When they were younger, Gina had fallen in love with the Jason who was only a mechanic and the son of a chef. She didn’t know anything about Jason’s royal heritage or the hundreds of siblings and family members that he had. But now that she was learning about all of this, Gina had sometimes asked herself if she was really capable of handling all this royal pressure. Gina had been doing her best to make sure she became the sort of woman who brought honor to Jason, but there had always been that bit of doubt somewhere inside of her. But now, Gina could feel a well of happiness pouring from her heart as she received praise from Farlow! The fact that a literal King was praising Jason because of Gina’s actions made Gina feel like she was definitely doing something right!
Gina thanked Farlow for his kind words, and Farlow nodded before he told Gina to head in and get some sleep. Farlow would keep the first watch, and he would wake her up when it was time to switch places. Gina nodded her thanks, and with one final goodnight, she went in to sleep.
....
The next morning, Farlow and Gina were on their way across the forest once again. The previous night had been uneventful since there were no attacks from any spirit beasts, and they were able to eat a light breakfast and head off without any issues. Gina was in the lead as they followed the Spiritual Energy she could feel in the air around her. Spirit energy was something that every spirit released into nature involuntarily. It was similar to mana, and it served as a sort of beacon to show Spirit Arts users that there were Spirits nearby. The stronger a Spirit was, the stronger their Spirit energy would be, and by following that Spirit energy, a Spirit Arts user would usually be able to trace the location of any powerful Spirit. Right now, Gina was simply following the strongest Spirit Energy around her while doing her best to avoid the spirit energy of most of the spirits around, and she knew that the strongest energy would lead them straight to the territory of the Valkan.
As they approached, Gina could feel Farlow growing more tense by the second. They had finally reached a section of the forest that was eerily silent without a single mortal creature in sight, and Gina knew that this was because they had entered the territory of the powerful Spirit.
"From the information we have, the Moon Dew Fruit trees should be past the swamp region, just a few hundred meters away from here. I think we should try to get the fruit before the Valkan notices our presence, so –"
DOOM!
Farlow had immediately stopped what he had been saying when he felt a sudden pressure press down on him with force! Farlow turned to the side sharply, and the first thing that he saw was a pair of sharp claws that were only an inch away from cutting across his face! Farlow was about to bring up a defence, but he knew he wouldn’t be fast enough, and he grit his teeth in anger. A sudden force slammed into him, and Farlow was suddenly pushed away by a massive gust of wind! Gina appeared from the side with her hand raised like a sword, and she brought it down on the beast that had attacked Farlow, but the beast easily dodged Gina’s wind blade by wrapping itself in a vortex of wind, and it vanished from its spot and reappeared on the other side of the clearing! Gina immediately glanced towards Farlow for a second, and once she saw that he was alright, she looked at the beast that they were facing off against!
GROWL~!
It was a black tiger-like creature that walked around with an elegant grace that betrayed the sheer strength Gina could feel coming off the beast! The beast’s eyes were a deep blue that shone with Spirit Energy, and its claws were sharp enough to dig deep grooves in the earth each time it took a step! And the beast was huge! It was so large that Gina knew it would easily get past twelve feet tall! It was looking down at Gina with a condescending gaze as it snarled in anger, and Gina had to force herself to calm down as she felt the Spirit Energy swirling around the beast!
’This has to be the Valkan. I knew it would be powerful, but this is ridiculous. It has more spirit energy than anything I’ve ever felt.’
Although the beast was only a TITAN Rank I, Gina knew that the presence of such powerful Spirit Energy meant that its level had increased drastically. This fact was also true for Gina since Gina could use her Sagehood and Spirit Energy to release power that was higher than her current rank, but fighting against a beast that had this sort of power was obviously not going to be easy!
’Foul mortals... You dare to enter my domain? My territory? I shall rend your skin from your bones and feed it to the crows of my forest.’
Gina was surprised when the beast suddenly spoke, and she realised that they were dealing with a much more powerful beast than they thought! A spirit’s ability to speak was something that only came after it had lived for centuries! The older a spirit was, the more likely it would be capable of using mortal language! So the fact that this Valkan could speak the Elven tongue so easily meant that it was freaking ancient! Gina went into a fighting stance, and she called on the wind and produced hundreds of blades all around her. There was a beat of silence that passed through the forest at that moment as both fighters sized each other up, and then at the next moment, Farlow appeared from behind and charged forward!
"I’ll give an opening!"
Farlow screamed this as he called on his Sage powers, and the Valkan roared as it charged after Farlow! The Valkan swiped its claws through the air as five blades of wind suddenly shot out from its claws and raced towards Farlow like swords! Farlow managed to evade them, and he slid past the Valkan’s claws and unleashed a blast of wind at the beast’s face! The Valkan didn’t even look like it registered the attack, and it turned around and suddenly used its unusually long tail to try to slam Farlow away!
WOOSHH!
Farlow managed to avoid the attack, but he was shocked when a massive gale of wind suddenly rose into the air as a result of the swipe, and he put his hand up to his face as he was blown back by the intense wind! Multiple trees were immediately uprooted, and the entire forest seemed to groan in anger from that one attack! The beast had almost torn the forest in half from just swiping its tail, and Farlow felt his anger growing as he flipped through the air and put his hand forward! The heavy wind around him was immediately split in half by his Sagehood, and Farlow took control of all the wind and lashed out with a gale wind of his own! It was something that not even the great Spirit Valkan could withstand without taking a few steps back! The entire world seemed to groan in anger as the winds tore through the forest and sharp blade-like wind particles slammed into the multiple trees around before they travelled straight for the Valkan! The Valkan managed to destroy the wind blades without much effort, and it charged forward again as its body began to glow with a blue light!
SLASH!
This time, the Valkan unleashed a wave of Spirit Energy straight towards Farlow, and Farlow was forced to dodge to the ground as he watched the Spirit Energy fly harmlessly past all the trees! Spirit Energy was a very special form of energy due to how much control its users had over it! One of the most impressive feats of control was the fact that a Spirit Arts user could target a single enemy in the midst of thousands with their energy, and the energy would not hurt anyone but the one person that the Arts user had aimed for! Even though Farlow was technically the stronger one of the two fighters, the fact that the Valkan had both Sagehood as well as the Spirit Arts basically rendered Farlow’s advantage useless!