Risen World

Joshua's heart was racing, not from fear but from excitement of the idea of having to take on such a powerful beast. It was going to be a fight on a much larger scale than usual, even Tank could be lifted up by the giant bird if he wasn't careful. Joshua wasn't surprised by this fact since most guardians seemed to be much bigger versions of their original counterparts. The bobcat guardian was far bigger than the other bobcats, the coyote guardian was at least twice the size of the leader coyotes they had come across while exploring the prairie. All in all guardians were just far bigger and more powerful versions of beast that you could find around the area. Although seeing such a massive beast as just a guardian and not the boss of the dungeon in the territory got Joshua wondering just what they would end up having to deal with inside of the dungeon.

"Well that caught me by surprise. How can a bird that big even fly." Natalie said with her bow still in her hands. Apparently she wasn't the only one that reacted by pulling out their weapons when they saw such a creature glaring down at them.

"The only way something that big could ever fly would be through magic, so if I had to guess it will naturally be adapt with the element of wind so be prepared for that when were forced to fight it soon enough." Henry said while already clearly planning things out in his head for how the group could possibly deal with such a big creature.

"I wish it wasn't a guardian so I can tame it. It looks so cool!" Thomas said with a big grin only to get batted in the back of the head by Imperia who was sitting on his shoulder. The little bat glared at him for a second before turning and looking away without giving him another glance. It was clear that she was angered by his comments. "Oh come on Imperia, you would just get another friend to play with. Especially if we ever find a young one."

The rest of the group smiled a bit at this breaking the tense atmosphere while Lily seemed to have a glint in her eyes showing that she was likely thinking along the same line as Thomas anyways. Joshua just put their antics out of mind as he looked back towards the barrier for a moment. He wasn't sure how they planned to take on a beast of that size. In that situation they'd basically be fleas that didn't even measure up to the size of one of its feathers. The vultures on their own were annoying to deal with and now they were going to have to deal with a similar problem at three times the scale.

With a sigh Joshua let those thoughts fade to the back of his mind as it was time for the group to get out of the area and start moving towards the final guardian site. Once they were able to find it they would know everything they would need to deal with before getting access to the dungeon and trying to take over the territory for good. Each area of the prairie had been different up to this point so Joshua was looking forward to finding out what the last area was like, so the group got on the move to get as far as they could before night came. They only had a couple of hours before then and Joshua wanted to get near the edge of the guardian site area at least. Doing that would allow them to rest without having to worry about getting attacked at night by any owls since they didn't come in the area.

The group got back onto the back of Momo who was now well rested after the short stop at the giant bush tree. They got on the move and within a couple of hours when things started to get dark as night took over day they finally arrived at the point where the roots from the large tree were starting to completely thin out. In the distance they could see more of the large and small bush trees all spread out in front of them. Hills were once again a common sight, but they still hadn't reached the point where they could run into groups of bison or owls perched on the top of the larger bush trees. It was the perfect place to take a break for the night before moving on to the next area.

They all got together setting up camp and even had a campfire this time around since they didn't have to worry about any beast trying to attack them in this area. They ate a mix of aura fruit and an assortment of vegetables with prairie chicken meat that hit the right spot. There was a new night's watch rotation and Joshua was able to sleep through the entire night without any kind of interruptions. The next morning the group got on the move once again as they headed at full speed towards the last area of the prairie that wasn't at the direct center where the dungeon was likely to be.

While they were rushing through the area they were finally able to come across more animals in the area and the owls were the first ones they found. All of the owls were up in their nest on the larger bush trees and for the most part they were sleeping or lounging around. It was clear to Joshua that these beast rested during the day and that was the main reason the bison seemed far less on edge during that time period. After a while they were able to find a large group of bison that were daring enough to come so close to the owl's territory. At first Joshua wondered why they would risk such a situation but then he realized just how big the group of bison were.

There were at least seventy or so bison gathered together with many of them being older and more experienced. There were several babies in the group as well, but they were all in the center of it being protected by over a dozen bison along with their mothers. It was clear that these bison were able to venture this deep into owl territory because they not only had the numbers to fend off multiple owls if they had to but they also had multiple bison in the group that were level eighty-eight with four stars next to their names. The leader of the group was a level eighty-nine bison that seemed highly intelligent as its eyes turned directly towards Momo in the distance even when she hardly made a sound while rushing through the hills. There was no way that group was going to be taken by surprise.

The fact that such a group of bison were willing to come so far into the area also hinted Joshua towards a couple of other facts. It was now clear that the owls must not hunt in large groups otherwise the bison wouldn't be willing to get so close to the main part of their territory. While passing by the owls Joshua did notice that seemed to either be alone or in pairs of two. He never saw any more gathered together than that and they seemed hostile towards each other whenever one flew over a different pairs nest. It was clear that they tolerated living in the same area, but would fight each other over nest or food if it really came down to it. The bison used this fact to their advantage as they got into the area and ate some aura fruit during the day while moving away before night time came so that they would only have to deal with at max two owls at a time.

The group past by the bison without incident, but eventually Joshua caught the signs of an odd fight towards the end of the day when they were finally getting close to leaving the area. At the edge of his aura sense he could feel multiple beast in what seemed almost like a brawl of sorts. It was an odd situation sense Joshua could tell that there were three different types of beast all fighting against each other. He could clearly make them out do to the shape of their aura. The most obvious one was the large bison that was surprisingly on its own on the edge of the bush tree area. This was the first time that Joshua had come across a bison that wasn't a part of a heard and judging by its aura it had fairly decent strength. It was beyond the point of a young adult, but wasn't strong enough to be considered a leader for a herd.

The next beast that Joshua took notice of was the large owl that for some reason wasn't flying high in the air and instead seemed to be leaping around on the ground while dodging the attacks of the other beast and still occasionally getting in some attacks of its own. The owl was not quite as powerful as the two they had seen attacking the herd of bison a couple of nights ago, but it was still rather large in size showing it was at least a young adult. Joshua didn't know why the owl had decided to get involved in a fight while it was still day time. It was a beast that thrived in the night and could probably take down a lone bison if it were dark and it was able to hide from view, but right now it didn't even seem to be able to fly.

The last group of beast that were currently involved in the battle were a pack of around a dozen coyotes. From the way there aura seemed to be a bit erratic Joshua was certain that they were most likely on the verge of starvation. In such a situation he wasn't surprised that they would be rushing to attack the nearest food source that didn't seem like an impossibility. A lone bison along with a single owl was something the crazed group of coyote probably realized was their best shot to get any food. Either way the conflict was in full swing so Joshua decided this was either going to be a good opportunity to get some easy experience or tame a few new beast that aren't currently impossible to approach..