Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution
Chapter 74: Operation SkyFall VII

Chapter 74: Operation SkyFall VII

Operation SkyFall VIII

Many would wonder why Osho was so confident in sending out Gale to keep the Harbinger busy while simultaneously leading it away from everyone else. After all, as impressive as the bird was, going up against an Elite-ranked beast as strange as the Harbinger could only be described as foolish.

After all, Adept rank beast tamers had died just from a casual attack, and Gale was a newly promoted Apprentice. The power gap was simply too large, and now that his bloodline didn’t suppress the Harbinger anymore, sending him out at a moment like this was simply nonsensical.

Despite all this, though, Osho still sent Gale out.

He did so for three reasons. One, he had a full grasp of Gale’s speed. Well, maybe not full, but a much better understanding than everyone else, and he’d come to realize that whatever speed Gale had previously achieved using his wind magic paled in comparison to him using his Sky magic, and he could achieve supersonic speeds now that he was passively being amped by his bloodline manifesting a ’sky’ around him constantly.

Two, while Gale was constantly being buffed by this passive environment of his, the fact was that it wasn’t as good as Gale truly being in the sky. The higher he went, the better the enhancement he received. Naturally, it wasn’t so good of an enhancement that it would allow him to trade blows with the Harbinger, but for his speed? It was simply immense. Not to mention, as long as Gale was in the air, his senses were on another level.

He could sense the smallest shift in the atmosphere, the increase or decrease in pressure, and so on. That’s why he seemed to have such an easy time avoiding so many attacks. He wasn’t just fast. He could also sense them coming in advance.

As for the third reason, well, it was simple, really. Osho trusted Gale. The bird believed it could do it, and he confirmed said belief didn’t come from his ingrained pride, but a true confidence in his capabilities.

When Gale confirmed he could do it, Osho decided to trust him and let him do it. And boy was the bird doing it.

Gale was constantly transferring what he saw to Osho through their bond, allowing Osho to see (kinda) what the bird was doing, and it was a lot.

In just a second, Gale had avoided lightning bolts, sound blasts, razor-sharp feathers moving at Mach speeds, all sorts of wind attacks, and more.

It was extremely convoluted and Osho wouldn’t have been able to understand what he was looking at were it not for the fact that by Gale sharing his vision, he was also sharing his perception, allowing Osho to grasp what he was looking at.

It truly was a lot, and he understood now why Lady Haggai hadn’t been able to react previously.

Yet Gale continued to dodge. Not just dodge, the bird was... enjoying himself?

Osho had to double-check and couldn’t help but let out an incredulous laugh as he sensed Gale’s enjoyment through their bond loud and clearly. Every attack dodged and evaded served to increase the bird’s excitement more and more. It was truly baffling but also amusing. Pretty much any other Apprentice rank beast would be panicking in this situation, yet here was Gale, finding the entire ordeal fun.

But in retrospect, it made sense. Gale was a bird, and birds valued their ability to fly, an ability that required lots of open space, or as Osho decided to interpret it, freedom, to fly to their heart’s content.

This applied to Gale even more when you considered his sky Affinity, an affinity that had freedom as one of its core natures.

Gale hadn’t been able to fly as freely as he’d like since his hatching. Most of the flying beasts could do within the Citadel was heavily controlled, and Gale usually only did intense flying during training, which was also quite limited.

But now, those restrictions don’t apply here. He was in the sky, unrestrained and uncontrolled. There was no limit to his range of movement. Nowhere he couldn’t go.

He looked to be in his element, and he truly was. He flew at impossible angles, made turns that should have shattered the bones of ordinary birds, and performed maneuvers that defied reason. But then why should Gale care about reason? After all, to truly be unrestrained means not being held down by anything, so why should logic hold him down either?

For the first time since he hatched, Gale felt something that he didn’t realize he needed until now. True, unbridled freedom, to fly as he pleased without fear and worry.

So that’s what Gale did. He flew.

Also, pissing off the Harbinger was just the cherry on top.

Gale was enjoying himself too much, and honestly, it was infectious. As he continued to dance around the Harbinger like a professional driver against someone who just got his driver’s license, his glee was so palpable that it was difficult to describe with words, and it affected Osho as well.

