The Dark Legacy

Chapter 9 : Fighting a rank one mana beast.

The group Kris joined was comprised of four members including him. Kris's group was the weakest among all. He was a C-class fire elemental magician according to rank but the group leader was a girl named Marie victoire noailles. She was from Noailles household. Her father was a prestigious duke of Re-light kingdom. As a daughter of duke she was naturally arrogant.

She was an A-class wind elemental magician.

" You are Kris? " She spoke coldly, her voice expressed her natural disdain toward commoners.

Kris nodded slightly.

" Follow my orders, don't act heroic or try to impress me, i don't like commoner boys. " Kris became speechless. He didn't know what to reply.

He snickered inwardly but kept an expressionless face infront.

" Thomas Fizmaurice. "

" Walter. "

" Anisa. "

One by one everyone introduced themselves to Kris under Marie's order.

She was the highest ranking nobility among them, they didn't dare to violet her order.

" We are going to experience hunting in an unknown place where danger will lurk everywhere, not on a field trip. Please explain yourself with more details. " Marie smiled looking at the three, although her voice was gentle and calm but the three shivered hearing her.

" I'm thomas, an ice elemental magician, D-class, my specialty is long range combat. " Thomas explained with a grumpish voice.

" Walter, lightning element, D-class, close ranged combat. "

" I'm Anisa, a healing elemental magician, E-class, no combat specialty but i can heal people within a certain range. Hope i won't be a burden everyone. " She explained herself smiling.

Everyone looked at Kris, waiting for him to speak, even though he was a commoner, they just had to compromise while staying in group.

" Kris, fire affinity, C-class. Specialty in both close and long range. Less defense but heavily tilted toward attack type spells." Kris explained his specialty. He just made up everything on the spot.

" Wind element, A-class, mid range specialist both attack and defense.

" Each magicians have their own specialities, some are extremely good or trained at close ranged combat, some are good at defense without much attacking ability. Some are good at long ranged attacks without any defensive capability. Some are good at both long and close ranged attacks with little defense. A healing magicians only job is healing, they remains in the middle of the group as a support.

Learning spells is the most hardest thing to do. One magician cannot learn all kind of attack, defense or close, long range type spells. So magicians have to choose their own specialty they are most suitable of. Even if a genius magician learns all variety of spells, their mana core wouldn't be able to support the amount mana cost. In a battle while keeping variety of spells active, they will surely fall into mana starvation. Thus resulting in their death."

While Kris was thinking, his thoughts were interrupted by Marie's snort.

" Lets go. " They entered the space gate one after another.

They all felt their head spinning, in a few breaths of time they stepped out of the space gate.

Upon opening their eyes, they saw huge mountains full of lush greenery.

The foot of the mountain was filled with little beasts. All kind of beasts or mana beasts instinctively could sense mana cores. Even though a normal beast couldn't use mana but they could sense a mana core of another creature thus avoiding strong mana beasts.

Upon sensing so many mana cores of the students, those little beasts ran away into opposite direction in fear.

" Alright student's, from here and now you all will have to survive and hunt till one week. Good luck. " Everyone heard the professor's loud voice, slowly fading. The multicolored space gate closed with a ' swish ' sound.

" Follow me. " Marie ordered everyone, stepping out ahead. The other three started following her lead.

" I need to find a right time and separate from this four. " Kris murmured under his breath.

Soon they entered deeper into the mountain forest, encountering many strong beasts. They also encountered few mana beasts resulting in battle. The mana beasts were all below rank one so the group of five was able to successful in killing them.

" Why aren't you using any spells? " Thomas asked Kris, looking at him with inquisitive gaze.

" Yes, shouldn't using spells be more faster and effective? " Anisa also expressed her thoughts looking at Kris curiously.

During this time Kris was using only his knife skills as a hunter, even when he engaged with mana beast in combat, he didn't use any spells.

" Even if you are good at close ranged combat, you shouldn't rely too much in normal weapons. Fighting with a mana beast in close range combat without an enchanted weapon is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't care wether you die or not, but remember you are in a group. So try not to drag us down. " Thomas said in a menacing voice.

" I was just practicing my knife skills, these weak beasts aren't enough to make me use my spells. " Kris showed a proud demeanor. They couldn't retort because he was C-class and they were a rank lower.

Kris felt that when encountering a strong mana beast if he didn't use spells they would surely become suspicious. With this pace he will surely be exposed. He couldn't just always say the same excuse.

