Chapter 19: Group Fight
As we moved with the large group, Greg started up a conversation.
"Hey Sam. How do you think we should go about our fight? With one of our members being completely useless I'm sure us three will have to pick up the weight."
"Just call me by my family name, Kieran. That way there won't be any confusion with the names. I've only done a couple of practical trainings before, but what usually seems to be the most important part is properly assigning roles. Since I'm a bit more experienced I'll try to take the brunt of the monster's attack. That will leave you guys to try and follow up on any openings you see."
"I say that is an excellent plan. I'm not sure if the mage in our group can even do anything at this point, but at least Greg and I are sure to do damage as proper warriors."
"Who the hell told you to speak old man? I have no doubts that you would much sooner abandon us than do anything worthwhile."
I doubt I could ever be friends with Greg. He was simply dead set on treating me like an enemy. I shook my head and grabbed the talisman in my pocket while also taking the time to rub the leftover blood on my fingers on the paper. Then as quick as I could, I reached my hand out and patted him on the back.
"Cheer up man. I have been successfully working in teams for longer than you've been alive."
The talisman disappeared and just like that I was now safe while Greg was sitting on a time bomb. I kept telling myself that he is kind of a dick and deserves whatever might happen to him, but was that really a good enough reason?
I quickly shook off that train of thought. Six trainees and one knight had already died simply because they discovered my secret. Compared to that, there was no use even considering if Greg deserved anything. This was simply my safest path forward and Greg was unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire, nothing more.
"Don't fucking touch me old man. You would sooner leave your teammates to die than ever work together successfully. Have you no shame saying bullshit like that to us after what you just did?"
Well, he definitely made my decision feel easier with each new line of insults.
"And what do you know about what I did? Have you ever seen a monster eat a person alive before? What else can you do if one of the strongest people you have seen becomes a simple snack in front of a powerful beast?"
"Guys, let's not fight anymore and focus on the battle ahead."
Surprisingly Samantha was the one to try and diffuse the situation. I was a bit surprised and started to wonder whether or not she was actually able to do anything as a mage after all. Maybe she just wanted to steer away from talks about how useless a teammate could be.
"She's right. We might not like the team that we were assigned to, but it's our job now to see this through to the end."
Kieran also sided with Samantha effectively ending the hostilities for now.
The whole group continued down the path steadily reaching closer to those strange bone white mountains when the first monster finally appeared. I was unfortunately already acquainted with this monster as it was the very same one that exposed my secret before. A bird that looked very similar to an eagle except for the sharp teeth lining its beak swooped down on our group.
Some of the closest trainees looked terrified, being unable to react as the bird approached them at incredible speed. But Bruno saved them by pulling out another new artifact causing the bird to become trapped in a strange box of mana.
It screeched while trying to force itself out of the box, but every time it moved, it would unnaturally be pulled back to the middle.
"We've got ourselves a windripper. It's an incredibly fast and deadly bird that has gained access to wind magic while in the initial stage. To offset this though, its physical body is very weak. It's basically just a very fast bird. I could think of no better group than the old man's to start off our fights."
Fuck me. There he goes again with his petty grudges. He probably knew very well that we would struggle to deal with that bird's speed and just wanted to see me suffer while we tried.
There was nothing much to do about it. With no easy way of backing out of the fight without at least trying, our team stepped forward while all the other trainees stepped back. We were now alone with the caged beast in the air a little above us.
I prepared myself for the fight, but then looked over at my teammates. Pale faces and apparent fear were in all of their eyes. Maybe in Kieran's case it was because he was very familiar with the bird and maybe for the others it was that unbelievable speed that they couldn't even react to before, but everybody looked frozen solid.
"Hey guys, we should be preparing ourselves and coming up with a strategy right about now."
Silence. I let out a long sigh. Weren't we just talking about how I would be the dead weight here? How could everybody else become completely worthless as soon as we step up to fight.
Was the bird that scary? Well probably now that I think about it. After all, it could strike a lethal blow in a matter of seconds.
