A single arm made of ice grabbed Ebony’s collar and threw him backwards. The [Alloy Fur Mammoth Lvl 280] was pissed as he had tested a new spell onto its sleeping body. The mammoth was so big and blended in the surroundings so well that he had been sitting atop without realising. No wonder Waning Presence had been getting some nice levels.
He tried his best to communicate that he meant no harm but the injuries he caused made it hard to justify and the Mammoth was too far into its rage. He didn’t want to kill it and ran away but the Mammoth somehow tracked him through a vast distance despite his active hiding. With its size it might not have been that far since it only took the Mammoth half an hour. Since it was so persistent, Ebony attacked back but his flames could barely stick onto the fur, he wasn’t able to freeze or even slow it down.
Gravity magic worked but it only seemed to anger it more and its rage fuelled its strength slightly further. His physical attacks weren’t able to pierce through the mana and lifeforce-filled fur. He was fascinated to see monsters imbuing both into their body to enhance themselves.
The Mammoth chased him as he attempted a second escape, he tried to dissuade it from chasing him and by the virtue of him using his brain he thought of scaring it away. Since his overflowing wisdom wasn’t scary enough, he thought along the lines of animals and imitated a roar with sound magic. From lions to monsters, it was only cute to the Mammoth who roared back even louder.
He had no choice but to wear out the Mammoth’s energy. It didn’t manage to hit him due to its bulky size, but even after its fur no longer gleamed with energy, Icicle only put small cuts on it.
It took 2 days of constant hacking, making him feel bad about the pain he put the giant Mammoth through. Most of the mammoth's body was ruined from his rough methods and there wasn’t anything he could salvage except a ton of fur that was longer than he was tall but only as thin as his own hair. He took it since the material seemed really suitable for making clothes. Although a lot of it was damaged there was more than enough that was in pristine condition since he attacked the same spot as much as possible. It was too bad that the creature didn't calm down even after he tired it out. He never would've won if he didn't manage to wear the mammoth's mana and stamina out.
He continued testing his new idea for a spell, pumping condensed ice mana into Icicle beyond its consumption capacity. Drawing all the gravity mana he could to help with his compression and connecting the tip to the ground by a thread of gravity mana. He tightened his grip to keep the vibration of the outer layer at its limit but he had to be especially careful about this part as he might accidentally let the vibrations to his greatsword which would probably damage it.
He couldn’t take it anymore and dropped Icicle from the air where he was floating at. It fell like a meteor but slid into the icy ground as if it was air. Unsure how far it continued sinking before the layer of Sonic Intrusion was released together with gravity mana that he freed from control and Icicle’s entire storage of ice mana.
The solid icy ground cracked a little over 50 metres in diameter with Icicle in the centre. The condensed ice mana was spread well and they burst into flames. It lasted for around 8 minutes.
This was the perfect place for him to test since the cracked ice floor only got repaired by his flames and he didn’t do much environmental damage.
‘I really like this spell. I wonder why? I should call it Icicle Drop. Wait, can I even name the spell?’
Ebony was unsure since it hadn’t formed into a skill yet. He also decided to practise roaring with sound magic from time to time.
They didn’t form a skill even after many days.
He decided to go back for a meal and bath.
He was still far away from the village when he felt the intense heat. A naked forest was in front of him before long. No snow for kilometres on end and the ground was burned black..
Then he heard Ning Xin’s voice. Closer to a roar than a scream.
“COME OUT! COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT!”
He hurried only to see her pounding on the ground with her fist. After scanning the area for dangers did he make his presence known.
“What happened?” He was wise enough to call out from a distance as she drew and swung her sword reflexively.
She continued to attack him for half a minute before she slackened on her offence and her rage died down.
What was left of her mantle was scraps of cloth and there were cuts all over her battle wear. Her pale and flawless skin was bright red but there was no blood, neither did he see any injuries. Her regeneration was inhuman and although slower than his even after her Core skill is pushed to the limit her regeneration of pure vitality doesn’t have the flaw of a weakened body like his regeneration had. His own regeneration was far faster but if he were to lose a limb and regenerate it, it would be weakened by quite a bit until his Vitality caught up. If he were to get an important organ smashed or stabbed many times, that would put his body in a bad state too.
He pulled out a coat to cover her up as she started to hyperventilate but only for 5 breaths, she got a hold of herself a lot quicker than before.
“What made you so mad? Or who?” He questioned again.
“Hi..hide your presence. Let’s go back first.”
He took out their trailer where she had a few sets of clothes stored. She didn’t even take a bath since they shouldn’t take that long to arrive at Arcta.
“We can talk here.” The trailer would hide them better than he can with Waning Presence.
Her aura was so heated up that the villagers would probably be very uncomfortable, it might be bad for Kiva and that may be why she cooled herself off relatively quickly.
“It's…just the person who was in charge of kidnapping you.”
