An Azure Luan.
One of the five phoenixes, a messenger of the Queen Mother of the West, a divine bird said to rival the phoenix itself.
But at that moment, it was in dire straits.
A deep wound marked the Azure Luan's right wing, and blood stained half its feathers red. Every time it beat its wings, black blood seeped from the wound and dripped onto the ground. Wherever that blood fell, it corroded little pits into the soil-deadly poison!
Its left claw was wounded too. Two of its three toes hung limply, clearly broken. It could only land on one claw, swaying unsteadily, yet it still fought on.
More frightening still, azure flames should have burned all around its body-the Azure Luan's innate fire, called [Azure Flame], the phoenix clan's power of rebirth.
Legend held that Azure Flame could not only burn all things to nothing, but also grant rebirth through fire.
Yet now, those flames were so faint they were almost invisible.
Only a few scattered azure sparks flickered between its wounded feathers, like a guttering candle in the wind.
The poison had sunk too deep, and its strength was failing. It could no longer unleash even a ten-thousandth of its power of rebirth.
The Bashé was wounded as well-the Azure Luan's sharp claws had left three deep gashes at its vital spot, seven inches below its head, and its left eye had been pecked blind, foul-smelling fluid running from the socket.
Yet its ferocity had only grown.
"Hiss-"
The Bashé suddenly lunged!
Its head shot like an arrow loosed from a bow, straight at the Azure Luan's throat!
The Azure Luan let out a long cry and flung its wings wide, launching itself from the ground. Wounded though it was, its speed remained astonishing. In the blink