The orange-yellow bird appeared to be severely wounded. It lay on the ground, thrashing its wings wildly and letting out cries of distress. W.W. showed not the slightest mercy. She dove down from the air in pursuit and continued driving the boulders into the bird with crushing force, shattering the bones, talons, wings, and neck across its entire body.
Watching W.W. fight the bird, Rulu and Kallen were both deeply shaken. Kallen leaned close to C.C. and whispered, "I have to ask, C.C. — does W.W. have some kind of grudge against this bird? She's going at it so brutally, like she wants to smash it to pieces."
C.C. replied with perfect calm, "There's no other choice. The creatures here can't really be considered living things in the ordinary sense. On top of that, this bird has an extraordinarily powerful regenerative ability — an attack of this level isn't enough to defeat it."
Kallen said in bewilderment, "What? Even this isn't enough to beat it? The bird is in this state and it can still keep fighting?"
"You'll see for yourself very soon."
Kallen immediately turned her gaze toward the bird, whose body had been reduced to a broken ruin. Then something strange happened. The bird lying on the ground began to change — its body started radiating an orange-red glow.
At first the light was faint, but within seconds it rapidly intensified. Soon the bird's entire body blazed with a fierce orange-red radiance, and a fiery, flame-like substance enveloped it from head to tail — it looked as though the bird had been set completely ablaze.
In that instant, the shattered body of the flame-engulfed bird fused back together. Its severed wings and other broken parts reattached, and the bird's body was restored to its original state.
"It suffered injuries that severe and recovered in an instant!" Rulu exclaimed in astonishment. The flame bird beat its wings and took to the air once more, flying swiftly toward W.W. to launch another attack.
Seeing the flame bird approaching, W.W. quickly flew in the opposite direction while continuing to drive the boulders into it. The stones struck the bird and sent it flying back — but it seemed completely unbothered, beating its wings and pressing on toward W.W. regardless.
W.W. kept hurling boulder after boulder at the flame bird, repeatedly breaking its wings, neck, and bones. Yet no matter how much damage the bird sustained, its body recovered in an extraordinarily short time. Even after a prolonged barrage, the flame bird remained intact, still beating its wings and pushing forward toward W.W.
"It seems this bird's regenerative ability in its flame state is extraordinary," Rulu remarked after watching the battle between W.W. and the flame bird for a while. "Even after taking catastrophic damage, it recovers in almost no time."
C.C. agreed. "Yes, this bird is a very difficult opponent. Even W.W. can't be certain of defeating it."
Rulu said, "In that case, I need to think of a way to help W.W."
With that, Rulu used his Magic Psionic power to conjure a freezing cyclone nearby. As time passed, the ice cyclone grew larger and larger, and the temperature dropped steadily lower.
The battle between the flame bird and W.W. continued. Then suddenly the flame bird beat its wings with tremendous force, sending a gale erupting out of nowhere. The blast caught W.W. and sent her flying back several meters. Struck by the sudden gust, she hesitated for a brief moment and lost control of the boulders.
Seizing the opportunity, the flame bird swept past the boulders blocking its path, closed in rapidly on W.W., and seized her serpentine body with both talons. It then began tearing at her body with its claws while stabbing at her with its sharp beak.
W.W.'s face twisted in pain. She immediately drove the boulders crashing into the flame bird — but just as before, though the bird was struck again and again, its regenerative ability was overwhelming. Whether its wings or neck were broken, both healed almost instantly. The flame bird continued relentlessly attacking W.W. with beak and talons while W.W. kept hammering it with the boulders, and the two clashed furiously in the air.
"Go——"
Rulu's sharp call rang out nearby. A freezing vortex, crackling with cold, spun at high speed and shot toward the flame bird's body. The icy vortex struck and wrapped around it completely. Under the assault of the freezing whirlwind, the flame-like substance covering the bird shrank visibly, and the orange-red radiance it gave off dimmed slightly.
"Good — it's working." Rulu thought to himself, and kept the freezing ice storm bearing down on the bird. W.W. recognized what Rulu was doing. She abandoned the boulder attacks and, like Rulu, summoned a freezing current to assault the flame bird.
Under the combined ice storm assault from Rulu and W.W., the flames and radiance covering the flame bird grew weaker and weaker. After about a minute, the flames were extinguished entirely, and the bird reverted to its original form as the orange bird.
W.W. drove the boulders into the bird once more. A stone struck the bird squarely in the neck with crushing force, snapping the bones of its neck. The bird let out a wretched, anguished shriek. Its talons released their grip on W.W.'s body, and it plummeted from the sky to the ground below.
"Kallen, cut its head off!" Rulu called out loudly, while continuing to summon an ice storm with his Magic Psionic power to batter the bird. W.W. likewise kept a steady stream of ice storms blasting at the bird's body, preventing it from transforming back into the flame bird and rapidly regenerating.
Kallen picked up a sharp rock from the ground nearby and charged at the bird with its broken neck. She reached its side, swung the rock in her hand, and brought it down again and again on the fractured part of the bird's neck.
With a sharp crack, the bird's neck finally snapped completely under Kallen's relentless assault. Kallen grabbed the severed head and moved well away from the body. The headless bird convulsed violently on the ground for a moment — and then lay completely still.