Read Part of Mine :: Chapter 13 - Phoenix

“That feels nice.” David seems to be relaxed. He took a large sip from his coffee.

Luci was busy with the different kinds of desserts on the table. He took a bite from the strawberry cake. After letting out a satisfied noise, he grabbed the ice cream plate. He had shaken up a little, after feeling a cold creamy dessert on his tongue. “These are good.”

They were sitting at the café, which is close to the city center. The building where David used to work can be seen from there.

Luci was in a good mood. David watched him, while he's enjoying himself. He had known Luci only for 3 days, but it felt like he had known him for a long time. The last few days were full of action, which is not a thing David used to do. It felt good to have a little calm moment.

“Umm… Sir?”

David turned his head in the direction the voice came. It was a young girl in a pretty pink dress. She had a large hat. When David turned to her, she fixed her light brown hair. She was a quiet beauty. She smiled warmly at David.

“I get attracted to you the second I see you. Can I get your number, please?”

“You are so pretty. But, I’m not interested. Sorry.” David answered in an instant.

“Oh okay, I am the one who’s sorry. I bothered you. Have a nice day.” She walked away slowly.

David’s face was red. He slammed his head to the table.

“You shouldn’t do such stuff.”

“Rejecting girls?” David didn’t lift his head up.

“No, slamming your body parts to everyday objects. Your S-rank passive is strong enough to destroy them”

David lifted his head up and stared at Luci.

“I’ve read some stuff, apparently awakening makes humans more attractive. So prepare yourself to reject more.”

“I’ve never been interested in this kinda stuff so…”

And then, both David and Luci were startled by the same feeling. Monsters. David switched his gaze to the sky, the source of it. A crack shattered with a loud noise.

A group of large birds covered the sky. They took laps at the sky then some of them dived into the people who were walking on the street.

“Luci!” David took out his sword and dashed forward.

“I know, I know!” Luci took out his daggers.

Luci created chains around civilians on the street and protected them from the attack. “Call the hunter association, quick!” Said to the civilians around him.

From close, the birds were huge. They were big enough to carry a bus with their long talons. They had sparkling orange feathers. Around their head, they have long red feathers sticking out. Their tails were long and shiny.

David dashed and slashed one of the birds with high speed. Slash cut through the monster’s leg. It let out a long-pitched scream. David didn’t back up and jumped. Slashed the monster’s head.

David turned his back and saw 2 civilians watching him with a confused look. “I am a hunter, please move to somewhere safe, like inside the buildings. I will protect you.” Two of them looked at each other and started running.

David saw a monster planning to dive in. “Not so fast.” He throved his sword with a high speed. It cut the monster’s wing causing it to fall. David stood in the exact place it would fall and threw a strong punch into the air. The shockwave pierced through the monster’s skull and blew its head off.

“They are weak.” David picked his sword from the ground.

“51 monsters… I need a better way to defeat them. I can’t wait for them to land. Also they are not gonna fall easily like other monsters we defeated today.”

David threw a fireball into the sky, but it didn’t do any damage to the monsters.

“Huh? This is bad.” One of them charged a fire blast and hit David.

David fell to the ground because of the recoil. His jacket’s arm was caught on fire.

He took out the fire by hitting it. “That hurt. I guess phoenixes are real, and they very much resisted fire.”

“Are you okay?” It was Luci.

“Yeah, what about… Oh, you already helped people and hid them in buildings. Good work.” David stood back up.

“So fire is not working on them. And we can’t fly.” Luci walked close to David.

“We never tried it before.”

“Tried what?”

“Luci, appear in your true form!”

<Error>

<Summoner’s Mark: The Connection cannot be used on Summon Lucid>

“What do you mean by that? I have enough mana.” David was disappointed.

Luci dashed and tried to attack one monster. Charged into them, but the monster changed its direction and flew away. Luci watched it rising to the sky. Then he looked to the sky to investigate the monster group.

“What about this one?” Luci showed the sky. Between the phoenixes, there was a different species of bird. Unlike other members of the group, it has blue-colored feathers.

“This one is an A-class. Since it has blue-colored feathers, there is a chance that the thing has water or ice powers.” Luci stated.

“Because of its colors? It hasn't attacked yet…”

“Yes? Most of the monsters carry the colors of the element they use.”

“So you are telling me to tame another monster…” David thought about it for a second. And replied: “Let’s do it. My skill only works in close contact so…”

“We need a higher ground.” Luci pointed to the fire escape stairs of a nearby building.

They ran into them and climbed to the rooftop. When they reached the top, they saw the group of monsters circling over the city buildings. Since all the civilians on the ground hid inside buildings, they didn’t have anything to attack.

“I will attract the monster's attention; you will hit it down… Gently. I can’t make the monster my summon if it’s already dead.” David said while looking at the sky.

“Yeah, sure.” Luci replied.

David created another fireball and threw it in the direction of the monsters. This triggered them and they started diving into David.

“I got you in my sight.” Luci created a large wave of fire and hit the blue-colored bird’s wing. He was right. The fire worked on it, unlike the others. It let out a loud screech and started falling. It tried to gain its balance back but there was no use.

“Now, my turn.”

David’s left arm’s wrist started to glow. The red glow turned into a dagger-like shape. He jumped from the roof and landed on the monster. It tried to shake David out of its back but it didn’t work.

“This chase ends here.” David wrapped the monster’s neck with both of his arms and cut through it with the dagger. Monster’s body turned red and shattered. The pieces collected around his wrist and then they got absorbed by a red scar-like marking.

“Oh, I…” David hit the ground hard and rolled on the street for a few seconds.

“Again? You can’t be serious!!”

David got up slowly. He felt a pain in his left arm. It would have been broken if he didn’t have the passive.

