Eric and Taia stepped out of Horizon Post, the heavy metal door groaning as it shut behind them. ‘That needs oiling.’ Eric thought, he opened the smart bracelet on his wrist to find the location they needed to go. The holographic screen showed a radar like display with a red pointer pointing south and a green dot on the center.

  “South is this way.” He pointed and gestured to Taia to follow.

  As they moved south, their boots crunched against the soft undergrowth, the only sounds accompanying them aside from the occasional distant calls of unseen creatures.

  Eric and Taia made their way south, the location where the damaged cameras were.

  “So how many times have you entered the rift?” Taia broke the silence between them.

  Eric thought for a moment. “About eight times.”

  Taia eyes widened in surprise. “Eight!” She almost stopped in her tracks, “Wait, you’re in your twenties right? Meaning… you went in when you were still a teenager.”

  Eric letting out a faint smile, “I was sixteen at the time.”

  “What, you had been recruited by that age.”

  “I actually joined when I was fourteen, I was an apprentice warrior at that time.”

  “Wow a fourteen year old apprentice warrior, at that age I hadn’t even stepped out of my fantasies.”

  “Well you are also impressive, you are a bound and more so a spirit bound.” Eric

  “Ha! I guess am also special.” She said with a smug grin, however her grin faded, looking at Eric, “aren’t you also a gifted on top of that. Yes, you have the gift of manipulating sizes of things you touch.”

  “How can I compare to you.” she said. “By the way I always wondered, can you like, enlarge a piece of gold, cut it in two and sell a piece and repeat the process again and again.”

  “Yes, yes I can.” Eric answered concisely.

  “Damn, am so jealous. Isn’t that like an infinite money glitch?” she said, “So have you ever done it?”

  “…” Eric just smiled and remained silent.

  “Huh, choosing to remain silent. So how far out are the cameras?” She shifted her focus to the task they had been given.

  “They are set a kilometer from the base, with this pace we will reach in about six minutes.”

  Five minutes later as the two moved quickly in between trees and underbrushes Taia suddenly stopped. Eric saw this and also stopped in his tracks.

  ‘I sense a huge presence in front of us.’ Taia’s voice sounded in his head. This was one of the perks she gained for being a spirit bound. He heard that at the peak of spirit bounds, they can freely manipulate souls, killing a group of people is as simple as waving their arms.

  Eric's senses sharpened as he scanned and listened for any movement. ‘How far?’ he asked.

  ‘About twenty meters ahead, should we take a detour?’

  ‘We can’t, that is our destination.’ Eric responded back his tone grave.

  ‘Let’s see it first, then plan from there.’ Eric said as he pulled out his hair stick, which then expanded to form a staff.

  Taia nodded and the two creeped silently towards the location with Taia trailing a bit behind. They moved for a few meters when Eric’s gaze landed on a huge nest sprawled across the forest floor, woven from tree branches and vines.

  Then he saw it, a huge dark creature curled up in the center of the nest. Its chest rhythmically rose and fell as it was in slumber.

  ‘So… What’s the plan, can we take down the creature.’ Taia’s voice sounded in his mind.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  ‘You… ’ Eric started to respond when he noticed the rhythmic sound of the creatures breathing stop. At some moment it had opened its eyes, four beady eyes stared right at Eric. ‘Fuck.’ Eric cursed.

  “Kreeee!” A piercing screech tore through the forest as the creature unfurled, its massive form springing to life. Eric immediately reacted, holding his staff prepared to strike or defend.

  With a sudden lunge, the creature moved towards Eric, trees on its way broke and splintered into bits, its sheer bulk moving like an unstoppable force. The beast swiped its razor-like claws in a rapid sweeping motion. Eric quickly dodged the sweeps, swiftly dashing to the side of the beast.

  The beast twisted, tracking his movements, but then the ground unnaturally caved in beneath its footing. Its limb crashed into the ground, momentarily throwing off its balance and revealing a flaw.

  The creature twisted trying to follow him, when the creatures limb landed on the ground he created a hole, the creature temporarily lost its balance revealing a flaw. Eric extended his staff, doubling its length to increase its weight, and delivered a devastating blow to the creature’s defenseless head.

  However the creature extended its wings offsetting the impact. Even though the blow was lessened it was still somewhat effective as it sent the creature staggering and dizzy.

