Haven Online

Chapter 24: Bellyborg pt2*

After giving Melting Snow the coordinates to where he was, he sat on the grass staring at the birds with murder in his eyes as he waited for Melting Snow's arrival. Since he didn't have any ranged attacks, he wondered how he would be able to take down this monster that was so skittish that the slightest sound would have it running away. Not to mention how fast it was when it was running.

Xinya wrecked his brain trying to think of a plan to take these darn birds down but, so far, couldn't come up with anything. And here he thought that Melvin's quest would be easy. How wrong he was. He sat there, thinking, as he watched the birds walk around on their thin, birdlike legs and suddenly, like lightning, an idea struck him.

A brilliant smile graced his face, he started chuckling a little evilly to himself while whispering, "I got you now, birdies. And when I'm done with you, I'll roast your meat on an open fire."

Before he could start putting his plan into action, Melting Snow burst into the clearing, startling Xinya a bit. Melting Snow jogged over to him while waving his hands to get his attention.

"Hey, why are you just sitting there? Did you give up already?" Melting Snow asked.

Giving the birds a look, Xinya replied. "No, I haven't given up just yet."

"From my point of view, it looked like you already have. Don't worry I'm here now, let me show you how it's done." Melting Snow said confidently.

"You shouldn't rush in, I have a plan to deal with them," Xinya said.

Snorting, Melting Snow said. "I don't need any plan just to deal with those birds, just watch."

Melting Snow ran towards one of the Bellyborgs, brandishing his two swords, only for the monster to scamper away before he could get close. This happened a couple more times before Melting Snow realized he needed to be more sneaky. So, he activated his race talent and tried once more with determination.

Xinya watched as Melting Snow used his tracking skills to sneak up on the Bellyborg, it seemed to be working at first but, at the last moment, the monster bolted away. This happened a few more times, then Melting Snow gave an angry roar and tried to throw his swords at the Bellyborg. Xinya lip twitched as he tried to suppress his urge to laugh, it was quite funny when it was happening to someone else. Oh well, he did try to warn him.

"Are you ready to hear my plan now?!" Xinya asked Melting Snow loudly.

Throwing a death glare at the birds, Melting Snow stumped over to him. "What do we have to do to kill those things?"

"How good is your aim?" Xinya asked while chuckling.

~~~~~~~

A while later, there was a large pile of rocks at their feet, Melting Snow was a little confused about the plan but did as he was told. Once there was a suitable amount of rocks, Xinya explained what he wanted to do in a more detailed way.

"So this is what we are going to do, instead of chasing the bellyborgs around like maniacs we are going to use these rocks to cripple and beat them to death," Xinya explained.

Melting Snow smiled while picking up a rock. "Now, that's what I call a brilliant plan."

Tossing the rock up and down in his hand, Melting Snow quickly caught it out of the air and threw it as hard as he could at one of the Bellyborgs legs. There was a loud crack, a squawk, and flapping of wings before the nearest Bellyborg fell to the ground in pain. Xinya was on it in seconds, stabbing at it with his cutlery. It died without much of a fight, and some of the anger that Xinya felt towards the birds were disappearing with its remains.

"It worked!" Melting Snow yelled excitedly, running over to see what the bird dropped, only to be disappointed. "All that hard work and it only dropped some meat and feathers."

"Well, I need the bird meat for a quest and you can sell the feathers, people need them to make arrows, you know," Xinya said.

"That's true, okay, let's split the feathers."

"You know this is only the first one, right? They might drop something better once we kill a bunch. So let's say who needs it most gets it, and the other things we can just see who wants it.

Nodding his head in agreement, Melting Snow said. "Alright, let's do it your way."

With that settled, Melting Snow went over and grabbed a few more rocks from the pile and Xinya readied his weapons. With a slight nod between them, the onslaught began. They started killing the Bellyborgs like they were going out of style. Xinya collected more than enough of the meat, he made sure to split any coins or feathers that dropped with Melting Snow. But, besides a few claws, nothing interesting dropped yet, so they decided that, after killing five more, they would stop. It was going to get dark soon. Before they could even begin, a loud squawk descended across the clearing. Looking towards the sound, they saw that it was a boss.

Melting Snow turned to him with a gleeful smile on his face. "It's never boring with you, is it? This time I will make sure to record our victory."

Xinya looked at Melting Snow, then at the giant bird in front of them, and had to hold back the urge to facepalm.