Lisa's blurry vision instantly focused and her eyes widened when she recognized the figure that had suddenly appeared in front of her. This person seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
Long black hair, wide shoulders, tall stature, muscular physique. All these characteristics registered in her eyes and she couldn't help but mutter in confusion, "Eddie?"
Edward turned around and glanced at her. "Hehe, you don't look so well."
Lisa was so shocked that for a moment she had completely ignored the pain coursing through her body. She stared at Edward with her mouth agape.
Actually, anyone would be shocked. After all, Edward's transformation was just that bizarre.
But suddenly, Lisa's eyes flashed with urgency and she hurriedly cautioned, "Eddie, hurry, get out of here! You can't fight that monster!"
Listening to her, Edward's heart warmed. His eyes displayed nothing but affection as he softly said, "Don't worry. How could I leave you here?"
"This is not the time to be a hero!" Lisa screamed. "Get away from here!"
However, Edward had already chosen to ignore her and turned back around to face the incoming Megalodeer. He unsheathed the greatsword hanging from his waist.
As he looked at the bloodied stag in front of him, his eyes flashed with excitement and his lips curled up into a grin. He thought to himself in exhilaration, Let's see how far I've come!
The next moment, blue lightning danced across his body and he dashed toward the beast. Edward augmented his greatsword with his mana—which had now embodied the element of lightning!
CLANG!
Edward's sword collided with the Megalodeer's sturdy branch-like antlers. With a resounding boom, the air seemed to have been torn apart from the collision of the two. The youth retreated a few steps back, meanwhile the stag was sent flying away!
Lisa, who witnessed this incredulous scene, was speechless. "What?!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Edward, who was also a Muscle Stage Magus like her, actually went toe-to-toe with the Megalodeer and even overpowered it!
This was simply inconceivable to her.
With great struggle, she sat back up and leaned against a tree. She took out a few healing potions from her ring, drank some of it, and poured the rest on the ghastly wound on her waist.
She looked back at Edward, her eyes containing a complicated light within them, Is this the same Eddie I know?
Meanwhile, Edward, who had just clashed against the stag, found his arms turn numb from pain. Moreover, there were also cracks beginning to form on his greatsword.
"Ugghh!" The youth groaned.
He realized that meeting the stag head-on might not have been the brightest of ideas. However, he was still very satisfied with the result.
Except for the condition of his weapon, everything else was fine.
Edward knew that this was not the result of his clash with the stag, but because the sword couldn't stand the intensity of his lightning mana. He could only hope that his sword would last until he bested the magical beast.
If not, he would just have to do it the Adam way.
Without giving the Megalodeer a chance of respite, the youth charged in its direction and started to viciously hack his longsword at it from unpredictable angles.
Lisa, who witnessed the fight, was shocked out of her wits. For some reason, she felt that Edward had become stronger and faster than before.
She couldn't believe that this was the same chubby youth whom she used to make fun of all those years back. The Edward from now was completely unrecognizable from the fatty from back then.
As she witnessed the grand fight between Edward and the Megalodeer, she suddenly recalled what Adam had said to her the day before they departed from Moon City.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})This fatty might give us all a big surprise!
Adam's words echoed inside her head. Combined with what she was seeing, she couldn't help but ask herself, Is this… what he was talking about?
The quality of mana that she felt from Edward was so strong, so profound, that to say that she was captivated would be a severe understatement.
Lisa continued to watch the fight with bated breaths, her fists involuntarily clenching into fists. At some point, Edward's sword had already shattered. But at the same time, the Megalodeer's antlers had also been destroyed by him.
Now Edward was simply wrestling the beast. He didn't use any sophisticated spells whatsoever.
Just pure mana combat!
Lisa was once again shocked to realize that the amount of mana that Edward was releasing through body augmentation was simply bizarre.
It wasn't something a person with the reserves of a B-grade talent could ever hope to achieve. In fact, Lisa even began to question, if this was something possible even for her who was an A-grade talent.
As she was lost in thought, Edward had already defeated the magical beast. The latter's body was charred to a crisp from all his attacks that were infused with lightning.
Edward walked back to her, taking wide and confident strides. His chest was puffed up and his chin was raised. His body was riddled with injuries, his robes were tattered, and his appearance was unsightly.
However, none of that could blemish the aura of a valiant warrior that radiated from him.
"You alright?" The youth asked her in a gentle tone.
Lisa found herself spacing out while gazing at him. Her cheeks blushed a little and she looked away.
Quickly composing herself, she harrumphed. "You idiot, look what you did to the corpse. It's completely burnt now!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Edward turned around and saw black smoke wafting out from the large corpse of the stag. He then turned back around and laughed in embarrassment, "Hehe, my bad. I didn't really think much about it."
Lisa deeply looked into his eyes. She then lowered her head and softly said, "Eddie…"
"Yeah?" Edward raised her eyebrows.
"Thank you," said Lisa sincerely, tears streaming down her face.
She had really believed that she would die here today, but just when she thought all hope was lost, Edward appeared in front of her like a knight in shining armor and saved her from the clutches of death.
"Hehe, no problem." Edward grinned foolishly. "Anyway, let's get you to a safe place so you can recover."
"Mhm." Lisa wiped the tears from her face and slowly got up.
But immediately after, she fell down miserably. The wound she had received from the Megalodeer was more serious than she'd thought.
"Allow me." Edward appeared in front of her and lifed her in his arms.
"Ahhh!" Lisa yelped in surprise and her face turned redder than a tomato. "What're you doing?! Let me down!"
"Oh?" Edward raised his eyebrow and teased her, "So you're saying you can walk just fine on your own?"
Lisa didn't have a reply to that. Instead, she lowered her head and chose to remain silent.
"Heh, thought so." Edward had a smug look on his face. He then turned around and started running out of the forest.
"You dummy, don't forget the stag's corpse! It's precious!" Lisa reprimanded.
"S-Sorry… And stop screaming in my ears!"
After storing the corpse inside his ring, Edward carried Lisa and left the forest.
