While walking through the forest heading back home, I thought back to when Master and Talis were interacting with each other, which caused me to wonder if Master also could speak to animals or maybe Talis was able to speak to Master; I wouldn't know since I'm the only non-beast Talis has interacted with, well besides Master.
"Master, do you know how to speak or understand beast tongue? Because earlier, I saw you and Talis seemingly having a rather friendly conversation, even though you two haven't met before." Asked Alexander in curiosity as he glanced at Talis quietly perched atop his shoulder and Lavender, who was walking directly beside him through the dense vegetation.
"So her name is Talis? No, I don't understand anything she says; to me, it sounds like nothing but cute little chirps of a young bird." Replied Lavender softly with a shake of her head, causing Alexander to look at Talis.
"Can you understand, Master, Talis?"
"Hmm, nope; I have absolutely no idea what she's saying, but she gives off a gentle and friendly aura." Said Talis while shaking her little head, though all Lavender heard was high-pitched chirping.
"If neither of you can understand the other, how were you behaving like long-time friends, even though today is the first time you've met each other?" Questioned Alexander with furrowed brows as he confusedly glanced between the two, causing Talis to dismissively shrug her wings while Lavender softly chuckled.
"Hehe, I may not understand beast tongue as you call it, Alexander, but having lived for so long and experienced many things, I've come to acquire many useful and useless abilities, such as the ability to read one's mind." Said Lavender with a slight chuckle as she looked at the astonished Alexander.
"Now, before you say anything, it's not as powerful as you imagine; at least the skill I have isn't that powerful; all I can do is read one's purest emotions, so while I may not be able to understand detailed and complex words, I can at least grasp the basis of what they are trying to convey." Added Lavender, her words calming Alexander, though he was still surprised at such a revelation.
"It may not be as potent as I expected, but it's still a powerful skill to have; I mean, you can basically tell if someone is lying to you, and I'm sure in your previous line of business as Adventurers, such a thing was convenient in avoiding wicked people." Stated Alexander with a thoughtful expression while Lavender nodded in agreement.
"Yes, it's helped quite a few times; being an adventure and facing powerful monsters is dangerous, but monsters aren't the only enemies you must watch out for. Your fellow colleagues are possibly even more dangerous than the monster you face since they actually have intellect and aren't just mindlessly brutes that want to kill you." Replied Lavender with a frown while biting her lip and tightly clutching her fist before looking at Alexander, causing the anguish in her heart to gradually lessen as she returned to normal and smiled.
"Wait a second! Is that how you know whenever I'm lying?" Remarked Alexander as he squinted his eyes in suspicion and eyed Lavender, who released a melodic laugh in response.
"Fufufu, who knows? A magician never reveals their secrets." Said Lavender with a wink while smiling in pure happiness as she teleported a few meters before Alexander.
"I'm the one who told you that catchphrase, Master!" Yelled Alexander in annoyance as he chased after the laughing Lavender, who teleported away just before getting caught.
This chase between Master and Disciple continued until they arrived home, while a little birdie full of confusion also tagged along.
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While tightly clutching my two greatswords, I rested Trina atop my shoulder and let her elder sister hang beside me as I warily eyed the powerful opponent in the distance. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath before opening them with a hardened gaze as I instantly utilized the skill, [Wind Steps], causing the bottom half of my legs to be engulfed in a vortex of wind.
Powerfully pushing off the ground, I dashed toward the enemy at full speed, yet while doing so, with incredible speed and accuracy, my opponent cast numerous massive icicles and launched them at me. Seeing the incoming attacks, I activated my most used skill, [Heroes Gaze], causing my eyes to emit a soft glow.
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Once I activated the skill, I was given a full three-sixty view of my surroundings, allowing me to see several icicles heading toward me from behind, while my perception of time drastically slowed down to what felt like a snail's pace; however, even though I could now perceive things slower, that didn't mean my speed had increased, only my perception had been enhanced. As I looked at the icicles that were slowly yet steadily heading straight toward me, It didn't take more than but a few moments for me to realize that all of my escape paths had been blocked off except for one, and it was obvious to me, that it was purposely left there.
