His wings had barely spread before they began beating rapidly, faster and faster, until even Andrew could no longer make them out.
The Windwing Tiger King's wings stirred the surrounding air. Wind elements gathered around him without cease, and his aura rose with them, forcing even Andrew to step back. Andrew was no weaker than him, but he was one rank lower, so the Windwing Tiger King could suppress him with his aura.
"Roar!"
Once he had finished gathering power, the Windwing Tiger King roared. A transparent figure separated from his body and flew toward Andrew. Its shape and size were essentially the same as the Windwing Tiger King's, but it had no physical body. It was formed from wind elements.
This was the Windwing Tiger King's innate magic, Wind Tiger Roar!
So powerful!
Sensing the explosive energy within the transparent wind tiger, Andrew silently praised it.
I wonder which spell is stronger, this one or the Dark Demonic Ape's. He thought again of the Dark Demonic Ape's innate magic.
The wind tiger looked enormous, but its energy was actually extremely concentrated, giving it tremendous destructive power. It was also very fast, reaching Andrew in the blink of an eye. Andrew dared not be careless. With a swing of his long saber, he unleashed the strongest move he had comprehended.
"Lightning-Fire Eruption!"
Both lightning and fire battle-qi possessed tremendous explosive power, and fusion battle-qi had inherited this trait. After comprehending how to apply strength, Andrew had combined it with this trait to create Lightning-Fire Eruption.
The move was very simple: it unleashed the explosive power of fused lightning and fire battle-qi to launch rapid attacks within an extremely short time. With the might of fusion battle-qi, this simple move became anything but simple.
Saber shadows filled the air. In an instant, Andrew delivered thousands of slashes, leaving afterimages of his long saber everywhere before him. This was what eruption meant!
An eruption not only of speed, but of strength as well!
The azure saber shadows suppressed the azure wind tiger. There was no earth-shaking collision as one might have imagined. The wind tiger began dissolving from head to tail until it vanished entirely. Freed from the spell's restraints, the wind elements that formed it scattered in every direction, whipping up a strong wind. Soon, that wind passed.
Andrew took a few steps forward and came before the Windwing Tiger King.
"Now, do you submit?"
The Windwing Tiger King bent his front legs and lay on the ground, lowering his head to show submission.
He had no choice but to submit. Andrew's move had frightened him. As a magical beast that had lived for a hundred years, he had seen plenty, but the Windwing Tiger King had never dared imagine that a warrior of the seventh rank could actually slash his Wind Tiger Roar apart!
That was high-level magic formed from wind elements. Evading it was easy, and withstanding it was not difficult either, but slashing it apart...
Even a ninth-level warrior might not be able to do that!
Today, a warrior of the seventh rank had accomplished it right before him. How could he not be afraid?
Andrew put away his long saber and smiled. "Very good. You're quite intelligent. All right, come with me. I won't sign a soul contract with you for now. As long as you behave well, I'll help you advance in the future."
He had no choice about not signing a soul contract, because Andrew neither possessed a soul contract scroll nor knew how to set up a Soul Contract Magic Array.
Still, he was not worried. Generally speaking, once a magical beast showed submission, it rarely betrayed its master. Moreover, this Windwing Tiger King was highly intelligent and knew all the better what choice to make.
With a light leap, Andrew landed on the Windwing Tiger King's back.
"I'll call you Golden Tiger from now on. Golden Tiger, go. Head that way."
Golden Tiger stood up, shook his wings, and rose lightly into the air. After circling Mount Mogan twice, he flew in the direction Andrew pointed. That was precisely the direction of the Keli Tribe.
Just after leaving Mount Mogan, Andrew suddenly detected the sounds of a fight below. He lightly stamped his foot and ordered, "Golden Tiger, go down and take a look."
Golden Tiger gave a low growl and slowed down, soon landing on the ground.
Andrew jumped off Golden Tiger and dashed toward the fighting in a blur of movement. He kept feeling a familiar presence there. Golden Tiger folded his wings and followed close behind.
"It's Baru. No wonder."
Andrew soon found the battlefield. Beside a cliff, Baru, the Keli Tribe's successor, was fighting an Iron-Armored Boar with an iron staff in hand. This Iron-Armored Boar was even larger than the one they had encountered back then, standing a full three meters tall and nearly five meters long.
"Baru has improved quite a bit. It seems he's spent these three years training in Mogan Forest."
Andrew concealed himself nearby. He greatly admired Baru. Back when the two of them had gone to kill an Iron-Armored Boar, his carelessness had nearly gotten them killed by it instead. Since then, Baru had gone alone to train in Mogan Forest and had not returned to the Keli Tribe for three years. How many people possessed such perseverance in arduous training?
