Chapter 101 - The Agile Bird

Bam!

One.

We burst through the doorway, shattering the wood supporting the door, which is thrown to the side by my back.

Bam!

Two.

Next is my own doorway, slamming into the room I had just left. A flash of the destruction I caused in my sleep passes through my eyes, but my focus is on something else entirely — the giant bird pushing me forward, glaring at me with beady eyes.

Crash!

Three.

Three is when we say, oh shit.

The window of my room falls to pieces shooting outwards, accompanied by things like the bedsheet, a lamp, and…

My sheath.

In the midst of my panic, as I desperately claw at the large talons digging into my chest, it doesn't escape my mind that my weapon is within reach. So I grab it. Or, try to.

My fingers glance uselessly off the sheath, causing it to spin midair. Just as it's about to continue falling to the ground without me, the tips of my left fingers lock onto it, and with a flap of her wings we fly even closer to the ceiling. We're now seven stories high, spelling certain death if she decided to let go. She turns in a wide arc, her speed increasing as she does. With a forceful input of Mana into my fingers, the sheath clicks open… And it's backwards.

"Mother… fuck…" I groan as the handle starts slipping out, moving away from my hand. With no other option, I toss the sheath up and back, spinning it so violently that the handle flies out, shooting past my hand, but thanks to my instincts kicking in, my arm catches up and snags it out of the air. The sheath starts a long descent, and I say a silent apology to the Old Man.

A black, simple sword grows out the end of the handle, finished by the hilt extending and twisting midway. "Alright… Down, girl!" I yell as I swing the blade around in my left hand.

[Combat initialized. Skill Close the Gap has been activated.]

As if prepared for this, a flash upon her free talon slightly blinds me as it comes from the side and catches my sword easily, sparks flying from the inner part of her birdy fingers… toes? I don't know anymore, and don't have time to worry about it.

"You can… use Inventory?"

"Of course. I'm not an imbecile," A deeper voice booms from the bird's throat.

"Only… an imbecile… wouldn't put me down… so we can talk this out. It was… an accident, after all."

She turns one yellow eye at me, a gleaming evil look reflecting within them. "Put you down?" She says playfully, before letting go. I yelp as I begin to plummet to the ground. "That's so damn cliché, crow ass bitch!"

With my mind going blank, I reach out with the sword in my hand, as if I could still catch her leg. Hearing my thoughts and responding, the sword bubbles, losing its shape and instead turning into a sharp hand that shoots forward, latching on just above her foot. She screeches, clawing at her leg, but it's too late, as the hand changes once more into a circular cuff with no way to disconnect. My arm is nearly jerked out of its socket as I'm pulled forward by the flying creature. "You persistent bastard! And the audacity to call me a crow!"

"The fuck am I supposed to call yo-AHHH!" I say, but I'm cut off as she suddenly nosedives, bringing me, her little hitchhiker, along for the deathride. "A raven! I'm clearly a raven!" She caws as she straightens out and turns, throwing me straight at the wall of a building.

***

"Gawsh, my memory is so bad sometimes. Was it 520, or 522?" A man with a golden mane of hair holds two trays of food as he rounds the corner. As he walks up, he sees debris littering the floor, and he rushes over to see the doorways for 520 and 521 burst through and in shambles. The man peeks in both rooms, but finding them empty, he sighs in relief. "Guess that answers that. She would be back by now if this was her, so…"

He turns to cheerily face room 522, knocking with his forehead. "Honey, did you see this mess—"

"Took you long enough. Did you sleep through—"

The man stares at a younger woman with wavy blue hair who is staring at him in similar confusion. "… Can I help you?"

The man laughs; it almost sounds like a roar, and the girl claps her hands over her ears. "I have a terrible memory! It must be 523. Sorry to bother you."

"Uh, sure," The girl with a blank expression replies, starting to close the door.

As he turns to leave, the man's eyes turn catlike, and a furry paw stops the door from closing, long claws extended. "I nearly forgot… Blue hair, red eyes… And you wouldn't happen to be a mage, would you?" He asks in a low growl, forcing the door open, but the girl isn't there anymore.

