[Feather Fall level 21]

  [Feather Fall level 22]

  [Feather Fall level 23]

  The journey down the tree was much easier than the one up it. [Feather fall] was a cheat! By the 10% effectiveness mark, Vel had already seen a significant increase. She could even skip a branch or two with the skill, feeling an invisible cushion beneath her feet, which increased if she kicked her legs and waved her arms in the air. It nearly felt like floating with a weight.

  Finally, she landed on the ground, letting out a relieved sigh to be back on the cold, dirty earth. Even with [feather fall], she was certain she still couldn’t have fallen safely from a great height, learning that the further she needed to fall the more the fall sped up.

  Throat dry, Velmira shook her head. She had to go back to the river to collect water. The option to avoid it was removed when she decided to climb a tree. Proceeding cautiously, Vel made the relatively short walk back to the river, listening closely for anyone. Birds. She heard birds.

  There was no one at the river. Even if there had been, she probably would have heard them with how close she’d been the entire time. Well, unless they passed through while she was sky high. Taking her shoes off, she stepped into the stream, its sweet coolness gently washing over her.

  Velmira waded further into the moving water, then washed the blood from her hands, then cupped them and pulled water to her lips. It wasn’t her brightest idea, but with no way to boil the water, this was as good as it was going to get. After drinking ample amounts, hoping to not be sickened, Vel took a moment to rinse her wounds, and even her hair. After squeezing water from it, she stepped from the river, and slipped her shoes back on.

  Northwest, she thought, starting her long walk to town. She kept her eyes peeled and her ears open for any signs of danger, both for the sound of men and scaly chicken menaces. About the point the day was at its hottest, the sun past its zenith, Velmira heard the slightest clucking, multiple clucks stacked upon one another.

  Nope. She was out. As she was moving away from the area, she heard an odd sound, like a whoosh, and saw light in the corner of her eye past some thick brambles. Furrowing her brow, she cursed herself as she moved to see what that was, having an inkling.

  Hiding behind a bush, barely big enough to shield her from the three chickens in a small opening, Vel spied the flames that crackled over a rodent. A scaly chicken, immune to the flames, pecked at the dead animal, eating bits and pieces off of it.

  This was a day of lousy decisions, but Velmira absolutely needed fire. Three. Oh, three might be too much to deal with.

  Just get the skill, then run, she thought, and decision made, she searched the ground, picking up a rock. No more sticks, those were useless against these things. Grabbing a second one for good measure, she stepped around the bush, all the chickens snapping their heads toward her as she came into view.

  The biggest one crowed, nearly twice the size of the other two. Damn. Found the male. He was the first to attack, charging her, beak opening wide.

  “Come and get me,” Vel said, a small flame forming in front of the animal’s beak. A small ball of fire shot at her so fast, that she had to leap out of the way, yelped as she felt heat brush against her left arm.

  [Skill gained: Fireball]

  [0.5 Magic added]

  “Yes!” Vel grinned, already darting away, but as she did, one of the females cut her off. She moved to escape it, finding the second female flying at her from the other side.

  Frantically swinging out with one of her rocks, Vel bashed its side, hitting a set of scales. While she moved the chicken off course, it looked entirely unperturbed from her rock attack. Landing, it giggled? The tiny monstrosity sounded pleased with its defensive feat, already countering back with a strike of its own.

  [Skill gained: Tough hide]

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  [0.5 Constitution added]

  Stumbling back, Velmira winced, feeling a dull ache tingle across her skin. Consequently, she managed to dodge the bird’s attack, and stumbled further to dodge another fireball from the male.

  No time to assess, fight! she thought, and threw a rock at a female.

  It missed.

  Of course it missed! Gah!

  Dropping the other rock, Vel decided that her best offense was her nails. She just needed to tear their necks. No biggie.

  Females first, she thought, deciding that they’d be the easier targets. That said, she needed to take them on one at a time, or at least get as close to it as she could, so she turned and ran. Just like before, a chicken was quick to try to get in her path. They wanted to pinch her, but that also left at least one of them running further away from the other two.

