Second Kill

Garen felt the Soul Ocean and tried sending his mental power toward a small tree nearby.

"Whoosh..."

Like a breeze blowing past, the tree's leaves rustled, and a few fluttered away.

Garen's face darkened...

That had no killing power at all—not even as strong as a first-level spell.

It seemed mental attacks weren't easy to master. No wonder only a handful of peak Saint Realm Warriors and Saint Magi could use them.

He began experimenting, slowly trying to gather the mental power he sent out.

Sure enough, it became much more powerful.

After several attempts, Garen ran out of mental power and reviewed what he'd learned from using mental attacks.

It seemed there was no shortcut to mastering mental attacks. He would have to keep practicing.

"Garen, come down and get some roast beef!"

Linley's shout from below startled Garen out of his thoughts as he recalled the finer points of mental attacks.

While Garen had been practicing his mental power, Linley had killed a Bloodthirsty Iron Bull that had wandered close.

"You interrupted my moment of enlightenment. I could've broken through to the God Realm on the spot! Tell me, how are you going to make it up to me?"

Garen spoke theatrically as he flew down.

"Oh, give me a break. You broke through to the God Realm just like that? I've known you all this time, and I've never seen you have a moment of enlightenment. Do you even have the luck for that? Quit bragging."

Linley knew Garen liked to joke, so he shot back without hesitation.

Bebe, beside him, rolled his eyes at Garen. It was quite adorable.

Garen was speechless. They were looking down on him! Though, it was true he'd never had a moment of enlightenment. He'd only ever felt his battle qi or mental power surge while grinding monsters for experience. He had no idea whether the two experiences felt the same.

"Ah, I guess enlightenment just isn't in the cards for me. I'd better stick to training or grinding monsters."

With a self-mocking smile, Garen walked over, picked up a beef leg, and took a savage bite.

Half a month later, they finally reached the core region of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

They'd left every level-seven and level-eight magical beast they encountered along the way for Linley to practice against.

After all, his warrior rank was only level seven without his transformation. Even after absorbing ten Phoenix Blood Fruits, his mage rank was still just short of the mid-stage of level eight.

The more Phoenix Blood Fruits he ate, the less effective they became, and it grew harder to advance his mage rank at higher levels.

"Hmm? Garen, we may have reached the territory of Saint Realm magical beasts. We've been walking for seven or eight kilometers without seeing a single one," Linley warned.

"Yeah, I know. I haven't fought in ages. My greatsword's about to rust. This is a perfect chance to test it out against a Saint Realm magical beast."

"Then I'll see what you can really do. I hear you brag every day, so let's see how strong you are."

As a Dragonblood Warrior, Linley had the strength of a level-nine warrior when transformed. He could watch a Saint Realm battle from a distance without worrying about getting caught in it.

He also knew that Xiao Pa, the inconspicuous little fellow perched on Garen's shoulder, was a Saint Realm magical beast. Even a Saint Realm magical beast would have trouble fighting two opponents at once.

Sure enough, after walking several kilometers, the two of them spotted a Saint Realm Trident Dragon, a hundred meters long, lying beneath a mountain.

Garen told Xiao Pa to stay out of the fight and protect Linley, then transformed into a Tiger-Striped Warrior and flew toward the beast alone.

The moment Garen transformed, his powerful energy fluctuations gave him away. The Trident Dragon sensed him at once and rose to its feet.

"Roar! Human? Leave my territory at once!"

The Trident Dragon was a herbivorous magical beast with a fairly mild temperament. It didn't attack Garen immediately, but it looked furious as it warned him to leave.

Three sharp horns rose from its head, and its body was covered in ocher scales. It was an Earth-style Saint Realm magical beast from birth, with immense strength and astonishing defenses.

"The Trident Dragon is strong and tough, but not very fast. It'll be a perfect test for my Soul Attack and fused magic."

Garen's Soul Attack had started to take shape over the past few days. He could now control his mental power and form it into a cone. It wasn't especially compact yet, but it was already quite powerful.

Before he even got close to the Trident Dragon, Garen began chanting a spell.

