Deep within the southern woods.
Gareth had scaled a towering ancient oak. Standing firm upon a massive branch, he squinted against the glare of the horizon, searching the sky.
A blot of darkness was steadily encroaching.
"There!" he barked in a low, sharp tone. "It's banking this way... looks like it's hunting for something specific."
Karl immediately snapped into command mode. "Positions, everyone! Now!"
His gaze shifted to Owen, who was stretching his massive shoulders beside a cluster of boulders. "Owen—the opening gambit is yours."
Owen rolled his neck, a predatory grin spreading across his face. "Leave it to me! I'll knock that overgrown pigeon right out of the clouds!"
Nearby, Rena dragged the slumbering Gerald to the base of a thick trunk, propping him up against the bark. "I'm leaving Gerald here," she announced flatly.
Rhine glanced at the dark-haired man, who remained lost in his peaceful dreams, and let out a derisive snort. "Forget him. Don't count on that lazy bastard waking up to help."
He then turned back to Karl. "Are you sure your little 'theories' will actually work against a beast like that?"
Karl offered a cool, confident smile. "Relax. I've prepared three different contingencies for three different outcomes. We've got this."
Just then, Gareth's voice rang out from the canopy: "It's here! Brace yourselves!"
Owen let out a low, guttural growl. "Right!"
His massive arms surged with power, the muscles rippling and bulging beneath his skin. He bent low, wrapping his arms around a boulder the size of a grown man, and with a titanic heave, he hoisted the massive rock onto his shoulder. In his grip, the crushing weight of the stone seemed like nothing more than a common pebble.
A heartbeat later—
The sky was abruptly swallowed by shadow.
The colossal silhouette surged from beneath the cloud layer, its wings unfurling like a gathering storm. Each rhythmic beat of its pinions unleashed violent gusts of wind that sent leaves spiraling into a frenzied dance.
"Eat this—!"
With a roar that shook his very frame, Owen spun his entire body, launching the boulder like a siege engine's projectile. The stone tore through the air with a piercing whistle, hurtling straight toward the magic beast.
CRACK-BOOM—!
The boulder collided with the raptor's chest and shattered instantly upon impact, sending a hail of stone shards whistling in every direction.
The sudden, brutal impact caused the magic beast to falter mid-air. It hovered for a heartbeat, its massive wings beating with a heavy, rhythmic thrum as its crimson eyes fixed a murderous, predatory glare on the group below.
Gareth seized the opening. He drew his bow, the string groaning as it reached its limit.
TWANG!
The arrow whistled through the air, a streak of lethal intent.
However, the beast let out a piercing, ear-splitting shriek. With a violent snap of its wings, the steel-like pinions swept through the air like a broadsword.
CLACK!
The arrow was swatted aside, spinning uselessly into the undergrowth.
Now thoroughly enraged, the raptor let out a defiant scream. With a powerful downward thrust of its wings, the colossal shadow plummeted in a terrifying stoop, its razor-sharp talons raking toward Gareth on his perch!
Gareth didn't hesitate. He threw himself backward, plummeting from the high branch. But even as he fell, his hand whipped forward, launching a heavy iron chain into the air.
The beast's strike met nothing but empty bark. As it prepared to beat its wings and reclaim the high ground, the trap sprung.
The chain snaked through the air with predatory precision, coiling tightly around one of its massive, crystalline talons.
Simultaneously, a silhouette blurred from a neighboring branch. Milia intercepted the falling Gareth mid-air, catching him in a seamless, agile embrace. Using the elasticity of a lower branch to break their momentum, she touched down lightly on the forest floor.
Gareth's face flushed a faint crimson. He offered a small, sheepish grin. "Heh... thanks, Milia."
Milia merely averted her gaze, offering no word in return. The moment Gareth's boots hit the soil, she vanished back into the leafy shadows of the woods like a ghost.
On the other side of the clearing—
The magic beast looked down at its shackled claw, momentarily stunned by the audacity of the maneuver. In that fleeting window of confusion, Gareth hurled the other end of the chain toward Owen.
"Catch!"
Owen snatched the iron links out of the air with a meaty hand. Rena was already there, her fingers locking onto the chain alongside his.
"Now!"
The two of them heaved downward with synchronized, earth-shaking strength.
The raptor's balance vanished instantly. Its gargantuan frame was yanked violently from the sky—
CRASH!
A massive cloud of dust erupted from the impact.
Before the magic beast could even find its footing, Rhine and Karl had already surged forward like a twin storm! A longblade and a broadsword slashed down in a deadly cross-pattern.
