The small grey bird flapped its wings as it flew into position before slowing down and spreading them.
Roman finally had the opportunity to make out the features of the bird even though he did not understand the bird's actions.
The grey bird's feathers were, in fact, intermixed with quite a number of black feathers that gave it an ominous look. The bird was about the height of thirty centimeters and looked a lot bigger now that it was slower. However, those were not the most prominent features of the bird beast.
The bird's jet black crest on its head gave Roman the impression as if he was staring at a King waiting to be honored. In addition to the crest that appeared like a crown, the bird's tail feathers were abnormally long. Usually birds with abnormally long tail feathers used them for specific mating purposes and were decked out in bright colors. This bird, however, had two long tail feathers that were at least the length of its entire body with one being black to match the crest and the other one being white to contrast with its deep gray body and black crest.
Unfortunately, Roman could not recall the species of the beast that was defending him and could only struggled to try to figure it out.
Despite not being able to recognize the beast, Roman knew for sure that the beast that was defending him was at least of silver rank since it was able to match up to the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent.
Beasts were often ranked according to their ability and strength in combat. Since the serpent was a silver ranked beast, the bird managing to put up with it could be considered at the same level.
This time, however, the bird let out a huge screech before amassing a huge gust of wind before it from its wing flaps.
The bird was manifesting elements!
Most beasts had elemental affinity and could embody certain aspects of those elements in its body, habits, and attacks. However, those attacks seldom manifested outside of the body on such a large scale.
Beasts that were able to manifest the elements of the world were at least at silver rank. Roman's assumptions were proven correct as he gazed upon the wind elemental gust attack that the bird was producing.
Seeing imminent danger, the serpent wasn't going to give the bird the chance to complete its attack preparation. The bird did not want to resort to using elemental attacks as it deeply drained the user. However, after watching the serpent devour its mate, it had to retaliate.
This was a matter of pride.
The serpent slithered along the ground before raising its jaws to attempt to clamp down on the bird. However, wind-based attacks were classic in the sense that speed was its key characteristic. The bird completed its attack and sent it towards the serpent before it had the ability to do anything.
The gust of wind immediately collided with the serpent's neck, removing a large chunk of scales in the process. The serpent began bleeding from its neck, but the wound was not nearly deep enough to incapacitate it.
On the other hand, the attack only served as a means to enrage the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent.
The Serpent wasn't taking any more chances.
The remaining blood-red eye of the serpent began to glow as it began regurgitating its most recent meals.
Before the serpent lay the bird's companion along with a few other creatures like the Alloy
Shredding Bats that Roman encountered throughout the cave, among many others. However, each beast that the serpent had swallowed whole were covered in a glossy layer of brown film.
After the serpent was done regurgitating the contents of its stomach, the brown substance that coated the beasts began to bubble and steam rapidly, melting the beasts beyond recognition and turning into a deep brown sludge.
The sludge began to resemble mud. Once the process hit a certain stage, the mud began to coalesce before the serpent, forming a huge volatile sheet with quite a bit of malleability.
The serpent controlled the mud sheet to attack the bird, seemingly attempting to grab a hold of it.
Sensing the danger, the bird's speed returned to normal as it flew around the serpent dodging the sheet and trying to hit the wound on the serpents neck.
The serpent, however, was already weakened a significant amount and was beginning to show signs of weakness. Just at that instance, the serpent twisted its body towards the wrong direction.
The bird wasn't going to pass up such an opportune moment. It charged directly forward, aiming its razor-like claws at the neck of the serpent hoping to maim it further.
Just at that moment, the serpent's sheet came up from behind the bird. The serpent was luring the bird in! It indeed did not make any mistakes and was using itself as the decoy in order to catch the bird unawares.
The sheet came into contact with the bird, lacerating its chest as the bird was blown back, crashing into the ground right in front of the tree that Roman was in.
Due to the close proximity, Roman could see that the bird was in immense suffering. Its gray feathers were stained a rich crimson, and he was even able to see two bones jutting out of the chest of the bird.
The bird had been played, and it had to pay the consequences for its mistakes.
Roman's heart thumped loudly. He was shocked that both birds would risk themselves to aid him in avoiding harm. Even though birds were the friends of humans, the birds could have easily escaped when realizing that they wouldn't be able to defeat the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent.
Roman was actually quite emotional towards this act. No words could beat actions.
The serpent, having noticed that its attack succeeded, charged forward in glee. It was going to finish this troublesome bird once and for all.
However, when the serpent had gotten near the fallen bird, Roman couldn't stay still and watch the beast that sacrificed itself perish before he got the opportunity to repay the favor.
Roman jumped off the tree, using the momentum from the fall to strike at the serpent.
This time, the serpent was caught unawares due to the fact that the serpent deemed Roman as an insignificant bug, incapable of even defending himself. What cause would permit the serpent to think that Roman would stand up to it in the face of imminent death.
Roman firmly decided to take this risk for two reasons: (1) to repay the two birds who risked themselves for a stranger like Roman, and (2) simply due to the fact that Roman would be next should the severely injured bird fall here. It only made sense that Roman took action and combined forces with the bird to be able to match up to the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent.
Roman's attack hit the remaining eye of the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent, knocking its head towards the ground, barely missing the bird. Taking advantage of the situation, Roman removed the [Rusty Dagger] from the eye of the serpent and attacked the same spot in order to ensure that the final eye was completely destroyed.
The Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent let out a loud hiss in protest, but Roman continued anyways.
Roman then successfully dodged a blow from the serpent as it retaliated. Roman's job at this point was to keep the serpent busy while the bird recovered a little bit from its injuries. Roman did not have the momentum from a high vantage point anymore, nor did he have the ability to take on the serpent by himself.
His best option was to generate a sufficient enough amount of time before the bird returned to combat so that they could take on the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent together.
Roman continued to avoid the attacks of the serpent due to its blindness. In fact, the serpent's attacks were fairly accurate due to its ability to sense movements through its tongue. However, its eyes would have allowed it to gain precision. This time, the Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent was devoid of sight and completely blinded by Roman's big attack. Therefore, the serpent was only able to aim its attacks in Roman's general direction but wasn't able to judge spatial awareness.
After a good ten minutes of combat, Roman began to tire out. He had been going at full speed the entire time. Any less effort would result in certain death. Finally, Roman's exhaustion caught up with him. The Greedy-eyed Mud Serpent used its tail to do a wide sweep, preventing Roman from attacking and tripping him to the ground. In the process, it had successfully injured Roman's left leg as he fell at an odd angle.
As Roman fell, the serpent launched a head-long attack towards him. Roman shut his eyes as he knew there was no avoiding this one. The bird had yet to recover and still lay on the ground nursing its injuries.
He felt tremendous regret.
He wasn't able to do his father proud, or live up to his late mother's expectations. He wasn't able to propel the village forward, elevating the quality of life for his neighbors like Grace's mom.
This all took place right as he was about to make his first achievement of overcoming the Egg Hunt and launching his career.
But all effort till this point was for naught.
Roman took a deep breath and awaited the final blow. There was no use resisting now.