Erik stopped moving. Right in front of him, the dead thaid was lying on the ground. It destroyed some of the trees in its fall, or at least the branches, creating a huge opening in the natural ceiling provided by the trees.
The creature looked like a crow, an ancient and extinct creature that roamed the planet before the thaids, and that Erik only saw through the textbooks at school, but it was easily the size of a small house.
Its feathers were pitch black, looking like polished obsidian. A curved beak, serrated like a saw, gaped open in death. Multiple eyes, now dim, lined its head like a crown.
[Don't stop,] the system said. [The battle's moving this way.]
As if to emphasize the point, another energy blast carved through the trees above, vaporizing everything in its path.
The fighting thaids wheeled overhead, lighting the sky with their powers. It looked like there was a firework display above Erik, one that he wanted to be as far away as possible.
