Ice was starting to form at the edges of the cave entrance. The snow became heavier and Eira seemed extremely nervous. I pet her head and comforted her. “Amazing birds aren’t they, Weather birds? Snow birds especially. In this climate of ours, it’s much easier to tell when they’re trying to warn us.” I called out to the figure. Turning to face him, I jumped out through the roof escape, signaling to Talon to stay down.

By the time the blood hunter reached the sky, the seed was already planted and vines had already grown around my blade. He flew into the sky, making sure to keep out of my sword’s range and drew his weapon, bow and arrows, as expected. I circled him on the ground, making sure not to stay in one spot longer than I have too.

I slashed my blade at the air, completing the rune of repelling I placed on the hilt. Thorns shot from the vine, embedding themselves in the Blood Hunter’s crimson wings, causing the flower started to bloom faster. The thorns were still connected to the vines through tiny silver threads, allowing the flower to leach off the Hunter’s blood.

He looked stunned for a moment before attempting to cut through the threads connected to my blade. Of course, I anticipated this and designed the thorns to produce a toxin capable of paralyzing. His wings became useless and forced him to land. Immediately, he drew an arrow and shot it in my direction. I barely dodged it, singeing my pants cuff. The arrow had runes of heat and warmth on the arrow head and fast flying.

“So, you know my name. May I have the pleasure of knowing yours before I kill you?” I mocked him as I circled him to fire more thorns at him. He shot more arrows in my direction in quick succession.

“I am Evan, best Archer of my rank.” He announced. “You will die by my arrows dark mage.” This time, his arrows almost struck my arm and I was forced to use my blade to deflect the blade. The force of his arrow shattered the vines, causing them to rain down onto the thick snow blanket. Eira was really working hard. The half grown flower withered and I cursed my carelessness.

“Your organization says imbuing runes into living this is dark magic, but if that is so, then your wings can be considered as dark magic.” I stated, indicating I knew the process of attaching wings to a person.

“The master of the organization has sacrificed their souls for the sake of the kingdom. They know we have to counteract dark magic with dark magic, even though they dislike this decision,” He sounded so sure, as though that was the reason they used dark magic. All the animal tribes knew the truth; the organization just despised the animal tribes for our unique traits and would like nothing more than to eliminate us. They called us soulless creatures and spread rumours that we traded our souls for different animal abilities and said our ability to imbue runes into living objects was a form of dark magic. Since they trained their warriors from young, this was impressed upon them heavily.

I charged towards him, new seeds already growing on my blade. By the time I reached him, the vines had fully grown already. My sword was aimed to slash his wrist. Suddenly, he pulled out a sword and defended himself. We exchanged blows, me trying to deal a fatal blow, him trying to maim me to make the task of bringing me back to the city easier. Being smaller in size, I could dodge his attacks, but my slashes were light compared to his. He moved surprisingly fast for someone his size. I moved around him to attack his back but he easily defended. He had many slashes over his arms but they all were shallow cuts. I had only two gashes, one on my arm and the other on my hip. They dripped blood and pain slowed my movements.

I was tiring faster, how long more would I be able to keep this up, I wondered to myself. In an act of recklessness, I dashed towards him and put as much strength into that blow as possible. He saw a chance and raised his blade for the final blow, but it was too late.

The rose bloomed and it released its sweet addictive fragrance along with its deadly seeds. Evan must have been warned about this, he held his breath and jumped back to avoid breathing in the seeds. But I had foreseen this. This was a different variant of the Glass Rose; its vines could sprout anywhere as long as there was warmth. And right now, Evan was definitely warmer than the environment. The seeds sprouted on the slashes I made and it was impossible for him to get rid of them. Within seconds, he was encased in vines and a single rose grew from it. White with a tint of blue. Evan truly believed what he was told by the masters of the organization, thinking he was helping the city by eliminating what they considered dark mages. How innocent in so many ways I thought as I bent down to take the rose.

Talon came out of the cave and glanced at the body. “We can hide that in one of the numerous caves around. No one would be able to find him. We should clean you up,” He helped me onto my feet and flew with me to his tribe.

6th chapter. Any comments? - Wolf