He didn’t even know when he started giggling. It seemed childish and out of place considering the large number of beasts that still charged towards the Citadel where his friends were.

But he didn’t feel worried, he just felt... liberated, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He didn’t realize until now, but allowing Gale to fly, as in, truly fly, and act according to his nature did wonders for their bond.

Their emotions which were already closely linked to one another, but it was as though they were becoming transparent to one another.

They no longer had to actively sense what the other felt. They just did. There were no roadblocks or a need to double-check. If one felt something, the other would know immediately with true clarity.

Even though his body hurt, Osho laughed. The sudden strengthening of their bond feeling him with strength. He watched. Watched as Gale evaded and taunted.

The Harbinger was bug and scary. It was an anomaly with far too many abilities. But so what? Why should he fear something that can’t even touch an Apprentice rank bird? Is that truly something that should be a cause for concern?

Perhaps that thought process was flawed, but Osho was simply experiencing too much euphoria to give a crap.

Then he sensed Gale’s desire for something, and he instantly knew what the bird wanted. Without thinking, he granted the request.

There was a wave of excitement as the bird carried out its plans.

High in the sky where the Harbinger continued to chase Gale, the bird suddenly changed its tactics.

It still evaded the rain of attacks, but it stopped moving sideways and instead flew straight up.

The Harbinger immediately followed, lightning descending from the clouds above the to strike Gale, but the result was and would always be the same. They would miss.

However, the Harbinger felt joy at watching its prey move into the clouds. While there, it could attack from any direction as the thunderclouds were everywhere, so it let Gale fly into them and fly into them he did.

As soon as Gale entered the dense clouds, purple electricity appeared around his body and aimed to reduce him to ashes, but even at point blank, Gale was simply too fast for the electricity and continued to evade.

The Harbinger entered the clouds shortly after and decided to hover, focusing its attention on the thunderclouds to track down Gale and strike him down. But even in an environment that should have granted it a home-field advantage, it struggled to keep up with Gale’s absurd speed.

As for Gale himself? Well, the bird started flying around the Harbinger in a wide arc. It wasn’t perfect as he was still constantly dodging flashes of lightning, but his speed was unmistakable. Moreover, he started to speed up.

After all, the sky Affinity was one that encompassed other affinities. One was wind, which Gale used the most.

However, there was another, one which the Harbinger believed itself to be superior in.

There was storm.

From the outside, everyone watched as a massive section of the thunderclouds started to rotate like a giant blender. It was far larger than the funnels the Harbinger previously created to form the tornadoes.

"Hey... is it just me, or are some of those lightning flashes a bit blue?" In the control room, all the Handlers had fallen silent as they watched this scene with quiet awe.

When someone made the observation, a lot more people began to notice.

As the section of thunderclouds spun faster and faster, the occasional blue lightning flash could be seen, and they were rapidly growing.

’Don’t tell me...’ Major Thompson almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

Inside the thundercloud, the Harbinger noticed that its control over the environment was slowly slipping. It narrowed its eyes as it began wrestling control back. Even if it couldn’t catch the stupid bird, there was no way it would allow itself to lose out in a battle of control.

Hence, it dedicated some of its attention to regaining full control, which was a mistake because that had been a distraction.

For all his arrogance, Gale knew he’d lose out in a battle of control, and he’d hoped the Harbinger would take the bait. Well, Osho helped with this idea mostly, but Gale was the one that implemented it.

The moment the Harbinger split its attention, the blue flashes of lightning that had already coalesced around Gale’s body almost solidified, causing the bird to look like he was wearing electric blue armor.

At the same time, Gale darted forward with insane speed. Not only had he been generating electricity, the main point of flying around so fast was to build momentum, and now, his speed had gotten to insane levels.

The bird turned into a blue beam as he passed through the clouds and headed straight for the Harbinger.

The Harbinger realized a moment too late as it tried to defend or evade, but Gale was locked in.

On his prey

The blue beam that was Gale pierced straight through the Harbinger so fast that at first, it seemed like nothing had happened.

Then, the clouds parted as the excess kinetic energy of the strike erupted, a blue line flying into the distance like a meteor.