Li Qiu had consumed the Aria Cores of about 20 Adept Stage eagles by then when his body was entirely covered by reddish blazing armour.
Except for the places such as his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, Li Qiu was entirely protected by the armour. The armour didn't look too much fancy in the sense that it was made to perfectly fit upon his body exactly as it was, so the armour didn't have any extra horns, spikes or such unnecessary decorations. Due to the lack of time and preparations, Li Qiu couldn't even overlay it with some Aria Intents that might help with the usage of his abilities.
'Swoosh'
Flames gushed out from the soles of his feet to provide him thrust while his wings helped him to maneuver in the air.
'Swish' 'Slash'
Li Qiu materialized his two Thermal Flame Swords and started to swing them towards his flying enemies.
'Whe-o' 'Whe-o'
'Scree' 'Chi-chi'
"I feel like I've gained a significant powerup after I created this armour, but man, the amount of Aria consumed into creating this was no joke" Murmured Li Qiu as he made use of his increased mobility to dodge the various wind swords, talon attacks and also retaliated with a slash of his swords. Every slash of his sword resulted in the death of an enemy.
"Autumn leaf, expanding flame blade" Li Qiu slashed at his enemies while the bodies of the multiple birds all around him fell victim to his slash.
'Boom' 'Boom'
Among his numerous victims seemed to be two inflammatory birds, who immediately exploded upon their death while spraying their corrosive blood in all directions
The Eagles put up wind barriers around themselves to avoid the corrosive blood while the Falcons avoided the range of the explosions with the help of their speeds.
Until now, most of his victims were the Eagles who were easy targets to his ability while he could occasionally slash at the tiny agile falcons but, he dared not harm the inflammatory birds due to their suicidal ability that might very well damn him to death.
The exploding of the two inflammatory birds created some gap in their encirclement which Li Qiu took advantage of in order to dive into the sea, trusting his armour to protect him from the corrosive blood.
'Thud'
Li Qiu immediately crashed upon his descent into a wind barrier that broke the bones in his left hand due to the momentous impact.
"You…" Li Qiu bellowed in anger as he saw the huge eagle leader hovering 50 metres below him with the wind barrier separating the two of them as it gazed at Li Qiu with disdainful eyes.
"This won't stop me.." Li Qiu hollered as he clenched his right fist and slammed it onto the wind barrier that had been erected by the eagle leader.
'Crash'
The wind barrier immediately shattered into pieces while Li Qiu immediately slashed downwards once again with his Thermal Sword that immediately expanded in its length.
"You have spammed that trick multiple times" Bellowed Li Qiu as he slashed once again with his right
hand. Since his left hand had been crippled, Li Qiu only had his right hand to attack with his Thermal Sword.
'Slash'
'Crash'
'Slash'
'Crash'
Followed by a series of hacking with his sword, and with the barriers that had been erected by the eagle leader falling with a single hit from it, the distance between the two opposing parties slowly decreased to finally be about 20 metres.
"Autumn leaf, needle pincer" While he brought down another slash with his sword towards the eagle leader, Li Qiu timed for his pincer to stab through the eagle leader at the moment its barrier shatters to his slash.
'Swish'
'Spurt'
As he brought down his sword, Li Qiu suddenly felt weightlessness in his right arm. To be precise, he no longer felt the existence of his right arm.
'Flap' 'Flap'
For a brief instant, Li Qiu saw the jet black falcon hover before his face and gazed at his eyes as it gave a taunting through its pitch black eyes and immediately flickered away.
Unfortunately for Li Qiu, in anticipation of his attacks, the eagle leader had already erected multiple barriers above its body. So, Li Qiu's pincer failed to do any damage to it.
"Aaargh…" Li Qiu hollered in pain as his brain finally registered the sensation of losing his right arm.
"Great Sun" Bellowed Li Qiu while he bit his lips to resist the pain as he saw the jet black falcon preparing for another flicker after cutting off his arm and giving him a taunting look.
In the eyes of the jet black falcon who observed the world in slow motion after it activated its innate ability to flicker over great distances and was on its way to sever the head of Li Qiu, it noticed a small ball of flame form above his heart and rapidly expand in size as it emitted immense heat just like a real sun.
Fearing that it would also get caught up in it by the time it severs his head, the jet black falcon stopped its flicker mid-way and slightly altered its direction.
