Paley quietly landed right in front of the sleeping Weynsoo. The stench of rotten flesh emanated from its beak; it probably had a meal recently.
The Weynsoo has two weaknesses. One of them is fire magic since it has highly flammable feathers covering it, so he charged up a powerful Firebolt to surprise it with. Hoping it would kill it, he launched the Firebolt into the Weynsoo's head, but what seemed like a wall of wind made it dissipate upwards, and the Weynsoo woke up.
It was so fast that he didn't even notice the moment it attacked him, but thankfully, the Protection magic he had on to use Firebolt saved him from its wing attack.
But the impact of the attack was too powerful and flung him into a tree, cracking its trunk slightly. He clawed into it with his hands and feet to stay on it and locked eyes with the Weynsoo, watching it like a hawk.
For some reason, his mana was running out despite him using only weak Air magic to stay in the air.
It stared back at him and let out an ear-shattering, screeching roar. The Weynsoo was furious. But at the same time, it was weary.
It spread its wings and lunged at him multiple times at an incredible speed for its size. He managed to dodge most of them by jumping to other trees with Air magic, still keeping a layer of Protection magic on him.
His mana was running out far too quickly, though. He needed a plan. As it continued attacking him relentlessly, destroying the trees that it hit when Paley dodged, he threw a few Firebolts at it, landed on the next tree, jumped off, and threw even more Firebolts.
Only a few hit it, the others either completely missed or were en route to its head but again were blocked by a wall of wind.
The Weynsoo has two weaknesses. The first is fire magic. The second weakness is its head. Its skull is fragile, so it's easy to break through it and damage its brain. Paley was aiming for it the entire time, but the wind wall kept getting in the way.
Weynsoos are Air type monsters, and this one was advanced enough to keep a barrier of air up around its head. However, Paley realized that the wind wall only appeared right before an attack, so it had to put the wall up every time he attacked.
A plan formed in Paley's head. He just needed to be faster and stronger than it. But before he could execute his plan, the Weynsoo spread its wings once more and clashed them together in an attempt to squash him.
He managed to dodge upwards and fly across its wings, getting to its head in a few seconds. His mana was beginning to reach dangerously low levels, so he had to end this fight quickly.
In its double-winged attack, it got its wings lodged in the tree for a moment, letting Paley safely land on its head. He had gained all the information he needed as soon as he landed. The Weynsoo can only nullify a Fire spell. Heat rises, so the wind wall didn't actually block the fire; it made it rise and dissipate.
However, now that Paley could make direct contact with the Weynsoo, it didn't matter. He pressed his palm against its feathery head as it got its wings unstuck to attack him.
"I've figured out your tricks, birdie." He grinned slightly, launching a Firebolt straight into its head. But it wasn't as strong as he wanted it to be. It was a pitiful, weak flame instead of an impactful burst.
It only managed to set the feathers slightly ablaze, which the Weynsoo put out with Air magic quickly. It shook him off its head and whacked him into its nest with its left wing. He barely had enough mana left to save him from breaking his neck as he rolled on the dead grass. Behind him, against the tree trunk, were knights' skulls, which the Weynsoo pickily left there.
It landed on the nest, taking a small break from all the flying before flying to the air once more. Paley had no choice but to go into a mana debt and use Dyaahn breathing. It was going to be painful, but at least he would have a chance to win.
As he focused on his breathing, the Weynsoo unleashed five quick slashes of air with its wings. Luckily, thanks to the mana-rich surroundings, he managed to suck in enough mana to cast a Protection spell.
"Shield!" He shouted and even made the hand sign, an open palm with all the fingers together, to make casting easier. It was enough to protect him from the powerful slashes of wind that managed to cut slightly into the tree trunk.
He began Dyaahn breathing again, but the Weynsoo unleashed another attack, this time lunging at him with its big black talons.
It took immense focus, but he managed to continue Dyaahn breathing as he jumped as high as possible to dodge the sharp talons. He grabbed onto its legs with a grip so tight that it hurt.
It killed its momentum with a beat of its wings, and Paley took that moment to use the mana he gathered from his surroundings. He charged up Firebolt after Firebolt, punching them straight into its legs.
"Die- Already- For fu-" He continued ramming the Firebolts into its feathery legs in a panicked frenzy. It screamed from the pain and flew up, taking a sharp turn to throw him off into the air.
His battle clothes were ripped and broken; bits of them floated around as he began falling.
At that moment, he felt fear. Paley is normally calm and collected no matter what. The most he ever feels is either happy or angry, and it is nearly impossible to make him afraid.
His fear was soon overshadowed by a primal instinct to survive, and he tried to suck in as much mana as he could from his surroundings with Dyaahn breathing.
It didn't work.
He absorbed mana at a rate too slow to win.
The Weynsoo was a tier II monster, which now made him wonder how he managed to beat the Fulguron, who was supposed to be ever so slightly weaker than the Weynsoo. As the Weynsoo prepared another wing attack, he felt a sudden surge of mana coming from his left.
But instead of looking at what he was taking so much mana from, he flew straight towards the Weynsoo, dodging its wing and landing on its beak.
He pressed his palm against it and yelled as he punched a hole in its beak with intense, hot flames. He managed to keep the spell going for about five seconds before his consciousness began fading.
The monster screeched in agony and fell onto its nest, trying to put out the scalding, molten beak parts. Paley saw an opening.
