Tamer Zao Han Fan (P.O.V.)

Day 6 A.F.P. (After Fluffals Pillars) 11:30 PM

A Crow monster with wings made of Katana Blades parries Zao's Black Conical Lance Swords with its right-wing. Then it uses its left wing to counterattack but breaks in half one of Zao's weapons, which he tried using to block the surprise attack.

This particular monster has a skill that doubled the weight in its wings and raised its sharpness. In addition, its eyes had a weird ability to cause its opponents to be mesmerized. Thus Zao had to fight it without making direct eye contact, which created an opening for the monster to launch a surprise attack.

Zao threw away the handle of the Black Lance Sword since there was no way to repair it. He is currently surrounded by several Crow Monsters whose bodies are a mix of flesh, feather, and metal. They fly in a multi-directional orbital formation around him and wait for the order to attack their leader, who is responsible for destroying one of Zao's Lance Swords.

Sensing Zao was reaching his limits made them ecstatic as they desired revenge for the brethren he had slain. Though Zao was open to attack, the monsters held back and did not dare break the chain of command. But you could see it in their fierce eyes that it was only a matter of time before they would make their final move to end Zao's life.

Zao. "Before this fight began, I thought you were all just stupid humanoid birds, but now I see you are all members of a proud warrior race. I wonder if Fluffals created you all, or did he enslave you?"

None of the Crow monsters responded to Zao's Question. Either they didn't understand or couldn't communicate.

Zao glances at the sea below and spots the remaining flock of Crow monsters circling below him. None chased after Jia and Ethan, who both should probably be far enough to heal and rest without worry of being followed.

Zao. "Well, I have distracted you all long enough to help my comrades. It was interesting to fight monsters that understand the concept of a warrior's code of honor."

It has been an hour since Zao engaged the Metal Crow monster flock. He had slain at least eighty of them so far in that time, but the number of opponents whose wings were crippled by him amounted to twice that number.

The Titanium-grade armor was the main reason for their survival against Zao's Lance attack. Only by powering up his penetration with Lance Dance and targeting the unarmored sections of their bodies did he manage to injure or kill them. Unfortunately, even though Zao's armor and weapons were made of the same material, the metal was still susceptible to being damaged after constant attacks without giving him the time to fix it with Metal Bracing.

The Metal Crow Monsters were not like those instinct-driven Ice-bugs in Alaska who rushed to their deaths with no value for their lives. Instead, these monsters are knights born to fly, use their cunning to avoid getting hit, coordinate with each other, and counterattack at the right moment to make Zao retreat.

The metal projectiles from their muskets and crossbows had penetrated or broken off a few of Zao's Golden Armor pieces. Most of what remains are covered in cracks or have heavy dentation from the attacks received. Nevertheless, Zao was able to control his thrusters in a way that dodged almost everything thrown at him. It demanded concentration, awareness, muscle control, and mental resilience to execute those life-saving dodges.

After battling for half an hour, Zao had grown weary of the heavy toll on his mind and body. He decided to copy Dale's tactic and forced his thrusters to climb him to this altitude most of the Crows could not reach. Then, they would wait below as their best fighters would take turns flying up to Zao to force him back down to the flock below.

Only the strongest fliers or those who could make it up there would dare to engage him in close combat. Luckily for Zao, that meant he only had to parry and deflect against a dozen or fewer Metal Crow monsters at a time instead of hundreds. Furthermore, during these fights, unspoken respect for each other was established. It allowed Zao to fight the elite Crow monsters one on one instead of all at once. At first, Zao was shocked by this behavior, but it seemed the Crow monsters had decided that such a kill was not worthy of the opponent who dared take on their whole flock alone.

But their Titanium-grade weapons and unique monster skills chipped away at Zao's armor and weapons after several waves of attacks. As a result, Zao's left Lance sword had been broken in half, leaving him with only one weapon to fight with. Moreover, Zao was not confident that it would hold out since the web of cracks on its surface kept spreading.

Zao considered the only option he had left for survival. Evolution!

At the beginning of the battle, Zao had two skills stuck at the Intermediate level, and they were Lance Dance and Metal Bracing.

During the past one hour, Zao had taken every chance available to him to activate the skill regardless of whether he had the time to complete it before being interrupted.

Thankfully the Monster App's system did not disqualify a skill that had to be canceled due to an interruption of executing the skill. So as long he activated it for a few seconds, it counted as an official activation during actual combat against monsters.

