New World Day 33

I jogged along the road to my house and ignored all of the beasts that I saw along the way just as they ignored me. I spotted forest coyotes, all three types of birds that I fought after the mosquito incident, and even two smaller pythons on the way back to the house. I thought that they left me alone because they were busy hunting easier prey, but I was wrong. I caught a glimpse of a giant shadow approaching me from the right and dove to my right into the roadside ditch. The true reason none of them attacked me was that no one dared to attack the thunderwind hawk’s prey.

The hawk’s immense form flashed through the air where I had just been running. Its talons tore foot long grooves through the blacktop as it skimmed along the road. It screamed in anger, beat its wings, and lifted itself high into the air with a burst of strength and a blast of wind mana. It banked in the air and came back around for another dive.

I pushed myself to my feet and bolted for the cover of the forest as soon as I hit the bottom of the ditch. The overstuffed backpacks leaned in different directions and threatened to send me tumbling to the ground again. The Quick Thinking skill activated with a thought, and the world slowed down around me for a half a second. I knew how to save myself. I snapped out of the skill, thrust my axe out, and hooked the bottom of the axe head around the trunk of a small pine tree that stood alongside the ditch. I clenched the axe handle and wrenched myself forward. The entire pine tree bent towards me, and the trunk emitted numerous cracking noises. It couldn’t handle my full weight being placed on it and appeared ready to snap in two, The image of the tree breaking and me falling backwards into the ditch spread eagled and easy prey for the hawk flashed through my mind, but despite the ominous noises coming from the tree trunk it didn’t break. I regained my balance and dashed for the tree line.

Multiple small pine trees dotted the area in front of the forest. They provided only a small amount of cover, but it was better than nothing. I wove around each of them in an attempt to force the hawk to cut its dive short, but it didn’t care about such small trees. I heard the flap of its wings above me, and the next moment a wave of wind rolled over the landscape and hammered me and trees into the ground. One moment I was running for the safety of the forest and the next I was smashed face first into the grass. The instant I regained control of my body I rolled to my left and tried to the dodge the inevitable follow up attack, but I only managed a half roll thanks to the cumbersome backpacks. The hawk dove down and pounced upon my prone form. It’s talons closed around my right arm, and it dragged me forward along the ground. Grass and dirt scraped my face raw and I felt my body begin to lift into the air.

As the hawk pulled me into the air, I heard a pop from my right shoulder, and I screamed in pain. The hawk’s strength and my own body weight dislocated my shoulder. It felt like my entire arm might be torn off at any moment. Thanks to the pain and the dislocated shoulder I lost my hold on the axe in my right hand. The scrapes themselves combined with the blood pouring from them forced me to squint and reduced my vision to a narrow blurry band. I sensed more than saw the axe falling in front of me and snagged it with my left hand.

I continued to roar in pain, and racked my mind over what to do. I kicked my legs out and began to sway in the hawk’s grip like a child on a swing. Once I gained enough altitude I twisted to my right and slashed the axe into the hawk’s ankle. The pain was excruciating, but the blade bit deep into the flesh and lodged itself in the bone. The hawk’s screams joined my own, and it released its grip on my arm. I held onto the axe handle with every bit of strength that I could muster. I didn’t want to fall from such a height, but my weight yanked the axe out of the hawk’s ankle. I fell fifteen feet from the sky straight onto my back. The backpacks broke my fall ever so slightly. Their contents dug into my back, my breath was smashed out of me, and I heard cracks coming from ribs. The fresh pain from my chest confirmed for me that the fall broke at least a couple of ribs.

I groaned in pain as I rolled onto my stomach and leveraged the axe head to push myself to my feet. I activated my active Regen skill for the first time since I purchased it in order to heal my eyes. My blurry vision returned into focus as my mana drained away. Thick drops of blood fell from the sky in a circular pattern around me. Enormous quantities of mana drifted out of the blood to form a thick mist of mana around me. Up in the air, the hawk screamed in fury. The air began to crackle around me. The gem like lenses sitting atop my eyes spun as I shifted the facets to focus on lightning mana. The mist of mana around me and the streams of mana flowing around the hawk’s body shifted from white to deep purple. Every bit of mana in the area except my own was lightning mana. The mana rose up into the sky and fused with the tide of mana forming around the hawk’s body. The gathering strike put the hobgoblin's to shame.

