"Whew. They finally left." Renji finally let out a deep breath. Renji knew very well that he only had the prowess of a warrior of the fourth rank. Engaging in close-quarters combat with Tempestwolves of the fifth rank was tantamount to suicide. Only by using magic could he hope to survive. But without gaining enough speed, how could he have found a chance to cast any of those magic spells? Fortunately, he was quite fast, and hence able to attain this favorable result.
"Even if a sixth rank magus showed up, he wouldn't have necessarily done any better than me. Speaking in terms of speed, a pursuing group of Tempestwolves could not be shaken off by a sixth-grade magus. Surrounded and attacked by a pack of Tempestwolves, he might not even have the chance to cast any spells." Renji felt all the more certain that his decision not to let up on his physical training was a very wise decision.
Renji looks down at his left hand that he wears the Celestial Dragon Ring on. Since he had grown up, he had started wearing the ring on his fingers. "And it is nice that I have this Celestial Dragon Ring! Otherwise, how would I have been able to use so many fifth rank spells?
The average fifth-grade magus after performing two fifth-grade spells would find themselves out of Magic force. But Renji was an exception, having just used six spells of the fifth rank: three casts of 'Shardstorm,' one cast of 'Gravitational Sphere,' one cast of 'Terraguard,' and one cast of 'Earth Spear Array.' The reason? The Celestial Dragon Ring.
Years ago, Kaiya Tanaka had stumbled upon this ring. Once, as Kaiya Tanaka was casting a spell, he was shocked and delighted to discover that a spell cast through the Celestial Dragon Ring would use but a sixth of the Magic force and spiritual energy required for the exact same effect.
One can clearly feel and manipulate the elemental essence through the Celestial Dragon Ring. Also, it took much less burden from spiritual energy and Magic force. A sixth. What did that symbol mean? Generally speaking, a Saint-level magus could only use the terrifying 'Desolation Gale' spell once. Yet using the assistance of the Celestial Dragon Ring, he managed to cast the spell six times! Such a terribly strong treasure made Kaiya Tanaka be excited uncontrollably. He called it the 'Black Ring' since he felt that it was a blessing from the earth mother.
The divine treasure, 'Black Ring'. That was the name she had bestowed upon it, Kaiya Tanaka. Listening to what Kaiya Tanaka had said, while the Aerthos continent had a few extremely powerful treasures which could make casting spells for a magus much easier, there were hardly any treasures with the same degree of effect like the 'Black Ring'. However, unexpectedly- to say the least, Renji found something when training with the Celestial Dragon Ring.
"Not just earth-style magic! Wind-style magic, and even my minuscule amount of fire-style magic, when channeled through the Celestial Dragon Ring only requires a sixth as much spiritual essence and Magic force." Looking at the ring, Renji felt happier and happier.
Kaiya Tanaka also chose this moment to appear beside Renji. "Don't look at it. When I got this Celestial Dragon Ring in my generation, I never even had the courage to tell somebody. The moment somebody knows it, definitely thousands of Saint-ranked level opponents will come and get it from me. But to be frank with you, I never expected that it could help the users of fire-style and wind-style as well." Kaiya Tanaka sighed loudly.
Renji nodded. "In the future, I will never dare to reveal this secret either." Renji knew very well how precious this ring was. If its secret was leaked out, most likely he would be dismembered by all the Saint-level combatants of the Aerthos continent.
"Boss, you done?" Decidedly at this juncture to break his vow of silence, the little Umbramouse Echo stood atop a grassy place not far away. At this time, Echo had not joined the battle, just watched from afar.
Renji smiled wryly. "Oof, that hurts." With a wound on his chest and his clothes torn and stained with blood, Renji began to dress his wound with much caution as he used elemental essence to seal the wound. Echo was staring at Renji's wound too and seemed quite concerned.
"Boss, next time something like this happens, I'm gonna take action." Echo suddenly said to Renji mentally.
"No need, and not unless you think I am in the situation where I am powerless to resist and am going to die definitely. Then you can act. Otherwise… what is the use of me doing training here?" Renji's voice was firm and unyielding.