Finally, all his skills had entered the expert level and achieved the basic requirements to evolve Barbatos to its third form.

[To advance skills from Beginner=>Intermediate=>Expert=>Master

The User must execute a skill fifty times in real combat to reach intermediate and a further hundred times to reach expert.

Once all skills have reached the expert level, the monster will evolve to the Third Form.

But if the User chooses to attain mastery in all four skills by executing each of them two hundred times more in combat, then they will have access to Evolution Manipulation]

This also meant Zao would lose out on the opportunity to raise his skills to master and obtain the ability to manipulate his evolution. But that is a luxury he could not consider anymore as the threat of death was seconds away from arriving.

Zao hoped that whatever skills or benefits Barbatos gained from the third form would be sufficient to deal with the current threat or allow his Tamer to take as many of these Crows down with him before being overwhelmed.

There was a window of twenty seconds before the next attack. This was because the crows held back, taking time to study their opponent and planning their next move. It had occurred over a dozen times already, making Zao confident that they would not break the pattern.

Zao intended to complete the evolution as fast as possible and use whatever he got. He promised himself that he would not regret this decision even if it failed to save his life. He would die as a proud warrior or at least be worthy of his father, uncle, grandfather, and the rest of his ancestors.

Zao whispered to his butler to confirm the third evolution request, which arrived several minutes ago. At the time, he still hoped that he could take down the leader of the Crow Monsters and somehow escape the flock if he burned his thrusters to the maximum.

However, those same thrusters had been overheated, and they couldn't sustain his current altitude any longer. So it was only a matter of time before Zao descended low enough to enter the projectile range of the flock below.

[Before evolution to the third form can begin, the User must answer the following questions.

Question One: Body, Sun, Attack, Insect, Metal. Pick two among these for your monster's third form to focus on]

"Sun and Metal!"

Zao whispered quickly.

[Question Two: The User is allowed to evolve one monster skill slot, or the User can swap one current skill for a different one. Note that the new skills, in either case, will reflect answers chosen in question one. Which will the User choose?]

"Evolve current skill!"

Zao could not afford a swapping skill and risk getting something useless.

[Cross-Slash, Lance-Dance, Drill Lance, or Metal Brazing]

"Drill Lance!"

[Drill Lance has evolved to Plasma Lance(Beginner)

Plasma Lance: The Lances will temporarily heat up to turn metal to Plasma when this skill is activated]

"?"

Zao could not believe his Drill Lance skill had evolved into something similar to lightsabers from the Nation of Disney's Star Wars property.

[Monster evolution will now begin... ERROR! Equipment Transformation combat style is active! The current combat style will be updated instead]

At this moment, the Crow monsters had paused long enough to prepare for their next attack. But instead, they all froze when a sphere of white light enveloped Zao's body that was bright enough to force them to shield their eyes.

The sphere shattered just a few seconds after it appeared. Zao's figure is now hidden inside an Eight-foot tall Exo-suit body with some Gundam characteristics. Golden-colored Titanium Armor with black stripes covered its frame. Two new Black Conical Lances, almost double their previous size, are equipped in each hand. Four Bee Wing thrusters are on its back, releasing a considerable thrust to keep the heavy body hovering in place.

Zao, inside the Mech, is surprised that the evolution took inspiration from his favorite anime he watched when he was a teenager.

The physical design of the Exo-suit looked like Gundam Barbatos, which was what had inspired him to name his Bee Knight partner.

The crow monsters were shocked by the sudden increase in size and the intimidating aura. Their leader decided it was foolish to keep attacking one by one and ordered all seven to attack at once.

Zao activated the skill Plasma lance, which quickly heated up the two weapons in his Mech's hands, stretched out to his left and right. Then, his thrusters activated and rotated the body in a complete revolution. The Plasma Lance sliced through the Metal Crow monster subordinates. The smell of cooked bird meat filled the air as their bodies fell to the flock and sea below.

Their leader activated its unique ability and charged towards Zao, but this time Zao rushed forward to meet it head-on using his new thrusters. After they clashed, the flock of Metal Crow monsters watched as their leader's body fell towards the sea. They turned their heads back up at Zao in his new Mech Armor with the hint of fear finally appearing in their eyes. The Mech and the two lances made of Plasma could cut through their Titanium grade armor like a butcher blade cleaves through bone.

-----------------

The below two links are the inspiration of Zao's Third form

https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/TigerVespamon

https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/ASW-G-08_Gundam_Barbatos_Lupus_Rex