"I'm back"
Paul pushed himself off the ground and stood up in one motion.
He looked around in disbelief at the scene before him.
The concrete jungle he was in just a few seconds ago, had become a rocky terrain.
The lineup of buildings replaced by an actual forest in the distance.
Paul could feel his eyes tearing when the realization hit him. He even slapped his cheek to make sure this wasn't another dream.
This was what he had wished for so fervently, that he felt joy and relief spread through his chest like a heat wave.
But along with it came came confusion and unanswered questions.
'What was that about being back in my old life? Did I hallucinate it?'
He didn't understand why that had happened or when he even fell asleep.
Just the memory of it all disgusted him and he certainly didn't like the idea of revisiting his past every time he slept.
'Is this an after effect of the reincarnation or was there another reason?'
Clank! Clank!
A strange sound, like someone striking iron, interrupted his thought process.
He looked in the direction of the noise and saw the Iglemites sprawled out on the ground. Unlike before they were defenseless, despite being in a group.
In the middle of them stood a new monster that Paul didn't recognize.
A bird the size of a large adult human stood on long legs. The strangely colored patterns on its' feathers changed with each movement, as its' wings fluttered. An elongated beak picked apart the body of one of the Iglemites from the inside of their shell.
"What the hell?" Paul spoke in revulsion.
Seeing the cute and cuddly creature being torn apart was quite the disgusting scene to witness.
If he hadn't already experienced something similar inside the mountain, he would likely have vomited at this sight.
But that didn't make it less unpleasant. And there was one more thing bothering him.
'I've seen that somewhere before, but that makes no sense'
Paul had a sense of déjà-vu.
Even though this was his first time seeing this bird monster, something about it felt familiar.
'Since it's also a bird, does that make us distant relatives? Is that why?'
Once the bird monster finished eating the first victim, its' body stretched.
The head raised high and the wings spread wide under the moonlight.
This gave Paul the chance to take a closer look at the strange patters on its' body, which shimmered and moved around with a fluidity that made them seem like water.
Fleeting colors that he remembered seeing before falling asleep.
Once he had the full picture it made sense.
Paul saw the culprit happily plucking the sleeping Iglemites from their shells and got pissed off.
This monster was the reason they had lost consciousness.
'It's this bastards fault that I had to see those disgusting memories and now it's killing the only cute creatures around here on top of that'
Under normal circumstances he might have reacted differently, but Paul reached his boiling point.
With everything that happened, he had passed the limit of his patience and someone was going to pay for it.
He had already nearly died once yesterday, because of the shadow stalkers and this skinny bird wouldn't scare him after that.
Paul changed to his Phoenix and the reaction from the bird was quick.
It turned sharply in his direction and saw a fireball flying towards it at top speed.
The bird monster known as a Mimifowl, dodged with some difficulty, forced to do an acrobatic spinning jumped to the side.
The fireball singed some of its' feathers, leaving behind a burnt smell, before it exploded on impact against a rock several meters behind the bird monster.
It immediately lunged at the place where the fireball came from, but only found a hole in the ground.
The monster stopped on the spot,
While the Mimifowl looked around in confusion, an Emberant dug out of the ground in the middle of the Iglemite group.
Paul turned back to his human form and slapped the shells of the nearby ones. His small child hands were perfect for waking them up without doing any damage. He didn't to make more enemies by turning them hostile towards him.
'This bird bastard put them to sleep for a reason'
His plan was simple. Wake up the group and create a distraction.
Once the Iglemites were able to defend themselves with their tough shells, they would become a solid wall for the Mimifowl to slam against.
He ran through the group as fast as his small legs allow him to and continued slapping them awake.
"Kyuu?"
One of them made a cute noise and soon others did the same in confusion.
The Mimifowl was alerted by the noise and looked back to see his prey now back on their legs.
It flew up, visibly irritated, intending to put them back to sleep. The patterns on its' wings shimmered and reflected the moonlight with a fluidity that made it difficult to focus, when looking at it.
However the Iglemites recognized the danger this time and withdrew into their shells.
"Gwak! Gwak!"
The Mimifowl noticed the ineffectiveness and became even more irritated. Not only had its' meal been interrupted, but something dared to attack it in its' hunting ground.
It needed to defend its' territory against the unknown invader, because if it didn't, it would lose its' food source.
But therein laid the problem. It couldn't find any damned intruder and its' food was on alert, so now it was stuck not knowing what to do anymore.
This never happened, after all since when did the food start to fight back?
The Mimifowl continued to hover at low altitudes, just outside the range of the Iglemites.
In the meantime Paul had successfully circled around and flew up higher than his target, close enough to deliver a devastating attack but not close enough to be noticed.
He took a deep breath and charged as much as he could and then unleashed his biggest fireball yet.
Boom!
The resulting explosion from a blind spot sent the Mimifowl crashing down to the ground.
Sprawled out on the rocky surface it flailed around wildly in pain, but to its' misfortune this action spooked the group of Iglemites.
Just as Paul had experienced before, the Iglemites' shells transformed into spikes and pierced the Mimifowl from all sides.
Gwaaak! Gwaaak!
It cried in pain that only got worse with each movement. The injuries weren't severe enough to kill but the spikes had rendered it immobile.
Paul immediately sprang in motion and descended on top of its' head, while he simultaneously changed into his Heatglider form.
Sensing the end coming the Mimifowl, did as its' species tended to do and let out a strange cry.
Kreeeyaaw! Kreeeyaaw!
Paul didn't understand what it was doing or why the sound of its' cry changed suddenly but he knew that he should put an end to it before it could do something. The bird monster had been stronger than him at the start and after everything, he had no intention of letting his guard down.
He swiftly pulled the tail back, just like he had seen the other Heatglider do, and pierced deep into its' skull with the tail stinger.
The monsters' body tensed up before it went limb.
[You have leveled up]
The notification arrived and confirmed the Minifowls death.
'Nice, if the little guys see me as a friend now, then it was worth it in the end'
Despite his non-chalant thoughts a rush of excitement passed through his body.
This was it. This feeling was proof that it was real.
The nightmare of his memories felt so distant all of sudden, instead replaced by a serenity he had only felt in this world.
"Skreeeee"
A defeaning shriek echoed through the air.
'Of course it wouldn't be so easy'
Paul could see it fly over the mountain towards them.
A large winged lizard covered in red scales, its' piercing gaze fully focused on him and the Iglemite group around him.
The Wyvern let out another shriek.