World Seed

Author’s Corner: Finally, we are out of that forest! Now onto the inevitable aerial battle!------------------------------------------------I’d like to say that I fought with honor, or that I knew what I was doing, but… Well, you’ll see.When I turned my head to look, I saw one of the harpy eagles baring down on me, its wingspan easily ten meters. Thanks to my inexperience with flight, turning to look had caused me to veer to the side, narrowly dodging the massive creature’s claws. However, in the next moment, a gust of wind blew me back away from the creature.I was tumbling through the air, unable to see what was going on, and only got myself stabilized after about twenty meters. By that time, the bird had already changed direction, its black feathers flying towards me and almost completely blocking my view of the surroundings. This time, it opened its beak and let out a shrill cry, which rang in my ears and caused my vision to blur. In the next instant, I felt searing pain as one of my wings were ripped off.With a hiss I quickly dismissed Aspect of the Bird, causing me to enter a freefall. However, at least the pain was gone, and since the damaged parts of my body were no longer there I did not have any health loss. Looking down, I was about fifty meters from the ground, so I hurriedly cast Aspect of the Bird again in a panic while the ground came closer and closer.Thankfully I managed to cast it at the last second, and angled my new wings to pull up just in time to avoid becoming a pool of gore on the ground. However, thanks to that short exchange, I was able to somewhat measure its level. Sadly, as far as I was concerned, its level was simply ‘run away’. Closing my eyes, I focused on flying forward as I began controlling the elements around me.I could hear the eagle approaching towards me, and feel how the wind parted for it with no resistance. Before it could catch me, I decided to act. From my feet, I gathered as much fire mana as I could, releasing a stream of flame directly behind me. The earth would help me little in a battle above the skies, but fire is still my friend. With the sudden unexpected flames sprouting up, the eagle let out another cry as it changed course, though this one was not meant to attack me.A few moments later, I came to know what its new plan was, as I felt a shadow descend over me. As that was the case, I stopped playing with fire, and moved onto darkness. Above and below, my body was already covered by shadows, making this one of the best times to use that particular element. Looking up, I could almost see the eagle diving at me, talons extended for the kill. So what did I do?…I did a barrel roll! Pulling in my wings, I rolled slightly to the side while having the wind push me back. Once I re-extended my wings, the eagle was now the one below me, so I dropped a shadow ball on top of it. When the ball of darkness collided with the black feathers, it was hard to see what had happened. However, the movement of its left wing had become slightly more sluggish, indicating that perhaps the attack had succeeded. Though, restraining a wing meant little when the enemy could just change how the wind hit it to get the same result anyways.So far, I had used up roughly half of my mana, and knew that there were just a few ways I could actually win this fight. Maybe if I forced it to swallow an arrow vine, I could use my Nature Magic to have the vine grow inside of it, spearing it from within. That seemed like the best plan, so I pulled a single seed from my inventory, clutching it in one hand.Now it was my turn to dive, and dive I did! Angling my wings, I increased my speed to the maximum as I flew towards the slightly unstable eagle… and then I remembered that this thing controls wind. The moment I was almost upon the harpy eagle, a gust of wind knocked me off course, again making me tumble back several meters. Sadly, I accidentally dropped the seed I was holding thanks to the surprise reaction. By the time I had myself stable again, the eagle was once more heading right for me. However, this time its aim was obviously off, instead moving to fly past me by a wide margin. Must be unable to properly steer with one wing bound.

However, my thoughts quickly proved themselves wrong as the eagle passed by me, the barest tip of the wing brushing against my side.