The griffin, towering over them in size, quickly stood strong again after Dawn’s impact that had it stumbling. And while her attack appeared to do little more than enrage it, she gave Abel the chance to move closer through the branches above, as the hive-mind of owls stirred overtop the griffin in a condensed mob. The horde sparked with building energy that intensified the longer they collided and stored electricity as they traveled between their tiny, painted bodies.

  But before they discharged their charged bolt of lightning, the griffin lifted its wings before flapping them against the ground, which sent out a powerful gust of wind the much smaller owls couldn’t handle. And not only did that wind cause them to scatter and lose the charge they'd built, it gave Abel and Baron both a strong shove from their vantage points in the tree.

  In his own head, Baron luckily managed hold onto the branch below with his vines, while Abel fell a multitude of yards to the ground, where he landed on his feet - thankfully, Abel just consumed blood, so he’d most likely be alright with the superior strength, speed, and endurance it temporarily gave him.

  Crap, what do I do, Baron asked himself before the griffin propelled itself a few feet into the air, and flew forward at Dawn with a powerful swipe of jagged claws. Come on Baron, you need to do something, he urged himself to action as Dawn lowered her knees to roll under the attack, and before Dawn could step into the counter, the griffin snapped down with its peak to bite her as it landed.

  Do something, he pleaded with himself as Dawn slipped to the side of its attack, once again managing to dodge its claws before it lashed out again - it was surprisingly fast for its big, powerful body - but still, Dawn rolled under the griffin’s strike.

  Finally, after finding some of Spriggan’s resolve, Baron took control of the tree below him with a conservative amount of mana, Baron channeled his control through its roots to whip out of the ground and grab at the griffin’s rear legs as the tree’s branches lashed out to subdue its wings.

  The extended, wooden limbs managed to bind its movements as it struggled with its strong, feathered wings. Even if Baron didn’t manage to restrain it for long, the opportunity gave Dawn the chance to land a crisp combo of powerful hooks to its ribs.

  From the roots, the griffin tore its legs free as it squealed in pain before stomping down to crush Dawn, who put herself in a dangerous position beneath it.

  “Dawn!” Helpless - or at least that's what Baron believed - as he called out concerned. But luckily, the attack didn’t connect, seconds before the impact of the griffin’s weight smashed into Dawn, Abel’s swarm consumed Dawn, where it looked like she disappeared as they flew away with her encompassed, each owl seamlessly working together to lift her and drop her off at a safer position.

  “Shit, appreciate the save!” Now yards away from the griffin’s right side, Dawn thanked Abel as she wiped away the sweat and dirt on her forehead.

  Damn it, if Dawn got hurt there, it would have been my fault, Baron stuck in his own head remained unresponsive to the others. What the hell is wrong with me, why can’t I be reliable like when I’m Spriggan? Unfortunately, this was not the time to be thinking about these things, and the griffin began flying toward Abel, who managed to slide back and dodge its flurry - until his sparking collective of owls passed by mid lunge to engulf and carry Abel to Baron’s heightened spot.

  At the same time, Dawn shoulder charged its side, which disrupted its balance from the strength of the impact. Still smiling, Dawn pivoted her feet as she twisted her hips, and whipped out her shoulders with each punishing punch in her combo of overhands, straights, and hooks.

  The brunt of Dawn’s strikes visibly shook the griffin, but before she could continue, it swung its wing out to knock her down from her feet.

  Abel, after being dropped off beside Baron, silently commanded the cloud of static to pivot in the air into a dive bomb before the griffin could take advantage of Dawn’s vulnerable position on the ground.

  Finally snapping Baron from his mental spiral, Abel grabbed his shoulder before speaking. “What’s going on with you?” he said, as the cluster of electricity dove into their foe.

  Unfortunately, while they unleashed the lightning into him in an explosion of sparks, the griffin managed to lift its wing to not only block most of the damage, but counter by blasting out a brunt, gust of wind, which halved the swarm’s size in a puff of ink.

  “You need to lock in,” Abel said again, before leaping back to the ground, where he ran toward the griffin with the smaller, car-sized collection of birds flying behind him.

  My friends may die here because of my uselessness. But I just can't do the things Spriggan can do, Baron watched from his perched position as Dawn bounced back to her feet with a smile despite the swelling on her cheek, and Abel, who used the interlocking blanket of owls to keep the griffin’s attention as he struggled to keep his distance from its attacks.

