The Compass Needle took a steep change when Wu Hai was in the air for a few minutes, it shifting to the North. Making a turn in sharp flight was the least of his worries. He saw the group of Flaming birds approaching. Riding the Firebird's back, their leader was a man dressed in armor. From a distance, he ordered Wu Hai to land.
Wu Hai wasn't sure what the man was saying but still showed some respect and helped Doofus float down to land. When he was close to landing, he saw the soil break apart.
Doofus didn't know what was happening and flew back up. When he flew back up, the archers atop the Fire-Roks were already firing arrows at Wu Hai.
Wu Hai didn't have time for stupid acts and yelled out, "AVOID IT!" More soil broke apart below like a large object was pushing through the ground.
The Archers weren't watching, something reached through the soil and into the air with most of its body still in the ground. Large saber-like spikes covered its hide, the spikes made it nearly impossible to approach. When it rose continuously to into the air, it ate one of the firebirds and it's rider whole.
A few more arrows passed by Zao Wu Hai's head before they had realized what was going on. There was a commotion, the Archers had just seen something grab their leader from the air.
Flying higher into the air and hopefully away from the monster's range, they all met in the sky.
Wu Hai was incredibly pissed off, his father had taught him to dodge. Thinking to himself, Wu Hai swept his gaze across the remaining Archers. 'Who shoots without finding out details?' It was not like he had his weapon drawn, Wu Hai had even shown signs of compliance.
"Diplomacy is working things out, how could envoys simply fire upon someone without reason!" Wu Hai argued elegantly, he paused only to breathe and continued, "I am Zao Wu Hai and I'm leaving this place. Keep your own problems, leave me from this." He was about to leave when the Fire-Rok Archers stopped him again, they looked like they wanted to talk but they still had their bows drawn.
"Adventurer, this is the land of the Fire-Rok Clan. You are not to fly here, land and walk or die here and now.. The skies here belong to the Fire-Rok Clan alone. You have to the count of three." He didn't seem to back down, his arrogance showed a clear contempt and desire to kill Zao Wu Hai.
The monster was still below, its tentacle was thrashing around in the dirt. Wu Hai was not interested in arguing with the arrogant Archers and lit eight fireballs to surround himself.
As they orbited him he said, "Are you sure you can go on living after threatening an opponent who wants nothing to do with you and even showed you compassion by warning you about the monster below? How about this, I'll defend myself. If you think your lives are worth more than my leaving peacefully, I will oblige." Wu Hai fingered the latch on the scabbard, "I don't know or owe your clan, nor care of its problems." He took out the crusher, "You have 5 breaths."
"Arrogance, Archers.." One of the archers had the rest of his men draw and prepare to fire.
"Four," Zao Wu Hai leapt off of Doofus and shocked the entire squad, they were hundreds of feet off the ground, only a fool would leave his mount midair. The momentum he had was enough to land on the Fire-Rok closest to him. With a wave of the Crusher, he broke the Fire-Rok's back and jumped at the same time. When he had landed on the second Rok, the Archer had already noticed his approach and let loose the arrow.
Using one of the fireballs as a shield, Wu Hai blocked the arrow, it quickly flung to ash as it traveled through it. The rider didn't stand alone when the broad side of the weapon crushed his head in on itself and sent the limp corpse flying across the air into another of the squad, his Fire-Rok also suffered.
"BACK AWAY, don't let him jump, Fire at will" Those that were still alive in the squadron panicked, the started to lose its composure and their aerial formation.
The soldiers couldn't keep up with Wu Hai's physical agility. Standing atop the now Vacant Fire-Rok that was falling to its certain death, he jumped back down from its back toward the plummeting Doofus, 'that fat ass bird couldn't maintain flight?' Wu Hai kept his focus but Doofus was struggling, he was about to crash into the ground.
When Wu Hai came into contact a moment later, the duck was back on the rise. It wasn't a casual occurrence for the Duck, Doofus was panicking, the monster was still below.
"Follow him! Call for reinforcements, don't allow this scum to get away, inform the Fire-Core..." When one of the last remaining Archers was about to spit out another command, he was unable to mutter anything but a gurgling noise. Below his nose he could see an arrowhead passing through his mouth, the taste of blood filled his nose and throat before he lost control of his motor functions.
