Blade Over Magic

The Hunt II

The Lux Tail Monkeys were one of the more devious species within the massive forest that spanned the world inside Archmage Irene’s dimension.

Individually, they were already quite problematic. As their name suggested, they had tails which glowed brightly with light affinity mana. This allowed them to strike with the tails at incredible speeds, and while not truly the speed of light, there weren’t many who could endure a hit from one and come out unscathed.

They were also especially durable and could be used to block incoming attacks. What’s more, they were unnaturally long, able to easily move around the monkey’s entire body to block an attack regardless of the angle.

This alone was an issue. Then there was the fact that they almost never traveled alone.

Smaller groups of them consisted of 5 monkeys, and the larger groups were an upwards of 20.

If one found themselves in a situation where they had to face more than one. Fleeing was the safest option. Most mages would turn tail and get out of there as soon as possible, and yet...

GUSH

The sounds of flowing water could be heard as a figure moved between the trees at an incredible speed, yet despite this, they flowed between them as what seemed like a flowing tide of water trailed behind them, and wherever they passed, red lines of bisecting space were also left.

The startled and pained cries of numerous Lux Tailed Monkeys could be heard as they were cut apart before they could even react.

The few that did could only despair as their durable tails were cut through like butter, and their bodies followed shortly after as they were sliced apart cleanly.

The confrontation didn’t even last more than ten seconds before all the monkeys in the vicinity were killed, and their bodies soon vanished, getting put inside a spatial storage as the figure moved towards its next target.

This figure was, naturally, Xander.

From the moment he shot out, he did not stop running, comfortably maintaining his supersonic speeds as he ran through the forest.

Now one might ask, how was he moving so fast without running into something? Well, the trees were massive, so naturally, there needed to be a lot of space between them.

But beyond that, there was the inclusion of Flowing Tide. Depending on how Xander wanted, he could either use it as a defensive, offensive, or movement technique. And in the case of the third, it essentially allowed him to move like flowing water, helping him more easily move around obstacles to reach a target.

This, coupled with his speed, allowed him to move through the forest with relative ease as his moment allowed him to execute most of what he came across with a single pass, store their corpses, and move on to the next target.

Roughly ten minutes had passed, but Xander had already killed most of the creatures Aubrey had helped him detect, and he hadn’t had to stop running once, which was absurd if one thought about it. Even if it was the outermost part of the forest, many of the monsters there would give experienced mages a hard time, especially if they got jumped.

But Xander didn’t seem to care about any of that.

’That was the last group.’ He thought as he continued to run. After a moment of thought, he decided to proceed deeper.

We was reasonably certain that the stronger a beast was, the more it contributed to the hunt. And one had to go deeper if they wanted to find such beasts.

So Xander did just that, and it didn’t take him long before he came across something that was definitely a step above the other beasts he encountered.

He noticed that the area began to show signs of a fire. Trees burnt and the ground black, devoid of any vegetation. And as he traveled, the air grew warmer and warmed, the number of trees becoming increasingly sparse as there was a noticeable spike in the fire affinity mana in the surroundings.

Then he saw it.

A large bear. And it truly was large.

It looked like a small hill as it lay down. It’s fur was black with red cracks all over it, resembling magma.

On its back were several red crystals which caused the air to warp from the heat they emitted, and from its move, a small stream of lava pooled beneath its head like drool.

As soon as Xander noticed it, it opened its eyes and looked at him.

It opened its eyes, and looked at him.

Who was actively exceeding the speed of sound.

It stood at a speed that did not match its massive frame, it’s body easily exceeding 20 meters as it growled at Xander’s approaching figure. The crystals on its back glowed, and it opened its mouth, unleashing a torrent of flames that engulfed Xander’s approaching figure, and these flames went on the swallow the massive trees behind him for multiple miles.

The heat was exquisite as the ground instantly turned into lava, and a red hue bathed the surroundings as most things would have found themselves vaporized before the flames even touched them directly.

And yet...

ZIING

A red line appeared on the bear, from the top of its head and down the middle.

Moreover, this line extended from the flames it had just spewed out.

The bear’s figure froze as the flames it unleashed were parted. Then then its body... was cleanly divided into two halves which began to fall, but Xander had already reached it at that moment as he stored the corpse into his spatial storage and went on.

’Abscinde makes it much easier for me to target non-physical things like ’heat’ using paths. Takes less mana and is more effective too. Nice.’ He hummed with some satisfaction, then he looked around.

’It took me this long just to reach the heart of the bear’s territory. Seems like I’ll have to speed things up.’ His foot met the ground, and suddenly, his already fast speed became even more obscene as Xander channeled his mana faster. His pace spiking exponentially.

He didn’t even seem fazed that he had killed such a terrifying creature in one hit. And why would he? After all, he endured the heat from Falael’s explosions constantly during their training. The flames from that bear weren’t much to speak of.

***

Meanwhile

A terrifying sphere of heat expanded rapidly before shrinking just as fast, leaving behind a boiling crater.

In the center, Falael could be seen with her gauntlets, arms folded behind her head as she walked out of the destruction she caused.

”Falael, we can’t get the corpses to prove our kills if you keep vaporizing them. Be like Curtis.” Aubrey deadpanned as she hopped off Curtis furred frame, the boy having turned into his wolf form and acting as a form of transportation for the girls.

Behind him near the top of a tree, a massive wasp nest was encased in a layer of ice at absolute zero, and around it, the bodies of cow-sized wasps with bright purple singers could be seen frozen solid.

Before, Curtis’s control over his ice—or lack of—would have caused him to not only freeze the creature, but also cause the effect of making what he froze become part of the ice to form a single structure.

Now, however, his control had risen to the point where he could freeze things without actually damaging the corpse.

’Yeah, Falael. Be like me. You gonna let the big wolf adhere to the rules better than you.’ The white wolf joked, evidently unable to speak normally like this.

”You got most of them anyway, I was just having fun.” She looked at Aubrey who just stood there calmly. ”Are you almost done with the queen?” She asked, and Aubrey just gestured with her chin.

”See for yourself.” Elf and Wolf looked to see, some distance away from them, the figure of a massive wasp was visible. It was just as big as Curtis, and the shell on its body had an oddly majestic feel around it.

Used to, anyway.

Currently, it’s armor was getting melted away as it struggled to no avail, its body being eaten at by clouds of corrosive poison which affected the surrounding area.

Ensaring it was a massive green Boa that had coiled around it, preventing it from moving as in addition to the corrosion, the construction was slowly tightening, gradually crushing it to death.

This snake was, naturally, the Verdant Boa the group had fought in the Ravine all the way back in Landor. Or rather, its Information Projection.

Aubrey had come a long way when it came to using her Information Projection, and now she could actually project creatures with their abilities. Though only to an extent.

One might as just how many Information Clones it would take to pull off something like that, and it certainly did. Aubrey wouldn’t have been able to pull it off before, even with all of her 50 clones.

...

That is, however, under the assumption she still had only 50.

Months had passed, and back then, she had 50.

With a final screech, the Wasp Queen was killed as Aubrey canceled the Projection of the Boa, assigning the 35 clones that had been keeping it active to assist the remaining 780 in finding their next target.