Shades of the New World

Chapter 108: The unnecessarily complicated fight

Rantz, hearing the teacher's words, was shocked silly. 

'Why is he helping the ox?! Are you trying to make us fail?!' she raged in her little heart.

She always had a hard time fighting in an uncontrolled environment. Even though she was raised as one of the sacred twin heirs of the Dark-lux Tribe and received so many resources for herself, obviously she never met a situation that was deadly for her and didn't spend all her time training like a maniac. 

She would much prefer to play around with her friends and Koya, perhaps read through some interesting books and then indulge in sweets. 

Rantz only agreed to put her name in this mission since Koya had registered and she also guessed that it wouldn't be taken.

But it didn't mean that she was completely clueless when it came to combat, since she did receive proper training, but it could be called a miracle if she managed to perform them without ending up like a mess, or shaking uncontrollably.

The current situation was the perfect example. 

The bull's charge towards the tree was so powerful that Rantz could still feel the vibrations through her bones. It was a wonder that her instincts took over and she jumped sideways. 

Usually, she would just stand still like an idiot, completely shocked and motionless. Rantz shuddered to think what would happen if she did that a minute ago. An image of her lifeless body hanging from the bull's horns appeared in her mind. 

'It's all because of those two Westerners!' she thought with vehemence.

If Evin and Arza did not accept the mission all willy-nilly, she wouldn't be here, and if the black-haired kid wasn't such a snarky brat, the teacher wouldn't be interfering with the fight.

Thinking so, she glanced at the fight that was happening. Somehow, the red-haired boy was trading blows with the bull on equal strength, never letting it take the advantage. It was even more weird, since the bull was mostly using his whole body to charge, but the boy was deflecting the attacks with only the swings of his sword. 

'How the heck is he so strong? Doesn't that mean that his every strike can smash down trees like the bull?' Rantz thought, but the black-haired kid was the one that's even more surprising. Evin flew through the sky like he was born airborne. Raw strength could be explained by resources, but the skill that Evin showed was not something that could be replicated through resources. Even if the boy received a Scroll designed for teaching to learn, the act of flying was something that was simply too unnatural to humans.

Rantz knew how difficult it was to float, since she had tried to do so herself in the past, but most of her attempts ended up with her uncontrollably flying into something, or simply ending up without knowing up from down. And flying with a weapon was a wholly different beast compared to flying alone. 

Even though her body and the weapon would be weightless, trying to swing it around would usually end up with her fumbling around in the air, since the simple act of moving without weight was such a foreign concept to the human mind, let alone trying to perform combat maneuvers. Moreover, even if she managed to hit her target by spending half her lifetime of luck, the damage done would be practically negligible, which lead Rantz to think that floating was only good for running away, or traveling great distances.

But the boy in front of her was casually destroying everything she believed about fighting in the air. 

Even though the fact that Evin was floating meant that he was weightless, every one of his jabs with the spear would leave a huge wound on the bull's body, ones which were even bigger than the wounds that Bardom managed to create with his estoc. Wounds that Bardom inflicted, after dashing a good three or four steps for some extra oomph.

Rantz did not have much time to think, as Koya's big spell was finally ready. A large icicle, one which was created with special runes inscribed on its body, started appearing above the black clothed girl.

"Pull the bull closer to Koya!" 

The black-haired boy had noticed that the spell was ready, so he was trying to bring the beast closer, so Koya could get a clean shot. 

Although Rantz was happy that the fight would be over soon, she still hated the idea of such a huge beast getting closer to her.

With some maneuvering, the three were able to create the perfect opportunity for Koya to shoot her spell.

After a good thwack to the bull's head, Arza managed to catch the bull's horns and keep it in place. Evin used the Heavy World to make Arza heavier, so they bull couldn't just throw him off. Since making something heavier was much harder than making something lighter, Evin had to use practically all of his mana-core to achieve such a feat. 

Koya did not hesitate and the large icicle flew towards the bull at incredible speeds. It lodged itself into the top area of the bull's front legs, where the heart was generally located. 

Rantz saw the bull thundering around because of the pain, violently thrashing at everything in its surroundings. The red-haired boy would definitely not end up well if he got caught up in that, so the flying one swooped down and picked the boy up. 

Rantz sighed in relief at the sight. Now, they just had to wait for the bull to run out of energy and die.

But the scene that everyone expected did not happen. And as if mocking the girl's hopes of victory, the bull seemed to become even stronger than before. Its wounds were healing in seconds, and the giant icicle had almost been pulled out thanks to some unknown forces.

"Fucker!" the black-haired boy spat out and the bull suddenly started moving weirdly. It struggled to stand on its feet, its red-veined eyes looking even more strained than before. It tried to thrash around, but it seemed unable to do so. Like it was unable to breathe. 

