CHAPTER 1117: A STORM OF FEATHERS

Jake focused his senses, as rather than panic in his moment of crisis, he felt a deep sense of calm that allowed him to respond the best way he possibly could. The final gambit of the Warlord had bound Jake tightly in a fashion not easily escaped. It wasn’t his physical body that was restrained, but his soul, and even if said soul was far more powerful than the norm, a B-grade willing to burn its own existence was still more than capable of affecting it.

Even if his body couldn’t move, Jake could still mobilize his energies. Realizing he couldn’t use it to free himself, he instead summoned a barrage of arcane bolts that flew up toward the descending Rainbowfeather Sovereign.

At the same time, he conjured a large arcane orb right in front of himself as Jake’s body began glowing with arcane light as if he was about to blow himself up. The B-grade bird ignored Jake’s attack as it easily deflected Jake’s arcane bolts, but they still exploded, serving as a temporary distraction.

A fraction of a second later, the large arcane orb in front of Jake also exploded as his body erupted with arcane energy. For a mere moment, he was freed from constraint, the timing so brief Jake didn’t even have time to try to take a single step... but what he had been able to do was use another skill.

From the perspective of the Rainbowfeather Sovereign, it saw its prey constrained before several enormous explosions of arcane energy limited its view of what was happening. Right as things began to clear, it saw the human darting to the side, having freed himself from constraints.

Jake saw the Sovereign instantly change direction as it charged toward the fleeing Jake... unaware it was chasing shadows. Fully constrained, Jake moved slowly to free himself as the Rainbowfeather Sovereign crashed down upon his Eternal Shadow like a meteor, tearing it apart entirely before continuing down and slamming into the ground.

A shockwave of force washed over Jake, and a moment later, he heard its cry of anger upon realizing it had been tricked. Jake knew he was still in a tricky situation, but luckily, the Warlord had weakened a lot at this point. It was already dying, and while Jake’s explosions had primarily been to obscure the vision of the Sovereign, it had also helped speed up the Warlord’s demise.

To fully free himself, Jake also took out Eternal Hunger as he forced his arm free. Throughout the fight, Jake hadn’t even needed to use his built-up Hunting Momentum, but now he unleashed all of it at once. With full power, he stabbed the ghostly version of the Warlord that let out a faint screech before he lost all focus in his eyes, and as Jake felt the last whispers of life leave the Simivita, he knew he had successfully slain his first B-grade.

Not that he had any time to celebrate the notifications or even the two levels gained. A beam of rainbow light shot toward Jake as he was still restrained, as the spirit fog faded away. All Jake could do was angle his body slightly to the side, making the beam strike him in the shoulder where it pierced straight through before continuing to embed itself in a tree... after passing through two others first. As the energy faded, Jake saw it had been a single feather, with its origin approaching Jake swiftly.

Gritting his teeth, Jake tore away the rest of the spectral limbs that no longer contained any strength, as the rest of the spirit fog would soon be fully dispersed. Just in time, too, as Jake had to avoid three more feathers as he fled to the side, trying to get away from the Rainbowfeather Sovereign.

He had only briefly seen the creature and only experienced a few attacks, but from that alone, one thing had become absolutely clear:

It was far more powerful than the Simivita Warlord.

“Even in death, that damn ape couldn’t prove useful,” a voice echoed throughout the jungle as the Rainbowfeather Sovereign floated forward. “I hoped to finish this quickly, but it appears that will not happen.”

Jake quickly took out his bow as he prepared to go on the offensive.

“You killed my kin. Slaughtered the expansion I ordered made within this area. For that, I’m obligated to seek vengeance, no matter who or what you are,” the Rainbowfeather Sovereign said with a sigh. “Such is my Path.”

Arrows curved around trees as they came for the B-grade, but the Rainbowfeather dodged both as he shot out his own feathers in return, and to Jake’s surprise, they could also curve as four came straight for Jake.

Dodging out of the way while returning fire and continuing to move, he expected the Sovereign to lose his location. However, to Jake’s surprise, the B-grade accurately located him continually, no matter how much he moved around the dense jungle. What was even weirder was that Jake knew the bird couldn’t actually see him, yet it was aware of his location.

