Kaiser soared high above the forest, wings slicing clean lines through the sky like knives through silk. The wind screamed past his face, but to him it was a lullaby—a comfort that only apex predators understood. Below, the forest stretched like a rotting emerald carpet, dense and full of secrets… or so it pretended.
To most, it was a vibrant cradle of untamed life. To Kaiser?
It was a joke.
"Is that… another slime?" he muttered, eyes narrowing as something gelatinous flopped lazily out of a bush and dissolved into its own shame.
His wings twitched in irritation, throwing up a vortex of crisp morning air. "Great. Another F-rank pudding. What is this, the All-You-Can-Eat Jelly Buffet?"
His inner voice was getting snarkier with each flight. The monsters crawling through the underbrush were barely better than the fungi they fed on. Kaiser, all dark steel feathers and imperial glare, wasn't hunting for snacks—he was hunting for challenges.
"I didn't rip the heart out of the Silver Caiman King just to play zookeeper to swamp rats. Where's the drama? The boss music? The explosions?"
Below him, two squirrel-lizards began brawling over a mushroom. One squeaked, the other squeaked back.
"...Pathetic. I've seen scarier things in my droppings."
He couldn't help but reflect on his recent reconnaissance flight over the decaying human settlements. Cities are crumbling under time's cruel hands. Once proud towers now reduced to skeletons of stone, haunted by vines and the occasional mutated hamster the size of a trash can. Still no humans. Just their abandoned dreams and the stench of expired ambition.
"Ghost towns," he thought. "Guess humanity rage-quit the planet."
And honestly? He didn't miss them. Not their screaming. Not their steel traps. And definitely not their weird fascination with collecting feathers. Now, without them around?
It would have been a problem sooner or later if they still existed, if they saw him.
An actual Griffin, they might try to lock him up or worse, kill him to prevent other people from capturing him alive. he knew humanity's strength was in individuals, but their numbers and technology.
But now, from what he observed, their technology is mostly gone.
But he still wouldn't underestimate them, he remembered that one human who killed the Anaconda King.
But for now
"Paradise," he said with a grin. "Mine for the taking."
He had to grow fast, He didn't know when they would be back, if they ever would.
So he has to hunt other creatures on the same rank or higher than him, to increase his growth speed.
This was, after all, a golden opportunity.
***
Kaiser's stomach gave a low, impatient growl.
"Right. Time to eat."
He tilted his wings and banked sharply, the forest below spinning like a wheel of green fortune. After a few lazy minutes of gliding and sighing dramatically at every weakling he spotted, a flicker of movement finally piqued his interest. A lone deer, nibbling leaves near a sun-drenched clearing. But this wasn't your grandma's venison.
Its eyes glowed crimson, and smoke curled from its hooves like it had just walked out of a barbecue pit.
It seemed this deer did not recognize that Kaiser was a whole tier above it, or it was too overconfident in its newfound strength after its mutation.
"A fire-infused deer," Kaiser mused. "Spicy."
He descended with surgical grace, talons tucked in, the sky whispering around him. The deer perked up, fire licking its legs, clearly trying to look dangerous.
Kaiser landed silently behind it, cracking his neck. "Aww. It thinks it's a dragon."
With a flick of thought, the air thickened. Threads of invisible force snapped around the deer's legs like a hunter's snare. It bleated—a sizzling, confused sound—as its fire flared, then sputtered.
"Cute effort," Kaiser chuckled, eyes glinting. "Now lie down."
Boom.
He yanked the creature to the ground using his telekinesis, and with a loud crunch, loud enough to scare off half the forest. Bones cracked. Fire winked out. A few squirrels screamed somewhere in the trees.
It created a small crater.
Kaiser stepped over the twitching corpse, leaned down, and bit into the flank with surgical savagery. Hot blood sprayed across his beak, the scent rich and coppery.
"Oof. Tastes like regret and medium-rare ego," he mumbled through a mouthful.
The meat was good though—infused with fire mana, it warmed him from the inside out. Like eating steak laced with molten sunshine.
He took his time. No predators. No interruptions. Just him, meat, and the mocking silence of a forest that couldn't keep up.
***
Fully fed and feeling smug, Kaiser leapt into the sky once more. He didn't flap at first—just rode the rising thermals, belly full, soul hungry.
The scenery changed as he flew northward: the sea of trees gave way to jagged hills that rolled like the backs of sleeping titans, then to vast open plains where wind howled like a lonely beast. Then, finally, the world opened up into brilliance.
Then he saw it, approximately 1400km north of the forest.
The ocean.
It stretched infinitely before him, a silver-blue mirror kissed by sunfire, glittering like a treasure hoard left by the gods. And beneath its surface? Movement. Life. Danger.
Kaiser's heart thudded.
He dipped lower. Schools of fish darted like liquid arrows. Spined fins sliced through the shallows. Even the crabs looked angrier out here.
Then he saw it.
Majestic. Massive. Murderous.
A killer whale broke the surface, glistening black-and-white, its hide marked with ancient scars and a presence so heavy it bent the waves around it. F-ranked followers swam obediently in its wake like cultists circling a war god.
Kaiser's eyes lit up.
"Well, well. Daddy's home."
His feathers crackled with anticipation. Mana surged beneath his skin like a river straining against ice. The whale let out a deep, echoing call.
Kaiser grinned, his mind already racing with combat angles.
"That thing's big. And probably cranky. My favorite combo."
He tucked his wings and dove, beak first, wind screaming around him.
"Time to see if whales scream like the rest."
The waves rushed up to meet him—and with them, the fight he'd been aching for.