The colour of the horn of the one-horned leader stabilized at a dark purple when it began to converge massive amounts of Aria towards it.
The amount of Aria that was being converged within it was to such an extent that the surrounding white clouds began to converge and darken as they too began to glow a dark purple.
"Great Sun, materialize"
"5 layered Thermal Flame Dome, materialize" Bellowed Li Qiu as he activated his innate ability
'Materialisation' to materialize and further reinforce his existing defenses.
His 'Great Sun' condensed into a solid sphere over his body while 5 Thermal Flame Domes layered over it facing towards the direction of the one-horned leader, increasing his defenses to the utmost limit at the cost of emptying his Aria.
"I guess its all up to fate now" Murmured Li Qiu as he calculated the distance between him and the sea to be about 300 metres and gazed in silence over at the one-horned leader that had almost finished with the preparation of its mighty attack.
Li Qiu had already used up to the very last drop of his Aria reserves, so, he could only trust his life upon the defenses that he had erected.
'200…190…180….170…160…150'
Li Qiu slowly calculated the decreasing distance between him and the surface of the sea when he suddenly felt a spike in essence from the direction of the one-horned leader that rang out multiple alarm bells all over Li Qiu's senses.
The entire area in his surroundings suddenly seemed to quiet down to such an extent that even the flap of a butterfly's wings could have been clearly heard albeit for the sound of the sea waves.
'Thhruup'
'Boom'
The silence was immediately broken by the thunderclap that followed after a bright purple coloured lightning bolt that had the thickness of a human's body as it zigzagged across the air and collided against the barriers that had been erected by Li Qiu.
'B-boom'
'Crack'
'Crash'
Followed after the deafening roar of the thunder that had been unleashed by the lightning strike of the one-horned leader was a blast, powerful enough to be mistaken for the detonation of a small nuclear missile which resulted from the collision between the two overbearing elements of fire and lightning.
'Thud'
A charred human body fell atop the barrier that had been erected by the eagle leader in advance, just a 100 metres above the sea level.
"Whe-o" The one-horned leader gazed at the charred figure of Li Qiu who seemed to be still barely alive and sent a gaze towards the eagle leader that implied 'Clean up the rest' as it slowly flew towards the place where the weaker members of its flock consisting of Awakened stage and Practitioner Stage inflammatory birds were located at after coming across a certain message from its lookouts.
As it gazed at the retreating figure of the one-horned leader, the eagle leader commanded the other birds to snack upon their prey while it flew towards the sea in search of the jet black falcon.
Followed by the excited chirping of the birds, they immediately dived down towards Li Qiu with greedy eyes. The body of an Adept Stage expert was a delicacy to them that they wouldn't have been able to enjoy on a normal basis.
"Ugh…cough" Li Qiu lay paralyzed upon the wind barrier as he coughed up another mouthful of blood, his body unresponsive to his commands while all of his internal organs seemed to have malfunctioned when the lightning ravaged through his body.
The Aria Intents infused within that lightning strike continued to eat away at his body while it also made sure to suppress the natural regenerative abilities of his body.
'Chirp'
'Whe-o'
'Scree'
As Li Qiu saw various sharp claws, beaks, and talons inching towards him, he saw a flashback of all the battles that he had experienced till now.
His first fight with the rooster where his inherent physical strength and the strategy adopted at that time played a significant role towards his survival. The Practitioner Stage injured spider towards which he used his innate ability for the first time for a combat purpose.
The fight against the group of Practitioner Stage lizards where he could stand his own ground but also almost lost his life in the process and finally, his fight with Katsurou that drastically helped to increase his skill level and successfully made him break through into the Adept Stage.
"Just two days ago I broke through into the Adept Stage only after getting some timely help from Katsurou and now I'm up against hundreds of birds at the same power level as me. Just what do these guys even eat to grow so fast?" Wondered Li Qiu as the flock of birds were just about 50 metres away from him with the Falcons being at the very lead of the charge.
"Those claws look quite sharp…claws huh…?" Li Qiu suddenly remembered about certain parts of his conversation with Katsurou after their fight.
