The Call to War

Chapter 21

Within a chamber of a dungeon on the eighth floor, a flock of roughly two dozen razor hens were seated on their eggs in nests of bones as they pulled flesh from the bones of a defeated mana beast, as well as from a team of adventurers they had overpowered a few days ago. At the chamber entrance five male razor hens stood watch, rusting their feathers which made them look even bigger.

Razor hens looked nearly identical to that of a regular chicken, if not for their sharp as steel talons and beaks, and the fact that the average size was roughly five feet tall and weighing nearly two hundred pounds. Many attempts were made to domesticate the large land birds, however their aggressive nature was something that could not be trained out, even when hatched by people.

The male razor hens were staying observant, their heads making quick sharp movements as they looked out for intruders. A rock was heard falling and all of them stared in the direction of the noise, the tunnel leading to them. All was quiet as they stared unmoving like statues. One razor hen took a step forward as it leaned forward.

"BAKAWWK!" The razor hen cried out as a metal arrow pierced its eyes, simultaneously sending a sudden shock of electricity throughout its body.

Two more simultaneously went down in the same manner, the arrows guided by a wind spell to ensure the electrified arrows didn't miss. The now dead beasts fell to the ground, their bodies smoking from being roasted from the inside out.

"ATTACK!" Lunaris yelled, as he activated the first stage of his beast will.

The young mage led the charge for the attack, pulling away from his subordinates under his command. One of the remaining razor hens charged him, jumping up and swinging it's leg to cut him down with the deadly blade growing from its leg above its heel. Effortlessly Lunaris made a wind assisted jump over the beast to dodge the attack, while severing its head with a flaming sword.

Orson and Karen were the next closest and went after the fifth male. Like with Lunaris, this razor hen also jumped up and spun to attack. Orson blocked the talon with his long sword, as Karen leaped over him and landed on the beast's back as she drove one end of her spear downward through its heart.

By this point the females were charging in, but Jason was rapidly firing his electrified arrows, dropping bird after bird as three more augmenters ran in behind Lunaris and the rest of his team. A single conjuror that specialized in defensive spells stayed behind with Jason, in case any beasts came from behind.

Lunaris rapidly moved through the beasts, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Orson and Karen did their best to try and keep up, but Lunaris' beast will, along with his special training from General Bloom, made it too difficult. As the last mana beast fell dead, Lunaris finally released his beast will.

"We'll...that was...easy," Lunaris said as he breathed heavily, resting his hand on his knees. From a puff of black smoke Lunaris' bond Ailuros appeared on his back, before jumping down and started sniffing a razor hen corpse.

The other three augmenters just stood there dumbfounded, as they didn't even get a chance to kill anything.

"You should save more for the rest of us next time," Orson commented as he was pulling several of his throwing knives out of a hen.

"Yeah, those guys didn't even have anything to do," Karen added as she pointed to their back up.

"Maybe next time," Lunaris replied, sounding much more solum as his eyes landed on the remains of a dismembered soldier.

He walked over and pulled the identification tags from the soldier's belt and stored them in his dimensional ring.

"If only it didn't take us so long to find this place," Lunaris said.