Looking back at my opponent, who was already in the midst of casting another spell, I smirked as I filled Trina with space mana and utilized the skill, [Void Slash] while slashing toward the icicles in front of me, although my attack wasn't visible to the naked eye, well except for my eyes, one would still be able to sense the mana in my attack as it speedily arrived before the icicles cutting them perfectly in half.
Although my attack didn't get all of the icicles, it did its job by making an escape path, which I used as I darted toward the left, avoiding all the other icicles aiming at me, causing them to embed themselves deeply into the ground. While dashing toward my opponent, I noticed she had finished casting her spell, and instantly after, I felt a rumble beneath my foot as the very ground began moving as if it was alive.
The ground around me started to grow as it formed around me, seemingly attempting to trap me in a ball or cocoon, and though the spell wasn't that fast-acting, its range covered a massive area, which made it difficult to deal with, well except for me; making a sharp right, I dashed up the wall, and once I approached the top of the earth wall that was about to seal itself, I jumped off it before jumping once more in the air, using the skill, [Air Jump] as I made it through the small hole just in time.
However, it seemed like my foe was expecting me to escape since in the sky, there was a large black cloud that rumbled, and not even a few seconds later, it began raining, covering the entire battlefield, along with me and the one who cast this spell, in water, causing the massive earth cocoon I was standing on to slowly break apart as it turned into mud. As I was about to land on the ground, numerous sharp earth spikes emerged from the ground where I was about to land, though given that the rain had weakened them, I launched a [Fire Blast] at the spikes, weakening them even further just before I landed on them, breaking my fall.
'Ouch, that still slightly hurt.' Mused Alexander as he ignored the slight pain that vanished quickly because of his incredible healing factor.
As my feet dug into the mud, I pushed off the squishy ground and neared my opponent. While doing so, the previous torrential downpour of rain abruptly stopped, causing me to furrow my eyebrows as I looked at the calm opponent, feeling as if something terrible was about to happen.
"You've improved a lot since last month, but how will you fare against something you've never witnessed before?" Said the woman lightly as she snapped her fingers, causing the ground to shake once more, though this time with much more intensity.
Coming to a stop from the intense shaking, I looked at the ground that stood between me and my opponent, and with widened eyes, I watched how the earth came together and began forming a massive earth golem that completely towered over me.
"Isn't this a little bit cheating; it's two-on-one now?" Remarked Alexander as he observed the massive mud golem with his eyes, searching for any possible weak points.
"So? You don't expect your enemies to be nice enough to fight you one-on-one, do you?" Replied the woman with a soft chuckle, while Alexander nodded in agreement.
Looking at the golem reel its big arm back before punching me, I swiftly jumped into the air, dodging its attack before landing atop its fist; as I attempted to run up its arms, that quickly proved to be a mistake, as tendrils emerged from its arm and tried grabbing me. Evading them wasn't easy, as there were numerous tendrils, not to mention cutting them didn't make a difference, as the pieces would just fall onto the golem's arm, only for them to get reabsorbed back into its body.
While running atop the golems, dodging numerous tendrils, I raised Trina into the air as I used, [Expand] causing her size to increase until she was double her previous size; with her now increased size, I swung her downward at the arm below my feet and without much resistance, I sliced the golems arm off its body as it fell to the ground; however, just as I did that, a tendril managed to wrap itself around my arm that held Trina.
As I went to slice the tendril keeping that restrained my arm, several tendrils got in the way of my greatsword, attempting to stop me, yet although they proved futile, they did manage to slow me down, and unfortunately, that was all it needed before another tendril wrapped itself around my other arm, stopping me just a few inches before freeing my arm. With both arms restrained, it didn't take long until the rest of my limbs were wrapped with tendrils, immobilizing me, though just as I was about to cast [Blink], I suddenly saw the golem's other arm appear right before my body.
'This'll hurt.' Thought Alexander, as he swiftly strengthened his body with mana before suddenly getting punched with such force that he crashed into the ground below.
"You lasted much longer than I anticipated, but you still lost, Alexander." Said the woman lightly as she stood above the small crater Alexander's body created as the massive mud golem in the background began deforming.