The eastern strip of the ruined city was a tangled labyrinth of collapsed skyscrapers and rusted metal.
Hide ducked under a thick, moss-covered steel girder, his boots silent against the overgrown asphalt. The humid air was thick with the stench of rot and wild mana.
A shadow moved above him.
Hide looked up just as a massive, avian beast dropped from the broken window of a third-story building. It had the wingspan of a small aircraft, its body covered in jagged, iron-hard feathers, and its beak was hooked like a scythe.
It let out a piercing screech and dive-bombed directly toward him.
"Shitty... annoying thing," Hide muttered, side-stepping the initial strike.
The beast's talons gouged deep into the concrete where Hide had been standing a fraction of a second before. It didn't pause, immediately flapping its massive wings to gain altitude again, kicking up a storm of dust and debris to blind him.
