Chapter 53: On the battlefield
As soon as the monster rushed toward him, some of the students around him immediately backed away to make some distance, while many others stopped to watch and see how the newcomer would fight it.
Many of them still remembered how deeply embarrassing their own first fights were.
The monster was huge, easily reaching his height. As it moved, the earth beneath it vibrated, and small rocks floated up into the air, spinning rapidly around it like a protective shield.
Seeing this, Sage jumped from his arms and got ready to fight. Her tiny body glowed with a faint green light as she activated [Wind Overdrive].
The monster immediately focused its attention on her and Night smoothly used this momentary distraction to cast [Wind Dash].
He reached the beast’s side in a flash. Noticing him, the spinning rocks changed trajectory and shot directly at him.
But before they could even reach him, he pulled out his simple black knife.
With [Over-Sharpen] active, he swiped outward, cutting halfway through its thick neck.
Because the knife was so small, that was all he managed to cut, but it was more than enough to finish off the monster.
It fell with a heavy thud and blood immediately started to pool on the ground.
[Ding!]
[You have slain Lvl 18 Winged Bison | +180 EXP]
Sage ran up next to him and looked at him with starry eyes, thinking:
Sage:
@(★ω★)@
So strong!
The other students looked genuinely surprised, seeing him handle the beast so gracefully.
.....
Above the wall, Mike watched the brief exchange and nodded in approval.
Beside him, Colonel Sam analyzed, "[Nightmare] and [Wind] Aspects, combined with a very high synchronicity with the summon. The summon looks weak and it looks like a Non-Aspect type."
Mike asked, "How are you so sure it doesn’t possess an Aspect?"
Without turning around, Colonel Sam replied, "For the Tutorial, I was sent into a vast forest filled with monkeys."
"I fought them day and night with some friends I made there and I even encountered ones exactly like this."
"They are called just White Monkeys and they are one of the weakest in their entire race, possessing no bloodline or any innate Aspect. Nothing worth much, but..."
He clamped his mouth shut, pausing mid-sentence.
Looking at him, Mike narrowed his eyes. "So you’re going to be secretive now? As you can see, he is my student, and he just summoned it today."
"It would be very helpful if you shared any important information. It would help me train them better."
Colonel Sam sighed. "It’s nothing special, just that they can mimic."
Mike nodded as he got an idea of what that might entail. "Mimic skills? Or just their summoner’s fighting style since it has no Aspect of its own?"
Colonel Sam shook his head. "As far as I know, they can mimic anything. And they are incredibly cunning, so they know exactly how to take advantage of this ability."
"One time, I almost died to one of those monkeys that was ten levels below me."
Mike raised an eyebrow. "So strong?"
Colonel Sam grumbled, "Nooo, that damn thing turned into a rock and just waited for me. The ******* thing looked so perfectly comfortable for a rock that I couldn’t help but sit on it!"
He closed his eyes tight, as if painfully reliving a deep trauma.
Colonel Sam:
(( ;°Д°))
Mike didn’t know what to say.
(￣×￣)
Surviving such a literal pain in the ass must have been awful. It might have been better to just die...
....
Further away, Sara smiled warmly as she watched Night handle the monster beautifully from her hidden vantage point.
He has become so strong.
Blade must have helped him level up.
Knowing her, she might have taken him on a Devil hunt in the middle of the night, which explains why he was late this morning...
She must have noticed the Devil’s tracking mark left on him.
She then thought with deepening worry, That Devil is incredibly good at hiding. I couldn’t find it with the surveillance arrays; even the City Core failed to detect its presence.
It possesses strong perception, high-tier stealth, and even puppet-manipulation abilities... Is it a Demon Lord, or a being close to that level?
If it is a Demon Lord, then the whole city is in danger. I doubt even ’The Witch’ would be able to help.
After all, even she would be butchered like a chicken by something like that.
I should inform Blade about it immediately.
.....
On the battlefield, standing beside the fresh corpse, Night didn’t know how to put it into the Nightmare Domain without visibly summoning his signature black fog.
Lucy said "try to use the shadows"
Night mumbled under his breath, "How am I supposed to use it? Unlike how you guys seem to be easily using my skills, I am unable to do the same with yours."
