[Aurus the Wolf of Ice appears!]
'What do you mean a boss!?' Aurora panicked a bit, but she kept calm on the outside, not showing her inner state.
The system has never done something like stating the name of the opponent she was about to fight. Furthermore, it called this Aurus guy a boss of the first floor, so he was definitely important.
However, Aurora knew this wasn't the time for panic. She couldn't afford to get distracted, no when this wolf was clearly as strong, if not a bit stronger than her.
Not to mention that this guy is a magical beast and not a monster. That meant that he could most probably use magic, and that magic probably wouldn't be anything to scoff at either.
"Auuuu!"
Her words proved to be correct, as with another wolf, freezing mana flew out of the wolf, covering the entire surface of the arena with a thin layer of ice. And the next moment, Aurus shot out towards Aurora, slashing his massive claw at her.
Aurora, who already expected such a thing, just used the ice-covered floor to slide out of the wolf's reach.
'He's quite fast, but unless he used like half his speed in there, he isn't faster than me.' Not planning to hold anything back, Aurora used her Leadership, immediately gaining 40 points of strength from Rejoke.
Now, with her strength reaching as high as 140 points, she observed the large blue wolf, waiting for his next move. And she didn't have to wait long, because almost instantly after he finished his opening attack, Aurus turned to the small fox.
Opening his mouth, his mana concentrated inside it, and soon, a wave of freezing breath shot out from his mouth. As the light blue wave of absolutely freezing mana approached Aurora, she merely snickered and ran straight into it.
Aurus, who watched this action of hers, couldn't help but think that the small intruder was truly foolish. However, much to his surprise, the white fox easily passed through the ice breath without it doing anything to her at all.
In the blink of an eye, Aurora closed the few meters of distance between the two, slashing forward with her claw in a similar fashion as Aurura did before. However, before her attack could land, the large wolf swiftly dodged.
Even if he was surprised that his freezing breath failed to do any harm to the intruder, he lost focus of the fight only momentarily. There was no way that Aurora could land an attack like that because of that mere second when he lost focus.
Just as Aurus thought he was fine, he felt something in the air change. His eyes fell on the ball of flames floating close to his small opponent, and the next moment, the fireball was already heading his way.
He did his best to dodge, but this attack was truly too quick for him to react properly. After all, he barely just dodged the last, and yet another, much more powerful one at that was already coming in to hit him.
*Boom* "Auuuu!"
Even in the split moment he had to dodge, the large blue wolf managed to move out of the spell's way, avoiding a serious injury. But even the pain caused just from the fireball hitting the side of his body made him howl in pain.
Anger bubbled up inside his chest, but he held it back, not planning to lose control in the middle of a battle. If he gave into his fury now, he was sure he would lose his life.
If there was one thing that Aurus had going for him, if we ignore his stats, it would be his intelligence. Despite still clearly being a rank 1 magical beast, his intelligence was much higher when compared to someone like Rejoke. If anything, his intelligence was almost on par with a normal human being.
Thanks to this, he had quite a good control over his emotions. Unlike most beasts of the first rank, he wouldn't lose his temper so easily, even if he was angry.
So, not planning to remain on the defensive, Aurus rushed towards Aurora once again, this time not letting her create much distance between them.
Aurora merely met his attack with an internal smirk, rushing in as well. She was not one to shy away from a challenge, even less so when fighting against someone who was more-or-less equal to her.
The two danced, their claws so close yet seemingly so far, never able to reach the other. They both attacked and both dodged, neither able to land a hit.
Aurus was truly powerful, even more so than Aurora anticipated. Much like Rejoke, his main stat seemed to be strength. However, unlike her companion, this wolf was able to use magic simultaneously with his physical attacks, something that Rejoke has yet to accomplish.
Truly, what power. He was truly an equal match for Aurora. At least he would be, were it not for her still holding back. Right now, Aurora was fighting with only her physical attacks. After the first Fireball she used, she never used magic again.
It wasn't that Aurora was underestimating the wolf. She just didn't want to use any magic. She felt like she was close to something—something needed just a little push. And she had a feeling that she could finally reach that 'something' with this fight.
Their attacks got fiercer and fiercer, as Aurus began to slowly use more and more mana as the fight went on. He understood that unless he went all out, he wouldn't win. Yet, even after expending about half of his total mana reserves, it still seemed that his opponent was toying with him.
He wasn't exactly wrong. After all, Aurora truly wasn't going all out, only limiting herself to physical attacks, Scratch specifically. So, while it may seem like she was just playing around, she wasn't doing it intentionally.
