Welcome to the ecology of Aqua Laguna, today we talk about a pretty common creature that wanders through the whole land, (Cinder: More common than what we already saw?) but are mostly found in areas with much vegetation, trees, bushes and the likes, the Humanoid Class race, the Shu-Refledur or just Refledur, (Jaune: Is it just me or does that sound a lot like Shu-Jians?/ Penny: It must be a relative, many creatures share a name between each other, at least in biological terms.) the strongest members of the Shu-Family. (Blake: The strongest!? Then what is Shakara!? Chopped liver!?) Considering they're a humanoid class, I was able to ask one to help showcase their capabilities and characteristics.
"Ooohh! WE get to see one in action!" Ruby cheered at the news, "All Humanoids must be pretty reasonable if he was able to convince one." Weiss commented.
The camera turns to face the aforementioned volunteer. (Nora: It's that huge thing!) "Thank you again for your assistance sir" "No problem." (Winter: I think they were meant to cut this./ Emerald: Maybe?) Now to begin the Bio-Analysis, the most dominant trait you'll have noticed is the long cape of feathers. (Phyrra: So they're birds?/ Ren: Some kind of dinosaur possibly, that one looks too big to fly.) "Please turn, thank you." You can see how the feathers aren't shaped appropriately to provide actual flight, (Ren: With dinosaur out of the window, they must be flightless birds.) in fact they're more useful for gliding and camouflage. (Blake: I'm sorry, did he say camouflage?/ Weiss: That seems pretty impractical, those feathers stand out so much.) The feathers started changing between every possible color, even transparent. (Weiss: I take back what I said also WHAT!?/ Ruby: THAT IS AWESOME!) The color changing allows for incredible ambush tactics, (Emerald: I'll say! I don't think I can even make illusions like that!) from mimicking plants to other creatures entirely, (Winter: Other creatures? That... Shouldn't be possible./ Phyrra: It probably depends on the size of what they're mimicking.) of course the color changing isn't limited to the feather, but also the skin.
"Oh okay, I was wondering how transparent was useful." Weiss sighed, "It actually is really useful, if they find themselves in a pinch they can turn transparent to make a quick escape." Penny deduced.
Of course you'll probably have noticed the hood that's attached to the cape, (Jaune: I didn't actually- Is that a face?/ Nora: Did you say fa-ooh my God it is.) this hood is made of skin, (Weiss: So it's part of, okay.../ Ruby: That's so gross! Just a layer of sking hanging off your shoulders!) feathers are attached to it so it's obviously part of the body, but what may trick you, is the mask that's connected to the hood, (Jaune: It's a mask?/ Ren: It must be made of bone in that case, or keratin maybe.) that is still part of the body despite what it looks like. The Refledur put on it's hood to better show the mask.(Weiss: Oh that's horrible!/ Ruby: It looks like a demon!/ Nora: An incredibly awesome demon!) This mask is... Boney, literally, made out of the same stuff as Shu-Jians bones, (Blake: Calcium I'd assume./ Yang: You should know better by now thna to think any of these work by our standards.) meaning diamond fiber, (Cinder: ...You know? I was expecting everything out of this, but this, this I wasn't expecting./ Penny: That should be impossible though! To be able to develop diamonds in your body you'd need an unprecedented amount of nutrients!) this makes it incredibly resilient, however the fact that's it's attached to just three layers of skin also makes it easy for it to get yanked off, (Phyrra: Oh why!? Why did he have to give us this image!?) not a pleasent thing, and also really debilitating since it's used mainly for intimidation, thankfully Refledurs have an incredible regeneration system.
"Oh good I was worried for a moment there." Blake sighed in relief, "Me too, intimidation is a main strategy for a lot of predators." Jaune agreed, "But how good is this regeneration? If it all grows back like skin and nails then it's not that good." Cinder commente.
The Refledur used it's claws to cut off it's own arm, only for it to grow back a few seconds later exactly how it was before, without even any scars. (Emerald: Does that answer your question?/ Cinder, but it honestly scares me.) This trait is shared between every race that's part of the Shu-Family, (Winter: Oh great! We got MORE creature that are hard to put down./ Ruby: Come on, they're not that bad./ Winter: Think what would happen if they decided to attack us!/ A random Refledur outside the window: Wow, I climb something to get a good starting height for a long glide and I hear this? Screw you! I hope you get labeled as a sl*t! *The Refledur took off gliding.*/ Weiss: ...I'll be honest sister, you were asking for that.) but the Refledur is the only one capable of growing back a perfect copy of the limb before it got cut off, superficial damage is also included in this, the regeneration takes quite a bit of energy though, there's a reason Refledurs are mainly ambush predators, (Penny: When he says it like that, it would be better to save energies.) to avoid having to waste energies they can easily save for something more important, and speaking of hunting, let's talk about it.
