Earth's Greatest Magus

Howllllll!

A loud, intense shockwave shook the area as the deafening sound reverberated in the air. It rapidly spread and the forest almost stirred awake with noises as a half-man and half-wolf figure ran through the dense foliage at blinding speeds. It was pursuing a black cat-like creature with fur almost as dark as the void itself.

The cat moved fast, and even in his current form, it took Emery quite an effort to keep up with the 2-meters creature with 3 sharp tails. Each of its tails whipped around wildly as it ran, destroying the ground, the trees, and everything around it.

[Omlarcat]

[Magical Beast - level 85]

[Battle power - 195]

Even from the beginning, Emery knew that the beast possessed a speed almost similar to himself, making the task of catching up to it difficult, especially when he started from behind. Even so, he didn't give up and continued to give chase, and gradually his effort paid off. With each minute that passed, he managed to get a few meters closer and closer.

"Just a little bit more!"

However, right as his claws were about to rip the creature apart, his senses tingled, telling him that three creatures were approaching him from different directions. At this moment, Emery finally realized that the beast was not running around aimlessly.

"It's a trap! Whoa, what an intelligent creature."

As soon as he stopped, the black cat that he was chasing quickly turned around and hissed, before charging back at him to form an encirclement with the other three creatures he sensed approaching closer. Within seconds, he was quickly surrounded.

Emery considered the idea of transforming into his [Twilight Form] and started using magic to defeat the creature. But in the end, he shelved the thought away as he had promised himself to only hunt with his blade claws today.

"What are you waiting for? Come here!"

The four high-level magical creatures specializing in speed ate the taunt and charged in at the same time. Having prepared for the attack, Emery tried his best to dodge and counter, using his speed and footwork to try and gain the advantage against his adversaries. 

Unfortunately, his opponents were similarly fast as him and numbers worked against him in the end, as the claws, fangs, and three sharp tails of the creatures kept on bombarding him from multiple sides.

Splatt! Splatt!

A stabbing pain assaulted Emery's body every time the beasts' attacks landed on his body, but despite the pain he still managed to hold his ground and deliver counterattacks.

Knowing that he would only be exhausted to death if things kept going this manner, Emery decided to focus his attack on one of them. Ignoring the three other creatures and letting their attacks land, he dashed forward, tackled the one he was targeting, and thrusted his claws into its abdomen.

Raaarrrrrr!!!

The black cat roared in pain as its body was pierced, causing the grass and bushes to shake. It kept on struggling while Emery was using [Spirit Devour]. He could feel energy flowing into him gradually.

AARGGHH!!

Emery took a deep breath and pushed the creature onto a nearby massive rock, while he used the blade on his other hand to pierce its neck, immediately ending the cat's life. He then swiftly turned around and violently tossed the dead corpse to the ground, keeping his eyes on the three as he braced himself for the second round.

With the huge rock behind him, Emery was able to have a much easier time fighting against the three remaining creatures. This time around, he decided to run a suicidal tactic by sacrificing his body for an opportunity to catch or deal a fatal blow on his opponents.

Even though his opponents were fast and had dealt quite a number of wounds on his body, Emery was actually still fine since his [Undecaying Flesh] was doing its job of healing his body. On the other hand, his opponents would only have to make one mistake and allow Emery to get a hold of them to spell their doom.

[Spirit Devour]

A living being was bound to make a mistake, hence it didn't take long for the creature to be caught by Emery and die. And with only two opponents he had to face, Emery took advantage of the opportunity and killed another one.

Seeing its kin being murdered mercilessly, the third and last one instantly turned around and was ready to flee, only for it to be captured by dark green roots that had suddenly shot from the ground.

[Jade Root]

Slowly approaching the struggling black cat, Emery crouched and chuckled darkly. "Heh, I'm sorry, but I'm too tired to play chase with you again."

The creature possessed an overwhelming speed enough to give it an advantage in most fights, but in exchange, it had comparatively little when it came to strength. Emery waved his hand, controlling the roots to move closer before stabbing his claw into the half-dead creature and ended its miserable life.

[Spirit Devour]

All the bodies of the creatures that Emery devoured became emaciated and worn, as if they had aged. The sight was not pretty, but Emery had forced himself to get used to it. After all, this is what devouring is all about.

It took him a few minutes, but eventually he was done devouring all the creatures. After throwing the last creature's body into the bushes, he sat cross-legged in a lotus form and used the new skill taught to him by the magus.

[Spirit Absorption]

That was the one missing skill Emery had never had before. So far, he decided to practice using it more.

Devouring is a subset of skills that is all about taking the opponent's energy for the user, but still, he needed another set of skills, in order to help him slowly consume the spirit's energy and make it easier to enter his cores. [Spirit Absorption] was such a skill.

He kept on the position for at least another few minutes while absorbing the spirit mist floating around the cores and all around him. As the energy started to thin out, Emery received a notification.

[Spirit force has increased]

"Great another point increase."

Seeing the notification in front of his eyes filled him with relief. It showed him that his hard work wasn't in vain.

For the last 5 days, Emery was busy practicing devouring and absorbing, and he managed to regain 6 points of his spirit force.

[Spirit force:1525 (1526)]

However, even with that, the pillar he had was still cracking. There was no significant change from five days ago.

A moment after he was busy pondering, Emery heard rustling from the trees on the left. He casually turned to look and saw his chief, Magus Heorgar, was approaching him.

"That is a good fight, savage indeed… However, your claw technique was so bad," Heorgar praised in a serious tone, but he shook his head at the end.

"Yes senior, I will train with it more soon," Emery replied, attempting to ease his mentor's thoughts.

However, Heorgar waved his hand and simply ignored the remark. "What matters here is that you have mastered the absorption technique."

In the past few days, Magus Heorgar had been observing Emery closely and helping him with new techniques, teaching him to control his urges while devouring the creatures and how to absorb the resultant energy safely. It only took 5 days of diligent training for Emery to master it, which honestly surprised the magus.

Emery stayed silent, but the truth was he found the concept of [Spirit Absorption] familiar. It was similar to his previous technique, [Nature's Grasp], hence he was able to learn it quickly. 

He then salvaged two yellow spirit stones from the creature, and the magus picked up the fattest cat on his back like it was nothing.

"And this one will be for dinner," he said casually.

Before long, they started a fire, right as the sun started to give way to a pleasant, cool evening. They both enjoyed their dinner of simple roasted meat.

For a few minutes, a peaceful silence reigned between them, but then, Heorgar broke the silence and said, "Alright, Junior… I think it's high time for us to end this training."