Mikella thrusted her sword towards the bison, but despite its looks, it was faster than she expected. It turned and swiveled, its large bulk easily avoiding the blade threatening its life.
It charged straight after her, but she maneuvered around it without much worry, then slash half-hazardly at its side. The blade struck, but the moment it did, a powerful twang of metal resounded, sparks flying about.
She stepped back away, realizing that the hide of the bison was barely affected. If anything, it looked like she tried to scratch a metal wall.
Tough hide, almost like steel.
She cataloged in her mind before backing away from another charge attack. It looked like the beast only knew of one thing. From the looks of it, its only weapons were the horns on its head and its large bulk. She started to believe the Crystal Hunters were the worst of the bunch if they managed to pierce through their hide so easily.
But something else was caught in her midst. Her eyes widened when she noticed her footing being off. She perceived with her senses that the ground beneath her was starting to shift. Before she could get affected, she jumped out, using Dragon Descent out of instinct. She had no intention of testing her limits against an enemy she never fought before.
And it was a good thing too. She wasn’t sure whether her Dexterity had given her some warning due to the shift in balance, but a second after the ground started to shift, a massive spike of pure stone jutted out from her, reaching several feet in height. When she was about to land, more spikes came after her, but she managed to jump in between the spikes and get away from the massive array of earth magic trying to skewer her.
They can use magic? Is this what it means when they have an increased power in this place?
She wasn’t really all that surprised to find one of the mobs capable of using dangerous magic. It was intended for this place to be strong, and during the past few days, she studied up on the monsters known in their Journeyman rank.
In the Intermediate and Expert stages, they mostly rely on their stats and special features, but eventually they start to use other tactics the further ranks they go up. This one, however, was a bit of a simpleton. It kept using spikes instead of any other type of magic, making it easy for Mikella to evade, but due to the random spots they pop up, she had difficulty trying to get close.
So instead, she decided to smash her way in. Remembering the tough hide, she filled her sword with her Mana and Stamina, using a well-used skill she used to get her up to such high levels.
She flared Heavenly Strike, the blade glowing in bright white light. Thanks to her attunement training, she also realized that her blade was suffused with energies different from her lightning based Mana, making it slightly difficult to wield.
But if anything, that made it easier for her to focus entirely on destroying the bison before her. Just as she was about to launch a strike at it, the bison summoned multiple spikes of earth to defend itself, nearly piercing her in the process.
Through her rush, as the spikes were just about to pierce her, she flared Hawk Eyes. Her eyes shone bright yellow, her arms swinging wide backward before swinging her sword across through the rock spears.
The spikes were crushed instantaneously, the rocks showered the entire scene as she aimed precisely where the weakness of the bison would be, right at its legs. The blade, enchanted to handle the rough treatment, slashed through the bison’s hide and rainbow blood splattered across the rock and herself. The bison howled in pain as it fell over, unable to keep its heavy weight on one of its legs.
Before the creature could continue on, Mikella pulled her sword back, twirled to keep the blade on top of its neck, and thrust it downwards with Heavenly Strike. It crushed the hide, the muscle and the bone within, killing it instantly.
Mikella breathed, her fingers hurting from the process despite winning the fight. The hide was a lot tougher than normal, not even her stats were capable of taking it down as easily as the other monsters from before. She was really only able to pierce the hide solely due to the special piercing ability of Heavenly Strike.
But just as she was about to reel in from her victory, a barrier popped up right next to her. She only just realized that another bison was about to hit her before the barrier blocked its path, stopping it immediately with a pained howl.
“Mikky!” She heard Zeke shout. “There’s still more bisons!”
She cursed herself for getting too drawn into the fight. Of course there were still two others. But her hands were still trembling from the force, unable to really get back into gear.
“I gotcha!” Myra shouted, getting to her side with her spear in hand. “That tough, huh? The hide?”
