20.

Flames bloomed on May’s blade as she split the lupine at the waist with a yell of triumph. ‘Don’t let the other one escape!’ she yelled.

‘On it!’

Raw maura greedily exploded into my limbs. Instead of solely strengthening my legs, I split the spiritual force over my whole body, and all of my muscles tensed as a unit. My hair whipped back, ground crushed underneath me, and I descended as a falling demon—my intentions dark and controlled—and cut off the escape path of the beast. I swept my spear in a horizontal arc in front of me to maintain space, but it wasn’t necessary. The beast jumped away from me in fright and growled as it took steps backwards. May appeared behind it in an instant. She didn’t attack. She instead took one hand off her blade and held her palm outstretched in front of her. Her fires shaped beside her head. Ready but waiting.

‘Take it slow,’ May said.

I angled my spear above my head so the tip pointed at the floor, mimicking May’s favourite stance.

‘I will.’

This early in the morning, my breaths came out as mist, and the cloud that formed temporarily shrouded the creature’s haggard face. Now that we knew cultivation was not a quick solution to my maura problem, May and I were tackling the issue in a different manner.

The wolf’s paws turned towards May. When it realised it would find no stay of execution there, they spun to face me wholly. A grim resolution set in the beast’s eyes. It didn’t hesitate. A roar travelled ahead of its sharp fangs ready to sink into my neck. My heart stuttered and reflexively tried to call on my enhancing skill. I refused it. Rather, I squared my stance, my toes digging into the soft forest floor so they could explode in any direction. ‘Don’t catch heavy swings,’ May echoed in my head. So, I slipped to the side. My widening step was great, and the beast’s attack missed me completely. But my spear didn’t miss it. The sharpened, watery edge bit deep into the lupine’s flank as the beast’s weight and momentum worked against it. It yelped and crashed, sliding to a stop behind me. Blood spurted everywhere, dripped from my spear like the water on the ceiling in the grotto, and the forest floor drank it eagerly.

A warmth seeped from the coating of blood on the point, curled up the shaft of my weapon, and stabbed into my palms, where it joined my own stream of bodily liquid.

‘Good.’ May’s passive voice came from my rear. ‘Spare as much maura as you can.’

I watched and waited as the wolf struggled to its feet. Red veins had invaded the yellow of its iris in both eyes, and thick, bloody ink ran down its teeth. I retook my stance.

‘I’ll put you out of your misery.’

Slowly. Efficiently.

From the way its snout curled in fright, it understood me and my silent thoughts. Which was why it turned tail and ran as fast as it could.

I stumbled forward at the unfulfilled climax but quickly rallied and adopted a throwing posture. The beast’s injury didn’t allow it to travel fast, and my spear thundered through the air, aimed at the lupine’s back—then splashed into a million droplets after impact. Darn it, I thought. I whirled around.

‘May, get it—’

The missile was a rocket launched into orbit. I didn’t even look back as it whizzed past me, piping hot air brushing my cheeks, because the whine and the crushing sound of bone and flesh alike were enough to make known the result. I relaxed out of my fighting stance. May walked towards me and tapped me on the shoulders.

‘You’re getting better.’

‘I have a great teacher,’ I responded.

I knew it already, but the last week had reaffirmed in my head how skilled May was with a weapon. Can’t believe I ever thought I could take her. Siren Gate me was a stupid girl.

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May smiled.

‘Go on. I enjoy praise.’

Shaking my head, I strode towards the downed wolf (creating another spear) as May went ahead and began to loot the other three corpses around us—two of them a lupine, the other one a scythe-pawed fox. Their species must have a vendetta against each other because they were always fighting whenever we found them together.

I crouched next to the downed lupine. The fur near the entry wound was aflame (it had penetrated near the spine), but the beast was still breathing, however shallowly. The light in its eyes quickly vanished after I angled its head and jammed my spear in the soft flesh underneath its chin. Necessary, I heard a whisper. Then I quietly watched as another rush of warmth entered my hands.