I leaned on the axe and dragged myself forward towards the forest. Each movement sent a new burst of pain through my body, but to stay still was to die. The circle of blood drops continued to center itself on me despite my movements. I raised my eyes to the sky when the build up of lightning mana reached a crescendo. The hawk let out a deafening cry and flexed its entire body skyward. The lightning mana coalesced in front of the hawk into a thick purple bolt of lightning that flashed down toward me. I didn’t see anyway to escape from the attack, but I continued moving forward anyways step by agonizing step. Small forks of lightning branched out from the main bolt and reduced the nearby trees into cinders while the core bolt came for me. As the bolt of lightning fell upon me, I lashed out with the rune axe in one last act of defiance. When the axe blade and the bolt of lightning collided, something unexpected happened. The lightning poured into the axe head and the runes etched into each side blazed into being. What lighting wasn’t absorbed by the rune axe split around me and burnt the ground black.

A few stray bolts slipped around the axe and burnt erratic lines into my chest and legs, but I survived the strike. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the hawk. I held the cause of the minor miracle aloft in front of my face. An inferno of power roared within the runes of the axe head. The runes flickered and appeared to bend out of shape only to snap back into place. That was new and unexpected, but I knew what it meant. There was too much power in the axe head for the runes to contain. It needed to be released. A grin split my lips and a chuckle escaped from my mouth. I stared up at the wide eyed hawk and roared, “Let me return the favor!”

I activated the Quick Thinking skill s I yelled at the hawk, and the world slowed down around me once more. I focused on the image of what I wanted the lighting mana to do with every bit of strength and energy I could muster. Once I had the image fixed in my mind, I gave a light swing upwards in the direction of the hawk. A light swing was all that I could manage, but it was enough. A burst of light flooded the area and a bolt of lightning erupted from the rune axe. The bolt flashed into the sky and slammed into the chest of the hawk.

A corner of mind remained coherent enough to worry that the hawk might be immune to lighting, but that worry proved to be unfounded. A cry of agony spilt into the air. The bolt burnt its feathers black, and the smell of charred meat filled the air. A part of me wanted to bask in the success of the blow, but I shuffled into the forest instead. I didn’t think for a second that the hawk was dead. I bet those injuries weren’t even that serious, but they distracted it enough to let me slip into the forest. My right arm lay limp and useless at my side, and I had a serious limp thanks to the burns and broken ribs. I used the axe as a cane to keep dragging myself forward.

The hawk trailed me through the forest and dropped bolt after bolt of lightning from the sky, but the tree tops protected me from its wrath. I kept moving. Never staying in one place for more than a few seconds. The trees drew the lightning strikes away from me, but there was only so much damage they could take. Thick branches and the occasional tree trunk fell behind me. Victims of the hawk’s rampage. Fires burned behind me, but the forest was still damp enough from the recent storm that the fires failed to spread very far. I worried that the hawk would take out its fury on the house as well if I retreated into it so I stayed in the forest and circled around the house towards the big barn. The trees thinned along the incline above the Little Lake, but there were still enough to block the flashes of lightning.

When I reached the side of the big barn, I lingered for longer than was safe before continuing forward. The hesitation allowed the hawk to unleash a few extra bolts of lighting on the area. Attracted by the metal, multiple bolts struck the big barn and shocked everything and anything within it. An enraged hiss confirmed that my gamble had paid off. A grinding noise of metal scraping against another hard object pierced the air. The sound of wood cracking mixed together with hisses and sharp high pitched cries filled the air behind me. In the python’s view, the hawk launched an unprovoked attack on its home. That was enough to break whatever fragile truce they had reached these past few days.

Burning branches fell around me and added a few more wounds to my growing collection as I staggered out of the area, across the trail leading to the dam of the Little Lake, and into the forest that led down the orchard hill to the Big Lake. I gambled that the fight between the two of them would force the other nearby beasts flee the area. I exited the forest at the top of the orchard hill and crossed the open hilltop and headed for the forest on the other side of the hill’s downward slope. The hawk caught sight of me crossing the hill and let out a screech of anger, but it was too busy fending off the python to chase me. I disappeared from its sight into this new portion of the forest and cut up towards the front field. No beasts emerged to contest my passing, and I reached the area where the forest jutted up to the gravel driveway without any further issue. I hobbled down the driveway, the crunch of the gravel drowned out by the sounds of the battle raging between the python and the hawk, and slipped into the basement unnoticed by either combatant.

Survivor © * leveled up!

Stupid Fool © * leveled up!

Extremely Stubborn Fool © ** leveled up!

Pain Control (B) *** leveled up!

Pain Control (B) *** leveled up!

Pain Control (B) *** evolved into Pain Control © ***!

Fear Control (B) *** leveled up!

Flawless Memory (Passive) (B) ***** leveled up!

Quick Thinking (Active) (B) ***** leveled up!