Kallus glanced at Vaella then at Kale "Fight or Retreat?"
"Fight," Kale said.
"I will follow," Vaella said, indicating that she would follow along on whatever decision he makes.
"I will engage in close combat, Vaella augment me and Kale support me from the distance," Kallus said as he charged at the purple rabbit while avoiding the white rabbits around him.
Vaella raised her staff and whispered 'Fast'
A magic circle appeared below his feet then a white light shined off Kallus' body for a second and his speed rose by almost 20%.
Vaella didn't stop after casting the first spell and used ‹Slow› on the purple rabbit, the spell was unavoidable for a low wisdom creature like it, the rabbit's speed decreased by 20% in a moment.
Once cast, the effect of the spell can last up to 10 minutes, that is, if there are no auxiliary spells used to back it up.
Under the leading rabbit's command, the mob rabbits charged at Kallus to obstruct him.
But Kallus expected him, he clenched his fist, gushes of ice-cold Qi came out of his body and surrounded his arm, he then punched at the ground below.
'Chaotic Dragon Fist'
A circular wave of Ice Dragon Qi moved in all direction like a ripple, making the approaching rabbits halt and tremble due to freezing energy infiltrating their bodies.
‹Chaotic Dragon Fist› was a General-Type martial technique but when combined with his Ice Dragon Qi, it naturally carried a freezing effect.
…Swooshh… x 3
When the rabbits were taken over by the cold feeling, several flying knives came and took their lives. Kale avoided using Wooden Thorn because he was instead mainly using ‹Mana-Resilience Cycle› to recover his lost stamina and compete with his two variant race comrades that had a higher level and racial advantage compared to him.
Kallus continued his charge without stopping towards the Tri Horned Rabbit King.
The Tri Horn Rabbit King was furious, it felt his enemy was looking down on it, the rabbit exerted strength in its legs, light purple Qi gushed out from its core and further strengthened its body, the rabbit smacked the ground and rushed at Kallus intending to pierce the enemy with its three sharp horns.
Kallus shortened the distance between them then changed his direction of advancement within a second, he avoided the rabbit from the front and attacked from the right side.
'Ice Dragon Claw'
Pale blue scales started to appear on his right arm, soon his hand turned into the form of a dragon claw, the scales covering it was colder than ice and tougher than iron. Kallus summoned the strength in his right arm and slashed his clashed at the rabbit.
The rabbit was hit hard and rolled to the side, a normal rabbit would have been squashed into a meat paste but this one was special, his thick furry coat reduced the damage from the impact and saved its life.
But Kallus was experienced in this aspect, he didn't stop and continued his attack barrage.
He used ‹Chaotic Dragon Fist› to prevent the leading rabbit from gaining momentum and stop the approaching rabbits then started preparing for another attack.
"Buy me a few seconds," Kallus shouted.
He then moved both of his hands in front of his chest, with both of his palms facing each other and concentrated, pale blue Qi permutated from his palms, it combined, condensed and suppressed to form a blue sphere that locked boundless cold energy inside it.
An almost transparent illusory phantom of a blue scaled humanoid dragon appeared behind him and mimicked his movements.
Vaella raised her staff and concentrated, a white magic circle appeared in the air followed by a smaller magic circle in front of it.
'Battle Intent Suppression + Calming Spirit'
A formless wave of energy expended in all direction, the few rabbits that were about to obstruct Kallus felt their small battle intent decreasing, they looked extremely unwilling to attack and showed laziness.
At the same time, Kale felt his a calming aura surrounding him, making him feel relaxed when casting a spell and throwing knives.
'Dual Star Mage?' Kale looked at Vaella in slight surprise, he had heard that elves have an innate good talent for mana compared to normal humans but it was still a surprise to see it with his own eyes.
Now that she had acted, he couldn't sit idle, he decided to show his normal card to help them.
Kale focused on the purple rabbit who was looking at the dazed white rabbits with furious eyes and cast a spell.
'Mud Trap'
The rabbit king's body jolted, it looked down and saw that the solid ground acted like a swamp and trapped its legs, the rabbit king tried to free itself when he suddenly felt an intense death threat and looked up.
Kallus finally stabilized the unstable blue energy sphere between his palms and shot it towards the rabbit.
'Secret Technique: Frost Pulse'
The rabbit king panicked, it used all his strength and almost freed itself to dodge the attack, but Kale was ready, he summoned the power of his ‹Wood Star Constellation› and controlled the grass around it.
The long lush green grass swirled around the rabbit king's paws and long fur, tightly trapping it from escaping, the trap was not unbreakable but it could still delay the escape.
..Boom...
The blue energy ball dealt a direct hit, it exploded on impact, the boundless cold energy engulfed its whole body, a layer of frost covered all its fur, instantly making its blood go cold and killing it on the spot.
The few surviving rabbits were scared out of their wits, now their leader died they dispelled all thought of retaliating and tried to escape, but they only saw the shadow of a flying knife before their world went dark.