“Yeah,” Mikella nodded as she saw the other fighters coming in, the healers staying at the back as they were told. “You guys got any skills capable of piercing tough defenses?”
“Nah, but I can probably burn them to smithereens!”
Myra grinned fiercely as flames enveloped her entirely. She dashed towards the incoming bison, ready to strike with a dash which surprisingly had itself covered in tough stone. It turned its entire hide into rock as part of its magic power, but that didn’t deter Myra in the slightest as she sidestepped, the flames causing the stone to simmer and burn, leaving a charred surface.
Her hand stretched out, and fire coalesced in front of the palm before becoming empowered by the flames surrounding her. Despite the two being flames, each one was of a different color, as one was Myra’s enhanced fire attunement, and the other being her Acquired Skill, Incendiary Grasp.
How ironic that the skill she was using against a Journeyman rank monster was from a Journeyman rank monster. The flames collided together and burst forth from her palm, hitting the slow bison and bathing it in the twin-colored flames of bright red and hot orange.
The poor bison screamed, its rocky defenses unable to handle the heat clawing at it, almost like wearing metal armor and unfortunately unable to get out from it.
Mikella supposed that there were several ways to handle a creature with a tough hide other than just hitting it harder with piercing attacks. Another good example was none other than Piker as he stepped up to the last bison.
He pulled his large bastard sword out as frost covered the blade. It slowly rose upward before it eventually turned into a blade larger and taller than even himself made entirely of ice. He swung with brutality towards the slow bison, nearly crushing it rather than slashing at its toughness. The bison couldn’t even do a thing as frost covered its hooves, leaving it unable to move for a second before responding well enough. Another example of their slowness was their lack of a reaction speed.
A few minutes passed as the fights continued. While the fight with the last two lasted longer than Mikella’s own, they didn’t show any exhaustion as the bisons were taken out rather quickly. Experience flowed through her despite not killing the last two, being part of the battle even in those short moments of battle.
Still, it wasn’t enough to level, but she didn’t care. She learned something better–she can’t just rely on her favorite skill. It worked on the last few Expert-ranked monsters in the past, but now Journeyman ranked monsters are forcing her to consider her way of fighting.
She only focused on dealing quick burst damage to take out a monster quickly, but that might end up with her injuring herself in the process, much like with her lightning attunement. She didn’t want to be some bomb to do damage then left forgotten–she needed to be better.
Once the two returned back to her, the other fighters in the main team went off to find more bisons, their own healers in tow. The Journeyman went off to survey the area, figuring that the team here is enough to handle everything, especially with Zeke around.
“Good work,” Mikella called out to Myra, granting themselves a high five upon return.
“Thanks, though I should’ve focused harder on my flames. I could’ve easily beat them already if I can just learn to pinpoint my fire instead of just spraying it everywhere.”
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“Compared to how you first got them, be thankful you didn’t burn everyone around you.”
Piker added in, his usually dry tone becoming an icon along with his stoic looking face, drastically similar to the general. Myra only grumbled and cursed at him, but Mikella turned to him as well.
“You did good too,” Mikella said. “I should’ve thought about crushing it instead of just stabbing at it.”
“I heard you have several mastery skills now,” Piker said, shrugging a shoulder. “If you have Hammer Mastery, that might have been more efficient.”
“Oh… shit! That’s a good idea!”
She had the weapon itself in her bag. But like an idiot, she only focused on using her sword. That was the entire purpose of having different weapons. Still, she needed to know that using only her sword might work, but it was not efficient. It was still a good lesson to learn.
Piker only just nodded in approval, understanding her plight of forgetting her other tools in the heat of battle.
Seeing that Piker was there, and that so far it was just the four of them around, Mikella figured that if she doesn’t do it now, she might never get the chance.
So like a bandaid overstaying its welcome, she decided to just rip it out.
“Listen, Piker. I wanna apologize for what I said to you, all the way back then. I’ve been trying to say it for a long time now, especially after figuring out what you’ve been going through, but I haven’t. I got nervous, but I had enough.”
