After some skillful tracking, Idris was finally able to spot the zephyrtail swift in the far distance—the bird currently drinking water at the edge of a nearby lake.

  Like the scroll had revealed, it was a mostly white-feathered bird of a deceptively small size, able to fit within the palm of one’s hand. However, hidden underneath its diminutive appearance was a power that would impress even the most seasoned of adventurers. As soon as the swift spotted danger of any kind, it would immediately take off with an incredible burst of speed, enough to break even the sound barrier.

  Therefore, if one were to make an effective attempt to hunt down such a creature, they must approach it very, very carefully.

  With delicately slow movements to minimize the noise he made as much as possible, he magically conjured a special arrow into his bow and took aim at the bird.

  Under most situations, Idris preferred to use his real bow and arrows as opposed to his magically conjured counterparts as the real version did not cost him any mana to use. The only times where he would use magically conjured weapons was if he ran out of real arrows, his bow was either damaged or removed from him mid-battle, or he needed to conjure special arrows for specific tasks.

  Additionally, as a rule of thumb, he preferred not to use any special arrows when he’s below half of his total mana so that he’d still have some mana left for magically conjured arrows in case his real arrows ran out. Each of these rules was meticulously set up so that he would not be put in a compromised position during combat, a testament to his wealth of experience as an archer.

  This time, the special arrow he’d conjured was what’s known as an “Unseen Arrow”. Like the name suggested, it was an arrow designed to be almost completely invisible to the naked eye. Additionally, it had supplemental features to make it as quiet as possible as it cut through the air.

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  All of these features may seem a bit excessive at first. However, when dealing with a creature such a zephyrtail, these acts of precaution were more than reasonable. Zephyrtails were known to be quite perceptive as well as having extraordinary reaction speed, to the point where not even normal arrows landing with pinpoint accuracy were able to pin them down. As soon as it detected an arrow coming towards it, it would immediately fly away with its signature supersonic speed before the arrow was even able to land a hit.

  Once a zephyrtail took flight, the hunter would inevitably have to chase it down, assuming they hadn’t already lost sight of it. With that said, chasing after a zephyrtail swift, though difficult, was not an impossible task. Zephyrtails were only able to maintain their supersonic speeds in short bursts, meaning that it’s still quite possible to hunt one down if the hunter was both fast and persistent enough. However, Idris preferred not to go through all the trouble of chasing down the swift, instead wanting to simply take it down in one single shot.

  After taking a deep breath, allowing his mind to relax itself into a hyperfocused state, he released the taut bowstring—allowing the invisible arrow to soar from his bow. In that fraction of a second where the arrow traveled, it cut through the air with such aerodynamic efficiency that it was substantially quieter than normal arrows—a difference of which was so minute that it’s almost imperceptible to the senses of regular people.

  At that crucial movement, time seemed to slow to a crawl, one where every millisecond mattered. Soon, the arrow would hit the zephyrtail straight through its heart, leaving the bird none the wiser and Idris in possession of a satisfyingly earned star rune. However, right before the arrow was able to hit its target, it was suddenly intercepted by another arrow—a normal arrow which hit the invisible arrow at a perpendicular angle.

  As soon as the two arrows collided with each other, it created enough of a disturbance to startle the zephyrtail, causing it to take to the skies with a miniature sonic boom.