While the Weynsoo tried to take the molten beak parts out of its mouth, he tried to launch another Firebolt at its head. But he forgot about the wall of wind it could erect and was punished severely for it.
It swung its wing above him with extreme speed and smashed him down to the foot of the tree. He landed back first, cracking his spine, unable to use Protection magic due to his mana debt. The Weynsoo began flying down, and as it did, he quickly used Air magic to drink some Healing Potions.
'Come on!' He thought as he desperately drank two to find that they still didn't work on him. Healing magic didn't work on him for some blasted reason.
Before he opened the third potion, the Weynsoo landed on him, crushing him under its right talon. He felt the life fade from his body as well as the agony of not only his bones being crushed but the mana debt he'd fallen into.
Then, two pure white hands appeared and held onto the sides of his face; they were warm and washed his fear away. They transferred white essence into him, losing their glow and vanishing. He didn't see them, but he felt his broken bones heal almost instantaneously, and he felt an incredible strength surge up within him.
The Weynsoo's talons had trapped his arms together against the ground, but he managed to turn his palm and push it up slightly with a blast of wind.
He bellowed and blasted it again with another burst of wind. And another. And another.
The Weynsoo fought back, trying to crush him, but he freed his other arm and pushed its humongous body up with consecutive blasts of wind, switching arms in an attack rush.
Once he'd pushed it high enough, he jumped and took flight all the way up to its head, locking eyes with it once more.
His eyes were glowing a deep crimson. Now it was the Weynsoo who was overcome with fear. It roared, trying to intimidate Paley, who took the chance presented and flew into its beak swiftly. He redirected himself inside its throat and down into its intestines, releasing scalding flames as he went down.
His mana began to run out again, and he put it all into one last burst of wind to punch through the back of the monster. Daylight reached into its innards, from where Paley emerged and crashed into the gigantic tree, passing out upon impact.
The Weynsoo hunt was complete.
When he awoke, he felt the warmth of Bacha's lap as she took care of him.
"Hey," He greeted weakly and sat up.
"Hey," She replied, "How are you?"
"Stiff." Paley stood up and saw the Weynsoo behind him, its enormous body dead on the ground with its beak open. He'd burnt it inside out. Its eyes were missing, leaving blood-stained holes.
"Where are its eyes?" He asked.
"In there." She pointed to the bag and sword against the tree, "I also bought the sword," She added. Paley was surprised by her naivety at the fact that she'd just carved out a creature's eyes.
"Alright, we better get to carving the rest of this thing." He stumbled to his feet and walked over to the dead Weynsoo with Bacha's help, crouching down next to it with the sword in his hand.
Slowly, he carved out a bit of flesh, staring at it while licking his lips. His eyes were widening at the sight of the blood and flesh. He furtively ate it after cooking it with no seasoning.
"What're you doing!?" Bacha exclaimed, taken aback.
"Testing something out." While his body digested the meat, he felt a small bit of energy and mana return to him, concluding: "Looks like Quimnias can replenish their mana by eating meat." Apart from the mana and energy, he felt something else come to him. Something fresh. Something new.
He carved another piece, this time bigger, and ate it. More energy flowed into his system, but there was still that unfamiliar mana too.
Bacha watched in shock as he stood up and stretched his hand out toward one of the giant trees. He took a deep breath and jolted his hand, sending a weak blast of wind into the tree. It was powerful enough to chip away at the trunk and make leaves on the ground take to the air.
"Woah, was that a new spell?" She asked.
"Yeah. Wind magic." Paley looked at the Weynsoo's body, "I think Quimnias can also eat magic." He crouched back down and began carving again, though he wouldn't eat it this time. The meat was disgusting uncooked, so he just put a few pieces in the bag to cook at home later.
"Let's carve the rest of this up." He started carving meter-wide pieces. Bacha drank a translucent red potion - a weak Strength potion - and helped him with a small knife.
Forty minutes later, they finished carving the Weynsoo, having nicked the sharp feathers off its tail and kept its talons intact. They were now left with a mountain of huge imperfect cubes of meat.
"Alright," Paley stood up and wiped the sweat off his forehead, "Now, we just have to take it back home." He put the sword and knife away with Bacha; then lifted the talons and tail feathers first.
"Come on," He motioned for her to follow him. They walked in a tired, peaceful silence back to the orphanage. It was a twenty-minute journey, which Paley would have to repeat many more times to get all of the Weynsoo back.
Madella sat outside, awaiting their return while she watched the sunset. She spotted them walking out of the forest and across the river, Paley holding the cubes of Weynsoo flesh up with Air magic, and ran over after calling Teerom to help.
"Are you okay? Do you have any injuries?" She inspected him worriedly, finding that there was nothing wrong with Paley. Despite being crushed against the ground and thrown into a tree, his body was perfectly intact.
"I'm fine, mom. Bacha's healing potions saved me." His lie made Bacha grin with pride. He still had no idea what that potion was. Unlike the potions that Bacha made; - which tasted and felt like water going down your throat - that potion made him feel deeply soothed.
"Let me carry those for you." Teerom came over and grabbed one of the cubes of flesh, bouncing away in disgust when it compressed and squelched under his touch.
"Yeah, this is some super soft meat. I can't wait to cook some." Paley joked and continued hauling it back to the orphanage.