Chapter 394: After the Battle

"Master. You're here!"

Aimie turned her head back, revealing a smiling face covered in blood.

She spun around and kicked away the charging dark elf foot soldier, then swung the massive crystal cleaver in her hand with a sudden, violent sweep, slamming one clean in half with a wet thwack.

Then Aimie once again habitually bathed in fresh blood, even stuffing both side pockets of her pants with blood-soaked organs from god-knows-what body part.

Rod's brow furrowed slightly.

Two early-stage Seventh-Tier opponents and you drag it out this long — do you think that lives up to the spiritual energy and growth spirit I've worked so hard to pour into you?

One look at this girl and you can tell she's savoring the fight, deliberately going easy just to drag things out a bit longer.

"Wrap it up fast."

"Okay — but Master, didn't you say Aimie isn't allowed to turn red?"

Turning red means 【Berserk】.

Because of her beast-sickness infection, Aimie has accumulated a stockpile of beast-blood 【Fervor】 inside her body.

Once 【Berserk】 activates, 【Fervor】 will activate along with it — at that point she'd probably become even more uncontrollable.

The reason it's not allowed here is that Rod's afraid she won't be able to tell friend from foe.

"I didn't say you could turn red — doesn't that mean you have other spirit arts?"

Across from her, the two dark elves had finished their dark ritual, blood-red spirit energy coiling around their entire bodies as their momentum and pressure climbed again and again.

One charged in, the other drew a bow.

"Oh, right."

Aimie answered blankly, then suddenly drew in a deep breath.

"ROAAAR!!!"

A heaven-shaking roar suddenly erupted!

A native beastfolk spirit art — 【Furious War Cry】!

A fierce sonic wave spread outward with the beastfolk at its center; the wave was like a solid spherical force field, sweeping up dirt, grass clippings, and dust, and engulfing the two dark elves at tremendous speed.

Aimie had once used this move back when she was Sixth-Tier against the Seventh-Tier winged one Caroline, and it had worked to some degree back then.

Now that she'd advanced to Seventh-Tier, the quality of her spirit energy had risen.

And on top of that, the native spirit art 【Furious War Cry】 had been cultivated by Rod all the way up to +7.

Thunder-crack arrows and a pitch-black figure were sent tumbling away by the sonic wave.

"A beastfolk war cry?! How can it have this kind of power?!"

They cried out in shock.

The charging dark elf in particular was sent tumbling so badly she couldn't even keep her footing, slamming onto the ground with a wet splat, blood spurting from her nose and ears.

Aimie seized the opening.

Mimicking Rod's signature extreme leap, she vaulted into midair and let loose another 【Furious War Cry】 cranked to maximum, while at the same time bringing down a ferocious Mountain-Cleaving Strike.

BOOM!!!

The fallen dark elf was locked in place once more, and then the giant crystal cleaver came crashing down on her head.

The earth exploded into a round crater, gore flying everywhere.

Aimie laughed wildly as she snatched up a heart, cruelly crushed it into chunks, and kept smearing it across her firm abdominal muscles.

Rod's eyelid twitched at the sight.

He actually quite liked Aimie's abs — a neat eight-pack, and they felt very different from any other girl's when he touched them.

Seems like he'd licked and kissed them quite a few times too.

Speaking of which.

The Seventh-Tier dark elf dark-mage's strength is a bit underwhelming.

Doesn't feel as tough as the winged one Caroline — not even as good as the demon Atu.

Actually, thinking it through carefully, it's easy to understand: when a normal person advances to Seventh-Tier, they use their spirit energy to deepen some core spirit art.

Caroline is the light-totem school, something like 【Dispersion】 — she can even disperse 【Dragon Scale Art】 and 【Wailing Heaven-Shaker】.

The demon Atu, on the other hand, has a spirit art along the lines of a phoenix-style rebirth, trading a very small side effect for a full recovery.

The plague mage Amel was even more of a coward — his core advancement spell was all about soul transfer, switching bodies left and right.

Back then, killing him cost a fair amount of effort.

But a dark-mage's tier, spells, and spirit arts are all set and restricted by their Demon Archduke — they simply can't develop core skills the way normal warriors and mages can.

"Stop laughing. There's still one more."

