SoK Chapter 191

TJ and Farid didn’t wait for the monsters’ reaction to begin the fight. There was no need to give a warning or allow the monsters to get ready. Instead, they threw themselves forward, or, more accurately, TJ threw himself forward and rushed to catch and kill the thunderbirds before they could get their magic started. With only one hand on the reins of TJ‘s bridle, Farid threw three javelins in quick succession. TJ watched as they flew towards the thunderbirds where they flew some 200 feet away, and he fought to keep himself from nodding his head in appreciation. The shots seemed to fly true, but the thunderbirds were fast enough that they could dodge out of the throws’ path. Then, as one cry echoed into two, then four, then six, the birds flew together in retaliation.

Looking over, it seemed that, despite there being six nests, there seemed to be six Thunderbirds. He’d killed one earlier the same day, but if there were seven birds, why six nests? The numbers simply didn’t seem to add up. Even so, the math of how and where each one nested did not matter. As one, the monsters flew together in a circle, just as he’d seen before, but this time the lightning grew stronger, more radiant, and all this faster than before. Given that there were significantly more thunderbirds doing the ritual, that wasn’t a surprise, but TJ sent his will towards the gathering storm and, with a mental image of his fingers being claws, ripped through the lightning, turning it to straggling bits of static instead of a deadly storm. By doing so, he pitted his own will against that of the thunderbirds, and, despite his pride and efforts, it was no surprise that six Elite tiered monsters had greater mental strength than him by himself. Even so, it wasn’t a waste, as the burgeoning storm was weakened for long enough to have himself and Farid get within range. As they got closer, the descendant of Shiva pulled out his spear once again and channeled another Skill.

Despite the man on his back not saying anything, TJ could feel the irresistible pull of magic flowing from the air into Farid’s spear as he leaned back and threw it again. This time, just like before, the thunderbird he aimed at attempted to flicker away with the same speed of the thunder they were named for. However, with the Skill that the Acolyte was using, the javelin’s path curved and followed the monster. With so much less space to react, the thunderbird had no choice but to take the strike on its body, and as the spear’s shaft pierced him, it’s inertia knocked the bird out of the circle of lightning. As it fell in a tumble, feathers and blood sprayed around it. One of the thunderbirds, larger than the rest, keened in special rage as its companion fell, but the struck bird was far from death, even though the race of monsters wasn’t as hardy as other Elites of their tier would be.

As the larger one voiced its rage, two ethereal versions of the thunderbirds rushed forward towards their attackers from the center of the twisting, growing orb of lightning. All the while, the five healthy ones continued their circling, creating a thick orb of lightning that continued to grow despite TJ sending more of his will lancing towards it as the two men closed in on the monsters.

Farid reared back and hurled three more spears towards the incoming lightning-colored copies. Just as the physical thunderbirds did, the copies dodged each of the attacks coming their way, the spears striking their tail feathers but nothing else. The Acolyte cursed under his breath as he prepared to continue his attack, and TJ pulled his attention away.

“Focus on the real ones, I’ll take care of these.” As TJ said as much, he sent his mind into the storm nearby to draw from it, wet and heavy air. While he condensed it into blades, he felt Storm Scythe and his Divine Authority empowering him as he sent a single blade forward that, as the copies dodged away from each other, he made split into dozens of smaller cutting blades. The two copies sustained plenty of hits, their forms’ color dimming and dulling with each successful strike, but they were not defeated. Even so, TJ didn’t pay more attention to them as he pushed through the space between them. They tried to catch up from behind him to limited success, and when their claws sought to slow or even harm him, they couldn’t pierce his scales and his mastery over the storm was absolute. They were left behind, and whatever Skill the birds had used in their creation faltered. 

That was when the thunderbirds reminded the world of the reason for their names. Before the lightning rushed out from the aurora of death that they were creating, a crack of finality split the skies, a sign of the completion of whatever they were doing. It thrummed in TJ‘s chest, fighting against his mastery of the storm he had created, and the beast inside of him roared, demanding that the pride of these monsters be destroyed. They thought they could wrench from him his control of this sky? They would learn the error of their ways. TJ threw himself forward, opening his mouth wide in a hissing roar of challenge. Instead of meeting him in direct combat, the birds ahead remained cowardly, and kept themselves back from engaging in real combat. They sent their lightning flashing towards him, and TJ started to open his mouth to accept it into himself and prove his dominance.

Fortunately, he decided not to do that, and instead, reared up for a split second before diving down and allowing the lightning, under urging from himself as well, to curve over him. As the strike went wide, TJ closed in closer to the monsters as Farid threw more spears, each one seeming to use a new, different Skill. The variable hail of spears was mostly stopped by errant bolts of electricity that arched out of the sphere of lightning, and drove them away, but two of his attacks pierced through the ambient defense and struck the thunderbirds. Unlike the first one that was struck, each of the monsters took the hit without too much trouble, seemingly unconcerned about the wounds that they had sustained. That was completely in line with every time that they had seen a monster get injured, but it was disheartening to see that the previously fragile birds were now finding themselves stronger willed than before.

