"This fight had been fun, but I need the points," Riven said and charged in, running at his top speed. The ape couldn’t even react to his movements before the sword cut through the air and headed for its neck.
It reacted, arms swinging up—all four—moving to block the blade. But Riven didn’t back down; after all, he was wielding the blade that could cut through anything.
The blade touched the arms, and the moment it did, he activated his flames. They burned so hot and fierce that they burned the fur on the body of the ape instantly.
The sword cut through the arms and traveled to the neck, slashing the head of the ape clean off. It flipped in the air and landed with a thud.
Riven stared at the head for a bit, and then he kept walking. His foot pressed against twigs and they snapped under the weight of his feet as he walked. He did it intentionally to signal monsters that he was passing through. Finally, he got their attention—a horde of goblins rushed toward him, and a few hobgoblins. But they were all Rank F and E.
He didn’t waste a lot of time getting rid of them. He did it as fast as possible and then returned to looking for strong monsters. Finally, he found one—a B-ranked wolf suddenly appeared.
The wolf was two meters tall and had a black horn on its forehead. The moment Riven laid eyes on it, he already knew that it was strong.
The wolf growled at Riven. It lowered its head, and the horn crackled with black lightning.
The lightning shot out, ripping through the ground and heading for Riven. Riven immediately pulled back and dodged the lightning by a few feet, then he charged in, running fast to cover the distance before the wolf attacked again.
But the wolf wasn’t some weak, dumb monster, it was a magical beast. It slammed its paw into the ground, and a wave of lightning shot out. Riven leaped over it, but the moment he landed, he already saw another bolt of lightning headed for him.
He blocked the attack with his sword, pushed back a few feet, but he managed to stop and hold off the attack. He dashed forward, his sword at his side and his eyes on the wolf. The wolf attacked again with another bolt of lightning, but Riven swung his blade like a bat and hit the lightning to the side. The bolt moved sideways, hit a tree, and brought it down.
Riven covered the distance and stabbed. The wolf moved back, evading the blade, then lunged forward with its paw ready to strike. Riven blocked the attack. The force pushed him back and his arms went numb.
The wolf tried to push Riven back even more, but he had already moved from beneath its paw and flanked it from the side.
"Flame Blast," he called out, attacking at close range. The flame hit the wolf and exploded, leaving a massive wound on its body.
The wolf roared in pain, thrashing around. Its lightning began shooting out in an uncontrolled manner. Riven moved back while dodging the lightning.
He waited for the wolf to exhaust itself, and then he charged in again. The wolf tried to retreat, but Riven didn’t let it. He increased his speed and attacked, slashing at one leg of the wolf.
The blade cut through the leg. The pain shot all over the wolf, and it collapsed to the ground. He immediately used that opportunity and stabbed the wolf right through the head, killing it.
"That was easy," Riven muttered. He looked at his sword with a smile. "My swordsmanship is definitely better than before," he muttered before giving it a twirl. He looked at the blade.
"When will I get to enter and see you again, Twilight?" he muttered, wishing that the lady he saw would finally allow him back in.
He didn’t know how exactly he was able to enter last time, and now he was unable to even contact her.
Now that he had killed a B-rank, what was left was an A-rank. He wanted to see the strength of an A-rank—maybe it would have more to give than the B and C.
Sofia stood in front of a group of four-armed monkeys, some on the ground and some on the trees. She held her staff in both hands. She didn’t move at all until the monkeys attacked, rushing at her.
She simply mouthed a spell, and several magical circles appeared behind her and began shooting out flame blades that stabbed through the monkeys.
Sofia was a multi-talented mage. She used three main elements: fire, water, and lightning. It was one thing that made her very special, the Silent Prodigy.
After fighting demonized beasts and killing a few, she could take down some weak monkeys without issues. Her flame blades ripped through the monkeys, killing them in one shot.
When she was done, all their bodies shattered into light particles. She let out a deep breath, and then her eyes turned cold, narrowing to slits.
"Now I have to find him before he goes too far. I’m not allowing those two to get near him and distract me from what I need to do," she said, then walked deeper into the forest, making a slight turn that she believed would take her right to Riven, or close.
But the forest was crawling with way too many beasts. Goblins rushed at her, more than twenty of them, and a few hobgoblins inside as well.
She stretched out her staff. "Stay away from me. You are making me late," she roared and swung her staff. A blast of water came out, creating a wave that slammed into the beasts and pushed them back. Then she raised the staff, and blades made of fire shot down from the sky, right into their hearts and chests, killing them instantly.
She walked past like what she had done was nothing.