'Pfft'
Blood splashed out in all directions just like a dam whose gates had broken down.
"Rooaar" The Black Dragon wailed in pain as its tail section that comprised of one-third of its body had been cut off by the jet black falcon.
"Damn you!" Li Qiu bellowed in rage as he destroyed 4 consecutive barriers in a row and immediately blasted towards the aid of the Black Dragon.
'Swoosh'
A powerful gale threw off his balance and sent him flying in the opposite direction.
'Flop' 'Splash'
The cut off tail-segment of the Black Dragon fell into the sea as it gave rise to powerful waves on the sea surface upon its impact.
The Black Dragon tried its very best to dodge even more as its movements became unpredictable and erratic as it almost reached 15 metres above sea level by now.
The jet black falcon flickered once again, this time aiming for the head of the Black Dragon to end its life once and for all.
The Black Dragon could somehow predict the next target location of the jet black falcon based on its behaviour till now except for that one attack that severed its tail. The eyes of the Black Dragon became decisive as it tilted its head sideways to the left in a gamble for a chance to safely escape into the sea.
'Tong'
A loud ringing sound that felt like the ones produced when a sword slashed at a metal pillar rang out which was followed by the shriek of the jet black falcon, for its strike had met with the horn of the Black Dragon.
Among all the parts of the body of the Black Dragon, its horns and claws were the hardest. They were so hard that the Black Dragon could easily shred apart the shell of an Adept Stage turtle while it was only at the Practitioner Stage.
It was just that the speed of the jet black falcon rendered its usual attacks useless and since it also carried the trio of Prakash, Akiko, and Aurella within its mouth, it couldn't make use of its powerful breath attacks.
Taking the instant that the jet black falcon couldn't attack due to having sprained one of its wings when it slashed at the Black Dragon's horn, the Black Dragon, who's gamble proved to be successful, decreased its distance to the sea even more.
But, just when there were only about 8 metres between it and the sea, the Black Dragon noticed the pale yellow eyes of the shark within the sea that bit off the lower part of Akiko's body preparing to leap out once again.
It seemed that the shark had already snacked the tail of the Black Dragon and wanted to eat the rest of its body judging by its cold murderous eyes that were silently gazing at it like that of a seasoned hunter.
The Black Dragon's eyes took on a calculating gleam as it maneuvered its body a little towards its left so that the position of the shark within the sea would come between the Black Dragon and the jet black falcon who were both in the air just 8 metres above sea level.
It all happened within an instant. The shark leapt towards the Black Dragon first followed by the Black Dragon that just horizontally backed off from the jet black falcon and finally, the jet black falcon that hadn't yet noticed the existence of the shark that leapt into the fray flickered towards the Black Dragon's neck for the kill.
'Splash'
A torrent of blood splashed out as the hunter became the hunted while the hunted successfully survived the onslaught.
'Squelch'
It was the shark which got cut at its head section by the jet black falcon but, due to the size of its huge head, the 10 metre long jet black wing blade that the jet black falcon used to sever other bodies during its flicker got lodged halfway between the thick skull and resilient nerves of the shark.
'Chirp' 'Chirp'
The jet black falcon called out for assistance as it struggled to free itself from the body of the shark which was already dead due to having its brain impaled.
The Black Dragon took this chance to successfully enter the sea.
'Splash'
The body of the gigantic shark along with the jet black falcon whose wings got tangled within its body fell into the sea as they created a huge splash of water that rose to about 20 metres high.
Li Qiu didn't even know if the Black Dragon had safely gone underwater because he was currently besieged by the birds from all sides as they kept spamming attacks at him.
The Eagles sent powerful gales that threw his sense of direction haywire, wind blades that were sharp enough to cut through steel and chirping sounds that overwhelmed his hearing.
The Falcons were more of the close combat type with their fighting style being similar to the jet black falcon. The only difference was that the speed of their attacks were nowhere close to the jet black falcon.
It wasn't like their movement speed was inferior to the jet black falcon. They were so fast that Li Qiu couldn't even react to most of their attacks.