Jake began to retreat, and when the distance reached about five hundred meters, the B-grade finally gave chase. Right then, Jake also detected something. It was subtle, but the Sovereign was giving off an odd sound, one that Jake couldn’t actually hear, but he faintly felt the movements of the sound waves through the jungle.

Echolocation? Jake asked himself as he realized how the Rainbowfeather could see him. These birds were natural experts in sound magic, and this was evidently just another application of it, as the B-grade could seemingly create something similar to Jake’s Sphere of Perception through sound.

However, it appeared that the range was limited to about five hundred meters, which was far less than Jake’s own Pulse of Perception. It was larger than his constantly active Sphere of Perception, though that wasn’t something Jake couldn’t fix.

For now, he had a far more pressing issue. The Rainbowfeather Sovereign didn’t immediately charge for Jake but simply sought to keep him within a couple of hundred meters at all times as the B-grade sent out constant ranged attacks.

Usually, this kind of situation would be great for Jake. He could dodge every single feather relatively easily, and while the B-grade also dodged Jake’s arrows, he would have confidence in being the first to land a hit under usual circumstances.

This wasn’t the usual circumstances, and Jake realized this Rainbowfeather was a lot more calculating than the Warlord had been. It had observed the fight between the two, and likely concluded that Jake was a threat, which made the Sovereign approach the fight using the safest strategy it could come on:

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Buying time.

While Jake had beaten the Warlord convincingly, the fight had still consumed a lot of energy. What’s more, Jake had activated his boosting skill fully, effectively putting him on a timer. Meanwhile, the Sovereign hadn’t needed to boost itself yet, and its resource pools were full. All the bird needed to do was drag things out long enough, and it would eventually come out victorious.

Jake knew this, and he knew the status quo had to change. He was now experiencing the other side of what Jake had put the Warlord through, and Jake could agree it sucked. The difference between them was that Jake had a lot more means of combat than the ape.

While shooting out arrows, Jake summoned his wings to maneuver better. At the same time, he burned the blood within them, creating a gas cloud that spread as he retreated, forcing the Sovereign to enter if he gave chase.

The B-grade did, but once more had countermeasures as a whirlwind of energy appeared around the bird, pushing away all the gas. Jake wasn’t deterred as he kept creating the poison mist, his arrows also continuing to curve around trees, trying to hit the Sovereign that responded by sending out more feathers.

Shortly after, Jake landed his first arrow. It had curved in from an awkward angle, taking the Sovereign by surprise as it took damage for the first time. Not even ten seconds later, another one landed, Jake having gotten better at making his arrows more unpredictable and making sure more of them would prove problematic at the same time.

Jake didn’t do a lot of damage with these arrows, but the fact he was hitting at all showed that the fight was progressing in Jake’s favor.

“The Rainbowfeather clan is one of the oldest races on this planet. I am fully aware that we are but a small speck of dust in the cosmos, but is our dust. All the races of this world grow up quickly, reaching C-grade within a few years of birth, and within a decade, all are fully grown. This planet is a gift, yet also a curse. This growth makes us powerful fast, yes... but it also limits us. Becoming a B-grade is something that cannot be done unless something extraordinary happens,” the Rainbowfeather Sovereign suddenly spoke despite not letting up its attacks while also taking one more arrow from Jake.

“There are only a few ways to improve our growth. One is through natural resources found throughout the planet, which is why we occupy different territories and compete. The second is through the greatest source of Records this planet receives... hunters,” the B-grade spoke as it closed in, its attack speed increasing while doing so.

“I am fully aware that you think of this as some Hunting Ground. It’s no secret to any of us B-grades, but simply the reality of our existence. You hunt us, but in turn, we also hunt you. You hunters carry Records that are incredibly valuable to us. I became what I am today through consuming the heart of someone others once referred to as a genius. What about you? What shall my kin consume from your body?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt eating me would be healthy. I’m quite toxic, if I say so myself,” Jake responded in a lighthearted tone.

“Then let only the strongest of the young survive consuming your flesh. All it shall do is strengthen the next generation. Your death shall be another warning to never make enemies of the Rainbowfeather clan,” the B-grade said, as it was now within a hundred meters.

