The Primal Hunter 15: A LitRPG Adventure, page 44
Not wasting his time to finish off the bird, Jake shot several more arrows toward it as he got moving again, and combined with the damage from the Arcane Powershot and the fact these birds weren’t very durable, he soon got a notification.
You have slain [Rainbowfeather Songbender – lvl 330] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
Right as he got it, a massive sound wave swept in from the side, taking him by surprise and forcing him to block as he was blasted away. The wave had been faster and stronger than anything else he had encountered, and he soon realized why.
Well, ain’t that something.
Four Songcrushers and one Songslinger were approaching him together. The Songcrushers all released a sound wave, only for the Songslinger to release an attack of its own that absorbed and amplified the other four attacks into one massive wave.
Another such attack arrived only a moment later, this one even more powerful and condensed. Dodging behind a tree, Jake was shocked to see bark explode everywhere. The poor thing had a hole blown into it, and a second wave sent the entire thing tumbling and Jake scrambling to the side.
The group of five birds really upped the pressure as they released attack after attack, forcing Jake to retreat from them. Luckily, they couldn’t move very fast while also doing their sound attacks, letting Jake get some good distance as he went for a solitary Songcrusher.
His unprepared target was soon struck by an arrow from behind while leaping and flying toward its brethren, blasting it down into the ground and through several vines. Another two arrows sought to finish it off, but Jake was forced to abandon his assault when two Songbenders released a combined attack that summoned a shower of crystalline rainbow fragments to bombard his location like a minigun.
Not being able to kill the Songcrusher was a bit annoying, but hopefully the poison on the arrows would put it out of commission... Jake’s hope was dashed, however, when a new variant of parrot flew over and made its appearance, escorted by two Songcrushers.
[Rainbowfeather Songmender – lvl 341]
It began singing once close to the Songcrusher, and rainbow light fell upon the heavily damaged monster and began to heal it. The fight had instantly gotten a lot more annoying, as Jake would have to actually finish off his opponents now or risk getting into a really prolonged fight he wasn’t sure he would win.
Not that he was guaranteed that choice, of course. Jake was just happy he had held back with Arcane Awakening and kept it at a safe level for now. Retreating once more while circling around to try and find a semi-isolated foe, he soon found one, and through a barrage of arrows and a quick Arcane Powershot, he got his second kill. He then swiftly moved on, never allowing too many opponents to surround him at once.
He purposefully tried to run in unpredictable patterns, but whenever he fought something, all the Rainbowfeathers became aware of his location. The dying cries of the birds he killed certainly didn’t help matters either. In fact, Jake felt that as time went on, the birds grew better and faster at locating him, making him feel as if he was on a bit of a timer.
Jake did manage to kill four more parrots while leaving three others severely injured over the next ten or so minutes, with those three getting saved by their feathered comrades. By now, it was nearly impossible to find isolated Rainbowfeather Songbirds, making it incredibly hard to pick them off.
The many birds gathering was both a good and a bad thing. On the plus side, it meant he could more easily kite them around without running into opponents, no matter the direction he went, so that was definitely beneficial.
As for bad things... oh boy, there were a lot of those. Just as they had before the system, sound waves tended to compound. Several loud sounds combined to amplify one another, creating even more powerful sound waves. The parrots used this to great effect: The more Rainbowfeather Songbirds that were together, the more they could amplify one another, pushing things to the point where some in the flock had to dedicate energy to protecting themselves and others against their own attacks.
Jake had run into a group of twelve birds, which, through their combined effort, were able to release massive blasts of pure sound that made trees bend and tore apart everything in their path. There was probably a limit to how strong their combo attacks could get, but Jake had no interest in finding out.
Another bad thing about them all being gathered was that healers and Songbenders with defensive magic were always nearby. Shooting arrows into a packed flock of over sixty high-tier C-grade bird monsters that could heal and support each other wasn’t going to get him far, and he knew it.
But... there was some icing on the cake.
Originally, Jake had come for archery practice, which was still the plan, but he had to get an upper hand first. The many Songbirds bunching up meant that, theoretically, attacks with large areas of effect should prove useful. Even so, the rule of intensity versus scale was still a thing, meaning Jake couldn’t do much meaningful damage if he just aimed for making big explosions.
He did have one relatively new weapon in his arsenal, though. One that he believed would prove highly effective in the current environment... and luckily for him, he had a pretty good stock of special bottles just waiting to be popped open.
