Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 265 Uh Oh

"Fuck… I've only seen these guys from afar, but this bird is almost as big as yours, Rhys."

"I'm zurrounded by children. Let's just kill it."

"No."

Everyone was now gathered above deck, all of them just looking at the colossal eagle hovering above them; hovering, as it was not even flapping its wings. Perhaps for the better, because if it did, it would surely topple the entire ship completely. Talia was about to release a barrage of her invisible cross blades, but Commander Olga quickly stopped her,

"The last thing we should do is to anger it — we are completely out of our territory," Commander Olga shook her head, "The air belongs to the bird, and beneath us lies the territory of even more terrifying monsters."

"Hm," Talia did not really push the matter any further as she just turned to look at Rhys, almost as if asking her permission to attack. After all, the only order she was going to follow was his. Rhys, however, was completely silent and not saying anything as he just stared at the roc, and with Rhys not responding, Talia just decided to rest her arms on her sides and wait.

"It is not doing anything for now, and our priority is that it remains that way. For now, all of us should remain on deck to abandon ship as soon as possible if needed."

"Or we could just kill it," Ayesha shrugged, "I've killed one before, but much smaller."

"That—"

"...I don't think we will have any chance to do that." And while everyone was either deliberating or listening as to what their next step should be, Rhys was still busy staring up at the roc; although it was hard to see its head due to its size, he was still able to make eye contact with it when it lowered its head — but most importantly…

…Rhys could actually hear the roc speak, it was an intelligent creature.

And it was angry.

"Commander Olga," Rhys then looked at Olga, who quickly turned her head toward him, "Will you believe me if I say I could understand the roc, and it's talking now?"

"Yes," Commander Olga nodded without any hesitation before looking at Prince Dubhai, who was hiding inside the ship but still peering out his head from time to time to look at the colossal bird, "You have already proven yourself credible when you spoke with the other races of the Underworld."

"Rhys…?" Katarina was the first to notice Rhys's somewhat conflicted expression, "Why…? What's it saying?"

"Nothing really," Rhys shook his head — and it is true, all he could hear from the eagle was gibberish, but he could still make out some of its words, "I think it thought this ship was some sort of prey, and when it got close and saw it was metal… it got pissed off."

"Just for that!?" Dominique could not help but just clasp her head, "We're all going to die, aren't we!? We have the world's strongest people here and we can't do anything about a goddamn bird!?"

"I'll just burn it," Agatha, who was always just welcome to do anything, was also acting slightly nervous; her hands, already itching to just make the colossal eagle go away, "I'll just burn it and get this all over with."

"No!" Before any sort of flame or smoke could come out of her, however, both Katarina and Ayesha grabbed each of her arms. The two actually already had a sample of Agatha's raw powers while Rhys was in prison, and she almost completely destroyed Wilder City with it,

"You can't even control it, you'll destroy the ship way before the roc even flies away," Katrina shook her head vehemently, "And rocs are creatures hundreds and even thousands of years old, to kill it just like this feels wrong. Commander Olga is right, we just happened to be in its current hunting ground, it's probably going to leave us alone once we're out of it."

"Ack, why are we even discussing this? And you, Commander Olga, I thought you would have more balls," Ayesha let go of Agatha, "I'll do it, I'll just jump there and kill the bird."

"I have no doubt about your ability to kill the monster, Former Commander Ayesha," Commander Olga shook her head as she quickly appeared behind Ayesha to stop her from leaping toward the eagle, "But with your track record, the roc's blood, flesh, and guts would fill this ocean, which would lure the creatures of the deep.

We will only replace the roc with even more frightening creatures of the orange ocean. The only course of action to take here is to be as calm as possible."

"Didn't you hear the recruit?" Ayesha crossed her arms, "The bird's angry."

"I don't know about you guys, but we're wasting fucking time instead of dealing with the problem," Dominique whispered out.

"Nikki's right," Rhys then let out a loud sigh, "We are wasting time — I'll try talking to it."

"Oh my god. Thank you, Rhys!" Dominique pointed at Rhys, "If this was a TV show or a book, our readers would probably already be skimming the last 800 fucking words!"

"Major Wilder, I can not advise that," Commander Olga shook her head, and the others immediately agreed, "We don't know how it will react if—"

"Only one way to find out."

"Rhys, don't be stupid. That's suicide—"

"That's my forte, Kat." And before anyone else could say anything, Rhys disappeared into the shadows. Everyone then watched as Rhys emerged beneath the neck of the colossal eagle, latching onto its feathers.

And to Rhys's credit, he was moving beneath the roc extremely well; using his threads and wind control to navigate close to its head even with one hand.

"Hey."

"!!!"

And almost immediately as he tried to whisper into the roc's ears, its eyes widened and it immediately started moving its head to look for whoever was talking to it, causing Rhys to just hold on for his life.

"Calm down, little eagle," Rhys then very calmly whispered before just using a tiny bit of force to leap across the side of the roc's eyes so that it would be aware of his presence; the colossal eagle's eyes widened, almost as if actually showing emotions as soon as it caught a glimpse of Rhys,

"Can you understand me?"

"You… can speak," the eagle slightly turned its head, once again making Rhys grab on tight as it finally spoke to him.

"Can you leave us alone?" Rhys said straightforwardly.

"You leave," the eagle's voice was almost similar to a hum, "You distracting food. I destroy and kill, use as bait, and prey will come."

"No. Please don't," Rhys breathed out, "We—"

"No talk!"

"...Fuck."

And perhaps for the very first time in a very long time, and perhaps due to the influence of the women around him, Rhys found himself letting out a curse as the eagle suddenly, but finally soared up into the sky. Surprisingly, though, there was no burst of wind at all when it did so, not even a single ripple on the ocean. How, well, magic.

"Rhys!"

"Enough tying our balls, I'm going to kill it."

"No!" Rhys shouted before any of his women could try something.

Commander Olga was right, after all — Talia would most probably kill the roc, but it would be extremely messy and would probably attract everything under the water, and same with Ayesha; she could probably kill it from the inside, but that might probably cause even more problems as the roc would fall into the ocean and most probably topple the ship… and then attract even more sea monsters.

And if the sea monsters are even anything close to what the Underworld Corps have told Rhys, then almost all of them are going to die. Honestly, if the people on the ship were any other people, and not soldiers who risk their lives every day, then Rhys would not care about them at all — and his friends were there too.

Ayesha would surely survive if the ship sinks or topples, but he did not know about the rest.

"I am going to lead it away and return through the shadows!" Rhys then once again screamed before the roc could gain some distance, just enough for everyone above deck to hear him.

"...Did I just hear him say he's going to lead it away?"

"N… No, Rh—"

"Rhys!" And before Katarina or anyone else could scream Rhys's name, Commander Olga let out an almost shrieking howl, causing everyone there to just look at her as they heard the unusual desperation in her voice, "You come back to the ship this instant, Rhys! That is an order!"

Her screams, however, were completely wasted as the eagle just continued to soar into the air. The only thing they could seemingly do was watch as Rhys started running around the beak of the colossal eagle, using his threads as some sort of rope and harness.

"Oh… shit…" Dominique, however, turned her focus back first to the roc, only to see it just suddenly turn around back toward them, "I think it's coming back! We're...

...We're all going to die!"