Tia rushed forwards, her claws scratching up small clouds of dirt and gra.s.s as she soared through the air like a compact missile, surging towards Azhar. 

With a confident smile etched on his face, Azhar leaned backwards beyond ninety degrees, exhibiting a degree of extreme flexibility that made it seem as if his bones themselves were fluid. Tia, having calculated her charge to strike at Azhar's chest, now hit nothing, flying past Azhar.

"Way too slow, missy," said Azhar as he stood up straight. "Woah there." He stepped backwards, casually dodging an irritated swipe from Tia.

Li figured this would happen. Azhar was much too fast for Tia. A twenty-level difference made sure of that, and Azhar had specialized almost the entirety of his stat points into agility, further emphasizing the disparity. 

Tia snarled again, rus.h.i.+ng forwards as she unleashed a flurry of strikes and bites. The snaps of razor sharp wyrm teeth biting down on thin air clacked through the air as Azhar dodged and dodged and dodged again.

Li observed that Azhar observed a bravado that was not like him. When he fought, he used his speed to its maximal capacity, never using a single ounce of worthless energy. He did not dance around his enemies to taunt their slowness. At least when he fought, he was always serious.

But here, Azhar seemed to show off his speed to the max. When he dodged Tia' attacks, he did so at the very last moment, and he exaggerated his moments with spins and flips, showing her that he had all the time in the world to dodge her slow strikes.

Tia paused, her breathing heavier as she looked at Li for support.

Azhar took this moment to dash in, swiping down with his dagger at her body before immediately darting out, evading a retaliatory bite.

"Gotta' learn to handle yourself, missy," said Azhar, his eyes wide as he made sure his words connected with Tia.

"If this isn't working-," said Li, preparing to give her an alternative strategy revolving around turtling and letting Azhar waste his energy dodging. He figured this was better because Azhar, having not activated [Bowman's Stand], could not deal enough melee striking damage to really punch through the thick layers of Tia's bark-like scales.

Where before her scales had been smooth and spa.r.s.e, they now formed a formidable suit of emerald armor all around her, cl.u.s.tering into jagged stalact.i.te-like formations around her head like a helmet. Azhar's knife, a ceremonial bone knife designed for boosting shamanistic spells rather than providing raw offensive power, did not have the ability to get through that level of natural defense.

But Azhar raised his hand, bidding Li to stop.

"I got this," he said to Li, breaking his stare from Tia to make sure she did not understand him. "I can sense she's mighty riled up now."

Tia growled almost continuously by this point, her eyes wide and zeroed in on Azhar with concentrated bloodl.u.s.t. 

"She's frustrated, and that's good. Makin' her hit her head on the wall again and again, lettin' her emotions build up more and more – that's gonna' get her to evolve."

To prove his point, Azhar darted into Tia's range with his hands behind his back, prompting her to lunge at him. He swerved sideways, evading her cleanly. 

Azhar yawned. "Ain't trynna' make me fall asleep, are ya?" 

Tia attacked again, and once more, Azhar dodged.

This pattern continued over and over for almost half an hour. At the end, Tia stood panting heavily, clouds of noxious purple tinging her labored breaths. Azhar, meanwhile, squatted on the ground, twirling his dagger around his fingers, shrugging. 

But this time, there was change. 

Tia's bloodl.u.s.t had continually built up little by little. Her anger and frustration had shown in the way her teeth grinded against each other, how her claws dug into the dirt, how her muscles tensed up with savage intent. Li had no doubt that if she did manage to catch Azhar, she probably would try to kill him.

But now, with her anger reaching a boiling point, her emotions were legitimately, physically visible. They swirled around her in a malevolent, surging red aura tinged with the distinct pressure of magical energy.

The red ribbons of power fluttered as they started to concentrate around her back, swirling around each other as a maelstrom of spinning energy. The energy, ethereal in nature, began to solidify, shaping into wings.

"Look at that!" said Azhar excitedly. "She's flyin' already!"

Not quite. Li, though proud that she had managed to grow wings, saw that they were not quite developed. They were too small for her squatter and bulkier frame and likely would not give her enough lift to fly her for more than a few seconds at most. 

But as Tia leaped at Azhar again, Li saw that the wings beat once with powerful force, acting like thrusters that propelled her forwards at near twice the speeds she used to move at. She did not get this much faster sheerly because of her wings, she also used magical energy to move herself, casting it in the form of a skill Li recognized as [Aerial Charge].

It would seem that Tia did not need to learn skills like humans did. They came with her evolutions. 

"Woah now," said Azhar as he also dodged this attack, but this time, without using any wasted movements. 

Tia barreled past where Azhar had been, and, unable to fully control her wings, could not create a safe landing for herself and slammed into the ground unceremoniously, dragging through the dirt. When she stood up, gra.s.s and weeds clumped on her scales. She shook her body, flinging the debris away. 

As much as Tia could evolve, she could not hope to bridge the gap between herself and a professional and accomplished monster hunter such as Azhar in the span of a single day. 

Azhar said to Li, "That's bout' it for today. It ain't too good to force evolutions. Normal wyrms can handle one a week. Figured she could handle two in a row cause' she's gifted beyond anythin', but we should call it quits now and let her rest."

Li nodded, but when he looked over to Tia, his hand raised and ready to tell her to stop, he saw that she had absolutely no intention of stopping at all.

Azhar followed Li's gaze and looked behind him. Tia had driven her legs into the dirt, her claws extended to root her down. The raging red squalls of solidified bloodl.u.s.t still danced around her form, and now they concentrated around s.h.i.+mmering rings around her throat. Her mouth had opened, the jaw almost unhinging as her wings spread out backwards, stabilizing her aim. 

She was like a living cannon, and her cannonball of choice was an anti-life sh.e.l.l of ma.s.s destruction, and there was no stopping her.

"Oh s.h.i.+t," said Azhar, his phoenix tattoos on his back flas.h.i.+ng.