Chapter 36: Order of Blood Origin
With a flash of light, the spirit pets appeared beside their spirit tamers.
Nox’s gaseous body floated next to Ain, staring at the bird perched on Hugo’s shoulder.
The Grand Eagle was slightly larger than a regular eagle. It had a white collar, while the rest of its feathers were shades of green. It stared right back at Nox.
Curiosity was apparent in both their actions.
“If you manage to hit it, don’t injure it too badly,” Ain communicated with Nox mentally.
“Wooo…” Nox replied back, indicating that it could definitely hit it and would also hold back.
Ain simply smiled at Nox’s reply.
After some preparations, Hugo commenced the spar, “Begin!”
Immediately after, he loudly commanded his spirit pet, “Ace, fly up!”
The Grand Eagle left his shoulder and flew up into the sky. After reaching a sufficient height, it started circling above Nox.
Ain looked up and squinted, trying to avoid the sun rays, and mentally commanded Nox.
He already understood Hugo’s plan. Aerial spirit pets like the Grand Eagle possessed an innate advantage over terrestrial spirit pets. With the ability to fly, they could choose when to attack and retreat.
The only way to counter them was to either use an aerial spirit pet yourself or use long-range attacks. But aerial spirit pets were usually agile enough to dodge most long-range attacks.
Ain knew that his control over Spirit Blast wasn’t sufficient to hit the Grand Eagle from this distance, but there was another, simpler, way to win.
After receiving Ain’s command, Nox simply floated up…
“Wait, what?” Hugo’s smile was stuck as he stared at Nox. He initially expected to lead Ain by the nose, despite his spirit pet being one rank lower. But it didn’t seem to work out the way he had envisioned.
As Nox approached the Grand Eagle, Hugo gave it another command: “Don’t let it catch up, fly away and use Air Slash!”
The Grand Eagle immediately obeyed, flying further away as Nox was still trying to catch up. It then turned around and flapped one of its wings in Nox’s direction.
Immediately, a green light flashed on its wing as a sharp blast of air raced towards Nox.
Whoosh!
Nox didn’t need Ain’s command and easily dodged to the side, continuing to approach the Grand Eagle.
Seeing the attack miss, Hugo was anxious and commanded the Grand Eagle to maintain a certain distance from Nox.
Although Nox could fly, its flying speed was incomparable to the Grand Eagle's. It would be difficult to approach the Grand Eagle.
Ain was aware of this problem. The only skills Nox knew were Possession and Phantom Claw. He couldn’t use Possession since spirit tamers weren’t allowed to participate, and Phantom Claw required Nox to be in close range.
Ain simply told Nox to try its best to approach the Grand Eagle while dodging its attacks.
On the other hand, the Grand Eagle continued to repeat its previous strategy. Occasionally, an Air Slash would be sent towards Nox.
At this point, Ain and Hugo just watched this repetitive cycle for a few minutes.
“Wooo…” Nox’s annoyed voice sounded from time to time.
“Screech!” The Grand Eagle similarly cried out as well.
On the ground, Ain was calm and steady, but Hugo was becoming anxious and impatient. Due to its constant use of Air Slash, the Grand Eagle’s spirit energy was about to be exhausted. When that happened, its flight speed would plummet, allowing Nox to catch up.
And what he imagined soon came true. With a final Air Slash, the Grand Eagle’s spirit energy was finally exhausted, and it slowed down, giving Nox the opportunity to finally close in.
Seeing this, Nox was suddenly excited as it rushed to land the finishing blow. But at that moment, Ain’s voice sounded in its mind: “You’ve won. Come back.”
“Wooo…?” Nox was puzzled and dissatisfied. When it was finally about to hit the annoying fellow, its spirit tamer called it back. No ghost could bear that, it thought.
Sensing Nox’s obvious dissatisfaction, Ain just smiled and walked up to Hugo, who had just admitted defeat.
“You don’t have to feel bad; Nox is at Rank-1 in the first place. A battle of attrition is definitely in our favor,” Ain told Hugo his sincere thoughts.
