Winged Rhinoceros (Part 2)

"Psh! Psh!"...

Several Earth Thrust Lances suddenly erupted beneath Arnold's feet, seemingly intending to skewer him straight through.

However, the moment Arnold saw the Winged Rhinoceros's stance, he immediately made his judgment and cast a defensive spell—Earth Guardian Sacred Armor!

A layer of armor the color of stone once again flowed over Arnold's body. A faint earthen-yellow glow shimmered across its surface, spreading a dense aura of earth elements.

Several Earth Thrust Lances stabbed up at Arnold's feet. Arnold narrowly evaded them by using the support spell Extreme. Yet many more Earth Thrust Lances slanted toward his body, only to be blocked by the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor.

Arnold began silently chanting another spell. "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~"

Fourth-grade spell—Wind Blade Chain. Several massive Wind Blades, each twenty to thirty centimeters in radius, flew toward the Winged Rhinoceros and slashed down. The Wind Blades seemed unconnected at first glance, but upon closer inspection, faint threads could be seen linking them together.

The Winged Rhinoceros had originally been a wind-element magical beast, though it had mutated. It was also highly proficient in wind-element spells. Naturally aware of the Wind Blade Chain's power, the panicked beast rapidly gathered wind elements around the other two horns on its head.

The massive Wind Blades formed by the Wind Blade Chain viciously sliced into the Winged Rhinoceros's body. Although the Winged Rhinoceros possessed considerable physical strength, it was still cut with deep wounds. With several Wind Blades striking it, more than a dozen wounds appeared across its body.

But the Winged Rhinoceros was going all out. It continued to growl lowly, clearly suffering from the pain of its wounds. Before long, the Winged Rhinoceros actually cast Wind Blade Chain as well, sending it at Arnold.

When Arnold saw the Winged Rhinoceros cast another spell, he decided to endure it head-on with the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor and finish the beast with a powerful move. Arnold silently chanted his spell.

"Psh! Psh!"...

More than a dozen Earth Thrust Lances stabbed directly out from beneath the Winged Rhinoceros, piercing straight through its entire body. The Winged Rhinoceros died on the spot.

The earlier Wind Blade Chain had already drained most of the Winged Rhinoceros's vitality, and now the Earth Spike Spear Array had killed it outright. Everything had gone according to Arnold's calculations. Magical beasts possessed great vitality, especially a mutated Winged Rhinoceros. Arnold had estimated that a single Earth Spike Spear Array might not be enough to kill it. If it went berserk in its final moments, Arnold could be in serious trouble. Thus, Arnold had first trapped the Winged Rhinoceros with a combination of Gravity Spell and Quicksand Spell, then wounded it with Wind Blade Chain, leaving numerous injuries before finally delivering the finishing blow with the Earth Spike Spear Array.

At the same time, nearly a dozen Wind Blades arrived directly before Arnold. The Winged Rhinoceros had targeted Arnold's head from the start. No matter how tough Arnold was, he could not simply stand there and take them.

Arnold quickly cast the support spell Extreme and darted away. At the same time, he tilted his head slightly toward the incoming Wind Blades and altered the form of the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor, drawing it over his head to form a helmet for protection. Armor also covered his neck and the area slightly below it.

The Wind Blades sliced directly against the helmet and armor. The earthen-yellow glow of the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor flickered continuously. The Earth Guardian Sacred Armor was, after all, formed from condensed magical elements. The Wind Blades striking it rapidly depleted those magical elements.

The Wind Blade Chain released by the dying Winged Rhinoceros had formed nearly fifteen massive Wind Blades. One after another, they wore down the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor. Finally, with only one Wind Blade left, the Earth Guardian Sacred Armor, already on the verge of collapse, finally shattered and dissolved into earthen-yellow light that scattered into the ground. The final Wind Blade then slashed over at extreme speed.

Arnold directly used his physical strength to block the Wind Blade with his arm. Flesh immediately split open around the wound on his arm, leaving a terrifying gash.

Although the Winged Rhinoceros, embedded in the earth more than ten meters away, no longer moved and only bled continuously from its many wounds, Arnold did not dare let his guard down. Estimating his remaining magic power, he sent another Wind Blade at the Winged Rhinoceros, slicing directly across its neck. The Winged Rhinoceros was certainly dead, because that Wind Blade severed its neck outright.

This was Arnold's first time killing a Fifth-level Warrior magical beast, and it was even a mutated magical beast. He was greatly pleased. First, he needed to deal with the wound on his arm. Flames suddenly rose from Arnold's left hand, which he aimed directly at the wound on his right arm. With a sizzling sound, the wound was seared shut, though it also left behind an ugly scar.

Enduring the pain, Arnold first returned to the large tree from earlier and took a knife from his pack. Then he went over to process the Winged Rhinoceros's corpse. A mutated fifth-level magic crystal core could sell for quite a bit of money, and the Winged Rhinoceros's meat could also serve as food.

After killing his first fifth-level magical beast, Arnold waited until his wound no longer affected him before once again searching everywhere for traces of fifth-level magical beasts.

Gradually, Arnold also grasped some techniques for fighting fifth-level magical beasts. Previously, he had relied too heavily on magic. Arnold's physical strength had originally been very useful, yet after arriving in the Warcraft Mountain Range, he had only used brute force to cut magical crystal cores out of magical beasts with his knife. Sometimes, he was even forced to use his body to block some of their attacks. Arnold's methods had not brought out the strength of a Second-level Warrior at all.

Thus, in the battles that followed, Arnold began consciously making use of his physical strength. He embarked on a path of hunting fifth-level magical beasts in the Warcraft Mountain Range. Whenever he encountered a fifth-level magical beast, he would generally fight it without stopping until the battle was settled. As time gradually passed, Arnold killed more and more fifth-level magical beasts.

During the month after his battle with the Winged Rhinoceros, Arnold fought fifth-level magical beasts such as the Winged Eagle, Rock Giant, Mandolin Cao Dragon, Cursed Dragon, and Dark Chimera. Of course, high-ranking fifth-level magical beasts were still a hurdle for Noah. Not even once had Noah managed to kill one.

That time, Arnold encountered the Hedgehog Earth Dragon, said to be the fifth-level magical beast closest to the sixth level.

The Hedgehog Earth Dragon was a fifth-level, earth-element magical beast. Its entire body was blue, and it resembled a crawling lizard, but sparse spikes grew from its tail, body, and head. When fighting a Hedgehog Earth Dragon, one had to constantly watch out for its tail. At any moment, the spikes on its tail could detach and shoot at an enemy like concealed weapons, and they could grow back every few days.

Arnold had fought this Hedgehog Earth Dragon several times. During those battles, there was even one occasion when he had nearly been stabbed in the stomach by the spikes on its tail. Arnold had been troubled by it several times, but after fighting it four or five times, he came up with an excellent way to deal with the Hedgehog Earth Dragon. Yet when he returned to where it lived, he did not see it. After waiting two or three days without it returning, Arnold could only leave.