"I think Alex is plotting something." Elijah took a look at Aiden"s face before carefully choosing her words. She knew very well how much Alex was respected by Aiden.To her astonishment, Aiden looked at Alex with intense hatred. He never even heard her. Elijah crawled closer to him, nudged Aiden again, "Aiden, are you all right?
The soft voice of Elijah woke him up, "Yes, yes. I know."
"You know? What do you know?"
"That Alex is plotting something."
Elijah was a little shocked by Aiden"s simple reaction. She whispered, "Did he say anything to you?"
Her scared voice forced Aiden to turn to her. Looking at his face, Elijah quickly hid her red face. Aiden smiled a little and patted her head. "What about you? Was he threatening you? Did he tell you to stay away from me?"
These were not the words she had expected from Aiden. Elijah, astonished, looked at Aiden before she nodded.
"This b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he said. He did not hesitate to curse out loud. Elijah was scared, but she grabbed his hand quickly to stop him from doing something rash.
"You"ve changed, Aiden." The voice was so low that Aiden almost missed it. Still, a smile bloomed on his face, "I have the inheritance of Levi."
"Is that true? Right now, are you the second officer?" Suddenly she realized it and said, "Yes, your position has been shown on the map. Well, then, Levi?"
"He fought bravely, but the devil..." Aiden could not put an end to his words as she hugged his hand tighter.
"Then? Do you have an innate skill now?" Elijah looked at Aiden with her curious eyes.
"Of course. I"m stronger right now. You don"t have to worry about anybody. I"m going to protect you. Even Alex isn"t going to be able to do anything to you."
"What are you talking about? I"m an officer, too. I can protect myself"
"Are you not the one who said, "I"m afraid," on the s.h.i.+p? "Aiden couldn"t help but smile at the girl who tried her best to set up a brave front.
"That was then," she frowned as she continued to say, "I"m all right now. Well, what about you? How many innate skills do you have?"
"For the time being, it"s one."
"What is it?" Her eyes were glowing.
"Aiden, there"s something I have to talk about." From the sudden interruption, both of them turned to Alex.
"Yes. I also have something to talk about." As he spoke, Elijah grabbed his hand tighter. He smiled at Elijah, "Don"t worry, nothing is going to happen."
As soon as he got up, she said, "Don"t go." Aiden smiled at her but said nothing.
In the vicinity, there was no shuttle pod. Asher had been on the lookout. Whereas Aiden did not see Lyla, Sara or Owen. They weren"t in the vicinity of the map.
As soon as they were far enough, Alex snapped, "What are you doing?"
"What am I supposed to do? Die?" Aiden didn"t give in either, "Let me ask you Alex, is human life so cheap?"
Alex was stunned by the question, he wanted to say something, but Aiden had no intention of letting him, "You could have talked to me. You could have talked to Elijah. But did you have to do that?"
"You haven"t read my messages?" Alex frowned, "If you read it ..."
"If I read it, then what? I"m going to forgive you?" The more Aiden spoke, the angrier he got. "Never. I"m never going to forgive you. And believe me, as long as I live, this will never end."
"Listen to me, Aiden." Even if Alex wanted to say something he couldn"t do. Elijah"s cry for help stopped him.
"What have you done?" Aiden yelled in anger. But his words were drowned by the loud booming sound that resonated through the entire forest.
"HOOOOOOOWWWW"
The sound was so loud that they were forced to cover their ears. Even before Aiden could react, Alex was charging to the camp, and he followed.
But they weren"t able to reach their destination. The path was blocked by a giant beast. A 5-meter giant monkey. Body full of thick black fur, with a patch of golden hair on its crown. It looked pretty ferocious.
[Night Howler
Grade: C*
Element: Wind.
Feature: High strength. Whiptail. Howl.
Weakness: Back, Throat
]
He rushed to the beast, holding the machete in his hand. Aiden was more concerned with Elijah than the beast in front of him. She was struggling with four golden howlers. Even if Asher was there to help, it was still difficult for her to fight four.
