Chapter 44: Attack By Inflammatory Birds (Part 4)
A few dozen minutes before Vermillion Bird arrived at the scene.
"Everyone, stand behind me and try to throw your projectiles at them" Bellowed Li Qiu.
"Whe-o" "Whe-o"
'Swish' 'rrr'
Akiko used her innate ability 'Raging Momentum' and threw a Kunai at the incoming flock of inflammatory birds while Prakash made a Chakram spin at high rpm above his palm and hurled it towards the birds.
Both the Kunai and the spinning Chakram travelled at lightning fast speeds and accurately collided onto their targets. An instant later, a huge explosion occurred that blocked their vision of the Adept Stage inflammatory birds.
"Strike!" Exclaimed Akiko in joy for getting in a successful hit.
"Whee-oo"
There was a sudden high pitched shrill from the pack of the Adept Stage inflammatory birds which was immediately followed by a powerful gale that threw everyone off balance.
Li Qiu, Akiko, and Prakash were thrown off from the back of the Black Dragon due to the powerful gale which even made the Black Dragon lose its balance momentarily but regained its stability by employing its wide and powerful wings.
Aurella was saved from getting thrown off since he sat firmly on the sofa that was made by Katsurou which even had seat belts equipped in them.
"Big bro!" Bellowed Prakash as the trio were thrown off into the skies.
"I'll be fine. You prioritize bringing Akiko back to safety" Replied Li Qiu as he materialized a set of wings on his back.
"Uh-oh, how the hell am I supposed to fly with this crap?" Exclaimed Li Qiu as he began to free fall towards the ground, his materialized wings clearly being useless due to his inexperience in wielding them.
"I'll use some propulsion," Li Qiu thought as the wings on his back that were materialized by his thermal flames changed their shape from their initial straight streamlined wings to a 'W' winged shape.
"Boost!"
Thermal Flames gushed out from the vertices of the wings which gave him some resemblance of balance while they blasted out from the soles of his feet to propel him vertically upward.
His descent abruptly stopped when the flames lasting out from the soles of his feet doubled in intensity.
"That went…w….e…..l...l....aaaaaaa"
Before he could even sigh in relief, the momentum due to his propulsion instantly blasted him a
dozen metres upward.
For someone who never had the opportunity in his life to either bungee jump or even use a trampoline, such aerial acrobatics were beyond his wildest imagination.
"Aaaaaaa…..stop….stop…stop!.."
As he began to uncontrollably fly upward, Li Qiu immediately stopped using his Thermal Flames to propel himself. After a couple of seconds had passed, Li Qiu stopped moving upward.
"Sigh…oh no…not this agai…nnn..."
Well, physics….Li Qiu once again began his free fall.
During his fourth consecutive cycle of upward and downward movement, Prakash caught him midair and brought him back to atop the Black Dragon which gave a slight sneer to his inability to assume stable flight.
"Huff….puff…that was crazy" Said Li Qiu as he took a moment to catch his breath.
"Its strange" Muttered Akiko as she continued to hurl one Kunai after another towards the general direction of the inflammatory birds, "They haven't followed up with any other attacks after their initial gale attack"
Akiko couldn't see if her attacks were making any effect due to all the smoke that was generated by the explosions of her earlier Kunai attacks but didn't dare to stop her repeated projectile attacks since she didn't want to provide the inflammatory birds with an opportunity to mount another counterattack.
"Akiko, you can stop your attacks. They don't seem to be doing any damage" Said Li Qiu, who had checked the situation with the help of his Essence Sense innate ability.
"That biggest bird bastard created a layer of wind barrier that separated our attacks from harming them," Said, Li Qiu, as he clicked his tongue.
"Then, what should we do?" Questioned Akiko.
"Surprise gifts are always welcomed in a battle to the death" Laughed Li Qiu as he condensed a significant amount of his Aria into a 2 metre long Thermal Spear.
"Can you gift them this spear, Prakash?" Inquired Li Qiu as he passed his Thermal Spear to Prakash.
"Gladly" Replied Prakash as he held the Thermal Spear in a throwing position.
"Wait" Akiko interrupted Prakash just as he was about to activate his innate ability.
Li Qiu and Prakash curiously looked towards Akiko, wondering to the reason as to why she stopped them.