That’s right—it was time for some good-old chemical warfare in the form of unleashing poison gas upon the local avian population, war crimes be damned.
Chapter 49
Angry Birds
Poisoning the entire local population of Rainbowfeather Songbirds took a bit of preparation. If Jake simply began throwing around bottles haphazardly, he doubted he could create a large enough field of death to do the damage he wanted.
That was why Jake took a slower and more measured approach. Checking his inventory, he found a total of one hundred and twelve bottles of liquid poison gas, most of them made during his stay with his parents or the brief moments of downtime he’d had recently. There were a lot of bottles, and each of them was quite dangerous in its own right.
[Arcane-Infused Rotbreath Poison Gas (Rare)] – With every breath, life shall wane and destruction shall roam. Mixing potent death affinity toxins and arcane energies, a powerful poison gas has been concocted. This poison is primarily absorbed through breathing but can also easily penetrate the bodies of anyone in physical contact with it. If inflicted, it will spread through the body and cause necrotic damage to any tissue it encounters, causing flesh to rot. Destructive arcane energies allow it to spread faster as it weakens the foe’s tissue. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are extremely difficult to heal.
To achieve the desired effect, Jake began placing the poison bottles all over the jungle in a circular pattern while cycling around the Rainbowfeathers and occasionally attacking.
As a reminder, the bottles containing the poison gas were of Jake’s special design. With nothing more than a mental command, Jake could have the bottles detonate, turning each into its own remote-activated gas bomb.
Jake spread these bottles, embedding them in trees or hanging them from vines all around the place, his stores rapidly depleting. During this, he naturally had to make sure the Rainbowfeathers stayed in roughly the same area, and he moved deliberately to force them into gathering even more.
He did manage to kill another parrot that had strayed from the flock, taking the Songslinger by surprise with a fully charged Arcane Powershot from behind that blew its head straight off. This naturally helped serve as confirmation that the birds would do well gathering together as they hunted for Jake.
Things did get spicy at a few points when Jake got too close to the flock. The combined attack of dozens of late-to-peak C-grades wasn’t something he could take lightly, and he even ended up suffering a few minor injuries as he fought back, landing a fair number of arrows himself in retaliation.
Progress was swift, though.
Fifty left.
An area of roughly fifteen square kilometers was what Jake had designated as the blast zone. It was within this area that he’d spread the bottles out evenly, with the expectation that the poison gas would cover the entire thing. From the limited experimentation he’d done with this kind of poison gas, he was capable of very slightly controlling the poison gas even after he released it. Not by much, but if he relied upon Touch of the Malefic Viper and the fact his arcane energy was an intrinsic part of this particular poison gas, it should be enough for him to contain the zone he planned on gassing.
The environment would likely also prove highly beneficial to Jake. The thick canopies above should help contain the poison somewhat, and the dense life affinity in the air was the perfect medium for a primarily death-attuned poison. These Rainbowfeathers had also proven themselves somewhat fragile, likely due to their Paths mostly revolving around defense through magic or winning through overwhelming offensive power, as some of their sound waves could easily kill most peak C-grades and severely injure even some B-grades.
Sadly for them, Jake was pretty damn good at avoiding even invisible attacks, and he always managed to stay at a distance that minimized the risk of lethal damage yet gave the Rainbowfeathers hope they could land a solid hit.
Thirty.
By now, Jake had spread out enough poison bottles to create the full zone of poison gas, but he wanted a few more in the immediate area around all the Rainbowfeathers when he unleashed the gas cloud.
While the parrots were gathered, they weren’t exactly clumped up. They kept up to a hundred meters between each other as they moved around—a short distance to a C-grade, but when there were over sixty of them, it meant they still occupied quite a large area, hence the need for the poison gas zone to be as big as Jake was planning on making it.
Moving toward the center of this zone, Jake placed even more bottles there to ensure the poison mist would be strongest in the epicenter. After spreading fifteen more, Jake decided it was good enough. He spent another ten minutes getting the Rainbowfeathers nice and riled up, even shooting a few Arcane Powershots into their midst, injuring but not killing some of their members to really piss them off.
Once in position, Jake got ready. Using his superior speed, he had created some distance between the pursuing flock and himself, buying ten or so seconds for final preparations.
As fifteen bottles of poison gas in liquid form appeared around him, he condensed arcane mana to surround each and every one of them. He formed arcane bolts containing the gas bombs and waited.
