Cheating the Trials of Wind and Fire

He was a different breed, truly meant for more than the fodder he was beaten into believing.
A grin melted across his face, and soon after, he'd allow himself to rise up to the shore... To scale back up the mesa-shoreline... and take rest along the cliff-side.

He was up and on his feet in a matter of moments, having regenerated only thanks to his recent absorptions… Though, as if he weren’t enough of a predicament as it was, wandering off from the mesa-line would only draw forth more trouble.
Eyes were following him from above-- Resting uptop one of the several mesas. “Well-well… “ The voice sounded off, to garner the nameless beast’s attention…

It looked like a bird… An oversized avian monstrosity of daemonic proportions: One that found prey.
“I couldn’t help but overhear your little quarrel…”
The nameless beast was in no condition to face another elemental in its current position, and thus, it took to flight-- Attempting to get as far away as it could from what was considered certain death.

There was no solace for the wicked-- No safety for one of such vile ilk…
He was one damned to the fate of oblivion, prolonging it only to see it come in much crueler fashions. This time, it’d be from the air…
Sprint as it would in its injured stature, it’d be assailed by few miniature variants of the daemonic raptor above. ‘ Not here. Not now. I’ve consumed more than enough to prove strong enough to take on a pest such as this! ‘ He thought aloud to himself…
(Vile Yokai)
[13:11:40] ‘If only, I was able to recover. I’d be able to reduce them to a pile of ash… But why… Why am I forced to this destiny of torment!’
As though to answer his internal cries, a silhouette manifested from across the corner of his projected course: A humanoid, nigh his very own size and stature-- Radiant of extreme, environmentally scathing temperature: An Infernus.
The Gigai stopped dead in its tracks, not granted a moment to a moment to call out before earning a stream of flames blown from the beast’s gullet, encompassing at his being to crisp the remnants of his shelling. He stammered, falling down to the earthen soil, where it could only look up in horror.
This was it…
Just as it was before…
Just as the confrontation would come to an end with Bukuya, it’d falter within an instant of coming across a hunting Infernus….

It brought rise to its right arm, refusing to take a moment’s delay in its finishing, like the others before it; No formalities were needed in the art of murder. Though, before another pyromaniacal spell could incinerate the nameless umbral-spawn, bombarding gales swept up from above, buffeting the flames back unto their conjurer.

The Ventus had caught up! … And had its sights settled on this vulnerable catch. Descending with talons gaping to clasp into flesh, the avian elemental found conflict wrought by the tenacious infernus from prior, allowing the nameless Gigai to take the opportunity to take cover.
(Vile Yokai)
[13:11:40] Flames sought for the edible grains of grass abroad, whilst gales only heated them, fanning them to excel to greater heights: A constant exchange that’d ultimately mesh their elements.

It started with mere spectation, but with time crawling by, and a victor arising from that of the daemonic raptor, an idea emerged within the mind of the pondering…
‘Their self-destructive tendencies leave them too distracted to acknowledge me?... No… Simple, greed. The greed that pushes us all to become stronger… Gluttony that kills us, by our own hand.’ It thought to itself, attempting to make sense of more beyond itself… Of his kind wholly…
Of Humanity… Of any and everything he’d need to find purpose that seemingly evaded all of his race.

‘--But is it not, that of our dream to ascend to perfection? Through, not the destruction of each other… But control of the Darkness.’ It went one, ‘--But is that my purpose?’
The avian had proceeded to clutching unto the Infernus’ back, pecking ravenously at the scalp until blood was drawn.
Talons sliced into the flesh as it took flight, briskly parting from its body, only to crash back down, finally tumbling it under its dropped weight and accumulated fatigue: The ventus, was victorious… But not without heavy wounds.
(Vile Yokai)
[13:11:40] ‘ Am I to imitate humanity? To become… One with their community?’ The thought of such seemed, comedic at best. Nonetheless, he took to a charge, the moment an opportunity arose. It was not the plan from the beginning of this bout, but it was enough for him.
A hand reached over to tug at the beast’s right wing from behind, before the other would choke at the nape of Ventus’ neck, leaving it unable to fly away.
”You put down your guard.” He sounded off towards the yokai, sinking his teeth where the shoulder ended, and the wing began. A savage recoil from its endeavor, and the shearing pressure would be enough to dismember its right wing: A piece of its wing, chewed and gulped down, whilst the rest of its wing was callously tossed aside.

Its devastated screech wrought true throughout the heavens… Nigh incapacitation from the pain alone, and forced to hobble away. ”I’ll come back for you.” He threatened to the wounded raptor, taking his approach to the nearly deceased Infernus that attacked him prior.

‘No… Why would I be so different… Only to succumb to such weakness? To accommodate such, would be, to accommodate fear… Fear in, humanity… I do not fear humanity…’
He stood over the dying Infernus, ready to liberate it from its suffering.
‘... But perhaps, I should…’ He thought back to the string of attacks upon him, by increasingly powerful magi.
(Vile Yokai)
[13:11:40] With the exception of the foremost, they assaulted for seemingly no reason…. No…. He could fathom why...
He saw the way people treated lessers of his kind, mindlessly slaughtering them akin to a contest… A game…
It was their training..
It was their pleasure and entertainment…
To think that they wouldn’t look up in the evolutionary scale? That was ignorance.
He was no exception… The others before? It had to have been that; They were all intending to slay him outright… Just, as they would’ve for any other.

Maws parted: Four flaps exhibited rows of teeth; From midst the plethora of teeth, slithered out the serpents of esoteric salvation. One by one, they gracefully oozed from one’s mouth, draping down to encircle one’s many appendages, failing to constrict them in this blissful execution. With their contact, the familiar emanation of vitality illuminated the seems betwixt tendril and
Flesh, bearing down pressure as it wrinkled under its own deprived weight.

It was hollowed out, siphoned of every iota of mana and affiliated article of muscularity, surging the Gigai with an unbelievable wave of nightmarish potency. Never before had the darkness filled his every crevice, dimming the very scene in his enclosed proximity. What survived battle’s torment along the lands at his feet, was poisoned by the presence of oblivion’s substance.
(Vile Yokai)