Niao Wang

The ocean seemed never ending to cross. Niao Wang had always hated long flights in the past. That his captain had ordered him to make the trip to Yuan still ruffled his feathers. It had been a hundred years since he had made the trip and he didn't understand why one of the newer enlisted members couldn't make the trip instead. Was it his fault that Lord Xiao's pet farm had sent out an emergency request for aid? Who could possibly cause trouble in a continent full of student ranked cultivators? Watching the blue of the ocean disappear behind him, Niao Wang focused on the ground below.

It was the same as it always was, the green hills of Yuan Continent never changed. Neither did the Jade Forest for that matter. For anything to truly change, their cattle would have to outgrow their docile nature which hadn't happened in the near thousand years of their servitude. He flew to the capitol of the small island of a continent. The sooner he finished this, the sooner he could start his six month return trip to Obopin.

Diving for the City Lord's manor, Niao Wang took his human form. When landing on the balcony, he no longer looked like a majestic lord of the skies, but instead a tall man in a simple white robe. With his dark green hair and fair complexion, he looked to be only in his twenties, which was something he had many admirers for at home. His wives quivered in anticipation for each of their nights with him. The thought was fleeting, then he was back to business.

"Zheng Guo, have you lost control of Yuan Continent, or did you just miss your benefactors?" He looked around the dining area of the manor and wrinkled his nose. Though nothing was out of place, everything was dusted to perfection and not a crumb of food was on any surface, he smelt something foul. "City Lord Zeng Guo, I sense that you are here. Rather, I smell you. Get out here and report."

'He could be finishing up with taking care of his peasant's concerns.' He thought as he sat on the balcony, taking in the state of the home. The scent of the home bothered him immensely. It was as if it were drenched in fear. He knew that the dungeon was just a few floors down, so it wasn't too strange for this feeling. Though, he knew the dungeons were only used to hold the people who were to be executed in days, if not hours. This fear he smelled was stifling. It was like a caged animal who had been tortured for not days but rather years.

Then he felt something different, as if a cool breeze brushed up against his neck. "Who's there." He demanded. "Show yourself or be destroyed." He looked around, but still saw nothing out of the ordinary. A ninth star warrior ranked cultivator like him shouldn't feel a sense of danger, yet for some reason it felt as if all of his senses were telling him to flee as fast as he could.

"I'll come back for you!" Niao Wang called out into the manor before once again turning into his original form. His twenty foot wingspan stretched out and took up the length of the whole balcony as he flapped once, gaining altitude at as fast as he could. The sense of danger was so strong, it overrode any reasoning. It was almost as if he were in the maw of a predator, but the mouth hadn't closed yet. He flapped furiously to get out of the range of such teeth.

Yuan City faded away in just a few flaps, then Niao Wang finally allowed himself to calm slightly. He hadn't seen anything. He had nothing to report to the captain except that he was scared to death of the capitol. If he left just with this knowledge, he knew that he would be reprimanded, but he didn't care. His life was more important than his dignity, and he knew if he were to stay for a moment longer, he wouldn't be able to leave.

He allowed himself to slow as he flew above the Jade Forest. He only had a few more minutes before he was back among the waves of the ocean. Though he dreaded the six month trip back, especially after having no rest, he knew that it would beat the alternative.

He saw the clear blue waves in the distance, soon he would be in the clear. He just needed to make it a few more wing beats.

Niao Wang's relief at seeing the water in the distance was instantly replaced with dread as the feeling of danger reached a crescendo and he felt something pierce his under belly.

"AAAGHH!" He screamed as he began to drop from the sky. The piercing feeling had turned to one of intense burning, then pain that spread throughout his entire body. It felt as if any thought of moving a single limb had been made impossible as he fell into the trees, breaking branches all the way down until he hit the ground with a 'thud.'

Niao Wang shifted back into his human form in order to get a better look at the damage. His white robes were now stained a deep red from his abdomen and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't rise from the ground. Instead he propped himself up on an elbow as he scanned his surroundings. "Come out, human. I smell you!" He yelled into the trees. He couldn't feel even a hint of qi, yet he knew there was someone there.

"Those beast noses of yours, I really have to find something to plug them in the future." A voice rang out from the trees. It sounded like the voice of a child.

"Child, who are you?!" He looked around while backing up to prop himself against a tree.

"Just a boy who's learning to hunt." The voice grew closer, and Niao Wang could see the shadow of a boy. 'Wait, that's not right,' he thought. The shadow was the boy.

"Human. You will pay dearly for this." His features warped into one of rage as he realized that this child must have just found him like this and had come to have his fun. "You think to look down on us magical beasts, but I will not die from this." He looked down to his stomach. He should have started healing already if he knew his body as well as he did. He moved the cloth of his robes to get a better view, then he cleared out everything that he had eaten that day.

In center mass of his abdomen, he saw the hole. Instead of it closing, it leaked blood profusely, almost as if it were trying to get away from what had lodged itself inside him. He pressed his hand tightly to the wound to stop the bleeding, but then he noticed greenish purple veins branching up ever so slowly towards his chest. "W-wha?" He tried to speak, but found it to be nearly impossible.

"I saw you when you first flew in." The child walked closer, then Niao Wang noticed a very long cylinder on the boy's shoulder. He was holding it by some sort of handle. When he took a closer look, it had many complicated components. At the very top, the cylinder cut off and something seemed to be screwed into it. "Oh, you see my little friend here?" He smiled and rubbed the thing fondly. "I call this a fifty caliber sniper rifle."

The name of the object sounded like gibberish to him. But when the boy took off his mask, his eighth star warrior rank bled through the formation that blocked it, then he sent a wisp of qi into the contraption. When he did, Niao Wang hadn't remembered a moment in his life that he had wanted to run away more than this. The power he felt in front of him was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, and he'd seen his captain's most powerful attack. He never stood a chance. His eyes brimmed with tears as he tried to move his limbs, but they wouldn't respond.

"Oh," the boy's eyes went wide. "This one frightens you?" His eyes softened a little as he put it into his spatial ring and replaced it with something much smaller. He held it in one hand by the same kind of handle, but the tube was only six inches long. The boy sent a wisp of qi into the smaller object, which glowed with the same brilliance as the large one.

Niao Wang's mouth went slack, his eyes glazed over. Then something began registering from back at the manor. He smelled the air with his last breath. He could smell the overwhelming fear in such an enclosed space. Could the feeling back at the manor have been a premonition of this moment? The thought was so ridiculous, but it was also the last one he had.

The bird-man slumped, his head cocked to the side and his eyes became vacant. Hong Zhao peered down at the beast, his gun raised to fire. "Dammit, couldn't stay alive a moment longer, could you?" He sighed as he brought the hammer forward again and put it on safe. "When am I going to be able to test this beauty out?"