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Paula hovered beside a tree, using its large leaves as cover. They didn’t have to hide, but they’d rather not be found; the blue avian was at the border between Et Serpentium and Silva Volucris, and there weren’t any friendly species to be found. Sure, reptilians and mantids treated blue avians cordially, but the attitude was born from wariness and suspicion. It’d be better for them to not know a blue avian was hanging out so close to their countries.
Paula observed their surroundings through their All-Seeing Gaze, nothing escaping from the blue avian’s sight. Not too far away from the wooded region Paula was in, there was a hot desert sparsely filled with little creatures. In the wooded region, there were a few small insects, mammals, and birds. Any moment now, Paula would detect what they were looking for: the reinforcements they had requested to safely handle the higher-dimensional beings.
Any moment….
Why was it taking so long?
***
Sam maintained his use of Toughen as the blue avians used him as a free punching bag. Even though he could take their hits until Manga rescued him, Sam had a feeling it wouldn’t work: namely, the anger bubbling up inside his chest. Joe, the sloth on Sam’s belly, was not happy with being whaled on, and the color of its aura, bright red, reflected that. The red color tinged Sam’s aura with a bloody hue, and the blue avians’ attacks grew more frantic as their auras darkened as well. If Joe had chosen to be in a more peaceful mood, wouldn’t the blue avians not assault them like this? It was a shame the sloth couldn’t control its temper; then again, it’d be hard for anyone to do that if they were being beaten in such a shameless manner.
The blue avians punched Sam over and over, not giving him a chance to retaliate. Then, a wooly pig slammed into one of the blue avians, launching it away from Sam and through the vegetation. If the blue avian hadn’t been blinded by rage caused by Joe’s aura, Sam suspected it would’ve reacted to the wooly pig’s attack.
“Help!” Although the blue avian had been knocked quite far away, its cry was heard as plain as day inside the other blue avians’—and Sam’s—heads. The blue avians decisively stopped attacking Sam and levitated towards the wooly pig, not disturbing the vegetation as they passed as if they could ignore air resistance despite how fast they were traveling. The three blue avians struck the pig, but it was as if they were punching cotton, their blows having no effect on the creature. However, that didn’t stop them from attacking it in a blind rage.
Sam canceled Toughen and stood up. Although it seemed like Manga could receive the blue avians’ attacks for an indefinite amount of time, simply defending wasn’t a path to victory. Sam contacted the black ferret, which had distanced itself from Sam during the beating, with his mind. “Can you disable the blue avians?” he asked. Although the blue avians were trying to kill him, he didn’t want to kill them in return. There really would be no chance of negotiation if he had blue avian blood on his hands.
Raindu scurried towards one of the blue avians. In its flurry of punches, the blue avian shifted its legs about, and as the ferret was about to touch the blue avian’s leg, its heel drove backwards, slamming into Raindu’s ribcage, sending the ferret flying. Raindu growled as it scampered back onto its feet, and it charged at the blue avian, touching its heel and robbing it of its vital organs. The blue avian froze before collapsing in a heap.
Then, Raindu leaped to the next blue avian, robbing it of its vital organs as well. Under the influence of Joe’s aura, the ferret couldn’t be bothered to listen to Sam’s request, much to Sam’s dismay. If something hurt the ferret, then it was going to hurt the aggressor back ten times harder. Before Raindu could touch another blue avian, Manga swung itself around, hitting one blue avian with its head and the other with its butt, causing them to scatter. At that moment, the blue avian Manga had launched early on flew back down and struck Raindu like a comet, causing the ferret to let out a shrill cry.
“Be careful!” the returning blue avian said as it distanced itself from Raindu. “The ferret’s touch is lethal; the pig has disintegrating properties; and the sloth is interfering with your better judgment.”
The two blue avians who had been knocked away by Manga regrouped and distanced themselves from Sam and his familiars. They glanced at each other. “Paula was right,” one of the blue avians said. “We should’ve met up with them first.”
The red aura around Joe became muted as the sloth calmed down, and the blue avians’ auras were no longer tinged with a bloody hue. “No,” the second blue avian said. “Paula was wrong. We need more than just six of us to deal with this safely.”
“You’re right,” the third blue avian, the one that had returned, said. “There’s six, no, seven calamities gathered and moving as one.” The blue avians observed the wooly pig, sloth, twin-headed snake, eagle, ferret, and … floating whale? “Where did the whale go?”