That’s when the Sovereign also took things up a notch. Jake felt the movements of mana as the B-grade unleashed a barrage containing hundreds of rainbow-colored feathers that all honed in on Jake from nearly all sides. Blocking them was out of the question as Jake stepped down and sought upwards. While he had wanted to fight the Warlord within the confines of the jungle, he didn’t have the same desire when it came to the Rainbowfeather Sovereign.

The bird wasn’t solely a melee fighter, and it was clearly suited to fighting in the jungle. Jake didn’t even have his spherical vision advantage. Due to that, Jake would prefer to battle in the open air, where neither of them could use the terrain to their advantage.

Teleporting three times, Jake soon appeared far up in the sky as the storm of hundreds of feathers flew out of the jungle below toward him. Jake released hundreds of arcane bolts in return, trying to shoot them down in mid-air, but a few still got through as Jake ended up receiving half a dozen cuts from feathers he couldn’t fully dodge.

Before these feathers could turn around and strike again, Jake released a pulse within his Pride that severed the mental connection the Sovereign had with the feathers for a fraction of a second. That fraction was enough as they all lost power and stopped their flight before harmlessly fluttering in the wind as they fell to the ground.

Despite the pain from his newly received cuts, Jake nocked an arrow and took aim at the Sovereign below. Charging an Arcane Powershot, he waited for the B-grade to give chase, but to his surprise, the bird stayed below, watching.

Jake clicked his tongue as he eventually had to let go of the string. The Sovereign, having nothing else to focus on, effortlessly dodged to the side before bending both of its ostrich-like legs. It went down in a squat before shooting upwards a moment later with absolutely insane speeds.

A blink of an eye later, a clawed hand met katars as Jake found himself pushed back by the sheer momentum of the bird. Jake was sent spinning through the air as he tried to stabilize himself. He thought he had time, but the B-grade instantly changed direction mid-air and was already upon him again, forcing Jake to block a second time as he was blasted away.

Through his sphere, he saw the Sovereign not fly around, but jump. Whenever it pressed its feet hard down, mana gathered instantly, creating stable platforms and allowing the beast to jump rapidly, giving it far greater speed than usual.

“Before D-grade, we Rainbowfeathers are flightless birds. The wings are there to help grant us greater speed as we travel through the jungle, but the true source of our speed lies in the legs,” the Sovereign said as he closed in again.

Jake was ready to block another powerful claw, but instead, the bird twisted its body, created a platform beneath one foot, and used the other to kick forward. Jake barely reacted in time by jumping backwards while blocking with both hands, but the impact still sent his katars smashing into his chest, and he felt the bones in his arms crack in several places.

“And for some of us, our legs also become our greatest weapon,” the Sovereign said confidently, while lowering its leg. “At first, I wanted to finish this swiftly, but you avoided that. Then I wanted to kill you safely, but you also made that difficult. Now, I shall kill you holding nothing back.”

With those words, Jake’s chance of fighting back properly was lowered significantly once more. He was already struggling with the speed of the Rainbowfeather Sovereign, and as the B-grade’s body began to glow with rainbow light and its aura spiked toward the heavens, things were only beginning to look even worse.

Despite knowing this, Jake remained calm and spoke. “You really like hearing the sound of your own voice, huh?”

“Well,” the Sovereign shrugged as it leaned slightly forward. “I am a songbird.”

The B-grade stepped down and practically teleported to appear in front of Jake. In response, Jake stepped down himself a fraction of a second earlier as he teleported to the side, spinning around as he nocked an arrow. With another step, the Sovereign’s taloned foot appeared mere centimeters from Jake’s face as he also teleported once more before releasing his arrow.

His timing had been good, and the Sovereign didn’t even have time to register the incoming attack before an arrow penetrated its feathers and into its flesh. The B-grade let out an annoyed sound as the rainbow energy surrounding its body disintegrated the arrow, but from this one hit, Jake was sure.

The Rainbowfeather Sovereign was stronger than the Warlord. It was faster. Far better at fighting. It likely even had more abilities and methods of combat. However, it was inferior to the Warlord in one crucial aspect:

Durability.

Which meant that even if things were looking tough, and Jake was confident he had seen far from everything the B-grade had to offer, he still saw a path to victory... though he was on quite a tight timer as his body was already beginning to shown signs of breaking down from overusing his boosting skill.