Chapter 12 - Gigantic Flying Beast

Roughly a week has passed by since Aziel made contact with those winged demons and came in contact with the horrific experience of the [Essence Restitute] reconstructive cycle once again.

He was growing fond of his newest appendages, his wings!

Ever since he had acquired them, he was no longer forced to wander aimlessly. No, he was now flying around aimlessly!

He had even come across another nest of flying creatures not far from the one he found before. Drunken with the feeling of his newest ability, Aziel has been hunting them as of late, so that he could further strengthen his capabilities.

As a result, his wings grew wider, gaining a wingspan of 8 meters when turned into his demi-human form whilst the scales on his wings grew even thicker.

Aziel could be seen on the top of a cliff, once holding a large nest of a group of the birdlike beasts, now it's a barren reminder of an exterminated family.

He had killed and assimilated all of them to make himself stronger. He felt no remorse, he wasn't bothered by the gruesome massacre, the hundreds of absorbed primitives' have made him grow immune to such civilized thoughts.

He was sitting on the edge, scoping out his surroundings for even more of them.

Eventually, he spotted one in the far distance. Thanks to his heightened vision, Aziel watched as the creature flew towards another cliff.

"Now-now, where are you headed, I wonder?"

He dove off the cliff, spreading his wings in pursuit of his clueless prey.

Getting closer, however, Aziel made a shocking realization of what he was chasing. This creature was vastly different from the other's of its kind. Much different in both size and appearance.

It was roughly five times the size of the others he had seen so far!

This creature had a more intimidating appearance than the ones he had killed before; this one held a much wider wingspan and its beak was much thicker containing a sharp row of razor-like teeth, while the ones he was hunting before did not.

"Never seen you before… What exactly are you? Some mutated specimen?" Aziel wondered, following far behind the flying beast.

Curious about his discovery, Aziel slowed into a glide and began observing the creature from above; it was completely oblivious to his gaze.

Watching as the beast glided through the sky fluently; seeing how it tracked down and killed its prey was mesmerizing to bear witness to for Aziel. He continued to view its attack patterns and way of approach when hunting for prey.

After about 20 minutes, Aziel felt like he had gathered all he could from analyzing the creature's hunting patterns. He began to crave the beast's more dominant traits for hunting above the clouds, as just copying its patterns wasn't anywhere enough to satiate his rising hunger for the creature's dominant traits.

Losing himself to his greed, he folded his wings and commenced to dive towards the creature's back cutting through the air like a bullet.

Drawing near, Aziel's upper and lower jaw extended into a point hardening to form a beak; one of the main traits of those winged creatures he had been absorbing for the past couple of days.

Unlike the originals, his beak had jagged grooves in them to increase its penetrative power when impaling the prey.

He gained speed as his beak aided in his acceleration towards the creature. Reaching its back he grew excited from what he could get from this majestic beast.

*SWOOSH!*

That was until something entirely unexpected happened. The creature had flapped its wings forward, maneuvering out of Aziel's path, causing him to whoosh past it.

He was shocked by the creature's quick reaction and sudden movement. Despite its size, it could maneuver itself so freely without any loss in its speed.

Swiftly extending his wings to halt his rapid descent, Aziel turned around only to see the creature flying at him at great speed. This caught him off guard, as he was still confused as to how it had managed to dodge him despite him being in its blind spot.

The creature had flown into Aziel at full speed. In his confusion, he couldn't react and was impaled through his chest.

This would have been fatal if it was any other beast, but to Aziel, this attack only managed to pierce his skin by a couple of inches.

Even though this was still rather deep, the attack would have completely impaled anything else.

Aziel quickly morphed his right arm into his demi-human form, grabbing the creature's beak while still plummeting from its charge. He pulled himself off from its beak and changed his hand back into wings.

Although the constant shapeshifting was taxing on his reserves, since his latest evolution, he had amassed a lot of surplus energy that was kept stored with [Essence Restitute].

He had also grew more and more accustomed to his new life in this primal, untainted world. Though he was forced to start anew, his memories stayed with him, allowing him faster progression and a more in depth understanding. He was increasing his affinity by a great margin, his mastery now allowed him seamless transformation with less energy consumption.

Flying to the left of the creature to observe it, the beast had spread its wings to slow its descent. Stopping, the beast looked at Aziel and rushed at him with its beak ready for a second effort to penetrate through his body.

His previous injury from its first attack had already mostly healed, thanks to the increased regenerative ability gained, but that didn't mean getting impaled at high speeds didn't hurt. Also, the passive healing did nothing but tax his diminishing reserves even further.

"This isn't looking good!"

Seeing the pursuit of the creature, he began to fly in the opposite direction, trying to outmatch it in speed. This proved to be a huge mistake as the creature was gaining on Aziel rather quickly, despite him going at his absolute maximum speed.

Growing desperate, he began to fly upwards above the clouds and into the higher atmosphere to cause the creature to give up its chase.

This also did not work, as the beast continued to chase after. As it was slowly advancing on him and that it would soon catch him, Aziel decided to switch tactics and fight back.

Running was proving to be a futile endeavor anyways. He should at least try his best even if he were to ultimately fail.

He flew higher into the atmosphere, gaining height, he came up with an idea.

Aziel undid his wings and transformed completely into his demi-human form, growing to be 6 meters in height. Activating his dermal armor and curling into the shape of a ball, he began to rotate, rocketing downwards like a meteor towards the creature.

Not being able to respond in time to the peculiar form of attack, the beast collided with Aziel, both of them spiraling towards the forest floor.

*BOOM!*

A few moments later, a huge explosion rang throughout the jungle landscape, as the two huge bodies hit the ground forming a massive crater and a giant dust cloud.

"Argh…"

Aziel was seen on the body of the giant creature as it laid dead while he was only disoriented from the collision.

Lying atop the body of the giant winged creature, Aziel was groaning whilst his senses slowly returned to him.

"You should have given up sooner…" he said as he looked at the beast's dead body. Whilst he only suffered some concussion and was merely disoriented from the crash, the beast on the hand, has died on the spot.

Walking near it, he examined its carcass, observing the creature's visible traits that were dominant over the other creatures that plagued the skies.

The more he examined it, the more excited he became from what he would potentially receive.

Not being able to hold himself back anymore, Aziel began to absorb the creature, fusing all of its delectable traits into himself.

In the instant that he did so, his arms transformed into his wings, slowly changing into something else, something much more resembling that of the fabled mythical creatures.

His middle and index fingers began to fuse, extending outwards followed by the same membrane that the rest of his wing was made off. His wingspan increased as well; from his previous 8-meters was now dwarfed over by his now 12-meters. The backside of his wings began to form scales, adding an extra layer of protection.

Growing excited by his changes, Aziel extended his wings and launched himself into the air. Reaching a suitable height, he placed some strength into his wings.

Growing excited by the changes, Aziel couldn't stand still any longer. Bending his knees and planting his foot firmly in the ground, he launched himself into air, caving the already formed crater even deeper. Spiderweb cracks spread around from the location he stood just a moment ago, Aziel shot up high in the skies.

*BOOM!*

A small shockwave was released, blowing back the trees around him, causing Aziel to vanish into the distance within an instant.