Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 153, page 155 - Birds of Prey
Raine poked his head out from the broad back of the Drex Beast.

Below, Orco Baz's Lupin Beast "Wings of Watch" was flapping its wings and struggling to climb in the thin air currents of the high altitude, trying to reach the same cruising altitude as the behemoths they rode.

At this moment, the setting sun was sinking towards the horizon, dyeing the sky a deep, blood-soaked crimson, which reflected the earth below, also reddened by the flames of war.

Six enormous war beasts, carrying more than a hundred elite beast rider assault team members, moved slowly forward in a solemn formation in the sky.

Each flap of its giant wings stirred up the clouds, tearing huge holes in the thick cloud blanket.

The cold mist wrapped around their fingertips and arms as if it were a tangible substance.

They fly very high, trying their best to avoid being spotted by the fortress's lookouts, and then they descend to fly close to the outline of the mountains.

Just as "Winged Watcher" was barely level with Van der's War Beast, Olco Baz suddenly threw out a tough lasso, which precisely caught one of "Winged Watcher's" wing bones!
Without hesitation, he leaped into the air!
Almost at the same moment he jumped away, "Wings of Watch" let out a sharp cry, swooped down, and disappeared into the rolling sea of ​​clouds in the blink of an eye.

The experienced beast rider moved with the fluidity of a dance. Using the lasso, he deftly adjusted his posture in mid-air, using both hands and feet to climb from one protruding bone spike to another, swiftly and lightly climbing onto the back of the Van der Warbeast, seemingly ignoring the gale and gravity at high altitude.

"What's going on down there?" Van der shouted through the howling wind, extending a hand to Olko who had just regained his footing.

Olko grabbed his hand to steady himself, his voice calm: "I didn't see the raptor itself, but I saw the traces left by the raptor after it hunted."

"So there are indeed birds of prey in the vicinity," Renn said softly. "Where exactly?"

Instead of answering directly, Olco raised a clenched fist and made a series of quick, precise gestures to the riders around him.

Then, without a word, he took the reins from van der and pulled hard!
Vander's Drexlers let out a deep, powerful roar, their massive bodies instantly tensing beneath them, muscles bulging.

Van der and Renn exchanged a tense glance and immediately threw themselves onto the giant beast's spine, which was covered in bone spurs, gripping the protruding, hard spines tightly with their hands.

The next second, this enormous creature suddenly folded its sky-covering wings and swooped down into the atmosphere like a meteorite!

A violent gust of wind suddenly struck, and Renn felt his face being torn apart by this violent force!

The air rushed into his mouth and nose, almost suffocating him.

However, Olco Baz stood firmly as if rooted to the spot, with reins wrapped around his arm and his body slightly leaning forward, calmly controlling the war beast's dive trajectory.

Around them, the Krazka warriors cheered wildly, their blood boiling with excitement for the upcoming battle.

They rode their respective war beasts, like black blades tearing through the sky, piercing the thick clouds in close pursuit.

Just as Raine felt as if his internal organs were about to be thrown out of his chest, the war beast suddenly made a sharp turn, its huge wings instantly spreading out to an astonishing wingspan, and it resumed horizontal flight, skimming the bottom of the clouds.

In the distance, Kira Fortress stood like a massive, mountain-like bonfire burning brightly in the twilight, its flames shooting into the sky.

In the forest surrounding the fortress, countless campfires flickered like fireflies, and thick columns of black smoke rose straight into the blood-red sky.

The dull, continuous shelling sound, like distant rumbling thunder, rolled in.

They continued to lower their altitude, cautiously circling around to the east side of the mountain range, using the massive shadow of the mountain as cover to completely avoid the line of sight of the Kira Fortress watchtower.

The lead Drex beast displayed a lightness of movement that was disproportionate to its massive size, gliding silently down and landing steadily in a deep valley formed by the erosion of a river.

The war beast squadron that followed also landed one after another, their heavy bodies hitting the ground with a dull thud.

"Can't you at least give me a warning before you make a move next time?" Van der complained, still shaken and pale. "Bastard."

Olco ignored his complaints and simply pointed into the depths of the valley: "Look over there." Raine felt a sharp pain in his neck; he had twisted it during the dive.

He turned his head with difficulty, his cervical spine making a slight clicking sound, and looked in the direction Olco pointed towards the dry streambed.

As the previous reconnaissance report stated, there were more than twenty Dalgomon and Pritharmon corpses scattered there.

Some of the bodies still had saddles on them, while others did not.

All the corpses were mangled and covered in deep, bone-revealing scratches and lacerations, and blood soaked into the surrounding sand and gravel.

No human bodies were found.

"Wings of Watch" is currently perched on a relatively intact beast carcass upstream, happily pecking at this free dinner.

These animals were not eaten; they were merely fatally attacked. The killing itself was the goal.

In Ondren, there is only one species that hunts in this way purely for killing... and it is not a native species of Ondren.

"Which direction did it go?" Renn asked, turning to expert Olco.

“Upstream.” Olco’s answer was without the slightest hesitation.

Van der looked puzzled and curious: "How did you figure that out?"

"The bodies fell with their heads facing upstream, indicating they were fleeing for their lives."

"...Uh, thinking about it afterward, it was indeed quite obvious." Van der had to admit, and touched his nose somewhat awkwardly.

This could only have been done by a raptor from Dekunun, and most likely it was Mishar's "Red Galia".

Because the bodies were very fresh, the time of death was recent, and the location was so close to the war-torn fortress.

Even if there are still wild Skrefs in Kira's airspace, they will instinctively avoid this death zone.

But what struck Renn as odd was that the scene looked more like the rampage of a solitary raptor than a well-trained, targeted hunt.

Mishar was on a secret mission and should have kept a low profile, not chosen such a "high-profile" approach.

The group continued their ascent up the steep slope.

The enormous and heavy war beast struggled to climb, its sharp claws digging deep into the ground, carving out deep furrows.

Finally, they reached a ridge, where the massive eastern wall of Kira Fortress stood prominently before them.

On that ridge, they spotted a massive bird of prey covered in brownish-red stripes that looked like congealed blood.

Beneath its blood-stained claws lay a missing scout, clearly prey it had caught and killed.

The "Red Galia" let out a deep, penetrating cry that reverberated and echoed repeatedly between the canyon walls, seemingly reverberating throughout the entire mountain range.

As they approached, the only indication that they had passed through the outer ray shield of the fortress was a faint, static-like stinging sensation as it brushed against their exposed skin.

(End of this chapter)