“You insalubrious hothead. It was my attack that came into contact with the vulture first. By my calculations, your attack hit him 1.6 seconds later.”

“Don’t give me that mathematical bullshit! You see that over there? I was the one who plucking destroyed his head! You can practically see his cerebral residue splattered all over this goddamn forest. Your weak ass attack didn’t do shit!”

“It’s no use arguing with an uncouth hothead such as you.”

“What did you call me you damn girly bastard! Are you looking for a fight? Because if that is what you want then I will gladly oblige and smash your pretty face flat! Whenever others look at you from the front they will have to start squinting sideways to see your full flattened face!”

“This argument is getting nowhere.”

Back inside Vultures Byte situated where the dystopic milieu was present, Chirako failed to convince the greedy Drazil of his contest win, thus he gave up the argument and began stepping away from Eratool’s corpse.

“Fine, I’m sorry. You’ve clearly dealt the finishing blow. The ribbons are all yours. I’ll go hunt someone else.” Finished speaking, Chirako spread his dark wings then shot off into the expansive forest.

“Tsk, you better recognize, fool!” Drazil felt more confident upon witnessing Chirako’s swift disappearance. He took all of the ribbons for himself. Now he had a double pair of each coloured ribbon which in total equalled 26 points. “With these, victory is already mine. All that’s left is to reach the Final Stage. It shouldn’t be that far from here.”

“Huh! Who’s there?” Drazil heard a twig breaking and became suspicious. “Are you a plucking sneaker? Come on out or I’ll burn this entire place to the ground and use your burnt feathers to wipe my ass!”

Though he made his threat audibly known, the 3 in hiding still refused to show themselves. “Is that how you want to play it? I’ll give you 3 seconds to come out. 1…! 2…! 3…!”

About to set the entire forest ablaze, Drazil heard a feminine voice saying, “Wait!” Holly came out from behind the shrubs. Judging by her frail expression and her shaking gate, Drazil could tell that she was feeling nervous.

“Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Said Holly timidly.

“Who the pluck are you bitch!?” Drazil had zero ounces of respect for everyone including himself.

Walking a bit closer, Holly struggled to talk. “I… uh… uh…” She was extremely afraid of Drazil’s abrasive character.

“Spit it out already, bitch!”

“I’m sorry!” Holly finally screamed. She made sure that the mask covering her mouth didn’t come undone.

Shortly after Holly’s outburst, Zegle and Zef appeared behind Drazil with much hostility.

Drazil noticed their shocking presence. “Uh, a surprise attack? Bunch of plucking cowards!”

“Get him!” Zegle ordered.

“Krowqui Needles!” Zef plucked a few needles from his armband and immediately began tossing them at Drazil. He managed to dodge a few but some still penetrated his shoulder.

“Uh, goddammit!” Drazil gripped his left shoulder in pain.

Simultaneously, Zegle released an audible hiss from his mouth. His snake-like tongue elongated until it completely wrapped around Drazil’s complex, binding him in place. It didn’t take them long to capture him.

“Uh, what the hell! Get your filthy tongue off me you damn sleaze or I’ll put my fist so far up your ass that you’ll require a new asshole to shit through!” Drazil became livid as he struggled to get free.

“Ku-ku-kuk-ku!” Zegle and Zef started laughing at him and his ridiculous outburst.

Zef went within breathing distance of Drazil and told him, “We’ve been keeping our eyes on you the entire time since entering Vultures Byte. You’ve depleted most of your Krowqui so there’s not much you can do to stop us now. Ku-ha-ha-ha!”

Zef fiddled with the needles that he tossed inside Drazil’s shoulder. “Just go to sleep already so we can take your ribbons without any more fuss.” The needles were sending a particular signal throughout Drazil’s internal body which was gradually causing him to feel sleepy.

“Hmm…” Chirako was a few metres away hiding atop a tree while looking down at them. He cracked a wry smile when he witnessed Drazil’s ongoing demise. “Serves him right.”

“Gosh, this is so easy.” After Drazil fell completely unconscious, Zegle and Zef commence their retrieval of the ribbons.

Looking back at their idle comrade, Zegle shouted, “Holly! Get your lazy ass over here and help us out! Do you think we are going to share these ribbons with you for doing nothing?”

“I’m sorry. I uh… I’m coming.” Reluctantly, Holly ran over to where she was forcibly beckoned. She began helping her teammates to untangle all of Drazil’s ribbons. He tied them around his limbs so tight that they had a difficult time removing them away from him.