‘What are you for, I wonder.’

I’d noticed after my first hunt back in the forest. It happened whenever my spear drew blood, but the warmth disappeared the moment it entered my bloodstream. Its destination was no mystery. The mark was undoubtedly hoarding it. The question was: Why? That query replayed in my mind while I cut open the stomach of the lupine, just in time to hear May let loose a slew of choice words. I glanced back over my shoulder.

‘Not a single core among these either?’

Feeling inside the lupine’s stomach with one of my daggers told me it was also a dud.

‘No,’ she said. ‘’…I think we need to hunt a D rank beast.’

We’d killed twenty E ranked monsters already. Yet our spoils were a whopping three cores—one fire, none of them water—a far cry from our luck on the first day.

‘Agreed,’ I said.

We put the idea off initially since killing a D rank beast with just the two of us was out of the question. But seeing as the E ranked beasts were being stingy, we didn’t have a choice. Asking Hero and Boris for help was an angle. Yet doing so also meant we needed to split the loot, which was contrary to our purpose.

‘A fire beast,’ I said, ‘would be an advantageous fight for me and neutral for you.’

A net positive. It just wouldn’t benefit me if we got a core out of it. But that was alright. Fighting a water beast would put May at a disadvantage, leading to a net negative. That was something we couldn’t risk.

‘We sell the core,’ May said immediately. ‘Our shaping, manipulation and physiques are levelling quite nicely. But we need abilities if we want to be in a comfortable place for the test.’

May had achieved D rank a few days ago and was already training her core, too. But she wasn’t the only one. Fahim (who knew a skeleton could?) had done so at the same time as May, and Taran had reached D rank yesterday. I wasn’t sure about Jax and Son but I’d err on the side of caution and say they had, too.

‘Which ability scroll are you aiming for?’ I said. ‘Your flame lances are doing well.’

I wasn’t sure how many May could shape before she ran out of maura, but those things were killers. I already felt sympathetic for the first doofus that would challenge us.

‘They are,’ May said. ‘But something is lacking, and I don’t know what. I’ll buy the scroll from the trade centre if I don’t figure it out in two days.’

Those cost around a hundred credits, depending on the rank. My D rank water core would sell for seventy-five. An E rank core went for twenty-five. May looted three E ranked fire cores, but she spent one on her treatment and another meditating because she hadn’t found a fire locus yet. That left us with four E ranked cores and a total credit pool of one hundred seventy-five. Almost enough for two low-ranked ability scrolls.

But the skill May really wanted was the one that would enhance her speed. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to get it if she bought the other one first—the speed-enhancing ability was two hundred credits.

May turned to me.

‘Which one are you aiming for?’

‘The water clone.’ I spit out my dream without thinking.

The thing cost a whopping five hundred credits and required S rank nature manipulation (which I’d already reached). But that was the thing with dreams, they were just that. Five hundred credits was essentially the same as killing seven D rank beasts. No one had that kind of money. Except Son, maybe. But asking him a favour so soon after he gifted me the locus was a bad business decision, to say the least.

‘More realistically, the water barrier,’ I added, regrettably.

There was a water mirror of the flame lance skill I could go for that would seriously plug the hole in my shaping. But there was just one issue with going for it: Stats, I thought, zooming in on my maura levels.

Maura

13/23

Forming a single spear took four points of maura. Add to that the enhancement required for combat, and my maura capacity was quickly filled up. Throwing lances left and right was just a no-no for me, skill or no skill.

The water barrier would no doubt be expensive to cast, too, but at least I could call on it as an emergency save.

‘Alright,’ May said. ‘You got your monster book with you?’

I produced it from my pouch, and she came to stand beside me, her hair falling over my shoulder. I sniffed. She smelled like lavender. And animal guts, I thought, turning away my head. I was used to the smell but that didn’t mean I needed it right in my face.

‘It mentions locations, right?’ May said.

‘Yes.’

‘Then, let’s pick a target.’