Chapter 436: Leaves on the wind

Belladonna’s efficiency shot through the roof thanks to the addition of the Blood Golems. She was able to cover more of the city, and even clear some of the more irritating beasts by having them team up on them to take them down in record time.

There was no one that was easier to coordinate with than yourself, or in her case a bloody clone of herself that was in turn being controlled by a clay clone of herself. Was her choice of Golem forms a little narcissistic?

No, it couldn’t possibly be.

Still, the Blood Golems didn’t get all of the irritating enemies. There was still some left for her, such as these horrible beasts.

"Baaaaaah!" The hellish beasts bleated, as they bobbed through the air. It was a flock of sheep, around twenty of them in total.

Their wool was made of clouds, which gave the sheep a lighter than air property that allowed them to fly through a small amount of wind magic to adjust air currents. They were usually a tame species, harmless as their only ability was to control the wind and could only do so enough to great a strong breeze at best.

It would ruin an umbrella if you made the mistake of opening it, or make you a little cold if you didn’t dress properly, but it was far from dangerous.

That was in their usual environment, however. When they were not surrounded by leaves that gently coasted on the winds they generated, and which had razor sharp edges.

With another mighty bleat, the Stratosheep sent a gust of wind Belladonna’s way, as well as a wall of spinning razor leaves plucked straight from the tree tops.

She flipped and twisted, letting the wind that was playing with her hair guide her movements, as she slowly climbed through the air.

The cold wind seeped into her bones through every small cut that the leaves left, but they weren’t enough to stop her.

The herd bleated at each other in an unusual level of aggression as they finally found the joy of being the one with the power, and that could be more than just prey. Unfortunately their time as predators was short lived, and they had not developed the right instincts, and had been actively ignoring their fleeing instincts to enjoy this rare chance at superiority.

With a unified Baa, they combined their power and began funnelling the air towards them. Scooping up fallen leaves and plucking others from the trees as they pulled them towards them and let it build up around them like a small hurricane.

Belladonna leapt to the side, creating a platform of air beneath her, as she flipped into the torrent of air and became just another leaf on the wind.

By the time the herd had realised their mistake, Belladonna was already inside their razor sharp defences and was tearing apart their numbers with tooth and claw, like a ravenous wolf.

Immediately the instincts they had been suppressing came rushing back, and their poorly constructed egos shattered like glass. They let out a series of panicked bleats as they scampered through the air, their ridiculous bodies flipping and tumbling as they ushered the wind to carry them far away from this place and away from this horrible predator.

Belladonna dropped to the ground and wiped her mouth with a soft chuckle as she watched the tufts of cloud-like fluff drift down around her. They tasted surprisingly good, like a strange blend of lamb and cotton candy.

Such sweet blood and meat that literally melted in your mouth. She would definitely need to find some of these things later and make some proper meals out of them, but for now she let them tumble away back to where they came from.

She glanced around at the other bodies that surrounded her. She had just finished gutting a Bronze skinned Bull when these Stratosheep interrupted her with their delusions of grandeur.

"Sebbie, Same deal as before. Skin anything with a hide that could support at least tier 2 enchantment and butcher them to the best of your abilities.

You can take anything below tier 2 and a quarter of the meat cuts."

There was a series of taps against a nearby house, as the invisible brownie made his demands. Belladonna listened to them, before scoffing and shaking her head.

"Fine, you can get a third of this lot. But if you do that you’re getting less meat this time."

After spending so long with him, Belladonna had come to more or less understand Sebbie’s tapping language. It was made easier by the fact that he didn’t so much communicate in full words, but more emotions.

In this case he had simply told her "Disagreement. Hungry. Tasty. Desire."

She didn’t need Sebbie to tap out his answer. The disappearance of the bodies and the manifestation of piles of rolled up skin and still bloody meat was his answer.

Belladonna stored the pile in her shadow, and took a moment to breathe as she glanced around.

"Alright... where too next." She muttered to herself, before her golden arms manifested the next moment.

She turned towards them, watching two of the hands struggle to hold the jaws of the large beast that had tried to ambush her.

It looked strikingly like an old English bulldog, with the heavy underbite, but one that was the size of a baby elephant and had green, leathery skin. It’s jaws were big enough to swallow her head whole, and still have room for an arm or two, and her golden arms were actually struggling slightly against the power in those watermelon crushing jaws.

Impressive. But considering that it was only staying in the air because she was holding it there, it was not impressive enough, and it’s stubby legs were not going to help it.

Belladonna twisted her body, slamming the Bulldog against the ground, and switched her grip to wrap around its saggy throat.

She was about to deal a killing blow and move on, when she paused for a moment. Tilting her head, Belladonna lifted her hand slightly and looked at the strap of leather that was underneath her hand.

Was that a collar?

Her hand leapt up, latching around the spear before it could pierce her skull, as a low guttural voice growled out its demands.

"Release my dog."