In the caves of Sandara, a team of four is walking into the depths slowly and carefully.
While the rest of the three summoned their Arcana, only Azzy was following them without the protection of Arcana while gazing around.
He was practicing his Aura sensing skills and busy identifying their species through the outline of their Aura.
"Bat" "Bat" "Bat" "Weasel" "Bat" "Salamander" "Salamander" "Scorpion" "Hmm... What is that? Is it a cat?"
Azzy wondered as he saw the aura of the creature that was sitting on two legs. It was around 5ft big with two vertical ears like a cat and a crooked tail.
"Hmm, it's strange that this one's aura is too weak considering it's a rank-4. Is it of lower grade or is it suppressing its aura to appear weak?
If I remember correctly, that cat with a gem on its forehead suppressed its rank."
"This one is also Erudian." The Reaper's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Eh?" Azzy was surprised. "Shouldn't it have two tails?" He clearly remembered its appearance.
The Reaper explained, "Erudian is a dual attribute. When its lightning attribute mutates, it will grow two tails, and a gem will appear on its forehead but when mutates through a dark attribute, its tail turns crooked and a dark gem will appear on its forehead.
While the lightning mutated Erudian can suppress its soul rank, this one can suppress its grade. However, you don't need to be wary of these creatures as none of the creatures present in this region can harm you. Try to think you are on a field trip and absorb the knowledge as much as you can..."
'I know that. Chronos... please don't think of me as that much of a beginner.' Azzy was annoyed with this talking machine that was treating him like a kid.
The Reaper went silent and Azzy turned his attention to the depths of the cave, trying to sense the location of platinum grade beast.
"Huh!" He froze in his tracks. Azzy had a surprised look on his face.
"What happened, Azzy?" Gideon asked him, realizing Azzy's movements have been halted.
Azzy shook his head and continued to follow while thinking, 'How come the platinum grade beast is no longer present and there's a sudden appearance of a rank-4 human being there.'
Azzy didn't know that the same doubt was going on in Leo's mind. Although he cannot sense the aura of human beings like Azzy, he was still bewildered by the sudden disappearance of the beast.
'Dammit...' He clenched his fist as he gritted his teeth. 'Hmm... Wait a second. Maybe...' Another idea appeared in his mind and he smiled.
Thankfully, he was walking in the front, and the lighting is a bit dim, so, his facial expressions weren't discovered by the others.
"Now, let's pick up the pace, everyone..." Leo shouted as he started running. The other three followed him.
<strong>Ten minutes later;</strong>
"Here, we are..."
Azzy and the team reached the place where there are more than a hundred lightning crystals on the ground.
They saw Galarian beasts roaming nearby. Some are alone... some are couples while some are in a pack.
"Listen carefully." Looking at them from a 100-meter distance away, Leo passed out the orders. "As we discussed earlier, my Shimaus will lure the monsters away. Ranier, you go and help out Gideon. As for you Azrael, you and I will kill them as many as we can."
"Alright," Azzy accepted, despite smelling some conspiracy.
"Good." Leo nodded with a smile before turning his attention to the front and pointed at the pack of Galarians...
"Shimaus, go."
Flapping its wings, the red-colored giant mantis flew towards the pack, attacking the weakest one in a pack with its claws.
*Roar*
As it was killed with one strike, the surrounding Galarians were provoked and tried to kill the enemy but it dodged their attacks and went to the next pack.
*Roar*Roar*Roar*Roar*
The cave started to shake with more than fifty angry roars of Galarians, Erudians, and other creatures. The Mantis flew into the depths of the cave. "Azrael, let's go..." Leo leaped onto the ground and started running after the pack.
"Good luck..." Wishing luck to Gideon, Azzy disappeared from his view.
Realizing Azzy initiated the conversation, which is very rare from him, Gideon was indeed surprised and went into a daze for a couple of seconds before Ranier pulled him back to reality and pointed at the Galarian, which remained at one of the corners.
Both of them slowly walked towards the target without disturbing the other beasts that are nearby.
Meanwhile, the disguised platinum-grade beast halted in his steps. He frowned, "What are they doing?"
He sensed a large horde of his kin and other beasts are rushing after some mantis. Two of his prey are following behind them while the other two were left behind.
"Either way, the hunt became easier now." He dashed towards them.
Back to Azzy and Leo, they reached a flat ground with a pond in the middle. There are two rank-4 giant Scorpios moving here and there while Azzy sensed a beast in the shape of a crocodile in the black pond. It is of rank-4 and gold grade level too.
Azzy can't help but sigh as he didn't find his platinum-grade beast.
"Here is the best place, Azrael," Leo spoke as he ordered Mantis to stop. "Get ready."
He dismissed his Arcana and then resummoned it by his side.
As the beasts lost their target, they became confused for a second and looked around. They found their enemy was with humans.
They roared once again and rushed towards Azzy and Leo.
Azzy made a battle stance.
Meanwhile, Leo sneakily took out two normal-looking cards. However, one has five black stars on it and the other has four-star, meaning they are rank-5 and rank-4 skill cards respectively.
He looked at them.
One has a drawing of a portal on it while the other has some circle with rune symbols.
Sending some soul energy into the card, he grabbed the one with rune symbols tightly and then said, "Junior Azrael, I should confess something."
"Hmm?" Azzy glanced at Leo who was folding his hands to the back while the Mantis is sharpening its claws in excitement.
"I apologize for trying to isolate you from the rest of the school and I apologize for trying to harm you earlier in the forest. You are strong, both mentally and in strength... So, that's why..."
He suddenly showed him the card with runes on it, which absorbed more than 200 thousand worth of soul power from him and shined brightly.
Azzy tried to dodge the ambush with his speed and he did it successfully too but suddenly crashed onto the ground feeling weakness.
"What... My soul power..."
Azzy felt his soul power was extinguished like a flame on the candle, all of a sudden.
"So, you must die..." Leo's face turned cold as he used the other skill card while dismissing the mantis, which opened up a portal and sucked him.
Leo, who used rank-4 teleportation scroll, found himself teleported to a random place in the cavern. Thankfully, there are no beasts lurking around here.
"Hahaha..." His laugh echoed all over the surroundings.
"Wow... what a lucky day." Leo suddenly heard a human voice from behind.
"Eh?"
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