In the west of the 5 mountains land,a great storm was forming the birth pains of its existence howled into reality,with frightening winds,loud drumming pauses of thunder,and periods of Gigantic pillars of lightning flashing down.
The land the cumulonimbus cloud formed above,was a meadow which acted as a beautiful sea of endless different vibrantly colored flowers,and surroundeding it were large trees brimming with vital energies.
Since his homeland often ecountered storms Simon had been drawn to this place,when lightning immediately struck behind him sensing something was amiss he quickly rolled forward.
He then jumped a further distance,and regained his balance, finally he got a look at what landed behind him when the lightning around it disappeared,his eyes widened in surprise," its a thunder bird",he said muttering under his breath.
" I can't believe our family crest,is standing right infront of me,such a rare species too,I cant believe they got one",thunder birds were the keraunios familys crest,the area they lived in practiced hunting these birds,and those who managed to succeed were hailed as heroes.
Due to the nature of these birds being running Natural disasters many stories of old were told about them,and it even influenced the keraunios familys martial arts focus on speed.
Simon smiled," This must be fate,the stories that will be told on my names sake",he said smuggishly.
The thunder bird had a huge narrow Gold beak,one larger than a crane,its appearance was closer to an oversized ostrich,and road runner,most of its feathers were a vibrant dark green with segments,and highlights of glistening royal purple,while its entire body looked as if it had been sprinkled with golden dust.
It had purple crystal like eyes,with steel talons that glissened as if it was constantly being struck by moonlight,one swift motion from its talons would tear bodies apart,including the air within the space these bodies resided in.
Its eyes looked curiously at Simon as it examined his look with great intrigue,he was a young lad,light of complexion with dark brown hair sporting a downward ponytail,with blue eyes,Simon wore light weight steel armor consisting mainly of silver pauldrons,couters,and a silver cuirass that only covered his upper half,silver gauntlets,silver poleyn,and silver winged thunder boots.
Beneath his cuirress was a brown leather gambeson vest,and beneath that a black baggy T shirt with a puffed up collar,complimented by black baggy pants.
He wore a brown leather belt on his waist that was,littered with brown leather pouches filled with small silver daggers,the belt had a gold buckle,behind it was a red Scabbard with golden wings designed on it,within the Scabbard was a silver sabre.
Remembering the stories about this creature,a second after it began sizing him up,he quickly vanished from sight leaving behind a mirrage running for his life.
" the chase had begun".
The winged thunder boots allowed for levitation,flight, and perfect mass distribution in the air when in motion,while also lightening his weight by 90%,it was a true asset in this battle as its metalic wings turned organic,and took Simon to the skies.
The thunder bird quickly followed in curiosity,the mere launch of its powerful legs sending cracks on the ground creating a shockwave as it lauched itself creating a crater,as it went on to sprint on the air itself, leaving behind a current of lightning.
Quick thoughts appeared in simons mind," This storm thats forming its way too big,for a single thunder bird of the flighless variety to form,is it approaching evolution into an Apex",he thought to himself.
An Apex was the equivalent evolution to a chieftain,examples of chieftains were Orc kings or Goblin kings,and Tengu chieftains.
The Title of chieftain were only given to creatures that led a huge force such as,an army,a tribe,a pack,a flock,a swarm,a family, so on and so forth,as long as its apart of their natural biology,with that said because thunderbirds were solitary hunters they would evolve into Apex.
In a 8/2 ratio Apex often far outclassed chieftains interms of raw power due to not having a pack or tribe therefore having to generally fend for themselves this was the trade off given by nature.
But in this harsh world numbers were a huge factor determining the survival of a species,and what better example than mankind.
Due to species that bring forth Apexes solitary Nature's they were a rarity among beasts,fetching quite a price in the markets,and the majority of them had gone extinct.
Simon continued his inner monologue," My ability to fight as long as I have my accupment reaches the baseline of chieftains level,So depending on how it does against me that will determine how far it is in becoming a Apex,and if thats the case my best bet is running for my life".
" few heroes survive encounters with an Apex thunderbird".
Simon had a head start as he sprinted in the air drawing the thunderbird away from the storm," the storm is its territory,it has an advantage if I get caught in it I'm as good as dead".
As he was sprinting away,the thunderbird quickly caught his trail and was a mere 15 metres away from him,the speed it gad to catch up so quickly was impressive especially in a short burst,despite having a thun layer of lightning around him Simon was only moving at hypersonic speed to give the creature time so he could draw it out,and reaching lightning speeds even for him who could be considered the student who is the fastest long distance runner required a bit of buildup.
