Chapter 48 - A Storm of Feathers and Noise

*Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV*

With a strong jump and a beat of my wings, we were in the air and rapidly pulled away from the ground. I was tempted to put the new saddle to the test and see what Rei thought about flying upside down, but her focus on the mission in front of us helped me keep focus as well. In theory, our job was easy and safe. All we had to do was use Taunt and arrows to draw the ire of the Bronzebirds and then use my superior speed to keep just ahead of them until we drew them into the trap. Simple.

Probably.

Of course, there was the slight issue, which had been brought up, that the Bronzebirds had to come from somewhere. The chance that a whole flock of some other bird Monster had all evolved into Bronzebirds was higher than it sounded at first - because if they lived in the same conditions they might act similarly in situations and all qualify for it - but it was far less likely than an older Bronzebird had laid Bronzebird eggs.

But where was the older Bronzebird? There were at least two and they would be far older than the current flock, but no one had reported seeing a larger than normal Bronzebird. Not that sleep deprived caravans were the greatest at reporting in the first place, it can be hard to tell the size of things in the sky because people lack something to reference as a comparison, but you would think someone would have mentioned it if they noticed.

Hopefully, if there were a couple of older Bronzebirds, they had just been shot down in one of the caravan raids. They still probably couldn't catch me, but in theory if they were old enough or had a strange evolution path… Actually, the worst possibility was that they had evolved into something else that would be able to catch me, but unless they were a lot faster than me I didn't think any of the possible evolutions mentioned would be able to catch me before I made it back to the ambush point, and catching me was only half of the fight. Rei and I would hardly go down easy.

Without having to accompany a caravan or stay on the ground, I was able to cover a lot of distance and soon we could see the location the Bronzebirds were roosting: a couple of rock formations that jutted out from the forest. Now came the fun part as I prepared to use my [Aerokinesis] to launch a nonlethal, but extremely annoying, sound attack on them.

Suddenly, however, a wave of sound crashed into us! A high-pitched metal on metal screeching, almost industrial, sound that immediately caused me to lose my concentration and feel a strange sensation.

"Hewka!" Rei, shouted over the din as she brought her hands to her ears.

"It isn't me!" I cried out as the strange feeling intensified into a strong feeling of vertigo. I vomited out the jerky I had eaten even as I fought to keep myself airborne. The flock of Bronzebirds added their cries to the sound as they took to the sky and the sound paused allowing me to get ahold of myself and see a much larger bird rise with them, its steel feathers gleaming in the sunlight.

Before I could collect myself it opened its beak and once again I was hit by a wave of horrible sound. It didn't actually damage me, but the vertigo that accompanied it made flying incredibly difficult. Forget escaping to the ambush point with my speed, I was having trouble figuring out which way was up!

Another pause in the screeching had me trying to pull my thoughts together. I could do this, I had experience with, and knowledge of, sound. My Aerokinesis was the only tool I would need, if I could just focus! Another wave of sound disrupted my thoughts again as we fell towards the forest.

The Bronzebirds, now above us, threw down their feathers and I heard Rei cry out as one of their feathers pierced her shoulder. Feeling that pain through the bond gave me something to concentrate on and even as the flock descended towards us, something in me snapped.

I was Annora, but for all Annora's deadliness she wasn't one to initiate unless told to do so.

I was Hemere, but for all Hemere's political and personal power, she was so shy and nervous that she rarely confronted anyone.

I am always Cadence, but that core of Cadence is a normal person. She doesn't want to fight.

But now, in this life, I am Hewka and despite my lack of focus, I seek out my problems and confront them. I don't back down. I don't give up. I am all of me that came before and something new besides, and I will have pride in myself and in my past selves.

And since I carry that pride in my past I will not allow myself, the [Siren Princess] Hemere of Ra'Sharon to lose to a wannabe rusty pokemon that can't carry a tune!

"You will be silent!"

I ordered the world to obey and the air stilled as all sound died, and I flare my wings to catch myself. Notifications were going off, but I ignored them. The flock had backed off in confusion for a moment, but they were quickly coming back, so I needed to…

SING

"They tried to turn sound against me!? I will kill them here and now!" is what I wanted to say, but the exhaustion that hit me as my mana dropped to zero and my stamina reached critical levels made that impossible. I lost control of the air just in time to hear Rei urgently shout to me:

"Hewka, we need to go!"

She had to pull on our bond because I was still furious, but she was right and I started winging it back to the ambush point. Anger fueled my wingstrokes and if it wasn't for Rei I would have pulled ahead - well, probably I would have just turned around. But what about her? I had heard her cry out and felt her pain through the bond, but it wasn't like I could turn my head and check on her!

