The dark Avis had escaped, strangely having healed himself with the dark crystals and fused together what was left of the Cathartes into a monster of a vulture with no soul left within.

It stood above us, talons sharper than any sword, its feathers all glistening with the shards from the dark crystals.

“Do you want me to roast it?” whispered Edge, ready to do just that. I held my hand up to stop all movement, watching as it looked around.

I had thought the dark Avis would have been my only problem, so had put quite a bit of energy into releasing my attacks with the energy from that strange spark which had now disappeared. I couldn’t even hear that voice anymore. I would now be tactful and use my energy sparingly just in case someone got injured.

The great vulture looked down at us, his eyes shifting between us, then began moving about, trying to stomp on us, and his beak was next, coming down with the speed of a guillotine.

“Fang, orders would be great!” called Lin.

“Ibiki drop the temperature, I want those wing feathers frozen, everyone else attack the stomach.” I jumped back as the beak came down. “Lin, we need a smoke screen, get this things eyes off us.”

“Roger.” They all responded.

Lin ran to the front end of the great vulture, dodging effortlessly as the beak came down, her quick movements drawing the attention of the vulture. Once away from us and by his head, she twirled on her heel summoning six daggers. Lin threw her daggers, each one on contact caused a smoke screen.

Ibiki concentrated on freezing the wing feathers as instructed, only effecting the air around the vulture. He had been getting more accurate to what he could manipulate into colder temperatures.

“Stand still.” Rex controlled the earth bringing it up over its feet.

Finn, along with Edge and Kiba jumped up the legs, digging their claws in as they reached the top. They were ready to dig in their blades when hands reached down, grabbing hold of them.

“Gross!” cried Edge. All three of them immobilised by hands. I shivered, after all this thing was constructed from hundreds of bodies of Cathartes, to think there was some strange life still in them.

“Help!” shouted Finn.

I jumped up, ready to cut them free but the hands moved quicker, moving them in the way like an Animalia shield.

“Lin, a hand.” Said Edge trying to pull himself free but in trying to do so he dropped his talisman, Rampage. “Crap.”

“Wait!” I shouted but Lin on instinct had already thrown a dagger up to the bird’s belly. Just like my attempt they moved them in the way, Kiba taking most of the hit from her exploding dagger.

“Kiba!” She shouted shocked.

“I’m okay,” he coughed, his clothes cinders and burn marks.

“I’m sorry.” Lin felt instantly guilty.

“Stay calm.” This thing was going to pay for that, no one used my friends as a shield.

The great vulture managed to free one leg from Rex’s shackles, flicking up shards of earth, we each got scratched by a few.

“Ibiki give me a hand,” requested Rex.

Its free foot stomped down close to a distracted Lin, she stumbled, falling over. It raised its foot again, the smoke screen clearing, it could see her.

I dashed forward, grabbing hold of her arm, pulling her to her feet, dragging her out of harm’s way. I had moved Lin clear, but I was still close enough to be cut by one of his talons, down my arm. I winced.

“Fang,” gasped Lin.

I continued to pull her away as Rex re-clamped its foot with earth. Ibiki reinforced it with thick ice but still we weren’t sure how long it would be before it freed itself again.

The great vulture started pecking at us again, I jumped away thinking perhaps this battle would be best fought in the air but first I needed to free them.

“Ibiki, stop freezing the wings, I’ll take it out skywards,” I ordered.

“Alone.” He didn’t like the sound of that.

“Don’t worry,” I smirked. I ran up to the legs. “Hold on tight this might hurt guys.”

“What are you doing?” asked Finn.

“No not that!” cried Edge.

“Huh.” Kiba glanced between them.

I touched the vulture’s leg summoning Arata’s black lightning, sending it through the bird’s body. I did my best to control the lightnings route, but couldn’t control all of it, they let out a few yelps as the bird began flinching.

After a few seconds the strange hands dropped them. I quickly raised my hand, concentrating my power through Larana this time, catching them within a pocket of condensed wind, allowing them to safely touch down unharmed, well sort of, Kiba had taken quite the hit.

“Kiba.” Lin rushed over to him.

The great vulture went into a panic, suddenly gaining more strength breaking free from my power, and the restraints Ibiki and Rex had put into place.

“Everyone attack together!” I shouted as the vulture flapped its great wings ready to flee.

I held my hand up releasing a portion of all my talisman’s power. “Flame cutter, lightning blade.”

Edge retrieved Rampage, quickly releasing a blaze of controlled fire towards our target. “You’ll pay for using me freak!”

Lin angry with the vulture and herself, threw a whole armada of daggers, summoning twenty in a short period, the most to date, each one was supercharged, exploding on contact.

Ibiki held his hands out summoning an icy wind, which got stronger by the second. My fur stood on end, it felt like I was standing outside on a winter’s morning but then felt more like a blizzard.

Rex summoned up earth, flinging it in the direction of the great vulture, his rocks turning into boulders as he used more power to aid in our final attack.

Finn enhanced our attack power as each of our attacks came into contact with the great vulture, it screeched as its body began to fall apart, unable to sustain its form any longer, then those parts evaporated into dust, until there was nothing left.

I let out a sigh of relief. “Everyone okay.” I turned to everyone, luckily the only injured ones were Kiba and myself.

“Please heal him,” begged Lin, an expression of guilt on her face.

“You have nothing to be guilty about,” I smiled. “In battle these things sometimes happen.” I walked over to Kiba, sat against a rock. “How are you doing?”

“It hurts.” He was fighting back the pain.

“Mila, you know what to do,” I said as she appeared beside him.

“Hi Kiba,” she smiled.

“Hi Mila,” responded Kiba. “Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome.” She covered his entire body in her healing waters.

I glanced at my injured arm as I had no pain, Mila was healing my arm too, our sync rate had improved, couldn’t wait till I could heal as many as Milliana could at once.

“Rest up,” I said. “We’ll return home after Kiba is healed.”

I had to report this to King Skyrus, pulling out a piece of paper from my pouch, noting down all the events that had happened and to send out a party to just sweep that area and clean up what was left. The bonus was the destruction of all the dark crystals during the creation of that monster and perhaps was the real cause of such a monstrous transformation.

I gave the completed report to Raziel to deliver, so we could all go home as soon as possible, this had been quite the test for all of us and I feared it would not be the last.