Ring Hunt (Part 2)

It was nighttime and the party camped on the open hill. Everyone went to their respective tents and Aiden with Oscar shared one as roommates. The night passed without issues and Nexus again confirmed the beast present. It was flying type spirit beast Flame Soul Sparrow about 3000 years of age.

"Oscar, wake up." - Aiden shook his shoulder while putting on clothes. - "I found a beast for you. It is a flying type and 3000 years, want it or not?"

"Of course!" - Oscar jumped up and immediately dressed in his uniform like attire.

"Okay, let's go with others. It is aerial spirit beast so catching it will be quite the labor."

They went out informing others and in ten minutes the entire group separated in teams went on their own routes to entrap the beast. Aiden as the strongest ended up with three support type masters of their group – Ning Rong Rong, Aaron, and Oscar himself.

The beast was sleeping in its nest above the ground on a cliff cave. It had three entrances, and that is why the group was separated into three parties. They went for a kill simultaneously. Aiden went first with three behind him. Rong Rong immediately used the amplification skill of her pagoda while Aaron made something interesting.

He drank a cup and spitted it out, exuding intoxicating aroma that heightened his senses and gave spiritual recovery boost while breathing it. A unique way to use food spirit.

Aiden sealed the entrance with lotus petals and enhanced his sword with Hell's Bane. All his seventeen black marks freely roaming around the body buzzed, giving Qi energy. He waved his sword, sending himself forward with tremendous speed, leaving a trail of freezing air and lightning.

But with all that fire hawk as huge as a house performed a skill at the same time. He left a trail of fire and dashed out of the cave, dodging Aiden's strike, which came from afar. His body rammed into the group with Tang San at the lead and threw them out in the air.

Among them were Shui sisters and Ma Hongjun.

Aiden slammed the center of a nest creating a deep ravine from extreme sharpness of a sword and cursed inwardly. His gaze landed of Bing'er and only after confirming she had light injuries, he heaved in relief.

"Trying to run..." - gritting his teeth, Aiden activated his third ring.

"Oh crap, everyone, get down!" - cried Dai Mubai covering his head in retreat. He has his own share of bitterness concerning this skill.

The sky went asunder and a huge claw slammed down like a descending avalanche. Hawk tried to dodge, only to discover the tremendous force of suppression locking it in place. It cried, covering itself with wings, but that helped the same as if an ant trying to stop a train with its legs.

"Don't kill it!" - cried Oscar, and the claw went down wreaking havoc in the vicinity.

"Who do you think I am?" - Aiden rolled his eyes at him with a mocking smile to which Oscar measured him with his gaze, obviously hinting at something with a superior look.

"Fine, fine, I got it. Will you always remember that one mistake?" - Aiden smiled and dispersed his claw in a cloud of platinum motes of light.

"Mistake?" - Oscar and others made their way to the beast currently laying there motionless. - "No Aiden, a mistake is when you spill a cup of tea or burn some food during cooking. That is a mistake. And what you did is a local cataclysm!"

"What are you talking about?" - Bing'er couldn't win over her curiosity.

Oscar had a smug look on his face as he was looking at Aiden with eyes full of victory.

"Can you go and absorb this ring already?" - he looked away in slight embarrassment. It was a dark page of his history with bros from Shrek he didn't want to remember.

"I will ask later." - said Bing'er while laughing in her petite palm. That particular look on his face was another image she will remember.

Oscar took half a day to refine the ring. But what made others jealous is the fact that he received external spirit bone! Not the same as Aiden, but also wings. That raised his survivability a notch higher. At this moment Tang San reached rank 30 too.

The skill Oscar received was actually nearly the same – ability to give wings to fly. But in retrospect, it was somewhat better than original. Firstly, it burned through spirit power only while moving. If a person hovered in the air consumption will become negligible and one can stay in the sky for at least thirty minutes.

Next is it's hidden property – fire. One can choose to cause the combustion of wings to achieve an instantaneous burst of speed that can come as a deadly surprise during any fight.

'Well, looks like the timeline is not that easy to change.'

Aiden glanced at the distance and suddenly stood in front of Bing'er who just sat on its way. Titan Ape came crushing like a gigantic tank, uprooting trees and sending quakes through the ground. It didn't bother with formalities and attacked directly the nearest person. Aiden converged petals in line sending every ounce of Dragon Sword Aura as reinforcement and even unleashed his Storm Wings for the first time in a long time, using Storm Guard while appearing behind Bing'er and embracing her with arms and wings.

He went all out this time even merging with dragon spirit which he did very rarely and unleashing Tree of Life buff for power. His hair grew platinum and irises shone with resplendent golden streams of energy as if it was evaporating from the corner of his eyes. Now they looked completely draconian. Throughout his body shining silver tattoos spread giving off vibes of suppression and at the base of his hair grew little platinum scales.

That was his battle form after unleashing dragon spirit.

Frightening air pressure came first, shattering petals directly, and then a fist full of bestial might slammed down like a mountain. His first skill dissipated almost instantly, offsetting only a slight amount of might, which after a moment crashed at the storm guard and his external spirit bone.

Aiden felt the impact that nearly crushed all his bones, as he flew out like a cannonball and crashed into the cliff, sending shards of rocks and lumps of dirt flying everywhere with blood and feathers of broken wings. Still, Shui Bing'er was more or less safe.

'Fuck! Is that stupid ape actually trying to kill us here or what? I will really have to talk with Xiao Wu about it and later will give that stupid ape one hell of a thrashing!'

He spilled out blood and went sliding down the cliff, one of his lungs got pierced by a broken rib.

"Aiden! Aiden!" - he heard a scream at his ear as warm hands embraced him. She was shaking from fear.

"Take him away!" - said Zhao Wuji clearly enraged at the beast. - "You want a fight? Let's have a fight!"

He activated nearly all his skills at once, taking a huge fist with his own, and only retreated a couple of steps. Aiden's skills and body were very strong for his level, but fundamentally he lacked cultivation. Amount of spirit power one can infuse into skills between him and someone on Spirit Douluo level is like comparing little pool with a sea. The magnitude of skills as a result was completely different.

Shui Bing'er was in a genuine panic, looking at him the way he is now. She thought of herself as a calm person, but all of it swept away when he got hurt. And because of her to top it all.

Contrary to what others might think, his condition was actually not that severe. Tree of Life is a tremendous source of life force as it is and an innate ability it given him was astonishing survivability with outstanding regeneration speed. Coupled with "Chaos" marks circling around the body freely, he already could barely stand after two minutes.

But Titan Ape actually didn't dilly dally at all and directly seizing Xiao Wu dashed away. Tang San immediately went insane and taking all the flying sausages he could leave in pursuit of a colossal spirit beast.

That all happened very fast and Aiden was only trying to clear his mind under such impact in the arms of crying Bing'er.

"What are you crying for? If I couldn't have survived this, I would have died long ago." - he smiled weakly, giving her a flick on the forehead to which she stopped her tears and nodded. It was so familiar, that subtle flick he often gave Na'er if she caused some mischief... she couldn't help but cry again remembering that warmth that didn't belong to her until now.

"Aiden!" - Dai Mubai dashed to him. - "You alright?"

"I'm still alive." - followed hoarse reply.

"Take Aiden away, Shui Bing'er, Aarong Cloud, Oscar, and Rong Rong. You will go, others will follow me to catch up with Tang San and devise a plan." - Zhao Wuji said his part and ran after the ape.