The teacher picked Greg up with darkness and covered his eyes.
When he was finally released he was on the edge of a cliff overlooking a deserted and battle worn field. A forest was behind him that was lush with red and yellow trees. He realized it was autumn with a brisk breeze hitting him.
He looked at the large field that stretched out for miles. Greg could see small and large monsters roaming around looking for their next meal.
"This is the second layer of beast territory, all the creatures here range from [rank-D] to [rank-B]. It's easy to lose your life here so take some time to prepare." The teacher told Greg.
Greg decided the best way to prepare was to summon more creatures.
So he did just that. He imbued his voice with mana and shouted "Summon!"
The clouds began to swirl above him and directly below the center of the swirl and in front of Greg a dark spell circle appeared and it had strange runes on it.
Boom*
A strange caw was heard and then the sound of flapping wings. He saw a 2ft dark blue raven flying in around in a circle above him. It had long sharp talons and a beak filled with razor sharp teeth.
Suddenly the spell circle below it broke down into dark energy. It followed the raven quickly and started to circle around it, until it made a cocoon. After ten second the outside layer of the cocoon was absorbed into the bird.
'That's a whirlwind raven but its odd.' Gareth said with a hint of confusion.
Greg could sense the link to it.
~~~
[Dark whirlwind raven]{Rank-E, advanced stage}
Elements: Wind, Darkness
Skills: [Ariel mastery]{level 5}, [Feather shot]{level 2}, [Whirlwind blast]{level 2}, [Danger sense]{level 8}
~~~
Greg looks at the bird's info with amazement.
'It has great abilities and duel elements' Greg thought to himself.
A young feminine voice interrupted his thoughts.
'I didn't have the darkness element before you summoned me, master' The voice said while it tried to hold in its glee.
'Does that mean I gave you a second element?' Greg asked curiously. At this moment he noticed his mana was decreased by half.
'Most likely since your element, is special it absorbed into this bird to increase your connection.' Gareth chimed in.
'Okay then I'll summon another and see if the same thing happens.' Greg thought about having an army of duel element users.
'No don't summon another.' Gareth said quickly. 'your mana has been halved. If that much gets taken again then you won't have enough strength to complete this. Wait until it refills.'
'Fine, but when my mana refills I will try again.' Greg was planning and then had another thought.
'Do you have a name?' Greg asked the young raven.
'I do but I don't think it has a version in your language.' the raven said.
'Then I'll give you a name in my language. How about Quill?' Greg was not creative when it came to names so he looked at her feathers and thought that would be best.
There was a gleam in the raven's eyes. 'Yes, I love that name, It seems so royal.' Quill said while letting out a few happy caws. Greg was slightly embarrassed hearing this since he based off of her feathers, and it was called royal.
After that he was ready to go hunting.
"Can we head off now, teacher?" Greg said trying to be respectful to his cruel and vindictive teacher.
The teacher saw this then said "Go ahead I'll be watching you from up here, you have 4 days."
Greg assumed she would go with him to make sure he didn't run away, however he was glad the she devil decided not too.
He created a shadow around his feet and descended into it.
When he reappeared he was at the bottom of the cliff. He activated his fusion and a choice appeared in front of him.
[Gareth Blackwell]
[Quill]
He assumed it was asking him who he wanted to fuse with so after a slight deliberation he chose Quill.
Suddenly he felt his body become lighter. Feathers started growing all over his body. His feet grew sharp talons and his grew a sharp toothed beak. At the end wings sprouted from his back.
He looked like humanoid raven.
Greg was curious to try out flying so with a few flaps of his wings he took off into the sky.
He was unsteady at the beginning since he has never been higher than a jump before but after a little practice flying in a circle, he was comfortable and excited about this new ability. He picked Gareth up into his arms and headed forward.
He flew just above the trees and retracted his shadow into his body so his prey wouldn't notice him as much.
This was freedom like he had never felt before the feeling of the wind against his face was intoxicating.
'Is this what it's like to be as free as a bird.' He thought comically.
'Of course not, master' Quill said joyfully.
'You have to soar above the clouds to feel the true freedom of a bird's soul.'
'We can try that next time for now we have found our first prey.' Greg said as he looked below him.
A large rhino with three horns like a triceratops and thick red skin. It had tree stump sized legs and a body 3 times as big. It also had another set of eyes.
~~~
[Lava rhino]{rank-D, master stage}
Element: Lava
Skill: not strong enough
~~~
Although he was confused by the skills he was still ready to attack.
He gathered darkness energy into his fist and swooped down on this beast. He punched the beast's back and used his talons to swipe at the beast.
It's skin was extremely tough and his attacks only left a few white marks.
The beasts were enraged by this and lifted its front legs and slammed them hard on the ground caused cracks in the earth.
Lava erupted from the cracks and rushed towards Greg.
He used a combination of wind and darkness to create a shield in front of him. It managed to disperse some of the lava but it continued to shoot at him forcing him to retreat.
He channeled wind and darkness energy around him to move faster.
He moved around the rhino and avoided the lava while consistently striking the Beast to look for a weak spot.
The rhino tried to impale him with its horns multiple times but it was unsuccessful.
Greg was also unsuccessful in finding and opening.
He focused the darkness energy into his wings then shot a barrage of sharp feathers at the beast. Before they landed he used whirlwind to change their direction and send them into the left eyes of the beast.
The rhino roared out in pain and anger.