The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Both sides stared at each other.

The condorowl tilted its head at them.

[Ethereal Condorowl Lvl 27]

It was the same bird, right?

Hoot-prekk?

Krow and Sein barely breathed at the tension.

The condorowl called again, the urgency in its tone now evident.

Krow leaned close, quietly spoke. "How far is the timberline?"

"Maybe…half a tower?"

That was five storeys, in draculkar terms. Around thirty-five meters.

Between them and those covering trees, was open mountainside.

So close, yet so far.

He let out an aggrieved puff of air. The bartender at the Crossed Dragon was a rotten bastard. Who gave this quest to a Lvl 4?

Krow had no doubt the condorowl would attack the moment they ran for it.

He glanced at the boy beside him. "I don't suppose you have any good movement spells?"

"Uncle's teaching me Stormglide Steps, b-but we just started."

Stormglide, not bad. It had short flight capabilities and could only be upgraded once after mastery but its upgraded counterpart Thunderstorm Stride wasn't something to sneer at, especially for close-combat. At mastery, it was sonic-level speed and the ability to walk on air in short bursts of motion.

A lot of players preferred it over some of the movement spells that could be upgraded more than once. In fact, the Stormglide Guildclan's only requirement for entry was mastery of one or both movement spells and the ability to use them in battle.

It was a rank-six movement spell, not common at all. Smugglers these days were hardcore, if they were teaching their kids Stormglide.

Shkav. Knowing those things didn't help them at the moment.

"What's down this direction, then?"

"A…a cliff? There are treetops, but I can't see…maybe a quarter-tower down."

Of course. A cliff.

It took considerable restraint for Krow to hold in his groan.

Preeeaaaakk!

The condorowl's denial was over. The screech, filled with grieving rage, echoed in the still air between the mountain peaks.

Krow crouched, urgently whispered. "Get on my back!"

Sein obeyed with gratifying speed. Krow snapped another grapple-hook into his hand and bounded forward.

The wraithlight showed him the cliff-edge with less than a second to react. Krow slid them off the cliff and hammered the grapple hook into stone and earth like a climbing pick just as the heavy winds of the condorowl's wing attack blasted rock and dust off the mountainside.

A half-second late, and they'd have been blown off the mountain with their organs crushed by hurricane-force winds.

Sein coughed, pressed his face into Krow's nape to avoid the dust and debris. At least the kid wore long sleeves, or the debris would scrape his skin raw.

"Shkav," gritted Krow, as the grapple-hook scraped down the cliffside without finding purchase. The gloves he'd just bought days ago shredded from the friction, the durability already beaten down by days of hunting and the night's adventure.

He really should buy a movement spell as soon as possible. This was the third time in a half-night he'd thrown himself off a height great enough to kill him.

Impressive, a part of him mocked, when did he become such a cool daredevil?

The hook snagged, and both Krow and Sein scrabbled for purchase from the sudden jolt. The kid's grip faltered on his shoulders, started to slip. Krow reached back to grab him before they both unbalanced.

Hoot-prekkk-preeaaakkk!

Krow's stomach dropped at that reverberation of mad fury, whirled by the small hurricane around them, tinged with a thin sorrowful note.

Sein's arms tightened around his neck, trembling.

That was not the sound of an animal that would stop before their carcasses were shreds of flesh in the breeze.

The condorowl was in air already, keen eyes searching, wings creating winds that thrashed them against the rocky cliff.

Krow rappelled them down to the treetops as fast as he could.

They'd be lashed by branches in this monster-birthed wind, but cover was more important.

He breathed a sigh of relief when they dropped under the arbor. Leafy twigs slashed at his face, stinging. The branches creaked from the winds. He carefully let them down on a middle branch; it was thicker than his torso.

"Oh," Sein peered downward, as Krow handed him potions. "We're still on the cliff. This tree is growing out of…"

Krow glanced up from where he was watching the rope rash on his hands slowly heal. The stinging on his face disappeared. "What?"

Sein was staring, wide-eyed, stunned fear, into the branches below Krow.

Krow's senses, already alert from adrenaline, sped into overdrive. Only then, he realized that the low rumbling was not the sound of rocks falling but a deep continuing growl.

