"So what happened there? Did you fight an owl or a dead soul?" I asked while healing the kid, while Athena healed Winter. "Fighting a dead soul or an owl would've been way better. At least I'd have a slight chance."
"What do you mean by that? Who did you encounter?" I asked again. "Forest Guardian," he said, looking down. "I fucking fought a Forest Guardian… and came back without losing anything."
"What A Forest Guardian?" one of the boys asked in confusion.Winter rubbed the boy's head and said, "Like the name suggests, they are the guardians of the forest. They protect the forest from us—humans."
The boy still looked confused, so Kite said, "He'll understand in time. "Then Athena asked, "When you fight the Forest Guardian? "Winter interrupted, "I can't even call it a fight. It was more like me dodging and spamming spells while trying to get the girl out of his hand."
Athena looked at the girl and asked, "How did you dodge his attacks? It would be impossible for an A-rank to outspeed the Guardian's roots." ,"Yes, that would've been the case if I didn't have my teleportation ability," Winter explained. "I used my strongest spell to strike him directly in the face, distracting him for a second. Then I ran circles around him, using a lot of mana to create a strong wind spell that sliced through his roots. When it cut his hand and the girl fell, I grabbed her and teleported back."
'A Forest Guardian is easily an S-rank beast. The strongest ever seen is SS-rank. The power gap is huge. Winter is at least an A-rank hunter, but any S-rank beast is ten times stronger than an A-rank. That's why Winter looks so satisfied right now…'
"Oi, Silver, what are you thinking?"
"Nothing," I replied, turning my head and seeing him return the pocket watch. Then Athena asked, "That teleportation skill... From what I've learned in history, it was used by an ancient civilization that got wiped out. Are you their descendant or something?"
Winter laughed at the idea and explained how he got the ability. Kite added, "Good. With this ability, we can just teleport back without having to go through the forest."
Winter sighed. "Actually, we can't."
I explained to them, "My mana's completely drained, and I need time to recover it. Same with my stamina." "How long will it take to recover your mana and stamina?"
the little girl asked "isn't mana and stamina the same thing, tugging at my pants. "Mana and stamina are very different," I said as I sat down. "In simple terms, mana is like arrows and stamina is the bow. You can run out of arrows and need time to restock, but if you don't have a bow, using mana becomes risky—you can't control it properly. But there are people who can use only arrows and still win a battle."
Hearing Winter's last sentence, I knew who he was referring to. I looked at Athena and Silver talking and said,
"How about we stay here for the festival?"
****
Only Athena changed into her festival clothes. We went up to the castle wall for a better view. From there, we could see the royal family as the king stepped up to speak.
"To all my people," he began, "we are here to celebrate this day, to bring good fortune to our kingdom and its people."
He bent down to light the rope of the firework. I was leaning back against the wall when I heard noise behind me. I turned my head and looked down the wall—and instantly screamed.
"Owls are climbing the wall !"
Below, owls were swimming through the water and climbing up the walls. My party and the guards all looked down in shock. I threw a fire spell to knock some of them off, causing a few to fall, but many kept climbing.
"Prepare the cannons!" a voice called behind me. I turned to see one of the generals jump off the wall, landing on an owl. He used a wind spell to create a tornado that sliced through the owls clinging to the wall. I noticed another owl sneaking up behind him—but Silver cut it down. "When did he jump down?" I thought, stunned.
The cannons started firing. I ran along the wall as Kite and Athena headed in opposite directions. I kept casting fire spells at the owls to knock them down while the soldiers dealt with the ones that had climbed up.
On the other side, another general was fighting. As I ran, something hit me from my blind spot and I was thrown off the wall—but I teleported back just in time.
Then I saw it. An owl was standing there, grinning.
"He's a sentient one…" I muttered.
Every soldier was busy fighting; I couldn't call for help. The owl struck again—I barely dodged and retaliated with a fire spell aimed at his eye as it hit his eye he was distracted for a second Using a wind spell, I jumped high and followed up with another wind strike—but the owl jumped up to my level, grabbed me, and hurled me downward.
I barely managed to teleport before hitting the ground and reappeared back on the wall. "Can I even defeat him? He's an A+ level b…" My hands were shaking.
Then I heard him speak.
"We… ak… humn…"
The owl jumped down, targeting a kid. I teleported to the exact spot I had been thrown to earlier, slashed off his hand before he could reach the child, grabbed the owl , and teleported back to the wall.
"My hands are broken… Just cutting off one of his hands took everything I had… How can I even win against him? "The owl grinned and charged again. I infused my sword with a thunder spell, dodged his other hand, and slashed with all my power—cutting off his second hand, then both legs.
I turned and stepped back as the owl, now silent, dragging himself away. I grabbed his head, cast a fire spell, and burned it—then cut it off cleanly. He was dead.
I sat down, sighed. "I was lucky to get a sentient one. They're far weaker than the brainless kind. But still… Why are they attacking the kingdom?"
Before I could think further, a soldier called me. An owl was chasing him.I cast a fire spell and knocked the owl off the wall. The soldier came to me and thanks me but slap himself to awake and said "You need to go to the other side—your friends are in danger!" "Then what the heck are you doing here?!" I shouted. He knocked me on the head.
"I was fighting there and then they said to call you ." I stood up, my hands shaking and legs going numb. Forcing myself, I grabbed him and teleported us back to the original spot."Show me the way," I said.
He hesitated, confused on how did we got here ."Forget it," I muttered and started running, using healing spells to restore some stamina.
Then I saw them—fighting another owl. Just as I was about to cast a spell, a root grabbed me and flung me deep into the forest. I crashed into a river.
As I climbed out, I looked up.
It was the same Forest Guardian. "Now I'm screwed…"