“We just have to continue running and we will soon see the tree I told you about!” Rick yelled.

 It was not only the fleeing trio’s stamina that had started to wear off. The group of mauloos had also slown down after all this running. At first the group of mauloos had shorten the distance between them and their meal, but they were not able to maintain their top speed for much time, though they were still pretty close.

 After running for what seemed like an eternity, the group finally had left the forest and with the trees out of the way they finally saw the hope they had been waiting for, an extremely tall tree was within sight distance. The tree was weird in shape, it being way taller than the other trees didn’t make it more hefty, it was just very long and in the top of it there was a huge, and bushy crown.

 “That’s the tree you talked about, I hope?” Asked Shila, who was now lacking some oxygen and was even considering casting [Energizia] on her so she could keep her performance.

 “Yeah, that’s it! We are getting close! We should reach it in a minute or two with our current pace!”

 “Heh! That say you! I can reach it in less than a minute!” Benttotopotzki bragged as he ran faster than before, even sprinting past Shila who had been the quickest during the entire chase. But just as fast as he augmented its speed he lowered it when he saw that flying near the top of the tree was something huge flying next to it. “R-Rick, that’s a Great Socer!”

 “Great Socer? So that’s the name of that bird?” Rick asked while finally taking an actual look at the creature, […Can’t see its stats… I guess it’s because I’m too far away from it, or maybe because it’s way stronger than me… Either way we have to continue running!]

 Shila thought Rick was talking to himself, then she remembered that he was able to speak to the pochie that was accompanying them. She said nothing, just listening to the conversation between Rick and the pochie, although she would only be able to understand Rick’s end of it.

 “Yeah, that’s a Great Socer! And they can be very violent creatures too! I don’t think we will be able to freely climb that tree…”

 Rick had not had any experience dealing with Great Socers, but he trusted Benttotopotzki’s judgment so climbing the tall tree was now out of question. With plan A discarded the other two options were making the mauloos fight the bird, or Shila beating the mauloos.

 “Shila,” Rick said, “Benito just told me about that huge bird there… That’s a Great Socer, and apparently it’s a very violent bird. It won’t let us climb, so I ask you… Can’t you fight the mauloos?”

 “I thought of it too, you know… But I wouldn’t be able to beat all three of them.” Shila said, “I have used too much magic, and my runes too.”

 They were about to reach their destination, and as they continued approaching the tree the bird stared at them menacingly. It was such a threatening stare that all three of them felt chills down their spines. Rick had to think of something, and think fast. Plan A and C had now been abandoned, so the only viable option, was for the bird to “help” them in some way, and Shila fighting the weakest mauloos, perhaps with the aid of Rick and Benttotopotzki.
And that’s when Rick thought of a hail mary, it was all or nothing.

 “You said you have used most of your magic…” Rick asked Shila, “So that means you have some left, correct?”

 “Yeah, I could use some of my runes, I suppose… They have some magic stored in them left. Why?”

 “Because there’s only one way I can see us getting away from this one alive, and that’s with the help of that Great Socer! We have to make it fight the mauloos, and in the worst case scenario we will have to fight against them too!
I’m sure you noticed already, but the huge mauloo, the one closer to me is the strongest one! But the others are way weaker!”

 “How do you know that? Of course I know the bigger one must be stronger, but just how do you know that we will be able to beat the other two!?”

 Rick still didn’t know whether to confide his abilities to Shila, even so it would be far too difficult to explain in the current condition, that is running away from the fatal peril behind them, so Rick just gave a simple answer, “In the same way I can talk to Benito, I can kind of… Feel the aura of things… So just trust me on this! We can fight the other two, is just the big one we need help with!”

 Shila hesitated yet again, but it’s not like she had many options to chose from, “Ok! I trust you! So what’s your big idea, huh?”

 “Shoot the tree with one of your spells! When you saved me I saw you use a lightning spell or something before I fainted… At the time I thought you were an angel or an illusion, but it must have been true, right? You can use magic to attack, right?”

 “A-Angel? What’s that…? Never mind! Yeah, I can use magic to attack… But why would I shoot the tree? What good would that do? I would just be wasting my magic!”

 “Our aim is for that Great Socer to fight these mauloos too! If you shot that tree with fire or lightning or some sort of attack magic, it will probably think it was the mauloos… Even if he ends up attacking us, he might end up fighting the mauloos too! That’s our only chance of survival!”

 “At this point… It’s not like there’s any other option left. Let’s pray to Maratrustra for our success! I can cast a [Piroania] spell, it’s a fire spell used for offense, so that should do the trick.”

 The plan was set, so when they were within a certain distance Shila would shoot her fire spell. They were about a minute away from reaching the tree at their current running pace, and that’s when Rick yelled, “Shila, do it now!”

 And as soon as he shouted those words Shila screamed in unison to Rick’s instruction with the magic command to cast her fire spell, the command was [Piroania]. She had already been holding one of her fire runes, just waiting for Rick’s instruction, and at the same time she cast the spell she extended her arms and took the rune with both of them, and from it an explosive ray of what looked like fire was shot towards the top of the tree. Though it did not actually reach the top of the tree, it reached far enough so that the Great Socer noticed it and, startled by the fiery beam, descend at high speed with the goal of eliminating whatever intruder was within its grasp.

 “Well… Here goes nothing!” Rick said, and for a split second he thought that maybe this plan hadn’t been such a good idea either. The prospect of dying being munched by mauloos’ jaws or by the huge beak of that thing that would soon attack indiscriminately, neither of those seemed like a nice option and if Rick and company wanted to avoid either outcome they would have to fight.

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 Thanks for reading, I will probably be updating the previous chapters with some new images during the next few days, in case you want to look at the art and stuff. :)