“At least it didn’t hurt as bad as the last fall. My summon’s name is Frost. Show me the skills of Summon Frost.”

<Passive Skills: Born from ice, Cold as ice, Fire resistance

<Active Skills: Fly with me, Watch and Learn

“Born from ice, huh? This one looks similar to Luci’s skill.

“Since I have no idea how to use this skill, maybe this could help.”

“Oh, ice has more area of effect than fire. Let’s try”

David raised both of his hands to the sky and held them together. A large magical cycle appeared before his hands. Ice spikes came out of the cycle and hit 5 of the monsters from their vital points. After their fall, other monsters scattered around, before other spikes reached out to them.

“They still have the height advantage… What to do... I still have enough mana didn’t I?”

<Mana: 13400/21500>

“If that’s the case, let’s try it again. Frost, appear in your true form!”

<Summoner’s Mark: The Connection used on Summon Frost>

<Mana: 3400/21500>

David’s wrist started glowing red. The street is lighted up by the red lights. Pieces come through his wrist and form a red entity. When the red glow disappeared, there was a blue-colored phoenix standing before him. It had a large red scar on its neck.

David felt dizzy after using that much mana at once, he lost his balance but the creature lay on the ground before his fall. David came to his senses after a few seconds. He was lying on the monster’s soft neck.

“Thanks, Frost.” He got up his legs. Frost also stood up. Looked to the other monsters.

“Can I ride you?” David asked.

Frost lowered his head, allowing David to ride on his back. David caressed Frost’s feathers while sitting on its back. “So soft!! Ahem… Frost, fly!”

Frost let out a loud screech and rose to the sky with a single wing flap. He raised up more and started flying above the monster group.

“This will be easier.” David said while looking at the monster group.

“Just a little bit more…”

“Luci! I will hit their wings; you will be doing finishing blows.” David talked from the link.

“Okay, I’m getting down from the roof. I will slash all of them with my chains” Luci answered.

“Frost, help me too. Hit the ones I miss.”

Frost let out a high-pitched scream. Created a little blizzard around himself, protecting David from an upcoming fire attack.

“You can use ice as a defensive tool too, that’s awesome.”

“Thank you, Frost! I have more chances to hit, thanks to you.”

“Frost is happy, he helped master,” Frost spoke.

David startled for a second because of Frost’s answer. But there was no time for that. He created the same magical circle, when Frost got close enough he fired the ice spikes. Spikes hit a large number of the monsters they started to descend.

“This time you can’t fly away.” Luci smiled.

Luci’s chains rose from the ground and pierced through the various body points of the monsters. Luci dashed forward and sliced through the rest using his daggers.

“This looks good. Come on Frost, let’s do it again.”

Frost rose up to the sky. Created a magical cycle before his beak, and launched a blast. It hit 2 of the monsters one of them started falling from the sky, Luci jumped between buildings and cut through its throat.

“Nice work, newbie.” Luci shouted out.

Frost took a sharp turn and charged another beam to the monster group. David touched lightly to Frost's head. Frost stopped the beam and speeded up.

Frost caught up to the monster group. David hit a big group of monsters using his skill. Monsters that have been able to escape, are scattered around.

Frost used his wings to create a little tornado. The wind collected the remaining monsters in one place and held them together.

“Good work Frost! One more time…”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

David used the same spell again; hitting all of his targets this time. Frost created a large magical circle on the monsters, who were falling, and hit them again. They turned into crystals before they fell.

<Hunter level 23 -> 28, Stat points +4>

<Summon Lucid level 16 -> 23, Stat points +7>

<Summon Frost level 0 -> 15, Stat points +15>

“We did it! Let’s go, team!” David lifted both of his arms to the sky and felt the soft wind on his face. Frost took few loops in the air and landed near the Luci.

“My mana is low. I’m done.” Luci was sitting on the ground.

Frost lowered his head and helped David to get off of his back. David walked to Luci and sat right next to him. “I’m not sure that I can get used to this much action.”

Frost walked close to them and sat. David leaned his back to Frost and got lost in Frost’s wing feathers.

“Hey!” Luci pulled David’s arm and tried to pull him back. David didn’t budge.

“Come on, try it too. His feathers are so soft!”

Luci had no energy left to act against David’s words. He let out a deep sigh and leaned to the Frost. “That true form thing looks like effects stay for a little while.”

David got out of the Frost’s feathers. “I wonder why it didn’t work on you.”

“I have a few theories about it…”

“The monsters, all of them are gone.” It was one of the civilians. Others heard his shout and took a step outside.

“One is still there, it’s not safe yet!”

David stood up. His body was heavy, his mana was low. Still, he collected his thoughts. “Don’t worry, this blue one is my servant. I defeated all, you can come out.”

People were standing still despite his words.

“Sorry Frost. I will see you later buddy.”

Frost’s mark glowed. The glow covered its body and shattered. The pieces collected into David’s wrist and disappeared. “See, it’s safe.”

“No more monsters around, we’re saved.”

“They saved us.”

Everyone got out of the buildings and surrounded Luci and David.

“They are our saviors.”

“And no one is hurt, this is a miracle.”

David smiled awkwardly and shook the hands of the people he helped. Luci smiled while still sitting on the ground.

“Big brother, you need to get up. If you sit on the floor too long, you will catch a cold.” Said by a little boy, holding a bear toy.

“Heroes don’t catch a cold, but they could use our help, aren't you young man?” A middle-aged man extended his hand and helped Luci to get up. He didn’t let go of Luci’s hand and shook it up with a smiling face.

Before Luci opened his mouth, everyone heard a loud engine voice and switched their gazes to it.

A red, luxurious car stopped at the street’s corner. Man with sunglasses got out of the car. He looked at the crowd with a dissatisfied face. It was Hunter Cole.