The moment Aiden stepped outside the cave, his senses alerted him to something wrong in his surroundings.
His body was already in a combat stance by the time his brain realized something was off.
The forest was too silent.
Eerily silent.
His smile tensed that he wore a minute before, his brows frowning, his gaze scouting the vicinity at an alarming pace.
Cautiously, Aiden moved towards the Serpent's corpse, his steps making as little rustling sound as possible.
The moment the carcass came into his vision, Aiden saw something that made him hide behind a nearby crystallized tree instantly.
"Looks like you have to earn this meal, huh?" Zephy said, perched onto Aiden's shoulder, his way of speaking back to normal.
...And seeing the scene in front of him, Aiden had to agree with his words.
There was a glacial blue bear with a large horn protruding on its forehead, standing around 4 metres tall, gnawing on the Corpse of the Wind Serpent.
And on focusing closely, Aiden thought that its fur looked more like little spikes, resembling quite close to of a porcupine from back on Earth.
Its Claws and fangs seemed deadly, equally deadly to the Serpent without the poison, and it most certainly would require both brains and brawn combined for Aiden to even stand a slim chance against it at his current strength.
However, that was only one of his worries because he could feel around a dozen more eyes silently eyeing the same scene as he was.
More famished guests seemed to be waiting in the dark, just like him, to have a meal.
He didn't know who those guests were specifically, but he thought they ought to be weaker than the Glacial bear, otherwise they wouldn't be hiding.
"Want me to scare all of them away?" Zephy, with his eyes locked on the Bear, worded and uncharacteristically of him, offered to help by his own accord, which Aiden instantly understood.
He was worried about Aiden seeing the mess he was in a bit earlier, and Aiden appreciated his sentiment.
However...
"No... I'll do it myself." Aiden closed his eyes and whispered, getting a head turn and a surprised side eye from the Ice phoenix.
...I can't let myself get babysitted. I need to fight my own battles.
That's the only way to get stronger, ...and not have myself consumed by my own thoughts.
Aiden squatted down as he saw the Bear turning its neck towards his direction, and slowly moved to a better position.
"Let's begin today's training here, then," Zephy said, his eyes glistening with the dangerous intent of a predator.
Whether that glint was for Aiden or the Bear, only he knew.
Aiden nodded subtly, his senses on full alert of his surroundings, yet his focus was primarily fixed on the Bear.
'Char, show me the Status of that Bear.'
[Roger that, Host.]
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Race: Glacial Bear
STR: 28 (Rank E+)
AGI: 22 (Rank E-)
VIT: 25 (Rank E)
MAGIC: 15 (Rank F)
INT: 18 (Rank F+)
CHARM: 22 (Rank E-)
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Aiden looked at the Status of the Bear and judged the bear's capabilities to be a bit difficult than Serpent's, while gathering some stones or ice shards that he could find lying around.
"Heh, don't think your Magic's gonna be enough to defeat it?" Zephy jabbed, though clearly interested in hearing out Aiden's plan.
"It might be, but I still don't know how to attack with Magic with this range between us. I have only used magic in close quarters till now, and with those spikes on its hide... It would be extremely risky to fight melee." Aiden said, his words barely making a sound.
He picked two of the sharpest ice shards and stored two sharp stones in his magic bag.
Gripping one of the shards in a throwing grip, Aiden ceased the wind to exist in the vicinity with his {Unique Skill: Aquilonis}, basically starting a timer for the bear's death.
"That won't work, kiddo. See that horn on its forehead; it is extremely aether-sensitive. It can live on just Aether and Mana that its body contains for a week straight, if not more, without air." Zephy began his lesson, his words carried to Aiden's ears by his Mana as a medium when Air no longer existed.
"You won't get to eat anything if you didn't kill that thing within the next 10 minutes or so."
Aiden wholly agreed with Zephy's words, but it seemed like Zephy didn't quite understand why he removed Air.
It was to start the timer of Bear's death, of course; however, it was also to mask any sound he might make while attacking and sneaking around.
As air is the natural medium for carrying sounds in most cases, Aiden decided to remove it first.
Not every ordinary monster would be able to use their Mana to carry their words like Zephy.
