"Don't worry brat, you will be fine as long as you don't underestimate it. With that tiny dagger of yours it might be a bit tricky, so I will do you a favour and lend you this."
Roxy said handing him an unimpressive looking sword that she seemingly pulled out of nowhere. The sword had no hilt and the handle was loosely wrapped in a white cloth. The sword had a black, thin blackish blade that had a slight curve to it, only one of the edges was sharpened.
Ren accepted the sword, giving it a few test swings, he was quite knowledgeable about weapons, but it was the first time he had seen a sword like this. Still the sword didn't make him feel any more confident in the face of that monstrosity of a creature he was meant to fight.
"That sword is a specialty of my homeland, it can conduct aether so it will work well with magic. It's not cheap so make sure not to damage it."
Roxy said, ignoring his nervousness that Ren wasn't even trying to hide at this point. She gave him a firm slap on the back, causing Ren to stagger forward.
"Well the time is now, best of luck… Oh and one last thing, try not to die otherwise the villagers will give me a headache."
These were not the words Ren wanted to hear but he began walking forward, nonetheless. This was something he needed to do otherwise he would lose Roxy's protection. He began surveying the surroundings to come up with a plan.
Ren climbed into the trees, hiding himself in the shadows cast by the leaves, he felt his only chance at slaying the beast was to catch it off guard hopefully injuring it fatally in one strike. He still didn't want to take any chances, so he decided to use magic to enhance his stealth.
Ren took a deep breath and focused, rousing the Aether stored in his body. A dark aura surrounded his figure as inky black tendrils quickly materialised around his body, wrapping around his small frame and cloaking his figure in darkness. This was the elemental attribute of shadows.
The shadow element was the only attribute Ren had trained in since it was the most useful type of magic for an assassin. It was particularly good for concealment and was also highly destructive when used on flesh.
Ren, who was now almost invisible within the shade provided by the trees, slowly made his way over to the scaled rhino, he was careful not to cause any disturbances as he leapt from tree to tree. When he finally reached the tree directly above the demonic beast he stopped, up until this point it seemed that the demonic beast hadn't noticed him.
Seeing the Scaled Rhino from this close filled him with dread, he already knew it was massive but now he could fully appreciate its immense scale, its body alone seemed to be the same size as a horse drawn carriage. It was covered head to toe in shiny grey scales that gleamed dangerously with a red tint. The beast had four thick legs that were the same size as Ren himself and its face had two beady black eyes that seemed empty and lifeless. The horns on its snout seemed even more intimidating up close, they were white with streaks of yellow and had a similar length to his sword, looking just as sharp.
Ren brandished the sword Roxy had given him, she had previously mentioned it conducted aether, so he decided to put it to the test. Ren slowly channelled aether into the swords blade which immediately caused a change in the sword's appearance. Shadows chaotically wrapped around the sword, dancing wildly across the blades surface. He wasn't worried about the Scaled Rhino sensing the commotion. Since demonic beasts couldn't use magic, there was no way for it to detect the miniscule disturbances in the surrounding Aether.
Ren took a deep breath to calm his nerves, he patiently lied in wait for his chance to strike. Soon enough the Scaled rhino lowered its head to take a sip from the stream below. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Ren darted out of the trees, using the sword to slash at the area at the back of the beast's neck.
Ren landed on the ground a few meters away from the Scaled rhino. He wasn't celebrating because he knew that his attack had failed. Instead of the sword slicing into the beast's flesh like it should have, the blade only ricochet of the tough scales, barely leaving a scratch. The thick scaly armour was simply too tough for Ren to damage. Though his attack had caused no harm to the beast, it was still enough to alert the beast to his presence.
The scaled rhino twisted its head towards Ren and before he could react it began to wildly charge towards Ren, its sharp horns pointed directly at him. The sudden rush took the unsuspecting Ren by surprise but at the last second, he managed to tilt his body to the side, barely avoiding the lethal horns which tore into his clothing and grazed his waist, colliding with the beast's rock-hard snout instead.
CRASH.
The impact sent Ren somersaulting through the air, crashing into the trunk of a tree and falling onto the ground below. Ren struggled to pick himself up and coughed up blood as he tried to do so. it seemed that collision before had winded him and resulted in two broken ribs.
Ren took some time to get back up on his feet, he wasn't out of danger yet. The Scaled Rhino had realised that he was still alive and was preparing to charge at him again. Ren immediately took off running, heading for the dense forest, hoping to lose the beast in the trees.
He was heavily injured and a lot slower than the Scaled Rhino so it wasn't long before the beast caught up to him, Ren felt the beasts breath on his neck, he couldn't afford to get hit again so he leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the beasts second charge. The beast which had built up a lot of momentum struggled to stop, giving Ren enough time to change direction and run into the forest.
As he was running, Ren was cursing Roxy under his breath for giving him such an impossible task. If he couldn't even damage it with a full powered attack, how did she expect him to kill the beast. It wouldn't be long before the beast caught up to him again, and Ren doubted he had more stamina than the beast behind him.