“That fool.” Chirako softly uttered as he continued to watch as Drazil was being stripped of all his prized ribbons.

“This is the last one.” Zegle untied another ribbon from Drazil’s limb. He then went on to interact with the needles. “Hey, Zef, I can take these out now right?”

“Go ahead. Those needles are quite valuable to me. I can’t afford to let any go to waste.”

“Ok.” About to take out the needles from Drazil’s shoulder, Zegle felt a warm embrace griping his arm. Looking down at Drazil he realized something important. “Huh, you were still conscious?”

“You cowardly pluckers… I’ll burn you all to a bloody crisp!”

“No way in hell!” Zegle extended his snake tongue to bind Drazil again. However, it failed.

“Blaze!” Drazil started releasing a fierce heat that quickly scorched away Zegle’s tongue.

“AAAAA! MY tongue!”

“Zegle!” Zef hollered out in broken consternation. He watched as Zegle's burnt corpse fell to the ground.

Drazil bent his head towards Zef and told him, “You’re next.” The visible steam oozing out of his hot stinking mouth did much to conjure more trepidation inside of Zef’s timid heart.

After burning away the bothersome needles from his shoulder, Drazil tackled Zef to the ground where he began bashing on his head repeatedly.

“Die you, shitty bastard!” His blows were very explosive. “You think you can steal my ribbons and get away with it? Die! Die! Die! Die!”

“No…” As she watched her friend getting obliterated Holly became extremely fearful. Her entire body was trembling irregularly.

“This will finish you off. Feathers Red…” Drazil raised his hand, preparing to deliver the finishing blow to Zef’s already unconscious body.

“Angry Hawk Fist!” Drazil’s blazing punch was Inches away from crashing into Zef’s head.

Not wanting her friend to get hurt, Holly finally pulled down her face mask and unleashed her innate geas --Voice of Authority--

“STOP!”

Immediately Drazil became paralyzed. “What the hell? I can’t move. Did time freeze or something?”

“Hm?” Observing from afield, Chirako noticed something peculiar about Holly’s voice. “That girl…? She must be from the Mozart Family.”

Holly moved closer to Drazil with the ribbons in her hand. “Please don’t hurt my friends anymore. I’m sorry for the ambush.”

“What?” What Holly said came as a shock to Drazil’s burning mien. Getting a closer look at her sincere visage, he noticed strange markings of spirals tattooed on her feathery cheeks. These bizarre spirals were producing various sonic waves in the form of miniature blue swords no more than a millimetre in thickness.

“Here.” Holly tossed the ribbons on the ground before Drazil. This was very unexpected.

“Is this some kind of joke?” Drazil wondered to himself.

Holly then directed her attention to her fallen comrade, thereafter she spoke 2 powerful words. “Heal! & ARISE!”

“Ba-Dump! Ba-Dump!” Instantly, Zef and Zegle became conscious, moreover, their wounds were slowly healing.

Holly concealed her mouth with the mask as she redirected her gaze back to Drazil. “I’ll take them and go. We won’t be bothering you again. Come on, guys.” She began flying away with her injured companions.

After Holly went out of range, Drazil could finally move again. “Ugh, what the hell was that just now? What sort of ability did she hit me with to make me immobile?”

Failing to come up with a plausible explanation for Holly’s peculiar ability, Drazil twisted his long neck around until he noticed the ribbons on the floor. “My ribbons! They are still here. That chick didn’t take any? What a stupid bitch. Ha-ha-ha-ha!” He began to celebrate his victory once more with boisterous laughter that was soon to be interrupted by a hidden presence.

“Huh?”

“The only stupid here is you.” Chirako appeared behind Drazil unnoticed.

“You, when did you get behind me? I thought you flew away with your cowardly feathers between your skinny legs. Don’t tell me you came back for the ribbons, but we had a deal!”

“Krowqui Disarray!” Chirako ignored Drazil rants and swiftly executed his stunning technique to his spine.

“Uwaaah!” Drazil cried out in electrocuting pain. His mouth trickled with foaming saliva before he eventually fall unconscious.

“I’ll be taking these.” Chirako bent over and picked up all of the valuable ribbons. Now he had gained the lead in the Vultures Byte ongoing competition.

“The Final Stage here I come.” Chirako vanished like a thief in the night.