A day had passed since Shiro's group began their expenditure, along the way they came across a lot of magic beasts, luckily, they were able to easily dispatch them without any problems and by the end of the day they were able to reach the core path of the forest.
Since they were near the center of the forest, Shiro's group had to take more precautions before setting camp, they proposed to each take turns to keep watch over the night.
Each group had an average number of three people making it ten groups keeping watch at different time intervals. During Shiro's turn, he told the two remaining members of his group to take a break while he remained awake to keep watch, the two were reluctant at first but later agreed after Shiro explained to them that he was more than enough to handle any threat that came by.
The night was going smoothly until Shiro's martial awareness picked up something heading towards them at an unusual speed, it passed through the thick trees of the forest like it was the most comfortable place in the world. After some quick calculations, Shiro deduced that it should take about three minutes for the monster to arrive, the only question in his mind was whether he should wake the others up or take the beast on alone.
If the beast was a grade two magic beast, he was confident that he could still take it on but above that and he will definitely have to ask for help, while he was contemplating his chances, the monster had been able to make it to their camp and was now only a few meters away from Shiro. Seeing that the beast was close by, Shiro used his martial awareness to scan the beast.
The beast was a gargantuan lizard like creature which was almost four meters in height, its body was covered with blood red scales which looked like it would be extremely hard to break, and it had a long tale which had something like a spike at the end. The beast raised its head as its massive beady eyes stared at Shiro in contempt, it felt like killing Shiro was only a leisurely activity.
Shiro stared directly at the beast, he had scanned its cultivation with his martial awareness and its cultivation didn't betray its size. It was a grade four armored reptilian, its blood like armor released an eerie feeling as it stepped forward in wide strides quickly covering the distance between it and Shiro.
Shiro's aura climbed up as he released his two cultivations, he couldn't afford to hold back now, however, one thing baffled Shiro, Yato had said that the strongest monster in the forest should only be at the third grade but here he was about to tussle with a fourth grade magic beast.
He had seen signs of this from the very beginning, the fact that the first magic beast they encountered was a grade two already bought suspicions from Shiro, although, he had not seen any grade three monsters around, he was a hundred percent sure that if he began to fight with this beast it would draw the attention of all the grade three magic beast that were still in hiding.
Shiro began proceeding with caution, he drew his advanced grade sword from its sheath and began heading towards the beast awhile still keeping his eyes on it.
The monster was here and Shiro didn't think it would allow him to go and inform the rest of the problem he was facing, so with all that in mind, Shiro reaffirmed his grip on his sword and charged towards the monster at blinding speeds. Once he was close enough, Shiro sheathed his sword before pointing his hand out with his five fingers together like a sword.
[Sword Style: Second Form; Sword Less]
He chanted while slashing his hands at the monster, sword Ki was immediately gathered as it lashed out at the monster, a bright flash of light covered the monster, it only lasted for only an instant before the monster was seen coming out completely unscathed, Shiro was shocked but his surprise only lasted an instant.
He had known about the monsters high defense so he wasn't that surprised, he just didn't expect the monster to come out unharmed.
Once the armored reptilian came out it began turning its massive head as if looking for something, Shiro thought it was weird, why was the monster unusually smart? It didn't behave like a monster at all, usually, when monsters are attacked they instantly begin attacking the one who attacked them, however, this one acted differently, almost like it was sentient.
Shiro didn't have time to think of this too much because it seemed like the monster had found what it was looking for, it swerved its massive body and began speeding towards the camp site.
Shiro was alarmed, this monster was indeed unusually smart. It saw that it couldn't take Shiro on so it decided to head to their camp.
Seeing this, Shiro crouched into a position where his hands rested on the hilt of his sword, he stared at the unusual beast before gathering sword Ki onto his sword.
[Sword Style: First Form; Sword Draw]
With lightning quick speed, Shiro travelled a great distance before appearing in front of the armored reptilian. There was no sound, only the motion of Shiro sheathing his sword was seen. The attack was already over before the monster could react, time seemed to slow down as a thin line appeared on the beast's left limb.
*Swish!*
The monster watched in horror as its limb was severed from its body. It immediately became enraged before thrashing everything around it with its remaining limbs. The monster looked at Shiro before quickly launching itself forward, it was determined to kill Shiro even if it meant losing its life in the process.
Shiro saw that the monster had now changed directions and was heading towards him, he wasn't alarmed, he kept a calm face while waiting for the monster to come. If one looked closely at Shiro's face one would be able to see traces of fatigue, not only had he been keeping watch all night, the stress from using two sword styles back to back without rest put a huge strain on his body.
He was tired but he didn't panic as long as he could lead the monster somewhere far away from their camp he would be able to escape. Having a set goal in his mind, Shiro turned around and ran, his running was both erratic and fast, he struggled to move his already tired body and he could feel the monster gaining in on him but he was not discouraged, he continued to run while weaving through he thickly packed trees.