Ren repeatedly zigzagged through the trees managing to increase the distance between them, buying him some time. Ren used this time to set up a simple tripwire using his steel thread he always kept on him, in the hopes it would trip the beast or at least slow it down. Immediately Ren started running again.
However, Ren's hopes were quickly shattered, the strong steel thread snapped easily when confronted with the Scaled Rhino's brute force, posing no obstacle to it. When Ren saw this, he was thrown into despair, the rhino had already caught up to him again and it wouldn't be long before his stamina ran out.
He had run out of options long ago, his only chance at harming the beast was his sword and his shadow magic but they had proven to be futile against the tough scales of the beast. Ren was on the verge of giving up and letting the beast end his suffering.
Ren had left behind everything when he ran away from home and Emily's betrayal made him realise, he didn't have anything in the first place. Everything he had once treasured was built off lies, would it really matter if someone like him who had nothing died. No one would care, in fact they might even celebrate his death, he was meant to be the one that destroyed the kingdom after all. Was he just being selfish in wanting to live?
Ren stopped running, turning to face the beast that was charging at him, defeat was apparent in his eyes as he waited for his impending doom, he saw his life flashing before his eyes. Most of his memories involved Emily, after all she was a huge part of his life.
Just thinking about her made him feel sick. Frustration and anger built up within him. What was he thinking, he couldn't die in some remote corner of the kingdom while his sister is happily living a life of luxury. By now she was probably the successor of the family and would lead a comfortable life quickly forgetting all about him. Ren was far too petty to let it end that well for her.
He immediately snapped out of it, he wanted to live, he wanted to be freed from his father's clutches and most importantly he wanted revenge. Ren's newfound determination seemed to awaken something deep within him. His eyes began to glow with a fierce scarlet radiance, giving off a dull red light. Suddenly he felt like the whole world had slowed down, while his thoughts remained as fast as ever.
Ren looked up, his glowing eyes were locked onto the beast that was almost upon him. He could see the feral snarl on the beasts face clearer than ever before as it approached him in slow motion. Calmly waiting for the Scaled rhino to arrive in front of him, Ren readied his sword, jumping forwards as high and far as he could.
Ren landed directly on the scaled rhinos head with his feet firmly planted on its snout, wasting no time at all he used his sword to slash across the beast's face, slicing into both of its unprotected eyes and blinding it in one smooth motion. Having achieved his goal, Ren jumped off the beast using its wide snout as a platform to launch himself into the air and over the beast's massive body, landing on the ground behind it.
Once Ren landed on the ground, the light in his eyes faded and he felt everything return to its normal speed. A wave of exhaustion came over Ren but he remained standing, he couldn't let this opportunity slip past him.
The scaled rhino had come to a halt and was wildly lashing out in random directions, while roaring loudly. Ren was careful not to make any sudden movements that would alert the beast to his location and the gears in Ren's head started turning as he slowly started to formulate a plan.
Ren looked around, his gaze fell on a huge tree trunk that was nearby. He slowly crept up to the tree without making a sound. Once Ren was standing in front of the tree, he took a deep breath and yelled towards the beast loudly.
"I'm over here, you dumb beast."
Obviously, the Scaled Rhino couldn't understand what Ren was saying but it heard the noise. The beast started charging at Ren who started to climb the tree almost immediately afterwards. The beast was unaware of this and continued to charge at the tree.
BOOOM.
The beast collided into the thick tree trunk with tremendous force, making the whole tree shake violently, nearly causing Ren to fall of the branch he was standing on.
Once the tree stopped shaking Ren looked down onto the Scaled rhino and his eyes lit up. The beast's horns were firmly lodged into the tree's trunk, as much as the beast struggled it simply couldn't free itself.
Wasting no time Ren jumped down, once again landing on the scaled rhino's head. He pulled back his sword and without hesitation used all his strength to plunge it straight through one of the beast's eyes causing it to wildly roar out in pain as it frantically wriggled its massive body, trying to free itself.
Half of the blade was completely embedded into its eye, but that still wasn't enough to kill it. Ren repositioned himself so that his back was leaning the trunk of the tree. He lifted his leg and started to repeatedly stomp on the handle of the sword, driving it in further and further until the whole of the blade completely disappeared inside of the scaled rhino, reaching well within its skull and piercing into its soft brain.
Despite this the Scaled rhino refused to die, its movement was getting even more frantic and it was beginning to break free of the thick bark that was restraining it. Ren, who was impressed with the beast's vitality, soon realised he was running out of time. He had to kill the beast before it freed itself or he would immediately be at a disadvantage.
Ren gripped the handle of the sword with one hand and began to channel as much Aether as he could into the sword. Shadows began to stream out of the swords blade, running amok within the beast's skull destroying the fragile brain tissue with ease.
The Scaled rhino froze as inky black shadows began to stream out of every one of its orifices. Its legs failed to support its huge weight and the beast collapsed onto the floor.
Finally, the scaled rhino had died. Seeing this Ren breathed a sigh of relief, using the last off his strength to jump down onto the ground. The exhaustion that he had accumulated throughout the battle was finally too much for Ren and he fainted shortly after.