'No, something's still missing.' Aurora grumbled internally, feeling that she was really close yet far at the same time.
Don't get her wrong; she certainly was close; however, there was something that was missing. She tried and tried again, but nothing seemed to work.
It was as though she was just one little step away from finally being able to break through the wall that's keeping her back; however, no matter what she threw at it, the wall refused to fall.
'Argh, this is so frustrating!' Not able to rein in her inner frustration, Aurora slashed forward; however, this time, it felt strange—different even.
As her claw slashed through the air in front of her, the mana inside moved towards the strike. Then, the mana shot out from her claw and formed a brilliant arc of silver light.
The arc of light easily cut through the air, almost reaching the retreating Aurus. However, as soon as the arc reached the point where it was about 15 centimeters away from Aurora's claw, it disappeared.
[Scratch level 10 has evolved into Slash level 1.]
It took a second for Aurora to realize what just happened before she erupted into excitement. She did it! She broke the wall and managed to finally evolve her favorite physical skill. Not that she had many of them.
When choosing between Scratch and Bite, she always thought of Scratch as the superior skill. While Bite had a slightly higher chance of inflicting a minor bleed, its use was much more limited. It was difficult to pull off a skill like Bite in the middle of a battle.
Not only did it require her to get basically right up to her opponent, she was also forced to latch onto their body. This was very risky and not at all worth the slightly higher chance of inflicting a debuff.
Scratch, on the other hand, is extremely versitile and can basically be used in any situation. It's easy and quick to use; it's much less risky than Bite and also deals some very nice damage.
That's why Aurora was really pumped about Scratch finally evolving. And even if she currently didn't have time to check what Slash did, she was sure it would be much stronger than its previous form.
So, not waiting around to give Aurus time to get over his shock, she charged in forward, swifly sliding across the ice. Moments later, she was in close enough range, slashing upwards with her claw.
Just like before, the mana inside her body got directed towards her claw and shot out in an arc of light.
Aurus, who felt danger, instinctively tried to jump back, but he was a second too late. The silvery light reached the front of his body, easily leaving a deep cut across his blue fur.
The cut was much deeper than what a normal Scratch could do, proof of which was the constant stream of blood leaking out of it. Even Aurora was surprised by just how effective her newly evolved skill was.
It was the same as when Snow Magic evolved into Ice Magic; the power of the two skills was hardly comparable. However, under her surprise, Aurora was greatly excited about the new 'toy' she just got.
On the other hand, Aurus, who was not only angry but also lost control over his emotions due to his earlier shock, finally couldn't keep it cool. In a furious and pained frenzy, the large wolf recklessly charged forward. This was quite obviously not the right move in this situation.
*Slash*
The air chimed as an arc of light slid elegantly through it. Soon, that arc was stained with red as blood gushed out from Aurus's neck.
Just now, as the large wolf lunged forward, Aurora decided to use it as an opportunity to finish the fight. Already anticipating such a move, she jumped to the side and perfectly timed her slash so it would reach the wolf's neck just as he was coming down. This would leave him with basically no time to dodge the attack.
As crimson blood splattered out uncontrollably, Aurora watched it all with great interest. She was very impressed with how powerful Slash seemed to be. At the very least, it was a clear upgrade to Scratch with seemingly no drawbacks.
'I better check it properly later, but right now...' Aurora glanced back at the heavily bleeding wolf as he squirmed around in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
'Or maybe not; this guy is just about done.' She sighed, seeing that in the end, even Aurus didn't manage to pose much of a challenge. He was way too slow for that, and he didn't have enough strength to make up for his lack of agility either.
Not to mention his magic that, since it related to ice, had basically no effect on Aurora due to her absurdly high resistance against it.
In the end, he was just a Rejoke with higher intelligence and stats, something that would be deadly basically to any creature of the first rank except for her. Aurus's strongest weapons were his intelligence and magic, both which Aurora perfectly countered. She was both more intelligent than the big wolf, but she also completely nullified his magic.
Soon, the bleeding blue wolf finally breathed his last as his body ceased to struggle and fell lifeless to the ground. The light in his eyes dimmed, as well as his powerful aura.
[You have defeated the Wolf of Ice Aurus level 40.]
[You have reached level 8.]
[You have reached...
...
...
[You have reached level 14.]
[You have received an Advanced Ice Crystal.]
[You have received the Frozen Saphire Earring.]
[Congratulations! You have defeated the boss of the first floor and are now able to move onto the second floor.]