Floating around Aria were small rocks coated in wind element. She was planning to use the same attack as last time.
'My mana control jumped as well!'
Compared to the dozen she had coated previously, now there were nearly 3 times as many.
With a smile and a wave of her hand, the rocks gathered together. She then focused on forming a hollow cylinder of wind element around the rocks. And finally, just like last time, she formed a ball of wind that would shoot the rocks out.
But this time the ball was even denser than before, and with the cylinder that channeled the rocks, her accuracy jumped leaps and bounds!
The rocks shot out like a shotgun. The monster raised its furry arms to defend as multiple cuts appeared, some rocks flying past, missing, but a majority hitting. Familiar deep crimson blood sprayed on the grass.
'It's still standing.'
Despite the power of the attack being higher than last time, the monster still stood. Aria instantly realized why.
'So it can use Aura even more than the last monster.'
To launch the rocks, she used a variation of [Wind Blade] called [Gust], which pushed rather than cut. Now, she was a rank 1; it became even stronger. But even though it was powerful, it had its limits: the rock's durability.
The monster's arms were surrounded by brown energy. With the use of Aura, it instantly shattered the wind element, then the rocks upon contact, leaving no injuries. Unless she used a spell with the same strength against the Aura, she wouldn't be able to get through.
'My wind element got stronger, so let's try this!'
Aria launched another spell without hesitation, waving her staff with the familiar crescent shaped movement.
[Tier 1: Wind Blade]
A crescent shaped green light slices through the air, cutting through the Aura and into the monster's raised arms, making blood pour.
Compared to the many rocks coated in wind element, after ranking up, the [Wind Blade] was denser, stronger, and most of all faster.
'Fast! Both my attack and this monster.'
Aria's spell moved at nearly twice its previous speed. Likewise, the power of the spell was much stronger than before, at the very least, much stronger than the rocks coated in wind element.
But even though it was faster, the monster raised its arms as soon as Aria shot her spell. This instant reaction was expected; the monster was not only stronger than its kin but also faster, but such movements gave her enough hints to guess its rank.
'The wound is shallow, it's a rank 2 at the very least.'
Aria sprinted to the side away from the exhausted Ren. Following her, the monster switched direction, closing the distance at a rapid pace. During these movements, Aria raised her staff, and green light gathered, but this time, instead of the crescent formation signaling a [Wind Blade], the wind element gathered at a point that extended into a shaft with an arrowhead.
[Tier 1: Wind Arrow]
Because Aria didn't create the fletching or nock to shoot the arrow, it looked more like a small spear than an arrow. But that didn't mean it was inaccurate or weak; it shot with surprising quiet, streaking through the forest quickly, the only indication of its approach was the green light that composed its body.
The monster raised its arms once more, but unlike [Wind Blade], the arrow moved too fast for it to react, making it instinctively protect its head.
Like how the last furred monster died because of injuries to its head, the head of these monsters seemed to be a big weakness to them.
'Then block this!'
With a slight tilt of her staff, the arrow curved downward, hitting the right knee of the monster. The arrow didn't pass all the way through, but embedded itself deeply into the monster. A roar echoed as it bent down, reaching down to pull it out. However, Aria wouldn't give up such an opening.
[Tier 1: Wind Blade]
The crescent wind flew towards its face, forcing one arm to raise itself to block. Following this, she made another slashing motion with her staff, focusing on pouring an extra amount of mana into the spell.
[Tier 1: Wind Blade]
The spell sliced at the right hand, pulling out the [Wind Arrow]. It hit the furry hand that was about to grab the arrow, as well as the arrow itself. At that moment, Aria's eyes glowed with delight.
'Disperse!'
When the spells [Wind Arrow] and [Wind Blade] made contact, Aria forcefully dispersed them, causing the spells to return to their elemental form as motes of green light.
'Next it will gather!'
These green motes of wind element rushed towards each other and coalesced into a tiny ball, a tiny ball that was the foundation of her next spell.
'Now…'
[Tier 2: Wind Bomb]
A small explosion of wind magic occurred, doing extensive damage to both the right hand, grabbing the arrow, as well as the right leg, where the arrow was embedded.
Pieces of bone and flesh could be seen, making for quite the macabre display. Yet all in Aria's mind was celebration.
'Score! That worked like a charm, not even its Aura could block it!'
She had made the spell by combining the dense structural properties of [Wind Arrow] with the efficient cutting capabilities of [Wind Blade], compressing it all into a tiny orb that would explode at the touch.