"My innate ability is better suited to this task and I don't require any charging time" Replied Akiko.
Akiko's innate ability 'Raging Momentum' had the ability to store momentum in her body by burning her Aria. With that, she can explosively increase the speed and power of her attacks, the strength of her defense, etc. basically, she can burn her Aria and increase her physical attributes accordingly.
"If you are confident enough then sure, give them a nice explosive gift," Said, Prakash, as he respectfully passed the Thermal Spear to Akiko's hand.
"Thanks" Replied Akiko as she picked up the Thermal Spear and faced the spearhead towards the general direction of the inflammatory birds who refused to attack until the flames surrounding their wind barrier died down.
"I'll keep up the popcorn attacks," Said Prakash as he kept hurling Chakrams towards the wind barrier at regular intervals.
Li Qiu adjusted the direction at which the spearhead pointed at as he informed Akiko, "That's where the biggest bastard is"
"Umu" Akiko nodded in agreement as at the next moment, her entire demeanor abruptly changed.
She looked like a war general who was about to single-handedly charge into the enemy troops, full of bravery, might, and valour.
"Speed…check, Power…check, Wind…check…now" Her eyes instantly ignited with battle intent as she tightened her grip over the spear handle, raised her left hand to point at the direction of her target.
At the next moment, Akiko raised her right hand which held onto the spear handle into the air, tilted her right leg a little towards her right and slammed her left leg onto the surface to act as a pivot to her launch.
'Thump'
Just her stomp alone decreased the altitude of the Black Dragon by a metre while the place she stomped over with her left leg began to develop cracks.
Paying no heed to the growling of the Black Dragon, Akiko channelled the entirety of her Aria into the spear as her gaze hardened.
"Soryaaaaa" Followed by a loud battle cry, Akiko launched the Thermal Spear into the air which was immediately followed by a powerful sonic boom that originated due to the spear instantly breaking through the sound barrier.
The resulting sonic boom threw Akiko along with the others, this time Aurella included off the Black Dragon's back.
'B-boom'
'Crack'
The Thermal Spear easily penetrated the wind barrier like a needle poking through a paper and pierced through the head of the largest inflammatory bird that had a wingspan of 12 metres.
Without losing its momentum, the Thermal Spear emerged out from the other side as it further impaled its next victim through its stomach and so on till it finally lodged itself halfway into the mouth of its 16th victim.
Li Qiu who had been observing the proceedings of the event through his Essence Sense innate ability even during the course of his free fall saw the Thermal Spear get lodged halfway in its 16th victim.
As a cruel smile crept onto his face, Li Qiu exclaimed in delight, "Die f***ers…..burst!"
The Thermal Spear which already had a reddish hue to it became almost maroon as it immediately exploded into a huge ball of burning, blazing sun that had a diameter of over 400 metres.
The chirpings of the various inflammatory birds in pain were immediately drowned by the explosive sound produced by the explosion of Li Qiu's Thermal Spear.
'Kacha' 'Kacha'
There were various bone-cracking noises that emerged out from within the burning ball of flames and wails of the injured inflammatory birds that barely escaped a fate of being burned to ashes.
"Aargh….it's hot. My skin feels like it's going to melt" Exclaimed Prakash, who was floating in the air by activating his innate ability 'Moving Nature' onto the metal rod that he always made sure to carry with him.
"Even when we are more than 500 metres away from the blast location, it still feels like we are looking into the mouth of an active volcano by standing at the edge of its crater" Concurred Akiko, who was also floating in the air beside Prakash.
Aurella, who had activated his ant wings had saved Akiko from her fall as he hugged her from behind and balanced her silhouette mid-air.
Slowly, the trio landed on the back of the Black Dragon who immediately flew over to their location.
Within a few seconds, an unstable Li Qiu with his 'W' shaped wings crash-landed onto the Black Dragon's back.
"Grrrr…." The Black Dragon complained in displeasure.
"Sorry, my bad" Li Qiu apologized as he felt his mood lift up after he was able to vent out on his attackers.
"Quick, Black Dragon, we have to take this chance to escape. Who knows what will come up next?" Prakash urged the Black Dragon to increase its flying speed as he prayed that those inflammatory birds would stop chasing after them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Overlord_Venus
Overlord_Venus Well, there you have it :)
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