Chapter 38

Rydel and Naveena inspected their prey. The yellow goat was slim, with big muscular legs. The name of its species was called Lighting-horned goat. He wouldn’t give any points for originality to the name, but it was an honest description.

It was daytime, so his Moonlight Transformation was off the table. They have renewed their skills of invisibility, with the goat munching on a corpse, it wasn’t going to detect them any time soon.

Rydel silently used the First Phase of the Moon. The usually gentle moonlight permeating his body turned rampant, like waves crashing on the land under the influence of the Moon.

Rydel controlled the output and closed his pores so that no stray energy left his body. It was difficult and he only managed to contain the energy after a few breaths. Although contained, it was ready to explode at any moment.

Rydel’s body suffered from the strain, he felt like a bloated balloon. This reinforced Rydel’s plan to elevate his body stats.

‘I’m ready.’

Naveena waved her three tails, and an illusion appeared in the distance. It was the image of a big panther cockily approaching the goat without mounting any defense. The illusion projected a hollow aura of power in the early E-stage. It wouldn’t fool anyone intelligent, but it’d do the trick for a beast, they’ll find it weird but they’ll shrug it off.

The goat swallowed the rest of the eagle in one gulp and stood up. It contemptuously looked at his challenger, the electricity from its horns jumped with more vigor.

The panther walked with confidence until it was ten meters away from the goat. They stared at each other for a few seconds until the panther made a big leap in the air and went to bite the goat’s throat. The goat immediately responded by throwing a bolt of lightning at the panther’s torso.

Rydel tensed his body in that instant.

The panther dispersed like a broken window, leaving nothing behind. The goat got confused, it concentrated on its front to not miss anything from its prey.

In that same instant, taking advantage of the confusion, Rydel charged at the goat with his sword humming with silver energy. He had materialized his spiritual armor in a split second, it was still forming when he slashed.

Rydel made a light injury, drawing a little bit of blood. He slashed five times before the goat could react and bolted back behind a tree.

The goat bleated with anger. It unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts where Rydel’s had fled, calcinating dozens of plants. The tree’s bark was seared but otherwise fine.

The durability of these giant trees was abnormal, not something that an E-grade could destroy without a lot of effort.

Rydel came from behind another shrub, and tried to replicate the attack. The goat wouldn’t fall twice for the same trick and conjured a ball of electricity that destroyed Rydel’s body.

The goat stared at the remaining until they dispersed again. Rydel jumped as a shadow donned in black armor, decorated like the night sky. He put his full power and slashed twice before retreating once again, the previous injury he inflicted had almost disappeared. Even then, he drew a little more blood.

The goat was infuriated. It continued throwing diverse lighting attacks. Sometimes against two identical Rydel that were attacking it, sometimes the illusion was the one appearing from the shadows.

Rydel wasn't unscathed either, the goat got some lucky shots every once in a while. Even while avoiding the attack in the nick of time, the leftover energy was enough to leave serious injuries.

The goat was fighting against an army of illusions. Naveena was meditating on the periphery of the fight, none the wiser that she was there. She was using her skill ‘Still Moon’, which allowed her to have a faster rate of spiritual energy regeneration in exchange for not being able to move from her position.

Rydel summoned his Rain of Stars, concentrating the power on a low radius. The goat’s legs were covered in lightning, he ran with extreme speed avoiding each rock.

Rydel put his utmost effort and expanded a moonlight tendril to the other side of the field. He made the tendril big and coated with the Mantle of Night, creating a rough shadowy version of himself with his aura.

The goat was once again baited and attacked with reckless abandon, it was running out of patience. Its yellow fur was tainted with its blood, and it was panting.

It wasn’t anywhere near being defeated, but it was slowly losing its energy. Rydel wasn’t anywhere near top condition either, but his spiritual reserve was his strong point, and he was sharing the burden of the combat with Naveena.

Rydel changed his approach. For the next attack, he made a faint, after that he slashed at the base of one of the horns, cutting it a third of the way. The goat saw red.

The goat stood up on its hind legs and kicked him. Rydel was shot like a cannonball, his internal organs were shaken. A hole was made in the armor with energy detaching at the border of it.

Rydel gulped the blood off his mouth back. Naveena was distracting the goat with moonbeams, she was like a shadow circling the battlefield. Rydel retreated again, this time being more careful.

As the slash had already pierced through a sufficient portion of the horn, he was able to completely take it off after gripping it with a spiritual hand from a distance.