The blue avian in the middle coughed out a mouthful of colorful liquid. It was mostly red, but with his All-Seeing Gaze, the sight Sam saw was enhanced with splotches of primary and secondary colors. Then, the blue avian’s body stretched as if it were a balloon, the outline of the blue avian’s body taking on the shape of a whale. The blue avian let out a shrill whine, the sound etching itself into Sam’s brain, and then, the blue avian exploded as the whale, that had shrunken and snuck inside of it, expanded way beyond the limits of how far the blue avian could stretch.
The remaining two blue avians exchanged glances with one another before turning around and flying away, not bothering to communicate their intent on retreating with one another before doing it. Sam stared at the retreating blue avians with his forehead slightly crinkled, his mouth partly open as he squinted to make sure they were really retreating. It was hard to believe he was being used as a punching bag just moments ago. The tables turned really quickly.
“Can anyone chase them?” Vercedei asked. “The more we take out now, the easier it’ll be for us later.”
Although the snake’s words were true, Sam didn’t really want to wage war against the blue avians. However, was he even left with a choice? Three blue avians had died by his familiars’ hands, well, by their feet. Even if the blue avians didn’t want to get rid of him for simply existing, they definitely would want to eliminate him now. The only option was to fight back. …Unless? “Joe,” Sam said, communicating with the sloth on his belly. “Can you bring them back to life?”
“Why?” the sloth asked, taking its sweet, sweet time to voice its question. “So, they can hit me more?”
“No,” Vercedei said. “So, we can take them hostage. In exchange for their fellow blue avians’ lives, they’ll cave to our demands. Maybe. It depends on which faction of blue avian is more influential.”
“I’ll hold their bodies,” Raindu said, glancing up at Sam before storing the two intact blue avians away. It looked around at the scattered bits of flesh and bone before heaving a sigh. Then, it scampered about and collected as much of the spread blue avian as possible. When it was done, it looked at Joe, and the sloth let out a sigh that lasted for a whole minute.
“I’ll revive them when I’m in a better mood,” the sloth said. “It shouldn’t take that long.”
Sam knew that was a lie. Everything took a long time for the sloth, but perhaps, it really did think it was telling the truth. Luckily, from the way the sloth spoke, it seemed like as long as the body parts remained with Raindu, the sloth could bring the blue avians back to life. It’d be nice if he could communicate with them. The last blue avian was quite talkative, but this time, the blue avians ambushed him without giving him a chance to speak.
“Mangalitsa,” the wooly pig said as it walked towards Sam. It ducked its head and scooped Sam off his feet with its wooly snout. With a flick of its neck, Sam was launched into the air, and he fell face first onto the pig’s back. Now that the blue avians had located them and knew of their existence, they had to hide or find a strategic spot to ambush the incoming reinforcements. The pig turned its head to look back at the floating whale, and the floating whale shrank down to the size of a water bottle before landing by Sam’s knees.
Once all the passengers were on, the wooly pig sprinted away, running in a straight line because zigging and zagging wouldn’t fool their pursuers, not when the pig moved in such a conspicuous manner. Sam took that chance to relax and look down at his knee. “Alright,” he said, using his throat chakra to communicate with the green whale and black whale. “Who are you, and what do you do?”
The whale let out a long cry, but it was a higher-pitch than usual thanks to how small the creature’s body was. “You can call me—”
“Big Fish,” Vercedei said, interrupting the whale’s introduction.
Raindu chattered. “Big Fish.” Evidently, the ferret did not enjoy cleaning up after the whale’s mess. It must’ve disliked the whale more than the twin-headed snake to agree with Vercedei’s words.
“My name,” the whale said once more in a high-pitched cry, “is—”
“Big Fish,” Joe said in a loud enough voice to drown out the whale’s intention.
When the sloth finished speaking after several seconds had passed, the whale continued. “It’s—”
“Big Fish,” Birdbrained said and squawked. It squawked again. “Big Fish.”
“This isn’t a democracy,” the whale said and slapped its tail downwards against Sam’s knee. He almost fell off the wooly pig as his right side sank lower than his left side. “You lot don’t get to decide my name. My name is—”
“Mangalitsa,” Manga said. Despite its cry being its usual one, its meaning in everyone’s head was different. It said, “Big Fish.”
The whale paused before heaving a sigh. “Fine,” it said, its pitch low and defeated. “I’m Big Fish.” Its body swiveled in the air as it looked around at its companions. “Are you going to decide what I can do as well, or should I go ahead and explain?”
Raindu chattered. “You can shrink and grow,” the ferret said.
“Yes, I can do that,” the whale said. “Who else wants to simplify my abilities?”
“You suck,” Birdbrained said and squawked, spreading its wings out to the side before letting them fall back down against its body.
The whale fell silent. Then, it floated to the side and burrowed within Manga’s fur to hide itself from view.
