Chapter 750: Honeybun vs Hawk [2]

The hawk’s screech rose to a frenzied pitch, its head jerking wildly, and with a final, violent heave it tore itself free of the crystal trap, feathers and blood scattering as it ripped loose and erupted upward into the sky. Honeybun lunged for one more strike but the hawk was already climbing, beyond his reach, retreating into the air where the turtle couldn’t follow.

It fled, half-blind and heavily injured, its wings tattered, blood raining down as it beat a desperate retreat into the gloom.

Moon let out a low whistle, watching the hawk vanish into the sky.

But Honeybun had other plans. Watching the predator fly away was clearly not on the turtle’s agenda.

His aura swelled massively, climbing higher than Moon had seen it reach in any of the day’s fights, and crystal began to spread across his entire body, a complete, gleaming suit of crystal armor encased him from shell to claws.

He’s using that skill... the full crystal armor from the River of Paths. Moon watched with wide, curious eyes, leaning forward in anticipation.

A fight between a ground beast and a flying one had a well-known conclusion. The moment the flying opponent decided to disengage and climb out of reach, there was usually nothing a ground-bound creature could do but watch it leave. Range, mobility, the simple fact of flight, all of it favored the beast in the sky.

So Moon was more than curious how Honeybun intended to stop a flying Surpasser from escaping.

The turtle showed him.

From the crystal armor encasing his body, Honeybun channeled its power into a single, massive construct. Crystal erupted and gathered and sharpened, condensing into an enormous spear-like projectile, several meters in length.

Moon glanced at the gleaming lance of crystal far larger than anything the turtle had produced before. And then, with a surge of force, Honeybun launched it skyward.

The crystal spear rushed through the air, rocketing up toward the fleeing hawk at a speed that closed the distance in a heartbeat.

The hawk felt the danger coming and tried to bank away.

Whoosh!

The spear was too fast, and the predator’s shredded, injured wings couldn’t carry it clear in time. The crystal lance struck one of its wings dead-on, impaling it and shattering the bone with a sickening crack.

The wing crumpled, becoming useless, and the hawk’s flight collapsed, the predator beginning to tumble from the sky, dropping slowly as it fought to stay aloft on a single functioning wing.

It beat that one wing desperately, trying to climb, trying to stabilize, to recover even a fraction of its lost altitude.

Honeybun wasn’t keen on watching that happen.

A second crystal spear launched from the turtle’s armored body, streaking up to catch the hawk precisely as it struggled to steady itself, and the impact finished what the first had started.

The predator’s last hope of flight shattered alongside its second wing.

With both wings impaled, the hawk plummeted.

It dropped from the sky at rapid speed, no longer able to control its descent, and crashed into the island’s terrain nearly half a kilometer away from their battlefield, the impact kicking up a distant plume of dust and debris.

Honeybun was already moving, rocketing toward the crash site, and Moon leapt atop Mirage and galloped after him, racing to catch up to his turtle and the grounded predator it had refused to let escape.

By the time Moon and Mirage reached the crash site, Honeybun had already closed in to finish it.

The hawk lay amid the wreckage of its own impact, one wing shattered and impaled, the other crumpled beneath it, half-blind and broken, its body riddled with crystal wounds. It was no longer a sky-ruling predator. It was a cornered animal, grounded and cut off from the one advantage that had made it dangerous.

And Honeybun descended on it without mercy.

His armored body gleaming, crystal-tipped claws extended, the turtle tore into the fallen hawk. The predator thrashed, lashing out with its talons in a desperate bid to fight back, raking at the golden shell, but it was hopeless.

Against Honeybun’s crystal-enforced defense, the hawk’s talons found no purchase, scraping uselessly off the impenetrable armor without leaving so much as a scratch.

Everything that had once made the hawk lethal, its speed, its talons, its dominance, was gone, and all that remained was a wounded beast with nothing left to defend itself.

Honeybun’s claws came down.

The crystal-tipped strikes rent through feather and flesh, shredding the hawk piece by piece, the turtle methodically dismantling the predator that had nearly killed Moon with its opening ambush.

The hawk shrieked and struggled, but each attempt to fight back only exposed it further, and Honeybun’s claws answered every flail with another gash of blood.

There was no contest.

Moon watched, his heart beating fast, as his turtle made a Surpasser-tier flying hawk look like nothing more than a bug being crushed underfoot.

He’s so strong.That hawk isn’t a weak flying beast either, it nearly took my shoulder off during that ambush, and it had controlled the whole fight from the sky at the start. And now Honeybun’s shredding it like it’s nothing.

The hawk gave one final, shuddering screech, and then went still, shredded beyond any hope of survival beneath Honeybun’s relentless attacks.

[You have killed level 66 Cloud Hawk]

[You have gained 37,250 Lives]

The notification rendered across his retina, but Moon barely thought about it. His eyes were fixed on the little turtle standing over its kill, radiating a very fierce satisfaction of a hunter that had refused to let its prey escape and had seen the hunt through to the bloody end.

Moon dismounted from Mirage and walked slowly toward his turtle, pride and wonder warring in his chest.

"You hunted it down beautifully," he murmured.

He knelt beside Honeybun as the crystal armor slowly receded, the golden shell returning. "Well done, Honeybun."

He rested a hand on the warm golden shell, looking down at the creature that kept exceeding every expectation he set for it.

"I keep saying it, Honeybun. But I don’t think I actually know where your limit is. I’m not sure you have one."