Out of nowhere Roxy appeared by his side with a huge smile on her face. It seemed she hadn't made a mistake in taking Ren under her wing. Despite what she told him, she didn't expect Ren to kill the Scaled rhino, she just wanted to bring out his full potential using a life and death situation to make an accurate assessment of his full capabilities.
She had been hiding nearby, ready to stop the fight when it looked like Ren would get seriously injured. There had been times when she almost did but the firm resolve in Ren's eyes made her refrain from doing so.
Squatting beside Ren, she opened his mouth and placed a small green pill under his tongue. After doing this, she got up and walked over to the corpse of the Scaled rhino that Ren had just slain.
She gripped the sword's handle that was sticking out of the beast's eye and pulled it out with ease, causing a small amount of black blood to leak out of the wound and trickle down its face. Roxy then placed her palm on the beast causing it to burst into flames that incinerated it in an instant leaving behind grey ash that scattered into the wind.
Roxy heard a thud on the floor and looked down and saw a fist sized crystal that was as clear as a diamond, sparkling beautifully under the bright sun.
"I guess I'll take this as medical fees"
Roxy said while putting the crystal away. Glancing at Ren's body which showed no sign of waking up she sighed deeply, it seemed like she would be here for a long time.
***
It was dark when Ren woke up, it seemed he was out cold for quite a while. Sitting himself up and looking around, one of the first things he noticed was Roxy sitting high up on a tree branch, casually reading a book.
Not bothering to ask how she could read with such little sunlight, he shakily got to his feet. It seemed that Roxy had healed him while he was unconscious, although he felt tired and there were a few minor cuts and bruises left on his skin, his body felt perfectly normal.
Roxy noticed he had finally woken up and jumped down from the tree branch, landing right next to him. Not bothering to ask how he was, she decided to question him on the one thing that perplexed her about the fight
"At one point during the fight, it seemed like your eyes glowed Red and your movements became a lot sharper, what was that."
Although Roxy had her suspicions, she thought it was best to ask him. Ren took a while to realise what she was talking about but he had no idea what it was and would like to know the answer to that question himself, shrugging his shoulders he replied.
"I'm not sure myself but if my eyes where glowing, that's something that happens to my father when he's angry."
With the new information Ren had given her, Roxy's suspicions were now confirmed. Making sure that Ren was looking at her, she focused, making her beautiful amber eyes glow with an orange light.
"This is called a trait, its uses vary from person to person but it's something genetic. What it means is that your family's bloodline contains a trace amount of blood from another race giving you a portion of their natural abilities. My bloodline is mixed with dragon kin, when I use it, my fire magic is enhanced greatly"
She explained to Ren, who immediately realised his master had inadvertently let something slip. Ren got excited and his eyes lit up.
"Other races, dragonkin… Does that mean dragons are real?"
Ren asked hopefully with his eyes lighting up, as far as he knew the only races on the continent were humans and demonic beasts but that wasn't the thing that had garnered Ren's full attention.
Back when he lived in the mansion, Emily often read him stories that were about dragons causing him to be fond of them. Even though at the end of the story they where always slain by the hero, Ren couldn't help but root for the dragon to win.
Roxy quickly realised the mistake she had made, although most of the time Ren seemed like an adult. At the end of the day he was still a child who had a lot of growing up to do. This was the main reason she didn't use his name and continued to refer to him as a brat.
"tsk focus brat, I'm telling you something important, that trait is a good thing but overusing it damages your vitality, you probably noticed how tired you became after usi-. Hey, are you listening to me brat?"
Ren wasn't listening, he was currently deep in thought. The possibility of dragons existing was too much for him to handle, if dragons really existed then why hadn't he heard about them before. the ones in the story were so massive and powerful that their presence would be noticed.
Ren was already suspicious about Roxy's origins after she had given him that strange foreign looking sword that he had never seen before and telling him it was from her homeland.
Was it possible she wasn't from this continent and wherever she was from was where the dragons lived but as far as Ren knew this continent was the only land mass on the planet, the rest was just the vast blue ocean, Misery Waters.
Roxy saw that she had lost Ren so she started pinching his cheek to snap him out of it, this was highly effective and Ren started to yelp in pain he immediately regained focus, seeing that she had Ren's attention her face became serious.
"Listen brat, although you managed to slay the beast, there is a lot of things you need to work on. First, your body is far to weak. Having a strong body is fundamental to a breaker, without adequate physical strength you won't advance far."
"The next thing is your skill set is far too small, right now it seems you can only shadow magic. Learning different attributes will give your options and allow you to fight more efficiently. And last of all swordsmanship is far too lousy, its disrespectful to the sword I gave you."
Hearing what Roxy had to say surprised Ren. Honestly, he thought she wasn't taking it seriously, giving him that nigh impossible task but now he had come to realise that she was taking it more seriously then even him.
Her words just now may have been harsh but they were thorough, which showed him that she had been paying close attention during his fight. Although Ren was feeling slightly down due to being reprimanded, a warm sensation spread throughout his chest.
"You have a lot of work to do. Therefore, I'm rescinding my offer to take you as my assistant. I want to take you as my disciple instead."