Quick facts about my [shadow magic].
First, it produces a physical force (probably condensed magic) that causes damage when it hits something or someone.
Second, this physical force is only real for the duration of the spell. Once it accomplishes its purpose, the force that makes the spell real is violently dissipated, causing a slight pushback effect on the opponent or object.
Third, this physical force generated by magic also has weight; this weight varies for each spell. For example, my [shadow balls] are slightly larger than a baseball, weighing approximately 5 kilograms, and when I "fire" them, they leave my hand at about 25 km per hour.
Imagine a 5-kilogram baseball coming toward you at 25 km per hour, less than 10 meters away. How much damage would that do?
Answer: a very loud thud, at the very least.
Okay, yes, I aimed the attack at the chicks, but I didn't fire it there; it was just a deterrent tactic.
But as expected, as soon as the chickens saw me aiming, the white chicken (the one furthest from the ones he was attacking and the one closest to the chicks) jumped in front, trying to get in the way, but she wouldn't have gotten there in time if I'd fired magic.
Before the others could take two steps to try to stop me, I changed my arm's direction and attacked her right in the center of her chest. Immediately after, I rolled to avoid the attack on the rooster and the chicken behind me.
Okay, right, I said the shadow balls "emerge" from my hand 25 km away, but it still takes 4 seconds for them to form. More than enough time for the enemy to see where I'm aiming and dodge (like the rooster did when it was in the air), or for me to change targets before the magic disappears.
Even though it's a fight against animals that outnumber me, and with great coordination, I refuse to involve those who aren't directly involved, but they don't know that and I was able to use that against them.
A pretty shameless tactic?
Yes, certainly. But even better than some people would do, some would actually attack the chicks just to get a break. At least I didn't do that; I just made them think I would, and they did the rest.
Anyway, now the healer was out, and so was one of the attackers. The team leader (the rooster), the tank (the hen with grayer feathers), and the other attacker (a hen with dark brown, almost black feathers) were missing.
Fortunately, since they also thought I was going to attack the chicks, they tried to attack me without coordination, resulting in the stealthy hen giving the rooster a nice cut.
The hen with gray feathers tried to attack me, but she wasn't good at attacks, apparently, tripping over the fallen rooster and pushing the other hen a little to the left, giving me an excellent target.
With both of them in this state, of course I wasn't going to waste the chance to land a strong attack.
"[Shadow Ball]"
With my last shot, I hit both of them in the head. Once again, I was amazed at how resilient these hens were. Instead of having their necks broken, they were just knocked out, so at least I won't have to worry about sneak attacks anymore.
Unfortunately, now with the two action shots, the rooster has fully recovered. And finding himself alone against me, it seemed he was determined to finish me off.
It was me and the rooster now (technically Mari, too, who was still watching everything, while also bursting out laughing).
He and I glared at each other intensely; the anger he felt toward me was palpable and very obvious. For my part, I couldn't help but laugh a little; they were basically 4 against 1 (technically 5) and still lost. They probably had more time to adapt to their new bodies than I did.
Just a little chuckle is understandable, right? But he didn't like the laugh; that was the last straw, apparently.
He stomped hard on the ground and struck another attack pose. Only this time, I could sense something was different; the air around the rooster seemed to shimmer, and the feathers on his body seemed to glow even brighter for a moment.
He closed his wings in front of his body and placed his head between them. Two seconds later, he opened them with a *Voshhh*, and with them came a...
*Fuussshhh Booommm*
And the entire rooster caught fire.
Literally, it looked like a small jet of fire was shooting out of every feather on his body. His bluish-green tail turned light blue with lilac hues, and his black claws turned orange, just like the ground he was standing on. And his eyes turned into two black dots that stared at me coldly.
'That... isn't that kind of bad?!'
I hadn't even finished the thought before he launched an attack, a breath of fire completely different from the fireballs a little bigger than ping-pong balls he'd been throwing up before. It was a continuous attack like a flamethrower, to the point that even the cement on the back wall melted a little.
'How hot does it have to be to melt cement?!!!!'
Well, at least now I understand how these chickens have survived this far.
Yes, they've all evolved and acquired at least one ability. Add to that their coordination, and I doubt a few small groups of goblins will be able to do anything to them (probably).
But how they survived the strongest monsters so far, I had no idea.
Until now.
Soon he was in front of me, attacking with his glowing claws, forcing me to concentrate all my strength on dodging. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mari preparing to step in, but I signaled no, I had started this and would finish it.
She looked at me as if to say,
'Are you serious?'
And I responded with mine.
'Yes!!!... Only step in if I'm about to turn into a over-cooked bat, okay?'
I don't even need to describe how she looked at me after that.
Taking advantage of my brief distraction, which must have lasted less than a second, the rooster attacked with another volley of feathers. To dodge, I had to curl up into a human pretzel and run away on all fours like an animal.
The only positive side of this situation was that although he became more dangerous in this form, he was also slower. Apparently, entering the "second phase" gave him a buff in some aspects and a debuff in others.
But he was still very dangerous, especially to me, who has a weakness to fire, and the heat he emanated was at least as bad as a pyre burning brightly on a winter night; you can feel the heat even from 5 meters away.
I was basically out of mana and couldn't attack him or I would get a nice burn. What to do?.....
The best I could do at the moment was dodge the attacks, break a couple of pieces of metal from the main window (which was already shattered, just like the one in the house) and use them to defend myself and try to find a way out of this situation. Preferably quickly, as I could already feel the heat of the rooster starting to burn my hands.
I'm not sure when I started hearing that sweet sound, a very soft *tuck tuck* amidst the *ting tang* of the rooster's claws against the metal and the *chiiiieee chiiiieee* *coooo crrooocuuuy* of the chicks and the last hen still conscious. A soft sound of drops falling to the ground.
Blocking another attack from the claws and dodging her head from the attack from the beak, I saw her, half-hidden among some debris that had fallen on her after one of the hens hit the wall just above her, the neighbor's garden faucet.
As I recall, he had intentionally jammed the backyard faucet when he removed all the grass in the front yard. He didn't remove the faucet itself because he would have had to re-route several of the pipes. So he only turned off the water in that specific corner.
But probably because I sent one of the hens in that direction, she must have hit the faucet hard enough to create a vacuum and pull the water back in!!! (I think, I don't know how faucets work.)
Thank goodness the neighbor didn't remove the faucet or pipe here! Now it's considerably easier to fix this overdeveloped bakery chicken and flambé it once and for all!!!