"Are you ok?" Stupid question, she was stabbed in the shoulder, of course she wasn't o- wait, how did I know it was in her shoulder?

"I'm fine for now," Rei sounded strained, speaking through gritted teeth, but clear. "But I can't do anything about this here; I can't exactly bind it while we are flying. Chaurl is back at the ambush point though."

Angry as I was with the Monsters, I had some anger and shame towards myself worm its way into my feelings, I should have realized. One of my most critical weak points was Rei herself. She didn't have any Racial Abilities that gave her a particularly tough hide, nor did she regenerate, and on top of that her build wasn't particularly geared towards Endurance or Vitality and she was too young for her elven nature to have granted her the incredible Vitality elves are known for.

I should have thought of this.

The evolved, steel, Bronzebird had recovered and sent another shrieking wave of sound at us that I barely managed to deflect as the rest of the flock pursued us. I was too exhausted to even be angry, but was far too angry to care about my exhaustion. My thoughts were swirling and I could not tell if it was an eternity or a moment later that I hit the forest floor, carving a short line into the loam as my momentum carried me forward. I hadn't even noticed that my altitude had dropped, and now I struggled to get to my feet but collapsed again.

Rei was saying something, but I couldn't hear her as I tried one more time only for my stamina and mana to both hit zero. I was unconscious before my body hit the ground again, my last thoughts were resigned regret that I was going to die again and that I hoped Rei might be able to escape somehow.

*Rei'Reihammara Solily POV*

"No! Stay back!" I had to shout to the Adventurers rushing towards us as I tried to calm Hewka down. She had made it back to the ambush point before crashing, but Hewka was completely out of it right now and she clearly had no idea where she was. The feelings coming through the bond were sporadic, chaotic, and dangerous. As she was right now, Hewka would lash out at something first before identifying it - if she even could identify it.

I ignored the sharp pain in my shoulder as I moved my arms to try and provide some comfort to her, to calm her down. It didn't seem to have any effect, but thankfully Hewka finally fell unconscious and I was able to gesture for the healers to come forward as I started to undo the saddle's bindings. With them came the leader Piers and I tried to let him know what was coming.

"Evolved Bronzebird," I got out as I dismounted and the healers immediately sat me down and began to remove the feather from my shoulder. "Sound based ability, looks like steel, right behind us."

That was as much as I could say before a bit was pushed into my mouth and I bit down into it in pain as the feather was finally pulled out. The relief of healing that followed shortly after was welcome.

[You have suffered damage! You have lost 3 hp!]

[You are bleeding! Your Health recovery is below your bleeding damage!]

[You have been healed! You have regained 95 hp! You are no longer bleeding!]

I heard the sonic attack again, but it was muted, someone must have found a way to counter it. I nodded my thanks to the healers as they helped me to my feet and I grabbed my bow. Moving Hewka wasn't feasible right now, and I wasn't going to abandon her. I didn't think she was in much danger, but I wasn't going to take my chances, especially after all of the effort she had put in to bring us back here.

It was seconds later that a Bronzebird appeared over the clearing, its wings raised to unleash a shower of sharp feathers down. My arrow struck it before that could happen.

[You have defeated a Lvl. 3 (Adult Bronzebird) and earned 189 xp!]

A fraction of a second later, four other arrows hit it, but it was already dead. It hadn't even qualified as a Party kill, which seemed a bit strange because I would have thought I would have shared some with Hewka, but that was a question for later. Right now I was too busy keeping my eye on the sky and staying vigilant for the metallic glint that signaled one of the Monsters or one of their feathers. It wasn't hard, because there were far more than I had first thought. All around there was the twang of bows and the thud of the heavy birds falling to earth was mixed with the muted shrieks - which I would swear I could hear the growing fury in - of the Evolved variant.

A reflection glimpsed out of the corner of my eye caused me to dive for cover, and I scowled as a plume of feathers struck where I had been standing. Worse, the only cover around was Hewka herself and having to dive behind her unconscious body caused my blood to boil. Some of Hewka's fury must have leaked over before, but I grabbed it with both hands. It was everything I could to keep myself from shaking, to keep my hands steady, but the feeling of my heart thudding in my chest and the blood rushing through my veins… The feeling whenever I unleashed an arrow and…

[You have defeated a Lvl. 1 (Adult Bronzebird) and earned Party xp!]

It felt good; this anger felt terrible, but fantastic. I could understand why some people were so angry all the time, this feeling could probably be addicting, and yet… It just wasn't me, and as the fight went on the hateful rage ebbed away. Eventually, I took a deep breath and released it out, finally letting the sharp feeling go. This was a reminder, something that I would have to remember in the future, that our bond worked both ways and that Hewka would impact me just as much as I impacted her.

