Chapter 369: Heat (1/2)

“Finally out of the tunnels. We’ll arrive in another eight hours or so,” the Council liaison said as he walked next to Zac with quick steps.

His name was Murk, and he was one of the molemen who also possessed a ranger class. He was in charge of showing Zac’s army the correct path in the underworld, as the roads leading to the Flame Golems were pretty confusing. The incursion itself was in a sense placed in the open underworld, but to get to that sector you first needed to pass a bunch of confusing tunnels.

There was no way that Zac would place the fate of his people in the hands of the Council Though, and the Tal-Eladar had over a hundred beasts scouting ahead for them as well. He personally didn’t think that the council had any reason to betray him, but people were unpredictable.

“Come, let’s train!” another voice piped up from the side, and Zac looked over at Emily who glared at him with some grievance in her eyes.

They had been traveling for over three days, as all settlements in the near vicinity of the Flame Golems had long been destroyed. The teenager wanted to make the most of the time, so she had insisted that the two would train with their axes. Zac knew part of it was to get her mind off the fact that her brother had passed away, and he happily obliged.

She was someone he had invested heavily in, and he wanted to make sure she'd get strong enough to protect herself.

“I’ll get you this time,” she muttered stubbornly.

“That’s great,” Zac smiled as he hoisted her up and flashed away with [Loamwalker].

He kept running for a couple of minutes until he found a secluded spot ahead of the army.

“We have 20 minutes or so before they catch up,” Zac said as he let the teenager down.

Emily didn’t hesitate to take out her two tomahawks from her cosmos sack, and they both started to radiate with chaotic energies. It was a continuation of her elemental axeman-archetype, and a new skill she got at level 35. This one wasn’t a support skill like the earlier one, but rather a pure offensive skill.

Zac smiled as he took out his billy cluband a spare shield, and waved at her to start. She immediately disappeared, leaving a scorching mark on the ground, and the next moment she appeared behind him. One of her tomahawks were already in mid-swing, and it lit up with infernal fire.

Her new skill [Elemental Fury] looked confusingly similar to her elemental axes, apart from the fact that she needed to use a physical axe for the skill. She could essentially imbue her axes with an element of her choice, and the different elements would have varying effects. The skill allowed her to have a flexible and unpredictable fighting style, and Zac felt it was a good match to her chaotic and aggressive fighting style.

The flame-infusion would imbue her strikes to erupt into large explosions, causing widespread damage in the direction of her swings. There were also earth, lightning, ice, wind, each with their own effects. The only weakness was that she couldn’t use the same attack twice in a row, at least not while the skill was in middle mastery.

Zac already knew about the effects of the strikes from their earlier sparring sessions, and he smoothly moved his shield forward to block the swing mid-way. It didn’t interrupt the skill, but it caused the gout of fire to spread in all directions, effectively blocking Emily’s sight as Zac repositioned himself as he clubbed her on the back.

The teenager stumbled forward, but she smoothly turned the stumble into a confusing set of steps as she once again tried to take him down, this time using the freezing effect of her ice axe to rob him of his mobility. Zac played along and slightly slowed his speed, but she still couldn't manage to land a hit as his shield always got in the way.

The fighting reached a stalemate lasting a few minutes, until Zac suddenly emitted a spike of killing intent toward her the moment she launched her attack. Emily’s face turned deathly pale and she quickly jumped five meters back, and she angrily stomped her foot in the ground as she waved her tomahawks in Zac’s direction.

“That’s cheating! You said you wouldn’t bully me with your levels. How is that not using your levels?” Emily sputtered.

“I had much denser killing intent than that by the time I was your level,” Zac laughed. “I know you wanted to quickly improve, so you’ve used a couple of E-Grade crystals while down here. But doing so has left you lacking in combat experience.”

“I’ve still gone fighting against Barghest every day until recently, and I’ve even fought against the beast on Mystic Island,” Emily countered with a sullen face.

“I know, but you’ve had demon guards and Valkyries protecting you,” Zac said. “You have not yet gone through a true baptism of life and death. It makes you a bit weak against killing intent. You have honed great battle instincts from training with good teachers, but you do not trust them when faced with a great threat.”

“So I should just run straight at someone radiating enough killing intent to blot out the sky?” Emily muttered skeptically. “Sounds like a good way to get killed early.”

“It's about instinct and decisiveness,” Zac smiled. “You can never hesitate no matter if you decide to fight or flee. The problem was that you froze when I released the murderous aura. Your movement skill is pretty good, and your attributes are very high for your level, so you should have a decent chance to escape even if you meet someone stronger. Staying alive is the most important.”

Truthfully Zac was lying to Emily in his explanation. He was emitting a lot more killing intent than what he possessed when he was around level 40. He wanted to inoculate her against dense auras and massive killing intent, which would hopefully allow her to keep her wits about her in case she found herself against a stronger foe.

The teenager slowly nodded in understanding, and she took a deep breath to steady herself. Soon enough she was back at it, and she used everything in her repertoire as she tried to break past Zac’s defenses. She flitted about with surprising speed as she launched everything from fiery blasts up-close to wind blades from surprising angles in the distance.

Zac was extremely happy with her performance, and the only thing that he might feel could use some improvement was the lack of ruthlessness. The fighting felt clean and a bit synthetic, whereas he wished for a more efficient approach like the one that the Valkyries utilized.

They did everything in their power to kill their targets as quickly and efficiently as possible, no matter what they needed to do. They would attack groins or other weak spots, utilize hidden weaponry and the environment to their advantage. Emily still lacked that bit, and that was what he was trying to instill in her.