Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 223: Bird-ened

This elaborate trap was meant only to buy him time. Almost immediately as the Breach Hawk hit the ground, Sage dropped half of the threads, leaving him only with the ones that led to the seeds. He downed a handful of Green Revitalizing Pills and took out some more Spirit Stones. Channeling a huge amount of energy to grow the many dozen Sacred Banyans. The Breach Hawk was struggling against the many cables but they were made of hundreds of woven strands of Steelsilk and were quite strong and light. It wasnt able to pull loose, but each time it moved some of the trees would shake or creak from the pressure.

The Banyans grew rapidly, expanding and burying more and more roots into the soil. The growing trees directly competing against the strength of the Breach Hawk. Tugging at its bonds, the huge beast didnt give up even when it began to lose out to the Banyans. The Banyans multiplied and intertwined together. Extending branches, dropping roots and turning those roots into the trunks of new trees. More and more of them, extending over the nesting area of the Breach Hawk. Summon the Sacred Banyan, Root Wall, Root Lance, and Crown Cover. The four techniques could all be used synergistically, and most importantly easily. One of the biggest benefits of technique sets was that the techniques within could be used together smoothly. Normally performing multiple techniques at once was very difficult and jarring. Technique sets were naturally discovered or invented to circumvent the high difficulty requirement.

The small forest of trees in the canyon were now standing rock solid against the strength of the struggling Breach Hawk. There was then a loud thrumming sound, that of the steelsilk ropes stretching. Like a stretched cord getting plucked. The cables were stretching, straining and, from the sounds of it, reaching their limits. Sage heard the sound and extended his Spiritual Sense and immediately realized his mistake. The many Sacred Banyans loosened the tension between them. Hed made them too rigidly connected to each other, increasing the strain upon the cables. Almost immediately the trees were no longer so rigid, swaying violently back and forth. The strength of the cables couldnt match that of a forest of trees so it was better to let the Banyan take the strain instead of the lines.

The loosening of the interconnected trees was only a momentary distraction. His true goal was just about reached. The Sacred Banyan extended large branches upwards and over the Breach Hawk. They met to form a central peak and more branches crawled up and outwards towards each other. A few seconds later they were intertwining with each other to form into a large net. The previously natural looking, but fast growing, trees showed their unusual abilities. The lattice of tree limbs started out quite simple but after a few minutes it was already layered and woven together with a hundred layers like a three dimensional cloth. The cables were no longer straining, but the Breach Hawk was no fool. When the trees became very springy to resist the cables snapping, the Breach Hawk went with it. Instead of struggling randomly, it moved rhythmically to bounce the trees back and forth. When the bouncing grew to a crescendo it thrust upwards explosively and half the cables snapped, slashing thin lines through the trees and leaves.

The slashed branches were quickly covered over. The Breach Hawk screeched with anger, finding out that there was an even bigger and stronger trap just outside the cables it had almost freed itself from. Even this cage wouldnt hold forever, but bought him time for the final part of the plan. He pushed his hands out of the blind and started to release a dense cloud of little paralyzing gas. Subduing Spores, a move he hadnt used in some time, releasing a cloud of tiny spores. The Breach Hawk was a whole rank higher than him, so the Subduing Spores served only to relax and calm emotions. Like a very strong and soothing incense, on its own there wasnt much effect on the Breach Hawk. Then he hopped out of the hidden blind and ran forward to the edge of the clearing. He placed his hand upon the ground and his Qi rushed through his hands and out into the roots of the grassy field.

The grass began to rapidly shrivel, shrinking and hardening. With just a few seconds they began to look like wheat colored needles. A moment later they launched themselves upward, the whole field of grass shot into the air like they were fired out of cannons. Most of them firing harmlessly into the air, but a large number of them piercing into the Breach Hawk from below. Even most of them that struck the Breach Hawk were not powerful enough to pierce through its layers of strong feather. Only a dozen or so of the needles passed through the feathers and caused bright red blood to bloom on its feathers, dripping down to the ground. The Subduing Spores had only made it slightly less aware, just enough for it to be caught off guard by Razor Grass, one of the techniques hed found on that Cult of the Woodlord Young Master.

Sage drew in a big breath and the seal on his forehead lit up. Releasing some of the restrictions upon his body to let him perform the next move. He opened his mouth and a torrent of wind rushed outwards. He released Qi from his mouth to form a funnel in the air in front of him, channeling rush of air. It was a part of the Divine Wind technique, using Qi to channel the wind into different shapes and uses, this time it was a spinning vortex. He released many short puffs of air, the restriction of the Human Seal loosened to allow him to add the venom of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent to the wind. Nearly invisible rings of air flew outwards. A smoke ring carrying a light misting of poison instead of any smoke, they flew through the clearing and smashed against the Breach Hawk.

There wasnt much power behind the gusts of wind, they served only as a medium to transfer the Twin Ringed Soul Serpents venom. It wasnt an airborne or contact poison, which was the reason for Sage to use the Razor Grass technique and open up so many bloody wounds. The poison mist mingled with the flowing blood when it struck the Breach Hawk. Sage made sure to launch a dozen of the poison rings, wanting the venom to take hold.

With this more blatant assault, the Breach Hawk finally caught sight of its attacker. The net of tree branches was less constricting than the cables had been so the Hawk had room to roll and spin to face towards Sage. As it did, it fluttered its wings gently and the bright stripe on the leading edge lit up. The sharp flutter of its wing somehow transformed the wind generated into an invisible force. Even though Sage saw it coming from the future it was so fast that he only had time to dive over to the side. A crimson mist filled the air and a limb flew off into the bushes.

A translucent white spectre flew up out of the ground and dove into the Breach Hawks chest. The Twin Soul dove into the Breach Hawks spiritual sea and started to battle with the Hawks soul. Thankfully, the venom had started to take effect and the longer that the battle raged the weaker the Breach Hawks resistance became.

On the outside, Sage climbed to his feet, his right arm completely severed at the shoulder. He brought out a Warp Worm to defend against the next blade of wind slicing towards him. The worm opened its mouth wide, the three foot wide head distending and expanded like a bell. Its gaping maw was now large enough for Sage to simply walk inside, a six foot wide shield for him to hide behind. Against his expectations, the Warp Worm was not enough. Sage fell backwards, landing on his back when the second wind blade sliced off the top half of the Warp Worms head. Sage felt his link severed with the Worm and didnt waste another moment, disappearing into thin air.

The Breach Hawk, despite the fervent battle internally, didnt let up. Over a dozen more wind blades flew out, flaying the corpse of the Warp Worm, slicing it into little more than a big mess of flesh. Among the pile of mangled flesh were a few pieces of mangled metal, ones which the Hawk could not recognize. Before that storm of attacks, the pile of metal was a small launcher, a short throwing arm with a big spring. While the flurry of wind blades were slashing into the flesh, Sage had stored the Universe Ring inside a small disc and placed it on the launcher. It was little more than a clay pigeon thrower at a small scale and with a timer added.

It was more of a test than a necessary measure, since he was quite sure the Universe Ring could easily withstand the wind blades. Either way, the Hawk created a distraction for his escape and when the dust finally settled the disc and Universe Ring was a few dozen yards away, giving the Breach Hawk not a single clue on where its target had gone to.