"Yeah, we are dead," Shyam muttered as he stared at his alert window.
The distance between the eagle and them closed rapidly—of course it did!
It was an eagle. It could fly, and everyone knew that flying beasts are fast. Especially in this world.
In just thirty seconds after Shyam was alerted, the eagle slammed its leg on the ground as if warning them that even on the ground there was none who could beat it.
Shyam held his sword tightly, and so did Ravina.
"Alright, so what's the plan?" Shyam asked as he looked at the eagle, trying not to even blink.
The eagle had a long tail, unlike a normal eagle. It was blue in color and had two white lines starting from its beak to the end of the tail.
Its eyes were deep red, as if it would kill anyone, anytime, if only it felt like it wanted to.
It was indeed a boss. And the strongest one Shyam had ever fought throughout his entire journey so far.
"I'll have to think of one—for now, let's buy us some time!" Ravina shouted as she ran towards the eagle.
Surprisingly, even though she saw a boss in front of her, she didn't crumble or beg to survive.
She showed will, and that's all Shyam needed.
Ravina targeted the eagle's wing so that it couldn't fly anymore, but the eagle's reflexes saved it.
It flew off at just the right moment.
Shyam didn't wait behind. He quickly dashed towards the eagle that tried to take flight and threw his sword at it.
It hit its feet, and the sword fell off, unable to do much damage.
Shyam quickly picked it up and looked upwards at the eagle.
"Made any plans yet?" Shyam asked.
"If only we could make him stand in one place for just a few moments," Ravina muttered as her eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, Shyam took out his slime stick.
"I think I can do it!" he said as he held it tightly and pointed it toward the eagle that flew above them.
"You can?" she said as she looked at Shyam.
He was busy trying to focus on the target. It looked like he gave it his all.
So she made up her mind and started chanting a spell while Shyam shot his slimeball straight at the eagle.
The eagle dodged one of them, but while doing so, the other one hit its wing.
It fluttered its other wing, but without both, it was unable to fly anymore. Dhum! It fell to the ground—but even without its flying ability, it was still strong!
"Hey, whatever you're doing, please do it fast!" Shyam shouted as he held his sword tightly, ready to attack if she failed.
And suddenly, a soft, soothing voice calmed the eagle down.
A sweet hum—
Ravina had started to fucking sing?! The heck?!
But Shyam was okay with it as long as the eagle stayed calm and they could kill it.
"Yes, continue while I go stab it," he whispered to Ravina as he started walking slowly toward the eagle.
But Raitha stopped him, saying something felt a bit off. He, although couldn't figure out what, believed her and stayed back.
Just a few seconds later, Ravina spoke.
"I like you."
Sweet and elegant, as if a princess is confessing to a prince in front of the entire kingdom.
But then...
"...as a brother."
The eagle that stayed calm and stood in one place so far suddenly started bleeding from its beak.
Ravina had made her move.
"It worked!" Shyam said as he widened his eyes.
This time, he didn't feel anything like he did back then.
Maybe because this time, she knew that Shyam was near her?
Shyam looked at Ravina, but for some reason, she had kneeled down to the ground, holding the handle of her sword as support.
"Are you okay!?" Shyam said as he ran towards her to help.
"Don't worry about me, even my strongest spell isn't enough to kill it. Go stab it. A few times. Yeah, should be enough," Ravina said as she gave Shyam a thumbs up like a main character!
Ravina, you earn my respect with this one.
Shyam nodded and then used his dash skill to jump high as he prepared his sword to do a final slash. Chikk!
The sword sliced through its neck.
Blood came out from the cut like a small fountain.
It screamed in pain, but Shyam didn't stop—he kept stabbing it many more times until it took its last breath and died.
Not so very peacefully…
> [ Boss Defeated - Long-Tail Eagle Boss / T1 Level 25 ]
[ EXP - 2,500 / Level Up - 56 / Loot Drop - Double ES / Soul Collectable ]
Shyam stared at the eagle's eyes for a very long damn time before he put his sword back into the scabbard.
Ravina, now a little better, stood up and slowly walked toward Shyam.
