The Lifeguard Scale in Action

Shiro fell from the boulder he was standing on; he couldn't muster even an ounce of strength to prop up. Deep exhaustion set in as his eyelids felt heavy. A group of Elemental Fiends who were faithfully protecting him before dived in immediately and carried him away rapidly; their destination was obvious. They were moving in a straight line towards the cave dwelling where their Mistress resided. His white fur was dyed a deep purple; a testament that he had been hemorrhaging blood from every inch of his pores. He could no longer move. Mirage Storm was as potent as he expected. Although the eagle didn't really die yet, he felt a sense of achievement knowing that he had successfully restricted a whole one tier higher spiritual beast by himself.

Markisah quickly flew over and popped a lot of All Cure Pellets into Shiro's bleeding mouth. It seemed that she knew Shiro's injury was very dire, and he needed more than just a few to stay alive. As soon as she made sure Shiro swallowed all, she scurried away in panic as fast as she arrived. Even Shiro felt a little funny seeing the little yellow bird's cowardly antics.

Now, Shiro only need to hold on and stay conscious as he was being ferried by the spiritual termites; the ice lance will disappear once he lapsed into a coma. However, he was struggling to stay awake; he was too tired. He knew they still need to hurt the Silver-banded Eagle more. Although the current strike was quite fatal, high level spiritual beasts were known to heal up fast. Shiro wasn't sure of the Eagle Boss' self-healing ability, but he didn't want to take the chance. They needed to make sure the eagle was very dead first.

[Stay with me, Shi-chan. You can do this.]

Hana encouraged Kuro bitterly. She knew the repercussion of Shiro losing consciousness too. She felt bile rose to her chest, making it felt so heavy when she had to force her injured little fox to stay awake. The little one deserved a good rest and medical attention, but instead, it still needed to fight hard for the family. Hana felt useless and bitter. She was the only one safe and sound within this cave, protected by Q-chan and King-chan.

While waiting for Shiro to be delivered to her, Hana continued tuning in on the battle through her link with Kuro and various Elemental Fiends present onsite. On several occasions, she whispered instructions through telepathy to improve the battle formation. The Eagle Boss was still going strong, trashing hard to disengaged itself from Kuro. However, everytime it succeeded, Kuro swooped down and bound it up again without relent.

They were in a stalemate.

Hana prayed hard for Kuro's petrifying poison to take effect. That will be the tipping point of success.

…

Kuro was having a hard time containing the gigantic spirit eagle, though he could feel the struggle was slowly getting weaker. His enemy was slowly dying. Kuro didn't feel a smidgen of success at all. In fact, a bad feeling dawned upon him, though he wasn't sure why. He really needed a partner to help him restrict the Boss Eagle and finished it off for good before it did anything dangerous out of desperation.

A lightbulb lit up in his mind!

[That rascal!]

[Why am I being so kind to let it have a vacation, safe and sound within my stomach?!]

With all the things happening at a high pace simultaneously, Kuro had totally forgotten about the Forest Spirit! That number one culprit!

Feeling deeply disgruntled, the unhappy Kuro immediately spat out a little chestnut-like brown ball towards the eagle's face. Expecting some kind of projectile attack, the desperate eagle held up its featherless wings to cover its face. But the little ball only bounced back without producing any kind of attack. The eagle blinked with a blank look and shrugged off as it landed on the neck injury. A small ball like that was like a slightly larger grain of sand to the gigantic larger-than-a-house Silver-banded Eagle. The Eagle Boss did not feel anything.

Kuro narrowed his eyes as an evil glint flashed.

"What are you waiting for, stupid fellow?! If you don't help, I'll let the eagle eat you! Or all of us can just die together! I don't care anymore! This is all your fault!"

Kuro threatened the little ball under his breath. He was making a gamble.

Another ally could prove useful as a distraction for his enemy. Additionally, the little prick was the one who started the whole chain of events. It had been happily staying inside its own safety shell, while others toiled hard to defeat the enemies it casually enraged, risking the whole family being annihilated. Kuro was not giving the unfortunate spiritual beast a say; cooperate or die.

Originally, he was scouting the cowardly fellow to work for them. Why not let it start punching in a little earlier? He knew it wasn't weak. If it died before a proper induction into the team, well, that's unfortunate. He will need to venture out and find a replacement after this. One that won't jeopardize the whole family's wellbeing willy-nilly. Someone like the tactful, smart little snakehead would be good. He won't admit to others that he quite like the little minnow better than the others although it wasn't part of his soul-brethren.

