Chapter 8

Jax and Olivia made their way to Rishia's house and Jax asked if Olivia could get tutored in the same way he was. Rishia had no problem and the two started their joint lessons.

By the time night fell Jax told Olivia about how he had been hunting the last week. The two snuck out of the castle together and went straight to the forest. Ignoring all the balloons on the way as they were a waste of time at this point.

Jax and Olivia's levels were 25 and 26 respectively so they were decently strong. Plus Jax had been learning magic and had even unlocked a fire bow after defeating a special type of monster. It was weird, while the bow let him use ice powers it was definitely different from magic and it used his stamina instead of his magic power. However, it was also similar in a way and made it much easier for Jax to start learning how to use fire magic from Rishia.

Olivia was the opposite, she found it much easier to learn water and ice magics rather than fire like Jax did. The duo made their way to the forest and started viciously hunting to raise their levels.

Eventually they reached deeper into the forest. They had made good progress but they had only run into small fry.

Jax was a little bored. He was starting to bore of hunting the same things for a week straight.

Suddenly the duo heard a loud screech from above them as they saw a bright blue light fly through the sky.

Jax grabbed Olivia and hid behind a large tree near them. "Is that… thunder? It's so loud." Jax said as he covered his ears.

Olivia nodded. "But it's not raining… is it a monster?"

Jax tracked the movement of the blue light in the sky. "Looks like it. It's way too slow to be real lightning."

Jax had a smile form on his face. "That sounds like fun."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "It sounds more like nails on a chalkboard to me."

Jax waved in front of his face. "I can barely even hear it anymore! I got used to it!"

Olivia smacked the back of his head. "That's you losing your hearing, dumbass."

She pulled her new sword out of its sheath. "Let's just get this over with. I can't stand that noise. Plus, it's scaring all the other monsters away."

Jax nodded and they made their way over to the noise.

The two stalked the monster from the branches of the trees. A dark blue bird was squatting down by a river and drinking leisurely. Its body had blue lightning bolts arching off of it continuously and connecting with the ground.

Jax took a deep breath and held it as he drew his bow. An arrow notched itself automatically and Jax waited for a moment before releasing it.

The arrow flew through the air in an arc until it made contact with the monster's right eye.

"SKREEE!" The monster roared as tendrils of lightning shot out of its body in all directions.

"Shit!" Olivia called out as the two never expected to be accidentally attacked from this distance.

[Ice wall]

Olivia summoned a wall of ice instinctually to defend against the attack.

"You idiot!" Jax yelled out as he jumped at Olivia and got in between her and the ice wall that was currently at her fingertips.

The moment he shoved her out of the way the lightning made contact with the wall and simultaneously shocked Jax.

"Aghh! Fuck!" He yelled out in pain as he rolled along the ground. His body was spasming on the ground as the bird monster charged towards the two.

"No!" Olivia called out as she leapt in front of Jax and met the claws of the bird with her sword. Lightning ran down the metal in her blade and started wrapping around her arms.

Olivia grit her teeth in pain but didn't back down. After realizing it wasn't going to win the clash the bird flew up out of reach.

Jax yelled out. "Earth magic!"

Olivia instantly started casting a dome of dirt to cover the two and not a second later, the bird screeched again and a giant bolt of lightning shot towards the two.

The dome shook but held its ground with a few cracks in it. The duo were both panting in while lying on the ground.

Jax finally got his body to listen to him again, though he was still heavily injured. He tossed a few potions to Olivia and the two chugged them down in sync.

The dome continued to shake as more and more lightning hailed down from the sky.

Jax told Olivia a plan quickly and the two prepared. Jax gave a signal and Olivia dispelled the barrier. The two of them dashed in opposite directions and hid behind different trees as lightning hailed down upon them.

However, Olivia had stuck her sword into the ground to act as a lightning rod, focusing all the bird attacks on one direction.

Jax peeked out from the tree and fired another arrow, however the bird was too fast and it easily dodged and returned fire back as a tendril hit the tree Jax was behind, nearly searing off his face.

However, the bird had already turned its attention to the other pest who was shooting weak magic at it from another tree.

The bird swooped in towards Olivia. Jax saw his opportunity and ran out from behind the tree. He turned his bow into a tiny crossbow about 3 inches wide on the back of his hand so it wouldn't interfere with him. He started using wind magic in front of him to reduce drag and shot two streams of fire from his hands backward to propel himself towards the monster.

In a split second he was flying through the air overtop of the bird. Jax swiped down with both his arms and his mythril claws sliced through the bird's wings like it was butter. Jax landed on the ground and rolled forward before grabbing Olivia and dashing behind another tree.

Olivia put up an earth wall with magic without being told this time as the bird roared in pain once again sending tendrils of lightning in all directions.

The two hid behind the wall for about 5 seconds as the wave of attacks continued.

By the end of it the earth wall was barely standing. Jax hunched over in pain and exhaustion.

Olivia made another earth wall and checked whether Jax was okay before sneaking away to another tree in the bird flank.

Jax took a deep breath and changed his bow back to normal. He pulled back but this time rather than an arrow being notched it was a ball of pure fire. This instantly caught the eye of the monster as it head snapped in Jax's direction which is exactly why he didn't use this before.

Jax released the bow and the ball of fire flew through the air towards the monster. The moment it made contact it collapsed in on itself before shooting out like an explosion.

The bird was instantly enveloped in flames and cried in pain, however it continued towards him. Jax was exhausted but he still put everything he had into getting ready to receive the attack from the bird.

His vision was blinded by the bright blue light coming off of the bird and he clenched his teeth in preparation for the pain… but it never came. The bird stopped 5 meters short of Jax as its head toppled from its body and fell to the floor.

All Jax could see was a dark silhouette of a woman in front of the bird burning corpse. The only way he could recognize the silhouette was from the small glowing blue horns peeking out from the top.

Jax let out a sigh and sat down with his back against a tree. "Ha. That was easy."

Olivia ran over and knelt down beside him. "Shut up. That's not even funny coming from you."

Jax chuckled and spit out a little bit of blood. "I'm just glad we didn't have the cliche 'strong girl is scared of lightning'."

Olivia sighed and sat down beside him she pulled out a potion she had and poured it down his throat. "Just shut up and drink."

Jax gulped down the potions and felt slightly better. "This is your chance to run away from the man who kidnaped you." He said with a smile.

Olivia rolled her eyes and didn't move.

Jax chuckled and smiled. "Are you sure you want to stay, Olivia? There will be a lot more nights like these."

Olivia lightly knocked on his head. "Liv. It's what friends call me."

Jax smiled and closed his eyes. "Thanks, Liv. Glad to have you. *snore*"

Liv giggled. "This idiot really can sleep anywhere."