"I used my strongest spell for the third time in my life. I'll remember this moment," she whispered as she put her hand on Shyam's shoulder softly, as if telling him 'It was necessary'—even though she didn't speak.
But Shyam was in a different world right now.
Only one thought repeated in his mind:
"Damn you, eagle. Couldn't you have dropped a little more EXP? Just four more levels—fuck!"
But he was a good man.
Such words would never be spoken from his mouth.
After that, Shyam collected the ES of the Blue Long-Tail Eagle and gave it to Ravina so she could complete the task.
At last, without him using the slime stick, and without her using her strongest spell to weaken the eagle, they might have never been able to kill this beast.
"Alright, time to capture," Shyam murmured as he raised his hand.
Ravina sat below a tree, trying to recover.
The consequence of using the 'as a brother' spell was high.
Unlike normal mana, it required Life Power.
Normal mana could be seen on almost everything—even the tree she lay her head on.
But to have LP, one must have a soul.
When one uses a spell that needs LP to be used, it eats a small part of the soul.
And it's unpredictable whether it will vanish your memory or maybe even your ability to ever speak again.
Luckily, most of the time, it's just the part where pain is stored. The emotional pains.
And they heal up pretty quick if you're not a high-value person.
Pretty much like the life of an Asian.
"Soul capture," Shyam whispered.
Small blue particles of light—maybe mana—surrounded the eagle.
And a system window popped up:
> [ Soul Capture - Failed / 2/3 Tries Left ]
"Fuck!" he yelled.
"What happened?" Ravina asked as the bottle of pills just slipped out of her hand when Shyam unexpectedly shouted.
Only then did Shyam realize that he had said something he wasn't supposed to out loud.
"Nothing, sorry!" Shyam replied and tried to capture the eagle soul again.
Ravina picked up the pills and ate one of them. Luckily, it worked.
> [ Soul Captured - Long-Tail Eagle Boss / ID - B4 / Slots Left - 3 ]
[ HP - 2,500 / Defense - 600 / Attack - 1,900 / Ability - Hardened Fly Attack / Ability Damage - 8,000 / Can be ridden ]
Shyam's soul almost left his body seeing the high damage of its ability.
Just if it had gotten time to use its ability damage, even their dead bodies wouldn't know what happened—even after their deaths.
"I am okay now. Wanna go back?" Ravina said.
After taking the healing pills, she had gained a good amount of energy to at least walk a little while.
"Barefoot?" Shyam asked with a faint smile.
"How else? And why are you smiling like that? It's creepy…" Ravina replied.
"Oh yeah, sorry. I was just thinking… why not fly back?" Shyam said as he opened his soul capture window to summon the Blue Long-Tail Eagle Boss.
Let's call it Blue Eagle, alright? It's easier.
"Are you crazy? I am only Tier 2 Sub-Stage 2. How could we fly? And you're even weaker," she said as she showed Shyam a part of her energy.
Shyam was a little shocked.
So, Ravina was a T2 ST2 fighter all this time?
No wonder her spells were so powerful!
So powerful that even Shyam, with system privileges, felt weaker than her.
But still, he believed in a real fight, he had a better chance of winning—as long as she didn't use the same spell she used on the Blue Eagle.
After being a little shocked—yeah, it was his side-job—Shyam summoned the Blue Eagle.
"What about now?"
Ravina was just about to call him an idiot for even suggesting something like that, but the moment she saw him just spawn a beast they had just killed out of thin air, her eyes widened with extreme shock and her mouth opened fully.
"Ho-how?!" she shouted as she touched the Blue Eagle.
It was unbelievable. Was this even possible?
She had heard of the skill Beast Taming before, but she never knew you'd have to kill a beast in order to tame it.
And not to mention, it takes months of preparation and years of staying together to tame a beast like this—from what she heard.
"Eh, that doesn't matter. You wanna ride it or not?" Shyam asked as he used Dash to climb the Blue Eagle.
"Of course," she said.
"If you're this powerful, I could even ride your di— with pleasure," she murmured.
Luckily, Shyam didn't hear her…
Or else he might have thrown her off the eagle the moment she said it.
---
Ch-38