“The Fire Grandmaster Warrior?” Ebony was asleep and didn’t even know what the man looked like but she told him before.
“Mm. I…still couldn’t beat him.”
“He ran right?” He recalled her yelling for someone to come back out to fight her.
Ebony knew he struck a nerve from her reaction.
“I couldn’t land a hit properly but he...got tired of fighting me. Then he went underground with the help of an earth mage. Maybe the same one that sister Jing told us about.” Ning Xin was very salty but she didn’t hide it from him.
She also didn’t personally see the earth mage before in the past due to her being blinded by rage. This time was similar, she didn’t care about anything else and forgot about the earth mage.
“Was he trying to kill you?” Ebony actually didn’t have an impression of that unknown man but from what he was told before and even now, it was obvious he wasn’t trying to kill her previously.
“No. I'm going to be the one who kills him.”
“Hmm. I actually think he’s not so bad.” He was simple-minded. The fact that Ning Xin was bent on killing him but he didn’t try to kill her despite the two chances he got gave Ebony a slightly better impression of him. He didn’t know anything about the man for a deeper impression.
“He took you away.”
“He was just hired, the ones who hired him are the ones I have issues with. Actually, I might go to them soon.” He already knew who ordered him to be kidnapped and the person had bodyguards and employees that were many times weaker than fire warrior that Ebony imagined. It was someone Ning Xin still couldn’t beat, he had to be quite something.
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“I think he said something about that and that he wouldn’t be after you anymore. I…I guess he was trying not to kill me as best as he could.” Ning Xin listened to him.
“So you can spare him the death sentence right?”
“I’ll still need to beat him up, look!” She showed him her torn mantle and shirt before she got embarrassed at showing him more skin than she expected. She ran back to her room to get changed.
“Yeah. I have to beat him up too.” Ebony just got a reason to beat someone he had never seen.
Then again, he wasn’t able to damage her equipment to that degree so he was indeed interested in his strength. At least, the Grandmasters they met at Vermin Paradise didn’t actually appear much stronger than both of them. Maybe the ones fighting the Earthfly royal guards were stronger but he still couldn't imagine them beating her to this point. Her clothes weren't exactly armour except maybe her new bodysuit since her policy was that there was no need for armour if she didn't plan on getting hit but it was still something made by Kong Jing.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Roya greeted them at the door.
“Bada!” Kiva stood up from where she was playing Jenga blocks by herself.
“Hi Kiva!” He didn’t even know he sounded excited when she saved him from the awkwardness. He wanted to catch her fall but she managed to stand up with a single Jenga block clasped in her tiny fist. He introduced the game to them and it had been trending amongst some families.
She was forming a square instead of playing Jenga and he joined her instead of ruining her set-up.
He could hear a shy voice like a child who got caught doing misdeeds apologising for destroying a part of the glades but he was surprised to hear that she was actually preventing further harm because the other guy was the one who started burning everything as a magma giant.
He also learnt that that unnamed man was someone that helped the village clear dungeons in the Icy region whenever the second village didn’t have enough manpower or time to do so. The village chief’s party couldn’t clear dungeons that deep quickly and the guardian wouldn’t leave the village without a good reason.
“Our guardian beast is actually reaching soon.” Roya appeared excited. It was also her first time seeing their guardian beast, she had only ever heard about it.
It wasn’t like Ning Xin was done absorbing Gorpede’s blood and he still wanted to expand his skillset. He could stay for a few days to find out what he was doing wrong that he couldn’t get the new skills he envisioned.
A huge change of habit was that he tried his best to shut Everlasting Tranquillity off rather than keep it up. It wasn’t easy but in the short moments he succeeded, he was confused as to how to feel. There was so much noise. So much static. Just so many things going on at the same time, shutting his mana perception proved to be more difficult so he had to take everything in.
It was too dangerous to keep that up within the wilds but since he was back, he was going to attempt living a day without meditation. Honestly, it was a scary thought to have so much static and useless information cloud himself.
“Come here Kiva.” Ning Xin sat across the floor and tried to bait the little girl away with frozen milk candy.
It was a little weird that both of them just sat through Roya’s scoldings as if they were her children.
“What are you thinking about?” Ebony asked as he fought to hold Kiva’s attention with the Jenga block.
She didn’t reply but her gaze felt different
“What?” He waited but only silence came so he urged her to say something.
“Nothing. I didn’t think you would ask, usually, you’ll just give me space and wait till I say something. Is something on your mind?” She turned the question around immediately.
“...I ask how you are all the time. Why do you think I have something on my mind?”
“Hm. You do, but only when you worry after I get injured or something. Anything that troubles my mind or anyone else's, you don’t really care unless they speak up to you. When it comes to strangers I think you intentionally avoid anything ‘troublesome’. Wasn’t that how you first saw me? Troublesome.” Ning Xin lost Kiva’s attention as she wasn’t hungry for candy so she dived to pick her up and give her tickles.
