Chapter 181 - Kuro’s Dragon Lance Drill

Lord Fearsilver bristled at the pompous black and white four-winged Mistral Hornbill's mocking grin. Its extra-large beak was swinging towards him, taunting him to no end. He could almost hear the hornbill laughing silently at him.

Lord Fearsilver was so pissed off with the spiritual hornbill, he immediately flapped his silver-dyed wingtip and shot out an absurd amount of Silver-knives out of fury. On other occasions, the Monarch was reasonable enough to not care about such squabbles and let the others do the cleanup. However, he was especially irked by how the events unfolded this time. It seemed that Suria really had a knack for infuriating others to no end. Thousands of two-feet long thin leaf-like silver knives blotted the sky, zero-ing on the twenty-some Worldtree Sanctuary's group.

The attack was the precursor for the rest of the silver-banded eagles to launch themselves into the fray, though they were careful to fly behind the harmful projectiles. Even if the Monarch's Silver-knives annihilated the other party, they still needed to proactively provide support and kill off any strays, if there was any. They, too, could feel the Monarch's boiling anger. It wasn't wise to remain passive lest they will be considered as unhelpful. Their lives could easily be forfeited once the excursion was over.

Seeing a crazed but powerful foe's aerial attack bursting towards them made Suria panic. She immediately issued a command to the others to fall back together as fast as possible! They need to leave the attacking range quickly.

Alas, they were just too slow.

The wide disparity between their strength and the eagle boss made them unable to effectively dodge the incoming attack. It took only a few blinks of the eye for the silvery projectiles to reach them. Suria knew if the attack landed, most probably, all of her subordinates would die, and if she was extremely lucky, she could survive, though will be gravely injured.

She gritted her beak and cast her strongest skill after burning a drop of her blood essence, Eye of Windstorm, in a bid to save them from certain death. It was the only skill that might be strong enough to protect them while having enough clout to face off against an attack of a Lord-level enemy.

The thought of having to use another drop of her precious blood essence made Suria depressed. Blood essence was finite. Burning one meant losing one permanently. However, it was better to be weakened, rather than being very dead. She knew the Mistress could help her later in the future, somehow. The Mistress had to, after what Suria had selflessly done for the Mistress' cause.

Eight cyclones rapidly manifested around the Sanctuary's group and were growing in intensity. They were ready to merge soon. However, Suria had miscalculated the amount of time needed to perform such a high-intensity skill. It needed time to build up, and time was the one thing that they lacked.

The attacks reached the three blooming cyclones like a tide before they could combine and dispersed them at the expense of disintegrating less than a hundred silvery knives. The disappearance of the three cyclones had produced a gap and the casting of Eye of Windstorm prematurely halted from destabilization. The power she hoped to generate had reduced more than half of what she expected, and the safe haven in the eye of the storm wasn't generated. Suria felt wronged terribly as a shadow of helplessness fleeted over her eyes. Will this be the end for her glorious self?

All of a sudden, countless lightning strikes rained down from the heavens like mighty lances thrown down by the vengeful God of Thunder. The lightning lances sizzled the air in bluish light, pinning down each silver knife with precision. The aerial attacks of Monarch Fearsilver had been canceled out just like that!

A gigantic flying black snake appeared midair and barred the path between the Monarch of the Silver-banded Eagles and the four-winged Mistral Hornbill!

"YOU!!!"

The Monarch immediately recognized the 'worm' he had hunted all the way. The worm had turned into a full-fledged gigantic thirty-meter long black python with bat-like blood-colored wings!

Before the Monarch managed to utter another word, a rain of lightning-based strikes bombarded him non-stop. Thick lightning-shaped 'pikes' homed at the Monarch's eyes and his rear bottom relentlessly!

"!!!!" The attacks were so rushed and without respite, it hindered the Monarch from doing anything except receiving them all. Although the lightning sparks weren't life-threatening now, each attack stunned him for a few seconds longer. He acknowledged that his condition could turn south if he didn't take the initiative soon.

…

Kuro wasn't going to let go of the initiative he obtained; he used his full power and cranked up the volts to give first classed 'treatment' to the Bird Boss. He attacked fast and hard, not daring to give the Boss Eagle any chance to let loose his own attacks. Mommy had reminded him to focus on the bird's weakness and attack ruthlessly without reprieve to rob the bird of its chance to attack and solely focused on defense in the initial phase. After that, he must make sure to gang up on this fiend properly while finding opportunities to unleash lethal strikes as many times as it took to bring it down. After all, they were the ones who were on the weaker side. Being sly and on the offensive side was the way to go in this situation.

