The squad quickly reached the edge of the first scene of a battle, just outside the military base compound. A few beasts sneaking in to the military base was normal but it was their duty as to prevent it from entering the city.
The commander has obviously devised this as test for them. Otherwise he would have ordered the other squads to eliminate the beast directly.
"Now analyse what you can and track the beast" said the Sergeant taking a step back and pretending as an observer.
"The beast is over five meters in length atleast, unusual for an Ape Rat. It's possibly at the evolving stage. An evolving Servant class creature was just short of Warrior level. So we have to be careful. Song Xia can you locate the beast".
"Let me see, there are some tracks that we can follow. I'll cast the my primary spell as we need it" said Song Xia.
Her Spiritual energy was limited. She could almost cast a dozen spells before running out of energy. So they had to narrow the search down.
The trio quickly followed the track, while the Sergeant followed them closely.
"Gao Xuan, watch our backs" said Cao Guang as Song Xia came to a stop and cast her spell.
" Alright boss"
"I hear a strong heartbeat from the left. It's not a human" said Song Xia.
" We seem to have found it first" siad Cao Guang half drawing a Star Orbit.
A battle mage would always partially draw their stars beforehand. As primary mage they could only do it for a very short time. So they had to time it well.
The trio made their way quietly through the bushes. About ten metres from them they found a grey Ape Rat about six metres long. It had a bloodied mouth as it gouging on some other poor creature.
Cao Guang made a hand signal to Song Xia as he prepared to complete his spell.
"Sound Chord: Harass".
"Dimensional Summon".
Song Xia's spell disoriented the hungry beast as Fenrir appeared out of the window created by the spell and charged the demon beast. The One-eyed Ape Rat suddenly turned growling and made a swipe at the Wolf.
"Earth Wave: Shift"
A brown magic circle appeared beneath Gao Xuan but the surface of Earth beneath him did not change.
A portion of the earth beneath the front left foot shifted away as the spell was cast, toppling the balance of the creature as Fenrir took a bite on it's neck and clawed right at it's eyes. An average mage at Gao Xuan's level could not have exerted his spell at such a distance away from him. But Gao Xuan's Innate talent was a Soul seed , although not fully awakened it let him exert better control over the spell.
The creature was blinded and bleeding profusely but still made an attempt to bite Fenrir as he backed away.
"To the right Fenrir"
Fenrir backed away as Song Xia used another harassing Sound spell. The wolf charged the beast from behind and struck it twice before it could even react, drawing more blood from it.
The One-eyed Ape Rat was stronger than any one of them or Fenrir as it was at a higher level.
But it had already been blinded and had poor magic sensitivity. It's other sense organs weren't that effective either. Song Xia's sound spells disturbed it's hearing and it could not reaction to sounds made by Fenrir. The trio could quietly kite it from a distance without much danger.
A couple of minutes later Fenrir made another successful bite at it's neck this time killing it, as an azure avatar of sort emerged from the Rat's body. It had dropped a complete soul Essence.
The Little Tora pendant needed just a small reminder from Cao Guang as it dragged that into it's Inner world. Only Undead mages or those possessing Soul Containers could directly see a Soul Remnant or a Soul Essence.
Cao Guang inwardly checked the essence out before leaving it as it floated above the Nether River like a lantern.
"Brilliant teamwork, you guys managed to kill it without putting yourself in harms way. Although that was the intention! Return to the base and meet the commander in the evening."
The trio quickly agreed before leaving. They all had different emotions as it was their first kill even it was pretty much a hands free performance.
---
At the military base Cao Guang examined the Soul Essence in full before guiding it into his Spiritual World. He wanted try out how it felt improve an already saturated Stardust.
He guided the Soul Essence towards the first star of his Fire element. The Soul Essence seemingly melted upon contact with the Star. The Star shined brighter than the rest of them as soon as the process was completed.
"A complete and permanent change in the Star" noted Cao Guang as jotted the experience down along with a few ideas onto his book.
---
"Three of them did well. A little too well. This won't be enough. Without being actually in danger, they won't realise. It hard to do it inside the safe zone. Fine I'll take them to mountains myself" said Zhan Kong as finished hearing his Sergeant's report.
Zhan Kong then began looking through the messages from Headquarters and nearby military bases and his patrol. He referred to the map and finally found a suitable location to scout with the geniuses.
---
'My cultivation speed has plummeted.
There is no choice without any resources it will be at snails pace from now. Fire element is a the third tier of Advanced level and has a Soul grade seed. But Wind and Light are at the second and first tier respectively. Wind only has a Spirit grade seed as well.
Zhan Kong's career with the national team was derailed after Qin Yu'er's fate. He had received no further resources and was sent to Bo City by his family. Although he knew whose decision it was. He even understood why the old man did it.
Now he only two wishes. Keeping this place peaceful and breaking through to the Super level. But even if he broke the resources he needed was not simple.
He couldn't even hunt the wolves of Nanshan mountains down aggressively. Bo City was only an outpost and he had to keep the bigger picture in his mind. He could report back or kill them if they invaded.
Or if he found that the horde was growing stronger he could war time preparations around the mountains and cull their numbers.
So he was making sure more than enough patrols and scouting missions were being done, occasionally doing one or two himself.
He would lead this group of geniuses and let them realise a few things. He was also waiting for a reply from his teacher on the question he asked previously, but he knew this was busy period for his teacher and his allies.
His teacher was already a Commander-in-chief of the army. Among the highest level of the army and a guardian of the country. Shao Zheng on the other hand was an ally of his. This year Shao Zheng would be making a move to become the chairman for internal affairs. One of the two highest active positions of the Chinese Magic association.
The chairman for external affairs was none another than his own grandfather Zu Huan Yao. Shao Zheng was only in his late twenties and a Super Mage. He was still a distance from the Half step Forbidden Curse level.
However his political acumen and aspirations were high and he was well respected among the mage community. He was going up against a tough opponent and so far it was pretty much even.
This face off was occupying any free energy that Marshall Hua had. This had resulted in a uncharacteristically slow response from the Marshall although Zhan Kong would never blame him.
Zhan Kong focused his thoughts and waited for the trio to come and meet him. The door opened and three of the made their way in with Cao Guang at the front and the other following behind.
'A leader' mused Zhan Kong.
"You guys did well against the beast. I won't talk much about the difficulties of the leaving the safe zone. You will experience all of it yourself. You will leave with me on a scouting mission tommorow morning. The army has picked up the trace of a group of Servant class Magic Wolves near the military base. We will track them and eliminate them. Got it then I'll leave to your preparations."
The three of them left Zhan Kong's office and arrived at the training room.
"Brother do you have anymore ideas about team battles" asked Gao Xuan as Song Xia pretended not to be overly interested and paid attention.
Cao Guang chuckled and said " Nothing for the moment. For the time being we will battle Fenrir individually and later together. This is the best we can achieve right now" as he channeled his spell.