At the very instant the blades were about to bite into its flesh—
The beast threw its head back and let out a piercing shriek! A transparent magical barrier instantly unfurled, encasing its massive body in a shimmering dome.
CLANG—!
The swords were repelled simultaneously, the vibration rattling the men's bones. The raptor spun with violent grace, its colossal wings sweeping outward like steel scythes, forcing both men to retreat.
Just then—
"A-choo!"
A loud sneeze suddenly echoed from the thicket.
An arrow followed immediately, whistling through the air and striking the beast true. But the moment it hit, the arrow simply bounced off the bird's feathers, which were as rigid and cold as black iron.
Gareth rubbed his nose, his brow furrowed in annoyance. "Tsk... it's a defensive type, reinforced with protection magic."
"And those feathers," he added, "are ridiculously hard."
Owen and Rena lunged forward again, gripping the remaining heavy chains, hoping to pin the beast to the mire while it was still on the ground.
But the raptor snapped its head around—its sharp, crystalline beak pecked down with terrifying force.
SNAP!
The thick iron links shattered like mere cotton thread.
In that same heartbeat, Milia's silhouette leapt from a high branch, diving silently toward the beast's blind spot. But the creature had already caught her scent.
It beat its wings once, unleashing a violent burst of gale-force pressure.
Before Milia could even get close, the shockwave blew her back. She somersaulted through the air, barely managing to twist her body and land safely back within the treeline.
The magic beast seized the opening. With a powerful thrust, it rocketed back into the high sky.
Karl stared up at the raptor as it reclaimed the heavens, his eyes narrowing. "I see... it's a specialized defensive beast."
He let out a sigh. "It seems we have no choice but to execute Plan B."
Rena arched an eyebrow. "Plan B?"
Karl gave a casual shrug. "Lure it back down, then hit it again."
Rena glared at him, her patience wearing thin. "Huh?! You call that a plan? You're just being lazy!"
Karl offered a faint, infuriating smile. "Well, do you have a way to strike a target that's hovering hundreds of feet in the air?"
Rena opened her mouth to retort, but found herself speechless. She settled for an irritated click of her tongue.
At that moment—
Rhine strode boldly into the center of the clearing. He raised his longblade, brandishing the steel toward the raptor circling above in a deliberate challenge.
"Hey! You oversized bag of feathers!" he roared. "Come to Daddy, you ugly bird! I'm the one you should be looking at!"
He leveled the blade at the sky, his stance wide and aggressive. "If you've got the guts, come down and let me stew you for dinner!"
High above, the magic beast continued its slow, rhythmic circling. Its crimson eyes remained fixed on the group below, icy and calculating. It was clearly enraged by the taunt, yet the massive silhouette held its position in the currents, hesitant to commit to another dive. It was as if it were weighing the danger.
Gareth leaned toward the others, whispering, "Can magic beasts... actually understand what we're saying?"
Karl shook his head slowly. "According to the archives, some higher-order constructs can comprehend human speech. Others? Pure instinct." He gave a small, helpless shrug. "So—we're basically gambling on its IQ."
Rena ignored the banter, her eyes scanning the jagged treeline for any vantage point that would allow a high-altitude strike. Suddenly, her brow knit in confusion.
"Wait..." She pointed toward the edge of the thicket. "Is that... Lunethia?"
The group froze. Emerging from the shadows of the trees was a small, trembling figure picking her way cautiously through the undergrowth.
Lunethia.
The moment her eyes landed on the colossal shadow blotting out the sun, she turned ashen. Her entire body locked up in primal terror.
Rhine's face went from arrogant to livid in a heartbeat. "You stupid woman! What the hell are you doing out here!?" he bellowed.
Lunethia flinched at his roar, her voice coming out in staccato stammers. "I... I heard the villagers saying how terrifying the monster was... and I... I was worried about you all..."
Just then—
The magic beast unleashed a shriek so sharp it felt like a physical blow. Its gaze shifted away from Rhine, locking onto Lunethia with a sudden, singular intensity.
Lunethia gasped, a cold realization washing over her. Her face drained of what little color remained.
"It..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "It's here for me."
Rhine whipped his head around. "For you!?"
Lunethia swallowed hard, forcing herself to look up at the crimson-eyed predator. Her voice shook, but there was a flicker of royal defiance in it.
"Go... go back!" she cried out. "I'm not going back with you! Never!"
The words had barely left her lips.
As if the magic beast had understood her perfectly—it unleashed an ear-shattering shriek of pure fury!
