The bird tried to shake Natsu off by performing stunts, but Natsu had a strong grip on its feather, so he remained on the bird, but later noticed something on its neck as the bird was moving.
"It looks like there is something on its neck"
"Is this one of the valuable items they were talking about"
"How do I get it out of this bird"
"Now that I think of it, I have to get close to it to be sure if it's a collar or just its feather" Natsu thought while trying to move towards the place, as he remembered that the bird had lots of goldish markings on it.
While he was heading towards its neck, the wind made it hard for him to move as the feathers began blocking his view, making it difficult to reach its neck.
Suddenly, the bird started heading straight towards the clouds, which made it difficult for Natsu to breathe.
"Should I take advantage of this, if I let go, it would be easier for me to reach its neck, but if this goes wrong, I'll fall off this bird, and who knows what will happen to me next"
"I have to think this carefully, but how am I going to easily grab the collar if I jumped off?"
"Now that I think of it, the wind is not obstructing me again, since it's heading upwards"
"It's better I don't take much risk when the outcome isn't really in my favour" Natsu thought as he began heading towards the place.
As Natsu was moving the bird stopped on the air and began to fall.
The bird dived down heading towards the ground.
Unfortunately for Natsu, the feathers he was holding pulled out, which made him slide on the bird.
As Natsu was falling off, he gripped a feather around its back region close to its wings, after trying to stop himself as he now successfully did.
Suddenly the bird opened its wings and swooped down, trying to catch the snake.
As the bird gripped the snake with its claws, it began flying upwards, so the monkey threw a rock at it, which hit its head, causing it to fall towards the ground.
As it crash landed on the ground, Natsu stood up and ran towards its neck region as he thought, "This is my chance to check it out"
When Natsu arrived at the birds neck, he spread out its goldish feathers trying to be sure if there was a collar around it.
Natsu saw the goldish collar and hit it lightly with a knock, making sure that it was a collar instead of its neck.
"I was right, there was something on its neck and it feels like metal" Natsu thought after hitting the collar.
"But how do I get it out?" Natsu said as he began brainstorming.
While he was thinking, the bird tried standing up, but Natsu noticed this, so he jumped and held its feathers around its neck region.
Meanwhile, the snake had freed itself as the monkey started heading towards the bird.
The bird stood up and saw the monkey heading towards it, while the serpent hissed as it raised its head up and faced the bird.
"This is bad, its two against one, there is no way this bird is going to win" Natsu thought as he tried to pass his blade through the collar attached to the birds neck.
"It's like this collar it's part of its neck! It's hard to find any space to pass my blade through, without harming the bird or letting it notice"
"How do they expect me to get something like this out of its neck?"
"Come on Natsu, think, how am I meant to remove this collar"
"Maybe there is a button somewhere around it that unlocks it"
"Yeah that's possible, but it's going to be hard to find, if this bird starts moving around to fight these beast" Natsu thought.
Natsu didn't want to give up on the artifact, because he knew that he couldn't go to the Hunters exam unless he brings something really valuable or rare, if not he would fail.
As the beasts were moving around in a circular way while facing each other, the bird spread its wings and moved its body a little, while the snake brought out its tongue, and the the monkey let out a loud breath.
Air blew pass the field making Natsu unease as he thought, "This is going to be brutal"
The monkey began running towards the bird as it hit its chest and made a loud sound.
The bird flapped its wings and dodged the monkey by flying backwards.
The bird then flew towards the snake stretching out its claws.
Unfortunate for the bird, the snake launched itself towards it as it opened its mouth to bite it.
The bird caught the snake's head, although, the snake wrapped its body around the bird especially its neck.
As the snake was wrapping its body on the bird, Natsu jumped off trying to save himself.
The monkey ran towards the scene and jumped, as it raised its elbow and hit the bird.
The serpent bit the monkeys tail as the monkey wrapped its tail around its neck and started strangling the bird.
Natsu managed to escape from the scene as he stopped and placed his hands on his knees and began panting.
"That was close, I'm lucky I escaped, that fight is really going to be brutal" Natsu said as he turned back to watch the scene.
Suddenly the birds neck began glowing as a magical seal appeared on the ground.
"What's that golden light? What's happening?" Natsu said as he continued watching the scene.
The light began to increase, becoming too bright as Natsu had to cover his eyes from the light, as he then heard the beasts scream.
"What was that about?" Natsu thought as the light began to fade.
Natsu heard a loud noise like that of a lions roar.
Natsu looked up to see what made the sound, and saw the monkey standing with four wings on its back as its tail was moving.
The beast Natsu was currently looking at was black with white and gold stripes on it, and had a purely white wings.
The beast opened its mouth and roared as Natsu saw its sharp teeth and fangs.
The beast began coming closer to Natsu as he then noticed its hands has sharp nails like that of a bird claw.
"Why does things always have to get this complicated! What kind of monster is this?" Natsu thought.
"I have to get out of here fast, but let's be serious right now, if all those monsters fused, doesn't that mean that this beast is going to be as fast as the bird and strong as the monkey"
"If that's so then I'm cooked, there's no way I can win something like this" Natsu thought as he took a step back and continued watching the beast.
The beast ran towards Natsu but instead of Natsu to run away, he ran towards the monster screaming as he held his blade and threw it towards it.
