BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

In the meantime, Floyd, Gwen, and the other team members were a hundred meters from Benedict's group. Their team was slightly more powerful than Benedict's, and they scored higher than him.

At the moment, they were near a river that led to an old cave entrance where several boulders lay. Near it was a small cliff which seemed like it would be perfect for helping them find more thaids. Gwen thought it wasn't too big for them having problems climbing but not so small as to prevent them from seeing what was happening around them.

"I will go take a look over there," Gwen said since she got to lead the other five students. "You guys stay here." She pointed at her teammates before going towards the cliff with her gauntlets in hand. As soon as she reached the stone walls, she climbed up the cliff's rugged surface until reaching the top.

Thanks to that, she was at least a couple of meters above the tree level and could see the city nearby. It looked much smaller than it really was, making her understand how really fragile human life was despite the built skyscrapers and giant domes.

However, a thunderous screech quickly took the young woman's attention. She and the other got immediately alerted. However, her team members couldn't see what was happening, but she could.

A large shadow appeared above the canopy, flying majestically over the trees like a bird of prey and swooping down on unsuspecting thaid. The creature made no noise whatsoever during its flight, but it emitted an ear-shattering sound when it screeched.

Gwen never saw thaids before this day, and she had only heard about the flying ones. They were the most dangerous thaids out there, but there were many variants.

The deadliest ones were the flying wyverns. Luckily, these creatures were scarce on this continent. However, bird-like ones weren't.

These creatures were the ones reigning over this continent, being both the apex predator and the kings of all birds.

The sound of wings beating against the air brought Gwen back to reality, and she kept observing the thaid more.

It was a majestic bird whose beastly feathers were yellowish-greenish and had a tall crest that decorated the top of its head, much as a cockatiel would. The similarities ended there, however, since the monster was at least thrice as large as a condor and had two bloodshot eyes in addition to rows of jagged fangs sprouting along the side of its enormous beak.

Simply taking into account its size, Gwen deduced that it could seize her without any effort and transport her in the sky without any difficulty.

The creature continued its search for food and eventually came upon something resembling a hedgehog but was at least a couple of times larger. The face of this creature was shaped like a cat, and its spikes were green with some black tints at the margins.

Its spikes were unmistakably those of a hedgehog, despite his legs being a little longer than usual. Its stocky form didn't allow it to move very quickly, but the spikes on its back were extremely dangerous. It was quickly evident to Gwen that the bird had brought its victim, which apparently was a bush hedgehog. Well, at least judging by what Erik explained to her and the others before going to hunt.

The bird reached the bush hedgehog in a matter of seconds, diving down with the speed of a torpedo. The battle was everything but easy. When the bird was on top of the land creature, its fur became very thorny and spiked in appearance.

The feathers prevented the Kreeth from poking it with its beak, but it had exceptionally keen talons, which it used to produce a big gash across the bush hedgehog's flesh at the price of some minor damage.

Following several failed efforts, the bird-like thaid was eventually successful in putting an end to the creature's life. It started slowly removing the spikes as soon as it brought the carcass atop a nearby tree. As it removed all of the spikes, the beast was rewarded with a delicious lunch and began to devour its kill greedily.

Gwen knew the beast was dangerous, yet she was mesmerized by its beauty and gracefulness.

After eating half of its meal, the bird-like thaid stopped moving and perched on a tree branch, allowing itself to digest the rest of the meat inside its body. Then it opened its beak wide, letting its stomach expand until it could fit another piece of meat.

Gwen knew that a flying thaid so close to the city was weird since usually they got shot down by the military.

<Why is this thing so close to the city?> The young woman asked herself. Gwen kept observing until she saw a group of soldiers silently jumping from tree to tree with mana weapons. One of them noticed her and signaled for her to stay as far away as possible. This beast was dangerous, and she would die soon if she did not pay attention.

She obeyed instantly, knowing full well that if she tried to attack the thaid for a meager point, she'd probably get killed anyway. So, instead, she walked down the cliff and gestured for her teammates to avoid making too loud noises.

"What happened?" Floyd asked. He looked scared when he saw Gwen's ashen face.

"Is everything alright, Gwen?" another asked.

Gwen looked at the two, telling them not to raise their voices. The young woman whispered, "There is a flying thaid nearby, the militaries are taking care of it, but we must pay attention..."

"A flying thaid?" Floyd said. "Were you able to find out what species it was?" he then asked.

"No." She then described the beast to her team members, telling them every detail of the creature. As she described the thaid, the others realized how powerful it really was. A single scratch from its talons was enough to kill a human. Then it told them about the bush hedgehog and how it died under the creature's clutches.

"Where you able to find thaids we could kill around here?" a teammate asked.

"I'm sorry," Gwen replied, shaking her head. "But I saw a clearance nearby. We can try our luck there," the young woman said.

At that moment, they heard the dying screech of the bird-like thaid. It had probably been killed by the soldiers. They decided to leave before anything more unfortunate occurred.

They went through the forest, keeping a low profile, making sure nothing could see them, especially now that they were aware that flying thaids were nearby. They moved along the edge of the trees, looking carefully for a spot where they might have seen a thaid. After ten minutes or so, Gwen pointed out a clearing ahead of them.

After a brief discussion, her companions agreed and decided to go further deep into the forest before entering the clearing.

After a little bit of walking, they arrived at the clearing after passing by several thickets and small bushes. However, from a distance, the students noticed a very large group of Lomalins. There was no doubt that these creatures were hostile; however, as much as Erik told them, they were also easy to kill.

"Do you feel confident enough to handle them?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know," one of her teammates replied. "We haven't trained together, and I am unfamiliar with your abilities," he added.

"Yeah… me too…" Another said.

"I get it, but we can't miss this opportunity. The group is large enough for us to get enough points to end up in the upper part of the rank. I think we shouldn't miss this opportunity."

They thought about it for a little bit, then nodded, deciding to kill the creatures.

The five members approached the clearing cautiously. Their first thought was to take advantage of their hiding places, but they quickly changed their minds upon seeing the size of the crowd. It would have been useless. These guys were a lot!