…

Once the Boss Eagle engaged in combat with Lord Kuro, Suria immediately instructed her team to pelt the leftover lackeys with Bubble-glue as soon as possible. This rare window of opportunity was utilized efficiently by the Sanctuary's team.

The incoming eagles were incapacitated in a flash!

They fell from the sky like overripe fruits!

Ironically, the thick whitish substance was the one preserving their lives as it served to cushion their fall. They screeched in fury and frustration as they tried their hardest to peck and struggled in between the sticky substance encasing them. However, it was a futile attempt on their part; they still didn't learn the lesson from their previously-trapped teammates. The more aggressive they become, the faster the substance will harden. Ultimately, their beaks, wings, and bodies were stuck to the white substance. Try as they might, they couldn't even wiggle a tiny bit. Soon, no noise was heard.

Grinning wide, Suria relished in her success for a few moments before she regrouped with her team for the next task; harassing the Big Boss Eagle!

This time, dozens of white bubbles flew in from different directions towards the Monarch with greater efficiency. They were smaller in size but a lot higher in number. Suria didn't care whether the bubbles hit the Eagle Boss or not, she only wished to provide added distractions as per the Mistress' instruction.

The high number of bubbles were persistently homing on the final Silver-banded Eagle wherever he moved as he evaded the lightning attacks released by the Lightning Serpent mid-air. With his large body, the combined attacks had made the Eagle Boss fumble clumsily on several occasions.

From the very beginning, various spiritual beasts adept at performing Micro-control at a passable level had been placed upon the avian's back for better control during emergencies. They were just too small to be noticed as they hid among the feathers stealthily. The continual relentless ȧssault was attributed to this. The Mistress had divided the labor to more volunteers to make it more efficient and manageable. The fact that they were facing an enemy multiple times stronger than them, and were able to have some effects, thus influencing the course of the battle, made them grin from ear to ear, while feeling immense satisfaction.

A Bubble-glue the size of a washbasin brushed over the wingtip of the Silver-banded Eagle Boss slightly as he got distracted for a fraction of a second. The stickiness had made him lose his balance slightly.

A chance!

Kuro grinned sinisterly as he added a twisting motion using Micro-control, giving a drilling added effect on the follow-up incoming lightning attack.

Dragon Lance Drill!

Although the lightning strike had no change in strength and intensity, the added twisting motion had increased the penetrative effect to almost ten times from its counterpart. Nonetheless, the fine control to execute such skill had increased exponentially and was quite taxing to Kuro's mental strength. Although Kuro's Micro-control was lower compared to Shiro, he make it up with his proficiency in Soul-based techniques. Of course, the suave naming sense was none other than Mommy's golden touch. Kuro's lightning strike didn't even have a name since it was the most basic one. It was equivalent to a random punch or a kick.

The attack perfectly ground through the Silver-banded eagle's sturdy feathers to reach his left scapula (1). The final strike left Monarch Fearsilver howled in pain and with unbridled anger! The Silver-banded eagle started falling as he failed to maintain flight.

While the Silver-banded eagle was plummeting down, another seamless follow-up attack came through as Kuro decided to go physical. He enlarged himself, courageously constricted the nape of the Boss Eagle midair, and chomped hard on the giant eagle's neck!

Both of them hit the forest floor together, producing a booming sound so loud across the forest. The trees and boulders below them crumbled to dust, obscuring the view of the rest. Waiting for the dust to settle, Suria and co. were extremely nervous! She didn't dare fly down to check, instead, she stayed as high as possible with her entourage. Were they successful in bringing down the Eagle Boss?

Once the dust settled, the aftermath of an armageddon greeted them as the two gigantic opponents continued wrestling on the broken ground to topple one another. The Eagle Boss, currently with a broken wing, had been pecking Lord Kuro's body viciously! Lord Kuro was bleeding profusely on several parts of his body and many of his crystal-like black scales had been torn apart. He stubbornly refused to let go of the Eagle Boss' neck and was subjected to repeated trashing. Lord Kuro was currently grievously injured. True to the Mistress' reminder, the tables had turned almost immediately when the Eagle Boss could finally launch his own counterattacks in response to the mass lynching.

Authors' Note:

1) Scapula = the main wingbone of a bird that connects the wing to the body.