My Wild Beast-Chapter 74: Fighting Shadows (1)

Atia clicked his neck to the side, eyes locked on the eagle before them.

Retreating was for the weak anyway. At least that’s what Aiyana always said. That was why she was such a ruthless little fighter, never backing down. It wasn’t just in her blood, it was that relentless drive to prove her worth.

Atia’s head shifted almost imperceptibly at the soft scrape of a talon behind them. The sound was faint, barely noticeable, but with their sharpened Oncari senses, it was enough. Another creature might have missed the subtle shift, the quiet prelude to a strike.

Aiyana rolled her shoulders back, her expression bored, but her deep amber eyes gleamed with excitement at the challenge.

The girl was nuts. But so was he.

Atia’s gaze brushed her injury. A low warning rumbled in her chest. Classic Aiyana. No words, just a threat simmering beneath her breath. Look again, and you’re dead.

Aiyana might be a princess of sorts, but she had the temper of a wildcat cornered.

His attention flicked to the two eagles behind the one blocking their path across the river and into Oncari lands. The birds snapped their beaks at each other, arguing over some unspoken claim before their eyes locked on Aiyana.

Atia twirled his twin blades with easy precision, his grip flexing and releasing in response. Aiyana angled her hip toward him, shifting her stance, her foot subtly pivoting, weight settling into her staff.

The air shifted, adrenaline soaring high and hearts skittering, bracing themselves for this dance to commence. The jungle inhaled and held its breath, waiting to see who would draw first blood, while a gentle wind stirred their hair and feathers, angling them in the same direction.

The eagle in front of them glanced past their shoulders. Then the world snapped into motion and all of them moved at the same time.

Atia burst forward as Aiyana spun around, charging the two eagles blocking the path to Tomaq’s lands.

She stabbed her staff into the earth, vaulting into the air. With a swift swing, she blocked an outstretched talon, twisted mid-air, and slammed a foot into the eagle’s beak—splintering it with a wet crack.

The bird shrieked, the sound slicing straight through her ears.

Still in motion, Aiyana pivoted, raking her claws across its eye before pouncing on the second eagle and tackling it to the ground.

While she tore through the other beak-brain, Atia landed with a graceful thud, blood speckled across his torso, twin blades dripping crimson, as the first eagle that had blocked their path across Soluma collapsed with a heavy thump, already lifeless.

The other two eagles surged forward and Atia lunged for them, twirling his blades around with a broad grin gracing his lips. But his steps faltered as a shadow moved swiftly in his peripheral vision.

Three warriors in their human form burst from the bushes they’d been hiding in. Weapons purely made in the Silver Feather flock glinted back at him, halting his attack as he calculated his best move against those deadly blades. The fight would be over in a matter of seconds if he made the wrong choice.

Thin, fan-like knives resembling feathers made of Feathersteel—a deadly blend of Starstone and the Sky Matron’s feathers—were strapped across their chests and along their hips. Designed for throwing and lightning-fast strikes, they were the real menace in a fight, far more problematic than the crescent-shaped weapons at their sides, not to mention the claws they could grow mid-battle.

One glance at their chests and yep, two small, inked wings curved up on the left side of their chest, an emblem drawn on their skin to proudly show off their status in the Silver Feather flock.

They were Elite warriors.

"Figures."

They were always a little more troublesome than the typical feathery fighter from that tribe. With a shrug, he changed course, unbothered by the razor-sharp talons slashing toward his face from the two eagles shrieking their ire at being deemed the weaker opponents.

A gust of wind rushed past his back as the rapid thud of footfall alerted him to someone closing in behind him. Warmth prickled at his skin and the smell of vanilla and pink peppercorn invaded his senses. He didn’t need to brace himself against another attack. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Aiyana rushed past him, leaping forward and shifting mid-air with a snarl as she sank her teeth and claws into one of the eagles wings, forcing them collide with the other one, and taking out the threat to his side. She fought them in her jaguar form, no doubt the pain of her wound becoming unbearable in her human form—not that she’d ever tell him that, even if the leg had been ripped from its socket.

Atia smirked with a rush of energy surging through his muscles and in a flash, he charged at the Elite warrior closed to him, aware of the other two behind him, reaching for their throwing knives.

Atia swiped his blade at the warrior, and he dodged it then blocked Atia’s second blade with his own. He spun around him, ducking, and using him as a shield against the three knives slicing through the air at where he’d been. The other two Elite warriors remained purposely behind, hovering off the ground to strike him with their knives when he wasn’t paying attention, and end the fight within a few seconds.

But that was never going to happen. Atia and Aiyana had been trained to fight against tricky foes like them. It didn’t concern them in the slightest that they were outnumbered.

They’d already fought with the odds stacked against them in their own lands and escaped. And it was only under Yoa’s initial orders that they weren’t killed unless they really had to.

As much as the jungle and skies had roared with him in answer to his rage, Yoa didn’t want a war on his hands. He was Tayun’s guardian for a reason. Even if he had every right to destroy them or more specifically Vulcan, he still controlled his rage and left the eagle broken than executed.

Still, none of the other tribes would have interfered. It was Yoa’s right as Nova’s Serakai. Vulcan had almost made the entire flock his accomplices, all in the hopes of making his people more powerful than the Oncari.

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