Mikella just let it all out, not even giving Piker any breathing room as he stared at her with widened eyes. Myra looked at her in surprise as well, but she shook her head as she also heard about Mikella wanting to apologize. She could feel Zeke’s eyes on them, and she just knew that guy was smiling at her success, no matter how rushed it was.
Piker, on the other hand, looked down. “You don’t need to apologize. I was the one that–”
“Uh-huh, no, not your fault,” Mikella quickly stopped him in his tracks. “You were forced to, and I’d rather not get into that right now. I just wanna let you know–you’re forgiven for that, and I apologize for thinking you’re some rat. You don’t deserve that.”
Mikella didn’t want to hear his side at all. After so long, she already saw from both perspectives, from her own and his. He didn’t have a choice due to his father forcing him, and she was rightfully upset for being imprisoned that time, especially when Clara was involved in being forced in by Zacharia’s stupid plans.
But she also didn’t like dragging out this personal thing, so she’d rather just air it out and be done with it. When she looked up at Piker, he stood there staring at her for a moment. He looked like he was trying to say something else, but Myra patted him on the shoulder.
“You know she’s not gonna back down from this. Just take the apology like a man and let it be. Unless you have a complaint of your own?”
Piker stared at Myra almost staggered, but after another moment, he shook his head with a defeated look.
“No, not at all. I suppose… I should say ‘apology accepted’.”
He lifted his hand forward to Mikella. “So, is everything all water under the bridge?”
“Damn straight,” Mikella smiled, and took Piker’s hand. Compared to his, her own hand was just small and dainty, but Piker couldn’t underestimate the power hiding within from the shake. “I can’t wait to fight alongside you again. Especially since I might go a little crazy with my attunement this time.”
“That’s… not good to hear,” Piker said, shaking his head again. But this time, a smile was plastered on his face.
“I agree!”
Zeke suddenly shouted, sharing Piker’s disbelief as Mikella glared back at him.
“Healers should stay out of this!” Mikella joked back with a shout, and Zeke only just threw a tongue at her.
“Well then, now that we’re all nicey-nice now, how about we get on with the mob killing? At this rate, the other groups are going to take our sweet XP from us!”
Mikella nodded as their impromptu group of Mikella, Myra, Piker, and Zeke went ahead to take out some of the bisons for practice. Then on, they’ll keep raising the stakes higher and higher.
…..
Few hours passed by as they kept taking down one bison after another. They even managed to take out a bird-like creature with the crystals jutting out of the chest feathers, though it wasn’t that difficult.
Certainly their wind magic caused some cuts and scrapes, but their defenses were laughable compared to the bison as they managed to take them out with ranged attacks.
Mikella ran into an issue, however. Her normal arrows made of air didn’t do jack shit against the crystal birds, their element being air and all. And she didn’t feel like wasting a good arrow either, so she decided to do that test she wanted to try out and filled her wind arrow with lightning mana.
It went as well as she expected. She managed to make an electrified wind arrow, the wind unable to fully contain the lightning as it became a massive, coiling snake-like arrow made of electricity before being launched straight at the bird and making it explode with wind and lightning, like a storm suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Apparently air and lightning mana synergized a little too well.
Enough to the point where it actually damaged Mikella during the entire process. She tried to ignore it but having Zeke come in to heal her dampened her excitement. She really needed to learn how to control her lightning mana if she ever planned on creating the attack again.
As for the rest of the fights, Zeke went ahead to make barriers when the bird creatures, known as Crystal Birds (quite the name), kept barraging them with air slices, giving them enough room to fight. Even though she should be thankful, if anything, she felt like she cheated.
So she turned around, stopping the group, and faced Zeke with a hard look on her face.
“Zeke… I want to ask a favor.”