“I don’t know how much more help I’m going to be.” Farid panted as he continued to throw everything he could at the Thunderbirds. “If we could get closer, then I might be able to make my attacks hit, but as it is, I’m burning way too much MP to consider keeping doing what I’m doing to be effective.”

TJ checked his Attributes and couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Even with so many Skills amplifying his abilities right now, he had spent nearly 3,000 MP on just getting up to the battlefield. With Storm Soul and his Divine Authority, his regeneration was keeping the worst of the effects at bay, but the thunderbirds’ attack was just getting stronger by the second, and they were able to fly away from him, though not as fast as they could regularly move.

“Then let’s make them pay in some blood.” TJ didn’t expand on what he said as he breathed deep and drew on Divine Manifestation to amplify his storm manipulation. His MP started to fall even faster, but he drew on some of the strength of the storm underneath to mitigate that cost and created two misty versions of himself to throw into the thunderbirds’ formation. Both copies of his appearance appeared behind the monsters, and their initial attacks were able to take the birds by some measure of surprise. One of the serpents caught a thunderbird had taken a glancing blow and had been slowed. With the Skill attacking, the bird’s wing was savaged. Its flock gathered together to attempt to help it and managed to blow the manifestation back, though without managing to do much damage to TJ’s Skill. The injury the Elite sustained was quickly covered by lightning, but it had to draw from the essence of the group's attack in order to do so and there by weekend, the flock as a whole. It then attempted to throw its essence back into the formation, but to limited success, and TJ spread his smile wide as the distraction was complete.

On the other hand, the other misty coatl caught the severely injured thunderbird which had struggled to return to the formation with the rest of its flock. This one got caught in the serpent’s mouth, and despite struggling and fighting, its fate was sealed. After the first bite a wing fell from the sky, with the second the bird’s screams gurgled off when its chest was pierced, and the third crunch of the magical jaws bisected the monster. Again, the flock keened in anguish seeing one of their number killed, but the first that had cried out in rage was the angriest. Perhaps it was the dead monster’s mate? 

The lightning lashed out towards TJ again, the monsters knowing he was the origin of their suffering. With his Storm Manipulation bolstered by Divine Manifestation, the Storm Serpent could even more easily than before deflect the attack away. Even so, the two manifestations and his defenses and keeping himself flying all at once sapped even more on his MP, and he washed as it dropped below 2,000. With a thought, TJ sent both of the storm serpents crashing towards the ring leader of sorts. It sent angry crashes of lightning towards each, but, to its surprise, TJ had them combine as they moved unnaturally out of the attack path. After all, they weren’t real creatures, only manifestations of a Skill. They crashed together onto the leader, their fangs gnashing. As it fell from the sky with a keen, the group’s lightning manifestation petered out, and the other four rushed to help it to no avail.

TJ checked the kill notifications.

Thunderbird (Copper (I)), Level 29, Slain. Experience gained.

Thunderbird Patriarch (Copper (I)), Level 31, Slain. Experience gained.

With a smirk on his face, TJ dove towards the two plummeting bodies, disregarding Farid’s shrieked, wordless exclamation, as he did so. As he dove towards the bodies, the thunderbirds seemed to think about striking back at him, but instead they looked at each other and turned to escape. Given his heightened Perception, TJ saw as they wheeled off, further away than the location where he knew their nests had previously been. As they disappeared over the horizon, he wondered what exactly they would do, but his MP was falling much too fast for him to worry too much about that. Instead, he stopped using Divine Manifestation, and instead drew the storm into himself solely to amplify his own MP. He caught the patriarch's corpse in his mouth as he commanded Farid to, “Catch the other one.“

TJ didn’t mind as his companion muttered, “Bring the guy with vertigo, why don’t you? The guy who’s scared of heights? Yeah it’s a great fucking idea. Make him lean from behind you and try to catch something that’s falling, it’s definitely not gonna be a bad time.”

Despite knowing that it would make him laugh, TJ did not use Storm Manipulation to make Farid’s job harder. Instead, he spared just a touch of MP to make the tumbling corpse draw just a little closer. As the Acolyte grabbed it, TJ pulled the last of the storm into himself, bringing his MP back above 3000 as they plummeted near to the lake.

With Storm Manipulation, inertia wasn’t quite as difficult to deal with as flying with wings would be, or at least so TJ imagined. With the Skill’s assistance, TJ curved to go towards the bridge where the settlement was. Farid‘s body twisted TJ‘s neck, but the flying coatl didn’t struggle to bring them back to land. There, he settled onto the ground, and Farid threw himself free with an almost insulting speed. On the ground, the Acolyte shivered for a moment, seeming to attempt to face the terror of what he had experienced. Then, he shifted his grip on the foot of the Thunderbird and gestured with a shake of his head for TJ to lead the way back home.