"Scarlet, do you have any spiritual techniques?" Alex asked.

Scarlet, still in her human form, looked at him with furrowed brows. "I have one. Vermillion Bird's Burning Spirit. Why?"

"Those fire birds can only be destroyed when you destroy their spirit," Alex explained. "Otherwise, even if you cut them down, they can still hurt you."

"Damn. Really?" Scarlet asked, seeming worried. "My technique isn't meant for attacking. It's more so a defensive technique. Am I screwed?"

Alex couldn't really answer. "We'll find out soon. Be ready to eat your healing pills should something happen. And keep your eyes out for anything that moves. Since you no longer have any spiritual sense, you need to be able to rely on your other senses."

The two beasts nodded.

"And stand behind me. I'll try to guard you two if that is possible."

Scarlet and Pearl nodded, following behind Alex as they finally made their way toward the center.

The island of the 3rd trial was of uneven shape, tall grasses covering most of the area. They could easily hide pockets of lava around the island with their shape, making it hard to dodge should a flame bird appear from nowhere.

Alex had taken barely 5 steps when he heard the distinct sound of a popping bubble that had somewhat scared him just a few days ago. He turned his sight toward the area, seeing a flame bird appear out of nowhere.

It flew into the sky, turning an arc, coming down on someone far to Alex's left. The beast that it came for attacked it, destroying it easily.

Alex was taken aback upon seeing that.

"I thought you said we needed spiritual attacks," Scarlet asked.

"It did," Alex said, sounding exasperated. "Maybe it's a different type of bird. A weaker variant."

"So… do we still need to be this careful?" she asked.

Alex shrugged. "Better safe than sorry, right?"

Scarlet couldn't argue with that logic. While they talked, two more birds had appeared, one being destroyed before it could hit its target, but the other one succeeded.

Without spiritual sense, a few of the beasts were as good as blind, not noticing the bird even as it came for them. The beast that was struck was apparently fine, having only lost its right wing. Still, it immediately turned, rushing backward as if he had given up suddenly.

More flame birds began appearing, not a single one making it clear who they were planning on attacking. It wasn't until seconds before that they even chose the group they were attacking, and then less than a second before they came for their target.

Pearl was the target of one of the flame birds, which came down toward him. Before it could arrive close enough, Alex looked at the bird, using his Sword Heart. A Sword Domain appeared at a distance, surrounding the bird. In the fraction of a second the bird was inside his Sword Domain, it was torn to shreds.

"I was ready to deal with that," Pearl said, slowly retracting his claws.

Alex shrugged, chuckling slightly. "My bad. I'll let you take it on next time."

The beasts continued at a steady pace, a few already choosing to give up, but the rest continued as if this was their final chance no matter what. More birds appeared, the number closing in on the hundreds in the sky now.

They didn't increase as drastically after that, but that alone was scary for many of the beasts. It was hard to keep an eye out for thousands of birds at once, all to make sure just one of them didn't come in their direction.

It started becoming harder than before.

Another bird came down toward Alex's group, and this time Pearl took charge. He swung his claws, generating a green slash that cut the bird in half.

Alex looked back at Pearl. "Is that the Wind Scythe?" he asked.

Pearl nodded. "I've been wanting to use it for quite some time now," he said with a small grin on his face.

While the two talked, Scarlet pointed her fingers into the sky, a hot ball of white power coalescing on her fingertips. The power flew past Alex and Pearl, striking another bird that was making its way toward them.

"I think it's better if we don't take our eyes off the sky. It's hard to tell who the birds will come for next," she said.

Alex nodded. He turned back around, staring at the sky full of birds. They continued walking through the island, dodging pools of lava, as it would be stupid to walk past them given their danger.

His eyes glowed a soft shade of purple half an hour into the trial as he finally used his Demon Eyes to see which bird would move next. He had a feeling that when a bird chose its target and moved, it had to use some of its energy.

If that sort of thing did happen, then he could see which bird was ready to strike them.

Alex lowered his head, watching his path before turning toward the sky. However, belatedly, he realized he saw something strange just a second before while his eyes passed through the scene.

He looked back down, searching for what he had seen. In his absence, Pearl took over to fight the birds.

Alex looked far away at the beast that was currently the 5th furthest moving beast, a toad. He had noticed the toad on accident because it stood out quite a bit. Not because it had something impressive, but because it had nothing at all.

There was no Qi or aura or anything surrounding the single beast, and for as long as Alex watched, he could see that not a single fire bird went toward the beast at all.

It took Alex a few good seconds to realize what he had seen.

"The birds… they hunt us based on our aura," he said with a look of awe.

"So?" Scarlet asked.

"So… we get rid of the aura," Alex said. "Conceal yourself fully, and I'm sure the birds won't find you at all."

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