Chapter 1047: Killing the Gold Bird
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The fire of the fallen king had been almost wholly extinguished. A few short puffs of fire rose from its beak, but that was the extent of its capabilities. Its lava-like blood had solidified, and the bottom half of its body was ravaged to smoldering cinders.
Han Sen drew his Phoenix Sword and delivered another strike to its exposed throat, making it gargle in pain as it helplessly drowned on its own blood.
Seeing that it was unable to resist, Han Sen delivered another slash. And then another, and another, and another. He kept going until the raven’s head was wholly separated from its brutalized body.
“Super Creature Three-Claw Gold Raven killed. No beast soul gained. Its flesh is inedible and there is no Life Geno Essence for retrieval.”
Han Sen was disappointed that he didn’t receive another beast soul.
But the other three fiery super creatures were angered even further, noticing that their brother had been picked on like so. They changed target away from Xie Qing King and went directly towards Han Sen instead.
Han Sen had known the risks, but he wasn’t quite expecting them to come for him so suddenly. He was in grave danger and he knew it, so he didn’t waste a single second before activating Aero and flying away to dodge the birds that were now out for his blood.
Xie Qing King caught two of the birds, but one of them was still free to chase after Han Sen.
It was blisteringly fast as it pursued Han Sen, and it was directly behind him the entire time. Its talons were ablaze and raised, ready to tear into him.
As the talons drew nearer, Han Sen could feel the sweltering heat they emitted growing even hotter.
With a quick roll to the side, Han Sen evaded the talons the exact moment they were to strike him.
The gold raven cawed, and a whirlwind of fire rolled out of its wretched smoking mouth. It looked set to swallow Han Sen.
But in response, Han Sen doubled-down on the powers of Aero and Phoenix Flame to become a fiery bird himself. He soared through the fire and emerged from the other side unscathed.
The gold raven was maddened at its inability to catch up with Han Sen. It screeched repeatedly, as it kept on trying to grab him with its talons. Han Sen was flying at a ridiculously fast pace, but whenever the bird caught up and was ready to grab him, he’d evade to the side and avoid it. It went on like this for some time.
Han Sen then decided to use Aero and Phoenix Flame in conjunction with the phoenix techniques he had learned in the hall earlier, and this imbued him with an incredible feeling. He had never felt so free and so alive, as he weaved a thread through the skies with grace.
He almost felt as if his mind was struggling to keep up with his body, and that his body was the one doing everything for him.
He was reacting to the bird’s attacks before his mind even realized what was going on; he was like a pa.s.senger in his own body.
This was very different to what he was used to. Generally, Han Sen would have to think on his feet and calculate quickly, gauging what would be best for the situation he was in. This was particularly necessary for certain skills like Heavenly Go, which required a lot of forward-thinking and solid a.s.sessment of an opponent to dodge effectively.
After combing the phoenix techniques with Aero, Han Sen no longer had to spend time thinking. He was like a wild animal, reacting to threats spontaneously.
It was rather strange at first, but he soon got used to it. He ultimately found it better this way. Allowing his body to immediately dictate the responses necessary for combat while he focused on other things was a fabulous improvement.
Even though he was a quick thinker, the time it took to plan an evasion was precious. Things could change in a split-second when fighting a monster this fearsome. Negating that time spent thinking was an incredible boon, and it was one that bolstered Han Sen’s confidence and overall abilities a great deal. The firestorm bird, that had nine of its gene locks open, could not inflict a single point of damage to Han Sen, now that he was doing this.
And this was greater than it sounded, for the difference between the eighth and ninth gene lock was ma.s.sive. And what’s more, Han Sen was only using seven of his genes locks. He was shocked at how effective the phoenix techniques were.
Of course, his fire geno points and Phoenix Flame were a great boon to this, as well. If a normal person had attempted to do what Han Sen was doing, they would have been burned to death before leaving the ground.
Han Sen was overwhelmed with confidence, and his abilities were only improving as he went. He felt as if there was no gravity, and that he was free to move in any way he desired.
But then, the gold raven screamed as its black body turned red. It fired a geyser of violent, killer flames unlike anything Han Sen had ever seen. It didn’t hit Han Sen, but he immediately felt as if his armor was melting.
Han Sen dodged it with ease, but he couldn’t give the geyser of fire a wide enough berth to avoid all its heat. The sacred-blood armor he wore suddenly turned to molten liquid. The heat had its effect on Han Sen himself, as well, and he quickly felt as if he was slipping into a vat of lava.
Just as Han Sen planned to use his super king spirit mode again, though, he felt that heat blown away. The heat that soaked him disappeared, as a normal temperature returned.
The little bird, that was once a fish, appeared on Han Sen’s shoulder, sucking up all the fire in the atmosphere. It looked so pretty.
“It really was special.” Han Sen was ecstatic.
With the bird removing the heat all around, Han Sen was no longer afraid of the fiery raven. And without that insufferable temperature, Han Sen was freer than ever, and now there was no way the Three-Claw Gold Raven could catch him.
Han Sen was not able to kill the bird, but at least he could survive its attempted oppression.
Another raven let out a shrill screech from elsewhere, and when Han Sen turned to take a look, he saw Xie Qing King tear one of the birds in two. Scorched feathers and blood formed a cloud around him.
The other bird was flying towards him as this occurred, but Xie Qing King was like a devil. He noticed it come, and he quickly turned to punch it. He punched it repeatedly, all the while proclaiming, “Alu-Alu!”
The bird was twisted and disfigured like a pretzel by the time its pummeling was done. With the final hit, the raven’s broken body was sent flying several miles away.