"I don’t sense anything. Even while meditating, I couldn’t sense a thing."
I don’t know about the others, but my shadow abilities are not an ’Aspect’ like when I was a Storm Wolf. It’s like my bloodline now, Lucy explained telepathically.
Don’t try to use it like raw Energy or like the Nightmare Domain. Just try to move your shadow like you would move an arm.
All the technical skills and yada yada will happen naturally, like breathing after that.
Listening to her advice, he tried exactly what she said. Instead of trying to channel a mystical power like before, he simply willed his shadow to move.
In one try, it happened.
As if he were born with it, his shadow started to shift. It lost its rigid form, became formless, extended outward to cover the massive corpse, and then, poof it was gone. Even the blood pooled on the ground was cleanly swept away.
His shadow returned to normal immediately after that. Now he knew he could actually use shadows like Lucy did, albeit with a little bit of a struggle.
He felt something heavy resting inside his shadow. It was slightly different from storing things in the Nightmare Domain, but not by much.
From his shadow, he then tried to seamlessly transfer the corpse into his Domain.
It happened so smoothly that he was genuinely surprised. I should have tried this earlier.
"Previously, because of your low level and low EV reserves, doing something like this manually was wasteful, especially with me around since I am very efficient at using it" Lucy said.
Night agreed.
Just performing this simple retrieval move cost him 10 EV, whereas when Lucy did the exact same thing, it cost nothing.
Still, it was better than leaving such precious resources lying on the ground.
.....
Back on the wall, looking at the scene, Colonel Sam asked Mike, "He has the Shadow Aspect as well? Or is it another summon? Does he have an Uncommon Grade [Summon] skill?"
Mike shook his head, looking thoughtful.
When I saw him summon a new creature in class this morning, I assumed he was just lazy.
But now that I think about it, he just wanted to use his second summon out in the open to make us think that was his only summon.
So cunning... good.
This was the first time he was seeing someone upgrade their [Summon] skill so quickly; most Summoners never even managed to do so in their entire lifetime.
Colonel Sam, realizing the teacher was just as clueless as him, clicked his tongue and said, "I am sure it’s a second summon. His sloppy use of the Aspect gives it away immediately."
...
From her hiding spot, Sara smacked her face.
(－‸ლ)
He got exposed so quickly! At least it was only Lucy who was exposed, so it’s manageable.
We just need to give her an artifact to change her looks and it should be okay...
Hopefully....
(-_-)
...
Looking around, Night saw that most of the students were now heavily engaged in combat.
All of them were doing exceptionally well and many of them had already killed two or three Winged Bison, a clear testament to their rigorous training and skills.
The boy who had threatened him earlier aka Tony was surrounded by crackling black lightning.
Dozens of Winged Bison could be seen lying dead on the ground around him.
Then, Night saw a girl with green hair and glasses struggling desperately against two Winged Bison while trying her hardest to protect a smaller girl, probably a year or so younger.
She was using a green flame that moved fluidly between the Winged Bison, leaving scorching burn marks on their thick hides.
The flame instantly turned the defensive stones used by the Winged Bison to fine dust upon contact...
Seeing them struggling not too far away, he picked up Sage and used [Wind Dash] to quickly reach them.
Just then, a third Winged Bison arrived to flank them. In sheer despair, the older girl yelled at the younger girl who was probably her sister to run away.
But the younger girl stubbornly refused to leave her sister to die alone.
乂( ˃̣̣̥ ⌓ ˂̣̣̥ )
....
"Quickly! Run back and call for help!" Daisy yelled.
"No! How can I leave you to die like this..." Lily cried, wiping her tears furiously.
Daisy flicked her forehead sharply and scolded, "Idiot! Who is asking you to leave me to die?! I asked you to call for help...."
Just then, a fourth Winged Bison charged in and it was significantly bigger than the previous ones.
It slammed its massive hooves onto the ground and huge, spear-shaped rocks rapidly formed around it. With a roar, it launched the deadly stone spears directly at the girls.
Daisy, acting on pure reflex, shoved Lily hard out of the way as the stone spears headed straight for her.
"Nooo! Daissssyyy!" Lily screamed in horror.
