Slaying More Beasts
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Chapter XII: Slaying More Beasts

"I'm saying you did a good job. Even if you didn't listen, you still killed the wolf. Albeit sloppily." 

"I could've gone without the last part." 

"I know. That's why I still said it." 

Once the wolf's corpse had finished disintegrating, the two siblings were finally out of the forest. Along the way they had come across more magical beasts, but were able to defeat them relatively easily when they both worked together. 

"See? You wouldn't have gotten injured if you had just listened to me the first time." Lena nagged, pulling her hand out of a beast she had recently killed. 

"Yeah, yeah. Let bygones be bygones. Look, there's still more of them coming." Lucas conceded and pointed to the horde of wolves that had appeared. 

Each of them were the same size as the first wolf Lucas had killed, if not bigger. Their claws were more unsightly, as seen by the blood drying and leaving red stains. 

"I don't need you to tell me." Holding her palm out, a mass of light slowly began converging. 

Her whole hand was soon covered by blinding light. Even the wolves were retreating for fear of being swallowed by its rapidly brightening glow.

In an instant, a longsword made from Lena's mana had taken shape. Tightening her grasp on the weapon, she swung it at the beasts. 

Lena was at quite a considerable distance from the wolves. Yet she had specifically chosen to materialize a sword. 

Taking a couple of slashes at the air, multiple arcs of light rapidly formed and launched themselves at the beasts. 

As if fearing the light, the wolves did their best to maneuver out of the arcs' radius, sacrificing their awareness for evasion. 

Lucas exploited their ignorance and shot forward, appearing almost instantaneously in front of one wolf. Taking hold of its skull, he crushed it under his hands. 

Unable to handle the pressure, the wolf's head burst, spilling its insides everywhere in a bloody pulp. 

The other beasts, still dodging the unrelenting light arcs Lena had kept on throwing at them, found themselves stuck between Lucas and the arcs. 

Some wolves chose to dodge Lena's spell, believing it to be a greater threat than Lucas. 

Alas, they were soon met with a swift demise from his fists. 

The other wolves believed Lucas to be the greater threat, and spent a great deal of their attention retreating from the brawler. 

They, too, found their vision blackening as the light arcs cleanly made their way through their necks, killing them in an instant. 

The ones left at the back who were able to dodge both Lucas and Lena's attacks found themselves cowering in fear. 

Those who still had the guts to fight unleashed multiple slashes at Lucas, trying to overpower him.

But they were not able to get a few hits in when Lena's light arcs had already closed in. 

The chaos caused by the two's combination of attacks made quick work of them.

And soon, the whole entrance to the forest was littered with the dead bodies of the beasts. 

<50th floor, Kenneth POV>

 

Kenneth had originally planned to only head for the sixtieth floor, but a certain dog had insisted he go down more floors in order to lessen the amount of mana Kenneth would need to re-establish a connection. 

"Mmm… for some reason I still can't get a connection." Looking towards Tyrone, who was resting by the stairs, he continued on.

"Why though? I feel like I'm right there, but there's something blocking me from making full contact." 

""Squawk! Kcka!"" 

"Damn birds. They've been screaming their hearts out. If I could kill them I would, it's becoming a pain in the ass." 

'Wait. Why are they crying out loud like that anyway?' 

Ever since they touched the fifty-sixth floor, they had been hearing cries from the birds outside. They'd always circle the building, giving Kenneth the illusion that there were many of them.

"If I remember, birds don't usually cry out like that for no reason. It's either to provoke someone or maybe as a mating call." 

"There's bound to be more reasons why, but I'll stick with these two for now. The first should still be a possibility, although it is almost too small to consider." Kenneth began recalling the various things he knew about birds. 

"Mating call? Nah. So I guess it could only be a provocation, unless…?" The existence of a certain supernatural power in the air entered Kenneth's head. 

"Could they really be using their mana to jam my connection? If they did, goddamn. That is some really advanced tech…" 

Back then, Kenneth had chosen to increase the difficulty fairly highly. It would only be natural for the A.I's intelligence to increase along with it. 

