Unknowingly, a strand of Chaos Qi within Hao Xuan's meridian slowly slipped out and started circulating on its own. It was reacting to something, calling for something in this space.
The lightning bolts that had created a tightly interwoven net loosened just a little, just enough for a handful of lightning bolts to escape in another direction, not towards Hao Xuan but somewhere much further away.
But while Hao Xuan's mind was in that stupor following the movements of the escaped lightning, he missed something else, something much more significant.
As soon as the 'lightning net' loosened within the sea of clouds, a colossal avian wing shot forward trying to break through that small gap.
It was difficult to tell exactly how big it actually was since the sea of clouds was so high up that even light barely reached the surface, but even from a rough estimate it should have been several tens of thousands of meters long.
It struggled for a short moment trying to push through but the lightning net would not give an inch. From the periphery even more bolts materialized from the clouds and came forward trying to fill in the empty spaces.
The wing struggled before retreating deeper within the net but a second later a five-toed claw came out and attacked the same spot in the net.
Hao Xuan abruptly woke from the dazed state at this point. It was his own heartbeat that had made the wake-up call.
*Thump*Thump*
Two beats in quick succession sounded within the chest cavity. This time he could "feel" the change within his blood. The Lycan blood rushed through his veins and towards his upper body.
Hao Xuan could not 'see' the fight currently taking place within the sky but he could see its aftermath. The clouds moved back and forth as if something was writhing deep inside.
His breathing became heavier and heavier.
"What's going on..?" Hao Xuan accidentally mumbled out loud in the beast world's native tongue.
Burak who was not too far from him quickly diverted his attention towards Hao Xuan.
"What did you say, human?" he asked from a couple of meters away.
Hao Xuan numbly shook his head, "The sky, something is wrong with the sky..." he spoke in the beast world language again while raising his head.
Burak obviously could not understand him but he followed his line of sight and looked up as well. His brow furrowed even more.
"What? What's wrong with the sky? Did you see something?" Burak could not see anything, not even the lightning.
Hao Xuan's left eye started twitching as a stream of hot blood moved through the tiny capillaries within his eye and took off the veil that was preventing him from seeing the other reality.
His knees buckled and Hao Xuan fell to the ground powerless, weakly holding the left side of his head. It felt like someone had punched him in the face but for a short moment after that, he was able to see the immense avian silhouette caged within the lightning net fighting to get out. Its shadow was being cast on the clouds every time it attacked the lightning net.
"Is that...real...? No...it doesn't matter, we have to leave...!" he declared through labored breaths.
Burak walked up to him with a deep frown.
"Human, are you sick? Don't play tricks on me now!" he said with a hint of both concern and cautiousness, thinking that Hao Xuan was just messing with him. But when he touched Hao Xuan's shoulder trying to pick him up, a jolt of electricity ran through his body forcing him to pull his arm back.
"What-" for the first time since meeting him he looked at Hao Xuan in a new light, one of uncertainty and threat.
In the night sky the fight between the lightning net and the creature the talon belonged to was at a turning point. The talon ripped and tore, releasing blue energy orbs of its own to contend against the net's suppressing force.
It kept attacking the same spot until a series of interconnected bolts finally gave way and fell downwards.
Hao Xuan's pupils shrunk to the size of pinholes as he raised his hand shouting "LOOK OUT!" towards the barbarians at the front. But they couldn't understand what he was saying and even if they could, it was far too late to do anything about it.
*BOOOOM*
A bolt of yellow lightning struck the ground in front.. To the others it had materialized out of nowhere so there was no way they could have dodged it.