Looking at Zeke’s surprised face, she knew she wasn’t going to like this as much as he was. Her heart wrenched at the idea, especially considering how Zeke often feels insecure, but if she doesn’t do this, she knows that she’ll just end up regretting it.
“Your barriers are great–really, really great. But I can’t help but feel like I’ll never improve if you keep defending us.”
It wasn’t the same as before, back when she was leveling like crazy during their Apprentice days. It was as if the very idea of Zeke being there, being her rock to lean on and her wall to hide behind, was forcing her back.
She was made very aware of it when she realized that after all this time, she should have maxed out Sword Mastery by now. Unlike the other weapons, she understood her sword better than anything else. She fought with it, trained with it, practically dreamt of it every night.
Yet she was no closer to reaching max level than she was when she first got it to level 9. Just one more level, yet no amount of combat and training is enough.
She needed to push farther, which led her to one of the advice Val had given her so long ago, almost a year by now.
You can never improve if you don’t push yourself. There is no way to power without risk.
The last part struck her after spending all this time training. Without risk… clearly, Zeke’s barrier decreased those risks by a lot. The fact that Zeke defended her from a bison attack was proof enough that she was instinctually relying on it.
That’s why she decided to go for it.
“I’m close, I know it,” Mikella said, almost pleading with her eyes. “But I need that tension to max my Sword Mastery. That’s why I’m asking you to not use your barriers on me at all. I need you to promise me, no matter how bad it looks, that you won't protect me.”
“Mikky, I…”
Mikella grimaced. The way he called out her nickname once again lit something in her that she can’t really describe. It was really different from the way Myra and Val called out to her. But she also knew that this was important.
And if she was honest with herself, she hated how she was the only one of the two to not have maxed a skill at all. It was frustrating to feel as though she wasn’t putting enough effort into it unlike Zeke was. She knew he didn’t care at all about that, but she did.
She needed to change that. And the only way is to get rid of the safety net she had been relying on all this time.
“Zeke, I know you’re worried, but I second her opinion.”
Myra stepped over, catching her by surprise. Though after thinking on it, Myra also shared in her beliefs that they have been relying on the barrier too much. She stared hard at Zeke, the sense of determination in her eyes that was similar to her own.
“I also agree,” Piker came up, this time surprising them all. “Zeke, your barriers are powerful enough that I worry that my fighting senses will dull. Your healing skill would be more than enough to carry us through.”
Mikella let out a heavy breath. “So, even if you see us getting utterly crushed or beaten by a monster… don’t use your barriers on us, okay? Will you promise me that?”
“Mikky…” Zeke shook his head. “You guys, that’s… that’s a really huge favor you’re asking me to do.”
Mikella nodded. It was a favor, after all. There’s no way Zeke would be okay to see someone so close to dying if he can use his barriers. But that was the point. If Mikella can’t even get out of a situation without his barrier, what will happen if the worst comes and they get separated again?
She never wants to feel helpless like that again. She also wants enough power to bring Zeke back if that was the case, so in short, it serves both purposes.
But eventually, much to Mikella’s relief, Zeke gave in.
“Alright… alright, alright!” He shouted. There was that frustrated edge to his tone as he continued “Fine, go ahead and just get your asses kicked. I guess I can get some training in with my healing skill…”
Mikella smiled and hugged Zeke, making him flinch from the surprise.
“Thank you, Zeke! Make sure you keep your promise okay?”
“I will, just…” Zeke patted her shoulder, then pushed her away. His eyes turned somewhat heavy. “Promise me you’ll survive so I can piece you together.”
Mikella nodded in agreement, then turned back to the other two. In that moment, hearing that the barrier won’t be used on them, their faces hardened, and their eyes narrowed.
The safety net was gone. It was all on them now.
And for the first time, Mikella felt giddy. Her muscles tensed and her fingers gripped tighter. She could feel it–her own barrier blocking her from her progress starting to break. It was time to get stronger, in a way levels can’t comprehend.