Chapter 50 Hollowed Hope

I dove feet first into the canyon, aiming for one of the higher nests. The wind from free falling that far was buffeting my eyes.

Though that didn't impair the soul vision I shared with Aoif.

I was able to accurately locate the vultures and drop into their nest.

The vultures, not expecting anything to attack them at this point, we're caught unaware.

With three quick slashes the vultures nesting were killed.

Though their death throes alerted the other vultures.

*CAAAW* *CAAAW* *CAAAW* *CAAAW*

The caws of anger were deafening. A multitude of vultures were already in the air poised to attack.

In just a moment's time they were upon me, the first one right in front of me claws out coated in some green liquid and weirdly enough the liquid was not falling off of the vulture.

The liquid not falling off could be explained by the vultures having some adhesive on their claws but that detail made me wary, to specifically be able to keep a liquid on your claw was something throat doesn't just happen. There must have been a reason for them to evolve towards that specific trait.

It could be poison or it could just be nothing but I didn't want to take chances so I dodged the attack instead of facing it head on to create an opening.

After dodging I leaped above the vulture and decapitated it. The others were all at my sides by that point and took advantage of the fact that I was in the air to attack at my sides.

I couldn't dodge this without moving up or somehow propelling myself back towards the nest.

*BANG*

Kicking the platform it exploded into tiny particles of aether. The kick allowed me to propel myself up, dodging the attacks of the vultures.

A couple of them had even crashed into each other. The effects of whatever was on their claws showed, I was right that it was poison.

Whatever liquid that was on the vulture's claws paralyzed the ones that they had crashed into.

Taking advantage of the confusion I let gravity take me and slashed down taking out two vultures in one slash.

The rest of the vultures had already crossed half the distance to get to me and it wouldn't take them long to get here. Only another minute or two seeing as they were coming from deep in the canyon to protect their territory.

…

The realm protector opened his eyes, gazing upon the creature brave enough to cross into its territory.

It knew that sooner or later it would die, the ones from the middle realm overwhelming in power for him to defeat but not now it still needed to protect its territory, protect the kid he had, and most importantly kill the intruder. He could sense the fragment of ownership the intruder had with him.

If he could kill the intruder then he would grow in power, having control over 2/5 of the realm allowing him to potentially break through the barrier that was holding him at tier 6. And then he might even have a chance to protect the realm from those from the middle realms.

This needed his utmost attention and effort.

Waiting, the realm protector observed.

He mentally ordered the vultures under his control to act more aggressively to bait out more of the intruders' cards.

…

The realm protector observed. He saw how every time the intruder had killed one of his subordinates he would leap off their dead body propelling himself onto the next. He saw the caution the intruder placed upon the poison that all his vultures placed on their talons.

With that information he waited, he stalked, prepared, waiting for the intruder to tire himself out.

While doing so he coated his whole body in poison in the nearby pond of poison laying on his nest.

While other vultures would have been catatonic at the contact to all of that poison, he as the leader of them had a better innate resistance to the poison that was most commonly used by his species.

…

Prepared he stalked forwards, still hidden under the cover of darkness.

Until the right moment he waited.

'Now' was the thought that ran through his head as he saw the intruder take a hit from one of his subordinates.

…

*SLASH*

A wound on my side, not fatal but enough to make me hesitate a bit. The place that I was hit felt numb.

My body was slowing down, however I could still see something in the corner of my eye approaching.

It was the realm protector, he had closed in on me while I was still assaulting his subordinates. Waited until I was already wounded.

However I could not do anything except raise my spear to try and block some damage. I could feel the poison of the vultures already affecting my body.

Not only was my reaction time dulled but I felt slower.

*BANG*

The impact of the realm protector tackling me with his body was severe. I could feel the bones in my arm freak with exertion and my back was shot. Not from the impact of the protector but from the wall that he had tackled me into.

I tried to move, to get back up and fight again but my body was slowing down. The corner of my eyes were going black and I couldn't muster the strength to move my fingers.

Luckily I could still feel my aether which I immediately moved through my pathways, fighting off the effects of the poison and allowing me to regain the vision that I was losing.

That didn't stop the accumulating wounds that the protector was giving me however.

While I was trying to fight off the poison the protector was not idle. With raised talons it landed on me.

*PIERCE* *PIERCE*

Two claws had pierced my stomach sending greater amounts of poison straight into my bloodstream.

*ROAR*

A roar of triumph emanated from the vultures mouth however that victory was yet to come as I had one final gambit that I could take.