“Say, remind how we’re supposed to fight… THAT?!” Leia yelled as she rolled away to dodge a blade made of wind. It cut through the tree next to her and caved the ground.

After Aquila had descended from the statue, the group had been forced to retreat under the cover of the forest. Ever since, Aquila had been flying in circles around the exit, occasionally casting wind blades at them.

Because of this situation, Leis’ group had no way of truly fighting back. The very few bullets they had left from the battle back at the school had already been shot and had done literally nothing.

“Maybe this is for the better actually,” Flavia said and got the attention of everyone. “I don’t think Aquila is heedless. He knows that plunging toward us will only give us a chance to injure him. So, even though we can’t retaliate, it makes it far easier for us to wait for Rakna.”

“True…” Allan muttered while sitting behind a tree. “We’ve been here for about a minute. I guess we only need to wait for around four more. As long as things continue like this, it-?!” He stopped mid-sentence as he heard a whistling noise. “Oh shit!” he scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could along with the people close to him.

A wind blade crashed where he was sitting and demolished the tree. He sighed exaggeratedly and looked at the massive bird. “Never mind. I wanna punch that thing. Now. Teach, can’t you, I don’t know, hurl a few trees at it?”

Flavia deadpanned, “Allan, do you perhaps not know how much trees weigh on average?”

“Uuuh… no?”

“2 tons.”

“Oh.”

“Well, among us, I’m still probably the only one who could attack it directly,” she then added.

“How so?” Leis asked.

“Since I leveled up my Nirvana Skill, I should be able to fly as well. However, I don’t think that my telekinesis is nowhere near strong enough to force Aquila to land.”

Leis put a hand on his chin. “Can you help someone else fly along with you?”

“Yes. But I wouldn’t be able to do anything else and I’d get tired very fast. I also need the other person to weigh less than 90kg. Other than that, I could just simply try to launch a few people in the air,” she shrugged as she said the last part.

Leis chuckled wryly. “Launching ourselves doesn’t sound very safe.”

“I’m up for it,” Leia uttered and her brother raised an eyebrow at her. “What? Sounds fun.”

“We could also use the help of these boys,” Nyx intervened while pointing at the shadow wolves at her feet. “If I manage to create shadows above Aquila, they can use Shadow Meld to each bring one person from the ground to the back of that eagle.”

“So, we do have some ways of fighting back,” Allan said. “Now, the question is, do we do it?”

“Well, it might help whatever Xiorra is planning to do,” Dan remarked. “He did say to keep the eagle distracted for 5 minutes. I say we can try.”

“In that case,” Flavia stood up and started floating. “Let’s begin. I’m going to go up with Nyx and four of you will wait before the shadow wolves can transport you through the shadows, we all agree?”

Nyx and Leis nodded before Flavia started using her telekinesis on the former. The night goddess calmly kept her balance as she got away from the ground. It was as if she was used to it.

The two women nodded at each other before Flavia channeled all her mental power to take off in one sudden pull.

* * *

Meanwhile, Aquila was not just flying around doing nothing. He was trying to locate Rakna since he was the biggest threat to him.

‘Where are you, young wolf?’ He said inwardly and as he completed another lap around the statue and prepared to send another Wind Blade in the humans’ direction, he spotted two figures exit the forest through the air.

His eyes widened a little and he flapped his wings to change his course to focus more on the two women in his sight. One of them was the one who exuded the divine aura and the other seemed to be a normal human with the power of telekinesis.

‘Interesting. For a Seedling to reach a level at which they can fly. It is a rare occurrence,’ he thought and waved one of his wings in their direction. A green-colored condensed arc of wind flew out.

Flavia waved her hand at Nyx and the two of them quickly got out of the attack’s path. They then started going straight toward Aquila from two different sides.

The Divine Eagle glanced at them both. ‘The human girl seems to be using all of her power to fly them. This would make the red-eyed girl the only threat,’ he concluded and he promptly gathered his mana and prepared to cast a spell.

But before he could proceed with his attack, Nyx summoned at least a dozen weapons made out of shadows and launched them at him.

Aquila got startled by the incredible display of power for a Seedling but nonetheless conjured his magic afterward, “[Jade Rouse!]”

The same wind pillar from before was summoned in mid-air but this one was much wider. It lasted for a few seconds and blew away Nyx’s constructs. When the wind died down, Aquila was startled to see Flavia flying toward him at full speed.

She was using her telekinesis on both herself and the air around her to accelerate. With limited options, Aquila could only wave his wings and throw two Wind Blades at her, which successfully forced her to back off although it didn’t do much damage to her.

It was then that he felt something hit his back. “What?!” He bent his neck to look up and widened his eyes in shock when he saw Nyx above him with a pair of shadowy wings on her back.

She smiled at him with her palm pointed at him. “Did you think I couldn’t fly? Don’t underestimate the shadows,” she uttered and the blanket-like shadow on his back rippled and eight silhouettes emerged; four wolves and four humans.

