“So, when was the last time you saw this Giant Roc?” Keldryn asked.

  “When we first set up camp here in the Spear. About four days ago now,” Mikayla replied as they descended the far-too-many steps between Astralia’s quarters and the cleared entrance hall of the Spear. Now that everything that wasn’t nailed down had been gathered into Keldryn’s dimensional bag, including a very nice bed that she was going to look forward to being able to use again, it was time to leave Astralia’s Spear for good.

  Mikayla tried not to worry about forging back out into the wilderness, having to make camp and fight monsters. She wasn’t alone this time. But she knew that she would miss the safety of the Spear.

  “Right. Rocs don’t return to their nests very often, not unless they’re nursing chicks. So we should be safe to head out,” Keldryn asserted, glancing outward at the forested tundra as they passed a window.

  He cleared his throat awkwardly. “By the way, there’s, um, something you should know,”

  “Yeah?” Mikayla was only half-listening, watching her footing.

  “About your friend who imprinted his mind on the Armour Core,”

  “Nocturnus? If this is something about how ‘the accursed Black Traitor can’t be trusted’ -“

  “No, no, nothing like that. That might be a problem when we’re back in Cliffwatch, but we’re all united against the Kaijus,” The foxkin cocked his head. “Also, he’s a talking gemstone. I can’t imagine how he could betray us,”

  Mikayla chuckled a bit, even as the reminder of Nocturnus’ likely reception gnawed at her. “Yeah, fair enough. What is it, then?”

  “The technique for imprinting a mind on a Core isn’t secret. It’s mostly the same as making a Companion Core,” He waved his gauntlet at her, showing her the Lapis Jewel that contained Bluebell’s mind. “My mum . .” he trailed off, his lips twisting. “I learned a few things about Engraving, before . .” He tried again, only to falter.

  Mikayla went to soothingly pat his shoulder, but he flinched away and soldiered on. “Point is. We don’t do that. Doing that to a sapient is taboo. Even if he wasn’t, y’know, the Black Traitor, that guy just existing is a serious crime,”

  “Really? Why? It seems . . nice. Letting a part of someone still be with their loved ones after they’re gone. Probably good for making sure their knowledge isn’t lost too,” Mikayla mused. “Then again, Nocturnus keeps whining about how there are so many things he wants to teach me but can’t because he isn’t able to demonstrate them. So it’s hardly a perfect solution,”

  “I’m not sure why it’s a problem. I think mum thought I was too young to hear about it. So it’s probably not pretty,” Keldryn mused. “Just . . try not to get too attached to him, okay?“

  Mikayla clamped down on her initial response to the idea of ‘not getting attached to’ someone who’d been such a valuable ally to her so far, reminding herself that Keldryn had her best interests at heart. “What about when there are other people around? Are we going to have to keep him secret? Would I get arrested for having him?”

  “You will probably be fine,” Keldryn reassured her. “Some people might make some fuss, but the fact is that he’s two hundred years old and you’re a teenager who doesn’t know how to Engrave Cores. No one would have any reason to believe you personally did anything wrong or illegal. But the Goliath Guard would almost definitely confiscate that Core and send it down to the main branch in the Cloudfingers, to be studied and eventually destroyed. And we don’t want that,” He could agree with her on that count, even if their reasons for feeling that way differed.

  “Oof. Yeah, okay, we’ll have to keep him quiet,”

  They paused at the door, Keldryn holding up a hand. He pulled his hood back over his head, and Mikayla watched with morbid fascination as his ears twitched and wriggled until they’d fully settled into the holes cut for them. He peered out and scanned the horizon, then breathed a sigh of relief. “No sign of the Roc. Let’s go. Run until we reach the trees, we’ll stop and catch our breath once we’re under cover,”

  “Right. On three?”

  Keldryn quirked an eyebrow. “On what?”

  “Y’now, one, two, three, go?”

  “I haven’t heard that one before. Do you move on three, or on go?”

  “It varies. Three!” Mikayla took off, glancing back and giggling when she saw the disgruntled expression on Keldryn’s face for the moment it took him to take off after her.

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  His superior stats showed their worth, as he overtook her in seconds. “This is not a good time for games,” he hissed.

  “Oh, relax, we’re fine, the Roc’s nowhere near the Spear,” Mikayla assured him as they kept running. “We’d have seen it by now if it was,”

  That was when a shadow fell over them.

  Mikayla looked up and was horrified to see a winged shape falling towards them and glowing with lightning. “Armour up!” Keldryn commanded, shoving her hard enough to send her flying and kicking off in the opposite direction.

  She stumbled, catching herself, and kept moving as the shape in the sky grew larger and began to glow with lightning. “Mana Assistance, Black Knight!” she shrieked, and the red lines of her mana drew forth black panes of translucent armour around her body.

