The Game Rune System

Tetsuya and Millia left the city and headed straight to the areas known as Red Zone.

That was how the mercenaries used to call this land filled with dangerous birds! Each group had their own names and nobles wouldn't use such names unless if speaking with the mercenaries.

They both were equipped with fairly common stuff that would be dangerous against hordes of those birds. Even Tetsuya's wooden sword seemed out of the place.

As for Millia, she just had thin clothes and didn't seem like a mercenary, but someone that imitated one.

Her rune, the former one, was just part of strengthening rune commonly used in this business.

Strengthening body, weapon rune and any means for an escape; that was the start pack for most adventurers.

However, the siblings had just a plain part of strengthening rune before meeting Tetsuya!

"I will help you out with the birds… But I will be just a support, okay?" Tetsuya spoke gently and even softer as he still could see redness on Millia's cheeks.

He found it cute and Ashley's screams also helped him lean more to that cute side.

She nodded and faintly whispered, "Yes, I will be tank as per quest's content…"

The tank was next to her, but quests couldn't be easy. It wasn't just feeling that would be more rewarding after completing the quest with own's hard work, but Tetsuya also didn't want anyone from Rainbow Adventurers to think that everything would go their way now.

But as he stated on their first meeting, the trip to the 'quest location' had been indeed pleasant one and funny.

Millia never felt that serene while going to work.

Their current journey didn't seem anything special.

Big Mom's territories were always spotless and even beasts seemed to pay attention to that.

The air passing through them was not cold nor too warm and it was just perfect for their bodies to enjoy. Inhaling it also felt great and helped anyone to focus on their mission.

It was quiet, though.

The beautiful green scenery and all those trees seemed quite alone as no bird was peaceful here!

A quiet battlefield of nature seemed to be the more appropriate name for this forest. 

No bird would sing here for any 'invaders' and if they actually did, then it would be just an announcement of their fall!

But would their song be first to reach those invaders or the feathers beating the wind heavily would get there first?

Nonetheless, Tetsuya and Millia didn't seem to spot anything dangerous as of now.

They had been going forward with their eyes going around, senses as high as possible.

Though Tetsuya also had been speaking merrily, he was the most dangerous man here!

A bird from afar… could tell it!

It was a bird with red eyes and a silver body. Its feathers lined up beautifully like expensive porcelain and one could get mesmerized by such sight.

Such a beast was pleasant to the eye of any other living being, but once this beak sunk into the flesh, its body would take a huge turn and become a beast worthy of fear!

How would red blood look on those silver feathers?

The bird's eyes flashed briefly, as if questioning itself with such a question.

It then called out its buddies that were a little smaller, but still strong and rich with an experience!

Was this bird bigger because of its status? Yes, it was Silver Fall Bird Leader!

"Someone… is looking at us." Tetsuya whispered faintly.

His teammate flinched, but did her best to not show any signs and just asked quietly, "I can't tell…" Millia felt a little bad, but Tetsuya hadn't expected her to sense out beasts, deal with them and even tame all on her own.

He just reassured her and said, "They will attack straight from above us. Be careful and step behind me if necessary."

The duo continued to go forward as if nothing serious was going on!

Soon, the sky glittered with silver stars!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

One by one, an ear-piercing fall began to assault Tetsuya and Millia! The sound of those silver birds going at them was like jets going at them!

Only Tetsuya thought like that as he actually heard those! He then raised his wooden sword and horizontally slashed!

A close contact between him and silver birds unfolded then!

Doing their utmost best to break that wooden sword, the silver birds narrowed their red eyes and let out a wind aura that was like a small tornado around their bodies. This tornado added sharpness to their bodies, but to no avail!

Tetsuya just commented while fighting a battle of attrition, "Silver Fall Birds… I have made research and expected you." He also smiled widely, "I could sense you from afar. What do you think about it?"

Red eyes flashed with some intelligence, then the silver birds retreated.

They danced around the sky, then changed formation that attacked from various directions!