Seeing that Garen meant trouble, the Trident Dragon released a burst of ocher energy. A thick, hazy barrier appeared around it, clearly offering formidable protection.

"Vacuum Fire-Splitting Slash!"

It was a fusion of the strongest level-nine single-target Wind-style spell, "Vacuum Killing Art," and the most explosive level-nine Fire-style spell, "Blazing Slash."

The spatial cutting force of "Vacuum Killing Art" amplified the explosive power of "Fire-Splitting Slash." Before the spell had even taken shape, space trembled faintly, showing signs of breaking apart.

The terrifying power made the Trident Dragon wary. It poured even more energy into its defenses, and the ocher barrier blazed with light.

"Now!"

Whoosh!

A gray spike shot out through Garen's forehead and drilled into the top of the Trident Dragon's head before it could react.

"Roar..."

Its pained howl shook the air. Agonizing pain surged through the Trident Dragon's head, nearly robbing it of consciousness. Only its desperate will to survive kept it going, but it could no longer spare any attention to maintain its barrier. The barrier vanished in an instant.

At that moment, the Vacuum Fire-Splitting Slash, hundreds of meters long, came crashing down.

Rip!

Like scissors cutting through cloth, it cleaved the Trident Dragon in two. The spell's immense power continued onward, leaving a massive gully hundreds of meters long and over ten meters deep.

Garen had just been about to draw his God-Slaying Blade and finish the job. Now he stood frozen.

It was stunning—so stunning that not only Garen, but Linley and Doehring Cowart, watching from afar, were deeply shaken.

One strike had killed a Saint Realm magical beast known for its defenses. What kind of attack power was that? Was there any justice in the world? Any law at all?

There was only one way to describe it.

"Terrifying!"

Ding! You killed the Saint Realm magical beast Trident Dragon and gained 2,927 experience.

The system notification pulled Garen out of his shock.

He spotted a glowing orb floating above the Trident Dragon's corpse in the distance and immediately grew excited.

It had actually dropped an item! Could it be a Primary Enhancement Stone? I'm just one short of upgrading my Tiger God Armor into a Divine Artifact.

In fact, Garen had greatly underestimated the damage his Soul Attack could inflict after his Soul Mutation.

The first mental attack he'd tried was just like the Mental Storm cast by an ordinary Saint Realm mage. When it struck the tree, it had only felt like a breeze. Ordinary trees had no souls, but if the attack hit an ordinary Saint Realm Warrior, it would leave their head spinning in an instant.

His mental attack, refined through repeated experimentation, was now like a spike. Its power was already terrifying.

Human souls were fragile, after all. Mental power was as soft as cotton. The Trident Dragon was a Saint Realm magical beast with fairly strong mental power. If Garen had attacked the soul of an ordinary newly advanced Saint Realm Warrior or a Saint Realm Mid-Stage Warrior, the attack would likely have killed them in one blow. Even a peak Saint Realm human would be seriously injured instantly if they hadn't mastered a good method of soul defense.

As for "Vacuum Fire-Splitting Slash," its power spoke for itself. The ordinary level-nine spell "Vacuum Killing Art" was already known as the strongest single-target spell below a forbidden spell, and could injure Saint Realm experts. Fused with the most explosive Fire-Splitting Slash, its power was ten times greater than that of an ordinary level-nine spell, putting it on par with the Dimensional Blade. And that was before the twenty-percent boost from the Sun Stone and Breeze Stone.

After the Trident Dragon was hit by the Soul Attack, its energy barrier disappeared. It had to face a forbidden spell with its bare body. It would've been strange if it hadn't been killed in one blow.

Garen, however, hadn't yet realized just how much his power had increased after his Soul Mutation, which was why he was so shocked.

Linley and Doehring Cowart were even more astonished. Anyone would be stunned to see a Saint Realm magical beast killed in one blow—unless a God Realm expert had done it.

Thank you, Ghost Cry and Moon Shadow, for voting every day. Everyone, please cast your free votes.

Also, I think Soul Mutation is very powerful, so I showed it early on. In the original, Olivier didn't seem to make much use of the advantages of Soul Mutation early in the story.