It was important because that anger had distracted me and reduced my awareness. I was a [Ranger] and yet it was only now that I noticed that the muted shrieking was coming from two directions and that there wasn't just more Bronzebirds than I had first thought, there was an entire second flock of the things, complete with another Evolved variant.

I was worried about keeping Hewka safe, but there was nothing I could do. I would have to trust in her Abilities and armor, there was nothing to do but keep fighting.

*Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV*

Ow.

I woke up sore, I had fallen asleep in an awkward position and… Did I forget to take my new armor off? That was embarrassing, wait… Fuck, the Bronzebirds! I jerked totally awake, looking around wildly only to feel the comforting, calming, and familiar feeling of Rei through the bond.

"Well, look who is awake," Rei spoke from behind me and I turned to greet her and Tamlin, who was with her.

"Hey there lazy," Tamlin chuckled. "Did you enjoy your nap?"

I thought to myself that Tamlin was a lucky bastard. It wasn't everyone that could poke fun at a wyvern and not get eaten, and if it wasn't for Rei I would at least consider it. Well, if it wasn't for the fact he knew he was lucky that Rei liked him.

"What happened?" I asked, although as my thoughts cleared and I looked around I could roughly put it together. There were metal feathers all over, but no Monsters - aside from myself - and everyone was smiling. We must have won.

"It turns out there were two flocks of Bronzebirds," Rei explained. "Each one led by an Adult Steel Syrinx Eagle, a rare Evolution of Bronzebirds."

"Rare and valuable," Karlin said, appearing from nowhere again. "We are going to be getting a bonus for this."

I turned back to Rei, "and your shoulder?"

"Healed when we made it back," Rei showed me the unblemished skin of her shoulder through the hole in her armor and shirt. "You were a lot more of a pincushion than I was, but you weren't awake to remember it. Speaking of, did you earn experience for that fight?"

Huh, I don't know. I mentally checked my notifications and immediately turned it off again as I was bombarded with a few dozen. Filtering through them, I had gotten quite a bit of Party experience. I had gained a level in my species and a couple in my [Hunter] Class, even gaining a new ability!

Name: Hewka Species: Young Gale Wyvern Level: 5/10 Experience: 219/500

Class: [Hunter] Class Level: 30 Health: 454/454 Mana: 54/54 Stamina: 100/100

Statistics:

Str: 172 End: 199 Vit: 160 Agi: 224 Dex: 132

Per: 195 Acy: 124 Wil: 124 Cha: 120 Mgc: 127

Lck: 164

Abilities:

[Prey Sense](class) [Hunter's Rest](class) [Hunter's Intuition](class)

[Breathes through her Skin](racial) [Poison Spice](class)

[Blood Trail](class) [Endless Hunt](racial)

[Toxic Skin](racial) [Toxin Control: Minor](racial)

[Regeneration: Minor](lesser)(racial) [Scale Armor: Minor](racial)

[Envenomed Bite: Hatchling Komadus Lizard](racial) [Infravision](racial)

[Salutivore](racial) [Strong Stomach](racial)

[Aerokinesis](racial) [Gale Wyvern Hide](racial)

[Lesser Wyvern Hide](racial) [Poison Resistance: Major](racial)

[Disease Resistance: Minor](racial) [Better First Impression]

[Healthy Thoughts] [First Words]

[Killing Blow]

Skills:

Acrobatics: 3 Acting: 5 Air Magic: 7

Ambush: 8 Analysis: 3 Cartography: 2

Charge: 6 Cleaning: 4 Climbing: 3

Composing: 3 Construction: 3 Cooking: 4

Charm: 7 Crafting: 5 Dancing: 6

Dagger: 1 Digging: 7 Dodge: 9

Drawing: 2 Earth Magic: 1 Etiquette: 3

Fire Magic: 1 Flight: 9 Gardening: 1

Intimidate: 2 Jumping: 7 Leatherworking: 2

Mana Manipulation: 7 Manasense: 10 Meditation: 9

Poetry: 1 Pottery: 2 Reading: 4

Singing: 19 Spear: 3 Sprinting: 6

Swimming: 7 Stealth: 7 Taunt: 1

Teamwork: 5 Throwing: 4 Tracking: 5

Trap Making: 7 Unarmed Combat: 1 Water Magic: 2

Weaving: 2 Writing: 8

[Hunter's Intuition](class): You have an intuitive feeling about where your prey is, what they are doing, and how to take them down. The more you know about your target, the more effective this is.

Huh, that isn't so bad. Of course, it just reminds me that I forgot to use Analysis again but otherwise, everything turned out ok. Now I just need to prepare myself for tonight, because I haven't forgotten my promise to Rei.

My promise to explain who I am, and where I came from.