The golden howler was a lot smaller than the night howler. The ESS confirmed that these beasts had no elementary affinity. Still, Aiden was worried about it.
Even before he could reach the beast, a few water bullets grazed past him. The bullets did nothing but enrage the beast.
"What is this? Would you like to use a borrowed gun to kill me?" Aiden frowned as the wind began to gather around his feet.
[Skill [Reduce Drag] activated. Mana used:1/ 20 min. Remaining Mana: 99]
[Skill [Wind skin] activated. Mana used:2/ 20 min. Remaining Mana: 97]
[Skill [Wind Burst] activated. Mana used:2. Remaining Mana: 95]
Just as the beast"s fist was about to reach him, he twisted his body to avoid the attack. With the [Wind Burst] under his sole, he turned toward the air shack under the beast"s throat.
There was an inch of distance between the tip of his machete and the air shack, and Aiden was sent out to fly. His body slammed into the tree. It almost knocked him unconscious.
It was only when he recovered his senses that he realized that the beast had not four but five limbs. The tail, as thick as Aiden"s waist, was as good as his limbs.
The beast didn"t spare a glance at Aiden and kept throwing rocks at Alex. Alex was dodging it all. His body was so flexible that it was like he didn"t have bones in his body.
"HOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW"
The night howler, now angry, was screaming like crazy. He supported his body like a gorilla on four limbs, and the air pouch under his throat began to bulge. The patch of golden hair on the crown was also glowing.
"It is gathering mana of wind in its throat." Aiden has always been very sensitive to wind mana.
"Hooww...Howww"
"Hooow…Howwww"
The golden howlers who fought with Elijah and Asher were also excited. Aiden was unable to decide whether to go to support Elijah or take care of the big one first.
"Aiden, now." Alex"s scream frightened him for a moment, but he understood what he was supposed to do. He spat out his blood as he squatted down.
[Skill [Wind Gale] activated. Mana used:15. Remaining Mana: 80]
Not only did the inheritance develop his body, but it also changed his magic skills. He was able to retain [Reduce Drag] and [Wind Skin] longer, and the mana cost of [Wind Gale] also decreased. Although most of the other skills remained the same.
Aiden vanished from the spot, but he wasn"t the only one to be sensitive to the wind mana. The beast also observed that Aiden had charged at him and that his tail had come into action.
Aiden was preparing for it. He slashed his blade against his tail. With the sharpness and speed of the Conmet blade, it can cut through the tail. But not all the way through ...
[Skill [Wind Burst] activated. Mana used:2. Remaining Mana: 78]
[Skill [Wind Burst] activated. Mana used:2. Remaining Mana: 76]
It is impossible to activate [Wind Gale] without support, but [Wind Burst] is different. As soon as he felt the resistance he gave up on the blade. Still, blood was flowing out of his hand.
[Wind Burst] pushed him out of the tail whip"s path. The thick tail pa.s.sed over his head, and the machete still stuck to it. As soon as his legs touched the ground, he...
[Skill [Wind Gale] activated. Mana used:15. Remaining Mana: 63]
With the wind mana gathering in its throat, it couldn"t cry in pain, but now all its attention was directed towards Aiden. He was shot down with its giant hand like a fly as soon as he took the flight.
Aiden slammed on the tree. His internal organs s.h.i.+fted again as he vomited blood mixed energy bar pieces from his stomach. He almost fainted…
[The host is severely injured. Physical capabilities will be reduced by 30%]
Aiden couldn"t care less about it. He was struggling to breathe, but he was astonished as soon as he turned to the beast.
Just a moment ago, when Aiden used his first [Wind Gale], two [Water Missile] had also formed in front of Alex. By the time Aiden hit the tail, the missile was a few meters away from the airbag of the beast.
While it was using its right hand to send Aiden away, his left hand crushed the water missiles. But it was too late. Alex was about to plunge his spear into his heart.
The beast twisted its body to get out of the way, but the spear still drew blood. And for Alex, it was too late. Alex had been crushed into minced meat by his giant hand.
