His left ear was gone. Torn off by whatever attacked Oscar.

He stumbled a little because of the loss of balance caused by missing an ear. Clinging to his Anima, Oscar soon regained his bearings and managed to get up.

"What is this?"

For some reason, everything seemed to quiet down. The rocks rumbling, the echoes expanding, his Anima's cries. Their sounds were getting lower until they were half as audible.

Oscar vomited.

The strange balance and warped hearing were too much, and he could only throw up in response. It took a moment to calm down. Finally sound returned to normal.

"What was that attack?" Oscar wondered.

He looked at the pile of rubble in astonishment. There were two beautiful rainbow wings extended out above the rocks. They were like pieces of art sculptures on display.

These wings were the culprit of Oscar's missing ear.

"How can those wings be so long? Rainbow Diduses are supposed to be flightless birds due to their weight and short wings. These are two to three times longer than average." Oscar was dumbstruck at the oddity.

The Rainbow Didus crawled out of the rubble and stared at Oscar and his Anima with ravenous eyes. It knew it was only a matter of time before it could feast on him.

Oscar stared back and thought it was strange. The behavior of this creature was off.

"It's not solitary and grouped up with another Rainbow Didus. It used that charging attack which was never recorded. Finally, it has long wings. Is this really a Rainbow Didus?"

He reflected on everything he had read and expanded on the behavior of all Exalt Beasts. Then the answer came to Oscar.

"A mutant Exalt Beast? That is ridiculous!"

Exalt Beasts were very fixed in their suitable environments, fighting tactics, and features. But very rarely, a mutation can occur when an Exalt Beast is born. A mutated Exalt Beast is said to be different from its peers in many ways.

It is rumored that a mutated Exalt Beast is a king of its species and will surely rise to the top of its race with its unique advantages if it doesn't die.

This Rainbow Didus was certainly a mutation.

"Shit….What do I do?" Oscar muttered in exasperation. A mutated Exalt Beast was riddled with unknown factors that no amount of knowledge or books could help against. He already paid the price with his ear for believing it was enough.

Bump

He felt a slight nudge to his side. His Anima bumped him to stop Oscar from panicking. The overwhelming emotions from Oscar were spilling into it, so it acted.

"You're right. It's only two more things it can do. It doesn't matter if it's a mutant or not. Let's win this." Oscar charged straight ahead with his Anima by his side.

The Rainbow Didus readied itself again for its deadly piercing blow. The reason it was capable of this was due to its springy legs that allowed it to get that speedy burst. This springiness of these legs was unlike normal Rainbow Diduses with solid, heavy legs, another part of its mutation.

BOOM

A blur of rainbow colors raced through the air.

Oscar and his Anima split to dodge, barely able to evade the rainbow torpedo. But the force of the Rainbow Didus's attack, whizzed by Oscar's side, staggered him, nearly tripping him off his feet.

His head began to ring persistently like an alarm that could not be turned off. The attack passed by his side with the missing ear, so it confounded what remained of his ear drums.

"This is nothing!" Oscar toughed it out and continued onward.

From his observations, the Rainbow Didus needed to recover for a moment after using this attack, so it had no choice but to employ its wings as the last defense.

Sensing Oscar and his Anima closing in while it was immobile, the Rainbow Didus unleashed its wings to cut them apart, sending a chaotic wind everywhere.

The rainbow wings swiped away but did not hit a single target.

The two were able to evade the sharp wings with little effort.

"That only worked before due to the element of surprise. Don't think the same trick will work twice." Oscar clenched his buckler tightly and dealt a powerful blow to the Rainbow Didus's back.

The creature let out a screech of pain, but it was not over.

Oscar's Anima stepped forward and swung its antlers, overflowing with Ein, into the exposed side.

Buckler

Antlers

Buckler

Antlers

Oscar and his Anima alternated their attacks. Every time Oscar attacked, he used 'Reis Awaken'. But each time his Anima attacked, he used 'Ein Awaken' to gather Ein to strengthen its antlers and to recover.

It was not doable before because he had to focus on dodging the Rainbow Didus, but now it was dazed for a moment; Oscar had the leeway to use 'Ein Awaken' to recover while his Anima attacked.

"Damn. How tough is this bastard?" Oscar and his Anima retreated as the Rainbow Didus regained mobility and crushed out of the rubble.

Its eyes were bloodshot. Anger and humiliation coursed through its mind as these two ant-like enemies made a mockery of it.

Meanwhile, Oscar was coughing up blood from overusing both 'Awaken'. The constant shifting from 'Reis Awaken' to his inexperienced 'Ein Awaken' had overstressed his body and mind.

"Although I'm making sure to keep within my time limits, using them multiple times in succession is harsh."

BadumpBadumpBadumpBadumpBadump

With one ear gone and his surroundings only half audible, his heart's rapid beating was more profound. It was like loud, big, and fast echoes from within that made him feel sick, like having a hangover.

The Rainbow Didus did not allow Oscar to recover as it crouched again to rev up.

Oscar and his Anima immediately tried to dodge, but Oscar was horrified to see that the blur of colors was larger.

CRASH

A mess of blood splurted from Oscar's shoulder. He ran as fast as possible and even used 'Steel Scales' at the last moment, but something sharp made its way past.

