The 43rd UGEN Fighting Tournament: An Unmissable Event.
Flocks of birds in the Tokyo sky were desperately avoiding two units in pursuit.
The leader of the crows, being pursued, was extremely annoyed. If he hadn't been afraid of dropping the invitation he was clutching in his talons and disappointing his master, he would have long since executed a swift turn and knocked down the obnoxious fellow relentlessly chasing him!
But there was no choice. His master had given orders, and the opponent was not easy to kill, so he could only try to continue to evade him.
This was a fellow who had successfully broken free from a flock of Spearows, evolved, and ultimately counter-attacked. His temperament was actually quite savage.
He hadn't even shaken off the first one when the sound of a second one breaking through the wind rang out.
As a big shot among corvids, this specially trained crow leader was also an existence whose speaking ability rivaled that of Team Rocket's Meowth, and this inevitably caused his way of thinking to lean towards that of humans.
So, upon sensing another whoosh, the crow leader instinctively wanted to turn back and curse.
But when he clearly saw the newcomer, the human curse words in his throat were swallowed back directly.
An Aerodactyl, whose bloodline was mixed with something unknown, bared a predator's smile at him. This even made him recall, in a flash, the ferocious bird faces of the Spearow flock.
"Save me! Save me! Master! Save me!!!!!"
The crow leader, showing rich emotion in his words and actions, was scared out of his wits. The invitation, which he had held firmly for 18 hours, slipped from his talons the moment the Aerodactyl officially appeared.
There was nothing he could do; he had encountered his natural enemy. The Aerodactyl's appearance was indeed terrifying.
But just as the invitation fell, the being that had been chasing the crow leader all morning executed a direct dive and a graceful grab, catching the invitation in his talons. The Aerodactyl, who had been ordered to snatch the invitation, also shifted his gaze from the crow leader to the very beautiful, more realistically drawn Goshawk—
Mamahaha, Nakoruru's guardian spirit from *Samurai Shodown*, is currently in a materialized state of a nature spirit. If explained with Pokémon attributes, Mamahaha is now in a "Ghost + Flying" state, similar to Drifloon.
"It's Mamahaha... So the question is, in what capacity is Nakoruru appearing?"
Cheng Tian, who finally saw through the live broadcast that the being chasing the crow leader was Mamahaha, voiced his heartfelt question.
As a character from *Samurai Shodown*, Nakoruru had also appeared consecutively in both official *King of Fighters* sequels and manga works.
He remembered that in the manga, it seemed that nature sensed some kind of crisis, so it brought Nakoruru forth as a materialized nature spirit shamaness.
However, while Cheng Tian recognized Mamahaha, this Aerodactyl did not. He only knew that whoever held the invitation, he would snatch it from them and beat them. Thus, the protagonist of the chase changed from Mamahaha chasing the crow leader to the Aerodactyl chasing Mamahaha.
Prioritizing his master's command over his instinct to toy with his prey, the Aerodactyl began to unleash his innate ability, 'Pressure,' while his fully spread wings, like a fighter jet, steadily launched stone projectiles called 'Continuous Rock Slide.'
At this moment, the crow leader, who had been greatly frightened by the Aerodactyl's initial appearance, actually endured his fear of the Aerodactyl, even somewhat enraged, and followed them again, completely forgetting his master's earlier instruction: "If the invitation falls, find a place to hide and meet me at night"!
Sometimes, when pets are highly intelligent, they exhibit the Border Collie effect, meaning they cleverly do things they believe are right, thereby defying their owner's wishes.
So, the crow leader let out an extremely unpleasant cry towards the Aerodactyl and Mamahaha, like a crow's beak scratching sharply on a blackboard.
Upon hearing this cry, the Aerodactyl and Mamahaha suddenly felt that the crow was so irritating, and at the same time, a strong surge of anger erupted within them, and a temporary bonus of Power +5 appeared on their status panels.
But at the same time, a DEBUFF representing "Chaos" also appeared on their panels—
Bluff Lv4: Enrages the target, making them angry and increasing their power, but also causing them to potentially attack surrounding targets indiscriminately for a period, including former teammates and themselves. Bluff changes from a single-target to an area-of-effect skill. (Lv4 additional enhancement)
Dragon and bird were both enraged, but Mamahaha broke through the confusion effect and accurately found the crow leader he wanted to hit. However, in the Aerodactyl's eyes, Mamahaha had transformed into the crow leader.
He saw flames on his upper teeth and frost on his lower teeth in his wide-open mouth, and he directly bit towards Mamahaha.
The Aerodactyl, who had already acquired Spade and Heart mutations through the Innovation Lab, had already perfected his 'Dual Wingbeat' skill. As long as he bit, there was a high probability of adding burning and freezing effects.
But Mamahaha's gaze was solely on the crow leader, and colorful light, preparing for an impact, was already emanating from his body.
But just then, an invisible force directly controlled Mamahaha, and with a whoosh, forcibly dragged him down from mid-air!
Approximately ten seconds later, the name of the live broadcast channel changed from "Nature Team" to "Cold Front Team."
The invitation in Mamahaha's talons fell into the hands of Daiki Yamada, whose expression remained somewhat distorted after taking a punch from World.
"Retreat!"
Daiki Yamada waved his hand, signaling the Twin Dragon brothers to immediately escape.
Although the path was completely different from the original, they had at least gotten the item, so there was no need to continue entangled with World and the Hooligan Team.
But while he wanted to leave, Cheng did not want him to.
World's large hand pressed on Yamada's shoulder.
"What else do you want to do!? Don't you already have an invitation!?"
Daiki Yamada shrieked, clutching the invitation to his chest.
His response was World's fist, raised again and poised to strike.
Looking at the massive fist that didn't actually come down, Yamada instinctively ducked his head, then finally had no choice but to hand over the invitation he was clutching.
In fact, upon seeing this scene, not only Cheng Tian himself, but also the audience and people from other seeded teams and preliminary teams were curious about what would happen when a seeded team snatched from another seeded team.
As both live broadcast channels changed to "Ollilili Team," Cheng Tian's official mobile phone also rang precisely.
"First, congratulations on simultaneously holding 2 main event invitations."
"If you can possess 2 or more invitations by the end of the preliminaries, you can designate a corresponding number of existing teams to substitute and participate in the upcoming main event phase, becoming official top sixteen teams."
"Do not doubt, this is a fix. The Fighting Tournament is where the strong reign supreme, and the strong are inherently the ones who set the rules. If you can snatch others' invitations, you naturally have the right to decide their fates. This rule will apply to all existing teams."
This was not only said to Cheng Tian but also to all teams in the preliminaries and all viewers.
With this announcement, the atmosphere of the preliminaries immediately underwent a subtle change.