A heartbeat later, the colossal silhouette plummeted. A vertical stoop of terrifying speed.
Its target: Lunethia.
Watching the raptor dive, Karl's eyes didn't fill with fear, but with a sudden flash of tactical excitement. "An opening!" he barked.
He lunged toward the beast's trajectory. "Owen—bring it down!"
Owen, standing like an iron wall between the monster and the Princess, heard the command and took a thunderous step forward. He hoisted his massive war hammer high above his head.
"On it!" he roared.
The hammer descended with bone-crushing pressure, whistling through the air as it met the diving raptor head-on.
Seeing the incoming strike, the beast let out a high-pitched cry. In an instant, that shimmering, transparent magical barrier flickered back into existence.
BOOM!!
The hammer slammed into the barrier with the force of a falling star. The violent recoil rattled Owen's bones, the vibration numbing his arms as he was forced back two staggering steps.
However, the beast's momentum was shattered. Its dive ground to a halt, leaving it hovering awkwardly mid-air.
"Now!"
Karl and Rena closed the distance simultaneously. Karl's longsword flashed toward the beast's left wing, while Rena's spear swept in a lethal arc toward the right.
But the raptor was too quick. With a desperate, violent beat of its pinions, it rocketed back toward the safety of the clouds.
The twin strikes met nothing but air, leaving two sharp, whistling trails in the wake of the beast.
Karl stared up at the retreating shadow, his mind already churning through the data. "I see... its defensive magic can't be maintained indefinitely. It has a cooldown."
He adjusted his grip on his sword. "That's why it retreats immediately after an activation. It needs to buy time for the shield to reset."
Rhine reached out and grabbed Lunethia's hand with a rough tug, pulling her firmly behind his shoulder.
"Doesn't matter," he muttered, leveling his blade at the sky with a cold, predatory smirk.
"Now that we know this bird is obsessed with the girl... the game gets simple." He tightened his grip, his eyes locked on the crimson speck in the sky. "The next time it comes down... it's a dead man. Or a dead bird."
High above, the magic beast continued its slow, predatory circling, its crimson eyes fixed on the group below.
It seemed to realize a tactical truth: as long as these humans stood their ground, snatching Lunethia would only become more difficult. It needed to break them. It needed to cull the herd.
Suddenly, its gaze fell upon the base of a nearby oak.
There, leaning against the rough bark, was Gerald. He was still dead to the world, his rhythmic snoring a surreal counterpoint to the life-and-death struggle surrounding him. He was isolated, a few paces away from the protective circle of the others.
A murderous glint flashed in the raptor's eyes.
Fine then.Start with the weakest link.
The beast tucked its wings and plummeted. A sinister black light coalesced around its obsidian beak, sharpening the point into a magical lance aimed directly at Gerald's throat!
Lunethia let out a frantic scream. "No! Gerald, look out!"
However, the rest of the group remained unnervingly calm. Owen even let out a throaty, mocking chuckle.
"Hah... of all the targets to pick, it chose the wrong one."
Lunethia froze, looking at the others in total bewilderment. A heartbeat later, she understood exactly what he meant.
At the precise micro-second before the lethal beak could pierce its target, Gerald's body moved. There was no warning—no tensing of muscles, no opening of eyes.
In a single, fluid motion, he performed a lightning-fast "kipp-up" from the ground. He moved so quickly his silhouette blurred into a mere afterimage.
Before the beast could adjust, his boot lashed out in a vicious kick, connecting squarely with the raptor's beak!
CRACK!
The kick slammed into the beast's head with staggering force. Stunned by the impact, the raptor reeled back. While the blow didn't draw blood, the sheer audacity of the counter-attack caught it completely off guard.
Enraged, the beast lunged again, snapping its left talon forward to shred the man where he stood.
Yet, Gerald remained fast asleep. A faint, peaceful snore even escaped his lips.
Just as the talons were about to sink in, his torso twisted with an eerie, animalistic instinct. He dodged the strike with terrifying ease, as if he were merely turning over in bed.
In the same breath, he pivoted his entire weight—and threw a punch.
THUD!
His fist buried itself deep into the raptor's chest.
The massive creature was actually lifted off its feet, sent tumbling backward through the air until it slammed into a heavy trunk. The tree groaned under the impact, a rain of autumn leaves cascading over the scene.
Hissing in pain, the magic beast shook its head frantically and beat its wings, desperately retreating back into the safety of the high sky.
Only then did the realization sink in: the beast had made a critical, arrogant mistake.
