The Guardian

Someone literally crashes our party

The entire stadium shook violently. Rat people from started running and screaming, trying to get away from the west gate as something came through the gate. But not just the gate, the entirety of the western wall for the arena. The wall itself started to cave in, breaking apart as something absolutely gigantic pushed through it, obliterating all of the seats, as well as anything else in its way. Finally, it all blasted apart, caving into itself as a rock the size of a building pushed through. But it wasn't any rock... it wasn't any rock at all.

How was this happening? How could this even be possible? How in the world could La Lo's entire tavern be pushing through the wall like it had a mind of its own. Then something lifted its head from the massive smoke and dust cloud. It had a slimy head and two antenna eyes. Seeing as it was carrying the entire tavern on its back, it was clear what it was. A massive snail that used the tavern as its shell.

Now I understood why the king needed his help so bad. Now I get what he meant by "his baby." And most importantly, not I know that Rosie was telling the truth about a snail that could save us all. Hawkmus was absolutely dumbfounded, staring at the snail as it invaded. Even the Igneadon was too busy staring into the eyes of the giant snail that was ramming through the arena.

I took advantage of the diversion and turned to sprint towards Hawkmus, reaching for my sword before they snapped out of their state of memorization and flew out of my reach.
The other five hawks took flight with their leader, and they started flying around me like they had done when we first met.

Focusing on six hawks flying around me, with one of them holding a sword, was already hard. But I also had the sound of destruction mixed with the screaming of thousands. I still had to focus. I planted my feet into the rubble and stared down any hawk that looked as if they'd sweep in. I grabbed two hefty rocks and held onto them tightly, ready to chuck them at any hawk that got ready to attack me.

Finally, one swooped in and passed me with a scratch to the face. Then another came down and scratched my side. Then another. They were fast. Way too fast. If I kept waiting for them to attack, I'd be too late to defend myself. I had to think ahead of time. I had to focus.

My mind raced to something my dad taught me when we were out hunting, but nothing came to mind, nothing but an old saying he used to say.

"Don't aim for where they are. Aim for where they will be."

Me and dad were out hunting squirrels one day, and I couldn't hit one of them for the life of me. My arrow always hit where they were seconds before, rather than hitting them. The squirrels were fast and pesky, always stealing from the village rather than sticking to their land. So we had to take care of a few before they became a problem. I had great still accuracy, but that type of accuracy didn't matter when it came to moving targets.

I thought it was impossible, but like dad does, he got one without even trying. He said the trick was to shoot my arrow in their path rather than right at them. If I timed the shot just right at just the right place, I'd be good. So I aimed at where they were going and shot my arrow right when I thought they'd be there. Sure enough, it missed, but it was a lot closer than last time. I trained more and more until I finally understood how to do it just right.

Soon, I was taking out squirrels left and right. I got so good at the math of it that I started coming home with a dozen squirrels every day I went out hunting. So I applied what I learned here and prayed I could hit that grey hawk that had my sword.

I tightly gripped the rock in my hand and focused on that grey hawk as it flew around me. I studied his pattern and memorized where he would go and when, then I pulled my hand back and chucked as hard and fast as I could at him. Right before it hit, he swerved around it, and it hit a different hawk instead, sending them tumbling downhill.