"Did the simulation purposely send over these jamming birds to me in order to stop any connection?" Kenneth once again marveled at the knowledge the A.I possessed.

But what they did not account for, was a certain King's Guardian. Looking to his side, Tyrone looked rested up and ready to go. 

"Do you mind being my anti-aerial turret for a bit, Tyrone?" Kenneth smirked, having thought of a plan to counter the birds. 

 

 

Bringing Tyrone to the front of the broken glass windows, Kenneth scanned the entire area around the building. 

All in all, there were about twenty or so jamming birds. With how wide the building was, it would've taken at least twice that number to completely cover the area. 

But as Kenneth had seen earlier, they had employed a particularly witty tactic, one that gave the two an illusion that there were more of them than there actually were. 

"This should be the perfect time to test out another of my abilities." Locking gazes with one of the birds in the sky, Kenneth focused on directing the flow of his mana to his eyes. 

Once it was charged, his eyes glowed a bright emerald green, completely replacing his original black irises. 

"Mental Analysis, was it?" 

Mental Analysis. A spell that allowed Kenneth to figure out general information on his targets. One could compare this to the "Status Reading" skills present in other fictions. 

A burst of information made its way into Kenneth's head, causing him to reel back in pain. After calming down, this was what he could remember. 

Jamming Bird

Danger Level: Low

Power Potential: Low to Mid

Spells: Jamming Shriek

             ???

             ???

 

"Huh. I wonder why the other two of its spells aren't showing up for me. Is it perhaps the distance?" 

Seeing as how the bird was at least tens of meters away from the building, Kenneth didn't rule out the possibility of the ability relying on being close to the target in order to gain more information.

'Or maybe I'm just not strong enough yet.' Kenneth bit his lip at this thought. 

"But either way, this should be enough for now. Now it's your turn, Tyrone." Opening a Link between him and the dog, Kenneth began transferring the information he had received to Tyrone. 

"Woof." Standing at the edge of the window, Tyrone dug his feet into the floor to keep him steady. 

And like a mounted machine gun, he slowly moved his head to point at one of the birds that were flying around the building. 

It did not take even a few seconds for the mana in Tyrone's mouth to finish charging when he had already began firing small bullets made from rock at the bird. 

Each rock bullet was only around the size of a pencil, but its sharp edge and shape allowed it to cut through the air at the same speed a bullet would. 

Seeing the bullets closing in on it, the bird stopped its screeches and used its wings to fly out of the way of the barrage. 

But to Tyrone, the number of bullets he had shot were not even a considerable amount when compared to his Mana Core's tank.

The stream of bullets kept on being fired like they would never end. The birds that had managed to avoid them the first time slowly found death closing in as Tyrone learned more about the way they moved. 

*squawk* 

 

The sound of the bird being pierced by a bullet rang through Kenneth's ears. In his eyes, one bullet was enough. It would not only be life-threatening no matter where it hit, the bird would still find it hard to carry a bullet along with its body as it would continue to get heavier.

Thwak, thwak, thwak! More birds were shot down by Tyrone's neverending barrage of Earth bullets. 

"It's working. The block on the signal is slowly reducing. Keep going!" While Tyrone was firing down on the birds, Kenneth was busy trying to figure out how to remove the jam. 

But after a quarter of the birds were killed, the signal started getting stronger. Once even more were defeated, Kenneth could swear he heard his siblings' voices for a split second.

The massacre on the birds continued on until Kenneth felt his consciousness fading, indicating his Link was finally working. 

 

<Outskirts Of City, Lucas and Lena>

 

"We've been killing mostly wolves for quite a while now. I'm starting to think Kenneth only chose this type of monster for the simulation." 

"Don't say it like that. From a different view, you could say that he is doing this in order to learn more about the wolves."        

The figures of Lena stood outside the city's walls. The surrounding area were just plains and plains as far as the eye could see. 

The occasional hills and meadows would pop up while the two were on their way to the city, but they were mostly empty and devoid of any magical beasts. 

"That's just looking at it in a lighthearted way. Kenneth's never gonna improve if he just fights one type of monster at a time." 