  Come on Baron, yeah, you don't have the suit, but maybe you can still stand tall like Spriggan, but before he could finish his thought, Abel was grazed by a claw he failed to fully dodge, which tore through his sleeve, and caused blood to slowly drip from his light wound.

  With no help from Baron, Abel managed to fall back as Dawn, wildly leapt onto its back, causing the griffin to buck and flap its wings to try and throw her off.

  “S-shit! Kind of getting cooked…” The griffin cut Dawn off by taking flight through the thick layer of branches.

  But before it could take off, Dawn took the chance to let go and fell back down to the ground with Abel before it could swoop back around.

  “Fucking hell, I’m not used to fighting somewhere, so mirrorless like a forest,” she said, their backs falling against each others as they circled and searched for any sign of the griffin.

  “We’ll figure it out, but with Baron in that state, we need to stop considering capture,” Abel said with a casualness at the subject of death.

  “Yeah, unfortunately not seeing many other ways out of this with Spriggan being useless up there.” While Dawn said his name with a sarcastic frustration, it gave Baron an idea - one that often helped him shed Baron’s useless nature in place of something much greater than himself.

  “Get ready,” Abel interjected, as the noises of the surrounding woods fell silent. Unsure of its location, they remained back to back as they carefully looked through the damaged covering of leaves for their flying foe.

  A tense, quiet half minute passed before there was a shadow cast by Dawn.

  “On me!” Dawn called out as the griffin violently dove down on them, but before the attack could land, she dashed toward the right with a powerful stride, as Abel’s swarm lifted him away in a buzz.

  Placing him back down away from the attack, Abel wiped away the blood that trailed down to the leather band of his watch - but unexpectedly the griffin followed up on him with a crushing beak attack.

  “Abel!” Dawn yelled out as she sprinted toward the beasts’ rear, though its tail lashed out like a whip and warded her off from interfering.

  Unable to escape on his own, Abel was a breaths away from having the much harder griffin’s skull smash on his own.

  But there was someone, who couldn’t allow that to happen - and seconds before the devastating attack left Abel mortally wounded; a robust root emerged from the dirt beneath the griffin and shot up with a rounded, blunt edge that parried the incoming attack away.

  With his longer, more styled black hair, and white eyes, Spriggan - with the facial illusion spell in place - swung down to kick the griffin’s reeling head with the bottom of his feet. Now given a chance to escape, Abel scurried back with a relieved breath as he pivoted back around to see what happened.

  And before their bigger opponent could react, Spriggan - in Baron’s mundane hoodie and jeans - exerted his mana through another punch of the sturdy root with a fierce shove of will, as he flipped off of its beaked head.

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  The driving force uppercutted the griffin, and caused its hindlegs to buckle under the damaging blow “Sorry about that guys” Spriggan said, now sounding much more resolved. “But we’re going to capture them.”

  Both Dawn and Abel exchanged confused looks before each looked back toward Spriggan, who led up his attack with his vines - each arms’ shooting out to bind around the griffin’s raised front leg as Spriggan leapt outside of its pocket, and yanked it down with a reliable pull of mana-empowered vines that slammed it’s heavy weight onto its side.

  Below them the ground lightly shook from the large beasts fall, their reactions growing more amazed by Spriggan’s slick dodge under a panicked, falling swipe and graceful flip over a second before sliding back to disengage.

  “Time to stop watching and lock in, guys,” Spriggan said with an attitude unfamiliar to either of them from Baron.

  “Oh…” Abel muttered, clearly thinking as he looked at his blood that dripped down the watch on his arm. “Dawn, I think I’ve solved your problem.” As he spoke, he lifted the glass part of his watch for her to see - Dawn’s grin returning at the sight of it. “Just go help Ba… Spriggan, go help Spriggan distract it for now,” Abel said before the owls scooped him into the air with only his lower body carried by the smaller horde.

  “Bet,” Dawn responded as the griffin rolled to its feet and circled around Spriggan with an ear-piercing screech

  And in a muscular burst of speed, the griffin lunged forward with a blast of momentum from its wings to deliver a crushing bite on Spriggan as it passed.

  But Spriggan didn’t allow himself to be caught - the same root rising beneath him to launch him skyward - and in a flashy set of twists, he reached the apex of his flight, where he stopped to focus on the griffin. “Assist incoming,” Spriggan called out to Dawn as his vines snaked through the air and grasped her hands.