“I know, I didn’t really expect to win, but I thought I could surely end it in a draw,” Hugo replied with a wry smile. “I didn’t think that your spirit pet could actually fly up as well.”
“Most ghost pets can fly, but their speed usually varies,” Ain elaborated a little.
“So, what did you think of the fight?” Hugo quickly got over it and asked.
“Hmm, I noticed a few things.” Ain glanced at Hugo as he said that, and then decided to continue with honesty.
“First, don’t shout out your next move. You can just give commands through your mental link.” Ain smiled while saying this.
Hearing this, Hugo also laughed awkwardly, somewhat embarrassed by the obvious mistake.
Ain continued, “I also noticed that the distance your Grand Eagle maintained from Nox was needlessly large, decreasing the accuracy of Air Slash. Although it will improve with practice, you’ll have to judge the proper distance for attack and retreat.”
The two continued to exchange their thoughts on the short spar before moving onto their insights on Spirit Blast.
Thirty minutes later, the two walked along the concrete path, and made their way towards the academy gates.
“By the way, have you heard about the large number of dead and missing spirit tamers recently?” Hugo suddenly asked as they walked.
Hearing this, Ain thought back to his trips and replied, “I heard some bodies were found outside the city. It seems to be spirit tamers hunting each other.”
“No, not those. There have been spirit tamers going missing inside the city. A body was found not far from my neighborhood. I heard people saying that the body was completely dried up, as if the flesh and blood had been sucked away.”
Hearing this, Ain’s curiosity was piqued. Hugo continued.
“I also saw some forums on Cyberspace mentioning that there is an evil organization behind all this. We should be careful. Most of the missing spirit tamers are relatively young.”
There was caution in Hugo’s voice as he mentioned this. After all, this happened close to his neighborhood.
“Yeah, I’ll be careful,” Ain nodded and decided to increase his vigilance.
At the hoverbus station, the duo bid farewell before heading different ways.
During the journey home, Ain thought back to Hugo’s warning and decided to search Cyberspace for more information.
He had a 3-star access, allowing him uncover more information on Cyberspace.
After reading through some forums and news articles, Ain finally had a better grasp of the situation.
There have always been spirit tamers going missing or dying outside the city. Without proper evidence, these cases were usually ignored.
But now, the number of missing and dead spirit tamers increased. Moreover, dried-up bodies were discovered both inside and outside the city. These bodies were the telltale signs of an evil organization called the Order of Blood Origin.
The information he found mentioned that the Order of Blood Origin was a massive organization, beyond the scope of the Dawnstar Federation, operating in all corners of the world. They have been spotted in various cities before, and now, they extended their claws towards Duskfield City as well.
This organization had committed many sins, and chaos would erupt wherever they appeared. They possessed special techniques to use the flesh and blood of spirit tamers to increase their power.
Unlike regular spirit tamers, who hunted spirit beasts, the spirit tamers from the Order of Blood Origin hunted other spirit tamers. Their favored targets were young spirit tamers, especially those with high potential.
They were a group hated by all. Even other similar organizations seldom interacted with them.
Ain realized that the situation was much more troublesome than what Hugo stated. Students like them were in even more danger.
Just to be safe, Ain decided to forward this information to Hugo.
After he was done, Ain opened a familiar trading forum.
This was where he posted his attribute traces measurement service. It had been over two weeks, yet there was still no response.
Ain thought about it again and decided to wait. Measuring up to one decimal probably seemed like a scam to those who saw his post.
He proceeded to edit the post, making it more interesting and believable before updating it.
Just like that, Ain arrived home before heading to the park to begin his usual training routine.
He started by practicing his two new spells, Shield and Spirit Blast, before moving onto body tempering.
After learning about the characteristics of Rank-1, Ain decided to increase his body tempering training time. With the Blood Refinement Pills, his training efficiency was further enhanced.
Now, Ain could hold the Prowling Tiger stance for 23 minutes before exhausting himself. Afterward, he continued with the martial arts until he could barely stand.
When the sun tired itself out and the sky turned dark, Ain returned home. He finished the day with some meditation as usual. He was making steady progress in branding his spirit core.
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