The screeches of angry birds grew closer, and right before they spotted Jake once more, he shot all the mana bolts forward. The Songcrusher in the flock’s lead saw the arcane bolt mid-flight and quickly dodged, sending the bolt through the center of the flock.
A similar thing happened in a dozen other places, bolts missing all over... just as Jake had planned. Focusing, he gave a mental command to all the bombs spread throughout the jungle at once, including the bolts he’d just attacked with.
Boom goes the... well, not quite dynamite.
Despite Jake’s thoughts, there was no grand explosion. Since the sound of the Rainbowfeathers drowned out everything else, all Jake heard was glass shattering... and then the environment changed.
A deep purple, almost black blanket of mist instantly covered the jungle. It slightly obscured vision, but no one had any time to consider that aspect of the poison gas. All of the Rainbowfeathers stopped as one, mid-attack, as poison surrounded them from all sides. All of them had been breathing to increase resource restoration and even as part of releasing their sound attacks, causing many to unwillingly take a deep breath of the poison gas that instantly infected them.
Panic didn’t even have time to fully set in before an Arcane Powershot pierced into the midst of the Rainbowfeathers, aimed at a Songmender that had been protected by several other parrots just moments before.
Aiming to take full advantage of the situation, Jake activated the Timeless Focus of the Apex Hunter effect he’d lovingly named Rapid Fire. With his actions accelerated, Jake released a few dozen arrows in swift succession. He wanted to take down every healer among them during this time, as that was one of the biggest worries with this plan.
The second biggest was what was about to happen next. Instinctively, the majority of the Rainbowfeathers sought to escape the poison mist, and while some began to flee to the sides, many also shot straight upwards, which would allow them to exit the poison mist... Jake naturally didn’t want that, so he unleashed another attack he knew would take quite the toll on him.
Holding nothing back, Jake pushed his Arcane Awakening further, making his aura spike and fully unleashing his Bloodline upon the pursuing birds, who were already in a state of distress. Finally, to truly take advantage, he mentally attacked several dozen late-to-peak C-grades at once with Pride active.
Jake had expected to feel severe backlash... but unexpectedly, he was fine. No splitting headache. No pain whatsoever. This nearly delayed him, as things had not gone as he’d hoped, but luckily for him, the effect on all the Rainbowfeathers was more than effective, leaving them all stunned from the mental attack.
Restarting his assault, Jake began picking off more of the Songmenders. There was a total of five in the flock, and all of them were now exposed. The stunned birds who’d just suffered some severe mental damage spent even longer within the poison, and to make matters even better, their instincts to help one another became a detriment.
Having noticed Jake trying to kill the Songmenders, nearly all the other parrot-like monsters stopped trying to flee and instead went to help their healers. However, in order to do that, they needed to remain within the poison cloud for longer, and with so many being affected, even if the Songmenders were left alone, they would struggle to keep up.
More shockwaves of pure sound erupted from the group of birds as they went on the offensive once more, but Jake was more prepared this time. Using One Step, he dodged in time and shot another arrow into the chest of a Songmender. A Songcrusher jumped for him right then, but he effortlessly avoided its initial attack before following up with a swift kick that sent it into the trajectory of an incoming sound wave.
To Jake’s surprise, the Songslinger who’d released the sound wave managed to dispel the attack in time, leaving the Songcrusher unharmed. Behind the Songslinger, the Songbenders of the group used their odd rainbow magic as they fought back against the poison mist, trying to push it away while creating shields for the damaged Songmenders.
Not gonna give you time for that.
With curving arrows back on the menu, Jake continued his assault before the birds could fully get their bearings. About twenty of them had still shot into the sky above to escape the poison mist, with others trying to address what was happening to them, leaving an opening Jake couldn’t waste.
Arrows curved in and hit a Songmender in the neck before promptly exploding, taking half of the neck with it in the process. Another Songmender tried to come and help, but a quick Gaze and an arrow to the skull put it down.
The three remaining ones weren’t long for this world either, as Jake spared nothing to finish them off. He even ended up taking a nasty retaliatory attack to get the last one with a Powershot, leaving the flock without any of their healers.
By now, about thirty seconds had passed since Jake released the poison gas cloud, and he knew the Rainbowfeathers had since adapted. The ones who’d fled to the sky above were less affected by the poison than those on the ground below, and none of them wanted to reenter the now poison-filled jungle.