Now it seemed those three years of training had been very effective. Judging by Baru's aura, he was clearly already a warrior at the peak of the sixth rank. Three years ago, he had not yet reached the fifth rank. Three years later, he already had one foot in the seventh rank. For a barbarian, this speed was heaven-defying.
Unlike the one back then, this Iron-Armored Boar was not severely wounded, and it was larger as well. In terms of strength, this one was at least twice as powerful as the one from three years ago. Facing such a massive creature, Baru responded calmly, dodging its attacks while swiftly striking back a few times.
Andrew noticed something distinctive about Baru's counterattacks: his iron staff always landed in the same spot. This showed that his control of strength had already reached a limit, and he was only a little short of breaking through. Andrew had only just broken through himself, so he was keenly sensitive to this.
Baru was a barbarian. As long as he comprehended how to apply strength, he could immediately become a warrior of the seventh rank without having to accumulate battle-qi. Presumably, he knew this himself, and his fight with the Iron-Armored Boar might well have been an attempt to seize the chance to break through. Understanding this, Andrew was even less inclined to disturb him.
The Iron-Armored Boar's defenses were truly strong. At the peak of the sixth rank, Baru possessed at least two thousand jin of strength, yet even with such strength, he still could not break through its defenses. However, Andrew could see that Baru was nimble enough that the Iron-Armored Boar could do nothing to him either. At this rate, he would sooner or later smash a wound into it.
After a full hour, Baru's iron staff did indeed shatter the Iron-Armored Boar's outer shell. He had struck a spot behind its ear several hundred times with his iron staff before finally breaking through its defenses. In the end, he thrust the iron staff into the wound, driving it all the way in and piercing through the Iron-Armored Boar's head.
The enormous creature crashed to the ground!
With such a fatal injury, even a magical beast with the strongest vitality could only die. After struggling a few times, the Iron-Armored Boar stopped moving. A great deal of blood flowed out beneath it, staining the surrounding ground red.
Baru pulled out his iron staff and sat down nearby to rest, panting heavily. This battle had exhausted a tremendous amount of his energy. Unfortunately, although he had won in the end, he had failed to break through. This left him without the slightest joy.
Whoosh!
A faint sound of something cutting through the air reached him. Baru's expression changed, and he hurriedly rolled across the ground, dodging it. Just then, he had sensed someone launching a sneak attack from behind!
"Who are you?"
Having dodged the sneak attack, Baru stood up looking somewhat disheveled. His barbarian physique gave him extremely powerful recovery abilities, and more than half his fatigue from the battle with the Iron-Armored Boar had already faded.
Baru scrutinized the enemy who had suddenly appeared, thoroughly puzzled. Judging by his height, he should be a human, but his face was covered, so Baru could not see it clearly.
Could he be one of those assassins I've heard about?
Baru guessed. To prepare him for his future role, the grand elder had told him many things about human society. Instinctively, he took the masked figure for an assassin.
The masked man did not answer Baru. With his hands behind his back, he stood motionless.
Baru grew furious. The man clearly thought nothing of him. The barbarians' hot temper flared up again. Regardless of how strong his opponent was, Baru raised his iron staff and swept it sideways. The blow carried tremendous force, producing a sharp whistle as it cut through the air.
Without moving his feet, the masked man extended his right hand and reached for the iron staff. His hand moved so quickly that afterimages of his palm actually appeared before him.
Baru grew even angrier and added more strength to his blow, determined to smash the man's hand!
Clang!
After a sound like a ringing bell, the masked man held Baru's iron staff firmly in his grip!
"What? That's impossible!"
Baru leaned backward and wrenched hard, but the iron staff seemed to have taken root in the masked man's hand. It did not budge.
Watching Baru strain until his face turned red, the masked man tapped the iron staff with his left hand.
Ting!
With a tap of one finger, he made the inch-thick iron staff tremble. The vibrations traveled into Baru's hands, and in a moment of inattention, he was sent flying!
Lying on the ground, Baru's eyes were blank, his fighting spirit gone. He murmured, "This is strength, this kind of strength, I..." Now he finally understood. His opponent was clearly a high-level warrior!
"Ha ha ha!" Seeing this, the masked man laughed in unrestrained mockery.
The laughter snapped Baru out of his daze.
Isn't this application of strength exactly what I've been searching for? That vibrating sensation... yes, vibration!
Baru rolled over and pushed off with his right leg, charging toward the masked man close to the ground. His movements were utterly fluid, as fast as lightning.
"Die!"
As he neared the masked man, he suddenly threw a punch!
The masked man tossed the iron staff aside and raised his right leg, bringing it down like a great saber toward Baru's fist. This time, both fought with speed, and the outcome was decided in the blink of an eye!