Chapter 23 Talent

“Roar—”

The fur along the storm wolf’s spine stood on end, its ferocious eyes fixed on Loran. It didn’t immediately lunge, but patiently shifted its paws, circling him over and over in search of an opening. Clearly, the storm wolf had smelled blood on Loran and regarded him as a formidable enemy.

Loran’s focus was razor-sharp. His body dropped low, both hands gripping his longsword as strands of wind element power coiled around his arms, ready to unleash a Tempest Slash at any moment. As the storm wolf moved, he moved bit by bit, always keeping himself directly opposite the beast while his gaze never left its eyes.

A skilled hunter can always judge precisely when prey will strike, and Loran was such a hunter. At ten years old he had already fought and killed a fully grown mountain direwolf with a hunting knife. Now he faced a far stronger second-rank fiend, the storm wolf—but by this time Loran had grown stronger as well.

They faced off like that for about five minutes. The Storm Wolf’s fur stood on end all over its body, even the hairs on its tail bristled and flared. With a low growl it suddenly leapt several paces to the right, then sprang forward, aiming a straight, lightning-fast pounce at Loran’s side.

“Not good!”

Loran shouted in alarm — he had clearly underestimated the Storm Wolf’s speed. A cold glint flashed through the air as the wolf’s claws swept across. Loran slid back quickly; amid a searing pain in his shoulder he suddenly dropped his shoulder and, like an eel, wriggled out from under the wolf’s determined claws. At the same time he swung his sword with his left hand, slashing across the wolf’s belly.

“Shh~~~”

Blood spurted. A sword imbued with wind-element power sliced through a patch of the Storm Wolf’s fur as if cutting a supremely pliant vine—only penetrating an inch or so before it could go no further. In the instant they passed each other, the Storm Wolf let out a low roar and exhaled a blast of cold wind that swept forward.

Loran’s face drained of color; he couldn’t dodge. He gripped his steel sword with both hands, let out a low shout, and summoned with all his strength the wind-element sprites in the surrounding air. Instantly a layer of silvery radiance coated the steel again. With a “peng,” it collided with the storm-force the wolf had unleashed. Suddenly his arms went numb as if striking iron, the shock sending Loran and his sword flying backward. In raw power, how many degrees did he fall short of the Storm Wolf?

“Roar!”

Having landed the blow, the Storm Wolf dropped low and shot out like lightning, opening its blood-flecked jaws to bite at Loran’s right arm. The slime on its teeth glinted with a thread of cold light in the moonlight.

A second-order wind-attribute fiend, its full-speed dash far exceeded Loran’s expectations; this attack, once again, could not be avoided.

“It’s over!”

Loran’s mind went blank for an instant, but the next second he regained his composure. He grit his teeth, clenched his right fist, and shouted. Wind-element energy from the surrounding air condensed around his arm with a “swish, swish, swish,” strands of silver wind wrapping the entire limb, as if he’d put on a flexible windcloak.

“Plop!”

The storm wolf bit down, but its fangs couldn’t pierce the layer of wind element around Loran’s arm—instead it was like biting into supple silk: teeth sank in, the wind element caved, leaving a row of deep tooth marks and a bloody wound on Loran’s arm. In that instant Loran flipped his left hand, gripping the steel sword backwards, his body spinning sharply to the right as his arms crossed. Then the sword thrust into the storm wolf’s mouth. With a “peng,” the weak spot in the mouth gave way to the attack, and since Loran had applied at least three hundred kilograms of force, there came a tremendous bang; snowflakes scattered as the steel sword burst out through the top of the storm wolf’s skull

“Uuoo—”

The Storm Wolf let out a piteous howl and died on the spot. Even a strong second-order beast, if its brain is directly devastated, will still perish.

“Ahhh…”

Loran pulled his arm back from the wolf’s corpse, and saw that the muscles on the arm had nearly been torn through by the fangs. Fortunately he had condensed a strand of wind elemental power to protect himself; otherwise that arm would surely have been bitten off by the Storm Wolf. Loran was very confident of this, and the Storm Wolf truly did possess such terrifying jaw strength—otherwise it wouldn’t have so easily killed that trainee who had second-order Star Source power.

He fell onto the ground with a thud, gasping heavily, feeling a searing pain on his right arm and a ripped gash on his shoulder from a wolf’s claw. He could even see flame-like medicinal energy surging out; nearly half of the potion’s power inside him had not yet been absorbed or consumed. He abruptly flipped to his feet, gripping the steel sword in one hand and hoisting the wolf carcass onto his shoulder with the other, then broke into a run again.

Nothing could stop him from running.

…

Along the way he met no further obstacles. The beasts that had tried to ambush him could see from afar that this kid was lugging a wolf corpse, and the corpse’s mottled markings and enormous size made clear it was the Storm Wolf that had once ruled the Wild Beast Valley. Now that the Storm Wolf had been slaughtered, the other monsters—having gained a measure of intelligence—wouldn’t go seeking death.

