#89 Kiyomi
The Eagle-like Danger Beast started swaying back and forth so I used this chance to jump down from its back right in front of it and glared at it. After a few more seconds, it finally shook its head with a confused expression and looked down at me.
It suddenly froze because it was too confused. It finally got out of its frenzy, just to see a human in front of it without any weapon in hand who was just staring at it.
"Are you too confused so you just froze in place instead of doing anything at all? Aren't you Danger Beast? Shouldn't you like...attack me?" I asked with an amused smile while shrugging my shoulders.
"...*chirp* *cheep*" It just stared at me for a while before releasing first sounds that were similar to normal birds only stronger and louder.
This Danger Beast is a bit more special than I thought...it is cautious, quick, quite strong and also intelligent. It practically told me right now that it doesn't feel any hostility from me and that it isn't hungry right now, it also looks like it is female.
'What is wrong with you? Why were you rampaging around this mountain?' I asked her through "telepathy".
*chirp!* *chirp!* *SCREECH!*
I see...quite an angry mother but who wouldn't be. Her eggs were apparently stolen and eaten by another aerial beast. And even then, she wasn't able to avenge her unborn children.
'I have a proposition for you, join me! Join me and I will make those who hurt you and your children regret their actions!' I said while extending my hand to her with a confident smirk.
"...*SCREECH!!*" She looked down after hearing this but after a few seconds, she looked at me with slightly red eyes which indicated that she was desperate for revenge.
"Once I will fulfill your revenge, you are willing to become my pet, huh?" I muttered what she just practically told me.
I can also just tame it by force and by adding it into my class's "collection" she will be forced to listen to my orders anyway but...That would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Letting beast that killed children of my own tamed beast live would be quite humiliating even for me.
'Lead me to where you saw it for the last time, if we will find it, you will have your revenge in no time.' I used my telepathy and jumped on her back without even waiting for her response.
She was a bit surprised by this but she quickly took off and flew to the sky with me sitting on her back.
Hm?
I was slightly surprised when she flew into the direction I intended to go in the first place.
...
We flew for a few minutes at an incredible speed and we quickly left that arid land and entered some kind of forest full of trees, despite sitting on her back high in the sky, I was unable to see the end of the forest but I was able to notice one enormous tree in the middle.
Hm...That might be its nest, the place looks quite grand and to be able to create its nest on the tallest tree means that it is quite strong or that there simply aren't any stronger beasts around here.
After we got a bit closer, I was finally able to see it resting in its nest.
'Fly around its nest to provoke it and then lure it out to lower height, I don't enjoy fighting in the sky as you do.' I used telepathy to order her and she instantly did as I said.
Our target took the bait after my taxi made several laps around its nest while throwing a few insults at its color of feathers and poorly built nest. I was dumbfounded after hearing birds's insults, that was a completely new thing to me.
When the height was no longer that drastic, I ordered her to stop fleeing and face our target instead.
...I can't exactly jump from her back or I will risk breaking it, I am glad I still have my other means.
I thought and draw my sword.
[Phantom Strike]
[Energy: 1495/1515]
I disappeared from her back and suddenly appeared right in front of our target. The beast's wingspan was more than numerous meters yet it was extremely fast, almost as fast as my smaller taxi.
I slashed my sword intending to slash open its abdomen. Despite it being caught off guard it still reacted quite fast and blocked my sword with both of its legs and claws and in addition, it attacked me by firing a few of its feathers at me.
Only a smirk appeared on my face when I saw the feathers nearing me.
[Hail of Blades]
[Energy: 1445/1515]
3 broadswords appeared behind me and 2 of them were sent to pierce its wings while the last one was meant to somehow damage its legs but not to kill it. While I did this, the feathers already arrived in front of me and I just extended my right arm in front of me to create a shield made of fire. The feathers instantly burned in the heat of my flames and by broadswords did their job too.
The bird started falling down due to its wings being damaged but it was still able to glide for a bit. I also started falling down since I had no wings at all but after a few seconds, I landed on something soft.
There goes my test...not bad. Although I would easily survive fall from such a height, my taxi doesn't know that. It warms my heart that she actually helped me even though she didn't have to, heh.
'Let's go down' I told her and patted her back before jumping down from her back, earning a horrified look in her eyes while looking at me falling down.
*BANG!* When I have fallen down on the ground, debris flew everywhere. I landed right next to the injured beast but it looks like it was no longer able to move due to its injured legs and wings.
I approached its head and stopped right in front of it. It looked at me with hatred in its eyes and tried to bite off half of my body with its beak.
*shriek* My taxi was already next to me and stopped the beak from reaching me by stepping on the beast's head, immobilizing it.
Hm?
I noticed that my newly tamed beast was looking at me as if waiting what it should do next.
'Do whatever you want, this is your revenge, not mine, I have no interest in killing it.' I told her before turning around slowly walking away to give her some space.
*Screech!* She immediately clawed out its eyes and then bit off its entire head.
When she was done and satisfied, she hopped right in front of me with awe visible in her eyes.
'So...You got your revenge, are you going to join me now?' I asked with a curious smile and my arms folded.