Thomas and Walter snorted scornfully, Anisa and Marie stayed silent not saying anything.

Anisa was from a small noble family, her father was a Baron. Her rank was only higher than a knight. She wasn't as arrogant as Thomas who was a counts son.

Surprisingly Marie who was the highest ranking noble among them turned out to be a tolerant good leader.

Kris assessed her highly in his mind.

They moved forward slowly, along the way they didn't encounter any spike winged crow. Because spike winged crow only lived inside black tree forest area. They were only at the outer area of the mountain forest, they had yet to delve into black tree forest.

When everyone was busy engaging in combat with a mana beast, Kris quietly left without alerting anyone.

Time was pressing on him. After entering the forest they will surely encounter spike winged crow, resulting in battle. He couldn't fight them with just his knife. He will be exposed.

" Kris cover the left. " Marie ordered while keeping an eye on the mana beast.

" Kris..." She looked back and saw the place was empty.

" Kris? " Everyone looked around but they couldn't see him.

" Where did he go? Wasn't he right here a moment ago? " Anisa exclaimed.

" Forget him, focus on the battle for now." Marie ordered calmly.

" I knew commoner's couldn't be trusted." Thomas snorted disdainfuly.

Kris was running with great speed, along the way he had killed many mana beast. Gaining many beast cores, and other resources.

Now he was wearing a black mask, his black cloak covered his whole body. Black smoke was pouring from his body time to time.

During this time no one was there to watch him so he unleashed his dark magic fully.

He was heading toward black tree forest.

While running, he felt a sudden threat behind him. He dodged to the right with extremely fast speed. A sudden hit sent him flying, crashing into a tree.

" Fortunately i activated black turtle shield on time or else i would be severely injured.

" My luck is so shitty that i actually encountered a rank one mana beast !

Its an earth affinity beast with great defense. "

Kris cursed looking at the two meter pink rhino infront. It looked at him with angry growl.

" This kind of beast is very territorial, unknowingly i have entered its area, making it angry. " Kris ran without a second thought, he didn't want to engage in combat with a rank one mana beast for now.

The pink rhino was extremely fast, it continued to chase after him. It caught up to him in a flash, poking its horn in his back harshly.

Kris's body slammed into a tree from the impact. Blood traces could be seen on his back.

The rhino didn't stop, it dashed toward him with its two meter huge body.

Seeing the battle was inevitable, Kris gritted his teeth and moved forward.

" Shadow claw. "

" Greyhound walk. "

" Black turtle shield. "

He activated one spell after another, engaging in a fierce combat with the pink rhino.

Upon activating " Shadow claw " his claws became long black five inches long.

" Greyhound walk " gave him a boost in movement. It was a movement type spell.

He used " Black turtle shield " when he saw direct clashing was unavoidable. It's mana consumption was huge, so he couldn't keep it active all the time.

Kris swiftly used his movements, attacking the rhino's blind spots with his sharp claws. The rhinos defense was also amazing, he could only hurt it superficially. As an apprentice mage fighting against a rank one mana beast with just inane spell was suicidal.

All spells below rank one was known as inane spell.

Kris's body was also riddled with injuries, he took many hit from the rhino resulting in those injuries. After battling this long his mana reservation already started to dwindle. A great disadvantage of a low grade mana core.

" Looks like i have to gamble. " The battle was uneven from the start. He couldn't hurt it with his below rank one spell.

His claws became one foot long, glowing with dark light. He was using all his mana into one spell.

Such huge amount of mana gave an immense boost on his "Shadow claw. "

His claws came into contact with the rhino, instead of bouncing away, his claws directly pierced through its defense, cutting away its flesh and bones.

They rhino became more furious as it dashed toward him without backing away.

" Come." Kris looked at it with his black eyes and shouted. He gave up on movement and defense, focused fully on offensive.

Both side collided violently as flesh and blood splattered on the ground.

After ten breaths of time, the rhino was lying on the ground motionlessly. Its whole body was full of deep claw marks as if it hadn't battled with a human but a beast.

It's belly was wide open, intestines and organs were pouring out of it.

Kris wasn't faring any better either. Under the mask, his face was pale, his breathing was ragged. His black robe was full of holes, from there blood was pouring out constantly.

" I'm out mana completely, only having left with 3% mana, now i'm just like a normal boy without any defensive capability if i encounter another mana beast.

Tsk, i need to get out here as quickly as possible, the blood will attract more beasts." Kris stood up slowly, grabbing the gray colored beast core that fell from the rhino.