'Splash'
"Aargh…..my legs!" Hollered Li Qiu from within the protection of his 'Great Sun' for the jet black falcon had severed the both of his legs from just 10 centimetres below his hips.
The jet black falcon happily flapped its wings as it perched upon a wind barrier and began to happily eat the severed legs of Li Qiu and occasionally chirped in joy.
It had already given the severed right arm of Li Qiu to be snacked upon by the eagle leader as a thanks to rescuing it earlier from within the sea which, the eagle leader found the meat to be quite tasty, worthy of being the meat of an Adept Stage expert indeed.
As the two leaders enjoyed their snack, the other birds once again started to attack the 'Great Sun' that had been created by Li Qiu.
But, after learning from their previous encounter, this time, all the falcons retreated to the sides while the inflammatory birds stood at the very front of the flock but still a safe distance away to not be affected by the burning ball of flames.
'Whe-o' 'Whe-o'
After a small battle cry, the inflammatory birds rapidly charged towards the ball of flames and tried to explode after activating their innate abilities.
Pincers emerged out from the burning ball of flames as they impaled into the bodies of any and every bird that entered within its striking range but failed to instantly kill too many inflammatory birds since their bodies were protected by the wind barriers that had been made by the Eagles.
Moreover, whenever an inflammatory bird closed in onto the ball of flames, the other eagles immediately created a spherical barrier that covered the respective bird along with the ball of flames in order to maximize and concentrate their destructive power.
After some time had passed in such a manner, Li Qiu felt his eyes slowly become heavy due to the exhaustion of Aria and the amount of blood that he had lost, not to mention his ruptured organs, broken bones, and mashed muscles.
The only reason that he had held on till now was due to the adrenaline rush whose effect had long since waned out while a sense of heaviness swept over his entire body.
The armour that he had created for his protection after struggling to such great lengths failed to do anything to ease his situation as it had lost its purpose since his limbs had already been severed off while the jet black falcon managed to easily bypass the defenses of his armour.
'Boom' 'Boom'
'Tssch'
The spherical shape of the 'Great Sun' slowly dented under the relentless explosions of the inflammatory birds and slowly dissipated into embers as Li Qiu's Aria, even after absorbing 20 Adept Stage cores finally ran out.
Li Qiu began to fall head first as he barely had any strength left within him to even blink his eyelids, his armour had long been consumed to supplement the Aria required to maintain his 'Great Sun'.
"I hope Prakash and the others managed to escape to safety. Sorry Katsurou, I guess it's your fault for placing too much trust in the power of my flames" Murmured Li Qiu as he slowly closed his eyes.
'Chirp'
The jet black falcon let out an excited chirp as it began to flicker towards Li Qiu, intending to be the one to finish him off. It had quite the expectations for the increase in its strength after it swallowed Li Qiu's Aria Core since he ended up being such a powerful opponent that managed to successfully kill hundreds of their Adept Stage experts.
The eyes of the jet black falcon practically drooled with greed as it nonchalantly killed several other birds who apparently had the same idea is itself and were about to almost gobble up Li Qiu.
"These disgusting bastards give a similar feeling, but I can't seem to put a lid as to what it is" Thought Li Qiu as he witnessed the jet black falcon severing the bodies of all the birds in his immediate vicinity through the help of his Essence Sense innate ability.
'Ding! I am Android A072'
"That's it!" Li Qiu mentally exclaimed as he remembered the feeling that the parasite gave him to be
the same that the jet black falcon was currently emitting.
"I guess it's fated for your deaths to be similar too," Thought Li Qiu as his body immediately began to shrivel up at a rapid speed.
Within a second, Li Qiu looked like a person who had never touched a morsel of food in his entire life as his muscles, nerves and most of his organs that weren't necessary to his immediate survival seemed as if their essence were entirely sucked out.
"Haha, so long suckers. Great Sun, collapse" Bellowed Li Qiu.
It was too late for the jet black falcon to react in response as it was instantly vaporized by the huge ball of scorching hot flames that had a diameter of 400 metres as it materialized into existence.
Every bird in the surroundings immediately vaporized till not even their ashes remained behind while the eagle leader who happened to be just a few dozen metres above the sea instantly dived into it by making use of the time it gained thanks to its barriers.
This was the very scene that had been witnessed by the Vermillion Bird when it was a few kilometres away from the area of combat between man and monsters.