“...were you always so sharp?”
Ning Xin put Kiva on her feet and poised one hand on her tiny hip and the other to point at Ebony.
“Was that an insult? I just thought it was helpful that neither of us cared to involve ourselves with overly troublesome matters.”
“No. A compliment.”
“So? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m trying not to meditate. I’m trying to put my mind on something but I find it so troublesome…nevermind, all I can think about now is what you’re thinking about or how you’re feeling anyway.” Ebony coughed and felt his face getting a little warm.
He was getting confused at the sudden flush. He calmed down when his first Core skill kicked in and thought that he must have gotten embarrassed that she was right and he just dumped troublesome thoughts right away. Just like the present, he fell back into meditation so that he didn’t have to face his emotions. He forcefully pushed himself out and put his mind to wondering why his heart rate increased for no apparent reason.
Since his attention came back so quickly, he managed to glimpse Ning Xin with her weird long pauses that she does from time to time talking to him.
Now he had things to think about, he could remember every single time she acted that way and reverse engineer what he said that brought the reaction. He also needed to know what the reaction meant.
Seeing how she was so distracted, he caught Kiva who was walking towards the Jenga blocks but she snapped out of it at the same time to catch her.
“Thank you, I think I know how to snap out of meditation and maybe even keep myself from falling into a trance. I just have to think about you. What a simple solution, I can do that as easily as meditating. I’ll go get some frost plums.” Ebony was enlightened and the incredibly simple solution he found. Now he had a on and off switch, if he wasn’t meditating he would probably not fall into a trance randomly.
“Bada? Sa?” Kiva called out, she didn’t realise that she almost hit the floor and her attention quickly went back to the fascinating rectangular blocks before her.
He ran out to get some fresh fruits to celebrate, leaving Ning Xin running to get someone else to look over Kiva.
❅❅❅
A new hole opened up on Tova’s coastline.
“Attack! Don’t let them recover!” The weaponless captain, Cain Clayson formed a blade out of mana and started lashing out after Hector’s punch. As he expected, 1 of the Trolls was mostly intact while the others got flattened by half their height.
They did get a strategically good position as the Trolls recognised the danger and protected themselves with their thick muscles and condensation of life force.
One of his men ran and caught Hector’s limp body, smart enough to protect himself with mana or even touching the Journeyman would hurt. They couldn’t do any more for him at the moment.
“...Retreat in groups.” Cain said after 20 seconds of all their ranged attacks but he didn’t stop attacking.
“What? They’re going to survive if we retreat.” The water mage complaint.
“We took too much time and made too much noise! We won’t have time to retreat if we wait any longer. So what if we manage to kill 8 of them after another hour of spending most of our stamina and mana. We don’t have any magic users that can restrain or weaken them effectively. Move! Back to the cave near the beach.” None of his soldiers liked what they heard by going back to square one but the captain’s words made sense.
The wood mage was trying his best but he was only one man, showering them with splinters gave a better result than trying to restrain them. They would break with brute force if he held them down but the numerous splinters made their regeneration problematic.
Although Cain wasn’t sure what element Hector’s black beam of light was made off, it was hindering the Trolls' regeneration pretty well.
“Squad 4 and 5 will head the retreat, keep on the lookout and make sure our path is clear. 2 and 3 would move 15 seconds later. Squad 1 right after them.” They had exactly 5 parties worth and he already allocated squad leaders.
“What about you sir?”
“Begin retreat!” Cain ignored his soldiers but they followed his orders without hesitation. He personally leapt into the crater to stop the strongest Troll from relocating his own elbow. The Trolls all carried a shield but none of them had an intact shield anymore.
With 10 fewer people, he could immediately see the Trolls picking themselves up. No longer on the verge of dying. 15 seconds never felt so long for his remaining men, the trolls managed to regain a humanoid shape. Squad 2 and 3 picked themselves together and left. One of them carried Hector.
Squad 1 was waiting for their leader's command but it never came.
“Fools! Go protect them!”
“...Let’s go.”
Cain was surrounded soon after, the Trolls were effectively defenceless now that their equipment was broken and he was in a similar state.
He was surprised that the strongest Troll stopped the others from attacking him all at once even though it also gave them the chance to recover fully.
“What now?” Cain didn’t really like that they gave up their big chance to gang up on him.
“You. warrior. Not prey.” The strongest Troll present pointed at him and spoke their tongue with a little discomfort but fluently.
Cain’s nerves relaxed as he laughed as if trying to gain the world’s attention.
“Those fools of mine never answered my question. It was such a simple question too.”
The Trolls didn’t react to him as their bodies gave off disturbing sounds as their bones were pieced together and their tissues rejoined.
“So what if we kill 8 of you? Obviously, that means we have 8 less scum to worry about.” He scanned them again, none of them were higher level than him at 300.
Cain Clayson the Arcane Warrior didn’t need a weapon nor the Imperial’s amour.