However, the bird’s response was not as depicted in fairy tales, obediently sitting on Fia’s hand as she offered the fruit.
Instead, it suddenly puffed up its feathers, its eyes turning blood red, and its entire body doubled in size in the blink of an eye.
It flapped its wings forcefully, releasing two cyan wind blades at almost point-blank range.
Even though the wind blades were only about a foot long, the gust they created made it impossible for Fia to keep her eyes open, and even the low shrubs around her swayed in the strong wind.
It was a magical creature.
Fia’s brain reacted instantly, and she clicked her tongue in frustration.
The “Witch’s Secret History” clearly recorded that this world was filled with animals unfriendly to humans and naturally capable of magic, yet she had completely ignored the danger because of the bird’s cute appearance.
“Tsk.”
Annoyed, Fia ignored the cross wind blades rushing towards her torso and instead reached out her right hand towards where she remembered the bird was.
Splat.
She caught it accurately.
Then.
The two wind blades hit Fia’s waist almost simultaneously, but they dissipated into two gusts of wind as if they had struck a steel plate.
In contrast, the bird, which resembled a small owl, was completely stunned, caught in Fia’s grip.
“Hiss… It’s just wind, but it actually hurts.”
The sting from the wind blades made Fia frown, but she didn’t realize that if it were an ordinary person, they would have been severely injured by now.
Even though it was just a first-level spell, the power of the wind blades was comparable to an iron sword’s slash.
Fia dared to take it head-on simply because she didn’t think the wind blades were anything formidable.
If this owl could speak, it would surely be cursing the gods for the world’s unfairness.
“Evil birds deserve punishment.”
Without squeezing the owl to death—that would be too lenient—Fia stood up and lightly tossed it, then raised her right foot, clad in white over-the-knee socks and boots, and kicked it hard.
Bang.
Like a balloon being popped by a needle, the bird, resembling an owl, made a dull sound upon contact with the boot and then disappeared into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Originally, Fia had planned to pick up stones and continue attacking while it was in the air, but it was clearly unnecessary now.
As if she had dealt with a trivial matter, Fia clapped her hands and began to gather the scattered fruit caused by the strong wind.
Thanks to the ungrateful bird, her bandage outfit became even more disheveled, but fortunately, she had used her cloak to cushion the fruit, or else the cloak would have been damaged too.
“Ha, no matter which world, forests are not safe places.
Better leave early—huh?” Before she could finish speaking, a sound like ocean waves came from the forest.
No, it was definitely not ocean waves.
Fia denied it in her heart.
She had stood on a cliff overlooking the entire valley, and there was nothing but forest and desert nearby, no sea.
So there were only a few possible answers left.
While quickly gathering the wild fruits with her cloak, Fia remained vigilant of the restless presence in the dense forest.
It didn’t take long for the source of the sound to reveal itself to Fia.
About twenty meters away, on the treetops, first one, then two, four… In just a blink of an eye, thousands of owl-like magical creatures floated in the air.
The sound Fia heard was the overwhelming flapping of their wings.
These bird-like creatures clustered together, blocking out the sky like dark clouds.
Their only action was to fix their red eyes on Fia, their feathers rapidly puffing up.
The only difference from the bird that had been kicked away earlier was the urgent cries coming from their mouths, clearly filled with hostility.
Not good.
She had stirred up a hornet’s nest.
Without bothering to pick up all the wild fruits, Fia quickly wrapped them in her cloak, and at that moment, all the screeching owls flapped their wings at her.
Almost instantly, the sky was filled with countless cyan wind blades, forming a near wall of wind.
Anything caught in them, whether branches or stones, was pulverized.
What a nuisance.
Holding the wild fruits bundled in her cloak with her left hand, Fia jumped back into the air.
With such force, the ground made of dirt caved in deeply under her foot.
As for Fia herself, she had already leaped higher than the birds, into the air.
At least thirty meters from the ground, Fia estimated, the physical strength of this body far exceeded that of a normal person.
While exploring the desert, Fia had tried jumping with all her might and ended up flying over a hundred meters into the air, and she had a faint feeling that a hundred meters wasn’t even the limit of this body’s capabilities.
However, it was more than enough to deal with this annoying flock of owls.
The cyan wall of wind blades suddenly slammed into the ground, shredding all vegetation, and the birds’ view was obscured by the falling leaves.
Let’s use the magic I’ve been practicing for two days.
Focusing slightly, before her body reached the highest point, Fia selected the three densest areas of the bird flock as the explosion points for her fireballs, then snapped her fingers lightly.
Almost simultaneously, three deafening explosions erupted within the bird flock.
A shockwave more violent than the wind wall spread out from the explosion points, cutting tree trunks in half and leaving massive charred craters in the ground, creating a life-forbidden zone with a diameter of about thirty meters in the forest.
When Fia landed on the damp, soft ground, the air was already filled with smoke and the lingering smell of roasted meat, along with the charred bodies falling to the ground one after another.
Probably startled by the explosions, Fia could hear countless alert and panicked roars of wild beasts in the distant forest.
Just that one move had wiped out eighty percent of the bird flock.
“Squawk, squawk!” Shocked by the powerful fireball magic, the bird flock let out panicked cries.
At this point, these owl-like creatures had no intention of attacking Fia anymore, screeching as they controlled their shaky bodies, pushing and shoving each other to flee in all directions.
“Phew, if only they had done this earlier.
Although it’s the first time I’ve used magic in actual combat, the results are surprisingly good.”
Fia clapped her hands in satisfaction.
Simultaneously creating multiple firestorms was a combat technique Fia had just grasped yesterday.
For a fireball with a diameter of ten meters, Fia could create up to twelve at once, but for a fireball with a diameter of a hundred meters, she could only create five at most.
Exceeding this number made it difficult for Fia to precisely control her focus, turning the fireballs into silver nebulae capable of causing nuclear explosions.
With a gentle wave of her hand, Fia dispersed the black smoke lingering in front of her and took a deep breath, rubbing her waist where she was initially hit by the “wind blades.”
“Fortunately, they were just low-level magical creatures, or it would have been dangerous.
Even such small creatures could make me feel pain; I can’t imagine what larger magical creatures would be like.
Speaking of which, these little birds should be low-level magical creatures, right?” The “Witch’s Secret History” mentioned that magical creatures couldn’t be judged by size, but Fia really didn’t think those palm-sized birds were powerful magical creatures.
“Well, in any case, it’s one less problem to deal with.” Fia glanced at the mess around her, the ground littered with fallen leaves, charred bird corpses, and wood chips.
“Although it caused quite a bit of destruction, it’s deep in the forest where no one will tread, so it should be fine.”
Boom, boom, boom— As she spoke, a distant sound like thunder rumbled.
Initially, Fia thought it was another magical creature, but upon closer listening, she realized the sound came from quite a distance and wasn’t from a single creature.
It was more like a large group of something advancing.
If Fia had to describe it, she would think of an army marching through the valley.
Had I unknowingly gotten closer to the city? Maybe the chance to sneak into the city is right in front of me.
Stuffing the fruit into her mouth, Fia headed straight towards the direction of the sound.