Lord Fearsilver's eyes brightened when he heard that the supposed 'debris' over his neck wound was actually a spiritual beast! He had heard the whole story from Lady Eagle en route, so he knew about the presence of a spiritual beast with the likeness of a Forest Spirit breaking his Mistress' first egg. He too had heard about the Forest Spirit, a rare spiritual beast brimming with the power of life element. In normal occasion, it was very hard to hunt this beast since it was very good at hiding and camouflaging; it can even erase its presence. If he could consume the ball and utilize its essence, it might be able to generate his grievous wounds fast enough and turned the table around!

Lord Fearsilver immediately shook himself to make the tiny ball fall. Kuro took the chance to slither higher over the spiritual eagle's bound up featherless body. Kuro opened his bat-like maroon wings and swiped over their sharp edges at the eagle's face! The Monarch's left eye ruptured and a deep wound was inflicted on his face. However, by sacrificing the eye and receiving a facial wound, Lord Fearsilver managed to gulp the ball down!

Everyone paused with bated breath for a fraction of a second!

Nothing happened!

It was as if the Silver-banded Eagle Monarch swallowed a piece of random pebble!

Lord Fearsilver, " TT____TT||||"

Kuro and the others, "O_____O|||||"

Hana from the other side of the streaming Soul-linked vid, "=______=||||"

The Forest Spirit didn't meet anyone's expectations!

Could it be possible that the outer protective shell was strong enough to prevent the Forest Spirit from being wholly consumed? Did it think it will merrily come out of the Boss Eagle's poop scott free? Was its shield that OP?!

Appalled, Lord Fearsilver dodged Kuro's next attack and went for plan B. He dashed forward with determination, ignoring Kuro! Without feathers and a broken wing, he couldn't fly, but he still had two feet with strong talons which were still in a fair condition! He was running in a specific direction! He could smell it! It's the spiritual beast who was responsible in restraining him! Its life force was extremely weak, indicating that it was near death's door. Although the Silver-banded Eagle Monarch was busy facing all kinds of attack from every turn, he had been paying attention to the white fox all along. He had been waiting for an opening all this while and had been saving his last bit of strength for the final spur. Once he consumed the weakened fox, he could at least withstand a little longer. Maybe, just maybe, his mate will be able to join him in time. He could feel her, she was still alive and seemed not to be weakened too much yet.

Lord Fearsilver trampled over hundreds of Elemental Fiends who were trying to stop him along the way as if they were dried leaves. Several kicks and a few casual swipes of his meaty wings were all it took. Kuro was just two steps behind, chasing after him.

Hana's eyes turned red as she stood up and leapt upon King's back; just a glance through the livestreaming 'channel' made her aware of the eagle's macabre intention. She immediately overruled the control of all her soul slaves and raced out of the cave without thinking. She would not let Shiro become a sitting duck! The heavily injured Shiro was already quite near to the Serpent's Lair.

…

The Soul Hall Domain was noisy like a night market! Everyone was shouting in panicky telepathic voices, begging their Mistress from going out. Some were shouting for her to stop approaching the confrontation. Even Shiro, who could not move was shouting telepathically at Kuro to stop their Mistress from engaging the crazed Silver-banded Eagle Monarch. The gap in power was too much! Although their Mistress had gained strength progressively, she was still below the line of a pseudo spiritual beast. A casual slap will disintegrate Hana's body into nothing but blood mist!

[Mommy! Go back! Please!]

Kuro and Shiro begged her profusely but was squarely ignored. In fact, their Mistress had ignored everyone's call within the Soul Hall Domain. They were suppressed wholly and could not move the way they want. Even King, who was functioning as a mount, couldn't do anything but fly as fast as he could towards the rampaging Silver-banded Eagle; he lost the will to oppose the Mistress absolute command. Kuro was the only one given the authority to move as he pleased in the physical world.

Hana inserted herself in between the weak Shiro and the incoming gigantic ferocious Silver-banded Eagle just in time when its large beak opened wide! She defiantly stood straight while her left hand rummaged through her pant's pocket, grabbing something urgently.

Lord Fearsilver was planning to swallow Shiro together with the Elemental Fiends whole! He did notice the creature who appeared out of nowhere, but he didn't care. The energy fluctuation of the creature was so low until it could be ignored. The creature was even weaker than his current severely injured self.

A blinding bright white light appeared within Hana's grasp as the Lifeguard Scale activated.

An array of brownish-red discs appeared directly in front of Hana. They were her favorite semi-transparent… serving plate?

The plates rearranged midair in front of Hana, in a semi-circle position. They acted like an intelligent modular shield, stopping Lord Fearsilver's gigantic beak! The Silver-banded Eagle didn't plan to be stopped by the measly sloppy shield. He used the last of his elemental energy in the form of Silver bullets from his mouth to break the shield!

…