A little later, Kieran was the first to snap out of his fear.
"You're right. I will… I will try and get its attention. When it attacks, you guys should have an opportunity to hit it. We just need one good hit to take it down."
My god, with all that experience that he was talking about, this was the best he could come up with. Just sacrifice himself and maybe he won't just die while his team hopefully ends the fight.
"And how do you propose to get its attention and survive the attack that follows?"
Silence once again. Eventually he stammered out an answer.
"We will figure it out somehow."
I shook my head and walked a little away from the group. For one, I was kind of disgusted by my teammates and just wanted to walk away, however I also had an idea based off of everything I have seen of about this bird so far. It would be dangerous, but at least I had a plan and was capable of carrying it out.
Bruno gave us a bit more time, but eventually called out.
"Alright, I'm releasing the cage. Show us the fruits of your training."
Soon the mana cage dispersed and the bird was free to move once more. I stood separated from the others with my polearm pointing forward about at my hips. I could feel my hands clam up as my blood started pumping through my veins. As the adrenaline kicked in, I once again felt the rivers of fire pulse throughout my body. This move would be a bit risky, but if I was right, this would prove to be the easiest fight yet.
My teammates all held up their weapons and pointed them at the bird. Well I guess in Samantha's case she was just huddled behind the two men I guess preparing magic or something. It did just look an awful lot like cowering though.
Regardless the three of them stood together in an obvious attempt to defend against an attack. Meanwhile, I just stood to the side while making sure my gaze was anywhere except for directly at the bird. I did make sure to keep it in my peripherals though. Everything would come down to reaction speed and prediction.
The bird hovered in the air for a while as it eyed down Bruno. It seems being trapped in a cage of mana made the creature realize that it was no match for that man. Therefore, it turned away from him and saw that there was a group of people much closer to it. It probably took this to mean that our group was not under the protection of Bruno since we were too far away.
With no more hesitation, the bird angled itself downwards and prepared to charge forward. Seeing this in my peripheral vision, I wanted until the last possible second, before I summoned every once of energy in my body to raise my weapon. My body seemed to work in slow motion as I struggled to raise my polearm. Meanwhile, a burst of wind surrounded the bird and it sped towards me at unbelievable speeds.
I could barely register what was happening. The bird moved at such speeds that it only seemed like a blur. Hoping that I was not too late as the bird approached, I suddenly felt an impact on my polearm which was now angled upwards directly in front of my head. Shortly after there was an explosion of blood and feathers. The bird had killed itself after ramming into my weapon.
I struggled to take deep breaths in an attempt to calm my raging heart. It was definitely risky, but my plan had worked. I lowered my weapon and started wiping off all the gore that landed on my head. There was complete silence in the area as everybody starred at me completely dumbfounded.
"Fucking hell, if you had that kind of a spine why the hell did you abandon the others?"
I looked at Bruno and smiled, laughing inwardly at how creepy I must look smiling with blood and body parts scattered all around me.
"It was all about companionship and chance of survival."
"Sly old fucking dog."
He then looked towards the trainees once more.
"Stop standing there with your mouths open! The old man hero here has just demonstrated what it takes to be a warrior. Don't let yourselves be outdone."
I was very surprised that Bruno had basically complimented me and after his words, I was met with strange new gazes. I was used to only feeling various forms of disdain coming from others, but now there was a certain quality of admiration.
I walked over to my group once again and saw that they all had awkward smiles on their faces. Kieran took the initiative to speak first.
"I guess I should apologize. You definitely saved us this time. It was wrong of me to think of you as a worthless old man."
"Please, I just got lucky with a gamble. I saw how it tried to attack our group earlier and thought that it would only dive straight on. With that, I figured it was possible to bait it into an attack."
Kieran seemed to take my words to heart, but despite everything I could still see unhappy expressions on both Greg and Samantha. Although it was to a much lesser degree than ever before. Perhaps their thinking shifted to being disgruntled that I was in the limelight instead of them. Some people truly just couldn't accept anything.
Soon the whole group continued on to find another monster.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone