Volume 1, Chapter 6 – An Unexpected Encounter

However, the little bird’s response was nothing like the fairy tales depicted. Instead of obediently perching on Fia’s outstretched hand offering fruit, it suddenly puffed up its feathers, its eyes turning blood-red in an instant. Its entire body swelled to twice its original size in the blink of an eye, and with a powerful flap of its wings, it unleashed two cyan-colored wind blades at point-blank range.

Though the blades were only about a foot long, the gust they stirred up was strong enough to force Fia to shut her eyes. Even the surrounding low shrubs swayed violently under the force of the wind.

It’s a monster.

Her mind snapped to attention, and Fia clicked her tongue in frustration.

The Secret History of Witches had clearly stated that this world was teeming with creatures hostile to humans, creatures born with innate magical abilities. Yet, she had completely overlooked the danger because of the bird’s cute appearance.

“Tch.”

A surge of irritation rose in her chest. Ignoring the crisscrossing wind blades hurtling toward her torso, Fia reached out with her right hand, aiming for where she remembered the bird had been.

Squeech.

Her grip landed perfectly on her target.

Then—

The two wind blades struck Fia’s waist almost simultaneously. Yet, as if they had hit solid steel, they dissipated into harmless breezes. In stark contrast, the bird—now firmly clenched in Fia’s grasp—was completely stunned. Resembling a small owl, it stared at her in disbelief.

“Hiss… Just wind, and yet it actually hurts.”

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The stinging pain from the wind blades made Fia frown. What she didn’t realize was that, for an ordinary person, those same blades would have sliced deep into flesh. Even as a first-tier spell, wind blades packed the same cutting force as a swung iron sword. The only reason Fia had dared to take the hit head-on was because she assumed the spell wasn’t particularly powerful.

Had this owl been capable of speech, it would undoubtedly have cursed the heavens for the sheer unfairness of the world.

“Evil birds deserve punishment.”

With just enough force to avoid crushing the owl outright—that would be too merciful—Fia abruptly stood up, lightly tossed the creature into the air, and then swung her right leg, clad in white thigh-high socks and long boots, delivering a powerful kick.

Thud.

Like a balloon punctured by a needle, the owl-like bird emitted a dull sound upon impact before vanishing into the distant sky. Fia had half a mind to pick up a stone and pelt it mid-flight, but that clearly wasn’t necessary anymore.

As if she had just dealt with a trivial nuisance, Fia dusted off her hands and began gathering the fruits scattered by the gale. Thanks to that ungrateful bird, her bandage-like outfit had become even more tattered. Fortunately, she had used her cloak as a makeshift fruit basket, sparing it from further damage.

“Sigh, no matter which world it is, forests are never safe. Better leave sooner rather than—huh?”

Before she could finish her sentence, an unmistakable sound, reminiscent of crashing waves, echoed from the woods.

No, that couldn’t be the sea.

Fia immediately dismissed the thought.

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She had just stood atop a cliff overlooking the entire valley. Aside from the forest, there was only barren wasteland—no sea in sight.

That left only a handful of possibilities.

Hastily bundling the foraged wild fruits into her cloak, Fia remained wary of whatever lurked in the dense foliage.

She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

Atop the trees, roughly twenty meters away, one, then two, then four—within seconds, the sky was filled with thousands of owl-like monsters. The “wave” Fia had heard was the deafening sound of their synchronized wingbeats.

The avian monsters clustered together like a storm cloud, blotting out the sky. Their movements were uniform—fixating their crimson eyes on Fia, feathers bristling in aggression.

The only difference from the bird she had kicked away earlier was their shrill, hostile cries.

This is bad.

She had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

Abandoning any attempt to gather the remaining fruits, Fia hastily wrapped the cloak into a bundle. At the same moment, the screeching owls all flapped their wings in unison. In an instant, the sky was filled with countless cyan wind blades, merging into an overwhelming wall of slicing air. Anything caught in its path—branches, stones—was reduced to dust.

Persistent little things.

Clutching the fruit-filled cloak in her left arm, Fia leaped backward into the air.

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The sheer force of her jump cratered the ground beneath her, sending her soaring higher than the flock—at least thirty meters above the ground, by her estimate. This body’s physical capabilities far surpassed that of a normal human. During her explorations in the wasteland, Fia had once attempted a powerful jump and found herself catapulted over a hundred meters into the air—and even then, she had a feeling that wasn’t her limit.

But for dealing with these annoying owls, it was more than enough.

The wall of wind blades crashed into the ground below, shredding all vegetation in its wake and obscuring the birds’ vision with a storm of debris.

Time to test the magic I’ve been practicing for the past two days.

Focusing briefly, Fia selected the three densest clusters of birds as her targets. Then, with a snap of her fingers—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three deafening explosions erupted amidst the flock. A shockwave far more violent than the wind blades radiated outward, carrying scorching heat that severed trees at their trunks and left massive charred craters in the earth. A lifeless zone roughly thirty meters in diameter now marred the forest.

By the time Fia landed on the damp, softened soil, the air was thick with smoke and the unmistakable scent of roasted meat. Charred corpses rained down around her. In the distance, the explosions had triggered a chorus of panicked animal cries as the forest’s inhabitants fled in terror.

That single attack had wiped out nearly eighty percent of the flock.

“Caw! Caw-caw!”

Terrified by the devastating display of fire magic, the remaining owls let out panicked shrieks. Not a trace of their earlier hostility remained as they frantically flapped their wings, scrambling over one another in their haste to escape in all directions.

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“Phew, if only they’d done that from the start. Not bad for my first time using magic in actual combat.”

Fia nodded in satisfaction.

Simultaneously conjuring multiple flame storms was a technique she had only grasped the day before. For fireballs with a ten-meter diameter, she could create up to twelve at once. For hundred-meter ones, the limit was five—any more than that, and her concentration would waver, risking the fireballs spiraling out of control into silver nebulae capable of triggering nuclear-scale explosions.

Waving away the lingering black smoke, Fia took a light breath and rubbed the spot on her waist where the wind blades had struck earlier.

“Good thing they were just low-tier monsters. Anything stronger could’ve been dangerous. If something this small can make me feel pain, I can’t imagine what larger monsters would be like. Then again, those birds were probably low-level, right?”

The Secret History of Witches had mentioned that a monster’s strength couldn’t be judged by size alone, but Fia found it hard to believe that palm-sized birds could be anything but weak.

“Well, either way, that’s one problem dealt with.” She glanced at the devastation around her—scattered leaves, charred bird carcasses, and wood splinters everywhere. “It’s a mess, but since we’re deep in the forest where no one would come, it shouldn’t matter.”

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—

Just then, a distant, thunderous noise rumbled through the air. At first, Fia thought it might be another monster, but upon closer listening, she realized the sound originated from much farther away. It wasn’t a single creature, either—it sounded more like a massive group moving in unison. If she had to compare it to something, it reminded her of an army on the march.

Had she unknowingly gotten close to a city?

Perhaps the opportunity to infiltrate civilization was finally at hand.

Shoving a fruit into her mouth, Fia sprinted toward the source of the noise.