"Collect the loot faster this time, the smell of blood will soon attract other dangerous beasts," Kallus said, he looked a little exhausted this time, the attack from earlier took some serious efforts from him.
Kale nodded and helped to collect the goods this time, earlier he had revealed his Earth Spell when he had said he was just a Wood Mage but Kallus purposely ignored it, to not ponder over his privacy, after all, Kale too didn't ask about his technique, it was a mutual understanding between them.
Though Kale had still seen the principle behind his technique easily, after all, he was a former Martial Venerable, his evaluation of the technique was… Simple, but burdening and worthless. He could easily point out more than ten flaws in the technique but he was neither a saint nor a charity lover who would share his knowledge for free while giving others a reason to be suspicious of him.
After collecting the loot, Kallus took out a metallic watch from his pocket, the watch didn't use any cell to work and only needed keys, it worked on simple mechanics and gears, he checked the time then placed back the watch in his pocket and said "Although there is time until evening, it's better to go out and set up camp outside, then prepare for dinner, our gains are more than expected, we will head back tomorrow morning,"
It was hard to differentiate between day and night inside a dungeon, so adventurer often uses similar means like the watch to check the time.
Kallus intended to spend at least two days straight hunting when tacking on the mission but now that they had slain a Tri Horned Rabbit King, there was no need to spend more time on that, there was another reason for him hurrying, it was because the horned of Tri Horned Rabbit King was way more precious compared to normal rabbits, not all adventurers were good-natured, it was best to handover the goods as fast as possible, it would prevent any mishap from happening.
It was not the Academy, the core and the body of a Rare-Grade monster was a treasure to kill for, in the wilderness.
"I see, wait a moment here, I will be back," Kale said then started walking away.
"What happened?" Kallus raised his eyebrow.
"It's nature's call," Kale raised his pinky finger without turning back.
Kallus was tongue-tied, he looked at Vaella acting completely oblivious to his comment and kept quiet.
Kale arrived into the bushes quite far from them, he first used «Mulan's Earring» and ‹Life-Sense› to confirm that no one was eye dropping, then took out «Fallen Sakura» and quickly dug a narrow yet deep hole into the ground.
When the hole was about half a meter deep, he stopped digging, Kale reached out his hand into his bag and took out a round object covered in several square paper pieces.
The round object was the beast core of the Vanishing Lizard he hunted down in the Academy, he had engraved a formation on it while he was still living in the Imperial City but didn't have a chance to use it, the paper slips around it were soul seals he previously collected in Evergreen Fox Paradise, they were also the working fuel for the formation.
Kale put the formation engraved core into to hole, he then flickered his finger and several drops of blood fell from a small wound at the tip of his finger landing on the surface of the core, after that, he quickly poured the soil into the hole and buried the core.
Once he removed the most obvious traces, he went back to meet with Kallus and Vaella.
The three of them then moved back on the way, they had used to come, fortunately, there was no obstacle this time, they safely came out of the dungeon.
***
The area around the dungeon wasn't that dangerous, they chose an unoccupied space to set up their camp.
Once the camp was set up, Kallus suggested for him and Kale to go for a hunt while Vaella to prepare the meal but Kale interjected this time, saying he wanted to cook.
Kallus thought for a moment before agreeing, he also let Vaella accompany him during the preparation. On the surface, it was a friendly and carrying attitude but Kale was an old schemer, he fully knew that Kallus likely did this so that he can not do something bad to the food trying to plot against them.
Normally, Kale wasn't so willing to become a cook for others, there were two reasons why he did that. Firstly, it was evident that the food would mostly consist of meat because Kallus was not only a martial artist, he was also a dragonman with a big appetite and digestive system, but he couldn't eat meat, he was only at Grand Master mastery level in his ‹Snake King Body Art› cultivation, he had to reach the initial stage of ‹Nether Venom Body› cultivation before removing that restriction.
Secondly, he didn't want just a veg meal, he wanted a healthy nutritious veg meal that can meet his requirement, he was pretty sure others couldn't do it.
This way, the task of preparing the meal was left to him.
Kale's knowledge was vast when it came to wilderness, unlike the other two, he found a vast amount of edible ingredients starting from mushroom, herbs, berries all the way up to underground root plants similar to carrots and potatoes.
When Kallus, who only managed to hunt two white birds came back to ask for help from Kale to use ‹Life Sense› to search for more preys, he was stunned just by seeing the sheer amount of stuff Vaella was helping him to carry to the campsite.
"Don't zone out, I need a hand here," Kale's words made him snap out of his daze and he hurried to help.
Kallus first helped him to arrange the goods then volunteered to set up the fire as there was no need to hunt anymore preys.
Kale didn't mind him and focused on processing all the ingredients, when he was slicing the mushrooms, his control over his knife yet again surprised the duo.
They had the same thought, wondering if he was a chef.
Due to this, Kallus's earlier suspicious over his actions faded. He began to think that maybe he really wanted to cook because he knew how to cook and enjoyed it.
It was only after the meal was complete, did they realize the real surprise was all along in the taste of the food made by him.