Randal wasn't even sure what to do with the little birds hopping to and fro. Their constant chirping wasn't unpleasant, but it did constantly announce their location. Or maybe, their chirping made all the other animals think they were birds. On several occasions they'd come right up on unsuspecting wildlife.
The ranger eyed the birds hopping from Randy's head. One of the birds was making… a nest in his hair. Using twigs, leaves, feathers, his bracer laces, hair from their mountain man friend.
Randal glared over his shoulder at the snicking group. "Ya find em funny do ya?"
The mountain burst out laughing, the sound so jarring birds took flight in all directions.
"If ya coud see yerself Randy, ye'd be laughing jus as hard." The mountain man laughed. He wasn't riding a horse, no, he'd found an abandoned bull calf more than ten years ago. Now, it was his mount. His horns sharpened for battle, now two small birds were using them as a perch. Chirping at his bull.
Suddenly all three birds went silent. Peering into the forest. Since they were trying to be discreet, they weren't using roads. Randal drew them to a halt… slowly he pulled his helmet down. The nest slid down to land in his lap, which he tucked into a pouch on his belt. The bird, Kokono, was now standing on his horse's head. A sharp, warning trill echoed through the otherwise silent forest.
The mountain man drew a short axe, testing the weight as he glanced around.
The ranger pulled his sleeves back enough for his crossbow to fire unimpeded. Instead of an attack, the bird that had been sticking to Randy, waved its wing to the opposite side it was now looking.
Randal didn't hesitate to slowly start moving away from whatever caught the bird's attention. Unfortunately, life wasn't so easy. More than a dozen masked figures leapt from the trees. If they had continued forward, they'd have been surrounded.
"TAKE NO CHANCES!!!!" Randal roared as his death soldiers took to guarding the wagon.
First leapt to intercept two opponents, killing the first with a poison dart he'd hidden between his teeth, slashing the second out of the air before he could reach the tarp covered wagon.
Kokono chirped twice before changing into her newly adapted human form. Unlike her brothers, she was now smaller than Nix, but taller than Beloved. Without hesitation her broadsword flew out of its scabbard and into her hand. She sliced through three men as she landed.
Randal was started for only a moment, he'd suspected the birds were the dark clad figures from before, but the cloaked bird forms seemed so… childish. Not to mention, he didn't recall seeing a female among their numbers…
Shaking the thought to focus on the immediate threat, Randal's figure bulked beneath his armor as he drew his hammer.
First was able to keep most attackers at bay, but their numbers were not only unknown, they just kept coming! There were already two dozen dead, but they continued to surge forth.
Randal cursed as he realized they weren't surrounded, but it was only a matter of time.
Tou leapt up to block an incoming fireball, absorbing the mana as he rushed toward the offending mages.
Randal saw the second, smaller warrior dodge between the masked figures, slaying at least two men for every step he took. "COVER HIM!" Randal roared to the ranger who had fallen back to snipe at the men still in the trees.
The ranger cursed, "He's too fast Randy! Priest!"
The priest cursed as he broke three pre-cast enchantments. The area was suddenly covered in a layer of frost, only their men and mounts were unaffected. "We won't last!" Already two of the twenty death soldiers were too injured to help. They now sat on the wagon, hanging on to the chains holding the tarp down, shooting arrows or throwing daggers.
The mountain man had leapt off his bull, swinging his axe more to make the surging attackers retreat than to actually kill them. He forced them toward the larger dark clad warrior who'd already cut more than a two dozen men down. No, not down, to pieces.
"We bicker, we banter, toward the east, the better, the faster!" Hito announced as he started condensing mana. With a burst of blinding light, more than twenty men were struck with lightning clearing the path.
Randal didn't argue, "East! Retreat! Engage only as needed!"
Tou had found the mage, guarded by half a dozen grotesque iron lizards. They had clearly been pumped full of the dragon's blessing. They were size of small horse, with overgrown teeth, bulging eyes, venomous saliva, dark scales, and talons stained with dark blood.
The first lizard leapt at him, using powerful hind legs to propel itself through the air. Tou flipped, using his heel to smash its head into the ground. He had no intention of testing how effective its tainted venom was.
The priest took a moment to whistle in appreciation, then he fired another lightning bolt into an approaching figure.
Tou tilted his head as he absorbed the mana from the spell. The mage glared at him. Something about the mage… was familiar. Tou glanced around then realized, like the land dragon, this mage's lifeforce was tethered to another being.
"We have a problem, there is a catch, to kill this mage, the beast found our first quest." Tou called as he drew a whip from his belt to replace his sword. He snapped the whip around the second lizard charging him. Jumping onto its back, he punched a hole through its back. Ripping the tainted black core free.
Kokono turned her attention to the mage. "A drop of his blood, or his mana we drain, one or the other, to find tethered string."
Tou gave a savage grin, "Under his shield his blood is still safe, but to keep his mana? Not when me he does face." Tou leapt over the mage, clasping his hands over his head and bringing them down.
Randal was forced a step back as the shock wave of the smaller warrior hitting… a barrier. The smaller man was engulfed half in fire, half in ice. Dozens of spells had been activated, water, earth, lightning, more fire, more ice all hitting the warrior square in the chest.
Kokono started cutting a path toward the east… until a roar shook the trees causing everyone to halt just long enough to see… a half rotting dragon rising from the earth.
It was more corpse than dragon, the stench alone was enough to make weaker stomachs empty themselves. The sight… was horror incarnate. With only one bulging eye rolling in its socket, festering sores oozing yellowish black puss along its entire body. One wing didn't even have scales anymore, patches of putrid flesh were sliding off with every shake of its body.
Its organs were trailing along the ground as he knocked trees out of the way, smoke exhaled through its nose smelled of burnt hair, flesh, and rot.
The healer groaned, "Randy, I don't recall dragon killer bein a requirement."
The mountain man grinned as he twirled his larger axe. "Oh, but what a tale we'll be tellen come sundown."
The mage snorted, "If we still be among the liven ya mean." At that moment a giant ring of… shimmering see through feathers appeared. A gust of wind nearly knocked them all off their feet.
Randal turned to face the potentially new threat… he was staring into the eyes of another dragon… an eastern dragon? No, eastern dragons didn't have wings… a hybrid between the two? With feathers? Randal was about to order a new plan of retreat when all their attackers… suddenly fell to the knees holding their throats.
The rotting dragon looked like it stumbled, then someone forced its face into the ground. Foul liquid splattered from the force and a tattered wing was ripped clean off. The remaining eye that had been rolling in the socket… was now rolling past Randal's feet.