"I'm sure he's not the one fighting. It's probably Tyrone who will protect him, which is good." 

"We've been talking for so long that I only noticed it now. We've reached the city." Stopping their tracks, Lucas pointed to the mass of buildings in front of them. 

The city was surrounded by a small metal wall no larger than Lucas. It looked old and worn down, leaving the siblings to wonder the point of there being a wall there in the first place. 

It was small, not well maintained, and didn't look like it'd be able to protect against a simple beast. Still, the illusion of safety might keep people's minds at ease. 

"What happened here, anyway? Why's everything so… dead?" Lucas looked around, his mouth agape at the state the city was in. 

It was in the same condition Kenneth's area was in. Most of the larger buildings had tipped over, there was no power in the street lights, and nature seemed to have been given free will over the place. 

"I wonder what happened here, for this place to be in such a rough shape. There's all sorts of plants here though." Splitting off from Lucas, Lena approached some vines that ran down the full length of the cracked wall on the side of a building. 

"I never really believed it, but there was supposedly a rumor that the simulations made in the Training Center are actually replications of past events that happened." 

"Really? Where'd that even come from, for people to believe that- whaa!" Retreating back, Lena instinctively conjured her Light Sword in her hand and shot a light arc. 

"Why? What's wrong?" Hearing Lena's scream, Lucas immediately ran over to the source of the voice, expecting to find something big.

But to his surprise, instead of a beast, there was something even more terrifying. From where the vines were on the wall, a large hole was made. 

And sprouting from the hole, a bulb-like plant poked its head out. Seeing the two siblings, the bulb plant's "head" opened up and began firing seeds the size of rocks at them.

Blinking behind a building, Lena was shocked beyond disbelief. Even when she was completely out of sight, the plant had still continued firing its seeds at the building. 

It was almost like it could still see her. 

The destruction caused by the plant's seeds was large. One bullet was enough to pierce through the hard concrete walls, and shoot out rather fast on the other side. 

Lucas shot towards the plant and threw a well charged punch, causing sound waves to ripple throughout the air. 

Yet the plant did not seem fazed. Instead it switched its attention to the person who hit him and swung the vines on its stem. 

"How are we supposed to kill it? If I get close, the vines will just slap me away." Lucas said as he retreated to where Lena was. 

"I don't know. For now let's try to target certain parts of its body in the hopes we find a weakness." Readying her Light Sword, Lena began charging her mana. 

*thwak!* 

The moment Lena peaked from her corner, a bullet shot through the side of her cheek. Blood spurted from the shallow wound. 

"Its senses are extraordinary. But it can't move, so there's that." 

As the two observed the plant, they had found out a large number of things they wouldn't have found if they didn't look. 

While possessing heightened senses, the plant was very much unable to move from its place in the wall. 

The rocks it shot out also seemed to take time to charge. Whenever it would shoot however, the pink bulb would open up. 

"Do you think that's its weakness? It's the only part we haven't hit yet."

The siblings had adopted a guerilla-like strategy, using the environment to their advantage. They would sneak around the plant and attack certain parts of its body. 

Each time they would narrowly avoid a horde of bullets from penetrating their faces. 

"I don't know. But we'll have to try, won't we? You bait the plant, and I'll come in when the time is right." 

"Alright, I'm trusting you." Leaping out from his cover, Lucas started circling the plant, trying to get its attention.

Another thing they had noticed about the plant was that it turned particularly slowly. It was able to move its head in a full three-hundred-sixty degree radius, but the time to do so was too long to count.

And so, as Lucas circled the plant, he found it quickly firing the seeds from its mouth in an attempt to overwhelm him. 

This went on for a minute or so until the plant had finally faced Lena's direction. Unaware of the blonde maiden stalking it from the bushes, the plant opened fire at Lucas. 

"There!" The moment its bulb opened, Lena rapidly slashed at the air, forming multiple light arcs that shot towards the plant. 

Alas, the plant was still busy with Lucas and was unable to see the light arcs until it was too late. 

Dark purplish blood spurted out from the bulb, indicating the attack was successful.

With a thud, the plant fell to the ground.

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