The Cloud eagle slowly flapped its wings.
It gradually distanced from the ground, staring at the three students at a few meters in the distance.
Nigel's body was firmly stuck on the claws of its right foot, he was still alive but blood flowed incessantly from his injuries.
There was only one outcome in his situation: death.
The youths understood that and hastily turned to continue their escape toward the passage to the sixth layer.
However, while he moved his gaze away from Nigel, Noah remembered something that made him curse loudly.
"Fuck!"
Noah turned but not toward the passage, he faced the rank 4 beast, looking at it with determined eyes.
He jumped ahead, black rings appeared under his feet and black smoke began to envelop him.
'Shadow steps! Demonic form!'
He activated his two spells and ran at full speed toward the beast.
Errol and June noticed his behavior but continued to run away, no matter how frustrated they were about Nigel's situation, they wouldn't risk their lives to save a dead man.
Noah gained momentum and, in a few seconds, he arrived near the eagle.
He forcefully kicked on the terrain, using all his strength to jump in the air toward the beast.
The eagle released a high-pitched whistle seeing its supremacy in the sky being challenged.
It lowered its head, ready to take on the opponent's assault.
Yet, Noah didn't aim for the head of the creature but rather for its right foot!
Noah was covered from head to toe with black smoke, his Demonic form was completely activated.
When he was at two meters away from Nigel's body, two pairs of fuming wings unfolded themselves from his back, forcefully halting his assault mid-way.
He slashed with his sabers using his most powerful technique empowered with his most powerful spell.
'First form of the Ashura!'
He didn't dare to hold anything back when he faced a rank 4 magical beast.
What he unleashed at that moment was his most powerful attack.
Nigel was conscious, his eyes widened in surprise seeing of what might Noah was actually capable of.
Hope shined in his young eyes.
Ten fuming blows struck the eagle.
It used its beak to block most of the attacks, the other ones landed on its body, they could only make some of its feathers fall.
The eagle suffered no damage at all, no matter how much the toxic smoke tried to consume its skin, it wasn't able to wound the beast.
However, one of Noah's attacks didn't aim for the creature but rather to its prey!
Nigel's expression froze when Noah cut off his right arm and hurriedly seized it.
Nigel stared at his young companion kicking the air to run away with his arm.
'He didn't even look at me.'
Those were Nigel's last thoughts.
The Cloud eagle was enraged that such a weak human managed to steal part of its prey and tightened his grip on its feet, killing Nigel on the spot.
Noah was flying away at his maximum speed.
He held one severed arm with one hand and a saber in the other one.
His four wings flapped incessantly and he kicked the air repeatedly, he was using the Shadow steps spell and Echo to perform the flight of his life!
The eagle didn't let him simply run away, it flew to chase him.
However, its speed was nothing exceptional.
It was still faster than Noah but the difference wasn't that big.
'I knew it!'
Noah cheered in his mind as he inspected the situation behind him.
'It has starved for too much time and the horizontal flight isn't the specialty of its species! Cloud eagles excel in diving speed and its poor condition allows me to almost match it in a straight flight!'
The Elbas family rose to the throne of the Utra continent about two thousand years ago.
That meant that the previous Royal family had to set up the inheritance ground way before that moment.
Magical beasts had powerful bodies but they were still affected by the lack of nourishment.
The eagle slowly gained some ground on him but its vision became hindered by the black smoke that Noah constantly released.
It had to reduce its speed to regain sight of its target and then it accelerated again.
A massive eagle and a fiendish figure were flying in a straight line toward a small cavity in the barren terrain.
Noah traced a black fuming line in the sky as he stared at the approaching exit.
Seconds lasted like years in Noah's mind but, in the end, he entered the passage successfully with the eagle unable to even touch him.
He slammed on the walls of the corridor, he didn't dare to lower his speed for even a second during his escape.
He continued to scrape the surface of the passage until he came out in the forest of the sixth floor.
There, he continued to roll until he crashed on a large tree that stopped his momentum.
He fell on his knees and deactivated his Demonic form, the remaining smoke consumed the tree behind him.
He was breathing roughly, he had used everything he had to retrieve Nigel's right arm and to escape the beast.
Errol and June had watched the scene of him successfully leaving the seventh layer, they had escaped while he was busy with the eagle.
It was their first time seeing Noah using his full power, they had to admit that his fiendish figure had sent chills down their spines.
Errol gathered his courage and neared him.
"Vance, did you save him?"
Noah raised his head to look at the tall youth.
"How could I save Nigel? He was dead the moment he looked at the sky."
June went close to him too and asked with her brows furrowed.
"Then, what did you even do back there?"
Noah smiled and opened his right hand.
Nigel's arm had been consumed by the black smoke but the item on his finger had been tightly stored by him.
A black space-ring stood unscathed in his palm.