Chapter 381
The guardian of the floor turned out to be a B Rank Shadow Cat. The Demonic Beast was resting in a tree near where the core to the floor was. The branches of the tree hung over the area and would allow the Shadow Cat the ability to stealthily move over its prey.
True Sight allowed Damion to spot the stealthy Shadow Cat easily, however, having fought with this type of Demonic Beast before, he knew it was not going to be an easy fight.
Mage Teft hung back watching to see how her student would handle fighting a Demonic Beast just as strong as he was.
Damion could feel the eyes of the Shadow Cat on him as he moved towards the core. He resisted the urge to look up at the Shadow Cat, he did not alert the Demonic Beast that he knew it was there. This type of predator liked to use its Shadow affinity abilities to teleport itself behind its prey. Knowing how they hunted, Damion was focused on detecting the change in the ambient mana around him that would happen when the Shadow Cat attacked.
When he was less than a meter away from the core, the Shadow Cat made its move. Vanishing from the tree branch that was its hunting perch, the Demonic Beast used its Shadow Step ability to appear in Damion’s shadow.
Knowing he barely had seconds to act, Damion cast the spell he had been holding in. Earth Prison rose up around his shadow, temporarily locking the Demonic Beast in a cage. Damion then quickly cast Earth Shard to kill the captured Demonic Beast. Unfortunately, his spell hit nothing. The Shadow Cat had used Shadow Step again and was now in another shadow somewhere.
Looking around, Damion quickly located the Shadow Cat. It had teleported itself to a shadowy branch high in the tree it had just left. Even though he knew he would not be able to hit it, he cast a quick Earth Shard at the Demonic Beast. The Shadow Cat did not even need to use Shadow Step to avoid the projectile. The feline simply flattened itself against the branch and the Earth Shard went harmlessly above its head.
Damion ignored the Shadow Cat and cast an Earth Shard at the core, splitting it in two and causing the entrance to the twenty-fifth floor to appear. When the entrance appeared, the Demonic Beast became angry and leapt off the branch at Damion.
Seeing the creature pouncing at him was a surprise, but he kept his focus and began casting Earth Shard. He was able to send out three Earth Shards, before the Shadow Cat crashed into him. The first of the Earth Shards missed high, but the second and third magic rocks struck the Shadow Cat in its chest, killing it before it even reached Damion.
“Did you know destroying the core would enrage the Shadow Cat?” Mage Teft asked.
After storing the Demonic Beast’s body in his personal spatial storage and clearing the notification from the Magic System from clearing his C Rank kill that popped while they were still in the Fire Caves, he turned to answer her question.
“No. I figured if I couldn’t kill it, I would just break the core. I thought it might retreat once the core was destroyed since it was not able to take me down.”
“Guardian Demonic Beasts tend to be very protective of cores, whether in a dungeon or a labyrinth. When one is attacked or destroyed, they lose all reason. In a dungeon, this isn’t such an issue.”
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“I remember the White Griffin in the Holy Forest dungeon; it was quite upset when Phil started trying to break the core. If it wasn’t for the fact that we were sent out once the dungeon core was destroyed the White Griffin would have torn me to shreds.”
“And now you see the difference. If you manage to destroy a dungeon core, you get sent to safety. But as you know, within a labyrinth to leave you have to go through all of the floors you’ve already progressed through.”
“Don’t worry, I have no intention to try and do floors beyond my ability.”
“Good. I would hate to have to start training a new disciple from scratch.”
“Will I need to fight my way through the rest of the B Rank floors?”
“Unless we encounter another situation where we are going to be forced to go slow, no. I want to get you to the A Rank floors, so you have a chance to train in a high mana environment.”
“Why not take me all the way to the S Rank floors?”
“Because I don’t know how far in we will have to go for that. And there is the possibility of encountering things I will have to escape from. On an A Rank floor, you will be able to handle most things, or at the very least escape if you can’t. On S Rank floors, I might not be able to protect you.”
“I get it,’ Damion said. He was a bit disappointed. After all, the mana density of the S Rank floors would be magnitudes higher than the A Rank ones.
“Then let’s go.”
Mage Teft did not waste any time. Heading into the entrance to the twenty-fifth floor the pair emerged on the slope of a rocky mountain. To their left was a deep chasm and even though Damion dared to take a look over the edge, he could not see the bottom. Around them were rocky slopes with bits of snow gathered in small depressions and peaks. Not everything was covered in snow, but there was a fair amount of it on the ground.
“Seems the B Rank floors will continue to climb up these mountains. Perhaps here you will be able to find more Ice affinity cores for Phil,” Mage Teft said, after looking around.
“That would be good,” Damion agreed as he took his tablet out and looked at the map. “The floor core is about a kilometer away. Between those two peaks.”
Damion pointed to a set of high mountains nearby. They might only be a kilometer from the core, but most of that kilometer was up.
“Aside from flying, is there a way up there?”
“A rough path around and a sloped approach from the other side,” Damion answered. He switched his tablet to projection mode and showed Mage Teft the way around, not that he thought either of them would be using it.
“Time to fly.”
After Mage Teft sprang into the air on her artifact, Damion summoned his Ice Sword and followed suit. They were able to reach the peaks quickly, but before they could reach the core, a Demonic Beast cast a spell that caused them both to slow down.
The blizzard that was forming around them continued to intensify as they moved towards the core. Even though the spell hitting them was strong, Mage Teft was S Rank and shrugged it off and Damion had his Ice affinity, so it did not really bother him. However, the Blizzard kicked out so much snow and wind, it was difficult to see where their attacker was. After a few moments of not being able to locate the Demonic Beast, Damion had reached the limits of his patience.
After briefly channeling the mana, Damion cast Ice Mastery. His EX Ice affinity and magic talent allowed his Ice Mastery spell to overpower the will of the Demonic Beast controlling the blizzard and he willed all the snow and ice to halt and fall to the ground.
At the moment the blizzard froze in its tracks, Damion heard a familiar sound screech and looked up to the sky. There, in the sky above him was Phil.
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