Chapter 195 – Entering Enemy Territory

“What was that?”

Bren asked with a relieved sigh, looking at the headless beast on the ground.

“It’s a bloodline ability of mine.”

After the previous incident at the palace, Calron did not plan on hiding the Azure Lightning anymore.

“I’ve never heard of any Raizel clan members having blue lightning... ”

Sela commented, still in disbelief at the fact that Calron had easily dispatched a Saint stage beast like it was an insect.

That was the same lightning that gave me the menacing feeling at the time when I sparred with him.

She recalled having a mysterious notion of Calron hiding his true strength during their spar.

“It’s something that only I have among the clan members. Anyways, we should continue with our mission.”

Calron brushed off their questions. 

“Hmm, I thought you were useless at first, but it seems not to be the case. I’ll have to change our strategy a bit.”

Bren stroked his non-existent beard and stared at the beast corpse in front of him. He didn’t press for answers from Calron as he could detect the young man’s aversion to it.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d…”

Calron muttered but chose not entangle himself with the sn.o.bby youth again.

“Calron, how long can you fight with that ability of yours? I’m guessing not for long, since any technique that lets you surpa.s.s the limits of your body would come with a steep price attached to it. Also, do you have any stealth abilities?”

The atmosphere around Bren morphed into one of seriousness.

He’s quite intelligent. Unlike the others who were captivated by my display of the Azure Lightning, he could instantly deduce the weak points of the ability.

Calron was slightly taken aback by the young man’s sharpness and made a mental note to ask the Patriarch more about him.

“If I use it continuously, then I think I can use it for a whole fifteen to twenty minutes. Maybe longer if I use it in moderation.”

Calron responded honestly.

“What do you mean by you ‘think’? You don’t know for sure?”

Bren inquired, confused by Calron’s noncommittal answer.

“Well, the reason I started these missions was for me to train this new ability and get used to it.”

Calron scratched his head.

“In essence, it’s an unreliable ability.”

Bren sighed, giving Calron a look as if saying he expected nothing else but that from Calron.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s an ability that saved our lives right now, so we should be more thankful to Calron for having it. I’m sure by the end of this mission, he’ll be able to control it perfectly.”

Sela tried to appease the situation and winked at Calron.

“Yes, thank you very much.”

h.e.l.ly bowed her head to Calron. Half of her face was hidden by her auburn hair but it was clear for anyone with excellent eyesight to see that the young girl was blus.h.i.+ng.

“You welcome.”

Calron flashed a grin at Sela for her a.s.sistance and smiled gently at h.e.l.ly in front of him.

“Ah, enough of this lovey-dovey circus and let’s continue on.”

Bren sulked and started to walk ahead.

“Ohh, does little Bren want some attention as well?”

Sela bounced towards him and teased the young man.

“Morons.”

Bren shook his head and ignored the dark-haired girl.

h.e.l.ly and Calron followed behind them as the group resumed their journey towards their destination.

……………………………

“Oi, why are we stopping here? I thought the plan was to head to the deepest granary and start attacking from there first.”

Calron whispered as the four party members were crouched down behind a small hill.

After eliminating several Saint stage beasts and crossing the Ivy Forest, the team had finally arrived at the darklings’ territory.

“Idiot, you think we can simply barge into enemy territory and head to their most heavily guarded granary?”

Bren retorted while the two girls sighed in exasperation. Throughout the whole journey, Calron and Bren had been continuously bickering with each other and had now resorted to calling names as well. It was like two children fighting amongst themselves.

However, the girls felt like the boys were also bonding in their own way as Bren saw more and more of Calron’s combat prowess, while the latter came to know about the former’s keen mind and his high intellect.

“Well, we can’t be doing squats here for an hour, Lord Fried Brain. It’s better to quickly take care of any enemies on the path and rush to our objective.”

Calron spouted back. He began calling Bren Fried Brain due to the young man’s bright red hair and his self-proclamation of being a genius strategian.

“You insist on fouling my mood with that absurd nickname?”

Bren glared at Calron.

“If you keep acting like this, then yes. You overthink things too much as sometimes the best option is to keep the plan simple.”

Calron replied, returning Bren’s glare.

The two returned back to quarreling until Sela broke the fight.

“Guys, I think we are in trouble.”   

Surrounding the four teens was a whole squadron of darkling warriors, as the twenty or more canine-looking creatures slowly entrapped them around the hill.

“GRUAOOO!”

The largest darkling amongst them stepped forward and laughed at the four teens, as if calling them foolish for entering the enemy territory with such few numbers and not even bothering to hide their presence.

The rest of the darklings joined their leader’s laughter.

“And the prey takes the bait. What do you think of my strategy now, idiot?”

Bren smirked, turning his head to Calron.

Initially, the group was contemplating on how to pa.s.s through the darklings’ territory without drawing the attention of the main troops or their commanders. Bren suggested baiting the patrolling troops and killing them off one by one until there were no more troops on the outside border. However, this plan would require quick action as the enemies would soon realize that none of the patrolling troops had returned back.

This strategy came with certain risks but with using themselves as bait, and considering their small numbers, Bren was confident that the darklings would definitely take the bait. He had even considered the race’s simple mindedness and predicted accurately how they would react.

“Let’s finish them off quickly like the last group.”

Calron chuckled as bolts of blue lightning crackled around his body and he charged straight at the leader.

The leader was stunned by the aura of the Azure Lightning and his instincts urged him to escape with haste. However, several strands of water threads coiled around his feet and prevented him from moving.

Behind Calron, h.e.l.ly was shrouded by numerous tentacles of water and an intense look of concentration could be seen on her face as she tried to trap all the darklings with her water threads.

“Good job, h.e.l.ly! Sela, circle to outside the formation and take care of any darklings that manage to escape Calron. Just like last time, slowly force them towards Calron as simply being around his lightning will scorch their bodies.”

Bren instructed from the center, sending out commands while a.s.sessing the situation.

“Calron, discharge your lightning now.”

Bren shouted once h.e.l.ly trapped around seven darklings.

“Alright.”

After severing the leader’s head, Calron stopped his movement and suddenly expelling a storm of blue lightning out from his body.

The bolts of blue lightning violently flashed around him, obliterating over twelve darklings at once. The ones closest to Calron all turned to ash, while the others had half their bodies burnt to a crisp.

This was a technique that Bren came up with after suggesting it to Calron and testing it on the beasts within the forest. The lightning discharge emptied nearly all of Calron’s essence and in exchange, it delivered a fearsome area-of-attack that annihilated multiple swarms of enemies. 

“As you wished, I left a few for you to practice your martial arts on.”

Sela yelled, seeing several darklings that managed to avoid the lightning.

“Thanks.”

Calron muttered, as he recalled his lightning and switched his stance.

It was time to train the Formless Fist.