Chapter 34: Conqueror of the Skies (Part 2)
"Then please fly a little higher, and a little higher still. To the highest point you can reach, please."
The Thestral understood Ezio's words. It then gave a little shake, dislodging Neil. A baffled Neil flapped his wings to stabilize himself in the air, only to see the mischievous black horse shoot straight up, ascending at a ninety-degree angle towards the full moon!
Ezio hugged the Thestral's neck tightly, feeling as if his very soul had been left behind. As it entered supersonic flight, a transparent shield of magical energy seemed to form around the Thestral's body, blocking out the wind. Pressed against the Thestral's back, Ezio heard the whistling wind change from a deafening roar to a faint whisper. After breaking a certain critical point, he entered a silent domain.
The sound barrier that plagued aircraft was broken without a sound. There was no deafening sonic boom. Magic allowed the Thestral to seemingly merge with the air, free from its constraints.
But gradually, Ezio began to feel the suffocating sensation of the thinning air. He tentatively used the Bubble-Head Charm, but the spell that allowed one to breathe underwater couldn't maintain his normal breathing in the oxygen-depleted stratosphere. The Bubble-Head Charm could filter air, but it couldn't create oxygen from nothing.
"Stop... stop for a moment."
Ezio patted the Thestral's neck. This sudden supersonic flight was honestly a bit much for him, not because of the G-force—he barely felt any discomfort while riding the Thestral—but simply because of the hypoxia caused by the rapidly decreasing oxygen concentration.
The sound of the wind rushed back in as the Thestral slowed down, breaking the silent domain.
Looking out into the distance, Ezio could already see a gentle arc, the curvature of the Earth. His current position was likely the middle of the stratosphere, about fifteen thousand meters above the ground.
"You are truly amazing. Next time I'll bring an oxygen tank, and then you can fly to your highest point."
Ezio gasped for air. His physical condition was much better than that of an ordinary person; after all, an ordinary person couldn't grab a hapless individual by the ankle and use them as a human flail. Ezio suspected he had Isu blood in him, since he could use Isu artifacts without any issue.
"Although I couldn't find the location of the twelve moons, I'm not surprised. Thank you."
"But since we're already here..."
Ezio looked down at the dark world below. He activated his Eagle Vision, synchronizing with Neil's sight. Neil, not wanting to be outdone, had tried his best to gain altitude, but the little guy could only reach about three thousand meters. The bird with the highest flight ceiling in the world is the Rüppell's griffon vulture, which can fly to about eleven thousand meters, but it was still far inferior to the Thestral. After all, the Thestral's flight relied mainly on magic; its form didn't even conform to aerodynamics.
After sharing his vision with Ezio, Neil stopped trying to fly higher. He folded his wings and dived, streaking at an incredible speed three hundred meters above the canopy of the Forbidden Forest, his eyes shining, observing everything below.
After searching for about ten minutes, through a gap in the dense forest canopy, Neil was lucky enough to find his target—a den of filthy trolls, reeking of a foul stench. Trolls were in the habit of living in caves, but it was now summer, and their already filthy caves would emit a stench ten thousand times worse than a septic tank. Even the trolls couldn't stand the toxic gas, so sleeping out in the open was their current choice.
But no magical creature would bother these disgusting things, which were over three meters tall, physically powerful, and covered in a thick layer of filth-armor. Without a doubt, even a troll's meat gave off a foul stench and was completely inedible. They had no natural predators in the Forbidden Forest except for Hagrid. Giants would occasionally grab trolls that had wandered into their territory and beat them like dolls. In terms of physical strength, giants were several orders of magnitude stronger than trolls. In the wizarding world, some powerful giants were among the few creatures that could hunt top-tier beasts like dragons. They could throw boulders weighing hundreds of kilograms at near-sonic speeds, sending them flying for hundreds of meters to break the bones of a flying dragon, then rush over to dismember it.
Neil had found the target, and the Thestral had also brought Ezio to the airspace above the target point.
"Thanks. I'll come find you to play again later."
Ezio stood firm on the Thestral's back, then spread his arms and leaped. The whistling wind made his cloak flap loudly. Ezio's gaze was fixed on a certain spot in the forest below. Cutting off the visual link with Neil, Ezio switched his Eagle Vision mode to enhance his own eyesight. In this state, he could see the target that had been marked through Neil's perspective. The troll's body was as if it were highlighted, particularly conspicuous against the dark night. Even with obstacles in between, Ezio could lock on with precision.
The Broken Spear of Leonidas was held in his right hand, and the Thunderbird wand in his left hand was ejected at this moment. As his off-hand weapon and backup wand, the Thunderbird wand had a faster casting speed than the elder-and-phoenix-feather one, though it was slightly inferior in power, it was still very useful.
The deeply sleeping troll was completely unaware of the threat from above.
Three thousand meters... one thousand meters... five hundred meters... one hundred meters...
Just as Ezio was about to touch the treetops of the tall trees in the Forbidden Forest, the sleeping troll's eyes snapped open. Their powerful intuition had sensed the arrival of a threat and death, but there was no time left.
Ezio, not slowing down in the slightest, plummeted like a meteorite. Just as he was about to smell the foul stench emanating from the troll, the poised spear was thrown with great force, covering the last few dozen meters in the blink of an eye. Ezio's figure suddenly vanished in mid-air. When he reappeared, he was grasping the spear and descending at a terrifying speed, plunging the sharp blade into the back of the troll's head and carving a vicious path that split its skull and spine in two.
Just before Ezio made a heavy landing, the ground at his landing point transformed into a soft mound of earth. With a soft 'thump', Ezio, holding his breath, lightly rolled out of the mound. He then leaped again and, with a horizontal slash of his spear, severed the connection between the troll's head and its cervical vertebrae. A head flew high into the air and landed a few meters away.
[Milestone (Region-Locked): Conqueror of the Skies (Unlocked)]
[Conqueror of the Skies: No matter the height you fall from, your landing point is treated as a conceptual haystack. Also, you will make no noise while falling.]
Glancing at the notification that had just popped up, Ezio quickly withdrew. Trolls are social creatures. The moment he had killed the first one, the several nearby trolls had already woken up, grabbing the crude clubs they had made from tree trunks.
Without a farewell, Ezio pulled up his hood and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.
The troll's smooth, less-grooved potato brain had difficulty processing what had just happened in front of them. The few trolls that had woken up let out confused grunts. But then, their attention was drawn to the corpse of their fallen kin. A series of happy-sounding grunts arose. One troll picked up the corpse of its fellow, and, with the warm blood still on it, opened its foul-smelling mouth and began to tear into it cheerfully.
The smell of blood and the sound of eating attracted the other trolls. They swarmed over it. The sound of tearing muscles and bones echoed through the night in the Forbidden Forest. There was nothing that made these trolls happier than waking up in the middle of the night to an extra meal. As for what they were eating, it didn't matter, as long as it was meat.