I ducked, throwing my arms over my head as I ran for cover. Unfortunately, being on top of a spire with nothing between me and the sky, I didn't have much to go on.

The thing screeched at me, opening its bony beak wide enough to swallow me whole. My heart pounded in my ribcage, going all the way to my ears. The wind, if possible, began blowing even harder. What—where did these things come from? They weren't here when I climbed up!

An alcove formed by a fallen chunk from the frieze lining the temple's gable sped into view. Not enough for a decent shield, but it'd do. It's not like I have any other choice.

I dove for it, summoning my sword just as claws swiped for my head, grazing the ends of my hair. Whirling, I swung. Embers colored the blue sky red as my blade slammed against the creature's head. Reverberations traveled up my arms and down my spine as the beast ground against my blade, its beak snapping up and down.

It gave me a good look at it. Razor-sharp wings made of nothing but tattered splotches of feathers, empty eye sockets that could still somehow tell where prey was, claws curved and sharp enough to gleam against the setting sun—it's a bird skinned of everything save for bones. What the fuck were these things?

I grunted, my arms straining against the bird's quivering shoves. My blade, despite being made of dragon scales, creaked against its weight. Not long. I didn't have long. All the more reason to get out of here before all my hard work retrieving the Book became for nothing.

With a yell, I pushed against the bird. My feet dug into its ribcage, using it as a jumping pad as I flipped backwards. I landed on my feet, and before the bird could recover from its recoil, I dashed towards the steps leading down the ruins. Probably not a good idea to run on stairs not wider than my arm span with steps barely the length of my foot, but I'd take that over being dinner to a creature that didn't even have a stomach.

I was close to the rim of the spire when a blur of ivory zipped to my right. My side erupted in pain as it collided, the force driving my feet off the ground. That's the third time in a span of a week!

Gritting my teeth, I stabbed down with my sword, the blade's tip hitting the dirt with a distinct thwack. I tightened my grip as the inertia enveloped my body and stopped my flight. The soles of my boots skidded against the cobblestones marred with blades of grass and splotches of moss.

That's close.

Another screech made me turn. Dive-bombing from the sky was another bird, screaming its bloody head off. I scrambled back just as its talons clawed the ground where I was once at. Both birds turned to me, and I leveled my blade. Then, we met halfway.

My movements blurred in my periphery. All my brain focused on was to make sure I had all my limbs attached to my body and I wasn't leaking my guts out in a random spire with nothing but a ruined temple to witness my demise. That's not the best way to go, honestly.

I twirled and slashed, my blade twanging against wings, beaks, and the occasional neck disc. The bird to my left lunged and I thrust my sword straight through its chest. "Ha!" I shouted in triumph.

The creature opened its beak and rose into full height. With my hand still gripping my blade and stuck between its ribs, it meant dragging me along with it. Oh.

With a strong whirl, it flung me away from my weapon, sending me rolling a long way off. I cursed and opened my hand to call my sword back. It answered immediately, closing in the distance between as. The bird lunged. The hilt slammed against my palm, but not without enough force to at least throw my shoulder back.

The ground took hold of my weight.

Wait. Was I on the spire's edge all along? Well, what about the stairs?

I fell into the open air.

A scream tore off my mouth as my hair broke out of its confinement and began flinging everywhere. The wind roared in my ears, tearing whatever unholy noise coming out of my mouth off. "Haalor!" I called to the heavens, my limbs flailing out of my control. "Now's the best time to do that summoning thing!"

The heavens remained silent. If there was anything happening in it, it was because it was laughing. At me.

Damn it. "Haalor!" I called once again. Nothing.

I looked down. My mistake. My heart froze in place as I saw how the canopies neared. Oh, dear. I was going to be impaled by the branches. I was going to break all my bones once I slammed into it. No, no, no.

I summoned the Book of Darkness. The wind ripped at its pages, making it hard to see if there was something written on it. Speech Transfer. Yeah. That. I shuffled through lines upon lines of spells and skills. What the fuck? Shouldn't these be engraved in my skills list already? Why did I have to read them like an effing grimoire?

Shit. Wings. I needed something to make me fly. I flipped to the next page. Nothing but attack spells. Shit. Shit. Shit. I didn't even have the HP required to cast most of them!

The carpet of green and orange reached out to me. I squeezed my eyes shut and prepared for a whole dimension of pain. Something closed around my arm and hauled me up, leaving my gut in the forest floor.

"It's a nice day for kurkurye-slaying," Heather's voice penetrated the darkness and the haze of noises surrounding me. I opened my eyes to find my feet gliding past the canopies, getting dragged by something. Or rather...someone. I raised my head to find Heather's long, red wings spread in the air, her clawed hand around my arm. She looked down at me with a fanged grin. "What are you doing sitting on your ass?"

I couldn't believe I was even hearing it being said to me. "Wha—I was falling to my death!" I screamed.

"Save your complaints to the Desk," came Trink's annoyed grunt. Aboard one of Revery's summoned beasts, he looked like he was having a good time letting his floppy ears fly back against the wind shuffling his fur. "I'm sure Maryan's going to be thrilled hearing all about your yapping."

Right. The Desk. With Maryan being my presiding officer in registering me to the guild, she was ultimately the one I would go to regarding any and all complaints I have pertaining to Raventhorne. "Never mind that," I said. "Why are you guys here?"

