"Wow, W.W. is incredibly fierce — she gave that leopard absolutely no chance of survival." Kallen said, clearly astonished. She had always assumed W.W. had a gentle nature and disliked violence, yet it turned out that W.W. fought even more ruthlessly than she did, finishing off the leopard in the blink of an eye.
"That should do it. It won't be bothering us again anytime soon." W.W. murmured to herself. She cast one last glance at the leopard pinned beneath the boulders, then turned and flew back toward the others. The three massive stones followed her back as well.
Rulu and Kallen walked over to the leopard and looked down at it. Under the crushing force of the boulders, its body had been completely caved in, its skull shattered. The leopard lay motionless on the ground — it was clearly dead.
"Let's move. We need to reach that place before the other Strange beasts in this area notice us." C.C. said, and led the way forward. The others fell in immediately behind her. To guard against further attacks from Strange beasts, W.W. used her Magic Psionic power to keep the three boulders floating around her at all times, ready for whatever might come.
Led by C.C., the group moved swiftly across the silver ground that shimmered with strange light. At times they pressed forward; at other times they doubled back or changed direction. Sometimes they moved slowly, sometimes quickly, and sometimes they seemed to circle in place.
As they traveled, the scenery around them shifted constantly. A vast stretch of forest would appear nearby without warning, then a small hill, then a strange structure resembling a castle, then a dark lake that looked like a swamp — each materializing without any sign and vanishing just as suddenly. Apart from C.C. and W.W., the rest of the group felt dizzy and disoriented, as though caught in a dream, with no sense of where they actually were.
"Kree——"
Suddenly, a clear bird-like cry rang out from the sky above. Everyone stopped immediately and looked up. An enormous orange-yellow bird had appeared in the sky nearby, circling and hovering overhead in wide loops.
"What a huge bird — it looks as big as a giraffe?!" Kallen said in amazement. And indeed, the bird was immense — its wingspan nearly ten meters across, its neck and talons extraordinarily long and slender, its tail thick and heavy. The orange-yellow bird seemed to have spotted Rulu and the others below and kept circling above them, letting out sharp, piercing cries.
"This is bad — it's the Emperor's sentinel!" C.C.'s expression immediately tensed at the sight of the great bird in the sky.
"Sentinel?"
"Yes. That bird was placed here by the Emperor specifically to prevent outsiders from intruding. It not only has a very high Psionic power level, but it can also see through the spatial shifts in this place. Once it locks onto us, it will be able to find us no matter where we go."
"Then… what do we do?"
C.C. said, "I'm not sure. All I know is that if it spots us, we'll basically have no way to escape."
While C.C. and Kallen were talking, the orange-yellow bird high above folded its wings and plummeted downward, diving straight toward the group below.
"It's coming — I'll hold it off!" Kallen shouted, dashing toward the bird. She leaped high and drove her spear at the bird as it swooped toward her. The bird extended its enormous talons and seized the spear.
The spear and the bird's talons collided with tremendous force. The talons were exceptionally tough — the spear struck the massive claws without causing any damage, and the talons clamped tightly around the shaft.
Kallen strained to wrench the spear free from the bird's grip, but its talons held with immense strength, and no matter how hard she pulled, the spear didn't budge. The bird beat its wings with great force and slammed them into Kallen's body.
Suspended in mid-air with nowhere to dodge, Kallen endured blow after blow from the bird's wings. The wings were extraordinarily hard and powerful — it felt to her like being beaten with an iron rod. With a heavy thud, one of the bird's wings crashed squarely into her head. Kallen could hold on no longer. She released her grip, let go of the spear, and fell from mid-air to the ground below.
With a rushing whoosh, one of the boulders that had been floating alongside W.W. shot toward the bird at great speed. The bird's massive frame made it difficult to evade, and the boulder struck it squarely in the chest, the force of the impact sending it back several meters.
The bird appeared to have suffered serious injuries. It let out a sharp, anguished cry, beat its wings furiously, and flew upward. W.W. also took to the sky, attempting to pursue it.
The bird beat its wings faster and faster. Suddenly a flash of red — a vast surge of orange-red flame erupted around the bird, sweeping toward W.W. like a firestorm.
Seeing the bird summon a flame storm to attack her, W.W. quickly called up a gale and drove it toward the bird, trying to use the wind to hold back the firestorm. The two forces collided, but the bird's flame storm appeared to be the stronger of the two — it pressed steadily against W.W.'s gale, pushing it back inch by inch toward W.W. herself. In a few more seconds, the flames would reach her.
At that moment, W.W. moved the three boulders she had been keeping around herself to her front, using them to block the flame storm. Then the three boulders, braving the fire, hurtled rapidly toward the bird and slammed into its body and wings with tremendous force. The impact snapped the bird's right wing. It let out a wretched, agonized shriek, and fell from the sky like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the ground below.