Not seeming to have learnt his lesson, Ace again cshed head-on with the wild-horned hippo, and once more, even with his [hak tthen his attacks, he was sereating.
heless, his smile grew with enthusiasm as he felt his blood boil with excitement. For as long as he could remember, Ace had always had a chip on his shoulder. It was as if he always had something to prove to somebody.
And even if that chip hadn't disappeared, in a world where no one khe tales of Gol D. Roger, the king of the pirates, he didn't feel anywhere near as burdehat allowed more of his true personality to e to light.
'Hahaha, I never knew fighting could be so…
Fun!'
Ace had never beeo shy away from a battle, and the whole of his previous world could attest to him having always been strong, but never in his previous life had he truly ehe thrill of battle. Not like this anyway.
There was no one he felt he had to prove anything to. There was no part of him w about living up to anyone's expectations. Other than the enemy before him, everything else seemed to disappear!
"HAHAHA. AGAIN…
E AGAIN!
AGAIN!"
Ace would stantly swing his give with all the power he could summon as if he genuinely believed he was strong enough to end the fight with oack, but every csh would end with him being the one pushed back.
His arms had long gone numb and were covered in bruises, but his smile only widened with every csh!
The hippo, who had been steadily dominating its oppohis whole battle, felt fear for the first time. Genuine fear.
Every time it pushed this little ape back, the aura he emitted increased. And now, the aura Ace was subsciously emitting was almost suffog.
Ace could almost smell the hippo's fear at that point, and when he saw its beady little eyes looking for a dire to escape, his i in tinuing this battle disappeared.
Whilst the hippo was still in a daze, unsure how to proceed, It didn't even notice the bck bde of Ace's closing in on it until it was too te. The wild hippo didn't even mao squeal in fear before Ace thrust his give through its ear, pierg its brain.
In the sky, Wukong sat cross-legged on the back of a rge pitch-bck eagle staring down at Ace with a hint of a smile.
"Ok, let's go back, and then this king promises to let you go!" Wukong said, gng down at the eagle he had mounted.
.
.
.
"That…
That's a Horned Hippo! Ace, did you hunt that yourself?" Lance was the first to notice Ace return as he dragged the semi-decapitated beast along the floor.
"A Horned Hippo is a Magical Beast of the third rank… How did you defeat a rank three magical beast by yourself?" Alissa asked as she rao examihe corpse.
"Are you okay?" Killian asked, not seeming to have even noticed the beast.
"Haha, I'm fine. How could a stupid rown pig best me?!" As if to prove it, Ace tried to raise his arms to flex them. But between his fight and then having t his dinner over a mile back to the campsite, Ace's arms were far too sore to be raised that high.
"Ace, your arms… They're pletely bruised and swollen!" Milianna, who'd rushed over from the carriage, worriedly held her son's arms to examihem. "Where's Mr. Wukong? He prom…"
"Mom, it's fi's only some light swelling. It's no different from when I do interaining." Ace said in an attempt to calm his overprotective mother.
Milianna knew he was right. After a particurly hard training session, both Ad Killian would struggle to walk as their bodies were too sore. Seeing them like that was bad enough, but she could deal with it as it was doo themselves by themselves when training, but this was caused by a powerful magical beast that had been trying to kill him.
Even though she, as a loving mother, didn't like it, she knew full well that the path Ace chose for himself was a dangerous one. All she could do was be there to support him. "e take a seat; let me rub some oi on your arms to ease the swelling."
Uanding that arguing would be a pointless endeavour at this point, Ace followed his mother's dires and took a seat on one of the many chopped-down logs that littered the campsite.
"I still don't uand how you killed it. First of all, Magical Beasts tend to be strohan humans of the same rank. Sedly, it was a whole rank higher than you, and finally, when a magical beast breaks through to the third rank, they form their magicite cores." Alissa tossed over a small spherical crystal that was tinted blue.