"Stay close to me. Our plan is to snatch one of those birds." Tetsuya said, his back already feeling Millia who was close to him.

Both of them were leaning on each other as if covering all sides!

"Yes!" Millia replied strongly.

"I will wound one of those birds deeply." Tetsuya added some content to the plan that flashed within Millia's eyes as a quest update, "You will seize the wounded bird and we will run away using those trees as the cover."

For now, they had been using an old road, so the area was open! The plan was simple and easily understood by Millia, so she nodded and prepared herself mentally.

Soon, the dance befell on them!

From various directions, the silver birds unleashed their beak attacks mixed with sharp wind. Carrying the heavy force, both Millia and Tetsuya became targets that couldn't dodge all of them!

The blood spilled out and the feathers got painted red!

The beaks also opened loudly and sang the victory song that had pushed those birds for more blood!

"Seems like they are bloodsuckers." Tetsuya smiled, his sword seeming not so dangerous. Rather than dangerous, it was sturdy and enough to protect him from a few sides, but not all!

Millia had it worse as scars and blood seemed as if splashed on her by third party.

Nonetheless, she waited for that moment where Tetsuya would take down one bird!

He had been also faking his strength and sword abilities.

It was rather one of the simplest war arts! Make oneself seem weaker, then strike back at the least unexpected moment!

He did exactly that when the BIRD LEADER came closer!

"Let's hope that I am not too greedy!" Tetsuya laughed, his sword thrusting like a jet!

Ashley screamed from inside, "Did I just feel a bit of ego?! You should've gone for the normal bird! Stupid!"

The thrust ended up successful and deadly, though. 

A huge laceration swept through the birds' wing and it fell onto the ground with loud shriek!

Tetsuya put all his rune power into that thrust so smoothly and quickly that it was fine for him to aim at the leader with a bit of his ego.

Millia then pounced at the wounded bird, not knowing that it was leader. For her, every bird had been the same as she couldn't properly face them.

It was a big bird, but maybe all of them were so big from close? She thought exactly like that, then used her weight to seize the beast. 

Strengthening rune given by Tetsuya helped her with this feat, then Tetsuya pulled her up! Both of them began to escape to the forest while all other birds heavily followed them!

They didn't care about anything and even went onto the trees which surprisingly were too sturdy for them to deal with.

Even trees' branches were tough enough to stop them.

Nature helped Tetsuya and Millia by bringing all those birds into its branch net.

-

After escaping, Tetsuya and Millia found a small cave that didn't look natural at all.

They didn't care much as it was bird's forest and someone 'friendly' should've made this cave!

They used it as shelter and properly tied the silver bird.

"Look at your status window. Do you see HP lost, bleeding and all other wounds? If the HP BAR gets to zero, you die." Tetsuya also explained more about his powers and so Millia used this as her experience.

She freaked out when the number got below half and began to treat her wounds with bandages.

At the same time, Tetsuya did the same, but he also drank potion. The same potion got passed to Millia as she did a good job.

"Good job." He said out loud.

"Thank you… I didn't do much, though… Next time, I will do it on my own!" Millia set her bar high, then accepted the potion.

[You have gotten Tetsuya's Health Potion.]

She then drank it and enjoyed the warm feeling cleaning and healing her body.

In the meantime, Tetsuya's eyes didn't stay idle. He used those to scan the bird leader and focused more on its eyes.

"The information said… that those birds used to have blue eyes. Now, we see red and if we connect the dots with the recent rumors, then we can assume that someone is controlling those birds." Tetsuya said out loud.

This made Millia blink her eyes as she raised those at him, "Eh?"

"That's the real bloodsucker…" Tetsuya pointed at the red eyes, "A person behind those eyes… Let's see… If I can find you."

The Bird Leader needed to be tamed anyway, so it would experience some harsh treatment anyway. To make such a beast subjugated, Tetsuya and Millia would need to use such means anyway.

It was inevitable.

Because of that, Tetsuya didn't wait and began to use his purple cube's powers!