Even he couldn't inform Zephy of his plan cause he didn't know how to communicate without Air.
Thus, he decided to show it.
Aiden activated {Extra Skill: Stealth (Mastery Lv. 1)} to reduce his presence further, and gathered highly pressured water around the shard, then threw it towards Bear's snout, propelling it even faster with a burst of wind at the time of release.
The Sharp, pointy shard flew through the space between them without making a noise and hit the bear near its lower jaw.
ROAR—!
Glacial bear's pained roar echoed through the forest, or it should have been, but no sound emerged as the Giant stood screaming into a void.
The shard Aiden had aimed for the snout, missed by a few inches, and had embedded itself in its jaws, drawing blood.
The Serpent's meat dropped from its fangs, and it rushed to remove the shard from its jaw, but ended up shattering it due to mishandling its own strength, leaving the pointed end embedded.
The Glacial Bear, furious yet panicked, looked around, but couldn't determine from where it had been attacked.
That eased Aiden's mind for a fraction of a moment; however, as Zephy had emphasized its horn, it began glowing.
The bear stopped using its eyes and ears to look for the attacker, realising it was futile, and started to sense the surroundings with its horn for Aether fluctuations.
However, Aiden wasn't idling when the bear was flailing. As soon as he had let the first shard go, he had prepared the second one with even more power behind it and fired it towards the Bear.
Glacial Bear, already sensing the Aether fluctuations, noticed the Shard coming towards it at the exact moment Aiden fired it.
It ran towards the shard, deflecting it away with its horn, taking no damage this time around at whatever.
The 4-meter-tall mass of muscle running directly towards him was a terrifying sight.
Despite there being no air, the sensation of ground pounding beneath him as the Bear took its step was gut-wrenching, but Aiden didn't freeze cause of it.
He had been through worse situations.
Before the distance between them could have closed meaningfully, Aiden manifested as many tiny droplets of water as he could and began raining on the bear, simultaneously running back and random patterns to gain even more distance.
The thousand tiny droplets of water did little to the bear, and it kept running straight through them, letting all of them hit it as it had its eyes fixed on Aiden.
It shot out all of the gathered Mana in its horn and fired it towards Aiden in the form of a dozen Ice blunts, but Aiden didn't bother to dodge it or slow down his speed, putting complete trust in his Blessings.
And as he expected, all of the ice blunts only revitalized him.
However, the agility of the two creatures had a huge gap between them, and the Glacial Bear had closed the gap quite a lot.
Yet... Aiden maintained his composure and pulled back the Ice Shard that the Bear had deflected away a bit earlier, stabbing it in its left hind leg.
If I can't manipulate Frozen water in the presence of Zephy yet, I'll just coat that frozen water in the water that I can control!
ROAR—!
Another empty roar escaped the bear, its mouth wide agape, its throat sending a vibrating sensation through the ground to Aiden, yet no Audible sound came out.
The Glacial bear, having its leg stabbed in mid-sprint, lost its balance and slammed into a tree, taking the tree down and falling on itself.
Yet one more pained roar echoed in the void, the Bears Quill's embedding itself in its own skin, piercing its thick hide, caused by the tree's weight on its back.
However, it wasn't dead yet.
The Glacial Bear, showing its E+ Rank strength, budged the tree from its back in a completely bloodied state, leaving it open to an attack.
And Aiden seized that chance.
Learning to confirm the kill before letting himself relax from the battle against Serpent, Aiden let the Air back into the surroundings.
He manifested the Death Scythe and thrusted it into its jaw, but he wasn't finished, nor was the Bear, as it let out a screeching roar, practically throwing the Heavy Tree off of its back.
The Glacial Bear tried to throw a Jab with his paw with insane strength that, if it hit Aiden, would kill him at once.
But—
"Electrocute."
—It was already too late.
Aiden used his Scythe as the Mana Catalyst to electrocute the Bear, and the rain of tiny water droplets that the bear had run through recklessly amplified its power.
In the blink of an eye, the Glacial Bear had been burned alive.
Its eyes popped out of their socket, before its charred body fell on top of them, squishing them into a gooey paste that flew everywhere.
[One Death has been caused by {Death Scythe: Harbinger of Death}...]
[Refining...]
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