Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

The Earthen Elephant stomped his feet again, causing thunderous devastation around him. His Earthen Skin was wrapped in light-brown aura, reinforcing it further. This aura also didn’t slow him down, so outside of the Beast Core energy expenditure, it was a free skill.

But it did cost him a lot of said energy, so he didn’t use it all that often. He wanted to wrap this battle quickly, but this holy fucker was harder to deal with than he expected.

And that ashen ball was also bothering him. No matter what kind of AOE skill he used, it didn’t seem like it was taking any damage.

’This is bothersome...’ Moon Aiko was sitting inside her [Hollow Moon] hugging her knees.

This ability was derived from using the [Moon’s Crust] and enveloping herself from all sides, but with the [Hollow Moon] the thickness was much greater, almost eliminating the weakness against penetrative weapons.

Moon Aiko was slightly concerned since this skill did cost her a lot of Beast Core energy, all thanks to the fact that she didn’t have any Moon Essence.

’So the Essence is pretty much a refined form of Qi that is used only on the given application.’ Moon Aiko nodded her head. She already knew this, but having such a concrete confirmation was always nice.

She didn’t move her body much since-

”Can’t you turn into Human Form?” Moon Aiko was bothered by the lack of room, but it was not like she could increase the space as it would cost her too much energy.

”But I would be naked...” The Holy Deer blushed and Moon Aiko shuddered in disgust. She had no intention of going after someone like him, ever.

”That hurts...” The Holy Deer was deeply hurt by her expression and sniffled softly. All Foxes were nice and soft, but this one was very hard and mean...

The Evil Deer was wrapped in golden aura, protecting him from dust and lowest grade abilities. Most things could be shrugged off thanks to the aura, as long as they didn’t contain physical intent.

”Stop throwing rocks at me, you damn bastard!” The Evil Deer shouted at him, bothered, since the rocks were not coated in Qi and thus his aura didn’t work on them.

”Kekekeke! You didn’t expect this, huh?” The Earthen Elephant laughed happily that his biggest rival had trouble with him.

”Tsk.” The Evil Deer clicked his tongue as he used the lightning element to obliterate all rocks.

Ah, and dust would also not work on him, since the dust was able to gather enough ambient Qi that it was blocked by the golden aura.

The Earthen Elephant picked another rock with his long nose and hurled it at the damned Deer.

The Evil Deer danced around him, dodging most of his primitive attacks, not even attempting to block them since it would be a waste of his energy.

Suddenly a mountain formed above them and came crushing down on them.

”Took you long enough!” The Earthen Elephant yelled at his underlings for taking too long to manifest this ability.

The Evil Deer believed that the Fox’s ability would last, but just in case he reinforced the second layer with his [Pristine Barrier] before he dodged himself.

He had this uncanny feeling about the ashen sphere, as if he wouldn’t be able to push it, so he didn’t even attempt it.

And since his senses never lied to him, he chose that path to keep her safe.

*BOOM*

The mountain crashed into the ground, moving the earth around it like it was made out of water.

The Evil Deer frowned at the scale of destruction, but his barrier was not breached, so the Fox must’ve been fine.

The Evil Deer changed the atmosphere to be more cloudy and soon black clouds formed above the Holy Deer Clan territory.

Only a few Holy Deer were able to control lightning, most of them controlled nature, which was earth, water, wood and sometimes wind. Wind was the hardest to learn since you couldn’t really perceive it.

The charged lightning came crushing down on the Earthen Elephant pinning him to the ground.

However, that light-brown aura protected most of him from the damage that was supposed to be inflicted.

*Shaaaa*

It now started to rain from those clouds, so the Holy Deer grew stronger alongside it.

Controlling earth was out of the question since the Earthen Elephants had better affinity for it, but the other elements...

Soon there were several floating water spheres drowning lower ranking Earthen Elephants. And the few that could control the lightning fried the Earthen Elephants from within.

”It’s only a matter of time before you die.” The Evil Deer didn’t want to prolong this, as he would still have to dig the Fox out of the ground and that would take time.

Again he couldn’t use his abilities on the earth, since he might accidentally crush her. He was not really used to using his abilities delicately.

Then how would he heal and help others? Just pour it into them until they are healed...

”You won’t be able to kill me like this!” The Earthen Elephant roared at him. ”I already trained to hold my breath for long time, so you are-”

A lightning struck him, interrupting his speech.

”You bas-”

”Can’t yo-”

”Iamstilltalking!”

The Earthen Elephant huffed at him angrily because his speech was always interrupted by that damned Deer.

”What? You want to talk now?” The Evil Deer rolled his eyes. ”Just keep fighting.” He was bothered how long it took to damage this bastard, so he didn’t want to waste his breath on him.