'Still, it has some limitations.'
It was a very volatile spell. As soon as it was formed, it would explode, so Aria couldn't form it beforehand and had to do it on the fly. It was also a very slow process, meaning that if she wanted to hit the monster in the head, only being up close and personal would do the trick.
Different from the shallow wounds that the [Wind Blade] did, the tier 2 spell [Wind Bomb] created deep wounds, much to Aria's jubilation.
'Still that took a lot out of me….'
Checking her mana, she found that the core that was bursting with energy was now a little above a tenth left. At the start, she launched dozens of rocks at the monster, then cast [Wind Blade] multiple times already, also coupled with [Wind Arrow] and a tier 2 spell [Wind Bomb]. It was a miracle she wasn't running on fumes.
'But I did pretty well, didn't I?'
Compared to the last furred monster, this one was not only stronger but wasn't injured from any previous fights. Yet looking at it now, it had injuries all over its body, though mostly shallow due to Aura protecting it; the injuries on the right leg were devastating.
It was quite the feat, considering it was a whole rank above her. On top of that, Aria herself wasn't even injured a single time!
'I need to keep attacking it and keep a distance but…'
Even with the advantage, in her mind, Aria came to a logical but grim conclusion.
'I can't win.'
Generally, a rank 2 was stronger than a rank 1. Similar to the jump from rank 0 to rank 1, there is also a jump between ranks 1 and 2, but at the lower ranks, where physical defenses aren't absurdly increased, the gap between them, though large, isn't significant, allowing attacks from lower-tier spells to harm higher ranks.
That was the only reason Aria could get so far in this fight.
'My mind is getting tired as well.'
A couple of hours wasn't enough for her to fully recover from the mental exhaustion of casting various spells, especially higher-tier spells, as well as attacks demanding extreme multitasking.
'And I can't move.'
Moreover, her body felt incredibly sore, since using the magic of a higher tier than your rank required not only enough mana and knowledge, but also enough physical strength.
The physical strain mostly came from [Wind Blade] that she used as a Rank 0; interestingly, [Wind Bomb] didn't cause much strain since it was activated remotely.
In any case, it was safe to say that Aria was at her wits' end.
'Hmm, but this should be enough, right?'
Understanding that losing would mean death, her expression remained deathly calm. This calm was for a very good reason.
The injured monster limped towards Aria at a surprisingly quick pace. It resorted to crawling with its working arm and leg, and it closed in after a dozen seconds.
"Ah! Alas, my end is near! If only a white knight in shining armor would save me!"
Her tone was dramatic and high pitched, her acting was quite frankly..
'Terrible! What is she saying!? That monster doesn't even understand English!'
Ren sighed incredulously. He was behind the monster about 6 paces away, and after another step, the monster's hair stood on end.
Turning from Aria, it spotted Ren. With a smile, in his right hand, his sword gleamed already unsheathed, and in his left hand was a crystal that glowed with blue mana leaking from a small crack on its surface, a crack that was created by Aria moments ago.
Now that Aria was a rank 1, she could turn her mana solid and break the crystal even if her mana was leagues lower.
She didn't need to break the entire crystal; she only needed to make a small hole for Ren to absorb the mana inside!
"Are you looking for this?"
The monster seemed to realize that the mana came from its brethren, causing it to roar with anger, forgetting about Aria and lunging at Ren.
With its uninjured arm raised, it slammed down, arm covered in the brown colored Aura that flared even larger due to its intense emotions.
Dust and rubble launched in all directions.
But instead of Ren's crushed corpse under its arm, it saw an orange flame as heat pervaded the surrounding area. In an instant, this heat disappeared, condensing into a glowing orange energy surrounding a blade.
[Tier 1: Flame's Edge]
The monster's arm had hit the ground, parried by Ren's sword, and crimson blood now poured from a new wound Ren inflicted.
But that wasn't all Ren had done; blood gushed from the monster's other broken arm, and it had become shorter.
Why?
Because Ren had completely severed it from the monster flying in the air before landing a couple of meters away.
These actions merely took a couple of moments. Ren's dark hair blew in the wind, his pale face still covered in sweat, his body still shaking from exhaustion, and his heart still beating intensely.
Yet his ocean blue eyes held determination, a fighting will so intense that even the monster froze for a couple of moments.
With flaring vigor, Ren had joined the battle!