With their healers dead, the remaining Rainbowfeathers also shot up into the sky to find non-toxic air. That was actually fine with Jake, as he gladly shot arrows after them during their escape.
Contrary to the birds, Jake was having a swell time surrounded by poison gas. In fact, it felt quite nice, and his mana was being actively restored through Palate of the Malefic Viper. These birds likely believed Jake would also have to flee the jungle to escape the deathly environment, but nope—he gladly stayed, a smile on his face as he nocked another arrow.
The Songslinger floating above the tree line, just outside the range of the poison mist, wasn’t ready when an Arcane Powershot pierced through the leaves below it, tearing off one of its wings and sending it tumbling. A Songbender summoned a barrier to try and block any follow-up attack but instead found itself under fire. An arrow struck it in the chest, sending it tumbling through the air and down through the canopy, then back into the poison mist once more.
This had been the next part of Jake’s plan. The dense jungle was incredibly good at hiding anything within it, making it impossible for even him to scout down into it from above. The same was true for the birds, meaning that as long as Jake was hiding in it, they couldn’t even counterattack properly.
That meant their only option for fighting back was reentering the poison mist. Of course, they also had the option of simply fleeing the battle, but Jake knew they wouldn’t. While it was a bit cheap, Jake had skimmed more of the description of these Rainbowfeathers and seen that they were indeed highly territorial, to the level of preferring to fight and die over abandoning what they believed was rightfully theirs. On top of that, they were perhaps the most vindictive species Jake had ever seen, and if anyone killed a single Rainbowfeather, they would hunt that person down until they all died or their target was pecked to pieces. In summary... very angry birds.
With a massive advantage, Jake continued making use of his Mark and Pulses to locate his prey above while shooting Arcane Powershot after Arcane Powershot. They tried to dodge or block, but the Songbenders couldn’t defend everyone at once. They also tried to counterattack, but Jake moved around, as he wasn’t stupid enough to stay in the same place after attacking.
Evidently, the Rainbowfeathers were unsure how to proceed as dying cry after dying cry echoed out. Ultimately, the birds made the decision to fight Jake within the poison mist, which likely just expedited their deaths. Within the mist, they were clearly weaker, and all Jake had to do was buy time and slowly whittle them down one by one while staying mobile and refusing to let them to lock him down or surround him.
You have slain [Rainbowfeather Songbender – lvl 330] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
Right as he got it, a massive sound wave swept in from the side, taking him by surprise and forcing him to block as he was blasted away. The wave had been faster and stronger than anything else he had encountered, and he soon realized why.
Well, ain’t that something.
Four Songcrushers and one Songslinger were approaching him together. The Songcrushers all released a sound wave, only for the Songslinger to release an attack of its own that absorbed and amplified the other four attacks into one massive wave.
Another such attack arrived only a moment later, this one even more powerful and condensed. Dodging behind a tree, Jake was shocked to see bark explode everywhere. The poor thing had a hole blown into it, and a second wave sent the entire thing tumbling and Jake scrambling to the side.
The group of five birds really upped the pressure as they released attack after attack, forcing Jake to retreat from them. Luckily, they couldn’t move very fast while also doing their sound attacks, letting Jake get some good distance as he went for a solitary Songcrusher.
His unprepared target was soon struck by an arrow from behind while leaping and flying toward its brethren, blasting it down into the ground and through several vines. Another two arrows sought to finish it off, but Jake was forced to abandon his assault when two Songbenders released a combined attack that summoned a shower of crystalline rainbow fragments to bombard his location like a minigun.
Not being able to kill the Songcrusher was a bit annoying, but hopefully the poison on the arrows would put it out of commission... Jake’s hope was dashed, however, when a new variant of parrot flew over and made its appearance, escorted by two Songcrushers.
[Rainbowfeather Songmender – lvl 341]
It began singing once close to the Songcrusher, and rainbow light fell upon the heavily damaged monster and began to heal it. The fight had instantly gotten a lot more annoying, as Jake would have to actually finish off his opponents now or risk getting into a really prolonged fight he wasn’t sure he would win.
Not that he was guaranteed that choice, of course. Jake was just happy he had held back with Arcane Awakening and kept it at a safe level for now. Retreating once more while circling around to try and find a semi-isolated foe, he soon found one, and through a barrage of arrows and a quick Arcane Powershot, he got his second kill. He then swiftly moved on, never allowing too many opponents to surround him at once.
