<strong>Ten months ago;</strong>
"Where the hell am I?" Barbara was confused to find herself on the unfamiliar grasslands. One second ago, she was at the Arena and now, it seemed as if she was teleported to someplace that doesn't seem like it's her clan compound.
Barbara, who never stepped outside of the clan village, felt panicked for a second. To gain courage, she summoned the soul card to summon her buddy.
"Eh?" However, to her surprise, she found the image and the data on her soul card changed. "56000 Soul power? And this…"
She didn't waste any time summoning her Arcana spirit.
*Roar*
Instead of the fiery blazing red cat, a 4ft sabertooth tiger appeared before her. In place of red flames, black flames were dancing around its whiskers, ears, fangs, and tail.
Although its appearance is completely unfamiliar, at the same time, she felt it gave off the same familiarity as the cat.
"Neko?" She called out to the tiger after a moment of hesitation.
It let out a low growl in response while trying to rub its head to her cheeks. Barbara hugged it and caressed its head, "for one second, I thought you were different. Say, what happened to you? Did you evolve because of the awakening or something…"
"Yes and No. If you check your soul orb, you would be able to find the reason." All of a sudden, Barbara heard a crispy female voice in her head. "
"Eh? She was once again taken by another change. "Is that you, Neko?" She looked at the sabertooth.
It nodded like a human.
"How?" She felt confused. Previously, she was able to understand its actions and feelings based on their connection. She never participated in an actual conversation like this. "You can talk in my head, from now onwards?"
"I don't know what it is but some strange energy aided me to evolve more than four times in a split second. My abilities are also strengthened." It replied in her head.
Barbara immediately sat down in a meditative position and transferred her consciousness into her soul to check the changes. "This black energy…"
She remembered seeing something similar just a few moments ago. "Cousin Azrael?"
She realized how it happened. During Azzy's second awakening, he released strange energy which affected her as she was nearby.
Excitement rose in her heart. Usually, people get to suffer because of their recklessness. However, she felt that she was lucky to even gain such massive benefit from it.
Jumping on its back, she said, "Neko, now we need is to return our home. Let's get to a nearby town. As long as I can get to the capital city, it will get easier for dad to find me."
*Roar*
The sabertooth started to run, searching for a nearby settlement.
But, who could have expected that she will run into Vann of all people…
She saw a 15-year-old boy fighting some masked men, all alone. For some reason, there's no beast nearby or any weapon in his hands, either.
Thinking that he's in trouble, she decided to lend him a hand without considering the gap between the strengths.
Jumping down from its back, Barbara spoke to the sabertooth, "Neko, I'll leave this to you."
*Roar*
Letting out a powerful roar, the sabertooth dashed towards the masked men that surrounded the boy.
Its roar attracted their attention and they immediately stopped the battle.
As the masked men turned around and raised their weapons to stop the beast, the boy who spotted Barbara, ordered them to move aside.
He doesn't know whether it is on purpose or did the girl lose control over the beast but at the moment, this peak-rank-5 expert thought he needed to stop the beast personally.
As for why he didn't let the others do it, it's because unlike him, they don't have perfect control over strength, and he was worried that they would kill the poor rank-4 beast.
"Eh?" Barbara was taken aback to see the masked men immediately moved aside and the boy that was supposed to be in trouble stepped forward and raised his hand.
A soul card appeared before him and then, soon, gold scales started to appear.
Very soon, except for his face, dragon-scale armor covered his entire body.
Looking at his transformed, Barbara felt amazed and for a moment, she forgot that the sabertooth set its eyes on the boy, thinking that he's the most threatening.
"Ah!" By the time she realized that her beast was fighting the wrong opponent, the sabertooth already reached the boy, who clenched his fist and waited to give a solid punch.
"Neko, stop." She hurriedly shouted but it was too late. The sabertooth met his fist and was landed a couple of meters away.
It stood up on its feet and growled at its opponent who seemed shocked that his punch did nothing to it.
"Neko, don't attack…" Barbara gave an order. However, under the influence of the Protos energy, the order never reached it and its rage only increased further.
Barbara immediately felt that her soul energy dropped by at least one-fourth. She started to run towards it, displaying her recklessness once again.
Meanwhile, the sabertooth formed a black fireball to turn its enemy into ash.
The boy in dragon scales frowned. Earlier, he did hear the girl's orders to the beast. "I see. So, she lost control. Beating it up will not do. I need to capture it"
He shouted, "Come out, Delphina."
He summoned his Arcana spirit. All of a sudden, the masked men saw a fifty-meter giant gold dragon appeared before their eyes.
*Roar*
Letting out a powerful roar, it looked down at its opponent. "Delphina, the host lost control over it. I want you to hold it in your palms until it calms down."
Right then, a giant hand suddenly descended from the skies.
"Master?" The boy was taken aback. He saw the hand immediately pressed the saber-tooth onto the ground while injecting some light particles into it, neutralizing the effect.
As Barbara reached halfway, an old man suddenly appeared in her way. "Relax, kid. No harm is being done to your companion. Wait until it becomes normal."
The beast roared in pain for a while before the black aura that covered it, slowly dissipated. The hand also disappeared.
Barbara reached and hugged the saber-tooth. It let out a soft growl. "Thanks."
The boy unsummoned his dragon scales and the gold dragon before started to walk towards her. The masked men also followed him.
He greeted the old man, first, "Master…"
The old man nodded with a smile.
As Barbara thanked him for the help, the old man replied, "I sensed a mysterious yet powerful corruptive energy inside the beast that seemed to mix in with your soul. For better or for worse, it was only strengthening the beast's soul but at the same time, making it wilder.
Heed my warning, kid. Unless you work extremely hard on controlling that unique energy, someday, you might lose yourself. Don't underestimate a platinum grade beast."
"Eh! This saber-tooth is a Platinum grade?" The boy was surprised and when he tried to sense its aura intensity, he realized that it was at the same level as his own Arcana spirit. "I see. No wonder it was unhurt by my punch."
Barbara thanked the old man once again and then asked, "If you don't mind, can you tell me the way to the nearby town. I want to go to the capital city."
Since they already helped her that much, she thought they can at least tell her that much.
"Oh! Capital city?" The boy then said, "We are also going that way. You can join us."
Barbara decided to go along with him. It's not just because she thought they were nice people. Upon seeing the old man's strength in person, she knew that even if he has ill intentions, she wouldn't be able to escape.
As for revenge, she knew about the secret skill that her father placed inside her when she first awakened.
If she ever dies, her father would immediately know of the incident and the place of death.
<strong>Back to Present;</strong>
"And that's how I ended up traveling with Prince Vann and my master only to realize that I'm not in Freyles but in the kingdom of Hildegard where it was ruled by the royal family instead of the government." Barbara ended her story while sitting in the deckchair on the lawn as the house is full of dust.
"Then, how did you ended up at Moon Academy?" Azzy asked her.
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