Master Of None

Monsters had fallen to Su’s attacks more than ever before. She had not taken such an offensive battle style. But the more she fought, the more fine tuned her instincts were. She could defend and attack at a better flow than before.

When Su sensed that enemies had appeared near her, she would reflexively strike out. It wasn’t that she was just letting the dragon instincts take over. Instead, it was the flow of air.

She had not realized when it happened, but Su had begun to grapes the wind affinity while fighting. This affinity was an influence of Midnight’s blood. The ability to have affinity to all manas because she was a true dragon champion.

This realization had allowed Su to feel the slight changes in the air around her. While it wasn’t amazing sounding like many other skills. This was a great skill that would always show benefits. The single change in air when a monster was about to attack was enough of a warning sso that Su would be able to dodge or defend. Even more, she would be able to counter attack too.

But besides this, she had managed to make leaps in her own understanding of herself. This was more than just Rise pushing her to undergo a proper journey of training. It was more than a traditional ritual.

Su had felt the differences in her muscles. The strength and tougher bones that now separated her from a human. These things were allowing her a much tougher defense and attack ability than what she understood before.

”Rise. I have been unknowingly holding back this whole time. Haven’t I?” Su knew this was true. She could feel it.

”As a human, you believed yourself only as strong as a human could be. Regardless of a hero title, you put barriers up to hold yourself back. To remain calm.”

”Many would pride their calm in chaos. For a dragon, controlling that is paramount to survival. But allowing it to take the lead when necessary is the true strength of a draconic guardian. Allowing yourself to be more of a wild dragon in survival.”

From the way that Rise spoke, her time had become more caring. She had been waiting for Su to grasp this herself. Now that it happened, she was glad to explain it and wait to see the results.

When Su heard this, she began to think while moving. There were not any more monsters that she could perceive around her. Therefore, Su took the chance to focus on herself.

The toughness of her skin had definitely increased more as of late. The earth affinity and her partner being the grand earth spirit had allowed her to gain more resistance. The fire affinity had altered her organs and she could breathe fire when needed.

The light affinity was found in her defensive healing skill, the light shield. The wind affinity in her surrounding awareness. That left a water affinity and darkness affinity that she was missing.

While Su knew that she had awakened many aspects of herself, she believed she was missing many.

”Now we must clean the area.” The space in the forest that Rise had led Su was odd. Many trees had been pushed over. Claw marks made on them to prove it was a monster and not nature doing so.

Furthermore, larger pieces of rocks shown through the ground covering brush. Easily becoming things for the tree roots to grow over and around. It was a very clear depiction of what Su believed forest ruins would look like.

”Weak little things have made this their nest. Darkness beasts that have smothered the light left behind by my ancestors. Clean them out and prove yourself to be a true draconic warrior worthy of protecting the only true dragon champion the dragon race has. If you fail, your life will have ended where it was meant to end.”

Every word came from Rise full of weight. Su could tell that it was the challenge that Rise had expected of her from the start. Even more so, that this was something that would bring out more of what Su was truly capable of.

A single claw scraped up a large chunk of stone. Rise had opened the way. A hurried ruin that had once been above the ground but sank over many years due to the forest growing around it. Once upon a time, this was most likely a brilliant and open space full of light.

The open passage that Su saw gave off an ominous vibe. She could sense the darkness mana coming from it but there was something else. A coldness that made her body feel slower than normal. It was very odd.

Holding her shield close, Su moved downward. From what she could tell, this had once been an upper floor. Sunken by years passing by and the changes in nature.

However, many cracks and crevices were created by these years of change. Specifically, places that Su could be ambushed. Hence, she changed her posture to make herself better defended by her twin shields. The armor she had left behind was held by Rise and Su had no reason to lose her added agility due to the extra weight right now.

The same prickling feeling of the hair standing up on her arm made Su slam her shield to the right. When she looked up, the tail of a black shadow scorpion had been smashed to pieces against the stone wall.

The black shadow scorpion was a monster that Su had heard of. It was one that the angels had warned would come out at night. However, the parry and the army had never faced them because the size had been enough to scare them away. But here, this was their nest.

This ruin was the ideal place for them to hide. Since they also knew that there was a deterring effect because of the light mana deeper in the ruins, the black shadow scorpions liked this place more. They didn’t have to deal with many predators and could openly hunt as they wished around these ruins.

But for Su, it was a place that was more dangerous than usual. Because the black shadow scorpions were hiding in the darkness, she had to focus even more. The scorpion that had just attacked her was already trying to scuttle back in to the darkness where it thought it was safe.

Yet, that was the trick. Su’s eyes were sharper than a normal person’s eyes. She was able to take a quick step ahead and slam the shield on to the back of the already injured scorpion. However, the sound drew out more.

Her senses screamed to jump back and defend. Therefore, Su did just that. Three more tails tried to sting Su before she slapped them away with the other twin shield. With a speedy twist, Su managed to use both shields to catch the oncoming claw that tried to pierce her. She was letting her instincts battle for her while keeping her calm in this situation where she was outnumbered.

Yes, Su was stronger than these monsters. But she was outnumbered and had no idea if her body could resist the venom if she was stung by the scorpion. This meant she had to do a dance of damaging the attacking scorpions with her shields to force them back before she defeated each one.

The three attacking her had already had their claws damaged and their tails were feeling the pressure after Su defended against their sneak attacks. The more they attack though, the better Su could spot their movements in the shadows. It was like she was beginning to see through the darkness better. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness mana that the black shadow scorpions were using to hide better.

Before she could strike down all three completely, the ground gave out. Even without all her armor, she had been heavier than the scorpions. Falling down, Su realized that these ruins had degraded over time worse than what she or Rise had realized. But because of this, she had found why the area had such a chilling feeling.

”There’s a monster with dual affinities here.” Su gulped and took a deep breath before standing up and looking over the damage from the small fall. But the reason that she said she saw a dual affinity monster wasn’t the fall or the bruises and scrapes from falling. It was the ice around the ruined floor matching the shadows that were too long.

Gritting her teeth, Su watched all around her. She could sense the eyes of a predator on her. The same shifting feeling warned her that something might attack. But the shadows were too dense and Su was still trying to grasp the darkness mana to see through it. The cold was nothing to her though. She had felt worse. That was until a burst of dark frost moved through the open space.

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