I Hate Systems

"Prakash, Akiko, get ready for battle," Li Qiu said as he materialized a Thermal Sword within each of his hands.

"I can only attack them while they are in close range with my current weapon, I don't have any weapons to use in long-ranged attacks" Prakash complained back towards Li Qiu.

"My ability is somewhat similar to Prakash" Akiko retorted.

"Sorry, give me a second, I'll create some suitable projectiles for you" Li Qiu apologized as he created Chakrams with his Thermal Flames.

Each Chakram was 30 centimetres in diameter and Li Qiu immediately created about a hundred of them.

"Are you able to create any other shapes?" Akiko inquired as she gazed at the birds that were making a cacophony of noises as they flew towards the Black Dragon.

"No problem" Replied Li Qiu, "As long as they aren't too complicated with their requirements with respect to hardness, softness, size, and design"

"Then, I prefer some throwing knives. It'll be even better if you could make them into a kunai" Said Akiko as she slowly placed Aurella behind her who had apparently woken up due to all the noises that the incoming Inflammatory Birds made, making sure that he wouldn't come into harm under the crossfire.

"Sure" Replied Li Qiu as he created another 100 kunai that were each about 20 centimetres in length.

"Whe-o" "Whe-o"

The eardrums of the quartet were assaulted by the multitude of high pitched quacks that tried to exert some kind of mental pressure upon them.

Each of the Inflammatory Birds in the Awakened Stage had a wingspan of about 2 metres, while the Practitioner Stage Inflammatory Birds had a wingspan of about 3 metres.

They normally had c.h.e.s.tnut brown heads with a grey coloured body and also had a single green coloured ribbon around their necks when they were in the Awakened Stage.

The Practitioner Stage Inflammatory Birds had 2 green coloured ribbons around their necks.

"Holy grandmother of chaos! They are everywhere" Li Qiu exclaimed as he saw the flock flying towards them that looked as if the entire land mass that existed below came charging towards them like a raging bull.

"Black Dragon, fly faster. At this rate, we would be flooded by them to death before we could even escape from this area. And, increase your altitude to fly as high as possible" Akiko shouted towards the Black Dragon.

"Roooaaarrr"

The Black Dragon raised its head high as it roared towards the sky. This roar was imbued with its aura that managed to momentarily disorient the Inflammatory Birds who at that time had happened to be just 500 metres below them.

The Inflammatory Birds who were just scaling towards the Black Dragon immediately lost balance when they were hit by the roar filled with its aura and began to fall vertically downwards. The falling birds crashed onto the birds that had happened to be flying below them, and then, they, in turn, lost their balance and fell down upon the flock of birds flying further below them.

It suddenly felt as if the huge land mass that was charging towards them caved in quite a bit.

The Black Dragon flapped its wings as it started to soar higher and higher. Its initial altitude was about 2 kilometres above sea level, and by the couple dozen seconds that the disoriented Inflammatory Birds took to reorient themselves, the Black Dragon had reached an altitude of 3 kilometres above sea level and was still soaring at a steady pace.

"Nice" Prakash exclaimed as he gave a thumbs up to the Black Dragon.

"Don't let your guard down yet. Every roar unleashed by the Black Dragon by infusing its aura into it consumes a significant amount of Aria. Three of its aura infused roars equal to one of its breath attacks" The mini Katsurou who had happened to be sitting atop the head of the Black Dragon chimed in.

"Then, use it only when necessary," Said Li Qiu as he materialized a dozen Thermal Spheres and distributed them between Prakash and Akiko.

"Whenever those birds group up in a single place, blow them up with these. The blast range of each

of these Thermal Spheres is about 50 metres" Said Li Qiu.

"Whe-o" "Whe-o"

Before Akiko and Prakash could reply to him, they were interrupted by the angry quacks followed by huge birds with a wingspan of 3 metres that furiously closed the distance between them.

"Here they come" Shouted Li Qiu as he readied his Thermal Swords.

The distance between the Black Dragon and the Inflammatory Birds rapidly decreased from the initial 500 metres…..then to 400 metres…..and finally to 300 metres.

But, the moment the distance between them reduced to less than 200 metres, the wings of the Inflammatory Birds started to shiver and their flight speed faced a significant drop.

"The aura released by the Black Dragon's Aria Intents has started to affect them. Don't waste too much Aria, attack only when necessary" Li Qiu warned the others as he threw a Thermal Sphere vertically downwards.

"Boom"

The Thermal Sphere collided head-on at the flock of birds and exploded into a miniature sun that was about 50 metres in radius.

"Its hot" Prakash complained as he shut his eyes due to the intensity of both heat and light that the miniature sun created from the explosion of Li Qiu's Thermal Sphere radiated with.

"Whe-o" "Whe-o"

The Inflammatory Birds quacked in fear as a huge number of them instantly evaporated due to the intense heat unleashed by the miniature sun.

"Now, let's further intimidate them" On Li Qiu's command, the Black Dragon roared as it unleashed its breath attack onto the blanket of feathers formed by the Inflammatory Birds that flew like a sea of waves just 200 metres below it.

