The plan had seemed relatively foolproof, and with its contingencies, it didn't go so badly, but the party had underestimated just how many of the rocs would live in that single nest. Instead of a space carved for a pair of the birds and their offspring, there were at least three mating pairs of the creatures, and when the party dropped into their nest, they were not pleased and reacted quickly as their wings all flapped wildly. Wind began to build up to blow every one of the delvers out unceremoniously.
"We're going quick kill!" Astrid shouted as she rushed forward into the center of the room, though the wind continued to grow stronger at a frightening pace. Felix was right behind her, already activating Jaguar's Pride and Guardian's Wrath, but Astrid stood in the middle of the birds and raised her hammer. Two Gravity Surges in quick succession burst out, and the birds, already somewhat awkwardly hopping forward on their talons, slammed to the ground with distressed squawks. Astrid swung her hammer mercilessly, not spending any more mana but still killing two in that opening as they lay on the ground.
Lesser roc slain. 1,460 experience gained, split among party.
Lesser roc slain. 1,420 experience gained, split among party.
By the time the monsters were dead, Felix had gotten into position and, despite Astrid having made the only attacks they experienced so far, the birds were all focused on Felix. He danced between ferocious beaks and curved talons, managing to keep himself from taking any real hits, but even grounded and stuck in a cave that was only barely taller than they were, the birds, each three meters tall, were dangerous foes.
Muti rushed past and, with a single stab, pierced through one of the bird's large eyes and into its head. It didn't die so easily, but her follow up attack with mana-enhanced strikes reduced the total number of enemy monsters to three. Then, the rocs all regained their feet and flapped their wings in unison. Much faster than before, wind exploded and filled the space, blowing every one of the Wanderers back and towards the mouth of the cave. Astrid and Felix both activated their Skills that allowed them to remain immobile while Benedict and Skandr were both grabbed by Muti before she flashed with a Shadow Leap deeper into the cave.
To keep himself from moving, Felix's Skill demanded that he remain in one spot, but Astrid could fight her way forward to get closer to the monsters, just as Muti and Skandr began attacking them from behind. Lightning crackled as Muti laughed a challenge at the birds. Astrid was already moving when the wind magic and desperately flapping wings stopped trying to blow her out of the cave. With only three of the birds still in fighting condition, Astrid was quickly able to crack her hammer into the only one that wasn't actively being attacked. Her hammer fell onto its back, but to her surprise, different from on the top of their skulls, the thick feathers that covered the monstrous birds of prey were a remarkably good protection against blunt force. Even with most of her strength going into it, Astrid was unable to deal even a crippling blow, much less a deadly one.
Muti and Felix both began chopping and stabbing while flashes of lightning appeared, the other two rocs being engaged in deadly battle as Astrid jumped to reach the third monster's face. Her hammer clobbered the side of its beak, but again, she was surprised by how sturdy the monster was when it wasn't prone on the ground and unwillingly allowing her to crush its skull. Its beak cracked, but Astrid's strike didn't stop the attack that snapped forward and caught the edge of her shield in its curved beak. Astrid heard the shriek of the metal in her shield, and she desperately pushed her mana into it to maintain its integrity.
With her weight and that of her armor weighing it down, Astrid expected the bird's neck to sag, but it didn't. It stood strong as it tossed Astrid into the air, her four limbs pinwheeling uncontrollably as she tried to figure out where she was. She slammed against the roof of the cave and began falling down. Her vision cleared enough to see the beak open wide to snap her head off, and she twisted to smack her hammer into the same side of the monster's mouth as before. Spinning through the air, she wasn't able to deliver a strong enough blow to break anything, but she did manage to twist herself out of the way where it could so easily kill her.
Her breath whooshed from her lungs as Astrid slammed against the ground on her back, but there was no time to collect herself. She rolled over as the curved beak sought to disembowel her, the stone behind her getting shredded into powder in its beak. Astrud kipped up onto her feet and used a charge of Body as she channeled Spectre Burst into her hammer. The weapon smashed for the third time into the same place on the side of the roc's face and, as the necrotic energy surged into the monster, it slumped and died.
Turning to look at the rest of her party, Astrid was slightly embarrassed to see that they were all finished with their monsters, while she was the only one who seemed to have struggled. She comforted herself with the thought that her fighting style would be more effective against the drakes, blunt force working better against their scales than blades could. She looked at the rest of her party and asked, "Is everybody okay?"
"I can still taste roc poop," Benedict scraped his tongue with his hand as he whimpered with only a small amount of theatrics, his face screwed up in disgust. "I swear that's what hit me in the damn mouth, and I never wanted to know what I have learned today. No, I won't describe the taste, I want to forget it."
"That's why you need a helmet," Astrid replied, tapping on the featureless mask of her helmet. "Keeps your mouth clean of all of the filth of battle."
The party continued joking around as they went collecting a trophy from each of the rocs before turning to get ready to leave.
"In this situation next time," Skandr warned everybody, "I'm going to lead right out with a chain lightning. I got a bit of a feel for their magical resistance, and they're not too difficult to affect at least a little. I can get at least two, if not three or four with a single chain lightning. Then, Astrid, if you're able, that Gravity Surge move was great."
