Thud!
Maya ended the call and dropped the phone while glaring at Auric. "You heard nothing. Is that clear?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Auric raised both hands. He used the words to make it seem like he was already cooperating in order to avoid the death sentence.
"Poor her. She must have hated her family." Lindwurm looked concerned.
'On the contrary, I think she loves them. The family might be unique, but it's more harmonious than I expected.'
"What? She even cursed at her own grandfather." Lindwurm tilted his head in confusion.
'Well, her family is rich. In that kind of family, shouldn't it be expected to be cold? Yet, from what I can see, they're still close enough to bicker with each other in a playful way.'
Auric watched her sigh and pick up the phone.
She was trying to shift the topic to calm down. "Anyway, let's go—"
Before she could even calm down, the alarm suddenly rang.
"For God's sake." Maya gritted her teeth, her voice filled with annoyance.
An announcement soon followed. "Passengers. Please calm down. There is a group of vultures coming toward our boat-plane. Our guards will guarantee your safety, so I request you to stay calm and remain in your seat."
"What?"
"Are we going to die?"
The people started to get restless, wondering if this attack would lead to a crash.
The attendants immediately went around to calm the people down.
Maya wanted to release her pent-up energy. Fortunately, there was her 'beloved' student next to her.
She could release that stress with another excuse.
"Perfect. This is the first time you've seen a battle against a beast, right? I'm not talking about videos. A real one."
"Yeah?" Auric sounded confused about what she was planning.
"Perfect. Let me take you to a place where you can have a better view." Maya stood up casually.
"Ma'am?" The attendant rushed to her to calm her down.
However, Maya took out another card. "It's all right. I have enough strength to protect myself. I will just take a look to see if my strength is needed."
"Ah…" The attendant panicked before extending her hand. "This way."
In the end, she chose to lead them to a different section.
This section was similar to the armory. There were many guns and other weapons hanging on the walls.
More importantly, this place had a big opening to the outside world. There was a group of people—fully equipped—already standing at the edge, ready to fight.
Some of them were holding their guns, aiming at the incoming beasts. Some were holding blades as though they were planning to jump out and fight the enemies midair.
More importantly, several turrets had emerged from their own sections, pointing in the vultures' direction.
From this place, Auric could see the group of vultures they were talking about.
There were a total of 22 vultures. Each of them had a wingspan of 6 meters, heading in their direction at a high speed.
"Get ready! The turrets will be providing some cover fire. We have to make sure that each beast is taken down." A middle-aged man gave directions aloud.
Maya waved her hand, asking Auric to follow her to the edge.
"Shoot them!" The middle-aged man issued the order through the radio.
Without any delay, the turrets started condensing bullets and then began firing at the vultures.
It was a similar system to the one Auric had seen in the reaction speed test.
"Teacher. Don't we have something similar on campus?"
"Yeah. This one is more lethal, though."
The bullets packed a lot of punch.
However, the vultures weren't messing around either. They released their energy at the same time.
Because of their 'V' formation, as if they were migrating, the energy that came from them generated an additional wind pressure.
Auric could see their energy, which confirmed the wind element each vulture possessed.
When the bullets hit the wind, they were deflected up and down, showing no sign that they could pierce through the wind barrier.
If they did nothing else, the vultures would have no problem reaching their ship.
But it all changed the moment the vultures reached the gunners' range.
Each gunner had their own target and pulled the trigger, unleashing even more powerful bullets.
The bullets pierced through the barrier and hit the vultures. Most of them only hit their wings or bodies. Some were just minor wounds, but there was one bullet that managed to instantly kill the beast.
"Good. Continue firing!"
The gunners started crafting the next powerful bullets before aiming them at their targets.
"Reeee!" One vulture sped up.
The gunners fired one more time, but this special vulture stopped and flapped its wings, generating an even more powerful wind that dispersed the bullets completely.
"Oh, a rank 2 beast?" Maya smiled.
"A rank 2 beast… is equal to an avatar in juvenile form." Auric squinted his eyes slightly.
"Indeed." Maya nodded. "But no need to fret. I doubt we will have any trouble."
The people continued to shower the enemies with bullets. Seeing the rank 2 vulture continue to neutralize their bullets, the middle-aged captain knew he had to confront it himself.
"Halt the fire for a bit. I will drag it away."
The moment the bullets stopped firing, the captain leaped forward. His wind element erupted, carrying his body into the air.
He then raised his blade and swung downward. The vulture sent forth both talons.
The captain skillfully cut the right talon while avoiding the left one. This injury caused the vulture to spin its body before flapping its wings to get away from the captain.
The captain, on the other hand, swung his blade horizontally, aiming to cut the beast in half.
However, the vulture released another wind barrier, which collided with the captain's power.
Since the captain had the momentum, he blew away the vulture.
The captain continued to engage the vulture in battle, clearing the space between his subordinates and the rest of the vultures.
The vice captain gave the order for another barrage. This time they took three down.