For a moment he turned his head and saw the thunderbird fifteen metres away,with its beak pointed straight he frowned turned his head to face forward,and gulped,when he turned to take a second look in almost an instant the thunderbird had caught up.
It turned its head horizontally to the left,and began attempting to peck a hole in Simons head,Simon was forced to dodge these advances more than seven times in a span of a second at such speeds that they forced him,to grit his teeth,and surpass his speed excelleration limit just to survive.
" dammit",he said mentally,he then backflipped taking the creature off gaurd onto its back,due to him not being so good at creating constructs with mana two arrays appeared on both his palms as they formed hard construct chains,and a muzzle that wrapped around the creatures neck,and beak.
Simon smirked," Its time to tame this Bastard".
This was a true contest of the mind but who would break first?,that was the question.
The battle began as the thunder bird used its physiques raw explosive power,and began to buck leaping into the air with tremendous force,twisting its spine then rapidly slamming itself down,the force alone made Simons lower body jump up then slam into its back.
It was a painful process as if his arms were being shredded,and pulled apart,his shoulders felt like they were being elongated,and stretched,Simon released multiple howls,and gasps in pain.
Simon used his bodies lower strength,gripping with his entire legs his thighs beginning to sting from the pain," I can't believe its exerting so much strength",he said in frustration while gritting.
At this point the creature began toying with him running at high speeds,then halting shooting Simon in the air but some how he managed to hang on it twisted its body moving sporadically,it continued to spin,and move in all directions.
Simons guts felt like they were going through the motions of a wave,his cheeks began to fill,the feeling of inertia,and the adrenaline pumping throughout his body was insane.
Up and down became figures of speech,as everything began to swirl in a single instant as if Simon was a drunk bastard going through twenty bottles of concentrated liquor.
But if there was someone who could handle all this,than it would be a member of the keraunios family as their perception speed were trained at young ages since birth.
Simon gulped down his Saliva,and his vomit,as his mind swelled with a feeling of disgust in himself,he immediately bent down putting more force on the reins,taking his anger out on the thunderbird,his eyes opened wide as if wanting to completely rip its head off.
" you want me to be afraid,and give up dont you",he said," but that aint gonna be how this ends".
Simon in anger continued to pull the reins while the thunderbirds muffled noises could be heard.
The creature responded in kind showing its will,and anger it sped up then immediately hit the breaks but this time it Completely dropped its front end,then kicked its powerful legs up into the sky performing all of this within seconds of each action the result well.
Simons whole body felt as though it was getting compressed,his spine,and neck snapped forward,his teeth biting his tongue causing bleeding the force transfering throughout his entire body.
It then continued spinning while bucking,the situation was so bad that Simon quickly rapped his forearms with those chains allowing him better grip,and to apply more force even this seemed to be causing him more pain than he was causing it.
He now knew why riding a thunderbird let alone Taming it was considered a tremendous,and rare feat back where he lived.
This was hell.
He felt as if the stories he had read in his lifetime downplayed the diffculty the hero had gone through,the writers were truly selfish,he thought to himself as he spewed curses,cursing their mothers graves,and their still living descendents.
The wind constantly hit his face,with everything feeling much heavier in the air,it was a situation were he would be completely dominated in,even though he had trained at a young age for flight,how can that beat a creature that had spent years naturally running on air.
He felt as though his wrists were being twisted,his heart ripped from his chest,his chest being caved in,his fingers being torn off,and his forearms being squeezed,and burnt.
How much pain could one man handle before shutting down,he even thought of temporarily frying his sensory nerves just to stay in the game.
But then creature made a nightmarish decision for Simon as it began heading towards the storm a single thought popped in his mind.
While His eyes widened.
"no,no,no....noooooooh!!!!",within the storm was death without escape,either he let go or he would genuinely die atleast those were his choices from the information he knew of.
So he stood up straight ontop of the creatures back,he wound then jump off using the chains to swing to the front of the thunderbird then spinning to face the thunderbird before letting go of the chains.
The sudden distribution in weight to one side during the swing forced the thunderbird to fully stop in its tracks,and before it was the enemy that muzzled surrounded it in chains,and pulled it.
Simon quickly took out daggers throwing them mid air catching each one at different intervals,and attempting to slash the creature who had managed to evade each attack.
Its head,and long neck had the stability of a chicken while ofcourse,its quick reaction speed helped alot as well.
Soon the bird began its offensive starting off with a Rapid fire of thrusts from its beak,using it as a rapier of sorts,Meanwhile Simon parried each one using his daggers.
For the Keraunios family were quite skilled with blades,and dissection,the bird did not stand still in this as it jumped moving from left to right trying to get Simon off his footing.