"We're going to see it kill?" Nora asked, "Probably not, we didn't see the smaller ones do it." Emerald shot down.
First and foremost, we'll talk about what happens if a Refledur can't manage to kill it's prey with the initial ambush, (Jaune: Good question, do they retreat?) the answer is: They'll try again, (Blake: Try again? It's an ambush, how do you try again?/ Winter: It's possible, but you need to be good.) they're so good at hiding that they can prepare another ambush in the middle of a fight, (Ruby: In the middle of a fight!?/ Weiss: Yes apparently.../ Emerald: You can only be so good at hiding!/ Penny: They can still go invisible though.) and while it may not be as effective as the first one, it's still good enough to get in some pretty major damage, (Ren: Yeah, an ambush is an ambush, there's only so many counters.) and even then, they're perfectly capable of handling themselves in a fight through pure strength and intimidation, and they're really good at intimidation. The Refledur size suddenly increased, making it as big as a tree, and it's feathers changed to dark colors and it put on it's mask.
Everyone was left speechless at the terrifying display, "WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT!?" Jaune yelled, "WHAT IS IT!? AN OCTOPUS THAT IT'S BODY EXPANDS LIKE THAT!?" Penny yelled.
You can see how much scarier it is like this, right? If not, the fact that it can pull boulders out of the ground and toss them with so much ease they seem ping pong balls probably will scare you, if not then I really don't know what to tell you, (Cinder: I'll say! That's the scariest thing I've ever seen besides Salem!/ Yang: Agreed!) but since we're here, let's talk about some of the minor things to know about Refledurs, if the feathers didn't clue you in, they're a type of bird, (Blake: Okay we got that.) in fact, if you didn't notice, the mask has a beak, (Ruby: It does? *Weiss rewinded a bit.* Oh it does!/ Weiss: I didn't notice at all.) also, since they're birds, they lay eggs the size of bowling balls, (Ren: Did he just say bow-) that includes the cubs, (Everyone's eyes widened./ Phyrra: And they're smaller?) and yes the eggs are still that big, (Cinder: Oh my goodness.../ Nora: That must hurt like hell!) although the cubs can't be fertilized (Yang: Oh okay good./ Ruby: How do they know though?) (Author: I know someone thought about it, step up and admit it.), the eggs are also very tasty, it's not uncommon to see a refledur eating it's own unfertilized eggs, (Emerald: ...Better than to leave them where they laid them? I guess?/ Nora: Somehow everything they say is edible sounds like it tastes delicious.) or they practice how to nurture them, mostly done by the soon to be mothers.
"Awww~" Some of the girls cooed, "That's sweet~" Weiss smiled before she realized something, "Wait that should have been the last information, why isn't he giving us his goodbye?" She wondered.
And that was the regular Refledurs, but notice I said regular, (Blake: Yeah, that's weird...) Refledurs are one of the few creatures to have what's known as a Blessed Kindred, (Nora: Blessed? They have Gods? Scratch that, they have Religion?) to explain simply, there are different Moon Phases on Aqua Laguna, (Weiss: Wow, thank you, we have that too.) I'll go into detail in the next episode, but for context, know that the moon can glow many different colors, (Weiss: Nevermind, we don't have it.) and if a Refledur is born under a Green Moon, they become a Nature Soul Refledur, (Yang: Over the top much?) first thing to note, these ones can actually fly, (Winter: That's actually a huge change!) meaning that they now have the option to dive bomb on their prey, and due to their regeneration and durable bones, they can easily handle the damage on themselves, (Penny: The damage of crushing down is the reason as to why most flying creatures don't use tactic, but the Refledur doesn't have that!) not to mention that their senses are cranked up to 50, letting them have a 360 vision even with their eyes closed, thanks to their sense of smell and hearing, (Ruby: Damn, a Blessed Kindred isn't to be messed around!) lastly, under their feathers theres vines that act like a proximity snare letting them be even better predators since they don't have to move to catch their prey.
"OH FOR F*CK'S SAKE!" Cinder lamented, "I KNOW RIGHT!? AS IF THEY WEREN'T DANGEROUS ENOUGH ALREADY!" Emerald agreed.
That was it for the Shu-Refledur, see you next time with the Moon Phases.
"With just the Blessed Kindred these Moon Phases sound horrifying, andthe fact that there's a documentary on them means that they can do more..." Blake thought outloud, "That's real bad." Winter deadpanned, "Let's see what horros await us..." Weiss hesitated before turning to the next episode.