And so, overloaded, he sprinted off. When Loran returned to the finish line, he saw Instructor Haimu and Mikayla from afar and felt an instant relief. The medicine’s effect in his body had almost worn off; he went weak and limp, and carrying the wolf’s corpse he collapsed flat right in front of Haimu.

“Whoosh~~~”

Amid the dust, Mikayla suddenly swung down from her mount, her face full of anxiety. “Th-this little guy took down a Storm Wolf, but he seems injured too.”

“Hurry, check his wounds.”

“Yes!”

Mikaela moved the wolf carcass aside and searched Loran from head to toe, saying, “The arm muscles were almost torn through by the Storm Wolf’s bite; the wound is fairly serious. The shoulder injury is comparatively minor—just a superficial flesh wound.”

“Quick, stop his bleeding.”

“Yes!”

Mikayla pulled a healing salve from her bosom and quickly applied it to Loran. Then she suddenly flipped up her coat, ripped a sleeve off the white shirt with a “shhh” sound, split it in two, and carefully bandaged Loran’s wound. Haimu stood beside them, his expression grave as he said, “With the bite force of a storm wolf, it can even bite through a steel shield. This boy… how did he manage to take a bite from a storm wolf and not have his arm torn off?”

“Could it be that his trials in the Refining Tower were intense enough that his body grew tough and could withstand it?”

“Impossible.”

Haimu shook his head. “Even a Sky Knight’s physique, without using star-source power, might not be able to take a bite from a Storm Wolf, let alone him. If I’m not mistaken, Loran must have used a defensive combat technique similar to Starlight Aegis, concentrating elemental power around his arm—that’s what saved him from losing his arm.”

“This is impossible…”

Michaela exclaimed in surprise: “How long has it been since he grasped elemental power? He’s reached such a level of control over the elements already? This is impossible, unless he’s a prodigy mage from the Mysterious Sea…”

“Nothing is impossible.”

Haimu glanced at Loran deeply and said, “This child’s talent… is simply astonishing. Especially in terms of mastering power, even Rodney would probably be a bit inferior to him. The only regret is that his star veins are completely dead—there’s no chance for them to awaken anymore. Otherwise, Loran’s future achievements might well rival Rodney’s, and he could even… possibly rise to become a Paladin of Light.”

“Knight of Light…”

Mikaela’s beautiful eyes looked somewhat bewildered: “Could Loran possibly become a Radiant Knight? Lord Haimu, aren’t you expecting too much of him? Across the entire Star-Origin Empire, how many people can reach the Radiant Knight level—it’s only a handful…”

“I was just saying that if Loran could awaken his star veins… but the situation now is that he hasn’t, and he probably won’t have the chance to awaken them, so the only path for him in this life is physical training—becoming a knight who wins by bodily strength. All his life, at best he might become a Heavenly Knight, perhaps only an Earth Knight. What a pity, what a pity…”

Michaela frowned slightly, looking at Loran, as if about to speak but stopping short.

“Alright, take him back.”

Haimu drew a deep breath and said, “After he wakes, bring him food. Although he’s injured, with Loran’s physical strength, it shouldn’t affect his future training.”

“Yes!”

…

Late at night, the blood-stained castle was filled with a riot of starlight.

In the small room, Loran slowly came to, feeling a bone-deep pain in his right arm that made him frown. Beside him, when he opened his eyes he saw a beautiful young woman sitting there—Avel. She wore a gentle smile and said, “You didn’t expect it, did you? That you’d actually make it back alive?”

Loran glanced out the window and murmured, “I would rather not have come back…”

“You…”

Avel pursed her red lips, her beautiful eyes full of meaning. Lowering her voice, she said, “You want to run?”

“Impossible.”

Loran took a deep breath and sat up. “I’ve looked carefully. Beast Valley is about twenty li from the Crimson Castle. If there aren’t instructors guarding the route, there’s actually a chance to escape. Head south—there’s a dense forest that acts as a natural barrier. If you get through it and go further, you’ll reach open ground.”

“I advise you to give up that idea.”

Averil said meaningfully, “There is a contingent of about ten thousand Light Knights stationed in the south. No matter how hard you try, you can’t outrun cavalry.”

Loran frowned and said, “Ten thousand Light Knight cavalry? How do you—Averil, how do you know that?”

Averil couldn’t help but let out a chuckle: “Fool, do you think everyone is like you, burying themselves in cultivation the moment they enter the Scarlet Prison? There’s also a vast web of relationships here, and if you don’t learn more about it you might not even know in whose hands you’ll end up dying. In short, drop that bold idea for now — the golden time to escape was already lost the moment we entered the Scarlet Castle.”