"The bird wasn't a giant eagle. It didn't look the same, it also didn't taste the same" Bonar thought as they ate barbecue together.

If anything, the bird looked more like a giant crow rather than eagle. I had a larger wingspan, and was more vicious. But it wasn't what they were looking for.

The farmer came riding by with his cows as he waved

"Oh! Good! You killed one of those damn Thunderbirds" he smiled

"Thunder..birds?" Bonar asked

"Yeah. That's what the tribal people call them on account of them seemingly around whenever there is a thunderstorm" he said

They chatted briefly and Bonar offered him some meat, which he rejected, before he went on his way.

"Sorry Boner. I can talk to animals, but I don't know all the animals that exist" Daphne said

"Don't worry. It's not your fault. Maybe if we go to Gloryshine, the Capital City of our nation Aldergard, we can enter a library and read up on all the animals there are" Bonar said

"Really? That would be great" she said happily

"Yeah. And maybe we can find more places with giant eagles" he said

It seemed an endless journey to go "north" to find the Snowy Mountains without a map.

Blindly asking people they passed by wasn't very efficient. 

It was probably better to stop at a major city and get more accurate information before proceeding. 

Bonar discovered that Daphne read at a higher level than he did and could read faster and count bigger numbers than him. 

He had been trained by Morgan, but she said she had to sneak off and learn by herself in the Duke's household. 

She was incredibly intelligent, showed by her mastery of her fighting style and her manners she had secretly acquired while watching others at the Duke's mansion. 

Furthermore, she got the receptionist at Desivir to teach her in between each mission. 

So a trip to the capital would be beneficial for Daphne too. 

However, they discovered after asking around, that the capital Gloryshine was to the south, and they were already pretty far north of Aldergard. 

Even so, at least most people knew where Gloryshine was. No one had even heard of the Snowy Mountains. It could be any mountains with snow!

Was the phoenix lying to them? Or maybe the phoenix had its own names for places, and humans named them differently!

"Shit! We have no choice but to go to Gloryshine then" Bonar grumbled, unhappy that they had wasted time travelling blindly. 

But at least he managed to see and rescue Ariana. 

They turned and headed south and stopped for the night next to a lake.

Though they didn't need baths, nor did they need to relieve themselves due to Jasmine cleaning and handling their waste, whenever they had the opportunity. they took it.

At the same time, Jasmine drank up water from the lake when Bonar took a bath.

Daphne was playing with Pokey innocently as Bonar watched her play.

Manty lay by the fireplace, enjoying his meat.

Suddenly, a group of men came by, some on horses, others by foot and they were all running for their lives

They didn't even stop to see Bonar and Daphne, not even looking at the docile manticore eating a large chuck of meat. 

They looked like knights, however they were badly injured and some were even throwing off their armor to escape faster. 

"What the..." Daphne said, watching them run by. 

"Pokey... protect her" Bonar said, wading out of the pool. 

Just before he got out, suddenly several black blurs moved past them at supernatural speeds. 

Several of them stopped and turned to look at Bonar. 

"We are not your enemies. Please do not attack us" Bonar said, with his hands up. 

The 3 consisted of two men and a woman, dressed entirely in black. 

Their eyes glowed red when they looked at Bonar and Daphne.

They were vampires... but Bonar and Daphne didn't know that. 

Suddenly the man jumped at Bonar as he instantly retrieved his spear from the ring he always wore on his right hand. 

The man's claws clashed loudly with Bonar's spear. 

Manty roared loudly and got ready for battle. 

The other black blurs turned around and surrounded them by the lake. 

Bonar was shocked as the man was pushing him backwards. 

"He... he's stronger than me?" Bonar thought as he used the man's strength to spin his body around and attack the other way. 

The man caught his spear easily and pulled it out of his grasp, ramming it into Bonar's chest. 

But to the man's surprise, Bonar smiled and punched him in the face, causing the man to fly backwards. 

Daphne had run to shore by now and a woman suddenly attacked her at supernatural speeds. 

Daphne closed her eyes and screamed, but Pokey blocked her attack. 

The woman was surprised and attacked using both her claws, attacking multiple angles and directions. 

But Pokey blocked it all before enlarging itself and jumping onto Daphne, forming a sphere around her. 

She could breathe in there, but could only watch helplessly as Bonar and Manty fought. 

Multiple vines shot out from Bonar's ass into the ground, and all around suddenly vines popped out of the ground and attacked the black clad people. 

While the people were more powerful than the vines, able to chop them off, but the vines seemed endlessly regenerating. 

Suddenly, the vines changed tactics and each hit it hit, caused the opponent to either get frozen or get set on fire. 

Jasmine's evolution not only made her stronger, but her vines now dealt great damage to the vampires, mainly because the fires and ice are the levels produced by a phoenix and ice dragon. 

The vampires faced the hydra like enemy, with each vine sprouting more than two replacements. 

Jasmine also released pheromones that was a hallucinogen, disabling the vampires for a moment as the vines entangled them and tried to eat them. 

"Foolish" an extremely beautiful woman stepped forwards, looking at the situation. 

Her eyes met Bonar's and he attacked her, knowing that she was the leader.