"What are you all standing for?! Go attack him together! It’s just a single enemy!" shouted one of the leading figures of the Dark Fate, his voice cracking under both rage and fear.
At once, the mbers who had managed to remain conscious after their earlier transformation shock scrambled to their feet.
Hands glowed, staves humd, and voices chanted as spells began to take form.
Yet in the midst of all the chaos, Coolbird remained nonchalant.
His posture was casual, even relaxed, though the air around him pulsed with raw fire mana. His sharp, hawk-like eyes never left Aurelus. He knew exactly who the real threat was.
As long as I break this one, their crazy group should fail in their plan.
Fwoooom!
The flas on his Divine Rapier roared suddenly, brighter and hotter than before. Aurelus noticed, his lips curling into a cold smirk.
Without hesitation, he too flared his power and unleashed a fiery wave slash that cut through the air like a burning crescent.
"Hah! Easy!" Aurelus barked, his confidence echoing across the battlefield.
Coolbird, however, only flared his wings and darted into the air. His movent was so sudden and sharp that the strike missed him completely.
Dozens of earth-binding spells locked onto his last position, but they fizzled harmlessly as he spiraled upward.
"Darn it!" one mage cursed.
"He’s too fast!" another shouted, sweat pouring down his temple.
"Don’t give up! Keep shooting!"
The air thickened with magical energy as the mbers unleashed everything they had.
Arrows of condensed mana, razor-sharp energy blades, roaring fireballs, ice spears that glittered like crystal, jagged rocks hurled by earthen force, slashing wind strikes, even crackling bolts of lightning.
All of them converged on the airborne beast.
But Coolbird glided effortlessly between them, twisting his body with impossible grace. He was an elusive phantom in the sky, weaving through destruction as if the battlefield itself bowed to his rhythm.
"Where do you think you’re going?!" Aurelus roared, his wings erupting in flas as he surged upward in pursuit.
His sword was mid-charge, its flas coiling around the blade like a hungry serpent, while his eyes tracked Coolbird’s erratic pattern with sharp determination.
"Tsk, so annoying," Coolbird muttered under his breath.
Then, in a sudden dive, he swerved and unleashed a storm of fire strikes from his rapier. Each strike split into multiple streaks, raining down upon the battlefield like teors.
Blam!Blam!Baaang!
The sky seed to open up, releasing a torrent of burning death. The ground below was consud by inferno. Within seconds, the battlefield turned into a living hell.
"Aaaghk!""Hot! Hot! Hoooot!""Help ! I’m burning!"
The proud mbers of Dark Fate, warriors who had once carried themselves with unshakable arrogance, scread in panic as flas clung to their flesh.
So fled desperately, activating every movent skill they knew. Others frantically activated protective artifacts, shimring barriers barely holding against the rciless bombardnt.
Above them, Coolbird spread his blazing wings, laughing wildly as fire trailed behind him.
"Hahahaha! That’s right! Buuuuurn!"
He rained destruction with the glee of a predator toying with helpless prey. He wasn’t fighting because of vengeance, or even duty. No, he simply found them irritating, gnats that dared to buzz in his presence.
The true nature of a holy beast was revealing itself. Majestic yet rciless.
As the inferno spread, parts of the castle itself were caught in the chaos.
Flas crept along the walls and towers, black smoke spiraled into the heavens, and soon one of the blasts reached the frozen throne room.
There, Wilfred was still entombed within the cursed ice that Magnus had left behind in his dying monts. His pale face twisted with both agony and desperate hope as the flas licked closer.
Finally... so fucking help! he scread inwardly, though his lips could not move. His body had grown ghostly pale, mana and life draining away with each passing second.
This was no ordinary ice. It was life-corrupting ice, the sa insidious magic that had once threatened Queen Elarya in the sealed space where Vulkris had been imprisoned.
Back above, Aurelus finally closed the distance. His breaths ca in sharp bursts, his wings straining as he dodged falling flas.
But his grip on his greatsword tightened, and fire surged around him in a violent storm.
"Ti to shut you down, fraless warrior!" he shouted.
[WRATH OF SEVEN CLEAVE]
His sword’s flas expanded with terrifying force, swelling until the blade glowed like a fifty-ter whip of fire. With a roar, Aurelus swung it.
The blazing whip cracked through the sky, closing in on Coolbird like the tail of a fiery dragon.
"Hmph," Coolbird grunted.
He brought his six tail-like wings forward, crossing them in a shield. The whip struck, exploding in fire, shaking the heavens themselves.