  With both of Dawn’s hardened hands gripping onto the vines, Baron flipped as they reeled around him and catapulted her through the air toward the Griffin, who spun around with the aid of its mobile wings to face Dawn as she flew toward it.

  Swinging in with her right hand, Dawn soared into the Griffin’s - she smashed down with a powerful overhand. The short clash sent her flipping uncontrollably from the collision of her fist and the clawed paw it used to block, which sent it reeling back with a desperate, high pitched squeal.

  At the same time as Dawn spun through the air, Spriggan closed the distance, where he stopped between her rough landing and the griffin, who regained its posture before fiercely swiping at them both in a wild rush of attacks. And as Spriggan weaved through the openings, Abel reached a heightened point in the sky, stories above the foliage.

  “Spriggan keep them distracted!” Holding up his wrist watch to face the scene of the fight, Abel shouted from where he hovered in the sky.

  Unresponsive, Spriggan ducked below the griffin’s paw before dashing through its pocket to its left side, where Spriggan, with a tiring surge of mana, ran his energy through a nearby elm with its strong, wooden trunk, sprawling canopy of green, and reliable roots that kept it grounded.

  Now complying with his will, Spriggan grabbed at an imaginary resistance before shoving it toward the griffin - though unnecessary, the act of physically moving with his magic helped Spriggan find a finer level of control when using magic in more difficult ways.

  A trail of branches knotted together in a reinforced blast of force into the griffins side, and at the same time, Dawn rose to her feet, her eyes becoming reflective balls as she looked up toward Abel’s position in the air.

  Spriggan’s indirect attack knocked the griffin over again, but this time it rolled with the momentum before breaking apart the collection of limbs with a clawed swipe; not giving it the chance to breathe, Spriggan pushed forward again, the damage repairing as they climbed around it with an exhausting sprint of mana usage.

  The griffin went to bite through the controlled extensions of the tree again, but this time Spriggan changed its trajectory to slip underneath its attack before it looped around to begin binding around it.

  With another horrified squeal, the griffin flapped its wings to fly against the branches that mounted it, but before it could take off into flight, Dawn suddenly vanished from the floor as Spriggan’s blinked.

  Now high in the sky, in front of Abel’s watch-arm, Dawn - fist first - began plummeting with the acceleration of gravity, toward the griffin, who was pulled back down by Spriggan’s collection of growth.

  But Spriggan’s grasp slipped, his deep mana reserves faltering from the excessive usage in such a short, burst time; the grappled grip on the griffin weakening as Spriggan lost his focus against the mental and physical drain

  Taking the opportunity, the griffin flapped its wings harder and harder until it snapped through most of the remaining branches.

  The invasive griffin almost entirely broke from Spriggan’s bondage, and looked prepared to fly away with the intense beating of its wings - and unfortunately at this rate, Dawn’s divebomb was bound to miss, which most likely the attack they needed to knock it out of commision.

  I won't fail! Spriggan determined.

  Biting down on his molars, Spriggan dug deep and pulled on any energy and all energy he could to empower the elm tree’s strength under the control of his mana.

  “Again!” Spriggan roared out with an intensity unfamiliar to them, as the binding branches grew back to life - stronger and more desperate to pull the griffin back down before it could fly away. The exhaustion hit Spriggan like a wave that tested the strength in his legs, and threatened to snap his stretched-out resolve.

  Luckily, his efforts weren’t in vain - the griffin becoming unable to resist his pull to the ground, even if it fought against and slowed the process with all its might.

  And before splattering against the ground, Dawn snapped back to her spot in the air by Abel’s watch - but this time, she fired down with the momentum carried over with her last fall, and not far behind her, Abel followed at a much slower rate with his damaged owl swarm.

  Letting out a strained, guttural grunt, Spriggan pushed and pushed until the griffin had nearly been bound, but he knew he couldn’t reliably last at this rate much longer, or manage to fully restrain the griffin while it fought for its freedom. But he didn’t need to keep going - Dawn crashing into its neck with an intense body slam that shook the ground.

  “Lock it down!” Dawn, with its neck pinned to the ground, shouted to Spriggan, who gave one last willful shove to separate the growth of wood from the tree, which worked to bind its limbs and wings to its body before he locked the reliable knots of tree limbs tightly in place.