Rod reminded her.

The distant dark elf archer's face registered shock, then fury surged up.

Damn that beast-woman — playing dumb and hiding her strength! She actually fooled us!

But she also knew she couldn't handle Aimie, so she very decisively turned her aim toward the relatively weaker constables.

One kill is one kill — anyway, this old lady can resurrect!

BANG!

Another explosive blast!

Her vision only blurred for an instant.

Then the world began to flip and tumble.

In Yu Guang's peripheral vision, it was that ranger with the black sword again — he had already reached her side, and the undisguised contempt in his eyes stabbed viciously at what little pride the dark elf still had left.

This kind of speed?

He's really only Seventh-Tier??

Forest Warden Rod's strength has exceeded the limit! Must report immediately upon resurrection!!

His final thought fell away as his consciousness faded.

Crack!

Rod stomped her head to pulp, watching the corpse slump limply beside him.

His gaze unchanged, he snatched the longbow from the corpse's hand.

Too bad, ordinary goods.

"Leave the rest to you, Aimy. How many times have I told you? Don't hide the organs inside your clothes!"

Rod didn't linger any longer.

He hurried straight to the battlefield in the direction of the relay station.

The seventh-tier over here was far more reliable than the slacking Aimy.

Zombie Selina was a seventh-tier mage whose advancement centered on 【Power Release】 and 【Undead Body】, through an advancement ritual custom-tailored for her by Lady Kali.

After that, she rapidly switched to learning various force-field spells that provided power correction.

Things like 【Bigby's Grasping Hand】, 【Green Flame Fist】, 【Fear Mastery】, and the like.

A giant hand of force composed of magic, plus an extremely high strength bonus—one punch leaves a crater on the battlefield, one slap caves in a small hill. Very intimidating.

Right there on the scene, Rod saw one seventh-tier smashed into meat paste by her.

Rat Girl No. 13's combat power was also quite impressive—after all, she was a new rat-person painstakingly created by the grey-robed lord rat-person.

She had both one of Rod's spirit seeds as a foundation and Lady Kali's round-the-clock, all-encompassing tutelage.

There was no way she could be weak.

She single-handedly took out two watered-down seventh-tiers, and her clothes weren't even that dirty.

A tall figure of one-eighty-something, long legs with just the right amount of flesh, plus a bloodstained steel tail swaying and flicking lightly through the air—expressionless, mouthless, with non-mainstream eye-covering short hair cool and aloof to the extreme, slaying both men and women alike.

Why, look—several adventurers, male and female, crowded around her, faces full of adoration, chattering nonstop.

Selina, by contrast, looked far more pitiful.

She wore a hood, her mage's robe bearing several torn marks, and one could see she had taken quite a few wounds on her body.

After all, Rod had only given her a spirit seed, and hadn't really poured in any growth spirituality.

She was certainly a bit weaker than Tally, Vivian, Aimy, and the others.

But her advantage was that she'd spent a long time at half-step seventh-tier, giving her richer casting experience.

At this moment, she stood alone off to one side.

An air of death hung all about her, carrying the distinct negative-energy aura of an undead species—clearly a "living people, keep away" sign.

Rod came up beside her without a flicker of expression, and as usual propped his elbow on the top of her head.

"Nice work. Are you badly hurt?"

"I've already died once, so I can't die again. Can I go back? I want to do tomorrow's magic ring assignment early."

"Don't rush. Take a good two or three minutes' rest—I'm not some slave-driving boss."

"Wow, two or three whole minutes. Master, you're practically more generous than a slaver. I'll follow you for life. When you die, I'll definitely put your bones on display as a warning to everyone."

Selina's exclamation, utterly expressionless and without the slightest shift in tone, followed by her signature caustic remark.

She successfully made Rod laugh.

The laughter immediately drew everyone's attention—especially Rat Girl No. 13.

When she saw Rod, her flat grey-black pupils visibly lit up. She pushed past the little fanboys and fangirls surrounding her and came straight to Rod's side.

Then she suddenly flicked her boneless-soft waist, and her supple steel tail smoothly coiled around his thigh.

Nuzzling against him affectionately.

"."

What are you doing.

Can't you see your little fanboys and fangirls are all staring at me?

(End of chapter)