Kyne turned his head as much as he could, studying the creature. Its feathers really looked like metal, a matte gray that did not reflect the moonlight. The beak was curved and sharp like a scythe, and the eyes…
He met the eagle's gaze. There was no intelligence there. Only predatory coldness, brutal efficiency. It was not killing him out of hatred or territoriality. He was just food.
And, somehow, Kyne found that even more interesting.
"Where are you taking me?" Kyne asked, as if he expected an answer.
The eagle climbed higher, passing through a layer of cold mist that made Kyne shiver. The temperature dropped drastically with the altitude.
His naked body was bloodied and now freezing. The combination of blood loss and hypothermia began to cloud his thoughts.
But he resisted unconsciousness. He wanted to see where he was going. He wanted to experience everything.
They reached the top of a cliff, a rocky formation that rose above the forest. There, nestled in a crevice of the rock, was the nest. A massive structure made of thick branches, bleached bones, and… other materials that Kyrian could not identify up close.
The eagle hovered over the nest for a second, then released him.
Kyrian fell about three meters, hitting the bottom of the nest with a dull thud that knocked the air from his lungs. He rolled to the side, feeling something sharp pierce his hip, a broken bone, probably from previous prey.
Before he could get up, the Steel Eagle landed on the edge of the nest, its dark eyes fixed on him. Its size was even more impressive up close. A colossus of feathers and steel, with a beak that could easily tear off an arm.
Kyne sat up with difficulty, leaning against one of the thick branches that formed the nest. His back was bleeding deeply, and he felt a throbbing pain at every point where the talons had pierced him.
"So this is how you feed?" he asked, his voice weak but steady.
"You take the prey to the nest, kill it here, eat it, and use the remaining bones to build the nest…"
The eagle tilted its head, watching him. It seemed to be waiting for him to try to escape, to show fear. When he did not, it advanced.
The beak came down like a hammer, not to kill, but to incapacitate. It struck Kyne's right leg, breaking the femur with a dry crack that echoed through the silent night.
Kyne fell onto his back, a scream of pain finally escaping him. But even so, his eyes remained fixed on the creature, observing and analyzing it.
The eagle now used its feet. One talon crushed his left hand, reducing it to a bloody mass of shattered bones. Another pressed against his chest, compressing his lungs already impaired by the broken clavicle.
Kyne coughed blood. His vision began to darken at the edges. Death approached slowly, methodically, brutally.
He managed to turn his head enough to see beyond the edge of the nest. The view was breathtaking. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see, bathed in the bluish light of the giant moon, the two suns already vanished below the horizon.
In the distant east, a soft green aurora began to dance in the sky, a phenomenon he had never seen on Earth.
"Beautiful…" he whispered, blood running from the corner of his mouth.
The Steel Eagle tilted its head again, as if trying to understand this strange prey that, instead of fighting, admired the scenery while being dismembered.
Then, with a final and decisive movement, the beak came down toward his throat.
Kyne closed his eyes, not out of fear, but to better focus on the sensation.
The pain was brief, an incredible pressure, then a tear, and then, darkness.
[You were killed by a Steel Eagle (Rank D)]
[Piercing Resistance updated to Rank F+]
[You will resurrect in 3…]
[2…]
[1…]
Kyne woke up in the nest.
The Steel Eagle was now less than two meters away, tearing pieces of… something… from a bone. When Kyne moved, sitting up, the creature froze.
His eyes met the eagle's. The predator dropped the piece of meat, emitting a low, confused sound.
Kyne looked at his own body. Whole, without wounds. The talons that had pierced his back, the broken femur, and the crushed hand. All healed, perfect. Even the blood was gone.
He stood up, stretching his limbs as if waking from a long sleep. The Steel Eagle stepped back, two talons scraping against the rock of the nest.
"Thanks for the ride," Kyne said, his voice calm and amused in the silent night.
"And for the… experience."
The eagle emitted another sound, this time sharper. It was not an attack cry, but something that sounded almost like a warning.
Kyne took a step toward it. The eagle stepped back another step, its wings opening slightly in a defensive posture.
"Are you afraid now?" Kyne asked, a hint of genuine curiosity in his voice.
"It's interesting. The monkey ran away after killing me four times. How many times will you try?"
He extended his hand, slowly, as if trying to calm a wild animal.
The Steel Eagle did not wait to find out. With a powerful beat of its wings that nearly knocked Kyne out of the nest, it took off, disappearing into the night.
Kyne was left alone in the nest on the cliff, the green aurora dancing ever more strongly in the sky. He walked to the edge of the nest and sat down, his legs dangling over the abyss.
The view was even more impressive than before. He took a deep breath, the cold high-altitude air filling his lungs without difficulty.
Kyne then returned to the nest and fell asleep as quickly as the last time, atop the branches. He did not care whether the eagle would return or not. He just wanted to finish sleeping.
Kyne woke up before dawn fully broke, feeling an extreme cold, but the sensation was not entirely unpleasant. He approached the edge of the nest again.
A slow smile spread across his face as he watched the sunrise begin to paint the horizon, the first rays of the larger sun tinting the clouds gold.
"Dying to an eagle… what an experience," he murmured to himself.
"But now… how the hell do I get down from here?"
He looked down at the steep cliff of nearly one hundred meters. Then he looked at his own hands, intact, perfect.
An idea began to form in his mind. An idea that would make any normal person tremble with fear, but that made his gray eyes shine with anticipation.
He stood up, walked to the center of the nest, then ran toward the edge.
And jumped.