BOOM!
A massive body slammed against the ground and crushed the Sword Hawk's head into bits.
However, the hawk's bones were thicker than one would expect. The Darklight Raven that was thrown onto it felt the bones in its back cracking upon impact, making it screech in pain.
Elena wasn't simply going to let it recover, though.
She was a streak of light, nothing more nothing less. Her body crashed to the ground like a nuke, Yggdrasil's Branch shining powerfully in her grasp.
Bang!
She stabbed the sword into the raven's exposed underbelly, allowing her mana to penetrate its muscles.
She didn't wait to see the effects of her attack before jumping off.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A rain of bullets fell, centered around the wound Elena just made.
Space exploded and ruptured, tearing gashes in the raven's skin and eviscerating the existing injuries, causing blood to splatter over the grassy area.
Damien and Elena both rushed in, aiming for a killing blow.
Their battle had been going on alongside Ruyue and Rose's, so they obviously weren't far away from killing it.
In the first place, Elena's match-up against the Darklight Raven was far more in her favor than the other side. Light and darkness were diametrically opposed, and while the beast was stronger in terms of pure strength, Elena's light surpassed what her opponent could wield a thousand times.
Yet another advantage of being from the outside world presented itself, and seeing how Ruyue moved, Damien didn't want to sit still either.
His interference with the Severed World's laws allowed him to understand a loophole, or rather, a chink in its defenses that he'd created in that moment.
Perhaps he couldn't outsmart the power cap, but he could definitely use this opening to benefit himself.
Ruyue was the one who gave him the idea. He was thinking so much about improving his current abilities that he forgot about the original goal of strengthening his foundation.
To understand vectors properly was to massively increase his firepower and flexibility in battle.
Therefore, that's exactly what he did.
Since Elena was able to manage pretty well on her own, he could divide his attention and experiment during the battle.
That's how he found out.
Vectors, in a sense, were similar to Universal Law in that they were representations of the interactions between forces.
If Universal Law was the ethereal representation of this concept, vectors were the physical one.
As someone who'd been comprehending Universal Law so fiercely that he'd been forced to fight it for the right to retain what he learned, Damien was able to make quick progress once he made this connection.
The main problem was defining forces.
Gravity, weight, direction, speed, acceleration, and many more forces contained their own vectors. In fact, anything with physical presence that moved had vectors that defined each movement.
When a concept was so vast, it was hard to find ways to properly express it.
This was an issue Damien had been dealing with since the start.
Whether it be Space, Time, Universal Law, or even the Void, they were all concepts that held such vagueness and vastness.
But somehow, he'd managed to gain a grip on them, right?
Damien decided to start with what he knew.
He focused on speed, direction, and weight, attempting to bring his ability to manipulate them to its peak.
Of course, he couldn't do it in a single battle, but his growth was astounding, to say the least.
He tormented the Darklight Raven with his power. When it tried to move out of range or do any sort of maneuvering to evade Elena, its weight was increased and the air around it solidified, making it hard to move.
Even its mana was moving slowly. It didn't know why, but none of its facilities were functioning as they should have!
Meanwhile, Elena got absolute support just as Ruyue did.
Her speed and acceleration were pushed to the limit, making her a true embodiment of light, her attacks became more powerful, her mana moved smoother, and even her head felt light and able to process information faster!
The last effect was likely a placebo caused by the combination of the others, but it didn't matter.
What mattered was that Elena had a fighting capacity that entered the 3rd class range, and the enemy had been brought down to match her!
Unlike Ruyue and Rose, their battle was much more streamlined, but it wasn't any less grand.
The Darklight Raven had no chance to retaliate.
By the time Damien's bullet rain ended, Elena and Damien were already at its sides.
They slashed their swords together, and their sword lights intersected as they tore through the raven's body.
The only battle left ongoing was—
BANG!
A mangled corpse fell to the ground, splattering into a pancake of meat chunks on impact.
Zara landed next to it gracefully, but the blood covering her mouth and claws made her appearance anything but.
She grinned as she looked at the fat bird's corpse.
As she said from the beginning, it never had a chance.
Watching it get corroded by Shadow Mana as she tormented it mentally was something Zara enjoyed to the maximum, otherwise, she would've finished long ago.
It hurt her pride a little to be the last one done!
"What a fun battle," Damien remarked with a grin.
"It was likely the most entertaining event we have experienced thus far," Ruyue continued.
"Really? Climbing was the most fun part for me," Elena chimed in.
"She didn't mean it like that. The word she was looking for was rewarding," Rose said, shaking her head.
Ruyue nodded in agreement, while the rest followed suit.
Indeed, they'd had plenty of dangerous encounters and exhilarating encounters, but they'd never been able to gain so much with so little effort since coming to this place.
'Or maybe it feels like less effort because we've improved?'
Nowadays, improvement was so vague that Damien forgot the feeling of growing when he was still weak.
At this level, every small step felt like a major leap.
In the 9 revolutions, every small step was truly a major leap, but it felt like one was barely moving their feet!
"There's no need to keep waiting, right? Let's head to the Blessing Shrine!"
Damien and the girls looked towards Sia, who gazed back at them with a raised eyebrow.
"What? Did you think I knew where it was? I've never been here before."
Her response was quite lackluster, and elicited deadpan gazes from everyone who was listening.
Damien shook his head wryly, while Elena rolled her eyes and flicked out her hand.
"Come out, Isla."
A flash of light appeared on her chest, and an entity jumped into the Real Plane.
It was…
"…a cat?!"
Damien's eyes widened.
"Why didn't you tell me you got a cat?!"
He teleported over and swooped Isla into his arms before she knew what was happening, grinning the whole time.
Elena smiled wryly.
"You can pet her later. Isla has an uncanny ability to find treasure. That's why I brought her out."
"Oh…"
Damien put the cat down unwillingly and backed off.
His love for cats…couldn't be underestimated!
But for now, they had things to do.
'Not that there's anything more important than cats, but…haa, whatever.'
Damien shook his head and cleared away his sorrow.
"To the Blessing Shrine!"