Instead, she's by the bed, rod in her hand extended towards him and sigil already created.

"Does this answer your question? Hellfire Chain Storm."

***

I use my legs to absorb the blow, pushing with as much strength as I could muster to swing around the side of the building, leaving cracks where my feet had been. "Ha! That's all?" I cry tauntingly, feeling proud of my response. The oversized bat simply scoffs, doing a barrel roll that in turn spins me around before flying straight for a skyscraper. "Hey, let's maybe not hit buildings? What'd they do to you?!"

She curves away at the last second, cracking the glass of the windows from the force of her turn and speed. I know I'm not going to be able to avoid this one, so I brace myself as I go crashing through the already-nearly broken windows, losing my grip on the handle for a moment. The solidity of Beholder's Eye begins to falter, but I immediately snatch it up, sliding along the floor as I try to get my footing. Finally growing sick, and running out of room before I'm in the sky again, I slam my ankle into the ground, bouncing me up, and at the same time I extend the stretchy material that used to be my blade to give me some slack. Spotting a pillar, I lengthen the rope of the cuff holding onto the lady once more and dash around it. I get about halfway around before I feel it pulling taut again. "How fast is this bird?!" I wonder as I'm yanked towards the pillar. I plant my feet securely on one side, and the cord pulls tight, digging about a quarter-way into the stone holding up the roof. As I feel the immense strain throughout my whole body, I hear more crashing and splintering sounds as the cords rips through the wall. It's right in my blindspot, so I can't see it until suddenly, it goes quiet for a few seconds.

"The fuck?" I wonder, still feeling incredible pull from my weapon.

A loud burst to my right startles me as the bird comes careening through the wall, skidding to a stop. "Oh, come on!" She says angrily, stomping her claw. She rakes her beak through her feathers a few times, shaking the cuff on her leg about. "Just take this thing off and we can both go our seperate ways! Well, until I come back with the Strong Lion to kill you. But!"

I shake my head, pulling on the cord and shortening it until it's taut again. She's forced to step forward, letting out a cry of anger in the process. "Ow, hey!"

A sly grin spreads across my face. "We've been looking for you, actually. Not sure why you're so hell-bent on killing me just for opening the wrong door, but I gotta talk to you."

"Fucker!" She caws, much like a bird would if it could talk. "I saw your sigil! You're the Sword Saint!"

I sigh in exasperation. "I knew I should have gotten another long-sleeve, dammit. Oh well. By the way, now that I think about it, crows CAN talk, and I don't think ravens do. For all that proclaiming to be a raven, are you sure you aren't a batty old crow in denial?"

The feathers on the back of her neck fluff up as an air of anger radiates around her. "Screw Lion. I'll kill you now!"

* * *

"Eniyala! You alright?!" Termi yells as she busts down the door with her shoulder. She holds her shield and mace in each hand, but she doesn't have her heavy orange metal-plated armor on — rather, she has frilly pajama pants and a sports bra. She looks through the half-destroyed doorway into the totally destroyed room, spotting a foot peeking from behind the bed. The short woman leaps forward, peeking forward in anticipation to see…

A huge man with a mane of a beard, unconscious and locked up with a mountain of blue rocks. Eniyala sits calmly on her knees in the middle of the bed, calmly sipping on a juice box. "Did you know these were complimentary? I don't know why, but using a lot of Mana at once makes me so thirsty."

Termi stares in light shock at the scene. "So all that noise…"

"Aside from the initial one, yup, that was me. Where's Klum?"

Termi turns to look behind her, past Yorun, Lynsel, and Panko peeking in, at a gaping hole where the doorway used to be for room 521.

"There's two of them, right?"

Eniyala finishes her juice box, tossing it accurately into the trash bin in the corner. "Yeah. Why, did he get the other one?"

Termi shakes her head in confusion. "I think he might've been kidnapped."