While all the other crows were taking part in an aerial race towards Crowjun Soul Academy, Gnihzur was crawling his way into the crumbling burning vessel. “Please don’t let me be too late. Please let me make it in time to save her.” He mumbled to himself feeling angst.

As he made his way through the infernal debris of the shattering Crowtrain, Gnihzur had to dodge several fallen obstacles while continually flapping his fully ejected wings really fast to create a barrier of wind to abate the toxic fire.

“Hey! Snobby crow! Are you in here, where are you, are you still alive? Say something?”

“Boom!” Another major structure of the Crowtrain had collapsed in front of Gnihzur, he hopped over it and continued his search. From underneath the destroyed seat that he had just walked by, a hand reached out and grabbed Gnihzur’s leg.

“Huh, is it you?” Gnihzur hurriedly used the gust produced by his wings to blast away the obstacle from his path. He was disappointed to see that it was not the girl he came to rescue but a dying Rouge Dove whose body was split in half.

“Help me! You got to help me!” It begged to be rescued from the burning grips of death.

Analysing the state of the Rouge Dove, Gnihzur knew that there was no saving him. “Sorry, but you’re too far gone.” Walking away from the pleading bird, a negative thought crept into Gnihzur’s mind that he didn’t want to come to pass.

“Please still be alive.” Maintaining his persistency, Gnihzur kept searching while calling out for survivors. “Hey! Is anyone still alive inside?”

“Over here!”

“Huh?” Gnihzur heard a crackling voice respond to his call in the opposite direction from where he was going. “Somebody is still alive.”

Gnihzur quickly flew through the cascading inferno until he arrived at the spot where the voice came from. “Where are you?”

“Over here!” Again the crackling voice hollered out.

“Huh?” Gnihzur followed the voice until he discovered a burning Rouge Dove corpse lying flat on the floor, moreover, pinned in place by a metallic brace. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you out from under there.”

Blowing away the flame from the Rouge Dove’s corpse, Gnihzur turned over the body and discovered the snobby petite lass lying underneath. The Rouge Dove’s broad body acted as a shield that protected her from the scorching hot flames as well as fallen debris.

“I found you!” Gnihzur was happy to see that she was still well, save for her injured arm and broken wings. She was also surprised to see him.

“You? What are you doing here?”

“What do you think? I’ve come to save you.”

“Come to save me? Don’t you have any regard for your own life? Hurry up and leave, otherwise, we’re both going to get roast alive in here.”

She tried to make Gnihzur save himself but he would have none of it. “I came back to save you and I will! Now stop trying to discourage me and give me your hand!”

“Alright.”

The moment Gnihzur took hold of her hand, he looked ahead of him down the aisle and perceived a vicious chain of explosions rushing towards him.

“This is bad. That wave of fire is enough to melt the solid properties of metals in an instant.” Gnihzur tried harder to get the girl free, but the object she was stuck under was difficult for him to budge. In only a matter of seconds, the demonic wave of fire would arrive at his feathers.

“I told you this would happen. Now we’re both going to die down here! It still isn’t too late to save yourself.”

Despite the girl’s incessant warnings, Gnihzur refused to yield to the demonic inferno. “I have a lot of goals in this life and until I achieve them all, I won’t be kicking the bucket any time soon.”

Strengthening his resolve along with the flexible tissues of his wings, Gnihzur stood face to face with the demonic inferno; looked it directly into the twirling eye as he began increasing the flapping speed of his wings to an insane degree. They became like white blurs among the hellish scenery.

“What do you think you can do?”

Hearing this question coming from the injured crow’s lips, Gnihzur said without taking his focus off the incoming demonic fire, “You want to know why I’ve been practising the basics so hard? Observe the fruits of my hard labour. This is my special technique. Newpalf, Gale Storm!”

Gnihzur’s fast flapping wings released a frightening gust of exploding wind which collided with the searing demonic fire. Their clash lasted only a fraction of a second. The Gale Storm that Gnihzur’s wings created smashed through the demonic fire like it was nothing, moreover, the residual blast created an opening in the crumbling Crowtrain.

“How did he do that?” The distressed lass was veritably bewildered by Gnihzur’s powerful capabilities with only the basic skillset.

“Are you ok? I’m getting you out of here right now.” Gnihzur tried lifting the heavy obstacle that kept the girl pinned but he hadn’t the muscle strength to do so. “If that won’t work then how about this?” Gnihzur’s wings started gaining great momentum again.