He purposefully tried to run in unpredictable patterns, but whenever he fought something, all the Rainbowfeathers became aware of his location. The dying cries of the birds he killed certainly didn’t help matters either. In fact, Jake felt that as time went on, the birds grew better and faster at locating him, making him feel as if he was on a bit of a timer.
Jake did manage to kill four more parrots while leaving three others severely injured over the next ten or so minutes, with those three getting saved by their feathered comrades. By now, it was nearly impossible to find isolated Rainbowfeather Songbirds, making it incredibly hard to pick them off.
The many birds gathering was both a good and a bad thing. On the plus side, it meant he could more easily kite them around without running into opponents, no matter the direction he went, so that was definitely beneficial.
As for bad things... oh boy, there were a lot of those. Just as they had before the system, sound waves tended to compound. Several loud sounds combined to amplify one another, creating even more powerful sound waves. The parrots used this to great effect: The more Rainbowfeather Songbirds that were together, the more they could amplify one another, pushing things to the point where some in the flock had to dedicate energy to protecting themselves and others against their own attacks.
Jake had run into a group of twelve birds, which, through their combined effort, were able to release massive blasts of pure sound that made trees bend and tore apart everything in their path. There was probably a limit to how strong their combo attacks could get, but Jake had no interest in finding out.
Another bad thing about them all being gathered was that healers and Songbenders with defensive magic were always nearby. Shooting arrows into a packed flock of over sixty high-tier C-grade bird monsters that could heal and support each other wasn’t going to get him far, and he knew it.
But... there was some icing on the cake.
Originally, Jake had come for archery practice, which was still the plan, but he had to get an upper hand first. The many Songbirds bunching up meant that, theoretically, attacks with large areas of effect should prove useful. Even so, the rule of intensity versus scale was still a thing, meaning Jake couldn’t do much meaningful damage if he just aimed for making big explosions.
He did have one relatively new weapon in his arsenal, though. One that he believed would prove highly effective in the current environment... and luckily for him, he had a pretty good stock of special bottles just waiting to be popped open.
That’s right—it was time for some good-old chemical warfare in the form of unleashing poison gas upon the local avian population, war crimes be damned.
Chapter 49
Angry Birds
Poisoning the entire local population of Rainbowfeather Songbirds took a bit of preparation. If Jake simply began throwing around bottles haphazardly, he doubted he could create a large enough field of death to do the damage he wanted.
That was why Jake took a slower and more measured approach. Checking his inventory, he found a total of one hundred and twelve bottles of liquid poison gas, most of them made during his stay with his parents or the brief moments of downtime he’d had recently. There were a lot of bottles, and each of them was quite dangerous in its own right.
[Arcane-Infused Rotbreath Poison Gas (Rare)] – With every breath, life shall wane and destruction shall roam. Mixing potent death affinity toxins and arcane energies, a powerful poison gas has been concocted. This poison is primarily absorbed through breathing but can also easily penetrate the bodies of anyone in physical contact with it. If inflicted, it will spread through the body and cause necrotic damage to any tissue it encounters, causing flesh to rot. Destructive arcane energies allow it to spread faster as it weakens the foe’s tissue. Wounds caused by necrotic poison are extremely difficult to heal.
To achieve the desired effect, Jake began placing the poison bottles all over the jungle in a circular pattern while cycling around the Rainbowfeathers and occasionally attacking.
As a reminder, the bottles containing the poison gas were of Jake’s special design. With nothing more than a mental command, Jake could have the bottles detonate, turning each into its own remote-activated gas bomb.
Jake spread these bottles, embedding them in trees or hanging them from vines all around the place, his stores rapidly depleting. During this, he naturally had to make sure the Rainbowfeathers stayed in roughly the same area, and he moved deliberately to force them into gathering even more.
He did manage to kill another parrot that had strayed from the flock, taking the Songslinger by surprise with a fully charged Arcane Powershot from behind that blew its head straight off. This naturally helped serve as confirmation that the birds would do well gathering together as they hunted for Jake.
Things did get spicy at a few points when Jake got too close to the flock. The combined attack of dozens of late-to-peak C-grades wasn’t something he could take lightly, and he even ended up suffering a few minor injuries as he fought back, landing a fair number of arrows himself in retaliation.
Progress was swift, though.
Fifty left.
