“Hmm…?”

Sizing up the small group of crows before him, the menacing vulture spat out blood residue which came from the jungle rabbit’s corpse that he had just eaten. He wasn’t at all impressed by their mediocre evolution.

“So small and weak. Not even going to be an appetiser. I am Wallis the strongest creation in Vultures Byte. Standing idle won’t get you these ribbons.” When he straightened his spine, the vulture’s impressive height was revealed to the 5 onlookers. He measured a little over 10 feet in height.    

Agumi felt intimidated, thus he said to the others, “I suggest we work together to take this one down. They are 5 of us and he has 5 ribbons. It should be easy pickings, right?”

“Yes, I agree.” Responded Doolbs. As he said this, he had a sinister thought resting at the back of his head.

“Me too.” Said Marrigo in agreement with Agumi’s suggestion for teamwork.

“Fine, I’ll par with you guys for a while.” Neji agreed to team up.

“Count me in as well!” Retskeir took off his cylindrical black case. It sent out a spike at the bottom that kept it balanced after he stamped it in the ground.

Verifying that his team was ready to rumble, Agumi gave the order to attack the vulture. “Surround him!”

The tall vulture observed for a moment as the crows began scampering around him like flies. “Tsk, pesky little bugs. Die!” He punched the ground with such vehemence that it produced an orbital shockwave that sent the surrounding crows flying in various directions.

“He’s so powerful.”

The students quickly balanced their feathers in order to start fighting back. Rushing back to where he was previously, Marrigo adroitly slipped between Wallis’s skinny legs, moreover, spun around while activating flat yellow circular Krowqui around his fingertips.

“Six Fingers, Snake Tracer!” Marrigo’s fingers became dark and lanky, possessing a variety of snakelike heads that started stretching unevenly in bizarre patterns. They extended and extended like tendrils of ropes; wrapping around Wallis’s body; binding him in place.

Retskeir took advantage of the easy target. He quickly commanded his black cylindrical case which had been placed perpendicular to the ground to open up. When the vertical seam from the middle was split into 2 portions, a collection of multifaceted guns was exposed! These guns were specially built to accommodate physical matter as well as Krowqui bullets.

“These will do.” Picking out his favourite ebony pistols, Retskeir shot off like a twisting cyclone around the trapped vulture as he started firing countless bullets.

“Gunslinger, Bullet Shower!” Countless series of bullets were storming the vulture.

“Black Cutter!” Jumping into the fray, Neji dipped his right hand into his left wing and pulled out a shiny black katana. Its sharpness sliced apart some falling leaves as he advanced toward Wallis with killing intent.

“Sword Mastery, Slice & Dice!” Numerous slashes streaked from Neji’s sword at his opponent.

“Hm?” Taking notice of the deadly vibrant slashes streaking towards him, Wallis inhaled fiercely then exuded repelling surge of energy that blasted away all the slashes along with Retskeir’s Bullet Shower. Also, Marrigo’s Snake Tracer which kept Wallis bound a moment ago was greatly loosened.

“Burst!”

After coming free, Wallis grabbed the extended Snake Tracer that was still connected to Marrigo’s fingers. He twirled him around for a bit before tossing him at Neji. Following their rough collision, Wallis dashed in front of them apace. With his fists tightly clenched, he threw back his arms like a spring then started producing uncountable punches.

“Gatling Punch, Rapid Shot!” 

“Ugh, he’s fast!” Marrigo, Neji and Retskeir did their best to block Wallis’s fast pace vanishing punches by arousing their Protective Krowqui; it resembled a flowing auric field decorated with sparkling illuminations.

“Huh?” Wallis realized very soon that his Gatling Punches weren’t doing much to affect the resisting trio. Thus he tied them together using parts of his loosed feathers to prepare for the unleashing of a more powerful technique that was sure to blast them into oblivion.

“Let’s see how you 3 runts handle this.” With his lanky arms raised above his head, Wallis began to produce an enlarging ball of Krowqui. It didn’t take him long to build up enough Krowqui to release the deadly technique. “Krowqui Bomb!”

The blast was fired at the captured trio. However, seconds away from causing a deadly collision, Agumi appeared between them and the blast with a flat circle frame of white arcane energy present at his rear. It measured 1-metre in diameter, moreover, consisted of 1 large green and 1 white tomoe that was rotating inside.

“Yin Yang Array!”  Agumi clunked his elbows together in a protective manner and waited for the blast to hit him.

“You, what are you doing?” Agumi’s teammates were alarmed by his foolish bravery. A moment later, the Krowqui Bomb hit him and exploded with fierce intensity.

“That’s one down.” Wallis smiled widely. Soon after he spoke, he heard a crow saying:

“Check again.” Agumi was still standing firmly, moreover, unscathed.

“Impossible!” Wallis was veritably shocked.

Even the captured trio were astonished by Agumi’s unscathed appearance. “He’s not injured?”

Agumi faced the bewildered Wallis and said, “With my Yin Yang Array active I can absorb any type of attack be it ethereal or physical and repel it tenfold. Just like this…” He thrust his hand forwards as he channelled the absorbed energies stored in his special Yin Yang Array.

“Terminal Backfire!” A resplendent Krowqui Bomb shot out from Agumi’s palms that smashed into Wallis’s abdomen. The explosive impact sent him crashing into some trees nearby.

“Dude, that was awesome!” The trio were glad to be free again. Looking to where Wallis had fallen they identified Doolbs crawling out of a dark portal behind him along with 2 dark copies of himself.

“Shadow Doubles!” Doolbs 2 Shadow Doubles grabbed Wallis’s arms and spread them far apart so that the original could punch his face repeatedly.

“Abyss Fists!” He assaulted Wallis’s face with phantasmal punches until he fell flat on the leaf heap.

Moments later, Doolbs sneakily attempted to steal the Red Ribbon from around the vulture’s neck, however, he was prematurely delayed by Agumi’s outburst.

“Be on the lookout, it’s not over yet!” Agumi’s warning came just in time to save Doolbs from getting blasted by a vertical Krowqui Blast that shot up into the air from Wallis’s ranging persona.

“What’s this? His Krowqui just spiked.” Observed Neji.

“It did. This situation has taken a drastic turn against our favour.” Said Agumi. They could sense that Wallis’s power has risen to the next level of evolution.

“Hm? This Krowqui that I’m picking up. It belongs to an Amazon-Warrior-Rank-4!” Doolbs was shocked.

Marrigo surmised, “It must have evolved during battle.”

Retskeir came along and said, “It’s a good thing that we decided to team up, otherwise, none of us could deal with that vulture alone.”

Agumi agreed. “Only a fool looking to be killed off would be traversing these unpredictable woods all alone looking for ribbons.”

At the same time, Agumi voiced his particular opinion about only a fool was brave enough to traverse Vultures Byte alone, 9 kilometres west of his position, a lone crow landed on a tree branch that was overlooking an alluring blue pond that had some pretty fishes swimming around at the bottom. This foolish crow according to Agumi’s opinion was none other than the mysterious hooded lad called Chirako.

“I’ve finally found my first target.” His brilliant blue eyes glinted with an insatiable thirst for battle.