Thunder was rumbling menacing in the sky, lightning dancing in the clouds brought brightness to the dark abyss that seemed to devour everything from above and suddenly a loud a screech exploded in the area.
Odysseus was circulating his Archana to be ready to cast any spell anytime, Hali was also doing so with her Archana.
I stood still, keeping Aaron behind me, the screeching sound just now seemed wrong, as if there was a dissonance in it… as if the thunderbird was not alone.
I called for Odysseus, who just nodded and lifted two fingers.
"Dimitris, hold the second beast for as long as you can, Hali and I will take care of the stronger one and come support you later."
I was about to nod when another sound was released in the air. A loud thump, like a drum.
A drum? Thunder and a screech? Fuck.
"Odysseus. I don't think the thunderbird is the only type of enemy we're going to fight."
"What do you mean?"
"It means take Aaron to fight the thunderbird, if I'm right, there's no way I can protect him while fighting."
Aaron quickly moved away from me, and gave voice to my suspicious.
"I think Dimitris is referring to a Raijin, a creature from the eastern folklore said to be the god of thunder."
Odysseus immediately understood what was going on. With me being Zeus's son, I couldn't exactly stay idle.
"Fuck, we can't interfere then."
Aaron with bewildered eyes was frantically asking why. I took out my bident, my lightning Archana running rampant responding to my indignation. Electricity running in my body and weapon like second nature.
Hali's voice came from Aaron's left.
"It's because he is the lightning bringer's son."
Soon after, the thunderbird and the Raijin descended. Looking at us like we were nothing but prey, with contempt and ease. The Raijin sounded the drums floating around his body and the bird, like a tamed beast charged towards us at unbelievable speed, only to be met with Hali and Odysseus' combined effort. Aaron not wanting to stay still and be once again a liability, started casting fireballs in succession. The most basic of the fire spells, sure his casting time and overall power was lacklustre, but the effort was there and although minimal, results were quickly piling up. I on my hand, was glaring at the Raijin.
I didn't know what was happening to me. But the sheer thought of this creature sharing a domain with his father was disgusting.
The beast was like a oversized monkey with blue mane and spikes growing on its body, he was levitating on a cloud like structure and was constantly looking at us laughing.
It was disgusting, everything about it screamed at me to dispose of such creature and as if the Akashi's records could hear my deepest desire a new notification appeared.
[Sub-quest: defeat the Raijin.
Rewards: Recipe to create Nimbus.
Penalty: Death]
Now this is just another reason to kill the monster.
With new resolve I looked at the weird monkey that was starring at us with a mocking grin and moved. I casted my [fire lilies of destruction] to test the waters, sent them towards my enemy and unsurprisingly the explosions did almost no damage whatsoever, but it did bring the monkey's attention to me. That was a good start. With his focus now on the right enemy, the Raijin flew towards me, his hands and tail playing the drums like no tomorrow and I immediately felt a shift in the atmosphere. This bastard was commanding thunder to hit me.
"You dare?"
I didn't wait for thunder to struck, predicting their trajectory almost came natural to me and without even thinking twice, I threw my spear with all my might.
Dance of Damocles, first form: Jeté.
The bident, completely covered with my electric Archana flew towards my enemy, he was so shocked he didn't have enough time to react perfectly and tried to shift position mid-air, but it was clear the cloud he was standing on was new to him, or at least he didn't have the best control over it.
The spear missed its target but one of the drums was hit and destroyed easily I then blinked in the sky to reach my spear and once it was back in my hand, I continued my relentless attack.
This time however, the monkey was ready, it jumped from the flying cloud and playing his drums with its tail, met my spear with its paws. He was clearly using some martial arts that matched my energy.
Lightning was fighting with lightning, my spear stabbed and slashed, but every time it was met with deviation or straight out evaded. This monkey was commanding the pace of the fight, until suddenly, lightning struck me.
"Arghhh!"
A pained groan escaped me and I was thrown a few meters back, the Raijin started laughing wildly.
This bastard.
That creature had diverted my attention towards its martial arts and made me ignore the authority it exercised on lightning. But two could play this game.
After all, I'm not a warrior.
As soon as I got back to my feet, another lightning was coming my way so I blinked away, leaving a trail of petals in my movement.
All this time, I could see my companions fighting with all their might.
We had severely underestimated our enemies.
The Raijin in itself wasn't too much, for what I felt it was just in the midst of C rank, but the thunderbird was almost a B rank foe, I didn't know how or why it responded to the Raijin, a weaker creature, but it did and now Odysseus and the others needed to deal with it, but I couldn't stay focused on them.
The devilish monkey started to dart my way, its tail still playing the drums, but its fists ready to strike. If it so desperately wanted to fight using fists, I would, of course, avoid that.
I retrieved my spear and made distance. The lightning strike from before hurt, but not so much as I had expected. Maybe cultivating the Blood of the GodKing was giving me a slight resistance to lightning, but I didn't linger on that thought too much.
Moving around the Raijin and confusing his sense of space, I started casting fire lilies upon fire lilies, each and everyone met with the drums that seemed to be immune to magic damage, however sound was produced and I knew what that implied. Lightning was coming.
Can I only use my spear against those drums?
My weapon did infarct destroy one of those seemingly immune to magic instruments, but the creature's martial arts were clearly greater then mine. I was only able to destroy one with pure luck.
Thinking of a way to counter this bastard while engaging in fight and flight was starting to become cumbersome. The beast's control over lighting was tremendously precise, but it was clearly enabled only thanks to the drums. I needed to get rid of them.