It had never imagined a human fist could actually bypass its natural toughness, and as a result, it hadn't even bothered to deploy its magical barrier. It had taken that staggering punch full-force, unprotected.
The moment the beast's killing intent vanished, Gerald's body seemed to lose its skeletal support.
Thud.
He simply tipped over and collapsed back against the tree trunk. Within seconds, his rhythmic snoring resumed, as peaceful as if the entire violent exchange had never happened.
Lunethia stood there, jaw dropped in sheer disbelief. "He... he really was asleep the whole time?"
Rena couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. "Every second of it."
She adjusted her grip on her spear. "His body is hardwired to reflexively counter any killing intent directed at him. So... don't worry about him. He's fine."
Suddenly—
Two arrows hissed out from the dense treeline!
The magic beast didn't even flinch; it knew such puny projectiles couldn't pierce its iron feathers. But a split second later—
BOOM! BOOM!
The arrows detonated mid-air in a twin burst of fire and acrid, choking yellow smoke.
The raptor let out a series of hacking, displeased shrieks. Blinded and coughing, it beat its wings frantically to clear the air, its crimson vision obscured by the chemical fog.
"That's Gareth's signal!" Karl barked, his voice cutting through the haze. "The trap is set!"
He pointed toward the direction the arrows had come from. "Boss—lure it in!"
In the span of a few heartbeats, the battlefield shifted. Owen, Rena, Karl, and Milia vanished into the leafy shadows, moving with the synchronized silence of a hunting pack.
By the time the beast's massive wings managed to beat back the smoke, only two figures remained in the clearing.
Rhine. And Lunethia.
Rhine reached back, pulling Lunethia firmly behind his frame. With his other hand, he pulled a small flint from his pouch.
Clink—
He struck the flint against the spine of his longblade.
Sparks showered the steel. A heartbeat later—
WHOOSH!
The blade erupted into a roaring pillar of fire. Within the brilliant yellow light, streaks of orange "wrath-flame" flickered like living veins. The fire raced down the length of the metal, transforming the simple sword into a terrifying, shimmering blade of living heat.
Gazing down at the incinerating longblade, a flicker of primal unease stirred within the magic beast.
But looking at the clearing now—there was only one man standing in its way. This was its golden opportunity to seize Lunethia and finish its mission!
The raptor let out a piercing, triumphant shriek. It snapped its wings shut against its flanks, transforming its massive frame into a living meteor.
It plummeted through the sky—target locked on Rhine!
Rhine braced his footing, hoisting the roaring blade. As the beast bore down on him, he let out a guttural howl of defiance.
"Burn, you piece of trash!"
A torrent of concentrated white-hot fire erupted from the steel, a geyser of flame surging upward to meet the falling star.
The beast reacted instantly, manifesting its transparent magical barrier. The shimmering dome wrapped around its feathers, prepared to deflect the heat just as it had deflected the swords and arrows before.
However—the moment the flames licked the barrier, something impossible happened.
The supposedly indestructible shield didn't just hold; it began to dissolve like ice under a midsummer sun. The magic was being eaten away by the sheer intensity of Rhine's wrath.
Panic flared in the beast's crimson eyes. Stripped of its protection and scorched by the rising heat, it was forced to abort its dive. It flared its wings wide, flapping frantically to create a gust of wind strong enough to scatter the inferno.
In that exact micro-second of vulnerability, Karl's voice cracked through the roar of the flames like a whip.
"NOW!"
Four silhouettes exploded from the surrounding treeline simultaneously.
Rena, Milia, Owen, and Gareth each gripped a corner of a massive, weighted iron net. With synchronized precision, they hurled the mesh over the flailing creature.
The iron net collapsed over the raptor, the heavy links snaking around its limbs and pinions. Before the beast could process the trap, it was entangled. It thrashed violently, its great wings beating against the metal constraints in a desperate bid for freedom.
But the "Goblins" weren't finished.
Karl launched himself into the air, landing firmly on the creature's broad back. He raised his longsword high, reversing his grip and driving the point down toward the base of the beast's skull with every ounce of his strength.
CLANG—!
The sound was like a hammer striking an anvil. The blade was halted by the unnaturally dense bone, but the sheer kinetic force of the blow sent the beast's head snapping forward.
Its frantic struggling stuttered for a heartbeat—a moment of pure, concussed paralysis.
"Pull!" Owen bellowed.
The team hauled on the tether lines, and the iron net constricted. The raptor's wings were slammed against its body, locked tight and unable to unfurl. It snapped its razor-sharp beak at the metal, trying to sever the links, but the mesh was too fine and the tension too high to find leverage.