“Newpalf, Gale Slicer!” Wind like blades shot out of Gnihzur’s wings and cut apart the metallic obstacles into smaller pieces. Now, he could easily move it and rescue the damsel in distress.

“You’re free now. Give me your hand.”

She took Gnihzur’s hand and said, “My wings are out of commission. I won’t be of much use to you getting out of here.”

“Let me worry about that. Hold on tight to me. I’ll get us out of here in no time.”

“Alright, I trust you.”

While the petite lady was wrapping herself around Gnihzur’s skinny figure, a dark silhouette was spying on them from close by with great displeasure. “That brat, just who does he thinks he’s fondling with those lascivious arms of his? If those elders weren’t keeping a close eye on this examination, I would have gone over there and chop his arms off.”

“Hmm?” For a split second, Gnihzur felt a potent energy of bloodlust beaming off the back of his head. He glanced behind him but the silhouette had already vanished. ‘Was it just my imagination…?’ He thought to himself.

“Time to get out of here and continue the test.” Confirming that he had the injured dame held tightly in his embrace, Gnihzur commenced increasing the flapping velocity of his wings once again. “Newpalf, Burst Speed!”

Gnihzur was shooting throughout the Crowtrain faster than any bullet, all the while abating the increasing explosions and dodging crumbling debris. So fast he was that not even a follicle of his feathers got burnt as he safely escaped the Crowtrain with the damsel in distress in his arms.  

The Rouge Doves situated outside who were observing the Crowtrain’s annihilation looked afield at the other crows who were long gone then back at the destroyed Crowtrain and surmised, “That fool who went back inside must have turned into chicken dinner by now.”

Another Rouge Dove agreed. “I don’t care about the white-winged crow with no Krowqui, but the other one seemed as though she had some potential.”

“What a pity. We should be getting back as well. The others must be waiting for our return.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

Preparing to fly away, the Rouge Doves felt a powerful gust of wind fly past them.

“Huh, such speed… what was that just now?” The Rouge Doves had no idea what went by them; they were simply bewildered.

***

Way ahead in the distance was approximately 75 crows who were following the rainbow wind path that led to Crowjun Soul Academy. Many of them had sustained various injuries during the Rouge Doves’ raid inside the Crowtrain. This had a major role to play in their waning speed. As for those who suffered fewer injuries or who weren’t injured at all, they were way ahead of the others.

The race to Crowjun Soul Academy wasn’t a peaceful one, no, it was far from it. Due to the strict competition to arrive at first place, the crows were trying their best to slow each other down by engaging in dangerous aerial battles. 

“Exploding Plumes!” Drazil, the hothead youngster was in the lead of the huge trail of crows. He was continually releasing exploding feathers behind him as he flew to slow down the others. “Ha-ha-ha! Eat my feathers losers! First place is definitely going to be mine!”

“Not if I can help it!”

“Huh?” Looking beside him at about 25-meters away, Drazil saw the suave fledgling morphing a big rose into an aerial propulsion scooter which he held onto as it blasted ahead.

“You little shit! Get back here!” Drazil cursed a few expletives as he tried his best to catch up with the suave crow. The lad wearing the hoodie also dashed ahead of him. This got Drazil fired up. “WOOOOAH! I’m going to blow you all to bits!”

As he flew faster, Drazil started amassing frightful amounts of explosive Krowqui all over his wings. When he felt he had amassed enough, he detonated them simultaneously. Their combustion created a powerful blast of flames that propelled Drazil ahead of all the others.

“Ha-ha-ha! Stay at the rare and stare at my blazingly hot ass you losers! Ha-ha-ha!” Drazil felt so high and mighty that he didn’t even bother dodging the Cloud Butterflies who were on the air current ahead of him. “Move it!” He blasted right through them!

Watching Drazil’s phantasmal figure from behind, some females of the group thought:

“There is no doubt about it. That hothead is going to take first place.”

“Seems like it. I just hope that we arrive at the academy in time.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll make it in time. We still have 13 minutes to spare.”

“I believe that’s more than enough time. That is if we’re are not delayed by anyone who is wishing to start a fight.”

“The battles have calmed down now. They aren’t as fierce as they were during the start of the race.”

“That is probably because we’re getting closer to the academy. No one wants to fall too far behind and risk the chance of getting disqualified.”

“A lot of crows have already given up though. I reckon their injury must have gotten the better of them.”

“Seems so. Well, let’s just keep our focus ahead. We might not make it in the top 10 but, we just might arrive in time.”

“I agree.”