I was looking around for any hint of a plan, my brain fusing by the strain. If this continued, I knew exhaustion would catch up to me. In the midst of my frantic planning, I noticed how Hali and Odysseus were experimenting with the web of accelerated waterways they used to intercept the elder incantation, they were holding up well.
Wait, that incantation…
Although created by magic, it produced physical damage. I did write it down on my grimoire, but I didn't know if I could even try to emulate it. I had 3 circles of nature, so I thought I could try and even if the result would be weaker, since I had no spirit formulas related to earth still, I thought it would be a good idea to at least try.
The problem was:
"Can I even do it?"
My question was virtually posed to nobody, but a voice sounded at my ear.
"What are you referring to?"
I turned around to see nobody.
"Who-"
"Doesn't really matter, does it? What do you want to try?"
The crispy young voice sounded again against my ear, it was teasing yet innocent. Like the ruthless truth children usually speak.
"Incantation: jade judgment."
While my conversation with the invisible being continued, so did my enemy that had finally closed the distance and was ready to punch my guts to oblivion. Thankfully my mind was working on multiple things at the moment and I was able to barely dodge the hit, only to blink away and will a firewall in existence around the monkey.
An action that bought me 2 seconds of well needed rest.
"I think you can, but it will suck all your mana since you are only at the 3rd circle and have only circles of nature, but can you focus on a 2 minute chanting?"
That was the real problem: could I endure dodging and whatnot while chanting? I didn't know the level of focus needed for an incantation, but the elder waste of life seemed to need full focus and stillness to produce it.
While I was thinking on what to do next, the Raijin produced a hurricane with his fists and dispersed the firewall easily. Being testimony to that bastard's strength was honestly irritating me, but at the same time it game me an idea.
A distraction.
I willed the temperature in the eye of the hurricane to rise and produce fire, soon enough, the entire cyclone had become a fire vortex wrecking distraction everywhere it landed.
The monster monkey felt agitated by this turn of events and tried to dismiss the hurricane with his martial arts, that's when my plan took action.
I released the Paragon that suddenly started to fly towards the flying chicken, but I ordered to keep the Raijin distracted and after that my heartbeat lowered.
My butterflies were dancing around the hurricane that was slowly extinguished leaving the Raijin with a confused look as I was nowhere to be seen. Hidden into the woods nearby, I focused on my connection with the Paragon to keep the monkey in check and immediately started to chant.
The monster of course didn't stay idle and started to kick and punch at my familiar, only to be left with disappointment. The paragon avoided each hit with ease and I could feel their desire to fly towards the thunderbird.
I was confused about this, but I didn't have time to waste.
After half a minute of chanting, the monkey started to beat his drums with vigour to produce as much lightning as it could, but nothing seemed to hit those little pests, so he relied to his most trusted ally.
He called for the Thunderbird, he made a mistake.
As soon as the giant Eagle heard it's call, it run away from the barrage of spells and aura slashes to get back to its master.
Odysseus noticed the weird movement and looked at my previous location, only to see the Paragon dancing around a monkey that was furiously kicking the air.
"Hali, Aaron, look!"
"What is Dimitris' familiar doing? It can't fight."
Odysseus looked around and focused all his senses to try and find me. Then he noticed my Archana flowing into the ground.
"They are buying him time."
There was no use for them to enter the fray, the Paragon couldn't damage nor be damaged, and I would not be easily found.
The thunderbird arrived rapidly at its master location, but at the same moment I felt extreme hunger. The paragon was starving.
The sight of the eagle so near made them frenzy.
I understood then what it was.
Why was the thunderbird, clearly stronger then this Raijin, obeying it.
It had been corrupted.
I left my familiar free to act as they wanted and without missing a beat they launched themselves at the thunderbird. Eating at its corruption. The monkey felt that it's bond was being destroyed and in a useless effort, flew on the cloud towards it's bird, only to be swatted down by the thunderbird that was trying to fly as away as possible from the restless feeding of the Paragon, at least the bird seemed to have a brain, I had a limit on how far could those little critters go from me. But the damage was already done.
It seems they feed on all corruption, not only that of souls…
When the butterflies were satiated, they didn't waste anymore time on the giant eagle that seemingly woke up from a daze.
The Raijin was furious, growling and screeming at my little pretty familiar, but at the same time the incantation was completed.
My Archana entered the earth at a worrying pace, almost completely draining me, but soon enough a jade bow was in my hand.
At that manifestation, the childish voice snorted.
"What a cowardly man you are."
"Say what you want. But my spells are useless against those drums and my spearman ship is nowhere near its level."
"Oh?"
"I'm just not reckless enough to jump at an enemy I know I can't defeated."
"Then what about this incantation, it's basically useless in fight. If those familiars didn't buy time for you, you'd be dead meat."
This voice was starting to get on my nerves. The fuck did it want from me anyway?
"Listen, I don't give a flying fuck about who you are and what you want. As long as it makes me stronger, I'll take everything, even this useless incantation."
I didn't give it more space to interfere, blinked up in the sky, right above the monkey. I didn't have any confidence in my aim, bows were not really my thing.
I aimed downwards and released the string.
The jade bow fragmented into 30ish arrows and flew to my unaware enemy.
At the same time a man with golden hair, red eye and a monkey tail was standing on a cloud near to me, his voice familiar.
"I was mistaken, you're not a complete coward."
But my eyes were fixed on his staff.
I completely forgot about my imminent free fall and screamed at the top of my lungs.
"HEAVEN'S EQUAL?!?!"