It pulled its head back before Chronos could strike. Surprised that someone here was fast enough to react to its attack, both heads now focused on Chronos preparing for a serious battle.
On the deck below, the guards were having a much easier time now that they were properly organized and focused.
The spearman kept deflecting or blocking the bird's beaks and magic and every time they showed an opening the archers would put arrows into any soft looking spot on their bodies.
They still weren't very stable on their feet as they weren't used to fighting on a ship but there were far fewer injuries or incapacitations from the bird's attacks now that they were working as full units.
"So, what's the plan?" Lyla asked from the railing below Chronos.
"I'll keep its attention while you and Gregory hit it. Aim for its body, if we can deal enough damage, it might leave us alone." Chronos called out.
"Are you sure you don't want to kill it? If we take out its wings it can only wait for us to kill it." Gregory asked.
"If we kill it on the ship, it'll just drag us to the ground with it. It's better if we force it to flee besides, I think..." Chronos didn't have time to finish his sentence as both beaks tried to impale him.
He knocked one head aside and ducked under the seconds beak, sparks jumped from its beaks to Chronos's body.
"It would be nice if you could hurry. The lightning is affecting my movements." He called out while shaking his hand.
"Understood." Both of them responded.
Gregory swiftly descended towards the lower back deck to get a better aim at the thunderwings chest while Lyla started casting [Lawbound Bulwark] to reinforce the upper levels. Just in case it tried to attack the upper decks instead of Chronos.
Caw!
One head began casting a lightning spell that Chronos didn't recognize while the other head engaged him, stopping him from interrupting it.
Chronos was having some trouble dodging or deflecting the head. Its sheer size combined with the small area of the roof made it hard to deal with, resulting in it nearly knocking him off the roof several times.
"No, the equipment!" A cry came from the captain's wheel as several rods and one of the balls on the roof were damaged.
Chronos grunted in annoyance. If he could grab ahold of it, he was confident his strength was enough to pin it down, but its head rapidly moved around Chronos taking full advantage of its long neck to avoid his grasp and sword.
After several minutes the thunderwing showed a gloating expression to him. The spell was nearly complete and once it activated all of the upper decks would be destroyed.
Unfortunately, it would never see the spell's completion. Gregory was now directly below its body ready to strike.
While its body was half the size of the ship it was only around 9 meters tall placing its head within the reach of Gregory's nightweave threads.
Just before the spell activated a bottle on a thread appeared in its beak.
Snap! Crack!
As its beak snapped shut its eyes shrunk in pain.
Screech!
As it screamed the runes forming the lightning spell above it collapsed. Inside of the thunderwings mouth Chronos caught a glimpse of the bird's tongue being melted.
"Acid? Good call Gregory." Chronos shouted.
Taking advantage of thunderwings lapse in concentration Chronos pressed the attack by sending out several aura blades. But the second head easily blocked them before the blades could do any damage.
"Tch, the two heads can act separately and don't seem to share pain." Chronos said.
"Good then they should both feel this." Lyla said as two gavels were thrown from below.
The gavels smacked both heads but with how far away they were from her the gavels couldn't do much more than distract them, which was perfect for Lyla. Two [Verdict Pillar]'s struck each head from above nearly knocking them unconscious.
It shook both heads before cawing in anger and focusing on Lyla.
"Are you sure we can't kill it? Holding back enough to keep it alive is really annoying." Lyla said.
"No killing. The ship isn't durable enough or strong enough to carry its body." Chronos reminded her.
She dodged back inside as one head tried to pierce her with its beak. The bulwark flashed as the thunderwing collided with it and gave Chronos a chance to attack it. Swinging his sword at the exposed neck he was about to strike it when the second head hit him.
He grunted while being pushed back and changed the path of his swing aiming at the second head's face only to miss again when it rapidly retreated.
"This bird is fast." He muttered in annoyance.
Then the thunderwing screeched in pain again as an explosion hit its chest from below. Chronos glanced down in time to see Gregory run inside a cabin door when it tried to trample him.
"Sariah how are the curses coming along?" Chronos shouted.
"The lightning is countering my more deadly curses. I can only hit it with basic things like [Splintered Timing] or [Whispered Doubt] to slow it down." She grumpily replied.
That made sense, the blue matron had said that lightning was the start of life so it could counter curses which were the opposite of life.
Chronos recalled that one of those spells slowed reaction speed while the other lowered accuracy, both of which would be very effective against a creature as fast as this one.
"That's more than enough. Keep up the good work." Chronos encouraged her.
Turning his attention back to the thunderwing he saw that one head was hanging low waiting for Gregory to come back out while the other was keeping an eye on him and Lyla.
It was wary of both of them now, but Chronos couldn't understand why it wasn't trying to escape. The longer it stayed here the more certain he was that his earlier suspicion was correct.
As all of them prepared for another round of combat Chronos heard a faint whistling coming from the forest.
The thunderwing turned one of its heads toward the forest then a second whistle came from the north. Whatever was whistling was doing so in a pattern, one that sounded like it might be giving orders to others.
Caw!
Giving one last nasty look at Chronos the thunderwing flew into the air. Cawing at the other birds they broke away from the ship and followed it back towards the Averest forest.
As they watched them leave Lyla asked, "What was that about?"
"My suspicion was right."
She gave Chronos a look demanding an explanation.
"Thunderwings live in the northern mountains; they don't come this far south without reason. I've never seen one before, even during the beast tide. I suspected that it would only come this far south if someone brought it here." Chronos stated.
"Who would bring that monster out of the mountains?" The captain who was listening from below asked in shock.
"I'm guessing that one of the guardians of the Averest forest did so. Perhaps a ranger or a druid raised it from a chick and now the thunderwing assists them in protecting the forest." Chronos speculated.
"Regardless of what's actually going on I don't think any of our kingdom's ships should be anywhere near the forest from now on." Gregory said as he used his strings to climb up to them.
"Agreed." Looking down at the deck Chronos watched the guards help each other stand up and limp towards the infirmary. "Come on, we should help them out."
He jumped down landing on the upper deck and began helping the injured stand. Lyla chose to walk down rather than jump, on the way she cast her healing spell healing several guards from a distance.
Chronos acted as support for a guard with a broken leg helping him into the infirmary room just as the guard captain came storming in.
"You, why did you take command of my men!"
The guard captain couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old which was quite young to be a captain on such an important mission.
"You weren't giving any orders and it's clear that you need more experience when facing flying enemies." Chronos responded.
"Still, you shouldn't have taken command of my men. You should have told me and let me command them."
"During an emergency there's precious little time for advice. Besides you should have at least had some preparations for aerial combat before joining a flying ship, but you haven't done anything have you? Now if you're not going to help get out of the way." Chronos waved him off.
"You..."
"We are treating the injured, move aside." The guard captain tried to argue with him but the apprentice archivist in charge of the infirmary pushed him out.
Once he was gone Chronos bandaged a guard's arm and helped the apprentice archivists by holding down the more problematic guards that lashed out in pain.