The beast caught Natsu blade as it turned and threw him.
Natsu flew and landed on the ground and then slid as he used his hands to support himself.
"I can't fight this, I still have the Hunters exam to do, and who knows the kind of demon I'll fight as a beast"
"The worst part of all this is that even if I survive this stage of the exam, I'll be useless in the remaining stages if Dr Mayumi doesn't treat me"
The beast spread its wings an flew towards Natsu as it stretched its hands to slice him.
Natsu ran towards it and as it tried to split him, he jumped and rolled on the ground.
He stood up and ran towards the beast but as it flew pass him, its tail moved and tried to hit him.
The tail had a beak on it, and as it tried to hit Natsu, he jumped sidewards dodging the attack.
The beast landed on the ground and jumped, as it flew up and then turned facing Natsu.
The beast flew towards Natsu and stretched its hands to crush him.
Natsu ran towards the beast and jumped under it, as he rolled on the ground and went below the beast dodging its attack.
The beast tail headed towards Natsu but he rolled and jumped up as he held the beak on the tail.
"I knew it, it was like last time, it also attacked with the tail" Natsu thought as he grabbed it.
The beast flew very high towards the clouds, as it passed its tail in-between its leg and raised it towards its face.
As the beast tail reached close to its face, Natsu stood up and ran on the beak part of the tail and jumped towards its face.
The beast caught him on the air with its left hand and smiled, as it began to bring Natsu close to its mouth to eat him, and began to return its tail to its normal posture (relaxed form).
As Natsu was about to get bitten, he grinned evilly and shouted, "ROS!!!"
Suddenly the beast tail moved really fast and pierced its upper jaw and nose as the beast head went backward.
"I can't believe it worked!!!"
"Well my plan was to tie it up, but I guess things still happened in my favour" Natsu thought.
Here's the thing, as Natsu jumped on its tail, he landed at the edge of the beak and climbed it, as he threw his rope making the beast tail to pass through and tied it.
He tied the rope not too tight since he didn't want the beast to notice, besides it already had a beak in front of its tail, so the rope wouldn't go off that easily.
As the beast was flying up, Natsu climbed the tail using its feather like hair trying to get to the beak, and as the beast started bringing its tail towards its face, Natsu made his rope elastic as he said in a very low tone, "Stretch" and as the tail stopped in front of it, Natsu ran and jumped making what happened to happen.
The beast screamed and held its face with its right hand as it then looked at Natsu and began crushing him.
"How do I get this monster to free me? Cause it's crushing me!!!" Natsu thought.
The beast brought Natsu closer to its face as it growled and started returning its tail back since Natsu made the rope elastic using his hand signs.
It opened its mouth and began bringing Natsu closer to bite him.
Natsu shouted, "ROS!!!" but this time as the tail flew towards the beast face, the beast caught it with its right hand avoiding impact.
"It stopped it!!! This isn't good, if I don't find a way out of this I'll die" Natsu thought as he began screaming, "ROS! ROS! ROS! ROS! ROS!!!"
As he screamed, the beast hands began to shake as the rope forcefully pulled its hands and tail together.
The beast closed its mouth as it began trying to separate it.
Natsu noticed that the beast was struggling and crushing him as it tried to avoid impact.
Natsu shouted, "ROS!!!!!" and suddenly he grinned as he stretched his hands out and pointed his blade at it and shouted, "Stretch!!!!!"
The beasts raised its head up and faced the sky with its eyes closed as it tried to separate them, so as Natsu shouted, "Stretch" the beast left hand flew and Natsu blade stabbed its neck as he shouted, "Harden" right on time before he got crushed.
"ROS!!!" Natsu shouted as the rope began pulling the beast hands and tail together.
The beast screamed as Natsu stabbed it, and as it felt pressure pulling its hands and tail together, it let go of Natsu trying to avoid its tail from stabbing itself, as it used both hands to hold the tail.
Natsu flew as the beast left him and landed on its tail.
As he was heading towards the beast tail he wrapped the rope around his waist.
Natsu said stretch as he landed on the beast right hand and ran on it, throwing the blade downwards towards his right, as he jumped off its hand in the other direction.
This made the blade come towards Natsu as he was on the air, so he tied it and landed on the beast left hand.
As he landed, the beast began separating its hands while letting go of its tail since it didn't feel any pressure.
Natsu threw his blade to his left side as he jumped towards the other direction.
Since the monster hand was moving, Natsu swung towards the blade direction and caught it as he wrapped it and shouted, "ROS!"
Natsu landed on the beast left hand as its hands and tail came together.
"I did it, I successfully tied it up! Although, it's still free, but at least I have restrain its hands" Natsu thought as he gave a victory cheer shouting "Yes!"
The beast tried to separate its hands but couldn't, so it roared angrily as it growled and gave Natsu a death piercing look after noticing he was the one who caused it.
This sent shivers down his spine as he saw it and said, "I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying, but if you want to survive stop struggling and just do as I tell you" as he thought, "More like if you want to die peacefully because I have to bring you in, no matter the cost"
The beast looked at Natsu as a magical seal appeared in front of its mouth, and suddenly, the magic seal disappeared as the beast coughed out blood.
"What was that just now?" Natsu thought.