"Sorry captain, but I want to capture a familiar today, so I have to go." Athos said goodbye to the captain's head and left the room, heading for Khali's room.
Athos tried to greet him, but Khali motioned for him to be silent without turning from the study table. A black cube was on the table projecting a hologram of an elderly lady. She appeared to be in her 60s and wore a red cloak over a uniform Athos did not recognize.
"How is the border situation?" the lady asked in a husky voice.
"No changes from other years. Small raids on strongholds before winter, but only weaklings who were driven out of cities for being weak, sick, or just to decrease the number of mouths to feed." Khali reported.
"And the situation in the city?" The lady wrote down everything he said before asking.
"From bad to worse. The baron is an incompetent and has lost control of most of the city to the gangs. People are dying in the midst of the conflict and nobody does anything. As a member of the Guardians of the Word, I believe we should-" Khali started the speech he had prepared earlier, but the lady interrupted him.
"It's not your job to give your opinion, Mr. Hill, it's to report and answer any questions I ask. Are we clear?" The woman spoke in an icy tone.
"Yes ma'am. Any more questions?" Khali clenched his fists under the table.
"How is your young apprentice? Has he already learned the basics of non-elemental magic? You know that if after two years he still hasn't learned the basics, you must kill him to keep our secrets, don't you?" the lady asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No need to worry. He's no genius, but he's hardworking and has learned the basics." Khali lied through his teeth.
"Well, update me if anything unexpected happens." The lady didn't wait for an answer and hung up.
"It's good to see you too, Mom." Khali muttered to himself, before punching the wall.
"Are you okay?" Athos asked worriedly when he saw the expression on his face.
"I'm fine, Athos." Khali forced a smile not to worry him. "If you came here, that means you've already made up your mind. So what's it going to be?"
"An aurora frog. It's useful for my alchemy and I've seen some of them in the river that cuts through the forest." Athos said.
"What are we waiting for? Let's find these frogs."
******
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Athos swore aloud in frustration. It had been 6 hours since he and Khali had left town and started looking for the aurora frogs. Far from finding a frog, they hardly encountered any monsters in the forest. The only ones who saw it were hungry monsters who hadn't found food to spend the winter.
"On second thought, winter doesn't start for a week, but the temperature has cooled down. They're probably hibernating now." Khali said.
"You could have said that 5 hours ago and we wouldn't have wasted so much time for nothing!" Athos growled back. He looked up angrily, as he saw something flying in the sky.
"What is that?" Athos pointed to the horizon, where a shadow vaguely resembling a dragon moved among the clouds.
Khali looked up at the sky and was shocked. He quickly picked up the binocular-like item and looked. "What a fright. It's not a dragon, Athos. It's a pack of hive hawks. They move in packs and fly in the form of strong monsters, to intimidate enemies. There is only one female per pack and all males are their slaves.
They are a headache. They don't fear death, they coordinate their movements as if they were a single being and don't ask me how, but they all know how to use wind magic."
"Why do you know so much about them?" Athos asked curiously, never taking his eyes off the pack.
"They were considered a pest where I come from. They have a habit of migrating in winter, this pack would be a straggler. From the size of the dragon, it should be a small group, but they'll probably stop in the woods in search of food." Khali said shrugging his shoulders.
"Teacher, how long does it take your rock worm to dig a simple hiding place? I've changed my mind about the familiar. I want one of those hawks." Athos smiled at Khali with a plan in mind.
*****
The queen (female) of the hive hawks flew over the forest, ordering her slaves (males) to hunt down any monsters they encountered. She had red feathers and a crown of feathers on top of her head, measuring 60 centimeters in length; while the males were smaller, measuring 40~45 centimeters.
His pack was hungry, tired and weakened, several of the males still having poorly healing wounds. She had lost a territorial dispute with another female and many males were taken. The only ones left were the ones she spawned or the ones that were too weak and were rejected by the victor.
She ordered the males to hunt for food and small groups of hawks broke away from the flock and scoured the forest. After a few minutes, they came back with corpses of small monsters. They were thin and small, but they were better than nothing.
The males carried the corpses to the middle of the herd, where they were torn apart by dozens of beaks. Suddenly, a rabbit with horn had its belly ripped open by a hawk, revealing a leather pouch inside. The hawk sensed no danger from the pouch and pecked curiously, making a small hole.
Tssssss!
BOOMMMMMM!
An explosion happened in the middle of the pack, sending feathers and blood everywhere. The queen was startled by the sudden explosion and threw an emergency wind barrier around her, but the explosion was faster. She was mostly unharmed and only had a few burnt feathers, but she panicked, ordering her pack to gather around her and look for any signs of enemies around.
The males searched their surroundings but found nothing but the small animals. Wary of an unseen enemy, the female decided to flee the forest, ordering the remaining males to fly again in the form of a dragon, noticeably smaller than when they entered the forest.
Kaakaa!
Kaa!
They Males who were badly injured or had their wings destroyed, screamed towards the queen further and further away as they crawled along the ground. The queen ignored them, considering them useless.
Some time later the earth began to shake and a rock worm sprang out of the ground. Khali left soon after, followed by Athos.
"Congratulations, your plan worked." Khali spoke, looking at the hive hawks still crawling across the floor.
"I said I had a plan." Athos smiled smugly at him. "You said they have a hive mind. Do you think that might mess up the binding spell?"
"It sure will. Choose one of them and I'll kill the rest." Khali said, a freezing aura concentrated in his palm.
"I agree to kill them, but try to avoid damaging them, I want to preserve the materials. I think I can make some interesting potions with their materials." said Athos.
"Okay" Khali acknowledged his skill as an alchemist and asked no further questions.
Athos walked among the birds until he found one he liked. He wasn't hurt too much, just his right wing was burned, but the vision of life showed he was down to half his mana. He was one of the closest birds to the focus of the blast and had used his mana on a wind barrier to survive.
He was also one of the largest among the males, measuring 38 centimeters in length. "You can kill others, professor."
Khali snapped his fingers, making small icicles appear above the hawks and impale them.
Athos approached the hawk and began to cast the binding spell. A thread of pure mana came out of its core, absorbing world energy until it was the thickness of a finger.
Afterwards, he began to move towards hawk, which only then registered his presence.
Kaa? Kaa!
The hawk began to scream, shooting a wind blade, but the binding spell was faster. He hit the monster in the chest until he reached the core. He hit the monster in the chest until he reached the core. The hawk screamed in pain, feeling the foreign mana penetrate its body and release mana through its body trying to expel it, forming the link.
Suddenly, Athos felt a severe headache. Thoughts that didn't belong to him crept into his mind. They were the hawk's thoughts, but thanks to the link, Athos understood what they meant.
OBEY THE QUEEN! PROTECT THE QUEEN! SERVE THE QUEEN!