It had been a trick. A demonstration of materialization so fine and quick that it had been only a translucent flash that still did its job in preventing the soundwaves from traveling their original path, making for an effective distraction as the origin of the soundwaves was confused. Then the beast flew out of the cave and slammed into Aurelius.

Cade had not seen Aurelius perform any setups. So if her eyes did not fool him, as they very, very rarely did, Aurelius was dead.

Cade didn't bother to check.

'He did his job in luring out the beast. His life was his own responsibility. Forget him. Just another name. If he is still alive, he'll survive by himself until you take care of the beast, anyway,' Cade rushed through thoughts, resolving to give the beast all her attention and throwing her bag aside.

Once the beast slowed down from the burst of speed, it was revealed to her in all its monstrosity. It was a hawk-like, malnutritioned-looking bird monster. It had wide wings riddled with black and gray feathers, like most of its body. There was something that separated its wings from the rest of its body, however. There were red marks on them, which made them leave a red trail as the beast sped around.

For some reason, it hadn't seemed to notice Cade and was about to pursue Aurelius. That's why Cade breathed in and took a stable stance before outstretching her arms and putting her hands together before a beam shot out. As expected, it was noticed and dodged by the beast.

The goal hadn't been to hit it, though; it was just to attract its attention. At that, it had succeeded.

The beast turned to Cade with an exaggerated movement of its wings, fixing its bloodshot, black eyes on her. Then it flapped its wings directly behind itself, launching at Cade with a sudden burst of speed.

The beast seemed to have incredible agility and unorthodox speed that worked in large bursts. It also seemed to be fairly durable since it had such confidence that it launched itself at things with no regard for its own safety.

Still, regardless of its durability, it should have known better than to act so recklessly. Cade made up her mind to make sure to teach it that.

The beast enjoyed its rush of speed all the way up until Cade dodged out of its way and materialized a spike as the extension of her arm and shoved it into the side of the beast. Dark red blood, diluted with some black substance, spurted out of the wound and onto Cade as she drew it all the way across the beast's tough hide.

She couldn't do much damage, though, as the beast hit the wall of the mountain instead of her and started thrashing with its wings. It managed to slam one into Cade, flinging her off the platform.

It then turned around to see what damage it had caused with the hard impact, only to see Cade unscathed, standing on a smooth, almost translucent light-blue platform.

Not only had she used lengthened compression, enhancement of both her body and senses, and materialization but also reinforcement. She wiped her sweat and some diluted blood off of her forehead with her sleeve before readying herself again. There was a limit on how long she could exert herself enough to fight a cursed beast with relative safety, so she had to end it fast.

She rushed forward toward the idle beast, another platform materializing under her feet. The beast didn't wait to be attacked, however, and took action. It wasn't in its nature to act defensively, and Cade knew it.

That's why she knew that once she jumped up and raised a materialized sword above her head, the beast would launch its usual dashing attack. The beast was very eager to test its beak's durability against her sword, but she wasn't really in it for her ego. She was in it to rip the beast's heart out and squeeze it dry.

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The beast's speed truly was in a league of its own with regard to all the individuals Cade had observed during her life. In an instant, the beak was almost about to hit Cade in the stomach.

Cade outstretched one of her legs, touching the beast's beak lightly. She was immediately swept up by its speed. It was as expected. Cade turned a full flip's worth, all the while the materialized sword disappeared and streaks began orbiting around a ball of energy in her hand.

Right when her flip was done, the beast was right below her, and without a shred of hesitation, Cade slammed the ball of energy into its back.

There was a moment of silence or extreme sound. It was a mystery what really happened during such compression. Everyone had their theories. Well, almost everybody. Cade didn't really care. Pondering the sound phenomena behind extreme compression was, in her opinion, a waste of time. All that mattered was the damage done. And it surely was done, as the beast's movements stopped and its body stiffened before being launched into the rocks below as if pulled by the gravity of the sun.

Cade was quick to follow by bending her legs, materializing a platform above her feet, and jumping downward. There was a whistling sound as Cade materialized blades as extensions of both her hands. She then landed on the beast's back and, with one fluid movement, stabbed the blades into the center of its body. A screech echoed throughout the mountains as the incapacitated beast gained enough energy to flail its body wildly.

It rolled around, forcing Cade to get off its back. It then tried slamming Cade to the ground with its long wing. A stupid decision that cost it the tip.

The beast thrashed around to create space, seemingly realizing it had to escape. At the exact moment it was going to do so, a long sword materialized in Cade's hand as she slid under the beast's stomach and carved its flesh wide open.

She couldn't do it for long, though, as the beast entered the air with a flap of its wings, and with another flapping motion, it was already far away. Despite its injuries, the beast somehow maintained its speed and ability to burst forth.

Cade looked on with her teeth clenched as she let the long sword fade from existence and took a stance for lengthened compression. She closed her eyes and breathed.

All of this for nothing? Never.

She opened her eyes and watched as the beast flew far away, its speed unusually stable.

The ball of energy, slightly smaller than an apple, happened to contain all the essence Cade could muster. It wasn't anything special, though. It didn't guarantee victory just by hitting. The beam had to go through the beast's brain or heart to do damage, and annihilating the heart was out of the question, so only one target remained.

There was a split second of tremendous pressure before a thundering vacuum sound assaulted Cade's ears. Then all that gathered essence found its place in the world and shot off with a single purpose.

The beam flew hundreds and hundreds of meters in mere moments, disregarding any external influences as it pierced through the air to make its way to the beast's brain.

There was no way for Cade to know if the beast was aware of the beam, so she had simply made an educated guess on the beast's state of mind and assumed it would keep flying forward mindlessly with the simple goal of getting as far as possible. Then all that remained was to approximate the moment its head and the beam would meet based on its stable speed.

As the two got closer, Cade smiled. She could already see the beam perforating the beast's brain and it falling limply to the ground. When the beam and the beast looked to be just a few meters from each other, however, Cade's face dropped as the beast initiated a burst of speed.

Cade's veins popped out as she readied herself for what was inevitably a futile effort. She focused on her legs and took off sprinting. She would maybe have been able to keep up with the beast otherwise, but she had used up all her energy already.

Regardless, she couldn't just sit still.

But then she suddenly stopped in her tracks as she saw something in the distance. An impossible idea passed through her head, and she scoffed but focused her essence on her senses nonetheless.

Then her body relaxed, and an unbearable excitement and satisfaction started creeping up her stomach as she watched the boy with golden hair stand on a curving platform in the sky.

'He hasn't learned proper materialization yet, so he's using a shield as a platform,' Cade thought, resisting the temptation to laugh due to the dire situation.

Nothing had been resolved yet.

Cade eagerly watched as Aurelius put his arms together.

'Lengthened compression,' Cade thought with a nod. 'Wait, what?'

Aurelius separated his hands, a thin, ethereal substance remaining between them. He then quickly moved his right hand to the left and his left hand to the right, making them unite in the middle for just an instant before zigzagging them with a lightning-quick movement as a whistle cut through the air and a wide ethereal blade flew off.

Cade watched unmovingly in awe at the foreign technique as the blade slit through the skies, quickly crossing the hundred-meter distance to the beast, and without giving it a chance to react, divided the beast in half.