R. A. T. H

Fifteen vol.2

Fire blasted against sand and Rose jumped, rolled, and ran. Her jacket scorched and her feet dug into the ground to propel her forward. The rush of wind behind her burned as the bird's screech came. Her golden eyes jumped back momentarily, her reaction speed propelled her to leap from another blast of flames.

This one, however, exploded and sent her hurtling back.

She flipped within the air and dug her sword into the ground, sand, and dust flying about to stop herself before she faced the diving beast, its crimson eyes glaring at her as its beak opened.

She moved her left hand, two quick taps upon a core and she was firing her pistol, pulses flying, stronger and faster than her previous gun as she ran to face the creature. With her eyes, they all drilled into the beast's burning throat.

However, that seemed to do no damage whatsoever. Its claws, large as her head, extended as it flapped its wings. It wanted to crush her.

'I would need burst mode to deal any real damage to it. . .' She thought.

She rolled out of the way, avoiding its claws. It screeched within the air, flapping into the distance before turning back towards her.

Her brain spun. Escaping a blaze falcon within this vast desert was impossible. The test definitely wanted her to kill it. She knew what it was. Going underground would be no use, it would merely spurt fire to reach her. What would work was water but, within this desert, such a thing wouldn't exist. Though, the saving grace was, since she had once researched sandworms and their predators, she also knew that a young blaze falcon could not continuously spurt flames as an adult would.

Its lungs which swallowed and changed mana into fire could 'overheat' and hurt itself in its own ego. It hadn't reached an age where the constant overheating and recovery would make it near-continuous and impervious to the damage its own flames caused to its innards.

'For a pre-pubescent one. . .it would be 3 times. . .'

She tapped the core of her sword and felt mana enter her body as she ran to meet the beast.

It spurted flames once more and she dodged that, the blast echoing behind her in a blaze of burning sand as she squinted her eyes.

Even with a body lesser than her usual one, her reaction speed was still insane thanks to her brain and the sword made up for her speed. The bird's trajectory. The force needed to lift herself into its path. Her arc. Her momentum. The exact second she would slash her blade. Rose's brain spun through all of it in near-instantaneous speed as she leaped.

She gritted her teeth and slashed, sword scraping against the scaled claws of the beast. She felt her bone crack but the weapon's blade dug into it. It flapped in pain, stopping its momentum and she took that moment to point her gun upwards.

A blast of mana shot out and ripped into the underbelly of the creature, crushing through feathers and finding its bone beneath before coming out of the other end of a wing.

The blaze falcon screeched and crashed against the earth. Its lift gone.

Rose slammed into the desert ground, buried in sand. Hearing screeches of pain, however, she took a breath and forced herself up with a right arm creaking, crawling her way right back out.

She resettled herself upon the sand of the desert and gripped her sword in her left hand, pistol left behind upon the desert floor. Her breathing was rushed, for once, as this body was simulated to behave as a human's of her stature. The pain she felt from her cracked right arm, which was now twisted, was familiar. This time, however, it wouldn't naturally heal.