Leis, Gantt, Leis, and Allan jumped out of the shadows and instantly grabbed Aquila’s feathers with grins on their face.

Leis unsheathed his katana and stabbed Aquila’s back with it which made the divine bird cry out in pain. The latter then tried to flip in the air to get rid of them but they held on strongly.

Gantt slammed his shield near the injury caused by Leis, followed by Leia’s hammer, and finally, Allan delivered a punch to Aquila’s neck that contained a completely renewed power after both choosing his Path and assigning his free points. At the same time, the four shadow wolves targeted the wings.

The Divine Eagle opened his mouth to release an ear-piercing whistling and then plunged at full speed which made both Gantt and Leia get off his back.

“Oh shit!” The blonde girl shouted right before Flavia caught her with her power while Gantt fell on a shadow platform that Nyx made. She certainly couldn’t make it fly since, compared to Flavia, it was far harder for her to allow flight, but it was definitely possible to make something capable of gliding.

Aquila rushed toward the ground at a speed higher than 300km/h and landed loudly in front of the exit gate. The shock was transmitted to both Allan and Leis who were forced to let go. They simultaneously jumped off from the eagle’s back but Aquila wasn’t done.

His eyes glowed and he deployed his wings before chanting one word, “[Tempest!]” He flapped his wings with all of his strength and a massive tornado formed around him, reaching even the sky and sucking in the clouds.

Allan and Leis were flung away into the air along with several chunks of the forest. The four others that were still in the air lost control and fell in the distance. As for Rakna’s shadow wolves, they had already been dispelled after reaching their time limit.

After deracinating the forest around him and repelling his attackers, Aquila huffed. “It was a good try, humans. However, not enough.”

“Oh, really?” One mirthful voice sounded from above him.

Aquila barely had the time to register the immense bloodlust and the laugh that followed before he felt something crash on his back which caused his upper body to collide against the ground and make a sizeable crater.

* * *

A short moment earlier.

Rakna watched as Flavia and Nyx engaged Aquila. “Good, they finally got his attention. If he hadn’t stopped flying around the statue, it would have been annoying,” he muttered and ran out of the bushes he was hiding in, Stealth still active, which was now level five.

He dashed toward the Eagle God’s Statue with his nine tails closely huddled to avoid them slowing him down. He leaped at the statue and, just like at the gymnasium, landed vertically and began to run upward with his claws retracting and extending thanks to his perfect control.

He ran faster than ever before as he climbed the stone statue. The first System prompt singling him that his Claws skill and leveled up appeared thirty seconds is. Then, two minutes later just as he reached the top, a second one came telling him his skill had reached its maximum level.

Rakna grunted and finished his sprint by jumping high over the statue’s top and landing on all fours. When he reached the top, he could have sworn he noticed the figure of the irritating clown not far from him.

He ignored it and turned back into a human. Pronos carefully stretched forward and looked down from the statue’s crown. When he saw how far they were from the ground, he quickly returned to Rakna’s neck for comfort.

Meanwhile, Rakna extended his nails again so that they were around eight centimeters long. But before doing anything, he ordered mentally, ‘Two to speed. Two to dexterity.’ He impassively felt the changes happen and then stabbed his own chest with his claws.

Pronos hissed loudly in alarm.

[Rakna?!] Even Alexa was astounded, expressing genuine shock and worry for the first time.

“Calm down. Alexa, state your judgment,” Rakna said as if nothing had happened. It was as if the blood staining his clothes was not there at all. On the other hand, something else happened.

[M-Mildly Injured. Ireful Shell… activated.]

This time, Rakna didn’t ignore the voices. Quite the opposite. He wholeheartedly listened to them as they dictated him to kill and destroy. But it still wasn’t enough for him to succumb.

He drove his spear hand in his stomach this time; making sure to avoid critical spots but also making sure that the injuries were grave enough. Alexa didn’t speak after the second strike so he stabbed himself thrive over. One in his leg, and another in his shoulder, and a third one too close to his heart for comfort.

[Heavily… Injured.]

❮◈❯ Ireful Shell leveled up! ❮◈❯

When both warnings sounded, Rakna got flooded by the voices and his bloodlust. He then blacked out for a second before his mouth started twitching upward.

The small smile turned into a grin. Then the grin turned into a full-blown laugh. Pronos cowered a bit and Rakna stepped forward toward the edge of the statue.

His movements had nothing to do with just before. They weren’t as fluid but at the same time, they appeared unhindered by the injuries and carried a heavy intent to crush whatever stood in the way.

Then, with a cackle, Rakna hunched over and his fangs grew. His eyes glowed purple and fur grew on his body as his clothes disappeared into the ring. The sound of bones snapping echoed accompanied by a dreadful snarl.

From the top of the statue, a deafening howl resounded and a midnight black figure jumped down.