This number would continue to increase until all the vultures were killed.
"That's about it." Maya pointed at the battlefield. "Pretty simple, right?"
"…" Auric remained silent as if he were observing the battle more intently than Maya expected.
Maya thought Auric might have glorified the battle in his mind, so she said, "If you think that fighting on the battlefield will be like freely firing your power like a magician or swinging your weapons carelessly, then you're wrong.
"Not all people can fight like the captain. Sometimes, the most effective way to kill the beasts is just overpowering them with your firepower. So, shoot them down with so many bullets that they can't withstand your power anymore."
Auric wasn't surprised by the guns. He was aware of the importance of guns. They were among the most convenient weapons in history.
He was just observing the vultures more than he had initially expected.
There were two details that piqued his interest.
The elemental energy released by the vultures turned out to be much more violent than that of the humans.
'Is it because of a different metabolism?' Auric was pondering.
On the one hand, humans and beasts were different.
'The anatomy is already different, so their circulation might be different as well.' Auric crossed his arms.
While he could indeed see the particles of the beast's energy, he couldn't figure out their pattern.
In other words, even if he could see them, he couldn't form the gathering technique.
To form the gathering technique, he needed three things. The identity of the element, the particle's movement and intensity, and the flow of energy.
These three requirements applied to all elements except for the unique one.
In the reaction speed test, he could see the particles from the guns, but he couldn't copy them because the flow of energy in the guns was different than the one in the human body.
In addition, the battle technique supplied information on how the particles moved in the human body.
That was why even if he found a battle technique later, if the element was not the exact same, the gathering technique couldn't be created.
On the other hand, the unique element was different. There was no need to determine the intensity, as there was nothing to differentiate it.
Their flow would be the same as long as they were made by humans, so he could figure out the identity of the element first before finding a battle technique that could supplement the remaining details.
This was the case for the gravity element.
But the particles moving within the vultures' energy were simply too irregular. They were moving so violently, to the point where he thought even beasts wouldn't have such a thing.
If the beasts couldn't even control their energy, they wouldn't be a threat to humanity.
When they deployed the barriers, their energy calmed down for a bit, but it reverted right after.
That was why Auric drew a conclusion that he didn't really want to believe.
"Teacher. Something is wrong. The vultures… may be scared. Their energy is violent… No, that's not the word. Chaotic."
"What are you talking about?"
"When people are agitated, their energy shows a bit of movement that is different from the norm. You have probably heard about people being unable to unleash their power when they're too panicked or too scared."
"Yes." Maya nodded with a solemn expression.
"And I notice that the energy that these vultures are releasing is chaotic. It's as if they're too scared…"
"You can actually sense their magical energy to that extent?"
"Wrong question. You should ask what makes them so scared."
"!!!" Maya understood what Auric was trying to say.
She hurriedly squinted her eyes as though she were trying to see much farther ahead.
A dot was soon visible in her eyes. This dot gradually became larger and finally revealed its true form.
"That's… an eagle… a rank 3 eagle!" Maya suddenly shouted, "Hurry up and recall your captain right now. Inform the pilot that we have a rank 3 eagle coming our way!"
They had been ignoring Maya all this time because they didn't want to be distracted while doing their jobs.
But the moment she interfered with their job directly, one of them couldn't help but stand up and shout, "What are you doing? It's already annoying to have a civilian here. Don't interfere with our work here!"
Maya's expression turned cold. She felt like slapping this guy so hard that he fell off the plane, but a loud cry echoed first, revealing its arrival.
"!!!" All of them widened their eyes and took a look at the origin of this cry.
They found a massive eagle with a wingspan of fifteen meters.
"That is a rank 3 Thunder Eagle!" The vice captain shouted.
The vultures got even more scared when they sensed the eagle's arrival. They rushed toward the ship in order to get away from the eagle, forcing the people to shoot them down, but it looked like some of the beasts were going to crash into the plane.
In addition, lightning sparked from the eagle's body before it opened its mouth, shooting out a powerful bolt of lightning.
"Not good. Brace for impact!" The vice captain shouted.
Everyone covered themselves and grabbed anything they could to stay in place.
Right before the lightning hit the plane, a black cloud popped out of the plane and expanded in all directions. It received the lightning and dispersed it, using the lightning to actually kill the vultures around the plane.
Auric was the only one who knew they were not in danger… or maybe they were still in danger, not because of the eagle, of course.
"My family, these beasts, and even this one guy… Why are all of you annoying me today?" Maya's eyes turned completely black as if they had turned into the night sky.
Maya retracted her dark cloud and disappeared. No, more accurately, she moved so fast that it looked as if she had teleported.
"!!!" The eagle was startled when it sensed another presence standing on top of its body.
Maya raised her right foot as a blazing black energy formed. "Your cry was too loud, so drop dead."
She stomped on the eagle as the blazing energy erupted and formed a cross-shaped blast above the eagle's body before the eagle's massive body crumbled into pieces in just a second.