  ‘Of Couse it has wings.’ Eric thought ‘Can you make it unconscious?’ He communicated with Taia.

  Taia immediately activated her powers. The tattoos on her body glowed blue as wisps of ethereal blue energy came out of her hands. The energy diffused into the beast’s body and its movement stopped, its head drooping low but still standing on its feet.

  ‘Did it succeed?’ Eric cautiously asked.

  An ear-piercing shriek answered him.

  ‘Nope,’ Taia uneasy voice rang in his mind. ‘It has twin souls.’

  The beast raised its head high, its wings stretched wide producing a gust of wind that swept a few branches and debris on the ground. It’s full majestic yet horrifying form fully in display. Its muscles rippled with strength beneath dark fur and its feathers bristled like sharpened blades. It stood four meters tall at the shoulder, draped in black fur, but along the base of its head, down its back up to its tail tough pointy feathers jutted outwards.

  It had four powerful limbs, each with razor sharp, eagle-like talons, while two massive feathered wings extended on its sides. Its long crow-like beak lined with interlocking teeth like protrusions gleamed dangerously under the dim light. Unbridled fury and anger poured from its four eyes that had locked onto Eric.

  ‘And more bad news,’ Taia continued, ‘it wasn’t fully awake before.’

  “That’s just great.” Eric muttered.

  The beast flapped its wing in a forceful motion pushing it towards Eric, its spread wings cutting through trees with ease. Eric hurriedly dashed to the side dodging the charge. Boom! A series of loud noises echoed through the forest as the beast landed and the trees fell down.

  At this time several arrows shimmering with a blue glow shot from the distance attacked the beast. The beast flapped its wing sending a gust of air changing the arrows trajectories. Eric had already come to its side ready to strike but its tail came quick. He had to change to defend against this blow which sent him hurtling further into the forest.

  Eric extended his staff stabbing it into the ground to creating a gulley as he came to a stop, then he immediately jumped closely missing a strike from the beast. The beast let another shriek as it followed Eric launching a flurry of slashes with its claws. Numerous trees were caught in the aftermath, several shredded branches and leaves filled the air obscuring its view. With a single flap the debris were swept away clearing the scene, the target wasn’t there.

  The air seemed still as the beast heightened its sense to the peak. It cocked its head to the right as it heard and felt the faint sound of somethings tearing the wind. It was arrows again, jumping high it dodged the arrows and charged upwards towards the direction of Taia jumping from tree to tree.

  At this time a golden tipped staff that was enlarged to the thickness came hurtling from its right side. The beast used its wings to try and shield itself but it was still knocked away, immediately following that attack was another volley of arrows. The beast hurriedly raised its other wing shielding its body. The arrows harmlessly bounced off the wing but one dug into its exposed forelimb and another into its shoulder.

  The creature let out another shriek as it jumped to another tree. It still had decided to go after the hidden archer. As it lunged to the next tree, the next second the tree which had a trunk of about 50 cm suddenly shrunk becoming like a twig. The beast’s pupils shrunk in disbelief and before it had any time to process the incident a huge staff was swinging down upon him.

  Boom! A loud sound reverberated through the forest as the beast slammed on the ground creating a crater 50 meters in diameter and causing a huge shockwave that toppled the surrounding trees in a hundred meters.

  Eric tensed his legs and jumped tens of meters into the air, the staff had been raised over his head ready to deliver a devastating blow. He had shifted the staff back to a relatively normal size and its end had changed to be pointy like a lance. The beast also realized Eric was above it and jumped up flapping its wings towards Eric. It had just stretched its claws when the arrows stuck to it pulsed with blue energy, the beasts thoughts momentarily stagnated, this was enough to decide its defeat.

  The sharpened staff went through the beasts head exiting from its neck as the two fell back onto the previous crater.

  Taia came out of hiding, “You almost knocked me down with your hit.” She said as she vaulted over the trunks scattered on the forest floor. Eric pulled his staff from the creature shrinking it and causing the blood and pieces of flesh stuck to if to fall down.

  “Sorry about that.” Eric said as he started bundling his hair, which had unraveled during the battle, into a neat bun and inserted the hair stick to fasten it.

  Taia came to the beast’s body and observed for a while before saying, “It’s still not dead.”