But that was not all. His Anima was unable to evade in time and was completely cut in half, shattering it into pieces and sent back to Oscar's inner space. The complete destruction of his Anima sent an immense backlash to Oscar.

The searing pain in his core made him drop to the floor, gasping for breath and choking on blood.

"....."

His voice was shot. The pain was spreading.

But Oscar willed himself back to his feet, clutching his injured shoulder, which would have been cut cleanly off if not for the use of 'Steel Scales'. He needed to understand, to confirm what had occurred.

Two large cracks extended outward from the center of the collapsed cavern walls. In those cracks, Oscar spotted the rainbow wings lodged inside.

"It charged out with its wings extended out. No wonder this wound is closer to a cut."

Taking advantage of this time, Oscar entered Ein Meditation to recover as much as possible. There was no point in attacking the Rainbow Didus in his current state.

It was a race against time to recover as much as possible. Oscar used the ataerstone to get purified Ein, which rejuvenated his exhausted core.

The Rainbow Didus recovered and looked at Oscar, who stopped meditating. It saw the wound on his shoulder and his slightly pale face, but it was not happy. It had felt its wings tearing into something, but the wound was not as big as it wished.

WOOSH

A black disc flew toward the Rainbow Didus, who smacked it away with its wing. It had no impact and was flung helplessly away.

Suddenly, the disc returned to Oscar, and he threw it again toward the Rainbow Didus. He finally used his buckler's hidden mechanism that allowed it to become a ranged weapon.

At the same time, he started running around in retreat. There was not a hint of Ein nor Reis coursing into the buckler.

'Ein Awaken'

Oscar began to recover his Ein as he moved and threw the buckler to annoy the Rainbow Didus. Of course, he could not use it continuously and only did it in short bursts. This did make him unable to use 'Reis Awaken' for his attacks since it would be a waste.

"I have to buy time. The destruction of my Anima was too much of a hit to my core and Ein." Oscar kept running around to prevent the Rainbow Didus from being able to target it with its charge.

The Rainbow Didus grew increasingly irritated at the soft blows of the buckler like a gnat flying around its ear. It cawed furiously and stomped at Oscar, intent on destroying this ant.

But Oscar had sidestepped the Rainbow Didus with fast speed. Though the Rainbow Didus was a mutated Exalt Beast and had that unnatural bullet-like attack, Oscar was capable of avoiding its normal attacks.

Eventually, he would have to attack; otherwise, the Rainbow Didus would recover from the damages it suffered. His and his Anima's attacks could not break through, but they were building up.

SWISH

SWIPE

The fierce talons and beak of the Rainbow Didus kept missing Oscar by a hair. The immense pressure felt like weights on his back, similar to his time in the Abyss Prison.

CRASH

A part of the floor caved in from its beak, but Oscar evaded again. But instead of moving on, he stood firm.

His Anima appeared next to him, having recovered from its previous destruction. It gazed at the Rainbow Didus with a vengeful look.

The boy and the deer stood tall, defiant, and resolute in the face of the intimidating Rainbow Didus.

CRACK

The Rainbow Didus's talons cracked on the floor with immense force. These two had hurt its pride again and again. It moved forward and began to flail its wings in a swiping motion like two deadly swords.

Oscar and his Anima dodged together instead of splitting up like before. The previous encounters made it clear that splitting up and trying to whittle the beast down was taking too long.

He feared that Nicholas might not have time and desperately needed to take him to seek medical attention.

"I need more power. But what?" Oscar wondered as he and his Anima continued to evade the furious slashes of the Rainbow Didus's wings. But suddenly, he felt his back land on something hard.

He tried to evade as much as possible, but the Rainbow Didus had cornered him to the cavern wall.

Before he could escape, the wings of the Rainbow Didus had spread around like a cage as it lifted its beak, ready to stab it forward.

There was no escape.

Go to the side, and the wings will slice down, slowing him down for its counter.

Go under, and its talons will force him back.

There was only one option. Go head to head.

There was no time to think as the Rainbow Didus's killing blow came closer.

But Oscar's body moved. Without the mind to guide it, there was only the instinct that compelled it to do something. His Anima went along.

The buckler and antlers moved together in the same motion to strike at the beak's side. Unexpectedly, the Ein flowed more freely into both of them.

In a burst of blue, Oscar's Ein collected and concentrated in their buckler and antlers.

SLAM

The Rainbow Didus didn't know what had occurred. It felt great pain in its head as if a hammer smashed the inside of its skull. Suddenly, these two weaklings struck with more power than ever before.

It staggered back.

Meanwhile, Oscar was breathing as though he had just run a marathon. What just happened? Somehow he managed to attack together with his Anima with concentrated Ein at the same time. He looked at his deer anima in wonder.

"At that moment, it felt like you and I were the same. You are a part of me, but this was a different feeling." Oscar thought back to that previous strike. His Anima had made the motions as himself.

"Let's give that another try." Oscar and his Anima charged ahead to the staggered Rainbow Didus. It let out a flurry of strikes to deter them.

However, Oscar and his Anima stopped. His Anima swiped its antlers down as Oscar bashed his buckler in the same motion. They targeted the same spot together.

Both shined with blue Ein as it clashed against the wing of the Rainbow Didus, blowing it back and knocking out some feathers.

"CAW!"

"So that's how it works." Oscar smiled. Even though they could not effectively coordinate individual attacks, attacking as one provided a glimmer of hope.