After an hour of struggling, Madison finally found a Magical Beast that she could fight. She was incredibly weary at this point but took out her sword and got ready to fight. She was against a Thunderhoof Deer, which wasn't incredibly aggressive.
She wasn't as useless at fighting as she was at the other aspects. She put up a decent fight against the deer, but she still started to get on the losing end.
Marcus noticed this but didn't do anything. Madison used her sword to defend one of the lightning strikes of the deer but got pushed back. The deer then charged at her when she was trying to get up.
At this point, Lyra jumped into the fight and defended Madison before she got hit. Madison used this time to get up. When she did, Lyra took a step back, letting Madison resume the fight.
Madison was slightly confused.
"Why am I still fighting? I know I will lose," she said.
Marcus gave an exasperated sigh. "You know that we will make sure you won't get hurt. So why are you afraid to keep fighting? This is perfect for you to get some experience fighting a Magical Beast that you found."
Madison realized that she was given a very rare chance to increase her skills. She quickly imbibed her sword with aura and charged at the Thunderhoof Deer.
At this point, her fighting style changed, and she became incredibly aggressive while attacking. Till then, she was only defending the attacks because she was afraid of getting hurt. Now that she was on the offensive, the deer had to defend her attacks.
This time, since her mindset changed, she was able to push the deer to the corner. It even tried to run away but she quickly ended the fight before it could get away. When she was able to successfully kill the Magical Beast, she became very excited.
"Good job. You just have to repeat those steps if you want to hunt more beasts. We have to now finish out own hunts," Marcus said.
Madison was conflicted. "Do I have to come with-"
Lyra immediately shook her head. "No. We will venture deep into the forest and it will be more dangerous if you are there," she said.
Madison agreed with that. "Thank you so much for helping me finish my hunt. I will definitely find a way to thank you when we get back to the academy," she said. She turned around to go back to the way we came from.
Marcus looked at Lyra. "Is it safe for her to go by herself?" He asked.
She nodded. "There won't be any dangerous Magical Beasts on the way because we are still on the outskirts. Are you planning on joining me for the hunt?" She asked him.
He nodded. "That will probably be more effective, right?" He asked.
"Sounds good. What Beast Core do you have to hunt?" She asked him.
"Fire-Attributed Early-Stage 2nd Circle Beast Core," he said. "You?"
"I have to bring an Earth-Attribute Beast Core," she said.
"We can finish them one by one. It will be faster then. What element is your Aura Technique?" He asked her.
"Mine is a Light element technique," she said.
"Mine is a Lightning element fist technique. We can figure out how to coordinate our attacks when we find a Magical Beast," he said.
Even though they were planning on hunting their own beasts, they decided to team up since they lost a lot of time helping out Madison. Compared to Madison who didn't have any experience hunting by herself, both of them were good at it.
They didn't need to go alone since they were already strong at fighting. They were only finishing the missions because they needed the points. It would make sense to try and finish it quickly at that point.
They ventured deeper into the forest. At this point, it had already been more than 2 and a half hours since they came to the forest. It took them an hour to get to the forest and another hour and a half for Madison to hunt a single Magical Beast.
While they were walking to the forest, they saw a figure speed past them in the sky. They ignored it since it was just a mage entering the forest. It wasn't going to affect them.
The figure in the sky was Leo. He was flying to the forest because he didn't want to waste any time. He saw that Madison was leaving the two while he was flying.
"Why are they together? And why are they still here?" He thought to himself. He was definitely going to ask them about it since it wouldn't take that long for them to hunt a beast.
As he was thinking that, he quickly reached the part of the forest that had 2nd Circle Magical Beasts. Since Marcus and Lyra were also heading to the deeper parts of the forest, he decided to go to another part which took him a couple more minutes.
Once he landed, he quickly killed 5 Magical Beasts in the span of ten minutes. He was incredibly efficient since he was a 3rd Star Mage in the middle of 2nd Circle Magical Beasts. It was basically a massacre.
Once he took the cores, he left immediately. He was in and out of the forest in less than 30 minutes. By the time Marcus and Lyra even reached the part of the forest where there were any 2nd Circle Magical Beasts, he was long gone.
Lyra and Marcus started walking cautiously when they got deeper into the forest. They had their guards up. When they saw the first hint of a movement, they quickly armed themselves.
She took out a sword from her dimensional ring while he just coated his fists with aura. Both of them didn't need to carry their weapons so it was easier for them to travel in the forest.
A leopard slowly walked out from behind the trees. It was a Lightning Cloud Leopard, an Early-Stage 2nd Circle Magical Beast.
It was closer to Lyra compared to Marcus. It thought that Lyra was the weaker of the two and decided to attack Marcus first. It leaped towards him, ignoring Lyra. She immediately noticed that she was given a free hit and closed the distance between her and the leopard.
By the time it reached Marcus, Lyra thrust her sword into the Leopard. It roared in pain as its face was met with another punch. The punch created an explosion in its face, blasting it away from Marcus.
When it landed on the ground, it tried to get up, but the wounds inflicted on it were so heavy that it couldn't. It barely got up before Marcus punched it again, completely killing it.
He looked at Lyra who had her sword. "Do you normally take out the Beast Core, or does someone else do it for you?" He asked.
"There is typically an attendant to do it for me," she said.
He sighed. "Are you sure you want me to do it or do you want to try?" He asked her.
"Go ahead. There should be nothing wrong with you doing it," she said.
"Okay," he said. He covered his fists with aura.
She was confused. She thought he would take out a dagger. But instead, she watched him punch into the leopard's head and fish out its Beast Core.
