Tempest Cliff, the hall where the members of the Tempest Branch Alliance stayed.
Currently, only Herellia was left inside the hall, with the other members heading towards the other parts of the Tempest Cliff as they focused on getting stronger and perhaps getting enough experience to evolve to a higher grade.
In the center of the hall, an image of a tree fighting against a glowing stick was shown, which only Herellia at the moment could only see. Herellia looked at this and had a serious expression on its nonexistent face as it saw Loran, the tree, shoot out a tornado towards the glowing stick, which was Aurus.
"Haah..." Herellia couldn't help but sigh. It knew that this was going to happen as it happened to know Loran's temper, which was stupendously short for a tree, that was usually called a patient being. "I hope the Spiritas doesn't die from this atta—eh?"
Within the image, the tornado collided with the glowing stick, only for the glowing stick's body to absorb the whole attack like it was nothing. Herellia's eyes gleamed and looked at the glowing stick as if it was a treasure. "If we have this stick in the alliance, we truly might have the chance to fight against an Animate!"
Contrary to what the other sentient branches and trees know, Animates, in this case humans, were not easy to kill. Herellia knew this for a fact since it tried to fight against an unguarded one before, only to end up badly injured.
"With a skill like that that negates massive amounts of damage, I truly might be able to achieve the last requirement I need before evolving."
Bang!
While mumbling to itself, a ear-splitting sound resounded out of the image, forcing Herellia to snap back to realty and watch as it realized that the glowing stick retaliated.
"This stick is only going to deal around 500 damage at most," Herellia hypothesised. It knew that A-grade Inanimates were limited in their ability to deal massive amounts of damage, and that was partly due to their small stats. Continuing to look at the image, the retaliation of the stick critically injured the tree, reducing three-fourths of the tree's HP in an instant.
"What?!" Herellia couldn't believe what it was seeing. An A-grade Inanimate was able to critically injure a tree from an alliance without being part of another alliance? It was truly unheard of for Herellia. At these moments of disbelief, a voice resounded throughout the hall as if it was talking to Herellia.
"This Spiritas seems to be stronger than we thought."
Herellia was slightly startled, but regained its composure in an instant when it realized where the voice came from.
"Horell, what do you think of the Spiritas?" Herellia asked.
"It's unlike any other Spiritas I've seen, and the past two Spiritas I've seen were only invincible in the A-grade. To think that we have ourselves an A-grade Spiritas that could easily kill an S-grade, this stick might just be a blessing for us if it joins."
Horell was the branch beside Loran, and he was the one who allowed Herellia to watch the fight between Aurus and Loran. Of course, Horell meeting Aurus face-to-face would allow him to examine Aurus at a better angle rather than from an image.
"Indeed," Herellia agreed with Horell's statement. As it continued to look at the Spiritas' body, it could notice hints of divinity within, but it seemed that Horell nor Loran could see it. While watching, it said to Horell, "I think you should persuade it to join because I think it's been blessed by the—"
Before finishing its statement, Loran was dumbfounded at the amount of damage she received and snapped as she started to consume all of her Life points and even part of her SP in order to boost her power.
"Oh shit," Herellia couldn't help but curse. In an instant, it gradually floated in midair as it shouted before leaving, "Horell, make sure that the Spiritas is protected. And if necessary..."
"Kill Loran."
...
Outside the Tempest Ruin.
"Ahhhh! How dare you defile my body!" Loran, who was critically injured in one hit thanks to Aurus' Spirit Spear, snapped under her stupendously short temper and didn't hesitate to exchange all of her hard-earned Life points and even part of her SP as a corporeal yellow aura covered her body, intensifiying the aura of fear that surrounded her.
Of course, Aurus wouldn't want the same thing to happen hence he hurriedly moved far away from Loran, who was still in the process of powering up, with haste thanks to the [Tempest Burst] skill.
"Damn," Aurus couldn't help but say. "How the hell did I meet a lunatic?"
"Hello there." A voice suddenly resounded inside Aurus' mind, who was already badly shaken up thanks to the psychotic actions the tree did just because he didn't enter their alliance.
"W-Who?!" Of course, Aurus didn't know who was talking, hence he looked around and noticed the branch that was beside the tree that attacked him. As far as he knew, the branch didn't move from its position even after the tree went out of control. Calming down, he asked, "Who are you? And why do you want me to join your alliance?"
"First off, I'm Horell, an X-grade Inanimate with the High Energistus class from the Tempest Branch Alliance." Compared to Loran, Horell was more dignified and gentlemanly, allowing him to win over many branches and trees in this manner. "As for why..."