An area of roughly fifteen square kilometers was what Jake had designated as the blast zone. It was within this area that he’d spread the bottles out evenly, with the expectation that the poison gas would cover the entire thing. From the limited experimentation he’d done with this kind of poison gas, he was capable of very slightly controlling the poison gas even after he released it. Not by much, but if he relied upon Touch of the Malefic Viper and the fact his arcane energy was an intrinsic part of this particular poison gas, it should be enough for him to contain the zone he planned on gassing.
The environment would likely also prove highly beneficial to Jake. The thick canopies above should help contain the poison somewhat, and the dense life affinity in the air was the perfect medium for a primarily death-attuned poison. These Rainbowfeathers had also proven themselves somewhat fragile, likely due to their Paths mostly revolving around defense through magic or winning through overwhelming offensive power, as some of their sound waves could easily kill most peak C-grades and severely injure even some B-grades.
Sadly for them, Jake was pretty damn good at avoiding even invisible attacks, and he always managed to stay at a distance that minimized the risk of lethal damage yet gave the Rainbowfeathers hope they could land a solid hit.
Thirty.
By now, Jake had spread out enough poison bottles to create the full zone of poison gas, but he wanted a few more in the immediate area around all the Rainbowfeathers when he unleashed the gas cloud.
While the parrots were gathered, they weren’t exactly clumped up. They kept up to a hundred meters between each other as they moved around—a short distance to a C-grade, but when there were over sixty of them, it meant they still occupied quite a large area, hence the need for the poison gas zone to be as big as Jake was planning on making it.
Moving toward the center of this zone, Jake placed even more bottles there to ensure the poison mist would be strongest in the epicenter. After spreading fifteen more, Jake decided it was good enough. He spent another ten minutes getting the Rainbowfeathers nice and riled up, even shooting a few Arcane Powershots into their midst, injuring but not killing some of their members to really piss them off.
Once in position, Jake got ready. Using his superior speed, he had created some distance between the pursuing flock and himself, buying ten or so seconds for final preparations.
As fifteen bottles of poison gas in liquid form appeared around him, he condensed arcane mana to surround each and every one of them. He formed arcane bolts containing the gas bombs and waited.
The screeches of angry birds grew closer, and right before they spotted Jake once more, he shot all the mana bolts forward. The Songcrusher in the flock’s lead saw the arcane bolt mid-flight and quickly dodged, sending the bolt through the center of the flock.
A similar thing happened in a dozen other places, bolts missing all over... just as Jake had planned. Focusing, he gave a mental command to all the bombs spread throughout the jungle at once, including the bolts he’d just attacked with.
Boom goes the... well, not quite dynamite.
Despite Jake’s thoughts, there was no grand explosion. Since the sound of the Rainbowfeathers drowned out everything else, all Jake heard was glass shattering... and then the environment changed.
A deep purple, almost black blanket of mist instantly covered the jungle. It slightly obscured vision, but no one had any time to consider that aspect of the poison gas. All of the Rainbowfeathers stopped as one, mid-attack, as poison surrounded them from all sides. All of them had been breathing to increase resource restoration and even as part of releasing their sound attacks, causing many to unwillingly take a deep breath of the poison gas that instantly infected them.
Panic didn’t even have time to fully set in before an Arcane Powershot pierced into the midst of the Rainbowfeathers, aimed at a Songmender that had been protected by several other parrots just moments before.
Aiming to take full advantage of the situation, Jake activated the Timeless Focus of the Apex Hunter effect he’d lovingly named Rapid Fire. With his actions accelerated, Jake released a few dozen arrows in swift succession. He wanted to take down every healer among them during this time, as that was one of the biggest worries with this plan.
The second biggest was what was about to happen next. Instinctively, the majority of the Rainbowfeathers sought to escape the poison mist, and while some began to flee to the sides, many also shot straight upwards, which would allow them to exit the poison mist... Jake naturally didn’t want that, so he unleashed another attack he knew would take quite the toll on him.
Holding nothing back, Jake pushed his Arcane Awakening further, making his aura spike and fully unleashing his Bloodline upon the pursuing birds, who were already in a state of distress. Finally, to truly take advantage, he mentally attacked several dozen late-to-peak C-grades at once with Pride active.
Jake had expected to feel severe backlash... but unexpectedly, he was fine. No splitting headache. No pain whatsoever. This nearly delayed him, as things had not gone as he’d hoped, but luckily for him, the effect on all the Rainbowfeathers was more than effective, leaving them all stunned from the mental attack.