*Chirp* *Chirp* It almost sounded as if she started singing while nodding her head and after that, she bowed her head to me.
'Good, I guess I should give you a name, how about Kiyomi?' I asked with a thoughtful expression.
*Chirp!* *Whoosh!* She started to happily sing while flapping her wings around, almost breaking all branches of trees around us.
She is really more intelligent than others, I can perfectly talk to her and understand her. That was an impossible feat with those wolves previously. Anyway, finally I can travel more comfortably plus she is also quite strong but most importantly, she isn't overly big so her speed is great. Now that I look more closely at her...she slightly resembles griffin. She has 4 limbs and also wings of the eagle, only her beak and head look slightly different but it doesn't make her any less beautiful. There are a lot of images of Griffins but I liked most of them and thought that there can't be an any better combination but this world is really filled with many wonders.
I thought while staring at her and holding my chin.
Kiyomi tilted her head to the side in confusion but I ignored it.
---
[Congratulation on successfully taming your first Special-Common Danger Beast]
[+100 NXP to your unique Beastmaster class]
[+10 NXP to your unique Beastmaster class] x3
Beastmaster (Lv. 5) 142/160 NXP
---
Oh? So she indeed is slightly special. I thought that she is relatively fast for just a common Danger beast. Not to mention her intelligence, there are even twice as strong Danger beasts than her and they have 0 IQ.
'Let's go' I jumped on her back and sat down while telling her to take off.
She immediately did as I requested and when we were high enough, I pointed at the certain mountains very far away from us.
She instantly understood and started flying towards the mountains at an incredible speed.
----Somewhere in the mountains----
"Ha!" A young woman with grey hair and lime eyes was seen practicing with her katana slashes at an empty space.
Despite her slashed hitting just an empty space, each of her slashes generated air pressure enough to slice numerous trees in the row in two halves.
"...Taeko? Don't you think that you are practicing a bit too hard?" A young woman sucking on lollipop asked while sitting on the branch of one of the trees. She was observing sweating Taeko with a worried look, even she herself started to sweat just by looking at her endlessly practicing her swordplay.
"Not at all, Chelsea!...If I want to...catch up to him...or at least stay near him...I have to become...even stronger!" She slowly said with pauses for her slashes.
'Sheesh! Can't you at least answer me without swinging your katana every few words? She is really obsessed...Even granny herself is quite worried and we are talking about granny here! She is someone who wouldn't mind to give me training where I would suffer for numerous days!' Chelsea thought with a tired expression.
"Taeko, you know that you must take a break sometimes, right?" Chelsea suddenly asked with a helpless smile while swinging with her legs back and forth.
"But I do have breaks. I have a break for breakfast, shower, lunch, shower, dinner, shower and then I go even sleep." Taeko finally stopped swinging her katana around and turned at Chelsea with a puzzled expression.
'FOR 3 FUCKING HOURS! How is that even considered sleep?!' Chelsea wanted to shout at her but she stopped herself.
"Taeko, I think that you are taking it too far...Are you perhaps running away from your thoughts by practicing so often?" Chelsea asked with a serious expression while looking at Taeko with narrowed eyes.
"? What do you mean, Chelsea?" Taeko asked with a confused expression.
"Each time we are eating, you seem to space out. And each time I ask you something, we always end up discussing Akashi. Do you miss him that much or are you afraid of something?" Chelsea said and looked at Taeko with a really worried expression. Taeko was indeed behaving very weirdly past numerous days and even Mera was worried but she couldn't do anything about it. She once has forbidden her practice for one day and she spent her entire day spacing out while looking out of the window from the hut built on the surface.
Although Mera found her spacing out face extremely cute, she had no time to fool around so she let her practice since it was the only thing that kept her in focus. Also, it didn't look like she was damaging her health but if she continued like this for numerous days, she would have no time to spend some time with other people.
"...Like I said before. I must be sure to keep up with him." Taeko thought while looking at the ground before raising her head and replying to Chelsea with a determined expression.
"...Is that really all? Aren't you afraid of something? Like him leaving you or forgetting about you?" Chelsea started bombarding Taeko with questions.
Taeko opened her eyes wide in realization when she heard Chelsea's words. She herself didn't know why she felt like it, she just kept thinking about Akashi whenever she had time. She just wanted to see him once again. But now that she heard Chelsea's words...she no longer had an idea why she was behaving like this.
'...No, I am not afraid of Akashi forgetting about me or leaving me without any notice. It must be something else...' Taeko thought while a small smile slowly appeared on her face which slightly surprised Chelsea.
"I have no idea but I am positively sure it's not about forgetting or leaving!" Taeko said aloud while her voice was filled full of confidence.
*Screech* "Who is leaving?"
Both Taeko and Chelsea looked at the sky with wide-open eyes when they heard Beast's cry together with the voice of man they knew very well.
When Taeko saw the flying danger beast and man standing on its back with folded arms while looking down at them with a smile, a bright smile immediately appeared on her face.
"Akashi!"
"Akashi?!" Both of them exclaimed but one was of a pleasant surprise while another was of unbelievableness.