Grandmaster Arilyne looked at me concerned about my limitations and said, " Can you keep up? It's going to be very fast."
Leon and Knight glanced at me as if almost pitying and Knight Rhendy said, " well, if he can use Wolf steps, he should be able to follow us from a distance."
Arilyne looked at them and smiled, " Don't worry"
I nodded and said, " I'll do my best,"
Before heading out, grandmaster Jenny quickly glanced one more time at Arilyne and at me, grandmaster Arilyne nodded at her and assured her not to worry. Jenny seemed to understand her wordless gesture.
Then, led by unit one of the vanguard force, we headed out, and unit two was at the back of the train. Swiftly they darted off in the woods, they were extremely fast on their feets, almost like a wind, Dragon steps spell was something else. No wonder, it was classified as an upper tier spell. At the start I was behind a few meters away from them then with my acquired beast movement, I tried to catch up to them but they were still very fast, I had no choice but to use a breathing technique, combining my beast steps with falcon breathing, I caught up to them, I ran behind Knight Rhendy and Leon, Grandmaster Arilyne was at the front of our unit, as I caught up, they looked at me. Arilyne looked at me and led out a smile of being impressed.
" Hoo, so you are able to catch up to us?," Leon looked at me curiously.
" Haha- Yes," I answered.
" Impressive for a student to be able to learn dragon steps," commented Knight Rhendy.
" That's not a magic spell," commented Arilyne.
" What?!," exclaimed Leon in a loud voice attracting the attention of all the slayers in the team. Everyone peeked back at the noise and Leon apologised.
" He is able to catch up to this speed without magic?," said Leon, he remained dumbfounded.
" Yes, he is a magicless kid, he doesn't have any magic in his body. He is just a normal human being but without magic." explained Arilyne.
" Oh my- then how are you able to keep up with us? Are you some kind of super human?," said Leon, looking at me as If I was some kind of alien.
" Haha- I learnt some tricks," I kept my words short.
" Very impressive, kid, you have earned my admiration" Knight Rhendy commented.
" Woow- I have never seen a person with no magic and to think that you ventured out to become a slayer, that too in Dragon Horn academy?, that's a very impressive feat. I'm fully blown away!" said Leon.
" Isn't my student awesome? Hahaha," laughed grandmaster Arilyne happily.
" Thank you, Master Leon and Knight Rhendy for your compliments," I said.
" I still can't believe that you are running at the same speed as us," said Leon, still amazed at my beast steps and falcon breathing combined result. We were running at a quite fast speed, the leaves and trees blurred past behind in motions, the winds brushing our faces and hairs swiftly. The night sky kissed the forest to darkness but thanks to the Moon light illuminated enough to give us shadows.
Stonewood was a vast ecological habitat with lakes, biomes and caves. We were somewhere deep inside the forest when an upper division varae ambushed us.
Everyone halted in their tracks, and a high pitched creature calling echoed in the night sky.
"Srenads, let me handle them," said White Claws.
" Alright, looks like there are a bunch of them," commented Dheno.
White Claws approached at front drawing his beautiful blade inscribed with some mantra, that says " Devourer of varaes,". It was a beautiful blade all sleek and extremely sharped.
Everyone stayed behind and watched him, I had never seen a master slayer in action properly and Leon was about to give me some memorable performance that will inspire me for the rest of my life.
Srenads were goblin like creatures but more hunchbacked and crouching shoulders, they were brown skinned varaes with no body fur, small and weak for an upper division but they can be quite a problem for new slayers as they always hunt in large numbers. Growling and howling came quite a number of them from the shadows of the trees, almost thirty of them. Yet smiling and utterly confident, White Claws approached holding his blade on his right and his left hand behind his back, a king's stance. That's what they called, dignified and an elegant sword stance mostly practiced by Royals.
Some of the Srenads had clubs and wooden primitive weapons and some sticks, and after staring at him for a moment, all of them swarmed at Leon in rage, Leon activated no spells, reading their movements and directions, he thrusted his blade to the closest target in a swift movement and pierced its heart, it instantly dropped dead. In the next breath, he retraced his blade and started annihilating them one by one, countering their swings and strikes just by moving his feet and he sliced and cut them with the least amount of movements, he had no wasted movements or flashy moves. All of them were highly calculated and executed perfectly, when he jabbed his balde, it was always a thrust to the heart and if it was a swing or slice, it was always a decapitation. How elegant his movements were and in few minutes, the Srenads number dropped to half, but he didn't stop, he continued to trim their numbers down but the last few Srenads backed off in fear and tried to escape but he leaped at them without using any magic and sliced their heads off in a beautiful horizontal arc, it was such a fast swing that I couldn't even see his movement, all I saw was a flash of metal in the air and his blade was already back in his scabbard and as he walked back to us, the heads from the remaining Srenads toppled off down the ground.