"A horned hippo of the third rank would've developed its magical ability – water bullet. It's a fast and deadly ability even to warriors of the same rank, let alohose weaker than it." Alissa studied Ace's body curiously as if she was looking to see if he was hiding any other injuries. "So, how did you do it?"
Ace, who had now gotteo Alissa's presence, shrugged. "It didn't use any magical abilities; it just kept charging at me…"
Alissa looked deeply at Ace as if to see if he was lying. "Even if it decided you were too little of a threat to waste energy using its magical ability, it's still a genuine rank three beasts. Physically, you should've been outmatched in every way."
"The abilities of a genius aren't something that be uood by mere mortals like you." Ace shamelessly replied.
It was at that moment they noticed Wukourning dragging two giant silver-scaled crocodiles. Tossing them over to one side as if they were nothing.
"Those are Dragonscaled Crocodiles. A fully mature one grow to Ra." Alissa, who'd bee something of a walking diary, said in awe as she looked at the two elephant-sized beasts Wukong tossed.
Wukong didn't seem to notice what Alissa had said as he smiled pyfully, looking at Ace. "Your meal looks a bit… small."
Ace rolled his eyes, not b to reply. He had long siteo Wukong's teasing. Every day after he got back from his hunt, Wukong would e back from his hunt with a couple of beasts of at least the seventh rank, sometimes eighth. He'd then cook it and share a small amount with Land an even smaller amount with Milianna.
It wasn't that he was selfish; it's just that the amount of calories in higher-ranked beasts is astronomical.
Take the crocodile for example. Lance, despite being a warrior of the fourth rank, would only be able to eat a leg by himself befetting full.
Milianna, as someone who'd her stepped onto the path of a warrie, would be lucky to be able to finish a whole bite.
The worst part was that Ace, Killian, and Alissa would be forced to smell the adult's meals but were only allowed to eat the food Ace brought back. It wasn't like they ever went hungry, but when they smelt the incredible aroma ing from the other meal, each of their mouths would water untrolbly.
The only good thing was that Aoticed that by eating fresh magical beast meat every day, his training speed more than doubled. That was especially true for nce, who got to eat the meat of such high-rankis on a daily basis.
After eating, everyouro the carriage to carry on with their journey. As usual, Land Milianna sat at the back with Killian and Alissa, who carried on with their mage training, whilst Ace got on the front with Wukong.
"How did you find it?"
Hearing his recruiter's question, Aew he was referring to his first battle against a rank three beast.
"They're definitely a lot strohan rank two beasts. I was lucky to win as easily as I did."
Wukong nodded appreciatively, hearing Ace's ho reply. "Did you notiy mistakes you made during yht?"
"It wasn't really a mistake, but I'd say my ability with the give is far from passable, but I guess that'll improve with time the more I fight." Ace said, clearly haven given it some thought.
"This king admits that your teique with the give is genuinely horrible, but there is more to it than that.
Yht was horrible to watch. This king hadn't noticed as much when you were fighting the weaker beasts because you were able to easily domihem, but your attack pattern is too predictable, and quite frankly, it doesn't suit you!"
Ace was taken aback when he heard that. "How did you even see my fights? I didn't sen…"
"Sense me?" Wukong finished Ace's senteh a knowing smile.
"You know?" Ace asked in surprise when he saw Wukong's face.
"Of course. Every night when you'd go in aate, this king could feel an odd spiritual prese wasn't hard to guess it came from you after a few nights of it repeating. This king guesses that ability of yours is why your spiritual essence is so ridiculous for ye."
"I guess so…" Ace said, unsure of what he should even say at this point.
- - - - - - - - -
P.S. I've decided to increase the release rate as I write a bit more than I inally anticipated:
Webnovel/Scribblehub/RoyalRoad: Tuesday & Sunday - 16:00 (GMT)
Patreon./ACoilingDragon/posts: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, & Sunday - by 16:00 (GMT)
I hope you enjoy! XD