Hera was rushing to the jungle with Alex right behind her. If there really were crows or any other type of bird coming after them, they should be clear of open areas. Even considering that these monsters should be used in the jungle, staying in the middle of the trees would make it harder for them to reach the duo. Hera's court was following close. Not right by their side in case they find opportunists to start swinging but at a distance of about 5 meters. As they ran, Alex gestured to the side as small dust devils appeared around them. Hera noticed that spell, but she had no idea what it did.

Seeing the expression on the explorer's face, Alex gave her an awkward smile, "I don't have many options to scout the area, but this is pretty good at picking up variations in the wind. Since we are facing birds, this might help," Despite that, they were still running and trying to find a good place to either hide or fight the monsters.

Hera asked a couple of her blades to cover the canopy of the trees, but it seemed like they couldn't go much higher than her own height.

"You need a skill to make them fly. It's gonna be, I don't know, sometime before you get it. It is classified as a blade enhancement, but I have no idea what that means for the legacy," Daskka had a confused expression. She understood that much of the information she could see about the legacy was behind some sort of barrier. Still, it was the first time she got some information about something that she couldn't directly access. Having this kind of mental block would already be confusing enough for a sentient being. For someone who had to try to understand the words that they were saying for the first time, the struggle was almost enough to fry Daskka's mind.

Hera patted the snake's head, "Focus on the dungeon. We'll think about that some other time."

The birds were getting closer. It didn't take someone with her high perception or who was particularly good at tracking to notice that. However, it seems to be a bit better than the dungeon where they had to protect a sunflower, or, at least, the number of creatures coming towards them seemed to be smaller. Hera and Alex didn't say anything. They both knew that even if this could look like a good thing, it also meant that the monster should be stronger. After all, they were also in a different room in a much deeper layer. They found a small area that seemed to be well covered by a lot of foliage, branches, and trees, where they decided to stop and hunker down. Running away wouldn't accomplish much, and they still had to chase after Glimmer. The longer they took to go after the prey, the harder it would be to find it again.

A couple moments passed with Hera and Alex hiding among the bushes. Hera told her court to each stay by a tree and not move. That way, they could hide from the monsters and catch them off guard if needed. Suddenly, one of the birds landed on a nearby branch and started to scan the area. The creature looked like a black owl, but the feathers on its face would stick out, forming what seemed to be a mask from an old Victorian masquerade ball. Looking at it was a bit off-putting since the feathers seemed to mirror a human face. Even worse was when each feather started to move individually, almost like they were antennae that could help it track whoever it was chasing.

While the monster was looking around, Hera pointed at it and made a gesture by crossing her thumb on her throat, signaling that they should kill it. Alex nodded and got ready to strike. Hera created a poison needle while Alex prepared a small wind blade to take the monster out. Both attacks went flying at the same time, but Alex's was a bit faster. With a heavy impact, the spell hit the monster's neck, and it sent both its head and its body flying off in different directions. Daskka watched the bird's head hit one of the trees and roll over towards the bush where Hera and Alex were. It was a bit weird. The body of the owl was still there. When inside a dungeon, the monster's body should vanish as soon as it was killed. This probably meant that this monster was somehow still alive. Because of that, everyone was wary of approaching the owl's remains. That ended up being a mistake. Without anyone getting close to the body or stopping it somehow, the feathers that formed its mask shot out to the sky and exploded like red fireworks.

"Please, tell me that wasn't a sign for the rest of the birds," Alex gasped.

"I don't know, but we better move," Hera jumped out of the bush and dashed away from their location. Those feathers did look like some sort of signal for the rest of the parliament of owls. She told her court to get closer and stay within 3 meters of her. Their priority should be any attacks that were coming from above the canopy. Hera couldn't help but notice that controlling her blades was very similar to playing a strategy game. She gave commands and focused her attention elsewhere, trusting that her blades would do as she asked.

While she was trying to see if any of her blades noticed anything around them, Hera failed to notice when Alex vanished from her side. She became worried that the assassin could be in trouble, but she should've heard something if that was the case. After dashing through a few more meters, she noticed one of the owls getting closer to Brute. Before she could even react, the bird sent out one of its feathers which exploded in the air like another firework, a purple one instead of red. Soon after the explosion happened, the sounds of wings became louder, meaning that the owls were all converging in Hera's position. She turned to Beam and told it to fire at any bird it could reach. The handaxe did as it was told, and Hera felt her mana dropping quickly as at least 10 beams of light shoot out from the weapon. And yet, not a single one of the attacks hit a target. Hera had to stop and tell the beam to aim before shooting and for it to try to predict the owl's movements.

