Spirit Soul

Some of the branches that fell on the back of the young Aeroa were huge and comparable to wooden logs.

Splitting open the moment they collided with the compressed wind currents that enveloped the green feathered wings of the Aeroa, the branches easily parted, giving way to the young Cultivator to proceed further without much issues.

But this was only the case in the beginning, when the compressed wind currents had been brimming with energy.

The more branches fell on the back of the young Aeroa, the weaker the wind currents became.

Meanwhile, the weight of the branches couldn't be underestimated as they pushed the Aeroa down towards the ground.

His speed was forcefully slowed down as he lost the advantage of a higher altitude.

It was only when the Aeroa realized what was happening right now that his eyes widened.

As such, he tried to change the trajectory of his flight, but quickly noticed that he had entered a trap causing him to curse himself.

His initial arrogance vanished and his mind went blank as his subconscious began to analyze the situation within a single breath.

Not an inch of space was there to his right or left as the densely packed trees obstructed the way.

Simultaneously, he couldn't see much either owing to the remnants of the branches that were flung in those directions.

Forcing his way towards a higher altitude was also not possible as the heavy weight of the thick branches continued to force him down.

Because of this, the young Aeroa was of the opinion that it might be best for him to go with the flow, and stopped resisting the branches, letting them push him downward.

Yet, to his misfortune, this was exactly what Kyle had expected to happen.

Four spears of wind had already materialized next to Kyle.

Controlling them precisely, he quickly send them at a lower altitude and below the Aeroa, who saw them almost immediately.

This caused him to frown, and his anger about having been played was clearly visible in his bloodshot eyes.

The pent-up frustration he had accumulated from the numerous incidents in his past, where he had been humiliated and beaten into pulp just because he was the most hardworking and a teacher's pet even though he was talentless, resurfaced.

At this exact moment, the young Aeroa released his entire mana at once using it to envelop his entire body in several layers of wind currents.

His entire appearance seemed to change alongwith his shape which was changing as well.

The sight of the Aeroa being enveloped in wind currents that seemed to take on a green color, only for his form to transmute was something that caused Kyle to feel flabbergasted.

Because of that, he didn't hesitate even a single moment before the wind spears which he controlled were shot out towards the Aeroa before his transformation was completed.

Yet, Kyle noticed that he was already too late as a terrifying screech reverberated through the center of the Sadorla forest, shaking the participants of the Brawl to the core.

Everybody's gaze was drawn to the direction of Kyle's fight, but it was his opponent who had been the reason for all of this.

As such, Kyle, who was the closest to the screech could only grit his teeth, ignoring the ear-splitting sound that caused his ears to ring as he felt warm liquid trickling out of his ears.

It was only a moment later that he realized something about his ears that worried him.

'Fuck, I cannot hear anything!'

Kyle's eyes gleamed coldly as he stared daggers at the Aeroa, whose fully unleashed mana materialized wind currents took on the shape of a Roc!

As he was already used to seeing a Mythical existence, such as the Phoenix, or the halfling, who was traveling with him, Kyle's mind should have been calm.

Yet, contrary to before, he was able to see the true form of a mythical beast, with the sole difference that the Aeroa was barely using his imagination and instincts to replicate a Roc.

With a wingspan of more than eight meters, and a length of roughly two meters, the Roc was similar to an oversized eagle.

Taking this into consideration, Kyle's mind didn't even require a full second to calm down as he decided to change his trajectory mid-way.

He was only three meters away from the Roc, and the sudden change in his opponent's form didn't even seem to have taken half a second.

Thus, it was his fortune that his instincts reacted faster than his mind.

Shooting up like a fountain, Kyle ignored the falling branches.

Manifesting a wind platform below his feet the moment the gravitational force exerted its effect, he propelled himself upward once again.

The branches that were in his way were cleanly cut by the Starbreaker Katana's razor-sharp blade that gleamed lightly owing to the inserted Soul force.

It didn't require much Soul force to be sharpened, but the effects were extraordinary and allowed Kyle to emerge from the batch of falling branches.

Only two seconds later, he reached the top of the biggest tree around him.

At this moment Kyle halted in his tracks, while standing on top of two paper-thin wind platforms each of a width that barely allowed him to place his feet on.

Taking a glance towards the ground, he perceived that the Aeroa's wind Roc form was fluctuating wildly.

It was very unstable, and the consumption of energy was vast which told Kyle that the young Aeroa would not be able to maintain it for long.

'Did he use a forbidden technique to control the conjured winds like this? No..wait!'

At this very moment, Kyle noticed something very intriguing.

One particular hue of the young Aeroa was slowly dimming down!

The speed at which this happened accelerated with time , causing Kyle to knit his eyebrows.

