A ginormous eagle meibeast made itself known with a ear-piercing shriek.
Before they had the chance, Klein and Meior were shaken to the core by the mofei-infused sound attack— not to mention the pitiful meibeasts with their more sensitive hearing.
Some of the meibeasts were sent into a daze as their body was fully stopped by the sheer strength of the eagle meibeasts scream.
The monstrous eagle had four wings and was fully black with streaks of grey in its feathers; it very clearly was adept in air manipulation.
As soon as they along with some of the meibeasts gathered their bearings, they continued their mad rush in the quickest route away from a horrible death.
With a bird type beast going on a rampage like this, there could only be a few reasons behind its devastating pursuit in a hunt this disastrous.
"KLEIN! Back into the bunker NOW!!!"
Klein was shook at the sudden outburst from his father.
"B-but father what about-"
"Don't worry about me hurry and go before-"
His instructions were cut off before he could finish.
A streak of air flew straight towards the area where they were standing— somewhere full of lots of nutrient rich bodies.
There was no way any of the beasts could react in time, leaving them to join there fallen brethren on the grounds of the previous Meita Village.
Another round of screeching insued as the beasts rushed over to claim its meal on the resting place of a mound of beasts.
Klein now wished to listen to his father's words and as he went to do so, he noticed his father collapsing to the ground.
"F-father. Father!"
Klein leapt to reach for his father's body and as he saw the damages, he was dumbstruck.
"I'll be fine Klein. Please. Just run to safety. Don't let it find the villagers. GO NOW!"
It hurt to be yelled at like this, but Klein knew his responsibilities best at this moment.
If he fled to the bunker now while the eagle meibeast was on its way and quickly at that, it might find its way inside the bunker for more easy prey.
It was more likely that the bird would eat its fill before leaving the village in peace.
So now Klein only had one choice: to abandon his father and leave him to die and flee into the meibeast filled forest that lie just beyond the empty village grounds.
'No. I can't leave father here. I have to fight. I have to draw the beast away from the village. That's the only chance I have.
"Daddy. I will protect you."
Klein's steady breathing continued as he drew more air mofei into his lungs which spread throughout his entire body.
The richness of the mofei provided his brain with the best of clarity and fueled him for a relief from his previous actions of slaughter.
As the mofei in his lungs was at full, Klein felt lighter by a large margin; it felt as if he would fly had he jump into the air.
This however, was untrue. His body was as stable as ever, his feet digging into the soft soil that once grew a bountiful meal for the people of the village.
Now, the dirt was full of blood.
There was a feast of flesh spread across the earth and Klein stood before it.
With that and his wounded father behind him, Klein felt hot.
If he died, so did his father.
If his father died, then the likelihood of the villagers surviving without proper defenses was abysmal.
It was up to him to change the fate of the fallen village and he was proud to do so.
The old him never had the courage to do something outside his comfort zone, but that was not to say he would never rise up to the challenge.
Whenever Klein's past self was required to think hard that was when he thrived.
To find a solution to a difficult problem was the same as saving a life once you got to a certain level and now was the time to think on his feet.
'Firstly, I have to attract the beast's attention, afterwards I need to find a way to lead it away into the dense trees and foliage.'
He took a page out of the bird's book and began charging up the air inside of him.
And then he roared, "RAAAAAAAAAARGGHHHH"
The flying torpedo slowed its decent and looked keenly at the lonesome figure that was in the way of its feast.
It immediately decided to get rid of the ant-like being and swooshed another wind blade at the boy.
Klein thought to dodge it however, his eyes were processing everything quickly and he saw the edged blade of wind hurdling towards him, aiming to cleave his body in two.
He raised both hands and deployed his external manipulation to its fullest.
The blade slowed in speed, still aiming at himself, but it soon drew an ark and landed on the ground next to him.
With a "boom", the ground coughed up a cloud of dust and debree, but Klein was unharmed.
"This could work," he licked his bloody, dusty lips in thought and stepped forwards with a newfound confidence.
He lightly jumped on one foot at a time, finding it easier to view the world this way.
It was... fun.
"Hehehe."
The more the pure air flowed inside his blood, Klein felt higher and higher, his body getting "lighter".
He began creating a dense drill of earth putting both hands to the ground.
'I've only got one chance.'
As the tiny drill bit was formed, he breathed outwards towards it, coating it with the dense air mofei that was inside of his lungs.
Meior, who was witnessing this from his wounded position could not help but gulp in anticipation.
'My son, what a genius you are.'
Without directly combining two elements, he still found a way to fuse the two into a successful attack.
Due to the rarity of a dual elemental manipulator, much less a multi-manipulator, there was hardly a time where two elements could be fused into a successful attack.
Meior himself was a stellar earth manipulator, while the rest of his fire and water manipulation had hardly grown since his attunement in his teenage years.
So now, seeing his son seamlessly gather the air mofei around the shaped rocky earth, it was a sight for sore eyes.
'Maybe, just maybe he could... No, it would be better if he ran.' If only he had listened to me.'
But Klein was too focused to hear anything around him, not to mention "see".
As the air swirled around the drill, it carved a smooth divot up until the tip of the earthy bullet.
Then Klein waited until the beast got closer until it had reached a suitable distance, "Time to take flight, Wind Pellet!"
The drill pellet flew at a rapid speed that not even the bird beast could have predicted.
With that, the wind pellet found its way inside of the bird's wing, mangling it in the process.
"SCREEEEECH!"
The eagle meibeast lost one of its wings and decided to enact revenge on the little ant that caused the damage, but as it trained its eyes back on its target it saw the figure bolting towards the trees.
Klein sprinted to safety and the bird beast chased out of sheer malice, leaving the village to become peaceful once more.
'You've sure taken flight yourself, boy.' Meior crawled his way back to the bunker all while bringing some corpses for food.
The village was safe for now, its hero long gone.