I looked at the fight with interest as they jabbed their spears threateningly towards the seemingly helpless bird. Why were they even hunting the bird, I thought eating meat was restricted towards the beastmen, but here are two elves trying to kill a chicken, of sorts.
I reminded Aloe to record the fight, so I could analyse it later, turning my attention to the chicken or should I say cockatrice I noticed how it wasn't moving much with it occasionally turning its head to the side. It didn't take long for me to get bored as the fight was getting a bit repetitive. I started walking out of the undergrowth towards their position gaining their attention with the soft thuds of my footsteps.Their heads all turned simultaneously, their eyes even beginning to glaze over.
"What's with their reaction" I asked Aloe as they looked at me with frozen stances.
"Probably haven't seen a human for the past millennium"
I internally nod before making my ears slightly pointed to mimic them, I don't think they noticed as they were all still slightly dazed. After transforming my ears their eyes cleared up with the cockatrice leaping into action. By settling on my head. Why bird I love my hair! I screech as I try to shake it off, but it firmly rooted itself to my head, what did I do to deserve this? I dismissed Aloe's snickering in the background before returning my attention to the two elven boys who looked no older than my current avatar.
They suddenly raised their spears against me hostility appearing in their eyes like I had just stolen their prey, which I did, unintentionally of course. I subconsciously glanced at my head before facing my current situation. I looked at them carefully drinking in their features, they don't seem to be too different from humans besides the fact they were very tall and had pointed ears.
"Who are you?" the taller of the two said aggressively
I dismissed his question as I began to analyse the duo, its been a while since I've used this ability as there isn't any need to use it on earth and this is my first-time off world. When humans gained enlightenment, it was during the age of information and so our first innate ability came from our ability to harness and utilize information. Using the archive to search and store data for everyone is a bonus feature, which doesn't work to well with regards to this planet's poor profile.
When analysing the information of others we read their thoughts, well the excess magic and thought intent produced. Any being can do this but with our unique ability we can learn just about anything on the object we scan. Non-living lifeforms that don't produce either energy, magic or thought intent have to be touched however traces of other people's thoughts can be read off it making it easier to analyse.
As I got lost in my own thoughts I was brought back to the present as literally alarms were built into my system, I thought it was quite cleaver as I tend to get lost in my own thoughts totally disregarding the situations that I'm in. I was warned of a predicted attack so I set up my automatic defence mechanism. The Battle Body, by downloading various defence techniques by body can go on auto pilot with Aloe making sure everythings okay. The downside of our ability is our need to look at the object our person as we download and process their information. A quick glance can tell you their name or maybe even their age, but the more in-depth you go the longer you need to look, which is a pain.
I focused my attention on the short one as he lingered in the background watching the other fight, well attempt to fight my avatar as I was going easy enough to keep the fight going and hard enough to never make it stop. At this point Aloe could be heard evilly cackling in the recesses of my mind, sending a tingle through my spine.
The short one is called Dayo a name given to him by his mother who is currently deceased, the location of his father his unknown and he is related to the guy fighting me, brothers to be exact. He has a very sturdy build with a high muscle density however this means is magic absorption isn't very good, only allowing him to reinforce his body with magic. How crude. It seems however they are on a mission, they were not trying to kill the cockatrice they were trying to capture it to give to the head of the birds clans as it apparently has a big bounty on its head.
I glanced at the fugitive on my head breaking my watch on Dayo and the analysis, oh well. His tall sickly brother in front of me is called Pire and is quite adept in his use of magic as he constantly uses it to reinforce his sickly constitution. He also trains physically like his brother as he would die if he used magic for anything else.
I wanted to analyse the bird on my head but knowing I didn't have time I decided to cut this short as I wasn't even trying to begin with. I grab the spear as it lunges towards and use it to pin Pire to the ground. I mentally hold back Dayo as I will his magic to freeze, effectually paralysing him.
"Are we done pointlessly fighting" I say noticing the perspiration on the elves face. He briefly struggles beneath the stick before giving up with a nod. I internally sigh with relief as I don't feel comfortable doing this as I only want to travel, not fight over a chicken.
"sorry I took your bounty" I said apologetically. Aloe just teased me in the background for being a softie, which was promptly ignored. I helped Pire off the ground and unfroze Pire as I prepared to explain the situation.
"so what number are you" Dayo asked as I was about to talk.
I looked at him in confusion for a brief second, numbers what the heck? Like any sensible person I gave a well educated thought before replying.
"Obviously number one"