  Facing fear of further injury, Velmira charged the chicken running ahead, hands ready to grab it. She reached out, the chicken barely getting the time to turn towards her before her left hand was wrapped around its neck.

  A sharp pain stabbed at Vel’s leg, and she gasped, twisting around. She kicked the other female away, the first one still in her hand, then twirled around a tree, just to place it between her and the male, who was already forming a new fireball.

  The flailing bird in her hand scratched at Vel’s stomach. “You wretched monster!” she hissed, more offended that the ugly little thing tore at her clothes than the slivers of blood it drew. Wasting no time, she tore at its neck with her own [metal claw], cringing as her nails dug through the leather flesh, and ripped into its bloodied neck.

  [Metal Claw level 3]

  Not just tossing the dying chicken aside, Vel chucked it at the other rushing female. Hearing flapping behind her, she flipped around.

  “Holy Retribu━!”

  The male flew at her face, beak open, and fireball already coming straight for Vel. Hands held up, yelp escaping her, Vel desperately searched for something to save her from the incoming burns. Fire! Fire! she thought, feeling the heat in her body shift, a coolness sweeping over her as the warmth centralized in her right palm. A meager little fire formed, just barely enough to push back against the force of the incoming flames and dissipate them, yet not enough to stop the male from sinking a claw in just above her right breast.

  “No!” Vel slapped him away with an arm before he could cause any real damage━not that her skin was doing much better anyways.

  The female from behind her scratched at the back of her bloomers, and Vel whipped around, snatching the little monster up by its neck. Then, turning back around, bashed the still attacking male with the female before ripping at the female’s neck. Tossing the animal aside, she glowered at the male.

  [Tough Hide level 2]

  “You’re just a big, stupid chicken with thick skin,” she hissed at it, not that it knew what she was saying. By this point, she’d begun to figure some things out. Scaly feral chickens only had three primary modes of attack━scratch, peck, and fireball. Four if Vel counted flailing.

  They were small too, easily manhandled. Sure, it came with a little bit of pain, but with this new skill━Vel holding her hand up to cast fireball━she was going to eat this freaky little monster.

  Fire shot from her hand, the rooster flying at her with his claws.

  [Fireball level 2]

  The fire hit the underbelly of the beast, which squawked, faltering in its flight. After a very sloppy catch, Vel grabbed the thing by the neck, and scraped across it once.

  [Metal Claw level 4]

  Then twice more, the rooster’s skin much thicker, as was his neck.

  [Metal Claw level 5]

  [Metal Claw level 6]

  Holding it still, Velmira waited for it to bleed out, even gathering its thrashing claws in a hand and hanging him upside down. The bird, now rendered powerless, bled out, and fell limp.

  A grin slowly spread across Vel’s face. “I did it!” she exclaimed. “I did it,” she said again, this time in disbelief. “Ew,” she dropped the chicken. “Gross, gross, gross,” she said, shivering as she looked at the carnage under her silvery nails.

  What I’d give for a conveniently placed stream right now, she thought, and picked the rooster back up by his feet. Looking up, Velmira started northwest again, knowing that there were only a few hours of daylight left. Granted, she was sure she’d need to skin this thing sooner rather than later for the meat to be viable. Still, she held out hope for a body of water somewhere along her path.

  Meanwhile, she had a question for her fairy, “Purple Fairy, how did I level [tough hide] without using it?”

  [Passive skill: A skill that does not require an action to activate. Passive skills are always active, and may gain levels and ranks according to present benefits to the user.]

  [You have 1 passive skill━Tough Hide]

  “Essentially, whenever I’m attacked,” Velmira thought, looking at the bruise on her chest, easily visible through the hole in her dirty garment. Her eyes then trailed down to her nails, considering their defensive measure━likely nearly impossible to rip out. “Can a skill be both active and passive?”

  [Passive-active skill: A skill that is both always active, but has an activation for further uses as well.]

  [You have 1 passive-active skill━Metal Claw]

  “Neat,” Vel said, smiling. She looked up from her nails, just in time to see a fist flying at her face.