If the [Bard] performs badly, the effect of the hymn will be minimal.

'I should cast [Safeguard hymn] in case the Cockatrice has a dangerous attack.' thinks Niva.

Niva takes a breath and begins to sing the [Safeguard Hymn]. He needs to be calm and collected, as a stress or interruption could distract the [Bard] for a perfect rhythm.

As he sings the [Safeguard Hymn], he can see the [Def] or [Defense] stats of Lynel and Shervo increase by approximately 50%. And the value constantly changes according to Niva's performance in real time.

Lynel successfully lands the first slash to the cockatrice side chest. The twin dagger forms an X wound on the cockatrice. The creature screams in agony as blood drips from the wound. It then swipes Lynel's body with its long pointed tail. His body was blown away to the bushes.

He is surprised by the impact of the tail swipe. Lynel's [HP] is down to 50%. '[Def] buff and with just a single tail strike half of his [HP] are missing?!'

'Imagine how much damage that thing would cause if I did not chant [Safeguard Hymn].'

The cockatrice does not chase Lynel but instead shifts his attention to Shervo in front of it. This makes him more worried about Shervo. He hopes that Lula will take care of his compfreund.

Niva quickly runs to the injured Foxtren. Lynel's mouth coughs blood, and there is a big red mark in his whole torso. From which the cockatrice hit him very hard.

"You all right?" asks Niva as he temporarily stops his singing.

"No worries, I am alright, but would you lend your hand for me?" Lynel gasps for air as he raises his right hand towards Niva.

Niva pulls the injured [Tracker] from the ground. "How much damage did you do?"

"With [X slash] earlier, almost 27% of its current health. But man, that tail swipe is no joke." Lynel still stumbles when he gets up.

He then drinks his own health potion. 2 left on his inventory.

Niva can see Lynel's health points go up by 20% now 70%. "Cover me one last time, I won't disappoint."

'So, he actually had killed a bunch of these before.' thinks Niva feeling a bit relieved.

Lynel takes his stance and charges in front. At the same time Niva continues to cast [Safeguard Hymn], benefiting everyone except the creature.

The cockatrice swipes his tail back again against Lynel. He jumps so that the tail goes in between his legs and the ground beneath it. And another [X-slash] straight to the creature's rib. Resulting in its agonizing scream.

The creature's eyes suddenly glow a bright golden light. "Don't stare at its eyes!" shouts Niva. The faraway Lula closes her eyes, even the mid combat Lynel and Shervo turn away their eyes. Including Niva too.

He does not know how they are going to proceed the battle in a state like this. It is all over for them if the cockatrice can also battle while its eyes are glowing. He does not dare to open his eyes when he can sort of feel the warmth of the golden ray.

Suddenly the ray warmth is gone. Niva bravely opens his eyes. The majestic creature mysteriously squirms on the ground and whimpers. It is seemingly in pain.

Lynel, Shervo, and Lula seem alright. Still flesh and not turning into stone. Lynel and Shervo just stand there without raising their weapons.

Blood is dripping from the poor creature's eyes. Mysterious white liquid pours from its beak. It continues to writhe in agony for the last time. Until it stops and may Nature rest its souls back to the Upper Realm.

Niva can see Lynel's right hand holding the second empty health potion bottle. He quickly hides it.

Meanwhile, Lula is standing near the cockatrice corpse. Looking directly with terror in her eyes and twitched left arms.

'So that's what happened.'