“We should let the whale speak,” Sam said, communicating with the animals through his throat chakra. “It’s going to be tagging along with us now, so it’s not right to bully our new companion.”
“It tried to eat us,” Birdbrained said, squawking at Sam. “Or did you forget that already?”
Sam shrugged. For some reason, he felt like he had experienced things worse than someone simply attempting to eat him. Ellie’s training for one; if he didn’t pay attention, he’d be grievously maimed or even killed, and he had already forgiven her for that. He could look past a whale trying to swallow him especially when it said it had intended to help with that action. “It was a miscommunication,” Sam said. “We can’t fault each other for the little flaws we all possess. So, Big Fish has a hard time communicating its plans to others, but they’re still on our side.”
Birdbrained squawked. “Well, I don’t like it,” the eagle said, its feathers giving off a white and yellow gleam, “but I’ll be civil.”
“Since we’re not okay with bullying, can I change my name?” Big Fish asked, poking its head out from underneath the pig’s wool coat.
“No,” Vercedei, Raindu, Mangalitsa, Joe, and Birdbrained all said at once, the sloth’s word barely beginning when the others had already finished responding.
Sam examined his familiars with his All-Seeing Gaze. It didn’t seem like any of them were going to change their mind about calling the whale Big Fish. In the first place, whales weren’t fish, but perhaps Sam’s familiars knew that and named it as such on purpose. To be fair, Sam didn’t think they were the most kind-hearted individuals, so he didn’t put it past them to do that. “It seems like they’re all upset with you,” Sam said to the whale. “If you get on their good sides, I’m sure they’ll be more than willing to accommodate your request.”
The whale let out another sigh. “I suppose this is what happens when you’re the last one to a party,” Big Fish said. “Everyone already has their own friends, and I’m just left here by myself.”
Sam glanced around at the animals, but none of them took any pity on the whale. Was it that offensive for the whale to attempt to eat them? Maybe they were more sensitive to being eaten since they were animals on the food chain. “So, you can fly,” Sam said while making eye contact with the whale. “Can you carry us?”
“I can,” the whale said. “I was going to hold you all in my mouth and flee, but the lot of you resisted.”
“Mangalitsa,” the wooly pig said, asking Big Fish how fast it could travel. If the whale could move faster than the pig, then why wasn’t Manga riding Big Fish?
“I can’t move that quickly,” the whale said, “but I can hide my presence and shrink to a microscopic size, so they can’t find me.”
“Should we do that?” Sam asked. “Hide until the blue avians stop looking for us?”
***
Paula’s eyes opened, and the blue avian hovered in place as if they were a statue. They had just received bad news, the reinforcements sent to help them defeat the calamities had been devastated before even meeting up with Paula. Three blue avians were killed, the status of their essences unknown. It was the worst event to befall the blue avians in a long time, and as such, the whole nest was rallying their forces to hunt the calamities down. There were six of them in total, and they were believed to be summoned by Sam, the human Paula was sure they had killed.
Paula floated higher up, above the treetops, and zoomed ahead, flying in the direction the blue avians had claimed the battle had taken place. Although it was dangerous to confront an opponent that had defeated five blue avians and even slain three of them, Paula couldn’t let them get away. What if the calamities had a method to avoid detection? There were three more calamities now than before; who knew what troubles they’d bring?
It didn’t take Paula very long to travel to the coordinates they had been given; after all, the reinforcements had been making their way to Paula’s location. The traces of the fight were still fresh, and Paula hovered above the region, observing the battlefield, reading the markings to deduce the events that had occurred. It wasn’t too difficult to imagine, and Paula’s aura darkened as they looked at the clear path of destruction left behind by the fleeing target.
Paula masked themselves, using their Sahasrara to cut off their connection with their surroundings before flying forward once more along the straight line of trampled trees and vegetation. It took longer to reach the end of the path than it did for Paula to reach the scene of the conflict. The culprit had traveled quite far, and now, they seemed to be hiding themselves, or they found another means of traveling that wasn’t so conspicuous. Paula expanded the range of their All-Seeing Gaze, but the blue avian couldn’t find any signs of higher-dimensional beings.
Paula debated whether or not they should reveal themself but decided against it. The odds of Sam being a hostile entity was too great; he had been killed once by Paula and ambushed by blue avians aiming for his life. Even if Paula were to negotiate with words, they’d have to ensure their safety first by having enough blue avians backing them to subdue Sam and his higher-dimensional beings by force if necessary.
Paula flew back towards the scene of the conflict, not bothering to search for Sam any longer. The calamity detector would be able to sniff him out; hopefully, the blue avians coming to reinforce Paula wouldn’t forget to bring the detector with them.