A wingspan approaching thirty meters — the eagle was unambiguously Heavyweight.

A round-bodied hen four meters tall — lightweight at best, and perhaps not even that.

Yet the fight refused to be one-sided. The eagle drove down from altitude and went straight for the chicks. The hen spread her wings and drove her needle-sharp beak directly into the eagle's approach path — the burst of force she generated at that moment was precisely timed, striking exactly when the eagle's downward momentum was spent and its upward recovery hadn't begun.

Crunch. Crack.

The forest erupted with the collision. The eagle climbed back into the sky carrying a minor gash on its belly. The hen lost a few feathers but remained standing, wings spread, chicks sheltered beneath them.

The eagle didn't leave. It circled overhead, reading the hen's defense for gaps, apparently committed to taking at least one chick before the day was over.

Watching the eagle's persistence and the hen's single-minded protectiveness, Shen Cong felt his options crystallizing.

If the eagle keeps pressing her, this becomes my opportunity. If I can disrupt the eagle's takeoff before it gets airborne — working with Little Four — we can finish it. It attacked me once and got away. Not this time.

Shen Cong wasn't someone who nursed grudges as a general rule. Threats to him were dealt with immediately or they weren't dealt with at all. The eagle was unusual — it had struck him twice and escaped both times, and that outcome had sat unresolved. Now the resolution was presenting itself.

The hen and her chicks were resources, too. Take them back to Xinyi City camp, have someone raise them — eggs would be a reliable source going forward.

"Little Four. Stay quiet. Be patient. Get ready." He kept his voice low, feeling the Four-Legged Dragon's eagerness through the perceptual link. Facing a jin beast of comparable grade, her competitive drive was rising sharply.

Shen Cong's instinct was always to wait. The eagle and the hen were already at each other. This had every shape of a fisherman's catch — let the…