'Is he sacrificing his life force in order to maintain the Roc shape?'

Kyle was not sure if that was exactly what happened.

However, he could clearly sense that the Aeroa was gradually growing weaker, while the shape of the wind materialized Roc was maintained.

It would be a lie if he were to say that the wind materialized Roc was harmless.

Kyle was pretty sure that it would tear him apart the moment it touched him in all honesty.

But even then, Kyle felt that it was not worth sacrificing his life force to maintain it.

'He is desperate enough to nearly sacrifice his life just to get his hands on the mutated Licara flower seed? His life must have been harsh…'

Inwardly, Kyle pitied the young Aeroa, but he didn't have the luxury to have mercy on his opponent.

He knew that the Aeroa would kill him to pursue his goals, and even if he were to spare the talentless Cultivator, who seemed to have turned insane, Kyle knew that the current situation was different than it had been before.

Having fought with him fiercely for some time, Kyle realized that the Aeroa would not give up on hunting him until he procured the mutated Licara seed.

In the end, the threat stemming from desperate beings that were hellbent on procuring something in particular was the most terrifying.

This was something Kyle knew the best as there were often times when he had felt exactly the same in his first life.

Thus, he could only sigh deeply as he made use of the soul force that was stored in the depth of his own Soul vessel.

After that, Kyle even transferred some of Arashi's Soul force towards himself.

Making use of the Soul force, he conjured a total of forty highly compressed wind spears.

Because of the high number of spears, Kyle knew that he would not be able to perfectly control them so as to make them move freely.

However, this was not necessary because they wouldn't miss their designated target.

This was something Kyle was confident about.

Controlling the wind spears with the vast majority of his focus, he forced them to turn on their own axis.

With this simple move, their razor-sharp blade transformed into a drill, which was exactly what Kyle had wanted to achieve.

There were several plans he had in mind, and one of them seemed to be perfect for the given scenario.

His gaze was still focused on the Aeroa, who had finally spotted him again.

It looked like the Aeroa was struggling to control the shape the wind currents he had materialized had taken.

As such, the remaining falling branches and the last compressed crescent wind blade had caused a lot of disruption.

Kyle knew that it was only because of these interferences that he got enough time to leave the proximity of the young Aeroa, followed by materializing forty wind spears.

However, they had barely reached the climax of the battle as they were about to clash with one another once again.

Letting out a screech, the wind materialized Roc's shape fluctuated wildly a second time.

This and the eerily dim hue that enveloped the young Aeroa were clear indicators that the battle would end after the final clash.

Thus, Kyle's eyes grew even colder the moment he saw that the Roc shot upwards.

It zoomed straight towards him making no effort to dodge or evade him, meaning that it aimed to clash him head-on.

Kyle felt as if the Aeroa knew that he had no other trump left to make use of.

Only the distance was what obstructed the Aeroa from tearing him apart.

At this moment, Kyle felt incapable of breathing as the pressure around him intensified by a thousand times.

It was as if the air in his immediate surroundings was sucked away, leaving a vacuum around him.

Even his control over the wind spears seemed to have deteriorated by a fraction.

This caused him to frown deeply, only to retrieve complete control over them once again.

His focus was divided even further owing to this, but nonetheless, he never lost sight of the Roc.

Crossing more than twenty meters of a higher altitude in less than two seconds, from a standstill at that, Kyle clearly knew that the Aeroa's energy had depleted far more than he had initially assumed.

Thus, he lifted his free hand, only to move it downwards, pointing towards the head of the Roc with his flat hand.

At this moment, a total of eight wind spears shot out in the direction of the Roc, advancing through the space without encountering any resistance.

A faint gust of wind whirled around Kyle as the wind spears brushed past him, only for his eyes to remain focused on the Roc that didn't even attempt to evade the wind spears.

It tried to screech out once again and attempted to take control over his wind spears, but everything was for naught.

Colliding mercilessly with the strongly vibrating and unstable body of the wind materialized Roc, the highly compressed wind spears drilled their way inside its body, only to be shattered after a few moments had passed.

Yet, just as the Aeroa, who had regained some of his sanity thought that he could finally kill Kyle, and end his own suffering by procuring the mutated Licara flower seed, he perceived, how the second, third, fourth, and finally, the fifth batch of wind spears were shot out.

One after another, they pierced through the wind materialized Roc, and disappeared from his view.

However, each time they were destroyed, the Roc's shape deformed a bit before it unveiled the appearance of the ashen pale young Aeroa.

His eyes widened at this moment because he realized that his end was near.

It was not even a fraction of a second later that the last batch of eight wind spears pierced through the young Aeroa.

Piercing through, the rotating wind spears sliced through their target's body raining down blood before they blasted towards the ground, taking the limp and unmoving body of the Aeroa with them.