31 RUN!!!

'The longsword wouldn't work against it.'

The moment Kai had seen the magical beast's Stats he found out it was useless. The beast, though a fledgling, rivaled Sonia and Desmond in strength.

'No,' Kai shook his head, fighting the wind. 'It's stronger.'

Even if the longsword could have made any difference, he wouldn't use it. Not when even lifted one finger would make him lose his grip over its feathers. The Explosive Kunai was even worse.

Unless I want to blow myself up with it, Kai mockingly thought.

The mockery on his face died a very cruel death when the first branch hit his back. The wool coat over him got ripped off. It had done its duty, more than what it had promised.

Then came the second branch, third, fourth, and they didn't seem to have any end. First, they were only nibbling at his skin. Soon they were digging deeper. The beast's feathers, though, were like a plated-armor, preventing it from Kai's fate.

'Fucking Hell!' Kai cursed.

He could smell the blood before he felt the pain. It wasn't painful at first, but it piled on like stacks of books. He buried his head in the beast's back to save his eyes, but the rest of him was in the open.

The snake could either coil or slither.

So coiling he did. He snapped his mouth shut, letting the virtual soldiers hack at him. Swords! Arrows! Lances! And even needles! All branches felt like one or another weapon. Time seemed to stretch as Kai dearly waited for this to be over.

Suddenly, a pointy branch found a scratch on his back. A chink in the shield; angled perfectly. This one was a phantom pike. Thorny and sharp. The pike kissed the flesh underneath the scratch, spurting out blood in pleasure.

One's pleasure. Other's pain.

"Ahh!" Kai cried out. The wood met bones. It needed to be taken out.

Snap!

The pike was gone, leaving behind a trace of its presence within Kai. He howled. The pain was agonizing. It took him everything to not let go of the beast.

The howl turned into a beastly roar.

"AHH….." Spit drooled out of Kai's mouth, spilling on the soft feathers. The breeze caressed his hair suddenly.

The wind. It had found them again.

He was out.

[Damage Taken: 30 Points]

Kai lifted his head and found the sky was coming closer, the beast rocketing towards stars, like it was its last flight.

'This is it,' Kai thought. 'It is going up for another dive.'

Kai knew what the beast was trying to do. The fledgling wasn't even trying to shake Kai off anymore. It reached the height from where it had dived last time, and then it crossed it.

Up and up it went, above the clouds, the moon even clearer now.

'It means to finish me this time,' Kai reflected, his face ashen.

'One last flap, and it will turn, folding its wings,' Kai thought. 'The wind will force me to cling to its back, like a dead weight.'

Kai shuddered, thinking of going through branches once more. He knew, the phantom soldiers were whetting the steel right now. 'The beast's speed will make the branches pass through me like skewers,' Kai thought.

The fledgling let out a cry. A cry, symbolizing its rite of passage; its victory, and its stepping into adulthood.

Sadly, the sudden smile on Kai's face was adamant about making this a cry of death.

The cooldown was over.

The beast must have sensed the hotness on its back, for it looked back towards Kai. It saw two shimmering ever-changing golden-silver slits looking back; the moonlight playing games of myriad colors.

[

Skill Light Neurotoxin Activated.

Time Limit: 30 Seconds

]

Kai had found nothing so beautiful before. The sight of gray notification brought him pleasure and thrill he was unaware of. He was still holding the feathers tight, but his middle finger uncurled, touching the leathery flesh of the beast.

The Beast sensed the danger then. Its Perception was high. High enough to know what Kai was doing and what it meant.

Alas, it didn't know the nature of Kai's Skill. No amount of cries, thrashings, and glares would have mattered. They wouldn't have saved it from the dark fate. Like a syringe, the violet-colored nail extended, entering the beast's flesh with almost no resistance.

What happened next was instantaneous.

Kai's face paled, an unbearable headache dancing inside his head. The beast turned around but its wings had become stone, lifeless. Its bill parted to cry, but no sound came out. Two long red legs, hidden and stuck against its belly, dangled motionlessly in the air.

5 drops of Light Neurotoxin, at its maximum potency, brought a result Kai couldn't have hoped for. In the first few seconds, the beast became a statue, and when it had lost half the height, it was a corpse.

Kai's mind was numb, vision abandoning him as he saw his HP and MP points reducing to a dangerous level. But even then, like a programmed code, Kai stored the dead magical beast into his Inventory.

[WARNING: Contestant's Inventory is full]

The notification flashed, but the corpse had vanished. Kai didn't get the time to feel relief seeing that. The entire hills had woken up by then, earlier than they were meant to. And no one liked that, not even lifeless objects.

Hundreds, thousands, or maybe even more animals cried. Calls were being passed and the entire hills became a death zone suddenly. Even if Kai could double his Perception, the result would have been the same.

Kai, of all, knew it.

A red-black mass rose from behind many hills like a black sun. Kai saw them, and they were coming.

Hundreds of Great Redshanks, and they weren't fledgling.

A Flock! Kai's mind roared in fear; in excitement. A hand had already grabbed him from behind.

Arlen threw him on the broomstick. Mr. Beedle wasn't with him anymore. He turned around and gave Kai a look, his face as emotionless as a stone. The stone cracked then.

Kai and Arlen shared a devious smile, their minds thundering with a single word.

RUN!!!