Just a few paces behind the large group of females, Crokan was being assisted by his 2 underlings who used their wing force to keep him flying. “This is all that’s damn chick’s fault! Because of her, my right wing is damaged and I can’t fly properly.”

“Don’t sweat it, Crokan. We’re here to help you out.”

“Yeah, besides, that arrogant chick is probably dead by now. I saw her getting stuck back there during the Crowtrain’s explosion.”

“Really?” Hearing this, brought a big smile to Crokan’s face. “Cru-ha-ha-ha! Serves that bitch right. I hope the other chicken shit is also dead meat.”

Crokan was referring to Gnihzur. A few moments after this thought came across his mind, he and his underlings heard a sonic rush of dynamic-wind creeping up behind him. Who was responsible for that loud disturbance? It was none other than Gnihzur. 

“Newpalf, Sonic Pulse!” By clapping his extremely fast-flapping wings together, they created globular air distortions that rippled the atmosphere. Gnihzur left many explosive airwaves behind every expeditious advance that he made. They served to propel him ahead by leaps and bounds.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

“What the hell is that noise?” Crokan along with his 2 underlings were startled out of their wits. They couldn’t make heads or tails of the unknown sonic explosions that burst past them, causing them to be blown in separated directions.

They weren’t the only ones to experience getting blasted off course. Many other crows who were ahead felt the exciting wind element burst past them at sonic speed! This repetitious motion continued for a while until Gnihzur started closing in on the top 10 crows in the lead.

“WOOOOOOOH!” Gnihzur was making quite the loud raucous as he flew ahead, but due to the sonic air explosions that continually formed around him, his annoying voice was only audible to the injured dame in his embrace.

“Quit screaming into my ear, you fool! Are you trying to make me deaf?”

“Oh, sorry about that. It’s just an old habit I picked up during practice.”

“You stubborn fool. I can’t believe that you risk your life to save me; someone you’ve only just met.”

Gnihzur smiled, “It wasn’t much. I enjoyed saving you.”

“Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself now. In terms of skills, I’m still more skilled than you are. The reason I got stuck back there was because the explosion caught me off guard.”

“No need to elaborate. We were all caught off guard.”

“But you managed to make it out safely, didn’t you?”

“That’s because I can be extremely fast.”

“That I agree with. What did you say your name was again?”

“It’s, Gnihzur.”

“Gnihzur huh? After a near-death ordeal, the petite lass finally decided to give Gnihzur her name.  “You’ve earned the right to know this maidens name. You may call me, Kwaserah.”

“Kwaserah…” Gnihzur reminisced on the name for a bit. “It’s such a beautiful name. Why does it seem as if I’ve heard it before though?”

“Fu-hu-hu!” Kwaserah burst into laughter.

Gnihzur asked her, “What is so funny?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You can’t be laughing for nothing. Come on, tell me!” Gnihzur pleaded.

“Alright, if you insist…” Kwaserah moved her beak closer to Gnihzur’s ear and said, “I think you’re kinda cute.”

“Huh?” Gnihzur blushed embarrassingly, but he didn’t get enough time to enjoy this emotion, due to the explosive feathers which suddenly attacked him.

“What was that?” Kwaserah was frightened; she clung tighter to Gnihzur.

Glancing behind him, Gnihzur identified the person who attacked him. It was none other than the hothead, Drazil Burns. Surprisingly enough, Gnihzur had no idea that he had surpassed all the others during his little chat with Kwaserah. He stared back at Drazil and asked, “You, why are you attacking me?”

“You know why, shrimp! You’re trying to steal first place from underneath me!”

“Steal first place?” It was then that Gnihzur realized that he was in the lead. He smiled at Drazil. “First place wasn’t yours to begin with. Now please stop attacking me. Isn’t there some rule against this?”

“Rule? Ha-ha-ha! You plucking bird shit! Our only objective is to reach Crowjun Soul Academy within the allotted time limit. They didn’t say anything about us being banned from killing each other on the way there. So I will be plucking your feathers along the way. Please don’t hold it against me.”

Drazil released another deadly attack. “Krowqui, Exploding Feather Barrage!” Multiple explosions surrounded Gnihzur’s proximity.

“You won’t be plucking my feathers today nor any other day for that matter. Newpalf, Swift Evasion!” Gnihzur adroitly dodged all of the explosions occurring around him.

“Stay still you slippery bastard!” Drazil was madly tossing out numerous exploding plumes.

