Derel flew off without asking, with a fire burning in her hand and behind her wings.

Ning couldn’t even tell her anything before she arrived next to the Midnight Phoenix, but the Phoenix was way faster than her.

It moved, leaving behind a gust of wind full of the fire, but that never bothered Derel.

She turned, while in the fire and moved towards the Phoenix again and the Phoenix turned towards her.

The two of them clashed in the middle and Derel was the one that took more of the damage in the clash.

She tumbled down through the air until she hit the ground.

”Goddammit! It is strong,” she said.

”I was about to tell you,” Ning said, arriving next to her. “Its speed is way too fast. We need to fight otherwise.”

”Goddammit! If it just stops, I can show it who’s the boss here,” Derel said as she stood up.

”Can you defeat it? If it stops that is,” Ning asked seriously.

Derel looked at him seriously for a few seconds and said, “yes!”

”Alright, leave that part to me then,” Ning said.

Suddenly, a portal appeared next to the bird. The bird realized what was happening and flew away in the opposite direction but a portal appeared there too.

It barely managed to stop in time and flew in a different direction this time, and yet once again another portal appeared there as well.

This time, it directly went into the portal and came out of another portal, before falling into another portal.

Once after another, portals appeared all around the bird once again as it was entrapped in it.

It spewed out the liquid black flame that fell through the cracks, but nothing more than that escaped out.

”That’s… interesting,” Derel said. “Why didn’t you do this with the others?”

”I didn’t need to do it with the others,” Ning said. Even though he spoke casually, there was a certain strain on his voice from him having to concentrate his entire being on not letting go of the portal.

The criss-cross of space was a heck of a lot harder to maintain than it looked. At the same time, he had been waiting for something else.

”Shit!” Derel said softly, but Ning heard her.

”What’s wrong?” he asked.

”I can’t see anything. That chicken just did something,” she said.

Ning turned off his vision and he too was in complete darkness. His vision returned and he watched the bird prepare to do something.

Suddenly, the bird shrank down to the size of a sparrow.

”This is it!” Ning said and suddenly he used his telekinesis to grab the bird, keeping it in place.

The bird struggled to move, but unless it weighed more than his body, it could forget about escaping his grasp.

The bird employed its movement and it gave Ning a headache from having to keep in control something of great relative weight. However, he managed to do it.

”Your turn now,” Ning shouted at Derel.

”I can’t even see where the chicken is,” Derel shouted back at him.

Ning was about to ask something when she shouted, “Wait, wait, wait. I can see it. I can see its energy source. Holy ** that is big.”

”Can you really see it?” Ning asked.

”Not the bird itself, but its position. I can see a small area,” Derel said.

”Don’t worry. It is small right now,” Ning said. “Do it now.”𝗈𝒱𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t

”I can’t,” Derel said. “I need to be next to it.”

”Dammit!” Ning thought and moved his right hand, letting go of the bird, to open a portal again. “Go ahead. You’ll arrive right in front of the bird.”

Derel nodded to the darkness and walked forward. When she did, the small blob of graying light that flickered far away from her, suddenly appeared right in front of her.

She moved her hand reflexively to catch it, but the bird was free now, and it escaped into one of the portals.

Ning tried to catch it again, but his eyes couldn’t see where it was at all.

It hit Derel on the head and entered one of the portals. Derel turned to where it went and suddenly she was attacked on the other side of her body.

When she turned around, the bird entered another portal.

”Goddamn, this chicken!” she shouted. She didn’t suffer any wounds from the bird’s attacks, but she did feel the pain of getting constantly hit by something left and right and up and down and front and back.

Ning wanted to let go of the portals, but that would put them in a worse position than they started with.

So, all he could do right now was put his faith in Derel and hope she could do it.

A few minutes passed by and the bird kept on pelting her all over. Derel was getting so frustrated that she started sending out fire from her mouth all around the place.

Fire entered through the portals and exit out of another one, filling the entire place with fire.

And in that fire, the little Midnight Phoenix flew around hitting her.

As Derel got attacked once after another, she started to get a hang of the pattern in which the bird hit.

So, when the bird hit her on the left shoulder, her right hand clawed towards the portal in her upper right area and she clutched something that flew out of it.

The bird struggled to move when it was caught but Derel’s hands wouldn’t let it go.

”Finally, you die,” she said.

She slowly raised her hand to the sky. The bird kept on struggling, but it couldn’t leave. So, in a desperate attempt, it tried to grow back to its original size.

But that was too late.

”Die!” Derel said and a flash of light tore the darkness as lightning fell down from the heavens and struck the bird in her hand.