At the echoing sound of the fiery bird's screech, the five circling vultures turn my way and don't hesitate to send red-tinted attacks directly at me.
I easily dodge them and twist through the air, sending crescents of mana into each of them, but make sure not to injure the magnificent bird behind them.
Even when pushing my senses out as far as they can go, I don't sense any anomalies like this one nearby, so I want the chance to study it before killing it or damaging it to the point where it can't use its power in an unaltered state.
Less than a full second passes, and I move through the air defeating its orbiters before coming face to face with the massive red bird right outside its aura's range.
Waves of gravity ripple against me, making the sound of a high-pitched bell vibrate in my ears while I collect the MCP from the fallen monsters surrounding it.
The crimson eyes of the monster lock onto me, and it flaps its wings while hovering in place, sending a dense wave of red light, similar in strength to that of the attacks Trax threw during our fight in the ring.
I smile and airstep out of the way, sending a moderately dense mana blade into the flames at an angle.
The collision disrupts the red slash, and another epicenter of gravity waves is formed, hitting my barrier with greater intensity.
"Yeah, long-range attacks it is...."
I airstep to the opposite side of the bird while it tracks me with glowing eyes and sends another wave of fire void of mana my way.
I perform the same motion, releasing a pure mana strike into the flames and disrupting the flow. This time, however, I change the strength of my attack to be slightly stronger.
The next wave it throws, I try a weaker release.
Over and over, I circle the bird at a distance right outside its red glowing aura and continue to deflect its attacks while using varying strengths of mana control to gauge how strong its energy really is.
Without it coming up on my senses, this is the only way to figure out its true strength.
After three full minutes pass, and almost fifty attacks, I finally come to the conclusion that its estimated strength is that of a 950-1000 hunter, on the verge of ranking up again.
Many of the lower level Vice and Veridian Region hunters in the woods below could not defeat this creature in a battle.
However, the possibility of a few of the Apex Elites taking this creature out wouldn't be too tough of a challenge. Even Trax, or Callum, using their ranked-up buff could probably finish it off alone.
Unlike the massive surge of intensity the lightning user showed in the ring when he ate one of these red stones, and also like all of the other birds I found on this mountain, after countless attacks this monster's red light doesn't dim at all.
It shines with the same beautiful crimson radiance as it did when our battle began.
"Alright, now let's see how you fare against one of my attacks back..."
I charge up a blade of mana, slightly stronger than the blades it's been throwing at me, and let it fly aimed straight at the bird's neck.
My suspicions are that it will have some kind of special defense, or there will be an eruption of gravity used to block this strike too heavy for me to handle at close range, so I jump backward after letting it go but am very surprised at the attack's results.
The blade of mana collides with the flames that surround the bird just like any of its other attacks.
Both energies are disrupted, but there is a portion of mana leftover that makes it through.
The blade hits the bird's feathers and flesh, then slices through with close to no resistance.
Once the blade of mana makes its way halfway through its neck, however, it is met with another similar unsensible strong force and they collide to release the remaining energy left in the attack, proving to be even more detrimental than my initial blow.
Its head and chest are stained with blood, leaving a gaping hole where my attack landed.
I don't sense a drop of mana in this bird, and it doesn't have any to use as defensive shielding; the crimson flames are truly the only bit of energy it has.
Its red eyes begin to flicker, then from the area my attack made its mark, the red flames surrounding its body start to decay and completely disappear.
In a matter of seconds, the absence of flames spreads from the wound and its entire body grows cold and lifeless.
At the same moment, its red aura surrounding it disappears as well, and the mighty bird begins to fall down the side of the endless mountain.
I stare confused for a few seconds, then airstep downward to follow its descent.
Once at eye level, I use telekinesis and hover with it right in front of me.
I still feel a very faint ripple of gravity coming my way now as I hold the creature's body, and am a bit disappointed when no absorption notification pops up; however, once the monster dissolves entirely, a small red gem is left behind.
The ripples against my barrier are coming from its direction, but I still feel nothing coming off the red fragment left behind.
"Well... I guess this is a start."
A spatial magic portal opens beneath the red gem and I let it fall through before turning to face the bottom of the mountain again.
It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but at least I know what to prepare the others for.
I make my descent back down the mountain to meet up with Ember again to tell him my findings. I take the red core out from my storage and show it to him from a distance and he nods while giving a simple reply back.
"Good. If it only took you four hours to find a red core, that means we'll have enough time to make it to the top."
We wake the others up, and begin our ascent.
I don't hold back on sharing my mana control and status now, giving them each a third of the 10% available, and leading us up the endless cliffside as fast as possible while running into as many vultures as I can find on my enemy detection skill.
Just as I assumed when I made my flight up for scouting, they all receive a full 1% from these kills, and raise their total MCP by 1-2 million with every single sword slash.
Over the next eighteen hours, we manage to make it up about halfway the distance that I managed in four.
Even so, everyone on the party has risen hundreds of millions in natural MCP, and have grown noticeably stronger.
We stop for a food and rest break on a nearby ledge and I release the power from my buff, but the three of them still continue to glow with their own extremely heightened mana control auras.
Once we head off, floating higher and higher into the air of this endless mountain for another eighteen hours, we surpass the point I traveled to on my former travels up here, and Ember points to the sky and speaks aloud.
"Another red core, less than a hundred kilometers away. We're close to making it into another zone."
My teammates are nearing their limits. We've been traveling up this mountain for over a day and a half. I respond to Ember and motion for the others to come over while pointing to a nearby ledge with a single tree on it.
"How about we set up camp for them to sleep for another eight hours, and you take care of that red core nearby. I'll stay and watch, I think after one more training session once they wake up, they'll be able to fight one without me. You look around and see what you can find."
He nods, using fire beneath his steps to fly higher into the sky, not wasting any time.
"See you soon."
While the three applicants from the Apex, Silca, and Talton regions fall asleep almost instantly on the stone ledge of the mountain, I do a scan of my surroundings using my stealth skill and greater form to see what kind of progress we've really made.
There isn't a single other team within my range below us, we've traveled so many hundred kilometers into the sky at such intense speeds that not a single team has come close to catching up.
With my heightened senses now, I see exactly where Ember is headed, and the clump of mana looks exactly like the fiery bird I killed earlier, with many other scavengers around it, most likely trying to siphon its crimson energy.
As my mind wanders and the cool breeze up here whistles by, I sense more and more clumps of energy higher and higher up the mountain. I count over a dozen.
No more than an hour passes before the first one completely disappears once Ember's geolocation collides with it.
Then in the next hour, two more are gone.
After hour three, I sense another five vanish.
In the fourth hour, eight more vanish, then I feel Ember turn around and come flying back down.
He only takes two hours to make his way back down to meet me by my resting teammates with a wide smile across his face.
"I was right. The next zone isn't far..."
He points a finger in the air, and an invisible tear in space opens up similar to the time I watched him show me his divine ring.
This time, I feel an immense pressure come off of it and eight red stones fall out.
"Catch."
I open my spatial magic below them, but raise an eyebrow because that's half of what I remember sensing him kill.
As they all disappear into my storage, he takes a step back and speaks again.
"They'll be asleep for a few more hours, so we might as well start preparing now. If you want to become strong enough in time to face the higher zones, I suggest you follow my lead."
Another tear in space opens right above Ember's right hand and a single red stone comes out, hovering in place as he stares forward and waits for me to do the same.
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Author's Note:
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