The others who were far behind took notice of the many explosions that sounded ahead of them. “Huh, it seems there is a fight happening up ahead.”

“I thought that it was that hothead alone in the lead. Who else could he be fighting against? I didn’t see anyone fly past us.”

“Let me take a closer look.” A young lady who was approximately 3 kilometres behind Gnihzur’s current position, activated a very special eye technique that allowed her to see farther than usual.

“Aechos!” A rear pattern formed in her eyes. Zooming in with her dynamic vision, at first she perceived 2 crows engaged in a fierce battle ahead. “One of them is indeed the explosive hothead, but the other one is… Wait, there are 3 of them. The other one is holding someone in his arms. I think those 2 might be the girl who was trapped inside the Crowtrain and the skinny white-winged fledgling who went inside to rescue her.”

“You mean those 2 made it out alive? But how did they get so far ahead of us?”

“Those sonic air explosions that dashed past us earlier, it must have been them.”

“For real? What kind of velocity increase technique are they using?”

While the crows behind remained startled by Gnihzur’s godly speed, up ahead, Drazil was going all out with his exploding feathers.

“Get burned to bits!”

“Not so fast! I won’t die so easily. Newpalf, Grizzle Shot!” Gnihzur shot out of the infernal stream of feathers, moreover, sent a few slicing airwaves towards Drazil.

“You pesky little shit! Why won’t you go down?” Drazil became peeved at Gnihzur’s flying resilience. He had to be burning every bit of his Krowqui just to keep up.

Even Gnihzur was surprised by how Drazil was sticking close to him. “I won’t be able to shake him off this way. Hey, Kwaserah, can you still pull off that technique that you use to bound those Rouge Doves earlier?”

“I think I can. Just get me closer to him and I’ll tie him up.”

“How close are you talking about?”

“Well…”

While Gnihzur was busy listening to Kwaserah’s suggestions, Drazil caught up with them. “You persistent little shit with no Krowqui! Don’t even think that you are going to get into Crowjun Soul Academy. A weak brat like you will only tarnish the academy’s reputation!”

“I might be weak, but it is because of that weakness that I aim to become much stronger. So go ahead and insult me all you want. Your expletives will only serve as fuel to ignite my flame of evolution and allow me to burn even brighter.”

“I have just the right thing to set your ass ablaze, you little shit!”

Getting tired of listening to Drazil’s expletives, Gnihzur slowed his speed then asked Kwaserah, “Is this close enough?”

“It’s perfect.”

“Ok, here we go.” Gnihzur freed his grasp on Kwaserah. Next, he hurled her towards Drazil.

“Krowqui, Humming Feather Bind!”

“Huh?” Drazil was shocked to see the injured lass soaring towards him with an unleashed assault of signing feathers. During his astonishment, he was unable to prevent himself from getting captured. The linked feathers wrapped around him very tightly and broke some of his bones. Because of his wings' zero momentum, he began falling from the sky. “What the pluck is this? Untie me you weakling whore! I’ll plucking kill you!”

Hearing Drazil’s insulting words, Kwaserah just looked down mockingly at him and said, “You can’t even free yourself from a lower-class Amazon Warrior technique and you want to kill me? Who is the weakling now? Bye-bye, loser.” She waved at him.

“You bitch!” Drazil was pissed by how low he had fallen.

Gnihzur came along to retrieve his injured dame. “Come along, Kwaserah. We’re taking first place.” Once again, he shot off at burst speed. Kwaserah had to remind him of her injuries and told him to slow down. “Oh, sorry about that. I’ll try to alter my speed a bit more.”

Shortly after Gnihzur and Kwaserah went away from Drazil’s descending position, many others flew by him while giving their look of pitiful disdain.

“Ho, look who got himself in a bind. Weren’t you going to be the first to reach the finish line? For such a small punk you sure love to talk big.”

“Look at him. He’s so bleeding pathetic.”

Looking up at his boastful peers, Drazil couldn’t take their insult anymore. “Shut up losers! When I get free, I’m going to plucking kill all of you! Especially that dancing chick and that no-Krowqui bastard! I’m going to peel his flesh off, slow roast his bones and eat him then shit his ass out!”

“Come on you guys, let’s go take the top 10 positions.”

“Yeah, screw that wasted bozo. He’s bound to get disqualified.”

The others ignored Drazil’s rants and went on ahead to claim the top 10 positions. He was left stranded behind in last place.