"Swish"

"Boom"

The moment the breath attack composed of blood mist came into contact with the bodies of the inflammatory birds, they instantly corroded their bodies as the blood mist seeped through their pores and finally resulted in the explosion of their entire bodies.

Thousands of Awakened and Practitioner Stage Inflammatory Birds died due to the breath attack unleashed by the Black Dragon.

Li Qiu noticed that the length of the Black Dragon had decreased to 28 metres from its initial 30 metres while its wingspan decreased to 42 metres from its initial 45 metres after the Black Dragon

had unleashed its breath attack.

"We must conserve its strength in case of emergencies and moreover, it still has to carry us over such a long journey," Li Qiu thought to himself as he observed the Black Dragon's decrease in speed.

"Prakash, Akiko" Li Qiu called out to the duo who were itching to get into action.

"Got it," Replied Akiko as she picked up a couple of Thermal Spheres.

"Leave it to us," Prakash said as the both of them each hurled 4 Thermal Spheres towards both the left and right side of the Black Dragon.

"Boom"

There were 8 simultaneous explosions that occurred all around the quartet followed by a significant rise in the atmospheric temperature that felt as if they had walked into an oven.

Each miniature suns created by the explosion of the Thermal Spheres instantly vaporised at least 200 Inflammatory Birds and dealt severe damage to another 500 of them.

"Black Dragon, maximum speed" Akiko shouted towards the Black Dragon as she observed the flock still consisting of tens of thousands of Inflammatory Birds that started to show signs of retreat.

The Black Dragon grunted as it flapped its massive wings and increased its flight speed.

Slowly but steadily, its altitude further increased as it travelled farther and farther but they were still unable to see the end of the blanket of feathers formed by the Inflammatory Birds.

"Tens of thousands is an understatement, there might probably be a million of them" Akiko cursed under her breath.

"Since they are migratory birds, they had the advantage of mobility and flight in the initial run. I guess they must have all flown towards this single area based on the instinct embedded within their genes but even then, there are still too many of them" Said, Prakash, as he started to feel a bit of fear and anxiety.

It felt like they were a small candle flame that was braving through a storm full of raging winds.

After they flew unhindered for 15-20 minutes, Akiko suddenly exclaimed in delight, "I see an end"

"Thank goodness" Murmured Li Qiu.

"Even the trees and damaged buildings look better as compared to that blanket full of c.h.e.s.tnut brown and grey," Prakash said in relief over the fact that they could finally escape from this dangerous area.

"2 Kilometres" Akiko slowly uttered.

"1.5 kilometres" Prakash muttered back.

"1 Kilometre"

"800 metres"

"400 metres"

"200 metres"

"Yaay, we finally overtook them" Akiko exclaimed in joy as she gave a hi-fi to Prakash.

"Yeah" Prakash felt as if all of his tensed nerves gradually start to relax.

After that, the black dragon flew at an altitude of 2 kilometres as it passed through a couple of layers of clouds while the trio consisting of Prakash, Akiko and Aurella gazed at the scenery below them.

"Bro, come join us" Prakash invited Li Qiu to join them when he saw Li Qiu being preoccupied with something as he slowly chewed onto a piece of smoked meat.

"Nah, I'll pass" Li Qiu replied as he gazed at the clouds around him, still wary against any possible ambushes.

"With such a huge population, I refuse to believe that there were no Adept Stage Inflammatory Birds among the flock that tried to attack us. just in case, I'll be ready to retaliate at a moment's notice" Li Qiu thought as he kept his materialized Thermal Swords beside him.

"Eh…" Li Qiu suddenly saw a part of the cloud above him move in a different direction than what it initially traversed in.

"Akiko, Prakash, get ready" Li Qiu suddenly bellowed as he immediately created a couple more Thermal Spheres, a hundred Chakrams, and Kunai to be used by the duo of Prakash and Akiko.

"What happened?" Akiko and Prakash suddenly sprang up in full vigilance as they too gazed at the same direction in which Li Qiu kept looking at.

At the next moment, a tremendous, heavy and bloodthirsty aura impacted upon them that made the trio of Akiko, Prakash and Aurella fall onto their knees and also squashed the body of mini Katsurou into a blood puddle, severing their connection with the real body of Katsurou.

"Roooaaarrr" The Black Dragon roared in retaliation as it too unleashed the full might of its aura.

"Get behind me" Li Qiu shouted towards the trio as his forehead started to drip with sweat due to singlehandedly resisting against such a suffocating aura that was the collective of multiple Adept Stage experts.

"Whe-o" "Whe-o"

A huge Inflammatory Bird that had a wingspan of about 12 metres flew out from above the sea of clouds followed by hundreds of other Inflammatory Birds whose wingspan ranged between 8-10 metres, all Adept Stage experts as they charged towards the Black Dragon.

"Holy great-grandmother of chaos!" Li Qiu exclaimed in his mind as he prepared to face the impending onslaught.