The lighting output of the goat lessened by a lot, reducing the pressure of Rydel’s attack. He repeated the same tactic until he took off the other horn.

The goat fell to the ground panting. A huge portion of its power had been snatched from him, its fur still gave sparks of lighting but nothing compared to its previous level of power.

Even then, the great endurance of beasts was proven once again. They had to slowly attack him for two more hours before the goat succumbed in a pool of its own blood.

Rydel sat down on the ground and loudly breathed out. Naveena appeared next to him, she sat on his lap with eyes filled with exhaustion.

‘That was very hard. We only managed to kill it with deceit.’ Rydel slowly said.

‘We were lucky that the goat was dumb. If we were against a lighting mage of the same level, we’d already be ashes.’ Naveena’s spiritual message trembled a little from the effort.

‘I don’t want to dissect the corpse. But we have to, to keep each part fresh.’ Rydel said.

‘Why?’

‘I’m too tired.’

‘Me too…’

After ten rounds of rock-paper-scissors, where they kept increasing the number of rounds that were needed to win, Naveena lost.

‘Please, I’ll do whatever you want.’ She looked at him with puppy eyes and sobs.

‘You are such a drama queen.’ Rydel grumbled, but he swallowed his pride and just did the job.

Behind him, Naveena recuperated in a second and did a victory pose with her three tails.

‘I’m still seeing you!’

She stuck her tongue out and laid back to rest.

Rydel put the blood in a large vat, he destroyed the parts that weren’t useful and saved the good parts. For example, the horns were an excellent material for alchemy.

After cleaning the zone of the fight a bit and trying to restore everything to how it was. They called it a day and returned home to have some real rest.

The coming back wasn’t as bad, as they had enough energy to cover themselves in a layer of Mantle of Night. With their auras retracted at the minimum, the beasts didn’t even notice when they passed through them.

Rydel was very satisfied with today’s fights. His body ached after using the First Phase of the Moon, he’d have to rest for a few days to repeat that feat.

However, he was happy that he could kill a beast that was just a little lower than level 40, it was thrice his level. Granted, he had the help of Naveena, who was also an elite early E-grade.

But they were able to do it without putting their maximum power. They didn’t use Naveena’s support skills nor did he use his Moonlight Transformation.

It was already hard to jump a stage to defeat a beast, as they have enormous endurance, but jumping almost two put them on the level of genius.

Rydel had to say that he had the advantage of previously knowing about Lighting-Horned goats, and he knew their weakness. Lots of beats weren’t able to form a Daodrop, but in exchange, their bloodlines were more diverse and allowed them to use different abilities.

Sometimes, this gave them a glaring weakness that can be used against them, such as the horns that accumulated a great part of the lightning of the goat.

Daodrops were impossible to physically neutralize like that. They’d have to take the spherical mark that was etched on his forehead. Well, not exactly on his forehead, it was there and at the same time, it wasn’t.

The Dao was that complicated.

Rydel thought about what he could bring to his date with Shael to impress her. He had the inkling of an idea but didn’t know her well enough.

He sighed, it was better than presenting there with empty hands.

In all his years living in the Elphyra’s Clan, he has studied a lot of different topics to shore up his foundations in the school. He hasn’t specialized in anything, as he didn’t have any particular interest in any profession.

He had dabbled a little in alchemy thanks to Elder Roshia, he knew a bit about formations thanks to Elder Aubron and he even had practiced some instruments with Elder Vulas.

When it came to painting, he hadn’t inherited one bit of his mother’s talent. Even when coupled with his high perception and dexterity, which should produce great works of art, he was only able to paint ugly doodles.

He was quite ashamed of that.

That being said, his gift wouldn’t be the prettiest, but it was the intention that mattered. Rydel convinced himself that he could always back off if he made a monstrosity.

***

Rydel felt proud after tinkering during the entire night, Naveena had tried to sneak around to see what he was up to. Alas, to the disappointment of the fox, Rydel was always able to sense her due to their shared necklace.

He wanted it to be a complete surprise, he even borrowed his mother’s brush for a while. Not that he could use the Dao of the Painting, but after being soaked in the Dao for so many decades, the brush was already an artifact with considerable uses.

He had always been a giddy person when it comes to gifts. The type that couldn’t handle the secret and just wanted to tell it to the person. He couldn’t wait to see her reaction.