"Alex is dead," Aiden was shocked. "Just like that." He didn"t know how he was supposed to feel. Should he be happy, huh? Should he be mad? Satisfied or sad? He could not react at all.
*Boom*
The sound frightened him. It was around that time that he realized it was the beast that had fallen. And Alex was standing on the back, holding a blood-soaked spear of water. Alex had given Aiden a last look before he went to the camp.
"What happened?" Aiden muttered, and the system gave him an answer.
[The Captain had used a high tire spell [Water Clone].]
"High tire spell? [Water Clone]?" Aiden repeated the words of the system. His mind was confused about that. He underestimated Alex"s strength. He never imagined that Alex was going to be so powerful.
[Wind Gale] is also an intermediate skill. And the tire above is a high-quality skill. Aiden couldn"t dare to think about how much that mana would have cost.
"What am I supposed to do? Can I win against him? "Aiden hesitated. He thought he was getting stronger, but the grade C beast mopped the floor with him while Alex took it down without a single scratch on his body.
"Just how powerful is he?" His heart throbbing, his stomach aching, the taste of blood still fresh in his mouth, but his brain was working overtime.
He was trying to come up with a plan to kill Alex. "Tell me how many of the skills he"d used, and their grade." Aiden didn"t dare ask out loud.
[Pa.s.sive skill: 1
Innate Skill: 1
Basic grade: 17
Intermediate grade: 3
High grade:1
Advanced grade:0
]
"A pa.s.sive skill?" Aiden couldn"t believe that. It was hard to believe that he had a high-grade skill, and now there"s pa.s.sive skill? With enough money, you could have a high-quality skill, but a pa.s.sive skill is harder to get and hardest to master. "What"s the skill?"
[Innate skill: [Multicasting].
Pa.s.sive Skill: [Mana Acceleration]]
"It is not time to praise your enemy", He slapped himself before asking,"Can you calculate the mana cost of the skill?"
[Basic grade: 28
Intermediate grade: 36-39
High grade:42-56
]
"He"s a 3 B grade mage so his mana should be 559-699 ..." When he realized that Alex had an enormous amount of mana, he felt lost. Fighting Alex until he"s used all his mana is going to be hard for Aiden, even if he"s at his top.
"And I don"t think there"s a shuttle pod near this place. Even if I"m going back to Levi"s, no, no. I can"t do that. I can"t leave Elijah here." The more he thought of it, the more hopeless he felt.
"That"s it!" There was a smile in his lips, thinking about it, "Yes, I should use that. Four out of one. It"s not going to fail me with the first blow.
Swallowing his pain Aiden jumped up and walked towards the camp. The other howlers had fled the camp without hesitation as soon as their leader had died.
As soon as he returned to the camp, Elijah jumped into his embrace, making him groan in pain.
"Are you all right?" Looking at the concerned Elijah, Aiden could no longer control himself. He hugged Elijah, and she didn"t resist.
"Leave the camp," Aiden whispered to her ear.
"What?" Elijah struggled to free herself, but Aiden did not let her go.
"Believe in me. He won"t be coming after you again."
She forced her way out of his embrace. She asked while she was looking at him, "What are you going to do? You can"t beat him that way. He"s got two innate skills. I can help you," she shook her head, "No, we should just run away."
"Can"t you believe me again?" Aiden looked at her, and she was about to say something.
"Aiden…" Looking at Alex, Aiden released her, "Just go." Then he went towards Alex.
"Let me get my medicine first," Aiden said with a smile.
And slowly he walked to the other side of the camp. Just as he was about to grab his bag, Alex said, "Where are you going, Elijah?"
Aiden quickly grabbed the Redhawk from the bag and yelled, "Alex?"
Alex, who was less than ten meters away from him, turned towards him. Aiden lifted the gun, "You deserve it, b.a.s.t.a.r.d," and pulled the trigger.
* Boom*
The thunderous boom silenced the dark forest as blood scattered everywhere.