System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 21: Crimson Vulture

"Damn forest!" Damon cursed as he swung his tachi through the overgrown underbush.

The deeper they ventured into the forest, the thicker the vegetation grew, and now it had gotten to a point that without Damon cutting through with his tachi, they wouldn’t be able to take a single step further.

The forest itself was unsettling to begin with. It was eerily silent, so much so that the occasional rustle of the leaves carried by the wind made each of them freeze mid-step. There were no insects either, not that Damon minded, but it was still an eerie sight as he had never heard of a forest with no insects.

Every now and then, when the tree tops swayed, they could see the black jagged lines across the sky. But nowhere near enough to locate the direction of the rift core.

Damon’s unease only grew with each step. For a reason he couldn’t explain, he felt a bad premonition.

But finally, after what felt like eternity, the trees opened up to reveal a large clearing near a mountain cliff. The drop below wasn’t great, maybe a dozen meters.

Looking across the sky above Damon frowned slightly.

’We need to climb down...’

The jagged lines led straight ahead, down the mountain cliff and further down into the forest below.

"Are... Are we climbing down?" Victor asked, his eyes pulled forcefully away from the edge of the cliff. The scrawny man seemed to be afraid of heights... just like everything else for that matter.

"We are-" Damon’s words were cut short as a sudden loud shriek tore through the air above.

Instinctively, his head whipped around to see a smear of dark red dove down toward them.

He barely had time to lift his tachi to block the monster’s claws as its beak plunged into his shoulder. Hot-white pain exploded from the wound, the bird’s massive wings flapped around, so big that they covered Damon’s entire field of view.

He grimaced at the pain as he tried to shake the monster away, but the overgrown bird was strong, overwhelmingly so.

Luckily, Damon wasn’t alone.

Seeing that struggle, Victor did the only thing he could think of... he lunged at the beast and wrapped his scrawny arms around its torso.

With Victor hanging on the bird’s torso, Damon found an opening to free his weapon. He tore the tachi from the monster’s claws and slashed across its wing.

The bird shrieked in pain before flailing around. It tried to take off, but with one of its wings damaged and Victor still hanging on its torso, Damon’s eyes widened as the bird’s single flap of the wings sent it and Victor over the cliff’s edge.

He watched them hit the ground below with a heavy thud.

[You have slain a Level 19 Crimson Vulture]

[New Monster Index bonus: +4 Stamina, +4 Dexterity] 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

[You have reached Level 15. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

Ignoring the incoming system messages, Damon began to climb down the cliff.

His skin was cut across the jagged edges numerous times. He only took a single glance down, noting that Victor wasn’t moving before picking up the speed of his descent. With each step down, he was a moment away from falling, but it wasn’t until he was maybe two meters from the ground that he finally lost his grip and dropped to the ground.

A jarring sensation exploded across his limbs as he hit the ground, but his heart was racing, and the images of Victor dropping down were still fresh; he ignored them, running toward the two fallen figures.

"I... I levelled up..." Victor mumbled, a faint smile creeping across his pale face.

Damon grimaced at the sight as he approached. Both of Victor’s legs were twisted in unnatural angles. Even looking at them sent shivers down Damon’s spine. Luckily, his upper body landed on top of the Crimson Vulture, so it was only his legs that were broken.

But without a hospital and Victor’s eyes visible trailing away, Damon could tell he didn’t have much time.

He lingered for a moment, his mind racing, before a realisation struck him.

"Your ability! Use it!"

"Huh...?" Victor’s eyes swayed as he turned his head toward Damon. He stared at him for a moment too long before his lost eyes widened slightly at the realisation.

With a heavy grimace on his face, he lifted his right arm, and a moment later, flickers of pale blue light began to materialise around his palm. They danced around his hand for a moment before moving toward his legs.

Damon’s eyes widened as he watched the unnaturally twisted legs set themselves back in place. He could almost hear the bones snap back to where they were supposed to be as all the wounds on his companion’s legs healed in almost an instant.

Even Victor’s dizziness from the blood loss had vanished, his eyes snapping back into focus.

Without a moment wasted, he pushed himself off the ground, raising to his feet with a pleasant surprise on his face.

"This is amazing! I can’t believe-" Victor didn’t get to finish the sentence as his body suddenly slumped to the ground, hitting the muddy earth with a wet thud.

’Mana backlash...?’ Damon questioned in his head, more to himself than to anyone in particular.

"Yes," Kitsune replied.

Damon’s eyes snapped up. She was still on the cliff’s edge, white fur stark against the sky, staring down at him with those unreadable crimson eyes.

’You didn’t sense the presence of that bird?’

"Of course I did," she replied before jumping off the cliff and falling, oddly slow, toward him. "I knew you would handle it," she added just as she landed, in her fox form, on his shoulder.

’Still...’ Damon began, but shook the thought away. No point wasting time on it now.

He turned his attention back to Victor, who was lying on the ground before him.

"Single use of ability gave him a backlash..." Damon almost chuckled at the thought, but held it in. "Even so... to heal such injuries in almost an instant? He might turn out to be a better ally than I thought."