The impact halted Coolbird’s montum, stopping him midair, though it failed to cut him down.
But Aurelus’s eyes glead.
Just as planned.
Wham!
Coolbird’s wings shuddered, and with his defenses disrupted, he began to fall. Aurelus pounced.
Hyaah!
He swung again. One whip-like slash followed another, then another, six in total.
Each strike was a fiery tail of wrath that slamd Coolbird down like a hamr from the gods.
Bang!Bang!Bang!
The ground quaked with each blow, and dust plud high into the air. The castle trembled as if the world itself was breaking.
"Yes!" a mber of Dark Fate shouted, voice shrill with relief.
"He’s finished! The monster’s done for!"
For a fleeting mont, hope returned to their weary eyes. They cheered, believing Aurelus’s final assault had silenced the bird of fire.
But then the rubble shifted. A figure rose from the smoke, stretching casually as if waking from a nap.
"Nice massage," Coolbird said, yawning. His voice was calm, amused, cruel. "Was that all you can do?"
Gasps filled the battlefield.
"H-how could this be...""What a monster..."
Their hope turned to despair. To see Aurelus, their king, their living weapon, strike with everything he had—only to be mocked—was too much to bear.
Aurelus himself felt his transformation flickering. His flas dimd, his strength waning. His body scread under the weight of exhaustion.
Athena... I need more power, he whispered inside his ntal space.
Just reminding you, your mana is not enough to last another minute, Athena’s calm voice replied.
That’s all I need...
His eyes darted around, scanning, thinking. He hated admitting it, but Coolbird was enjoying the fight, healing with each mont instead of dying.
That left him only one option.
With grim resolve, Aurelus shouted, "Dark Fates! Cover !"
Fwooom!
His wings flared as he spun away, retreating.
At his command, the mbers rushed to his aid. Not to attack, but to buy him ti.
[IRON WALL][FLA DO][ICE BARRIER][DARK FLOW]
Elental walls surged upward, massive and imposing, a maze of barriers standing between Coolbird and their leader.
But Coolbird didn’t panic. He crouched low, his rapier glowing brighter than ever. His senses, sharp and all-encompassing, locked onto Aurelus instantly thanks to his omnidetection ability.
’’Run while you can.’
Coolbird’s foot sunk on the solid floor from the pressure and in the next instant...
SWOOOM!
He vanished in a streak of fire.
Poof!Poof!Poof!
One wall shattered, then another, then another, each obliterated by his blazing charge. His figure blurred, a laser of destruction, eyes locked on the fleeing Aurelus.
Swoooom!
anwhile, flying towards the the center of the entire kingdom...
"This should be enough space," Aurelus muttered, pushing his wings to their limit. His body ached from his wounds and shortage of mana, but he pressed on, eyes flicking to the voice in his head.
’Everyone is in place. The ice stones are fully charged. The Ice Field is ready, Athena reported.
"Alright. Now I just need to—"
"Behind you!" Athena’s warning cut sharp.
Aurelus spun, eyes wide.
Coolbird was already there. A blazing teor, his rapier aid right on his face.
"Missed ?" Coolbird whispered before his palm caught him and brought him down.
BLAM!
The rooftop trembled as Aurelus was slamd down, dust erupting in every direction. His massive fra jolted with pain, the air torn from his lungs in a ragged gasp. For all his size, he looked no more than a child in the grip of Coolbird.
"Ackh!"
Blood dripped from the corner of his lips. His eyes quivered as he struggled to look up.
Coolbird lood over him, flas burning deep within his gaze. One hand clamped tight around Aurelus’s throat, the other pressing a blazing rapier against the side of his neck.
"No... this cannot be..." Aurelus rasped.
And in that instant, raw fear filled his eyes.
Because this was it. The nightmare that had stalked him for years, the mont he had always dreaded. The day the Fraless warrior finally stood above him, victorious.
"Now, ti to finish you..." Coolbird’s voice burned with finality, his rapier ready to strike—then, suddenly, his aura shifted.
Shuuum~
The flas in his eyes flickered, dimd, and vanished. His expression softened as the inferno bled away, leaving only human eyes behind. Coolbird’s grip slackened.
Aurelus froze in disbelief.
By so twist of fortune, Coolbird’s control had slipped away. The presence that had possessed Auren’s body was gone, and before him stood not the relentless warrior of fla, but the boy himself—confused, alive, and very much in control again.
Auren blinked, staring at the trembling Aurelus who now looked like a cornered dog on his hand.
"What the heck? What happened here!?"
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