I was astonished by his performance, I have seen grandmaster Arilyne fight before but I never expected a Master was also this strong and powerful. I realised Masters were of no joke, I saw how much of a gap was there between a mere academy student and a Master slayer. It was a day and night difference, I wondered how strong I would be if I use my Raven breathing? Although it's not the mere raw strength that makes a Master Slayer but the experience, skills, shrewdness, all combined experiences and every master has to achieve a level of magic integration.
Gheno whistled as a compliment at Leon's performance, rest of the grandmasters were impressed and didn't say anything. After the fight, we resumed our journey to Demon Mouth Cave, that small break gave me an interval for me to gather my stamina back, even though now I can use Falcon breathing for an extended period, using it for a long time still drains my stamina significantly and I have to rest in between if I want to maintain my stamina.
" That was amazing, Master Leon." I said with my glittering eyes shining at him.
" Hahaha- Thank you kid, " He likes compliments, I knew it.
" Your blade is also beautiful, too bad I'm not good with blades," I said looking at his scabbard.
Still more to go, I tried breaking the silence by starting a conversation with Master Leon.
" Yeah, this blade has been my long time partner, it was crafted by one of the Master blacksmiths of the continent. Is that why you have a bow instead?," he said after noticing my bow on my back.
Knight Rhendy, awoken by the word," bow " also joined the conversation. "Yes, I was thinking the same, why do you have a bow instead? Where is your sword?" said Knight Rhendy.
" Haha- I was not ready when I came, also this bow was borrowed from Master Orshen and I'm more familiar with bows, I did learn some archery from my late father but nothing extraordinary,". I replied humbly.
" Some archery he says!," exclaimed grandmaster Arilyne and she chuckled.
Knight Rhendy and Leon confused at what she meant, they both turned to me and Leon asked, " Where do you come from, kid? "
" Southern Outskirt, B-12 " I answered.
" B-12, huh?" Leon repeated the word in a low tone.
" I'm very curious, Grandmaster Arilyne as to how Lan got accepted in the academy when he doesn't have any magic to begin with?," Leon asked.
The Unit one vanguard force was far ahead of us, they couldn't hear what we were talking about however Lady Tashrani looked over her shoulder when Leon said how Lan got accepted into the academy when he doesn't have any magic.
" He had some luck I guess. Originally he was rejected but he was recommended by Master Senx and the examiner, so under Master Senx's appeal, he got accepted." replied grandmaster Arilyne.
" Woow, to be recommended by the teachers themselves, boy, you sure have some luck," commented Leon.
" Haha- I was just lucky, " I replied.
Soon after running through the forest for another twenty minutes, a cliff wall high as a sky came into view, the moon shone right above the cliff. Since I knew it was going to be a long journey, I had shifted my breathing from Falcon breathing to Ovis breathing and it has helped me maintain my stamina, who knows I may even engage in battles, you never know.
" Are you not tired, Lan ? " asked Knight Rhendy.
" A little bit but I can manage, " I said. It's true running for twenty minutes straight, thanks to Ovis breathing I was able to last this long, the speed we ran was as fast as any beast in the wild but thanks to the speed we were able to cover such a long distance in a short time.
" I'm very impressed, Lan. After your study in the academy, why don't you come to us? You may become a fine knight with your ability. " said Knight Rhendy.
" Haha- don't you dare recruit my student, Knight!," interrupted Arilyne, " He is already my apprentice, he isn't going to become some knight, "
" Haha- I'm sorry Grandmaster Arilyne but he is better off to be a knight than a slayer, I think. A slayer needs a lot of magic while as a Knight, Lan will be a respectable figure with his ability. " said Knight Rhendy.
" I'm thankful for your concern, Master Rhendy but I want to become a slayer, a legit slayer. I know I don't have magic to back up but still I want to try, " I said firmly.
" I like you, kid. " remarked White Claws with a smile.
" That's an impressive attitude," said Knight Rhendy.
" We are here!, " declared Grandmaster Jenny and in a few seconds, we came out of the trees and stood facing the mighty cliff and in front of us lies a big cave that literally looked like a beast opening its jaws and the alluring darkness was somewhat calling us. I felt various ominous presence inside the darkness.
"Lets go, Slayers!" said grandmaster Jenny and she led us in the cave fearlessly, she activated spells to light up the way and soon we let ourselves be engulfed by the darkness of the cave and disappeared inside the Demon Mouth Cave.