The only difference was that they were fast only on a prolonged continuous basis, which could still be explained by physics. They couldn't go from rest to max speed that easily broke through the sound barrier in an instant like the jet black falcon that practically defied the laws of conservation of momentum and the inertial forces that act on an object travelling from rest to motion and vice versa.
The inflammatory birds, well, their attacks were suicidal in nature just like their innate ability.
Every chance or window of opportunity that they chanced upon, they tried to close in on Li Qiu and explode.
The eagle leader created wind barriers that defended against Li Qiu's retaliation while it commanded its flock to combine their prowess and launch attacks at Li Qiu in a suitable fashion that wouldn't hinder the attacks of the inflammatory birds or the Falcons.
They also made sure to protect the attackers from friendly fire by directing their winds at the frontline birds and adjusting their positions accordingly to the other attacks.
They proceeded as a single cohesive unit without a single screw up all thanks to the Eagles, especially the eagle leader who could give such clear and decisive commands.
Li Qiu had long since deployed his skill 'Great Sun' which created a 10-metre wide ball of flames that enveloped him.
The birds couldn't near him because of the heat unleashed by his 'Great Sun'. just flying in the proximity of 50 metres from it made their feathers ignite with fire, so they could only maintain a safe distance and keep up with their wind attacks to slowly drain out his Aria.
"I have to do something to break out of their encirclement. I'm running low on Aria" Thought Li Qiu as he immediately began to free fall along with the 'Great Sun' that enveloped him.
The Eagles sent powerful gales in his direction to stop his descent but all they managed to do was slow him down a little.
'Boom'
"Aaargh"
Just when Li Qiu hoped to successfully escape to the sea in this manner, an incredible amount of force collided onto the 'Great Sun' vertically above his head that sent him flying downwards at insane speeds.
"Bleh" Li Qiu coughed out a mouthful of blood because the shockwave resulting from that attack ruptured more than a few of his blood vessels and also damaged his internal organs.
'Boom'
"Aaargh"
It was followed by another powerful attack that slammed onto the 'Great Sun' from vertically below him that sent him flying up. If not for the protection offered to him by his skill 'Great Sun', Li Qiu would have suffered from even greater injuries that would have proven life-threatening after just the first attack.
'Boom'
"Hurrgh"
This was followed up by a horizontal attack, then, a diagonal-up, then, a diagonal-down, etc.
They were the attacks unleashed by the eagle leader when it was ordered to do so by the one-horned leader that seemed to have lost its patience.
The eagle leader created a powerful barrier, overlayed it with another one and sent it to collide onto the 'Great Sun' that protected Li Qiu.
'Boom'
Each of its powerful barriers immediately vaporized after colliding onto Li Qiu's 'Great Sun' which kept releasing threatening heat waves. When a barrier got vaporized, the eagle leader created another set and sent it to collide onto the 'Great Sun'.
Each collision was followed by the shrieks of Li Qiu who had started to experience various organ failures and multiple bone fractures in the regions of his arms, legs, ribs and his vertebrae.
It felt like the eagle leader was playing tennis with the unfortunate Li Qiu becoming the tennis ball.
It had already been more than 10 times that the barrier had collided against the 'Great Sun', but Li Qiu still held on to his dear life without releasing his skill. That was the only reason he had survived until now.
As the one-horned leader observed the scenario and how the eagle leader behaved like a child that just got hold of a precious toy, it slowly raised its left wing a little. Just this action alone made the eagle leader stop its attacks and silently await further commands.
"Huff puff" Li Qiu who noticed that the attacks had stopped with the help of his Essence Sense innate ability didn't want to let go of this chance and immediately dived down towards the sea as he made sure to not deactivate his skill in a moment of carelessness.
'Whee-oo' 'Whee-oo'
The one-horned leader chirped twice when every bird in the vicinity immediately retreated to more than 200 metres away from it.
The horn of the one-horned leader that constantly flickered in a golden hue stopped its flickering as it slowly began to glow a dark purple.
"S-shit" Li Qiu cursed under his breath while fear slowly began to take root within him as he observed insane amounts of Aria rapidly converging towards the horn of the one-horned leader.