  Her arms came up to cover herself from the blast of lightning, but through the visor of the Black Knight, she noticed that the proportions of the bird seemed off. Its wings were smaller and its head seemed too large. But she didn’t have time to think about what this could mean, because it was bearing down on her and glowing with lightning, preparing to unleash that deadly blast of force and heat.

  And then it crashed into the ground.

  The shockwave of the impact made Mikayla stumble, but she was baffled to see that the bird - which was definitely not the Giant Roc - had buried its face in the dirt from the force of the impact. It made a stifled squawking sound and pulled itself free, revealing its face properly.

  This was not the Giant Roc that she had been lucky to escape previously. It was at most one-tenth the size, with gangly proportions and cartoonishly large black eyes that had only a hint of the deadly lightning she had expected. But its feathers were the same colour, albeit a lighter shade, and the same blue electricity was gathering in its wings. It wasn’t the creature that she had been so afraid to face, but there was a definite family resemblance.

  “Is that a baby Kaiju Giant Roc?” Nocturnus sounded almost as shocked as she was.

  “Uh. There, there,” Mikayla raised a hand to the truck-sized chick, hoping against hope that she could pacify it. “Who’s a good baby bird? Are you a good baby bird?”

  “What are you doing?” Keldryn hollered at her as he appeared on the hatchling’s flank.

  “Pacifism!” she shouted back.

  “Pacifism?” Keldryn repeated in incredulous disbelief.

  “Sword!” Nocturnus suddenly insisted.

  “Sword?” Mikayla parroted uncomprehendingly.

  Her sword appeared in her hand just in time to block the snapping beak that had closed the distance in an instant and tried to take off her arm. Instead, the chick bit down on the blade and squawked as its tongue was sliced open.

  She squeaked, then remembered what she was wearing. “Mana Assistance, armour and sword to size five!” The layers of mana-conjured armour swelled and expanded around her body, she stifled a flinch as the tendrils of power worked under her eyelids and into her optic nerves, and in seconds she was looming over the hatchling. “Now shoo! Go away! Git!” she commanded, waving at the baby Roc and trying to make herself look as big and dangerous as possible.

  “What is this supposed to accomplish?”

  “It’s just a big baby! I don’t want to have to kill a baby!” Mikayla complained.

  Then another blur of feathers collided with her, and the Black Knight went crashing to the ground. Twisting her head, Mikayla groaned in pain as the claws of the second Roc hatchling raked at her hip, the newcomer shrieking in fury.

  “Lass, do I really need to tell you that those whom are big enough to eat you deserve no mercy?” Nocturnus demanded.

  Mikayla tried to get up, but the first juvenile Roc jumped on her head and drove her to the ground again, pecking and clawing at her. She struggled, brandishing her sword and trying to drive the chicks away, but they darted around her arms and kept wearing her down.

  A green giant loomed over her, and with speed she could only envy the Skyward Grasscutter’s blades came down and stabbed the wing of the second Roc, skewering it in place.

  Keldryn cursed. He’d been aiming for its chest. It had juked away at the last minute.

  The first Roc abandoned the Black Knight, naively assuming it had already been defeated, and puffed itself up with a loud shriek. Lightning began to gather in its eyes, and Skyward Grasscutter wound up for another strike.

  Then the third Roc dive-bombed him and sent him sprawling to the ground next to the Black Knight.

  Mikayla forced the only Roc still focusing on her away enough to sit up, just in time to see Keldryn get blasted with electrical eye lasers. “There are three of them?”

  “They must be the Giant Roc’s juvenile offspring,” Nocturnus determined, peering through her eyes. “Slaughter them! They are certain to provide you with more dearly needed levels!”

  Mikayla waved her sword like a baseball bat, forcing the Rocs away from Keldryn. “I’m not going to kill babies just to level!”

  “These aren’t babies,” Keldryn corrected her as he picked himself up, swallowing groans of pain and covering Mikayla’s flank as the Rocs regrouped and took wing once more. “If they were babies, they’d be sitting in the nest waiting for their mother to come and feed them. These are teenagers,”

  “They’re willing and able to kill and eat you! Show them no mercy!” Nocturnus howled.

  “He’s right. Worse, all three of these things could become a terror just as bad as their mother, given a few more years. It’s my responsibility as a ranger to nip this threat in the bud, before they leave the nest and go and slaughter villages to carve out their own territories,” Keldryn asserted, shifting his stance and preparing to strike.

  Then all three used laser vision on him.

  There was an explosion where the streams of electricity crossed, and Skyward Grasscutter fizzled as it was blown backwards.

  Mikayla grimaced. “Are we sure that’s the right thing to do here?”

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