Restarting his assault, Jake began picking off more of the Songmenders. There was a total of five in the flock, and all of them were now exposed. The stunned birds who’d just suffered some severe mental damage spent even longer within the poison, and to make matters even better, their instincts to help one another became a detriment.
Having noticed Jake trying to kill the Songmenders, nearly all the other parrot-like monsters stopped trying to flee and instead went to help their healers. However, in order to do that, they needed to remain within the poison cloud for longer, and with so many being affected, even if the Songmenders were left alone, they would struggle to keep up.
More shockwaves of pure sound erupted from the group of birds as they went on the offensive once more, but Jake was more prepared this time. Using One Step, he dodged in time and shot another arrow into the chest of a Songmender. A Songcrusher jumped for him right then, but he effortlessly avoided its initial attack before following up with a swift kick that sent it into the trajectory of an incoming sound wave.
To Jake’s surprise, the Songslinger who’d released the sound wave managed to dispel the attack in time, leaving the Songcrusher unharmed. Behind the Songslinger, the Songbenders of the group used their odd rainbow magic as they fought back against the poison mist, trying to push it away while creating shields for the damaged Songmenders.
Not gonna give you time for that.
With curving arrows back on the menu, Jake continued his assault before the birds could fully get their bearings. About twenty of them had still shot into the sky above to escape the poison mist, with others trying to address what was happening to them, leaving an opening Jake couldn’t waste.
Arrows curved in and hit a Songmender in the neck before promptly exploding, taking half of the neck with it in the process. Another Songmender tried to come and help, but a quick Gaze and an arrow to the skull put it down.
The three remaining ones weren’t long for this world either, as Jake spared nothing to finish them off. He even ended up taking a nasty retaliatory attack to get the last one with a Powershot, leaving the flock without any of their healers.
By now, about thirty seconds had passed since Jake released the poison gas cloud, and he knew the Rainbowfeathers had since adapted. The ones who’d fled to the sky above were less affected by the poison than those on the ground below, and none of them wanted to reenter the now poison-filled jungle.
With their healers dead, the remaining Rainbowfeathers also shot up into the sky to find non-toxic air. That was actually fine with Jake, as he gladly shot arrows after them during their escape.
Contrary to the birds, Jake was having a swell time surrounded by poison gas. In fact, it felt quite nice, and his mana was being actively restored through Palate of the Malefic Viper. These birds likely believed Jake would also have to flee the jungle to escape the deathly environment, but nope—he gladly stayed, a smile on his face as he nocked another arrow.
The Songslinger floating above the tree line, just outside the range of the poison mist, wasn’t ready when an Arcane Powershot pierced through the leaves below it, tearing off one of its wings and sending it tumbling. A Songbender summoned a barrier to try and block any follow-up attack but instead found itself under fire. An arrow struck it in the chest, sending it tumbling through the air and down through the canopy, then back into the poison mist once more.
This had been the next part of Jake’s plan. The dense jungle was incredibly good at hiding anything within it, making it impossible for even him to scout down into it from above. The same was true for the birds, meaning that as long as Jake was hiding in it, they couldn’t even counterattack properly.
That meant their only option for fighting back was reentering the poison mist. Of course, they also had the option of simply fleeing the battle, but Jake knew they wouldn’t. While it was a bit cheap, Jake had skimmed more of the description of these Rainbowfeathers and seen that they were indeed highly territorial, to the level of preferring to fight and die over abandoning what they believed was rightfully theirs. On top of that, they were perhaps the most vindictive species Jake had ever seen, and if anyone killed a single Rainbowfeather, they would hunt that person down until they all died or their target was pecked to pieces. In summary... very angry birds.
With a massive advantage, Jake continued making use of his Mark and Pulses to locate his prey above while shooting Arcane Powershot after Arcane Powershot. They tried to dodge or block, but the Songbenders couldn’t defend everyone at once. They also tried to counterattack, but Jake moved around, as he wasn’t stupid enough to stay in the same place after attacking.
Evidently, the Rainbowfeathers were unsure how to proceed as dying cry after dying cry echoed out. Ultimately, the birds made the decision to fight Jake within the poison mist, which likely just expedited their deaths. Within the mist, they were clearly weaker, and all Jake had to do was buy time and slowly whittle them down one by one while staying mobile and refusing to let them to lock him down or surround him.