Echo immediately no longer dared to speak. Echo had long ago wanted to engage in a slaughter, but Renji never agreed.
At that very moment, thirty metres away from Renji, concealing himself in the grass, was a black silhouetted figure lying in wait. "Just now in that battle, from start to finish, he used six spells of the fifth rank. Even though the spells only had the power of the fifth rank, considering he was able to cast six of them, he most likely is a magus of the sixth rank.". His martial prowess should be as a fourth rank warrior. Going by the fact that he movements were wind-styled assisted, he most likely has an affinity for wind magic, too. In summary: a sixth rank dual element magus, and a fourth rank warrior." The dark shadow far away computed." 90% Kill him Successfully. It said, "I can make my move." The dark shadow had made his decision.
Renji had just finished one great battle and would naturally be a little more relaxed. That dark shadow still remained unmoving. In the dark of the night, he was just another shadow. Not even the little Umbramouse Echo had the slightest idea he was there, much less Renji.
The surface layer of living elemental matter on the earth was no more. Gravitational Sphere had died!
"Go!" The black shadow, which lay in wait since the very start for this moment, suddenly swished outward soundlessly and, due to the high speed, it was dashing at Renji like a ghost.
In an instant, Renji felt a crisis in his heart, and suddenly he dodged at high speed with his head turning backward. A dark shadow was attacking him with a sharp bright knife. Besides that, the cold, hard, glistening eyes in the dark fastened Renji's heart.
"How fast! That can be counted as a natural talent!" Renji hastily retreated, yet the shadow was even faster. This flashing black knife already reached his eyes.
"Clang!" Renji used his Direct Chisel to block the opponent's knife, and the black knife of the opponent savagely clashed with the Direct Chisel. Amidst the cracking sound, the Direct Chisel was completely smashed, with some of the Direct Chisel fragments cutting into Renji's face, leaving bloody lines over him.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Seven or eight blades of wind suddenly appeared next to Renji and chopped at the dark shadow. Based on Renji's current level of ability, he was totally capable of subvocally casting the wind blades spell. Those seven or eight wind blades all chopped at the dark shadow, but once they came into contact with the black light emanating from the shadow, they all disappeared.
Darkness-style battle-qi!" Renji immediately made the deduction.
Although these seven or eight blades of wind had not managed to block the dark shadow, they had managed to distract him momentarily. Renji immediately turned around and shot forward like an arrow from a bow. The dark shadow had fast reflexes, however, and chased after Renji, vaulting forward towards Renji at an even higher speed.
In midair, facing Renji, the dark shadow pierced at Renji with his knife once again, still aiming directly for Renji's heart. At this moment, in the back of Renji's mind flashed the image of those five corpses he had seen just before entering the Mountain of Magical Monsters. All five of them had been killed by stabs to the heart.
"Die." Dark shadow was all confidence. His knife, with a black shine, had already come to Renji's chest. No place to go, in midair, and nowhere to hide. Instacast! The most defensive spell that could be used! The only thing he could do was cast the spell. The shield of earth! Just in front of Renji's chest, a small shield of earth-one-third the size of a regular shield-appeared.
"Hrmph!" The dark shadow sneered. The knife in his hand pierced through the shield at an even greater speed. To someone on the dark shadow's level, a shield of earth posed no barrier at all.
After having shrunk in size, the shield of earth actually had quite respectable defensive abilities, but when faced with the attack from this knife, all it could do is slow it down and not stop it. Renji felt some pain in his chest as in just a few moments, the knife pierced all the way through his shield of earth.
"Raaaaawr! It was a shrill, high-pitched scream that suddenly showed the little Umbramouse, Echo, beside the dark shadow's wrist. The large mouth of the Umbramouse was big enough to chomp down on a human hand, with sharp teeth utterly capable of chewing through anything in its way. Echo bit into the dark shadow's wrist hard. Crying out in anguish, the dark shadow lost his hand at the wrist. All that was left was half of a hand still clenching the dagger that had pierced through the shield of earth and pierced through Renji's chest.