Its talons raked the earth in a blind, useless fury, but the sky belonged to it no longer. The king of the air had been grounded.
Rhine paced slowly toward the grounded beast, the dancing orange wrath-flames casting flickering, jagged shadows across his face.
"Heh..." He let out a low, gravelly chuckle. "Starting to regret your life choices yet?"
In the raptor's crimson pupils, Rhine's silhouette loomed larger, an approaching omen of ash and steel.
Without warning, he drove the incinerating longblade into the joint of the beast's wing.
HISS!
The feathers, once as rigid as black iron, offered no more resistance than dry parchment against the magical heat. The blade slid through the muscle and sinew with sickening ease.
The magic beast let out a shriek of pure, soul-shredding agony.
"Stop! Please, stop!"
Lunethia's voice rang out, trembling and frantic. Rhine paused, his brow furrowing as he glanced back over his shoulder.
"What?" he barked.
Lunethia's eyes were brimming with tears, her voice choked with a mix of terror and pity. "I... I'll tell it to leave! Just don't hurt it anymore!"
Rhine's scowl deepened into a mask of pure irritation. Instead of answering, he yanked the blade free—ichor and molten sparks spraying from the wound—and plunged it into the opposite wing.
SQUELCH-HISS!
"It's a magic beast, you idiot," Rhine said, his voice dropping to a glacial, deadly calm. "You actually think it's going to take orders from you?"
The raptor thrashed in its iron cage, its primary flight joints now charred and useless. Thick, dark blood pooled beneath its tattered feathers, staining the forest floor as its cries echoed through the trees, weakening by the second.
Finally breaking, Lunethia collapsed forward. She stumbled toward the beast and draped her arms around its massive, heaving neck.
Her tears traced wet paths down her pale cheeks as she pressed her face against the creature's cooling feathers.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered, her voice barely a breath in the wind. "This is all because of me... I'm so sorry..."
The beast's pained shrieking softened into a low, guttural rattle.
Rhine reached down and hauled Lunethia to her feet with a rough, impatient tug. He made no effort to hide his disgust.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
He gestured with his blood-slicked, flaming sword toward the mangled creature in the net.
"This is a biological weapon. A construct made for one thing: killing. Putting it down isn't just common sense—it's the only way to stay alive."
Lunethia kept her head bowed, her shoulders shaking, offering no rebuttal to his cold, hard logic.
Her voice was a mere shadow of a whisper, trembling with a fragile, fading resolve.
"I... I understand," she stammered. "But... could you at least... not torture it?"
The temperature in the clearing seemed to drop instantly as Rhine's expression darkened.
"Torture?"
He whipped around, his voice erupting in a jagged snarl. "You think this is torture!?"
At that precise moment, the flames dancing along his blade pulsed with a violent, rhythmic intensity. The common yellow fire began to bleed away, overtaken by a surging tide of deep, visceral orange. It was as if his very rage had found a physical fuel.
Rhine took a deliberate, heavy step toward Lunethia, the fiery reflection swaying dangerously in his narrowed eyes.
"A magical construct is a weapon, nothing more," he hissed. "And the only way to ensure a weapon never hurts anyone again is to systematically strip away every single ounce of its capacity to resist."
The air between them grew thick with the scent of ozone and burning wood. Just as the tension threatened to snap, Rena stepped forward, firmly guiding Lunethia behind her own armored shoulder.
"That's enough, Boss," she said, her voice a calm, grounding force. "She's just a girl. She doesn't know the world like we do."
Rhine stared at them for a long, silent moment. The orange fire on his sword flickered, then stabilized.
He let out a sharp, dismissive snort. "Fine. Whatever."
He turned his back on them, his gaze returning to the broken thing in the iron net. "If anything, her little interference helped us finish this faster."
Without another word, he hoisted the flaming longblade one final time.
THRUST—!
The steel buried itself deep into the beast's core.
VROOOM—!
The orange "Wrath-flame" exploded in a blinding pillar of incinerating heat. The inferno instantly swallowed the raptor's frame, the iron mesh of the net glowing a cherry-red under the extreme temperature.
The magic beast let out one final, haunting shriek—a sound that withered and dissolved into the roar of the fire.
Seconds later, the flames died down as quickly as they had risen.
On the scorched earth, nothing remained but a heap of blackened, cooling ash. A soft breeze stirred through the trees, catching the remnants of the Queen's messenger and scattering them into the dark heart of the forest.
It was as if the colossal Moon-Shadow Owl had never existed at all.