"Well, thanks to someone who stormed out on her ridiculous solo mission, we're out here getting our behinds whipped," Arzo said from somewhere to my left. I turned to find him holding on to Revery for dear life as they coasted across the sky in her other winged summons. "How do you always find trouble wherever you're at?"

"It's not my fault these birds are here!" I shouted back.

Heather clicked her tongue with a hiss. "Doesn't matter whose fault it is," she said. "We're here because we received intel about a mass gathering of kurkurye in various places where they're not found."

As if on cue, the two birds I'd been dealing with before I was rudely thrown off the cliff launched themselves off the spire with twin shrieks, diving towards my friends. My world tunneled and spun as Heather cursed and dove to avoid one from slamming into her. "Kurkurye are naturally lone hunters," she said through her teeth. "So I find it strange that there have been sightings of them congealing en masse, especially this place."

I knitted my eyebrows. Up above us, Revery cried as she summoned a beast straight out of thin air to take out the kurkurye out of its path towards her and Arzo. "Why?"

A dark cloud passed across Heather's face. "A few prinks here was the final resting place of The Monarch," she said. "A lot of adventurers and guilds perished in that great war. Just being near that town gives me the creeps."

The name nipped at the back of my head as Heather dropped me off Trink's beast so she could go ahead and deliver some damage to the two beasts. Arzo's psalms could already be heard against the howling winds, arms stretched out, maintaining a swirl of blue and green light between his fingers.

The Monarch. Wasn't she the game's main villain and final boss? What did that have to do with the world I could now interact with? Was this—

Heather cursed, shattering my thoughts into a thousand pieces and scattering them into the violent winds. A shadow fell over us and when I craned my neck up, I lost all of the blood in my cheeks.

The two birds seemed to have multiplied to a million in a span of seconds. Wings fluttered with noises of bones clacking against each other. Kind of like a chime, but made of ivory. The screeches turned into collective howls. It might even be heard from the neighboring towns at this rate.

Trink maneuvered our beast out of the way as another five or six shot out from the canopies to join the thickening cloud in the sky. Heather hovered close to us, followed by Revery pulling on her control over her summon.

"What in the world is going on?" Heather muttered under her breath. "This is crazy."

I was about to utter a throw-away comment when something brushed my periphery. There, carved straight into the side of the spire, was a strange symbol glowing purple.

"Heather, do you know what that is?" I pointed to it before turning to watch her expression. A memory clicked in my brain, showing me the last time I encountered something like this. Only, then, it was smaller and sported a different design. "I think I saw another one like it too, during the jjangkai mission."

"No idea," Heather replied, flicking her gaze up at Trink. "Any ideas?"

He must have been their resident know-it-all, but seeing the confusion marring his hound-like face, it wasn't a surprise that his reply was, "I haven't seen anything like it," he turned to Revery. "Have you encountered this in any of your summoner ventures?"

The spiria shook her head. Her wild blue hair had been pinned to the back of her head in a rigid bun, making her look fiercer than what she generally seemed. She nudged Arzo behind her. "You?"

He shook his head. "This is my first time seeing something like this too," he said. "I mean, I can't even read that script. What was that?"

Heather's scales crunched against each other as she tensed her muscles. "Hold that information back for now," she said. "We report to Raventhrone about this being a normal mission. Don't breathe a word about runes. Got it?"

"Wait, are we just going to leave it there?" I jerked my chin up at the congealing mass of bones and shrieks. "What if they turn to the town while we're gone? Shouldn't we at least disperse it?"

The dragonkin's eyes hardened. "We're a scouting party, Seline," she said. "We do not engage in battles meant for adventurers."

"Isn't this the perfect time to try, to give you a taste of what it felt like?" I challenged.

With a sigh, Heather mussed her uneven red hair. "Well, we did come here to hunt you down for walking out on us like you did," she said. "We're a team, whether you like it or not. I understand that we're not exactly welcoming of your idea before and we apologize for that. But, we need to win in the tournament first. Not only to preserve our license to operate but also to be promoted. We'll think about being adventurers then, yes?"

"Come on," I said, grinning at her like she wasn't just lecturing me. "Live a little."

Heather's eyes flashed as she drew her sword. "Sometimes it irks me how much you don't like not getting what you want," she said. "But you're right. It's time we live a little."

"I'm sorry for what I said," I blurted, stopping the rest of them from charging into battle. "I was just...upset that you're content with not winning and letting yourself be stepped on. I didn't realize you're coming from somewhere with your actions and choices."

Revery flashed me a gentle smile from her beast and Trink patted my arm. "It's fine, really. We're fed up with that and it's nice to have someone stand up for us, even though you really got our asses in trouble for not considering what the stakes were," he said. "But you better retrieved something out of this detour to make it worth it."

I summoned the Book of Darkness and held it for everyone to see. "What do you think?"

A hearty laugh seemed out of place in this grim situation but we all turned to our leader, throwing her head back and guffawing without hindrance. Then, she leveled her gaze at me. "You're a wildcard, Seline. Did I tell you that already?" she said. "Make sure to use that to let us win this mission."

I flipped to the middle and gave Arzo a wink. "Arz, a little boost?"

Just as the foreign yet empowering wave of energy wrapped around my veins, Heather pointed her sword forward. With a nod at each of us, she grinned. "Let's do this, Crimsons!" she yelled.

With renewed vigor, we surged forward, tearing through the wind. Towards our first mission as adventurers.