That new structure seemed to have worked a little bit better. Beam still failed to hit its target eight times out of ten, but the bird that was just watching Hera from beyond the tree line was hit twice by the beam of light coming from the sword. She also gave her blade a limited amount of mana to work with. She couldn't risk having one of her court members waste all her mana. Another dozen owls appeared in the air while Beam was still trying to hit that first one, which already showed some grave injuries. Swift and Brute were the first two to attack incoming birds who dove inside the jungle. They blocked their path and struck at their wings, not quite deep enough to cut them out but enough to make flying an issue for the owls. With the impact, Hera received the information that her blades lacked the weight to deal the kind of damage that she would deal herself. Even when using the fighting styles that Hera could use, the blades couldn't deal the same type of damage that Hera expected. When a person fights, they will be able to put their own weight behind each blow. Doing the same with her blades would bring significantly weaker results, since they were significantly lighter.

The only blade attacking without any issues was Lurize, who seemed to deal the same amount of damage as Hera expected. The plate itself was moving differently than the rest. Instead of just doing a single swing, the two-handed sword was always in motion, spinning around and gaining momentum. Seeing that, Hera gave the order to her blades to start behaving more or less like the zweihander. That change seemed to have worked somewhat. The axes were still new to it, and it was clear that they weren't exactly proficient in combat. In a way, it was like watching people who were just learning how to fight. Even with Hera's combat styles, the attacks were very crude and simple. With that out of the way, she focused on her own way of fighting. Her chakram was already attached to Yarnball, and now that she had the phantom thread, she could move it around a place like a jungle much more easily. Not to say that it didn't come with a few problems. If she tossed the chakram too far away, there was a chance of it getting stuck to a tree instead of just passing through and hitting her target.

Still, the binding thread ability proved to be useful. Hera could toss her weapon to the side and control the tread to heat one of the owls and then bind them, making them fall to the ground, becoming easy pickings for her court. While Hera and her court were fighting about half a dozen different owls that kept trying to dive and hit them with their pointy beaks, she could hear the sounds of other firework feathers exploding around her. They all had that same red color as the first one they killed. Hera tried using a flame spell to attack one of the owls, but with her entire court active, using magic was proving to be difficult. When she tried to use a spell, it would pass to one of her blades even if she didn't want to. She had to make a conscious decision of not giving the spell to anyone else and keeping her mana on herself which was very complicated since, to use a spell, she had to push her mana away from her body.

They had managed to kill almost all of the owls when a different cry echoed through the jungle. It was a sharp call that hurt their ears even if it sounded to be coming from very far away. Hera looked up and saw a large blue bird with a massive tail that she couldn't tell if it was made of blue fire or some sort of blue smoke. The bird's body resembled that of an eagle, but he had the beak of a pelican with a large orange sack under its chin. Realizing that she completely forgot about using her [Observe], she used it now on this new enemy.

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Loginue - Level 28 - Empowered (Fire affinity)

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"Alex, if you can hear me, there's another one coming. It's a big one," Hera yelled, completely ignoring the idea of hiding. The bird was already staring at her, and it seemed to be getting ready to dive.

Loginue flew over the area and started to ascend very quickly. When it was little more than a blue speckle in the middle of the sky, the bird did a flip and dove towards the ground at full speed.

"Clear the area! We have incoming," Hera yelled and started running at full speed, ignoring the owls still chasing her.

Not only did the monster seem unique because of its appearance, but there was the fact that it seemed to have a name and not just be called by its species. Those were usually the characteristics of a boss monster or at least a special monster that was much more powerful than others of the same kind. About 30 seconds after Hera told Alex to run, Loginue slammed on the ground with its beak digging deep into the earth. Loginue Took a deep breath making the sack on his chin expand, and then blew whatever was inside it into the dirt. Large sprouts of blue fire erupted from the ground burning the trees, the owls, and everything around them. Executioner was caught in one of the blasts, incinerated, and lost its material form. If Hera wanted to call the blade again, she would have to spend more mana to bring the blade back, and it would be weakened unless it took the proper time to recover.

While the bird was still with its beak on the ground, Alex jumped from the trees and sunk both of her daggers into the creature's back. The monster roared, pulling out his head from the ground, and started shaking violently, trying to get rid of the human attacking it. The blue tail, which Hera could now see was real fire, moved to grab Alex as if it was a tentacle, but before it could reach, Swift flew to her aid, already with its skill active. The handaxe blocked the attack and followed it up by spinning and slamming the blade on the base of the tail. Trying to cut it off from the rest of the monster. Hera only told her blade to protect Alex, but what no one suspected was that the wind surrounding swift would cause a chain reaction with the fire in Loginue's body.

The wind swirled, almost increasing the power of the flames, and was about to cause a large explosion. Seeing that, Hera dashed towards Alex and activated her stone elemental armor, trying to shield her friend from the blast. When the bird's tail detonated, boat explorers were sent flying towards one of the trees, slamming against it and breaking the trunk with impact. Yet, this wasn't enough Loginue was hurt, and a large part of its tail was gone, but it was still alive, and now the monster was angry.