His priority was to take him down and dig up the Fox!

The Evil Deer gathered a lot of Lightning Essence into his majestic horns and discharged it like a laser towards the Earthen Elephant.

”[Earthen Rampart]!” The Earthen Elephant shouted, and a huge wall made out of earth formed in front of him, blocking most of the damage.

But unfortunately, that was not enough to stop it completely and his side was badly burned and shocked by it.

”Ugh.” The Earthen Elephant didn’t think he would be on the receiving end, since the earth is all around him, but the damned Deer was good at manipulating his surroundings, making it difficult to fight against him.

Of course the Earthen Elephant hoped that would not be the case, since he was unwilling to admit that this bastard was better than he was!

Suddenly the earth some distance away from him moved.

”You won’t be able to hurt me by my own element!” The Earthen Elephant laughed at the silly bastard high up in the sky.

”?” The Evil Deer was confused, but once he saw that familiar ashen sphere he just chuckled.

”...” The Earthen Elephant was clearly upset, since he didn’t think that the guests were this skilled. Sure, he was not declaring his dominion over earth, but to still be able to move the earth around was a great achievement!

That was all thanks to Aiko’s Elemental Affinity, the [Windy Mountain].

Now you might question the effectiveness, since that thing was just at grade 9, but you have to keep in mind that it was advanced affinity and not basic.

Thanks to the ’windy’ prefix, it allowed her to move the earth around without using any of her abilities.

Of course this would be a very slow process, but Moon Aiko was not really pressed for time.

”Now you are just mocking me.” The Earthen Elephant was pissed. ”Haha, look at me, I can easily dig myself out like I was never hit by his ultimate ability- Fuck you! And fuck you too!”

The Earthen Elephant stared between the ashen cursed sphere and that hateful Deer.

”You really have a rough day.” The Evil Deer sighed, mocking him further.

”Argh! If there was no water I would be in better shape!” The Earthen Elephant yelled at him.

”Sure, sure.” The Evil Deer waved his hooves like he was denying everything he said.

”You are unbelievable! Can’t you fight fair?!” The Earthen Elephant bitched at him.

”Is this a duel?” The Evil Deer tilted his head.

”No?” The Earthen Elephant was confused.

”Is this an official battle?” The Evil Deer tilted his head to the other side.

”No?” The Earthen Elephant was even more confused.

”Then why should I?” The Evil Deer charged another lightning, but this time he used nature to wrap the earth all around him, making him an easier target.

The lightning blasted in a straight line, heading straight towards the Earthen Elephant.

However, unfortunately, the Earthen Elephant had another trick up his sleeve. A human-made shield!

This was a Treasure from the Human Sects for their Clan in order to allow them to safely traverse the Nightmare Forest.

The lightning hit the shield straight on, splitting it into several smaller lightning strikes and scattering them all around.

”Come down you bastard!” The Earthen Elephant was enraged that the shitty Deer was still in the sky, taunting him. Moreover, his shield was already slightly cracked, so it wouldn’t be able to endure too many hits.

”Why would I? Just learn how to fly.” The Evil Deer rolled his eyes. He was using [Windy Steps]. A very basic pricey technique that allowed him to stay high up in the sky.

Of course the consumption was ridiculous, but he didn’t really want to learn the other techniques as that would ban him from leaving his Holy Deer Clan.

Fortunately, the Evil Deer trained his Beast Core, so that it would be able to endure this kind of consumption.

Controversially, the Foxes didn’t have this kind of issue in the early stages as their Beast Core was that much smaller.

”Ugh! I will get you one day!” The Earthen Elephant immediately dived into the earth and swam away from this battle.

”Tsk.” The Evil Deer really wanted to pursue him, but the most important thing right now would be the Fox.

The Evil Deer descended once he checked that the Earthen Elephant really left this place.

His form blurred and he quickly dressed up before knocking at the strange ashen sphere.

*Knock knock*

”Nobody is home, come back later.”

A familiar voice sounded from within, making his lips twitch.

”Sir, please help me!” The Holy Deer yelped from within.

”You are not doing anything to the Fox, right?” The Evil Deer was concerned that his guest was taken advantage of.

”I’m the one being bullied!” The Holy Deer sniffled.

”Oh shut it, I only poisoned you.” Moon Aiko clicked her tongue as she recycled the energy from the [Hollow Moon] before she appeared in front of him.

The Holy Deer had... funny coloured fur, so much so that the Evil Deer almost laughed.

”It’s a side effect, once he clears the poison he will be fine.” Moon Aiko waved her hand.

”Pft- I’m sure he will be fine.” The Evil Deer almost laughed loudly at the misfortune of his junior.