Without warning, three large birds flew toward Aella from different directions, not making a sound as they swiftly closed in on her. With a confident smile, Aella leaped upward, avoiding the immediate strike of the birds as they all struggled slightly to turn due to their high velocity.
“Gale Wings, huh? These guys are considerably slower than what I remember. Are they perhaps of diluted blood?” She mused while landing gracefully, wanting to avoid too much direct confrontation until she had enough Mana to summon her sword at the very least.
Gale Wings are an avian species slightly larger than eagles with a muscular and streamlined build that allows for considerable strength and agility. Their wings are broad and long with feathers of deep blues and soft grays. The tips of their wings and tails have a silver sheen reminiscent of the edge of a blade.
These three, in particular, had piercing, bright yellow eyes, sharp and focused. Their gaze was commanding, each with their own unique crest on their head with beaks and talons of similar consistency to steel.
Such graceful yet terrifying creatures, it was one of the many species that Aella had interacted with a lot in her younger years when she was learning to master the wind.
After failing their initial sneak attack, the birds hovered above her, their feathers bristling with power. Without the Mana to retaliate as usual, she stood ready for their next strike, her eyes fixed on her agile adversaries.
Swooping down at her all at once, their wings slicing through the air, generating powerful gusts aimed directly at Aella. Amused at the attempt to use wind against her, she ducked and weaved, each blade only centimeters away from striking her down.
Patiently, she danced around the blades until the birds got bored and came into close combat with her once again. The moment they did, she struck like the predator she was, wrapping her tails around the leg of one of the Gale Wings before twisting her body and slamming it into the ground.
Snapping her fingers, a large blue flame engulfed her hand, which she then used to strike the grounded bird, “Ignite and Seer!” she shouted out, jumping back to avoid the assault of the bird’s friend as it screamed.
In an obnoxious show of agility, she gained distance from the birds with numerous backflips, cartwheels, handsprings, and just about any other showy form of movement she could think of. In her defense, these beasts weren’t exactly intelligent enough to predict her sporadic movements, so there was genuine reason aside from her being a smarmy asshat.
“Hey, hey, even without any Mana reinforcement, a strength stat of 170 is the real deal… What the hell is Seraphina capable of?” Aella giggled inwardly as she prepared to deal with the next bird.
Despite her words, her power was amplified considerably by the [Foxfire]. Without it, she was sure she wouldn’t have any difficulties dealing with the birds, but taking them out in a single well-placed hit would have been a pipe dream as even with the amplification, she failed to kill the bird.
She was lucky. If the System intentionally sent her to a place deprived of Mana, like the world of her first trial, she might have been in some actual trouble. Might being the keyword there.
The Gale Wings, sensing her vulnerability despite her taking out one of their kind in a single strike, intensified their assault. The terrifying thing about Gale Wings was their ability to adapt. They saw how Aella dealt with their friend, and they wouldn’t fall into the same trap.
With more wind flying at her, Aella clicked her tongue as she felt the razor-sharp edges graze her. ‘They realized I can’t use Mana already, so they’re not conserving any of theirs to attack me? Hehe, a single attack could be fatal~’ She hummed to herself, curious at what gave away her lack of resources so quickly.
Reminding herself that the situation she was in was legitimately dangerous and that she shouldn’t try to ride one of those birds like a mount for her tiny body, she began sprinting across the colosseum’s sandy floor, each movement a calculated risk.
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Then, just as the Gale Wings conversed for another combined strike, Aella felt it. Finally, she absorbed enough Mana. It was enough, even if the number was less than 1% of her full power. With a familiar surge of her inner energies and a focused thought, she summoned her ethereal sword, its blade materializing in her hand in a flash of light.
Flourishing her blade, Aella abruptly stopped her movement, sliding several meters in the sand before facing the birds chasing her. “1 strike is all I need.”
Lowering her body to the extreme, Aella’s speed suddenly spiked as she nearly vanished for her spot, taking to the skies. Seeing that she had no aerial mobility, the Gale Wings took the chance to attack, rushing at her recklessly, reminding Aella of how she typically attacks.
The only difference between them and Aella is that Aella has the force to back her recklessness up. The moment the birds came close to her, she used her tails to spin herself and strike the underside of one of the birds, sending her flying downward but nearly immediately, before she left her striking range, her sword sliced through the two birds, clipping a small area of their wings, allowing them to fall with her.
CRASH!
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Coughing ferociously as she quickly got up, pushing the dust from the impact away with her hand, Aella was both pleasantly surprised and troubled that both of the Gale Wings survived. She thought she’d kill one at least, and while one was definitely out of commission, with the other not much better, her failing to kill them left her a little bitter.
Only a little, she was glad that they survived. The same cannot be said for her sword. Without Mana to maintain it, the blade shattered into hundreds of pieces before dissipating after one attack.
Furious at Aella but incapable of flight in its current state, the final Gale Wing tried its best to hop toward Aella, only for her to ignite its face with [Foxfire] until it fell down.
“Ooo, that one was cruel, even for me.”
Picking up the two newly incapacitated birds, she dragged and tossed them next to their friend, which she had dealt with only a dozen minutes earlier before clapping.
“Okay, I’m ready for my reward!” She spoke.
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She figured the System would respond. In the first trial, it mentioned it had limited access to communicate, but seeing it respond to her was still a little surreal.
“I did defeat them. They’re incapacitated. In a war, you can win and take prisoners of war without killing anyone. I wish to take them back as my sla… My pets…” Aella continued to speak with an angelic smile.
The System didn’t respond immediately, as if it was thinking of a response.
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“That is bullshit. My understanding of spacetime manipulation has grown extensively since I came to Earth, and I know for a fact that is just a lie. If you can transport me without a single fluctuation of Mana, you can transport a minimum of 100 people. Probably more.” She retorted quickly before continuing.
“I want them as my reward. Give me them.”
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“And you’re not going to bring out the next wave until I kill them?”
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Shrugging her shoulders, Aella sat on the sand in the lotus position. “Then you should compensate me with extra rewards.”
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With an irritated glare, Aella stared at the notification in silence for several minutes as she spent all her effort recovering her Mana to a reasonable degree before letting out an annoyed sigh.
“Considering that you know what Sylph does, you know what it can do if I unlock all 7 seven verses, right?”
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Summoning Sylpheed with her now slightly recovered Mana, Aella smiled eerily.
“In the 7th verse, Sylph is capable of severing concepts. And a very fun fact: did you know that the Foxin tribe can burn their own souls with [Foxfire] to increase their Magical power and Mana explosively?”
Pausing to ensure the birds weren’t waking up, Aella’s eyes turned from a glare to a look of mischief. “Personally, in my current state, I’m curious how much of my soul I’d need to burn to have Sylphie return to her true power. Although the damaged soul will be an issue, it’ll recover in a couple of centuries, so it’s not that big of a deal… Aren’t you really curious about what would happen if I severed the concept of the [System]?”