When one imagined a fearsome bronze rank solitary hunter, they usually imagined something like a behemoth ursa or umbral terror. Those were examples of the most dangerous beasts that people could encounter, but they were by no means the only ones around.

  The lands of Leoria and the nations around it were infested with all kinds of beasts that varied in all imaginable aspects. There were solitary hunters, pack beasts, swarms, beasts that hunted in pairs, trios and so on. These beasts’ ways of gathering both food and power were also different, and that was reflected in their capabilities as well.

  The big bird that had just landed on top of the second wagon of the caravan was a bronze rank windsoar canary, a solitary hunter that was known for quick, decisive battles and its spearlike beak. Valar’s beastlore class had mentioned it among all the other solitary hunters, and it was considered a medium risk beast for a bronze rank team. Something to be careful of, but nowhere near the peak threats of the rank like the behemoth ursae or umbral terrors.

  The obvious greatest threat for the team was its long, sharp beak. The beak, comparable to bronze rank alloys in strength, was a truly dangerous thing to get attacked with. To make things even harder, it was quite sharp on its sides as well, making even flanking attacks less than ideal against the beast. Approaching the bird when it was aware of you was difficult, to say the least.

  The recommended way to fight the canary was ranged attacks and crowd control. The bird’s coat of feathers was a good defensive layer, but as soon as it was penetrated, the canary’s hollow bones and otherwise frail body would break quickly.

  The most obvious point of failure for the team was their line of defence. Rodrick would have easily the hardest job with the beast, as he needed to parry or dodge each hit. A single mistake would lead to a wide puncture—most likely through his whole body.

  “Ciel, distract it with me!” Rodrick yelled. “Arthur and Carla, you’re on the attack!” He glanced at Valar as he grabbed his axe from his back. “Cast a Lesser Fortify on me, would you?”

  Contrary to the big man’s lacking expectations of iron rank interns, Valar started to cast the spell immediately. Focus up. I just need to channel the spell and avoid the bird.

  Iron rank adventurers were interns for a reason. Usually, a fresh iron rank adventurer hadn’t encountered a dangerous situation even once in their life, and that led to them being an unreliable part of the team. A bronze rank team would never create their strategy of combat around an iron ranker, as they couldn’t trust the fresh adventurer to work well under stress. That was completely okay and even expected.

  This was not the first time Valar was in a stressful combat situation, far from it. His life had been under threat for three times in the past 2 months, and although he hadn’t acted with calm then, the experiences had prepared him for a situation like this. This particular encounter wasn’t even close to the danger he had felt during the rat, umbral terror or monster attack, so he remained calm and cast his spell as fast as he could. It was not quite as fast as it should’ve been, taking almost ten seconds, but even the fact that he cast the spell was more than most life mages in his position would’ve managed to do.

  “Lesser Fortify,” Valar’s spell connected to Rodrick with an invisible thread of mana, and the axe wielding warrior got a slight green glow around his body. His durability would be increased slightly for as long as Valar could channel the spell.

  “Good job, Valar!” Rodrick gave the boy a thumbs up. “Take as much distance as you can while channeling the spell and prepare to dodge if the beast decides to target you!”

  The fight had not been on pause while Valar cast his spell on Rodrick, just the opposite. Ciel was distracting the beast with her dark magic and daggers, managing to dodge each of its lunges just barely. The canary wasn’t an ideal enemy for the rogue, and she was relieved to back off from its range as Rodrick entered the fray.

  “Look here, you ugly pigeon!” Rodrick yelled as he swung his axe. “Eyes on me!”

  Apparently, windsoar canaries did not appreciate being called pigeons. The bird lunged forward at a frightening speed, forcing Rodrick to dodge with a hair’s breadth of space to spare. The beast’s beak had been aimed at his eye…

  After the canary’s decisive strike, the fight became a warrior’s hellscape. The axe wielding man needed to dodge, parry and deflect countless thrusts of the bird’s beak, unable to retaliate in any manner. The fortunate thing was that he didn’t need to.

  While Rodrick avoided the bird’s fervent attacks, Arthur peppered the canary with arrow after arrow. Most didn’t manage to penetrate its feathers, but the yellow bird was quickly accruing splotches of red on its feathery coat. Those attacks wouldn’t be enough alone though, and that was clear as the bird was not slowing down in the slightest.

  The fight’s balance shifted radically when Carla cast her first bronze rank ice lance. Needless to say, the ice lance reached its mark, eliciting a pained screech from the beast. The ice lance lodging itself in the canary’s side truly sealed its fate, as the bird was now injured and most likely unable to fly away. It would die, the only question was when.

  Still, none of the adventurers let up on the pressure or relaxed. The lesson on near-death enraged beasts was a cruel one and often took the lives of those who didn’t manage to learn it swiftly. A dying beast was a dangerous one, and the canary proved that lesson to be true.

  Its lunges became more frantic, more dangerous and much more risky. The beast would suddenly lunge away from Rodrick and at a completely different party member, resolved to take at least one adventurer to the grave with itself. Ciel needed to back off once again, and Carla opted to do the same, building more distance between the beast and herself. Valar was just about to do the same when the beast decided to lunge for him.

  Shit!

  Due to his lacking experience, Valar wasn't expecting the sudden attack. He managed to leap to the side, avoiding the piercing tip of the beak, but its sharp side managed to slash his thigh. As Valar let out a pained groan, his focus on his spell broke and Rodrick lost the durability gained from Lesser Fortify. However, that did not matter.

  The bird had lunged past Rodrick to reach Valar who had hid behind him. That meant that the bird’s long, thin, neck was laid bare at the warrior’s feet. Just at the perfect height, eerily similar to a criminal’s head at the executioner’s block.

  The man’s axe fell with a woosh, cutting the canary’s neck in two. Before the bird could ever realize it, the fight was over. Big bird was dead, and its mana was drawn into its killers’ bodies. It wasn’t a big amount of progress for anyone, even Valar, but it was progress. More importantly, they were all still alive.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Everything wasn’t all well and good, however. The team was left with a fresh party member who had been injured during his very first fight. Rodrick and Carla rushed to the healer's side, expecting groans of pain, cursing, flowing tears and even rising panic. They did find cursing, but the other reactions were nowhere to be seen.

  “Fucking abyss cursed city pigeon!” Valar cursed as he looked at the wound. “Gods damn chicken trying to make a skewer out of me! I’ll show that fucking-.”

  The tirade of curses continued for a good while, but the boy calmed down… eventually. He wasn’t crying, nor was he holding his bleeding leg and moaning on the ground. The two adventurers looked at each other in confusion. They had both done just that when they got injured for the first time. Why wasn’t he?

  The light of the sun glinted off his eyes and made them seem more orange than brown, but neither Rodrick or Carla paid attention to a small detail like that. They were instead looking at the wound on his outer thigh.

  “Can you heal that by yourself or do you need a potion?” Rodrick asked the boy.

  “What? This thing? I can probably heal it just fine, but I need to calm down a little first. Leave me alone for a moment, and I’ll be just fine.”

  “Alright… Do call for us if you need help. We’ll go butcher the windsoar canary.”

  The adventurers left with worried frowns on their faces. They hoped that Valar could heal himself, but thought that the boy’s mind could be too clouded by the pain. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Fucking pigeon dares to strike me? I’ll burn it to the ground!

  Valar felt heated. He wanted to take his anger out on something, but his opponent had died too fast. It had managed to escape his fire, and that made him irrationally angry. Please, all the gods in the sky, bring me another one! I’ll make a pigeon roast!

  Perhaps fortunately, no more birds fell from the sky, and Valar got a chance to clear his mind a little bit. His anger was getting out of control. I need to calm down. It’s just a small wound and I’m a healer. The beast is dead, and showing my fire would be stupid beyond belief. Deep breaths… Calm yourself.

  Once he felt himself calm enough, Valar started the process of casting Lesser Restoration on himself. It took considerably longer than normal, almost half a minute, but he didn’t need to cancel the casting at any point. The pain was distracting, but nothing that bad. Just a flesh wound, really.

  “Lesser Restoration,” Valar muttered the words to himself and channeled his mana through the spellframe. He had already used a considerable chunk of the mana stored within his body to enhance Rodrick’s durability during the short fight, so the process of healing quickly became a tedious waiting game. He drew mana as fast as he could from his gate, but the small opening didn’t let a lot through. This way was also more draining on his mental energy, but at least he managed to heal himself in under fifteen minutes. It was a draining but rewarding experience, as he got to actually see and feel the effects of his magic firsthand. It still sucked though…

  While Valar healed himself, he looked on as team Cookie Sandwich butchered the windsoar canary for its beak, claws, core and feathers. It was messy work, but a large part of adventurers’ money came from selling beast parts after contracts. The contracts themselves paid even bronze rankers extremely well, but equipment costs, travel rations and other expenses usually drained a big part of what they made upfront. That meant that most of their actual profits—the money they could stow away in a bank or spend recklessly—came from beast parts.

  “How much do you reckon we get from this?” Arthur questioned Rodrick. “I need to send money to my sisters after the mission, you know.”

  “I know, I know…” Rodrick grumbled. “This beast should be a good sell on its own, but I’m going to give Valar a cut. The guild isn’t paying him since he isn’t part of the team just yet, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

  Valar couldn’t hear Arthur’s grumblings, but he got the feeling that the archer acceded to Rodrick—he was just not happy about it.

  Ciel cut off the long beak from the bird’s head with her knife and looked at it appraisingly. “This could be a good material for a bronze rank pike or rapier. Could it sell for 50 silver?”

  “I’m guessing it goes for 40,” Carla commented from the bird’s side. She was plucking feathers. “In Thornton it would be only 25 or 30, but windsoar canaries are more common in that area.”

  “Damn, not as good as I expected then…”

  “It’s still plenty good for a first day find on an escort contract,” Rodrick said. “Much better than what we have gotten from earlier caravan contracts.”

  “True… true. The longhorn ravager horns were much better though,” Ciel said wistfully. “The fight was much better too.”

  “Better? Better?!” Rodrick threw his hands up in the air, splattering blood over Carla and Ciel, only Arthur managing to avoid the flecks of filth. “I got run through!”

  “So, a pretty fun fight, right?” Ciel grinned. “Hey Valar? Was this fight fun?”

  Valar looked at the nearly healed wound on his thigh. “Better than any other fight I’ve been in.”

  “Better? What kind of fights have you been in to believe this to be a good fight?”

  “Well first was the rat, then the umbral terror…”

  “Oh, right. Your track record isn’t the best…” Ciel muttered. “Hey Rodrick? Can we find some ravagers or maybe a behemoth ursa so that Valar gets a good fight?”

  “What?” Rodrick’s tone of question was flatter than the fields of wheat around them. “You’re a lunatic, Ciel…”

  The tall pale woman scoffed and got back to inspecting the canary’s beak. “Lunatic… I’m not even that bad.”

  “Don’t mind her,” Rodrick said to Valar. “As I already said, she’s a lunatic, but a lunatic that’s on our side.”

  “Abyss demon,” Arthur added from the feet of the beasts. The archer needed to stop declawing the beast in order to dodge a thrown feather. “Stop that!”

  “Is this a normal day to you all?” Valar asked. “Encounter a beast, kill it and then bicker as you dissect the carcass?”

  “Pretty much,” Arthur said. “Normally the loot isn’t this good, but when we are on the field, it's find, kill, loot, repeat. Much more boring on offdays.”

  “That I can agree on,” Ciel said. “Why do we even take days off?”

  “Because some people like to rest and study,” Carla grumbled. “I don’t want to just fight, fight and fight all the time. Learning runes takes time! Ciel, you should know this as a mage yourself!”

  “It’s not that hard. Just learn the runes during lunchtime or something,” Ciel said.

  “Huh? Lunchtime? I’ve spent years of my life studying runes!”

  “Then you’re just bad at learning runes.”

  “What did you just say to me?” As Carla raised her tone, Arthur and Rodrick cringed and moved back to where Valar was finishing up on his leg. For a good reason too, as the women devolved to a good 10 minutes of yelling at each other.

  “Mages…” Arthur muttered. “It’s always the mages.”

  Rodrick nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Does this happen often?” Valar asked.

  “Pretty much everyday,” Rodrick answered. “But they work well together afterwards so we don’t mind. Prepare to set out in 5 minutes or so. I’ll go calm down our dear companions...”

  True to his words, Rodrick managed to calm Carla and Ciel down enough so that they could continue their way towards the Ronaheim forest. Valar’s leg was already healed, but the big man also insisted that he should go and sit on the wagon’s roof for the trip. The boy would not be scouting the area, and all the benefits he could provide were also manageable from the wagon roof. If they got attacked by bandits though… Then even Valar would need to come down and join the formation.

  The delay caused by a beast attack before the Ronaheim forest was a common enough occurrence, so the caravan still had time to cross the forest before nightfall, but they would need to progress faster through it than normal. That also meant that their passage would be more noticeable, but that’s what the adventurer team was for.

  This time they would not have Viktor to act as an extra protector, so the team would have to do all the work by themselves. Considering Viktor had only acted at the very end of the last trip, they weren’t that stressed about it.

  The only thing to consider was the addition of Valar to the team. He, as the healer, was the obvious easy target for any intelligent attacker, so he needed to keep a Lesser Fortify prepared throughout the whole forest crossing.

  Then again, maybe his second trip through the beautiful Ronaheim woodlands would be much more relaxed than the first. Somehow, Valar doubted that it would… He really did.