Then, whatever that was suffocating the bull suddenly stopped, and it breathed in a huge amount of air and was seemingly okay now.

Rantz had no idea what was happening anymore. But that wasn't the end of her worry as cries of bird-type mana-beasts surrounded the area.

'Have they come here because of the commotion that is happening?' the girl thought with dread.

Five huge birds were flying over the group, hungrily eyeing the people struggling on the ground.

"Hey, you fucking piece of shit! Can you stop invigorating the bull already?! There's a bunch of Tier-3 birds over our head!" the black-haired boy shouted again but the bull showed no signs of weakening.

Hearing the boy's words, Rantz finally understood what was happening. 

At first, Zakhlo couldn't outright heal the bull since it was covered in its oozing mana. But now, he could simply use healing spells on the bull, since the spell that Koya threw at the bull had considerably weakened it, making it so that the mana around the bull was used up and had stopped oozing outside. Not only that, the mana in the air was gradually replaced by the huge amounts of Life energy that the instructor was throwing out, making the healing process much more effective.

'Why!?' Rantz screamed internally, realizing what was happening. 

"You two keep the bull busy! Koya, prepare that spell again! I'll take care of the birds!" Evin shouted suddenly.

Arza immediately resumed trading blows with the bull, while Bardom supported from the sidelines. Koya started focusing on the spell, fully trusting Evin's guarantee. 

Rantz didn't know when her twin sister started trusting this stranger boy so much, but she was feeling glad that her name wasn't shouted, but then felt slightly bad for it, before thinking about how the boy was going to deal with five tier 3s.

The flying boy did not keep her waiting and flew straight upwards, into the flock of giant birds.

'That's suicide!' Rantz thought, her face pale.

All five the birds dived towards the black-haired boy, an unseeming smirk on all of their faces But instead of the ravenous feeding that Rantz had expected, the birds showed a similar condition that the bull was showing earlier. Confusion and panic painted their expressions, before all five of them fell limp in only two minutes.

Now Rantz was seriously confused. 

'The boy used the same spell on the bull, but the bull broke free of it somehow. Wait, no! The instructor must have canceled it. If he didn't then the bull would have fallen dead in only a minute. What kind of spell is it!?' Rantz thought with some awe and greed.

In that two-minute span, Koya had already prepared the spell and was working on strengthening it even further.

The black-haired boy, who was already finished with the five Beasts, landed beside Rantz's twin sister and whispered something in her ears.

The latter looked slightly surprised, but nodded after a little while.

"Arza! Once more! Pull the bull closer to Koya!" Evin shouted next.

The same process took place, and Rantz was curious to see what was different now. Another chance appeared soon after, and Evin and Koya nodded at each other subtly.

Rantz carefully looked at the battle and saw that the shadow under the black-haired boy was getting thicker and more viscid, like it had become some sort of liquid, moving around impatiently. It looked almost alive, giving Rantz an eerie feeling. 

'Is that his special ability?' the girl thought and wondered how the boy was going to attack the bull with the Dark World. She looked at Koya and saw that her twin sister was preparing to launch her spell against the enemy.

Evin's shadow then started moving through the grounds, but it didn't move towards the bull, and instead moved towards the instructor. After the shadow surrounded the man, it started to rapidly climb upwards. Koya had also thrown her spell at the bull in perfect unison with the boy's Dark spell.

Evin's Dark spell was full functional now and a tall, black, tunnel like thing appeared inside the forest. A loud snapping sound came from inside, followed by a pause, and the black-haired boy swearing in Western in a confused tone.

Rantz wondered what had happened, but focused on the effects of Koya's spell.

The icicle hit true, and the bull started thrashing around. But this time, it did not start regenerating, as there was no one trying to heal it. It thrashed about for a few dozen seconds before it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Rantz could feel the air become a bit denser with the mana that came out of the bull's body.

Arza got close and decapitating the bull with a deft strike. It didn't take much effort, as the bull's hide and muscles weren't strengthened by any mana anymore.

She then looked towards the completely black area where Evin had trapped the instructor. The tall walls were pulsating slightly, and Rantz would get a feeling that something was looking at her from inside the Dark room.

"What is that thing?" Bardom asked Arza.

"I don't know exactly But it has something to do with World Sprites," Arza replied.

The boy's words surprised Rantz and Koya. 

'Was the boy similar to them?' they thought in unison.

Soon after, the dark area disappeared, and the four saw the black-haired boy standing with a shocked face.

"What happened?" Bardom asked.

Evin looked back, an unbelieving expression on his face.

"I seem to have killed the instructor," the boy replied, making some weird expression.