A vulture.
It was a vulture!
Though there was no way to tell whether it was the same kind of carrion vulture Rhode and Lilia had seen near Dun Garok, its size was clearly about the same.
And it seemed even faster!
In just a few seconds, the vulture would strike the young cavalryman in the back of the head.
Against an attack that powerful, even the standard-issue iron helmet on his head would probably do no good.
The force of the impact alone would be enough to break his neck.
At that moment, fear gripped the entire company.
The six or seven soldiers who had noticed what was happening looked terrified.
But the vulture was so fast that they did not even have time to draw their weapons and fight back.
At that critical instant, a fireball flew back from the front of the company.
It was Rhode's fireball, of course.
Everything had happened so suddenly that Rhode had no time to charge it up. He simply hurled a small fireball.
Though it was not particularly powerful, it had clearly come just in time.
With a whoosh, a brilliant flash, and a wave of searing heat, the fireball shot straight toward the vulture's eyes.
"Yes!" The soldiers had barely cried out in delight when they discovered that this vulture was extraordinarily agile.
As soon as it noticed the danger ahead, it beat its left wing hard and shifted slightly to one side, leaving Rhode's fireball to skim past it.
That had only slowed its attack a little. Its target remained unchanged.
The cavalryman's life was still in grave danger.
Yet the next instant, a wisp of smoke rose from the vulture's head as though lightning had struck it. Was that lightning?
Its body wobbled, and its movements lost some