Feeling death and seeing it were two different things, the loud Archer fell from the saddled Fire-Rok. When he fell to the ground a small circle of dust and light appeared underneath him, he was swallowed by the dust and before anything else could be seen, a crunching noise could be heard.
Sensing the disturbance on the soil bed, a tentacle rose up and crushed the corpse of the soldier into a light snack. None of the Fire-Rok Archers remained to fight, all of them were fleeing from the battleground as fast as possible.
The dust storm below that was kicked up by the creature was an ominous and terrible thing to witness. Sure that his life would be in danger if he stayed, Wu Hai cast the Push Spell on the ass of the Duck and Doofus sped off at speeds that made his feathers shake violently. Opening his wings to full, Doofus rose into the sky far above the clouds and free from prying eyes. I
f the Fire-Rok air-core were to find them, it would not be good. The misunderstanding had already gone way too far and Wu Hai knew reconciliation was impossible. They had tried to take his life and he was not going to let them.
Soaring above the cloud-line, they hid themselves as best they could. There were no beasts or creatures in the air around him and Doofus could maintain himself while they were in flight, he only had to steer and follow the compass.
Searching the contents of the Crusher while they were flying, Wu Hai wanted to know what resources he had. The flight was boring and cold, except for the compass needle and stinging wind, there was nothing to concentrate on.
They were alone, high in the sky above the region.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
The following day Wu Hai ran across a few enemies, all beasts intent on using him as lunch. Collecting their corpses and materials into his weapon, he was grateful for the experiences. Tiny dots kept appearing on and in his weapons more transparent sections, as if growing. Wu Hai knew there was more to the details than he could imagine. The Crusher was a divine object, he was just carrying it and his control ended at the grip he used.
Checking through the contents, he came across a box of pills named "Beast Bitter," the instructions said any beast would gain a more profound body over time if given several of them. However it instructed the user to not feed more than one per day, It would make most beasts go berserk with higher doses. One additional note was to never feed such a pill to advanced sentient creatures, the result would be more than just a painful death.
Wu Hai fed one to Doofus in the air and their speed increased, and he had lost some weight almost instantly. 'He had metabolized it so quickly!' There were some random thoughts as they flew, mostly, Wu Hai wanted to know what sort of side effects they might have. "You are a lucky Duck...I don't think these pills are normal.. thank the Gods." He was tired of using his magic to fuel the birds flight and now it looked like the fat ass duck could do the work on his own.
Testing to see if he was right, Wu Hai took the cube from the scabbards compartment and stored it in his ring with the others.
Doofus didn't fall, Wu Hai sighed and Doofus quacked, he could feel the increase in his weight but continued to fly, his wings even seemed to extend another foot.
"Hooray, now we need to get the hell out of here!" Knowing danger could come from any corner of the sky, Wu Hai kept a vigilant search pattern with his eyes and watched the skies for anything different.
Nothing came, perhaps they had lost him, perhaps he was just hard to see. No matter the reason, Wu Hai was relieved that he didn't have to dodge any more arrows. People were a much harder fight than beasts, Beasts fought for a reason but People would fight for none at all.
All through the day they flew, not taking breaks.
Flying until the suns were almost set, Doofus was very tired. He had grown, his store of body fat had shrunk considerably. Doofus' is energy levels were low and it would be a danger to continue their flight much longer.
Making camp, the night was spent under the large bird's wings, Doofus' feathers were quite comfortable and kept them both warm. Before the end of season, he had to find the whatever that the compass kept pointing to and find out why the needle kept moving.
'This adventure has had quite a few twists and turns I never expected, no one would.' Wu Hai stared at the sky and watched the stars. There was little noise in the area and the night was peaceful.
Wu Hai knew that he had to move forward, someone would eventually come for the weapon he had on his back. A Weapon of the Gods was like a beacon, making himself a target when identified.
Before he could catch some sleep, he decided to try his luck and rolled the dice. 'Lightning, Stars, Ring.' Looking at the combination on the dice, he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep it.
Then, he felt the racing power coursing through his veins, he saw some ethereal sparks encircle himself. The abilities were easy to manage, he felt safe enough to fall asleep. Yawning, he closed his eyes and thought about what his family was doing.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