After walking for nearly half an hour, the path began to become rocky and uneven. Rio had remained vigilant all the while but he was starting to get worried, and his unease was growing with each step.
His senses were telling him to turn back but had no choice but to press on. He was going to get into that facility no matter what.
After another half hour, he was about halfway up the mountain when he finally came across something.
Hanging off to the side of the mountain was a large collection of leaves, branches, and stones.
It was large enough to fit an adult male inside of it. As soon as Rio spots this, he feels his heart skip a beat as he can hear the sound of something flying above him. Turning his body, He stares into the sky to see what had passed him.
Hovering in the air was a human figure with a pair of wings protruding from her arms.
She looked to be a young girl with blue hair and a white dress.
She was flying in a circle above the ground and seemed to be analyzing Rio.
As she continued to circle around Rio, he continued to watch her intently.
Still watching the girl, Rio slowly takes a step back, but that seemed to have been a bad move.
As soon as he made his move the girl dived down towards him with her feet outstretched exposing her sharp talons.
Vector aimed his handgun towards the winged girl and took a few shots that flew through her wings causing her to shriek out in pain. She fell to the ground and landed on her side still shrieking.
Vector made short work of the now grounded girl and made sure to silence her.
Rio was about to run to the girl when he heard something behind him. Turning he sees a horde of figures similar to the girl flying towards his direction.
"oh you've got to be kidding me." Rio shouts as he hurriedly attempts to devour the corpse before reinforcements arrive.
As Rio finishes his meal a notification appears.
"Would you like to activate Ungrateful Beggars?"
"Yes, absolutely. right now preferably!"
As he gives his response He drops to the ground as a sharp pain shoots through his back.
He yelps as he can feel his bones reconstructing themselves.
What felt like minutes to him was only a few seconds as a set of birdlike wings sprang from his back.
Rio wanted to question how this was possible but he knew that now probably wasn't the right time.
With just a thought he lifted himself into the sky. His mind worked as if he had been accustomed to using his wings all his life.
The flock of winged humanoids were nearly upon Rio.
Summoning Zack to stand alongside Vector, Rio activated his resonate, connecting himself to both of his servants.
They went through the same transformation as himself as they lifted themselves into the air to fly alongside Rio.
Zack drew his handgun and alongside Vector, the two of them fired into the flock. Their bullets tore through the flock, sending some of them tumbling down towards the ground.
The ones that made it through the initial firing squad screeched as they swung their talons towards the trio.
Rio was able to easily dodge most of the attacks using his smaller body.
While he focused on simply dodging the oncoming attacks, Vector had his own plans.
He used his training to his advantage and started to focus more on offense. He blocked every attack coming at him with ease while returning his own in turn.
He ducks underneath an oncoming talon and with one swift motion, grabs the bird's leg, slamming it onto the ground before finishing the job with his handgun.
Vector then swoops down and grabs one of the birds that had fallen down. He lifts it up with his hands and uses his legs to swing it around. He then slams it into another's head pinning it down.
Zack had holstered his gun now that the flock had gotten close and was instead using his limbs to slice through the opposition. The two of them were making short work of the flock with their new upgrade but Rio was beginning to tire.
Dodging the flock was easy enough, but he had never attempted to resonate with two of his servants at once. especially not for this long.
His stamina was running dry as Both Vector and Zack began dropping out of the sky.
Rio tried to retain their flight but the strain of resonance was becoming too much for him to handle.
With Zack and Vector now grounded, The flock began increasing their efforts.
Rio couldn't do much but distract a few of them while Vector continued picking them off one by one.
Things weren't as smooth as before but Vector and Zack were still more than enough for these birds.
The flock thinned as the fight waged and they knew it.
The few remaining birds Flew high into the sky screeching before retreating off into the mountains.
The skies were clear and the sun was shining down.
The three of them were exhausted but Rio was in even worse shape.
The strain from the prolonged resonance was still affecting him.
He didn't know when those birds would return but he didn't care. He just needed to get inside the facility before they arrived.
Sending Vector to the void to recover his strength, Rio takes a break in Zack's arms as he speeds up the mountain side.
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