"Our leader will tell you all of that since she's already heading our way."
"Your leader?" Aurus couldn't believe it. If the members of the alliance were already monstrous in terms of stats and attack power, how more monstrous could the leader be?
As Loran started to conjure a ball of energy that radiated a yellow glow, Horell couldn't help but let out a sigh, which was heard by Aurus thanks to their connection. "I'm sorry about this. I really didn't want Loran to come here because of her extremely short temper, but our leader told us to come so..."
"Well..." Aurus looked at the crazed tree and said to Horell in sympathy, "I think I can understand what you're going through. Anyways, I'm Aurus. Once I meet your leader, I might just join your alliance."
Hearing Aurus' reply, Horell instantly became ecstatic before hastily concealing his emotions. Clearing his throat, he then said to Aurus, "Well Aurus, the first thing we should do for now is remove Loran from her crazed state. Can you help me with that? I'll support you."
Aurus was surprised. An X-grade Inanimate, supporting him from the sidelines. It might just be a dream come true. Looking at the energy ball above Loran that was growing larger and larger, Aurus nodded as he said, "Alright then."
With the [Tempest Burst] skill now in cooldown, he wouldn't be able to move twice as fast anymore nor hit twice as hard anymore, which meant that he would deal half the damage from before. Aurus didn't mind that and closed his eyes as he changed all of his recovery Animas to HP recovering Animas.
"[High Spirit Channeling]!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In an instant, the SP bar that stored over 350 points was easily filled thanks to exchanging HP into SP. Thanks to his experiments, Aurus knew that exchanging HP into SP was faster than relying on his innate SP recovery, even if it was boosted by recovery Animas.
Ding! Ding!
'[High Spirit Channeling] has leveled up twice.'
Not minding the notification screen, Aurus hurriedly conjured a Spirit Spear and threw it at Loran. Although it wasn't the Acceptance form that dealt as much damage as possible, it was a form that would help him out at the moment.
"[Spirit Spear]..."
"[Depression]!"
Bang!
Without difficulty, the Spirit Spear collided with Loran's body, easily covering Loran with an aura where she felt heavy and powerless.
Ding!
'Aurus has dealt 695 HP damage to [Loran].'
'The Slow debuff has been inflicted on [Loran].'
'The Attack Down debuff has been inflicted on [Loran].'
Although [Tempest Burst] wasn't activated, he was still able to deal hundreds of damage to a stick, easily two shotting any normal S-grade stick. But that wasn't the specialty of the Depression form. Its specialty was to inflict a movement speed down and attack down debuff on the enemy.
Of course, being hit with another Spirit Spear, Loran's HP was now around the low 1000s, thus angering her even more. Continuing to scream in a hoarse voice, the energy ball above her body that radiated a yellow glow, now gradually turned red as strands of red light from Loran's body started to assimilate with the ball.
"What the...?!" Horell couldn't believe it. Looking at Loran, he shouted, "Have you gone out of your mind?! Using your HP to increase the power of your energy ball?! Will this do anything beneficial?"
"Hahahaha! Yes! Yes it will! It'll wipe this stick's existence to ashes!" With her mind in an erratic state, Loran wasn't able to think rationally as she fired the energy ball towards Aurus.
"Crap!" Horell then looked at Aurus and shouted, "Stay where you are. I'll cast a barrier around you!"
Aurus followed what Horell said and looked at Horell as he exquisitely manipulated his SP towards Aurus and easily conjured a strong defensive barrier around him.
"[Fortress Barrier]!"
At this point, Horell couldn't help but look at Loran's body and muttered, "Just end this already."
And at that moment...
Whoosh!
A furious gust of wind instantly bisected the red energy ball into two, removing the destructive power it had as it continued towards Loran's body. Even though she was still in her crazed state, Loran instantly knew where the furious gust of wind came from, hastily returning back to her normal state as she pleaded, "No, don't! I'm still a valuable asset to your alliance!"
And then, a firm and strict feminine voice resounded out as the furious gust of wind bisected Loran's body into two. "You've gotten my members into danger multiple times already. Just die."
Shaa...
In an instant, Loran's body, which was considered extremely power from Aurus' standards, was easily cut into two as a large branch landed in front of Aurus who was still inside a defensive barrier. This branch had red engravings all over its body as it looked at Aurus.
Seeing the destructive prowess of the branch, Aurus couldn't help but stutter as he asked, "W-W-Who are y-you?!"
"Me?" Seeing that the branch she wanted to recruit was behind her, she turned and looked at Aurus before saying...
"I'm Herellia."