Footing

'If the footing is bad…' I grabbed my greatsword from storage and swung it down with all my might, splitting the ground in two and wedging it into the earth under the snow. 'Change the footing.'

Climbing up onto the handle and crossguard, I braced myself as best as I could, holding strong enough to take on a cavalry charge. 'I wonder if I'm the first person to ever try something like this.'

The bird spotted my red armor in no time, and its focus immediately shifted, sweeping back around and coming at me head-on.

I pulled my spear from storage and gripped it tightly with both hands, but just like before, it cut its charge short, blasting me with its wings, still refusing to make a sound.

To brace against the gust of wind I leaned forward on the handle of the sword and pushed against the crossguard with my feet, standing strong until it pulled away giving me a small opening to hurl a throwing knife into its left wing. 'Ok, not bad so far…' My grip tightened around my spear handle as my chest tightened again. Only, for better or for worse, this time the feeling came with a sharp grin. 'What if I made it through without a scratch at all? Now that would be a good story.'

It dove at a much steeper angle than before, this time head first, and in the blink of an eye, it spun, grabbing onto my spear with its claws and ripping it out of my hands, using the slope behind me as a cushion, and sliding down on it's closed wings.

'The book didn't say it could do that…'

It slowly stood up, shaking out like a dog to get the snow off, and took to the air again.

'Ok… I still have my sword… And… a couple throwing knives.' I pulled my sword from storage, trying to think about how I should fight it when it started its next dive. 'Ok, so the plan could have been a bit better…' Using my metal magic I forced my dagger to fly up to my hand from where it was stuck in the hill. Now duel-wielding, I managed to block each of the bird's talons, pushing my sword further into the earth from the weight of it bearing down on me. It pecked at me with its beak, but it was so large that its movements were long enough for me to dodge until I changed the angle of my sword, to free my dagger and stab it in the leg, slicing down several inches across its thigh to the hilt. Ripping it out I stuck it higher, into the bird's chest, further hurting its ability to use its left wing.

Even after all that it was strong enough to blow me half off my feet as It flew away, taking my dagger and my sword with it as I just barely managed to keep my balance. 'It's moving a lot slower now… And with its left leg hurt I only really have to worry about its right side.'

I looked down at my hands, rubbing them on my pant leg to get the sweat off as I shook out my right leg, readjusting my footing. 'I just have to stay away from its talons right… So, aim for the head then? I've got more than enough magic I think. Even a bird should get knocked out if you hit it hard enough in the face.'

It swept down, swaying from an inconsistent wingbeat as it viciously raised out its legs to tear me apart. Before it could get close I used fire breath to force it to halt, killing its momentum, and after the spell died down, I enhanced my body, leaping into the air as high as I could and twisting, then boosting my kick with wind magic. I slammed my iron-plated shin guard directly into its open jaw, hearing it crack like wood.

At the same time a sharp pain radiated like pins and needles through my right leg, making me unsteady for a second, and instead of landing on the ground, my ankle twisted on the hilt of my greatsword, slipping off and making my momentum flip me backward until I landed flat on my face.

Thankfully the snow was nice enough to break my fall, so the reason I didn't get up right away was mostly out of embarrassment instead of pain. Although I certainly felt plenty of both. My nerves wouldn't let me rest until I saw its corpse with my own eyes, so I flipped over onto my back, and in some absurd twist of events, it seemed it had barrel rolled down into my great blade and nearly severed its own head off as it fell, slicing over halfway through. 'Well… I'm definitely the first person to do that…'

Still refusing to get up, I laid down on my back, letting the cold numb my injuries as I took in the strange contrast between the heat in my body and the cold air entering my lungs. 'It was almost cool…' I lifted my head to look at the corpse one more time, half expecting it to twitch. 'Maybe one of these days I'll actually use a weapon the way you're supposed to.'

Light footprints slowly began to fill my ears until a heavy groan rang out next to me. "You alright?"

"Yeah…" I sighed, holding a thumbs up in the air. "Bird's dead though. Guess that means I won."

He squatted down next to me for a moment, staring at the corpse. "Don't worry, in the story I'll say you stuck the landing."

I chuckled, slowly forcing myself to stand, still feeling pain in my leg where I kicked the bird, and having trouble putting weight on it after twisting that same ankle. "I appreciate it, but doesn't it make for a better story this way? Every fight I do a little bit better than the last, instead of being some fake perfect hero."

He laughed as he walked over to the bird's corpse and started inspecting it, pulling several small throwing knives out of its back that weren't mine... "Someone enchanted this thing with pretty strong magic, to attack humans and guard this area, I think that's proof enough don't you?"

I tried to grin, but I was still struggling to even stand, so I slowly just sat back down. "What, you mean we're done already?" I chuckled. "I was looking forward to– walking another 8 miles through the snow and— maybe fighting another minotaur…"

He let out a deep sigh as he turned around, his face telling me he didn't get the joke until he looked at me, his expression suddenly changing. "I thought you said you were fine, can you seriously not even stand?"

"Give me a break, it was a hard fight alright!" I grabbed my bootstraps and tightened them to try and add support, but it just made the pain worse. "After it finishes swelling up I should be able to walk on it without damaging the joint anymore, just— Give me a few minutes…"

Light flecks of snow sparkled from his hair as he pulled his hood back with a sarcastic smile. "I don't think that's how that works."

My whole leg began to throb as the adrenaline wore off and I felt my smile vanish as my voice became quiet as a mouse. "Why does it hurt so much…" I took my helmet off to try and ease the rush of heat still running through me and looked up to Finn, my voice unchanged. "How about you… You're not hurt, are you? You said, what you did was risky." 

After staring into my eyes for a few seconds he turned away. "I'm fine… Grab your stuff back into storage and I'll drag you to the cave. It would be hard carrying you through snow this deep."

With a sigh of my own, I started to pack up, having him help me so I wouldn't have to move, and when it was all in my magic space he wrapped a cloak under my back and bellow my arms, crossing my injured ankle over my good one and dragging me through the snow.

 "Was all this really necessary?" I asked softly. 'I mean, it would be hard to get through the snow… But I probably could have limped well enough.'

He groaned, his breath running short as he kept trudging along. "It's better to treat wounds where it's dry. It's probably better to check your wounds somewhere out of the cold too. Exposing too much skin to the icy wind wouldn't be good."

'Too much skin?' My mind blanked for a second. 'That's not even what I asked?' My head naturally leaned against the cloak and closed my eyes, quietly waiting for him to finish dragging me. With plenty of time on my hands, I went over the fight over and over again in my head. 'A twisted ankle is relatively minor compared to my last big fight… But the bird didn't feel half as scary as a minotaur, I wonder if I'm actually improving or if it's all in my head.'

I thought through my choice of spells, thinking of different ways I could have approached the fight, but with how much hotter and bigger my fire breath had become, it was safe to say I had indeed improved, maybe even getting close to tier 3 magic.

Gently opening my eyes again I looked over to the hill I had fought on. "Maybe we make a pretty good team after all."

He let out a soft chuckle, focusing on moving through the deep wet snow.

 'That's right… This was my first real fight with someone helping me, wasn't it? Well… I'm glad we won. It's nice having someone to help me out…' He let out a long groan, slowing his pace. 'Well, it's nice for me anyways…'