"It was wasteful," she half disagreed as she checked on her mana reserves. Even after Body, she was just a bit over half. "I could do basically the same thing with only a single use instead of two. But you've got the right idea of tying them down before they can get started."
"Then do it just once next time after I hit them."
As they made small tweaks to their strategy, the party moved along to the mouth of the cave. There, Astrid looked down at the twenty meter fall that awaited them. She did some quick math and decided that she might as well give it a go.
"Astrid, don't—"
Skandr's disbelieving words were far too slow to keep her from jumping from the cliff. Instead of dropping straight down, though, she drew a little Power-aligned mana and launched forward. Only in that moment did she realize, sailing through the air, that she never jumped as far and as hard as she could. If she knew where she was going, she would jump exactly that far. She knew how far she could leap with one leg as she was sprinting, that was necessary for her to do to ensure she remained familiar with her body. Now, though, she had decided to just jump as far as she could. Instead of having to worry about her eventual landing on the ground, Astrid very quickly had to adjust her plan and instead figure out how to survive this upcoming crash into the parallel cliff face.
She drew on a hint of Alacrity-aligned mana, and adjusted her position in the air. She got bot feet on the wall and started running alongside the opposite cliff wall as soon as she hit. Her knees and ankles screamed, but she continued moving forward until she started to lose traction on the wall. Looking down, she had another ten meters or so to go, so she jumped back to the wall she had initially leapt from, orienting herself in the air to again run along the opposite wall. Then, only two or so meters remained below her, so Astrid let herself fall to the ground in a roll.
As she gathered her bearings, Astrid looked at the nearly sixty meters that she had accidentally crossed in her efforts to descend from the roc's nest. All along the canyon she had just run through, rocks tumbled to the ground in the wake of her descent, and Astrid laughed abashedly at herself. As she looked at the nest she'd left behind, she saw Felix and Muti seeming to consider doing the same.
There was a sound of discussion, but Astrid heard nothing from Muti herself. Instead, Muti walked up to the edge and hopped over the ledge that led into the nest, holding on to the mouth of the cave with one hand. Then, after rocking back and forth three times, she launched forward into a run along the side of just the single cliff until she slid gracefully and quietly to a stop beside Astrid. Felix attempted the same, though he was much less graceful and ended up having to drop the last seven or so meters directly onto the ground. He fell into a roll that left a puff of dusksteel in his wake, but from his jaunty walk, it was obvious that he had enjoyed the display.
The two magically-inclined men shook their heads in disappointment, and Skandr obviously cast his featherfall spell as both he and Benedict stepped off of the edge. They floated down to the ground, and then walked with a forced nonchalance until they reached the three people who had come down a much more exciting way. Astrid couldn't help but laugh a little as the others drew closer. A disapproving voice echoed towards them before the men came close.
"And you didn't think that there might be another flying monster in this canyon that might catch somebody who's offering themselves up like a side of beef?"
"Skandr, do you think that I would be unable to make a roc that tried to eat me fall from the sky? In fact, I think it would be an interesting experiment that I should try again."
"Astrid," he replied, his tone distinctly motherly as he looked up at her. She just grinned and didn't engage further. This was one of several times that she enjoyed taking advantage of her helmet's faceless quality. She didn't even need to make eye contact and the featureless silver mask would seem like she was absolutely winning this staring contest.
Skandr gave up on the attempt to scold or correct her and Astrid counted it as a win. She turned her attention back to the path forward, wondering what sort of dangers would be waiting for them. According to the kill notifications that they had gotten, the rocs they had just killed ranged from level 30 to 34. None had posed much of a threat, but that was while inside of their nest. The evidence showed that one of the magical birds could easily deal with a drake on open ground, so the party would do well to remember what kind of trouble they would be saving themselves by turning the environment to what best suited their abilities. Looking forward, there was a relatively straight path, and Astrid looked at Muti for direction.
"Keep going forward," the Ambusher said. "That would seem to be the best direction for us to go."
Astrid nodded once and continued walking. It wasn't long before Muti tapped on her own ear where it protruded from her helmet and then pointed forward. The rest of the party began listening as well, trying to find what it was that she was calling their attention to. Not more than another minute passed before snarling and screeching filled the air. The sound of wind screaming through the canyon became a constant, high-pitched wail, and the party hustled forward. As the Wanderers turned around a bend, it was obvious what had happened.
Feathers flew out of a nest up on the cliff to their right, the sound of battle growing to a crescendo within until they died off. As the obvious winners, the snarls of the drakes in the nest remained as strong as ever while the plaintive screeches of rocs and the screaming of wind weakened. When the Wanderers drew close enough to see more detail, the corpse of a roc was thrown out of the nest, and it tumbled to the ground below where it splattered. Three more bodies quickly joined the first, and then three drake heads popped out of the nest after. When they laid eyes on the Wanderers as they approached, all three didn't hesitate to come down the cliff, their claws digging easily into the stone to allow them to walk down without issue. Each bore small wounds as a testament to the fight, their blood flowing from various wounds that each sported. However, it was obvious that most of the blood that covered them was that of their prey, not their own.
"It's time to see how much better we do against one of these now that we're all Iron too," Astrid joked as she raised her hammer. Then, as the largest drake, the one in the middle, threw back its head and roared a challenge, the battle began.