Gerald decided to follow the bird for a while and see what it was up to. It wasn't as if he was in a hurry anyway, he could afford to play around for a while.
The bird seemed to be looking for something. It circled the area a few times and then flew straight in one direction.
Gerald had to expend quite a bit of Mana to keep flying high and stay out of its detection range.
They soon arrived above an open piece of land in the middle of the forest. There was a hilly area with many small caves carved into the ground.
Directing his attention there, Gerald noticed many humanoid figures running around and fighting. As he came closer he abandoned the Shadow Eagle, who dove towards the battle, and instead hid at the edge of the forest, observing the fight.
Iron-clad humans and what appeared to be Orcs were currently engaging in a bloody melee. There didn't appear to be any special strategy in place, as both sides clashed in a chaotic mess of a fight.
Gerald saw a few Fire spells flying across the field and explode in giant columns of flames, further separating the combatants and making the terrain more difficult to traverse.
Since both sides were about equal, it was clear that the strength ranks went from Iron-5 up to probably Iron-8 or 9.
Those weaker Orcs and even Hobgoblins were mowed down like grass, not to even mention Goblins who died by stray swings and projectiles.
"Is this one of those Goblin Purges? Damn these guys are brutal!" Gerald observed from afar and quietly commented on what he saw.
He sometimes liked to talk to himself as it could maybe give him an insight into what was happening better than just passively observing.
Corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, both humans and beasts.
"I'm definitely not going to help them fight, but maybe I can gain some inspiration for magic just by looking?" He was currently still too far to see exactly what spells were the mages over there were using, so he decided to sneak closer.
Luckily there was quite a bit of broken stuff to take cover behind. Broken war carriages and supply wagons laid there in the bloody mud, together with burned straw huts and wooden palisades that the Orcs used as a base camp.
Clang, bam!
He was now close enough to clearly hear the sounds of battle. A burly man with a bushy beard was currently engaged in a duel with an Orc Warrior, both of them being covered in metal plate armor.
"Wraah!" The man swung his greatsword with both hands, but the Orc intercepted it with his crude blade, knocking it aside with one hand.
His other hand held what appeared to be a meathook on a chain, with which he tried to entangle his opponent.
"Die you bastard!" The man roared and his sturdy body rushed forward, putting all the weight behind his next strike.
Bam, crack!
As the swords once again collided, the Orc's crude weapon snapped in half and only barely missed another warrior's head as it flew off.
"Gotcha!" The burly human warrior smirked and attacked even more aggressively.
But the Orc Warrior was experienced in battle and quickly used his hook on a chain to keep his opponent at bay. He swung it around himself and tried to strike the burly man with difficult-to-defend attacks.
"Shit, this chain is so annoying!" The burly man had to duck and weave to avoid the flying hook. He was getting extremely frustrated by the attacking style of the Orc.
He already wasted almost ten minutes fighting this guy and he was still nowhere near finishing it. The Orc was more than one rank stronger than him, but luckily his equipment wasn't as good.
Then, out of nowhere, a Shadow Eagle came falling from the sky like a meteor.
Skree!
A sharp sound of air being cut apart was produced just before impact. The Orc Warrior was completely unprepared for what was happening and it was unable to guard against the unknown attacker.
The Shadow Eagle struck it with its deadly claws on the back, cutting the metal plates apart like they were made of paper.
Dark blood gushed out like a fountain as the Orc Warrior roared in pain. Its back and shoulder muscles were torn, making it almost impossible to continue fighting.
"Heyaa!"
The burly man took hold of this opportunity and struck out with his greatsword, decapitating his opponent in one clean swing.
Breathing loudly he turned around towards a certain person and shouted, "Thanks for your help, miss Lynn!"
The woman gave a slight nod of acknowledgment and then focused her attention on the battle once more. Above her, two more Shadow Eagles circled in the sky, diving down to attack according to her orders.
"A Beastmaster! Nice!" Gerald watched the entire fight from his hiding spot and noticed the woman coming to the battlefield late. The Eagle he followed before had to be one of hers.
He already saw Beastmasters once, they were those from Blood Sun Viper who used Black Wolves and Wargs to fight. The Earth Dragon he killed also belonged to one of them.
He already had a deep impression of the beasts in this world, but using them to fight increased his interest even more.
Although he had no plans of getting a familiar of his own, it was still an interesting thing to see.
The burly man then ran to help his comrades and Gerald also moved, though in the opposite direction. His targets were the mages in the back, where he could observe their magic.
About half-a-dozen mages were standing in a line, a few meters apart from each other. Each of them was dressed in an expensive long robe, with jewelry and gold adorned bodies. They were sparkling in the sunlight, making them extremely eye-catching on the battlefield.
Gerald drank a Greater Mana Potion to start recovering faster and quietly floated towards them just above the ground.
Two Water mages were casting their spells that he was particularly interested in. They had barrels of water on a wagon near them so they would have enough catalyst for spell-casting.
The grass in the open wasn't too tall, but it wasn't short either. For a grown-up man, it would reach just above the knee height, just enough to hide Gerald who was slithering around like a snake.
He had to get to at least a thirty-meter distance so he could see how the magic was being used, but luckily, everyone was preoccupied with their own things, so he wasn't discovered.
"Slow rivers grind through stone, but Blades of Ice will cut you down!"
This was one of the first chants that Gerald heard clearly. A man, who seemed to be in his late twenties, dressed in a luxurious thick dark-blue robe was the one who spoke it. Water flowed from the barrel near him and following his hand movements formed itself in a shape of a crescent moon, before freezing solid and shooting forward at almost the speed of sound.
"Eh? He is using both Water and Earth magic for that?" Gerald opened his eyes wide in surprise. He clearly saw the man use Water magic at the beginning, but then it morphed into Earth before shooting off into the distance.
"Is ice considered under Earth Element? Or am I misunderstanding something?" It was a shock, to say the least. Gerald always thought that ice was part of Water magic and had nothing to do with Earth, but apparently, that wasn't the case…
But he didn't have much time to think as a shout from a soldier made him tense up.
"There is something in the grass!"