Chapter 571: Fight or Tame…how about Both |
Joshua told the group what was going on before Lily directed Momo in the direction of where the fight was happening. It didn't seem like it was going to be a struggle that would end quickly so Joshua wasn't worried about not reaching the location in time. Instead he was more worried about how to handle the situation when they actually got there. It didn't take long for them to reach a hill that allowed them to see the fight and it didn't take much to figure out what was going on.
The most obvious thing about the fight was the fact that both the owl and the bison were injured at the moment. The owl had a broken wing that seemed to have been the result of being stomped on at some point. It was currently bent backwards and stuck in that position. With such an injured wing the giant owl was able to do little more than hover in the air for a brief moment by flapping its other wing and using wind infused mana to hold its body up. Without its ability to fly the only thing it had going for it was its size and power to turn intangible for brief periods of time. That was how it was avoiding getting taken down by the coyotes or ran over by the bison at the moment.
The bison on the other hand had several injuries from the coyotes attacking it, but also had a severely injured leg that couldn't withstand its weight for long periods of time. Although the bison had some regenerative capabilities the coyotes were always aiming for that weakened leg so that the bison wouldn't be able to heal up and regain its strength back. This put the bison in a situation where it couldn't truly go for the kill unless a coyote was stupid enough to aim for its head or throat. Otherwise it couldn't move around quickly enough to react to them attacking anywhere else.
The last group was the deranged coyotes that were also on their last leg do to starvation. Joshua could see how malnourished their bodies were to the point where he could see the rib cage of all of the coyotes pressed taught against their skin. Their muscles barley existed in comparison to some of the coyotes they had come across before and they were all frothing at the mouth as they tried to attack the two much larger beast. There were already a pair of coyotes that had been killed. One had its head torn off likely from one of the bloody claws of the giant owl while the other one had a huge hole through its side that likely came from being gored by one of the bison's horns.
Looking at the fight Joshua didn't really think any of the groups would come out of it a winner. The coyotes were the least likely to come out of the conflict as winners and even if they did there would be only a few of them left and they'd struggle to even protect their kills by the time night came around and some of the bigger owls would be scouring the territory. The bison was only really in danger from the owl getting in a lucky hit, but if it survived the smell of blood coming from a lone bison in this area was a death sentence come night time. Lastly if the owl was the one to come out on top then it would take several days for its wing to heal up if not longer even when taking in the capability of it having higher regeneration then a normal bird. The likely hood of it being able to avoid trouble for that long without being able to fly up and perch itself on one of the larger bush trees was extremely slim. In the end no matter which side was the victor they would end up in a horrible situation afterwards.
"This is a great opportunity to tame an owl and a bison." Joshua said with a grin as he looked over towards Lily and Thomas who both seemed excited once they saw all of the beast. Joshua knew that this was going to be the best chance they'd have to get an owl or a bison alone where they'd actually be able to interact with them without too much interference. They'd have to clear out all of the coyotes first and try to separate the two creatures, but that would be much easier than trying to tame a bison in the middle of one of its herds or climbing up a large bush tree and trying to tame an owl in the middle of the night.
"What about the coyotes? Can't we try to tame them as well?" Thomas asked as the group all looked around the area to see the best way to approach the situation. Another coyote was taken down by the bison, but it created an opening for the rest of its pack to attack the injured leg once more to keep it immobile. Sadly for the coyotes there was no way that the owl was going to let them take down the bison so quickly otherwise they would be able to focus in on the owl and it wasn't nearly as tanky as the bison even if it was larger. The owl shot several feathers over that weren't strong enough to really do any damage to the bison, but with the little aura coating them they were able to hurt the coyotes that were forced to back off from the bison.
"It's pointless to try and tame the coyotes." Lily said drawing Thomas's attention along with everyone else's as well. Lily was far more experienced when it came to taming beast than anyone in the world at this point in Joshua's opinion. Even if there were other beast tamers around the world it was highly unlikely that they would have such a special soul beast like Lily and therefore wouldn't be able to interact with nearly as many beast as she was able to. Having her to listen to for advice was a godsend for Thomas. "When a beast gets into a frenzy state like that it's impossible for a tamer to interact with them and try to form a bond. I've tried in the past with some of the beast Joshua and I have come across only to have to let Joshua take them out in the end. The owl and bison are fine, but if they get pushed too much further they might end up in the same state."
"Then we've got to hurry. Even if the owl and bison are taking down some of the coyotes, they don't look like they'll last much longer. Especially the bison." Joshua said getting a nod from the others. "For this fight we're going to have to split up into two groups in an attempt to keep the bison and owl from going after each other, but first let's deal with the coyotes so that we can go about this the right way. From now on we'll communicate through Natalie's mental link.'' Joshua said before leading the group towards the fight.
The bison seemed to notice this as well and created a wall of earth in front of it knocking back some of the coyotes that were going after it. 'They're making this easy for us. Go all out on the coyotes as quickly as possible. We don't want the owl and bison to start going after each other.' Joshua said getting nods from everyone as the mages of the group launched several spells directly at the group of coyotes that had been corralled together by the joint effort of the owl and bison. The coyotes didn't notice the incoming attack until the last minute and that was far too late. The explosive power of the attack caused the ground to shake and the earthen wall that bison had formed to break apart. Both Julia and Laura had gone all out with their powerful fire spells and Ariel had helped out as well.
There were only a couple of coyotes that survived the assault and one of them was immediately taken out by a rail shot to the head by Aito. The last remaining coyote was the leader and came limping out of the flames. Its deranged look made it seem almost as if it was a walking dead with all of the burns on its body to go along with the blood frothing from its mouth. It only got to stand up for a moment before an arrow pierced through its eye and put it out of its misery.
With the coyotes taken out of the picture the group could now focus on the main goal as the owl and bison were currently glaring at each other. Joshua noticed that the owl was about to go on the attack again and rushed forward to stop the two beast from going after each other. 'Thomas and Celia you two are with me. I'll hold the owl off while you try to tame it. Don't bring out any beast though or it might incite the owl to fight even more. Jayce, Ivan, and Abigail hold off the bison so that Lily can tame it.' Joshua said before rushing in front of the owl and coated himself in aura to gain its attention. It tried to claw at him, but Joshua knocked the attack aside. The force of the blow was enough to nearly knock Joshua aside and he realized that calming these two beast down was going to be harder than he thought..