  Stumbling to his knees, Spriggan could use no more mana, as Dawn stood up from the captured griffin to walk over and help pick him up by the arm.

  “Good shit dude, you good though?” Dawn asked as Spriggan accepted her help to rise up on uneasy legs.

  “Yeah, just mana exhaust.” With Dawn dusting off Spriggan’s dirty shoulders as he spoke, Abel landed on the ground, the summoned owls flying back into their page before he turned to dap-up each of them in turn.

  “That was some dope stuff Spriggan,” Abel said with an approving tone, which reminded Spriggan to undo the illusion over his face. And within a fraction of a second, Spriggan’s features returned to Baron’s softer cheeks with brown face

  “Oh, uh, thanks,” Baron said, sounding more bashful than he did moments ago with Dawn’s compliment.

  Now, regrouped, they took the chance to sit down and breathe before Baron used the surrounding foliage to help carry the heavy griffin back home with the help of Dawn’s brute strength, which despite that ended up being a much quicker trip back.

  …

  Waiting for them beside Baron’s cabin, Hugo waved to them with a leafy branch as his robust dome of leaves gave the area around him a nice shade. “It seems you three were successful as expected,” Hugo said slowly with a comforting tone.

  With the griffin still bound by the strong, tightly tangled wrapping of wood, the three slowly and carefully transported it across the field as it struggled, cawed, and did everything it could to escape. But to no avail, they transported him to Hugo as his roots gently carried the griffin before him, where he lifted them to silently stare into its eyes.

  It continued on - the griffin screaming loudly - as Dawn leaned into Baron’s ear. “What’s happening?” she asked, genuinely confused by the sudden, noisy interaction between them.

  “Don't worry, dad’s just talking to them,” Baron casually responded as Abel nodded with him, nonjudgmentally, unlike Dawn, who still looked hesitant even as the griffin's screams calmed into a tamed chirp.

  “Firstly, I’d like to thank you all for aiding me, I’m sure it wasn’t an easy task, judging by what she says,” Hugo referred to the griffin as he undid her bondage, Dawn and Abel both stepping back, each ready to activate their respective manifest and mutation.

  “And secondly, she apologizes for her actions. Unfortunately, after being taken from her home by poachers and traded through these woods, she managed an escape - though they persistently hunted her down.” Pausing to fully undo the griffin’s wrappings, Hugo continued. “Which was why she attacked you all, as she assumed you three were with them, so she apologizes profusely,” he finished - the griffin intelligently, bowing her head and lowering her body before the three.

  Without hesitation, Baron stepped forward to pet her hard, feathery head. “It’s alright, everyone makes mistakes,” he said, his voice carrying no malice from their previous exchange.

  Behind him, Dawn followed up with her own, much more cautious, head rubs before baking up to Abel, who didn't seem interested in joining Baron.

  “Let me sincerely thank you again, if there’s anything I can ever help you two with, please have Baron let me know.” Despite his uncannily human face, Hugo’s smile had a comforting warmness to it

  “It’s no problem,” Abel responded as Baron stepped back to rejoin his friends.

  “Yeah and honestly, it was really fun,” Dawn reconfirmed with a thin-lipped smile, which made Baron feel more successful than anything else today.

  “A relief to hear. I’d hate to scare away the first friends Baron has brought home.” Unbeknownst to Hugo, he accidently exposed an embarrassing fact of Baron’s less social years through middle school and high school.

  “Nah, don't worry about that, we’ll make sure to visit with bro again.” As Dawn spoke, she slung her arm over Baron’s, slightly taller neck - a thankful, fatherly smile crept up his timbered face at the sight of his adopted son's friends he found in college.

  “I’m grateful to hear that and will be anticipating your next visit,” Hugo said with his relaxed, truly carefree tone.

  “Yeah, we’ll visit,” Abel said before turning to his friends. “But I think it be smart for us to go clean up, and head back to the dorm.”

  “Yeah, I’m kind of a mess,” Dawn agreed with her dirt and twig-covered clothes, which wasn’t nearly as bad as Abel’s harmless cut that bled on his shirt.

  “Alright, let's do that then head out.” Leading them into the greenhouse to take turns cleaning up, Baron felt a feeling of companionship, unfamiliar to him most of his life and it made him smile with wet eyes before following them in.