"Seriously! Your Blood Devil form looked hella powerful and if not for me being your opponent at that time, I would have slowly admired its coolness. Even if I don't want to accept it, it is a fact" Exclaimed Li Qiu.
"If you like it, then try creating something similar for yourself" Suggested Katsurou.
"I can?" Questioned Li Qiu.
"It might sound cheesy coming from me but my Blood Devil form is a symbolization of my wishes
that had been dug out from the bottom-most depths of my heart" Replied Katsurou.
"…And? You seriously expect me to believe that crap? If you don't wish to talk about it then just forget even mentioning it. No need to make up irrelevant concepts" Said Li Qiu.
"Up to you then" Replied Katsurou who seemed to have lost further interest in their conversation.
"A trump card is created when you trust the power of your wishes" This was the last sentence that Li Qiu remembered from his conversation with Katsurou that constantly kept reverberating within his mind for the past two days.
"My wishes huh" Li Qiu abruptly opened his eyes when the distance between him and the nearest falcon was only about 15 metres.
"Spirit Flames"
'Thump' 'Thump'
Li Qiu's heart began to thump vigorously as it started to pump out Spirit Flames through his blood vessels.
'Swish'
Like a chain reaction that had been influenced due to his strong emotions, Li Qiu's blood became partly red while it remained mostly blue as his Spirit Flames seemed to be have been absorbed within them and also seemed to mix perfectly like it was supposed to exist in that way since the very beginning.
'Kacha' 'Kacha'
All of the Aria Intents sent into his body by the lightning strike seemed to be purified into pure Aria by the Spirit Flames that seeped to the various parts of his body through his blood that supplemented his empty reserves.
"Flame lotus, needle pincer" Countless small clusters of Thermal Flame formed in and around Li Qiu as immediately, needle-like projections protruded out from them that instantly pierced through the bodies of all the birds that were within a range of 50 metres from him.
'Glug' 'Glug'
'Scree' 'Chi' 'Chii'
The birds who were pierced by the pincers wailed in pain as burning hot flames poured into their bodies and seemed to instantly melt even their bones.
Li Qiu slowly got up and stood atop the wind barrier as his shivering body struggled to stay on his feet, the lightning strike had paralyzed and corroded most of his nerves and muscle fibers while it also seemed that he still needed a few more seconds to completely purify all of the remaining Aria Intents and convert them into pure Aria.
"Trust your own wishes eh? Damn, that guy comes up with the weirdest stuff" Murmured Li Qiu as smoke began to raise up from his body.
The smoke seemed to be in a shade of blue unlike the usual greyish-black observed when an object is being burned and quietly covered him and his immediate surroundings.
One of the eagles which happened to have survived his previous attacks sent a powerful gale towards Li Qiu's location to dissipate the blue coloured smoke.
'Chi?'
The eagle looked in surprise as it found no human presence from the place it had focused its attack on after the blue coloured smoke had been dissipated.
'Kachick'
The eagle felt its vision turn 180 degrees in the vertical direction as two sturdy hands clamped the position at its neck and beak and seemed to tilt it upwards.
The last vision that the eagle saw just before its death was two blue coloured burning eyes like the moon during winters that seemed to have a layer of red at its edges, quite the freak show for a bird.
'Chomp'
Li Qiu tore apart the eagle into two halves and harvested its Aria Core and jumped onto another nearby eagle to secure his footing.
Li Qiu directly swallowed the Aria Core of the eagle and tried to recover his Aria as quickly as he physically could.
There was blue coloured smoke rising out from all the pores of his body except his right hand where a red coloured gauntlet seemed to slowly form within a second.
Li Qiu kept jumping from one eagle towards the other with crazed eyes as he immediately swallowed their Aria Cores after harvesting them by violently ripping apart their bodies in the simplest most barbaric way that he could.
Li Qiu avoided the tiny but agile falcons and the suicidal inflammatory birds as he solely hid behind and aimed for the Eagles.
After every Aria Core he consumed, the armour section covering over his body increased little by little and also augmented his strength and reflex accordingly.