First, I heard a report from a few scouting Beehounds Malevolence sent to watch out for dangers ahead. It was sent to Malevolence, but I was close enough to hear it in her thoughts.
I and 50 soldiers led by Malevolence were flying near Tamsha. The man and his servants walked amid the mountains on foot (their horses were left near our camp, under the promise that the bees will watch them until our return), watching out for feathered snakes in the forests below.
'There are several dragons on the branches—the big kind. Their scent seems… ah, they were following us, Lieutenant Malevolence!'
Malevolence reacted quickly.
'More details, scout! How many of them, for how long they have been following us, what dragons these are?'
The scout began listing things she and her sisters found: seven dragons of dium and large size that they've seen. Hawks, kites, eagles, owls—I wouldn't identify any of them as Earth species if I didn't have opportunities to look at them with the system's sight.
But thanks to , the scouts knew how to call these beasts.
And by their report, two things were evident.
"Malevolence, we are being hunted." I paused. "No… *Tamsha* is being hunted. And all these dragons look like ones we've pissed off when saving the dodos."
Malevolence nodded.
"I see. They want revenge! Understandable, but they have no right. All soldiers, prepare for a fight! Father, should I send soone to warn our humans, too?"
I shook my head.
"I will warn Tamsha myself. Destroyer, let's go."
We flew closer to Tamsha, and I ssaged him we were likely to be attacked by dragons. Birds.
'Curses! Although I'm not much of a hunter, why does it feel like these birds wouldn't normally attack like that even soone who raids their nests? They aren't so smart… This sounds more like sothing crows would do.'
I looked around, trying to spot any of the hostile dragons so I could check their intelligence level with my system's sight, but saw only distant silhouettes sowhere way above in the mountains.
If they were the sa beasts we fought off when raiding the dodo nests earlier, then their intelligence was mostly average for their kind—sowhere in 10-20.
Lizard brains.
Perhaps the hostile gods aid them at us intentionally. They already modified them to make dodos hatch from eggs of other birds.
'Either way, Tamsha, prepare for a fight,' I ssaged him. 'How or why is unimportant right now.'
Then, I heard a screech from a distant spot in the sky. Through the branches of living mountains in the area, I couldn't see where exactly it ca from, but it sounded like a hawk-dragon's call.
Tamsha called sharply to his servants, and the entire group pulled out their swords.
The dragons decided it was the ti to attack.
The first of them, a large dark brown beast with a short snout and a fin with sharp ends on the end of its tail—a kite—dived from its perch high above.
It aid at Tamsha's head with its claws, and the speed of its flight gave us only a few monts to react.
'Watch out!' I shouted telepathically, raising my tail to aim at the kite with the stinger.
Although it was going for Tamsha's eyes, when the kite-dragon approached, I knew I would be blasted away by the wind wave from its wings!
"Protect Father! Intercept the threat!" Destroyer shouted, sending several bodyguards toward the kite-dragon—but they were blown away by the wind before they could approach.
The kite was diving too quickly!
At the last mont, Tamsha raised his sword to protect his eyes and made the kite-dragon slow its flight, even if the claws left long scratches on his arm.
At this mont, I charged toward him as fast as I could. The wind still blew away, but with my wings, I tore through it—and shot my stinger at the bird almost point-blank!
It hit sowhere between the scales, making the kite convulse and fall.
〔You deal 1 damage. The target is poisoned.〕
I had only a glance at the kite-dragon's status while it was still alive. The poison was evaporating its health points like desert sun evaporates water.
Its intelligence was unmodified by genes, and there was only one notable new trait amid its special abilities: "Vengeful Instinct".
〔The kite dies!〕
The beast plumted at the forest below, breaking tree trunks and raising clouds of dust and debris. But several more dragons were already attacking!
At the side, Malevolence gave telepathic commands to her own forces so they could intercept the dragons, at least when they slowed down a little. And I prepared to do my part, too.
The dragons didn't aim for bees—we clearly were too small for them to bother. Their revenge targeted only humans, and mainly Tamsha.
He and his servants shouted in alarm as dragons dived in one by one, but the screeches of bees drowned out the humans' voices.
Their attacks weren't coordinated, and sotis they even interfered with each other. But there were enough dragons that humans couldn't watch out for them all, and these beasts all were fast and agile!
At the sa ti, there were only 50 bees to help fight the beasts. We couldn't be everywhere!
Several tis dragons attacked in just a few seconds, and after the first lucky kill, we couldn't even wound them; instead, the dragons flew higher again and prepared for another dive.
'Focus on protecting Tamsha!' I ordered, trying to fly to the human without being hit by a stay dragon wing in the anti. 'Give the rest a second priority!'
'Yes, Father!' Malevolence ssaged back.
At this mont, a smaller dragon landed on Tamsha's left shoulder and flapped its wings. Its maw opened, and the beast moved it to bite off Tamsha's face. The man scread and tried to shake the dragon off, but it was a persistent creature.
I swore and flew even faster. This couldn't happen!
We *needed* Tamsha's face where it was!
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