Dread suffused him. Half-reluctantly, he leaned around the massive trunk.

[Urlaron Snow Liger Lvl 21]

The pale striped head, from crown to beard, was as tall as Sein.

It lounged on a lower, larger branch in the relaxed manner of a predator that knew it had no peer. Golden eyes slashed with delicate grass-green eyed them with an air of a considering king, tail languidly swaying free behind it. All this despite the great winds buffeting the tree.

Krow slowly eased both Sein and himself back behind the tree trunk, out of sight of the great feline.

There was a short silence, before he sighed. "What luck we have tonight, my young friend. Escaped the hydra just to fall into the maelstrom's maw, it seems."

"Is it my luck, or yours?" Sein's reply trembled slightly, but he was trying for the same joking tone.

A pleased grin curled around Krow's lips. The kid was a brave one.

"The bad luck is yours and the good luck is mine," Krow decided with a firm nod, teasing the other. "My task for the night was the feathers only."

"Wouldn't that mean you owe me?" the boy shot back in a whisper. "You'd never have found the nest so soon without me."

"The escape was my luck," contended Krow lightly, "In fact, it's you who owes me for the slug pearls. And the feathers too."

The tree shook, sudden, tilted sharply with the weight of winds available to a giant raging bird of prey.

Preaaakkk!

They grabbed onto smaller branches, balancing.

Sein inhaled. "This tree isn't on solid ground, but rooted into the cliff…"

The cliff that was of crumbling rock and loose earth, Krow understood. They could fall. A tree this size…the chance of escaping the area of impact was low.

Grrrgh….gggrhgrooooaaaar!

The deep sound bounced off cliff and rock, echoing.

It was unmistakably a challenge.

Krow and Sein exchanged glances.

Two grapple-hooks appeared in Krow's hands. Fortunately, the cliff was a steep incline and not a steep drop. He wound the lines around his arms and torso, hoping it would help with the strain.

They waited.

The snow liger leaped from its branch, eyes now hunting sharp, more agile than its bulk suggested. Branch to branch, it was like a butterfly flitting, touching lightly before lofting into the next leap.

Air element, decided Krow.

The snow ligers of the Urla Mountains were preferred mounts of the northern draculkar, who had lots of high-altitude glacier-based racing games. The southern draculkar who populated the draculkar capital of Velkenbragg were more restrained.

The condorowl screeched. It had seen the liger. Both monsters fixated on the other, one for mad fury, the other for mad sport.

Krow really wanted to see who won. He did have that vid-eye in his Inventory. But not to the extent of betting his life and the life of a child.

Sein clambered onto Krow's back without urging.

They dropped from the branch.

Krow realized the tree was large because it spread, not because it was tall. Vertical cover was limited.

"How far to the ground?"

"Uh. Half a tower. But it's all trees there."

"Good. Brace yourself."

Krow used the grapple-hooks as climbing picks, slowing down their sliding descent. Dust and rock shards flew around them. Ugh, he really needed to get a mask.

"Krow!"

He ducked a massive branch that slammed into the rock beside them, leapt away to the side as it started to slide down.

"Thanks."

"That's my luck now, right?"

Krow coughed a laugh. "We agreed all the good luck was mine."

"You made a statement," the kid insisted. "I didn't agree."

"You didn't disagree either."

"There was no contract made. Silence means nothing."

"That's what los—"

A pour of debris from above interrupted Krow. He leaped sideways to avoid the bulk of the small landslide. After a long moment of clawing for purchase with the hooks, he peered upwards, disgruntled.

Weeping graves, were they trying to bring down the whole mountain?

The exchange of hostilities above was getting serious.

Not that it was always, with the condorowl in a fury. Now, from the sound of it, the snow liger was also committed to a death match rather than seeing it as an amusing challenge.

Lucky for him and Sein, that they were not the current targets. Still, he'd be happier if they weren't one breeze away from becoming collateral damage.

Take what you get, he supposed.

Luck was definitely laughing at them tonight.

They both knew it.

It was no wonder that, once they gained the solid ground at the foot of the cliff they ran away into the trees as fast and silently as they could.

That was when Krow's wraithlight flickered and died.