One by one,each dagger he used chipped,and broke due to prior events Simons mind was in a haze working off of pure instincts,and he could not produce sufficient strength nor the mana to prevent his blades from chipping then shattering.
As he lost ground,not thinking much he pulled out his sabre from behind his back,this was a special A grade treasure,called the Sabre of transparency it had two abilities.
And in his dazed state Simon drew it from the Scabbard,and activated its main ability the blade began to emmitt a controled vibration turning blue,in mere moments before Simon slashed down this time not directly at its head but below the neck.
The attack landed drawing first blood,but thats when it all went to hell.
The thunder bird released an ear piercing cry that forced Simon to hold his ears as he returned,the blade to its Scabbard,with one foot it then grabbed his chest with one of its two legs,its talons directly piercing through his chest plate gripping him tight,its face completely deranged even for a bird as it plummeted down with intense force.
Slamming him Into the ground creating a massive shockwave,and a crater forming dust clouds before it began dragging his body,but that served wake Simon up a little.
The only reason Simon was not turned to paste was due to his armor having a feature,of absorbing 80% of concussive force,and creating a shield before impact something he managed to activate with a sliver of his consciousness left active.
Thunderbird raggdolled him throwing on trees,dragging him,and stomping on his body to an extent that the trees,and ground trembled.
It used its beak to pick on the armor constantly hitting at it or biting,his arm,or leg attempting to stretch,and tear them apart something it would succeeded in doing if not for simons instinctual reinforcement,and its boredom,and lack of attention after the slightest resistance,and inconvenience.
Regaining his consciousness,and with his life on the line the adrenaline in his body began to increase,he jumped out the way of the creatures stomp directed at caving in his head.
He had three prominent dents in his armors chest plate now,is winged thunder boots began to flap faster every single second as he began levitating off the ground.
Simon drew his sabre,his nose running with blood,and blood coming from his forehead,his armor could not protect him from all internal damages so he suffered from internal bleeding.
The battle was on.
The thunderbird jumped its talons clawing the air unleashing multiple air slashes,the Sabre glowed as Simon infused with more mana sending counter slashes eradicating thunderbirds attack canceling each others out.
Simon began to move in a zigzag pattern,building up speed,and surrounding its opponents sending slashes the Tengus way the every chance he got forcing it to be occupied on these attacks.
Meanwhile magical circles began to appear everywhere he went using them as footstool he jumped off each one gaining lightning speed.
The thunderbirds hear began pounding,and beating faster its feathers electrified as lightning from the storm began striking itas it was covered with an electric aura accompanied by an explosion.
Seeing that rushing in was a death wish Simon ran for the skies returning the sabre into the Scabbard,after reaching a high enough altitude he pulled out a bow from the void.
It was simply known as requiem the conquest bow,another A grade weapon,it allowed him to concentrate his built up power into an arrow that would progressively get stronger depending on the how far the distance it crossed was,close range was this weapons enemy.
As the smoke below settled Simon fired,unleashing the equivalent of the nuclear weapon little boy,condensed into a beam,the sheer fact that it crossed through the atmosphere caused small explosions before it reached the thunderbird, submerging it in lightning,and plasma.
Its power was so controled yet so destructive,that it burned through the ground leaving a giant sink hole,despite catching fire most of the trees,and flowers were not vaporized leaving behind a beautiful poetic site.
Simons eyes were limpid at this point,until moments later,he saw the creatures Talons spread out before his face his eyes slowly widened in realisation then his ears twitched.
What had happened was moments after the attack the creature charged up screached at its loudest before sprinting but it arrived before the screach.
But before the talons could reach his face ripping his face off a huge gravity appeared from knowhere beam came from knowhere hitting the thunderbird although it remained in mid air.
Simon femme to the ground maneuvering himself into standing up,the thunderbird nor Simon knew what attacked but it saved his life.
Its rage increased as it flew higher into the clouds,as lightning struck it,in order for it to gain more electic energy Realizing an imminent attack Simon activated,and expanded the shield provided by his armor layering it with his remaining mana.
The thunderbird then descended in full sprint,its beak pointed forward hitting the first layer of the barrier as it absorbed the force slowing it down.
At that moment another pillar of light assualted the thunder bird,rendering it useless,but it continued in rage piercing the final barrier.
Tears involuntarily dropped from Simons eyes,due to the beauty formed from the clash of colours,and the knowledge his impending death.
But at that moment his winged thunderboots acted on their own turning him around to fly away.
The Thunderbirds body mysteriously slowed down, it stood,and looked at its enemy running,its posture gave off a feeling that it was content,as if a part of its life had just ended with no regrets,its body seemingly broke down into chunks of light,that surrounded its form.
The battle had ended with both parties unable to continue the battle.