Alex was completely unaware of Rowan's thoughts. He was currently focused on the beast that stood ahead of him, in the process of overwhelming the E- rank team leader of the team they went to help.
'This one is weaker than that Flaming lion for sure.'
Alex had only really ever fought one other E rank beast before, and that was the flaming lion where he obtained his Flame talent from.
He only contributed a little bit to that fight, and he couldn't take any credit for the kill at all as that was completely due to Joanne's poison arrow.
But the aura this bear like beast exuded was nowhere near as terrifying as when he first felt the flaming lion's aura.
Alex suspected that it had something to do with that mysterious flame that granted him his Flame talent, but he had no evidence to confirm his suspicions.
'It doesn't matter anyway, with Rowan, me and that E- rank leader here this beast has nowhere to run.'
With nothing holding them back, Alex and Rowan ran alongside the E- rank leader from the other group, who was currently littered in all kinds of wounds from the accumulated attacks of the beast.
Blood was oozing from all over the place, it looked like he was on death's door.
Not everyone was like Alex—being able to fight a level above oneself was even rarer than having a talent.
"We'll take it over from here, friend! You need to rest and recuperate." Rowan announced his presence and intentions to the young man.
Phew!
When the young leader heard Rowan's words he let out a heavy sigh of relief. He had only recently advanced to E rank, which only a few others knew before he was drafted into this sudden war against the beast tide.
Just like most other adventurers, he only went by the vague version of his rank, simply listing himself as 'E rank' rather than his actual E- rank.
Due to his inexperience in the world of the awakened, he still chose to hide his real rank even when Wildblade was distributing him among the teams, hence why he was made a team leader while only being E- rank.
In truth he had no experience leading a team, and even less fighting beasts a whole level above himself.
"Looks like it's just me and you in this fight Alex, you sure you can handle this? This one is much more powerful than that E- rank you fought earlier." Rowan was genuinely concerned about Alex joining in with a fight against a beast not one, but two whole levels above him.
Not to mention there was also a difference in the soul tier itself, with Alex being at F+ tier while the beast was at E tier, so the real difference in rank was more like 3 levels.
Every jump between major soul tiers (F,E,D,C etc) there was a qualitative increase in strength that was much more condensed and noticeable than jumps in level in the minor tiers (F-. F, F+ etc), hence the difference between F+ and E- was regarded by the general population of awakened as 2 levels.
This trend carried on all the way up until when the soul tier reached C rank, where the difference between a C and B rank was astronomical and could no longer be measured by the norms.
This was not information Alex was currently aware of though.
"I've fought an E rank before, and I'm still here. So decide what you want with that information." Alex was intentionally vague when he spoke of his past fight, there were many weird things about that fight that he still wasn't sure were normal.
Rowan raised his eyebrows in surprise at Alex's reveal. He knew he was strong, especially since he could wield an element while only at F rank. That could only be achieved through a talent directly gifted by the Primordial Expanse. But he didn't know he was able to survive against a beast 3 levels above himself.
He knew Alex was vague with his answer, but he didn't even entertain the possibility that Alex was able to kill the beast.
Only awakened at the legendary S rank could achieve that!
"Well, alright then. I trust you know what you're doing."
Rowan didn't question Alex anymore and directly blocked the bear beast's attack from striking the injured team leader.
Alex reacted immediately after and without hesitation readied the same attack he used to kill the two F+ ranks before, and coated his dagger in flames.
The cracks widened on his dagger even more, prompting him to hurry up with his next actions before the thing crumbled completely.
The huge bear was currently launching attack after attack at Rowan, and with it's big bulky body it was slowly overpowering him in strength.
But soon a faint orange glow started to come from his side, where he saw Alex coating his dagger in flames, and he immediately had an idea.
He leaped from the ground to the back of the bear with minimal effort, wrapping his arms around the beast's neck—his hands barely interlocking on the other side.
Roarrr!
The bear was enraged by this action and stood up on it's two hind legs, as it started flailing around like mad, trying to claw at Rowan who held his grip firmly around its neck.
"Now! Attack it Alex!" Rowan shouted towards Alex for him to attack.
The huge bear was slowly succeeding at shaking Rowan off, he was slowly slipping!
'Why does this attack have to take so long to prepare!'
Alex wished and hoped to any god that was listening that his flames would hurry up and encase the whole dagger.
'Finally!'
He didn't know if some god answered his prayer, with the process finishing a whole 5 seconds earlier than when he first used the attack. But he wasn't going to waste the opportunity!
With its chest completely exposed, and its whole attention focused on shaking Rowan off, the bear had no time to react when Alex snuck up in front of it and lunged his dagger right through its stomach.
Yelp! Roarrr!
The bear became even more enraged.
"How the hell can you miss its heart? It was such an easy target!" Rowan practically cringed when he saw Alex miss such an easy attack.
Cough
"It's not my fault for being short! I can't help it!" Alex was rightfully embarrassed and slightly angry when one of his few insecurities was pointed out.
The bear was over 4 metres tall while it stood on its hind legs, how was Alex supposed to reach its heart.
"What do you mean short?? Just jump, you're an awakened for god sake." Alex's face went bright red when Rowan pointed out such an easy mistake.
'This kid has a lot to learn, that's for sure — even more reason for me to recruit him to the university.'
"What's done is done, just help me finish this thing off!" Rowan shouted at Alex from the back of the enraged bear.
However when he looked at Alex, he noticed the depressed look on his face.
He could see that he was looking at something he held in his hand, but he was too busy wrestling at the bear's neck to care.
'My dagger…'
What Alex held in his hand was his dagger… what was left of it.
In fact all he held was just a handle, with no blade attached to it.
The moment his dagger made contact and pierced through the bear's stomach, it melted into a goop on the spot, pouring the molten metal further into the bear's stomach.
"My dagger's broken!" Alex awoke from his depressed stupor, less than a second had passed since he heard Rowan's shout.
"So? Kill this thing with your fists!" Rowan didn't care though, he just wanted to finish this fight as quickly as possible and move on to the next one.
"How am I supposed to kill something 3 levels above me without a weapon?" When Alex spoke with annoyance in his tone, Rowan felt like he had a brain fart.
'This kid's talent is so high I forgot he's still just an F+ rank!'
He didn't want to say another word to Alex since he made fun of him for his own embarrassing moment earlier. He didn't want Alex to do the same thing back to him.
Instead, he just threw his own sword at him, and said, "Make sure you hit the heart this time."
Catching the new weapon, Alex inspected the faint, milky white aura emanating off it and didn't hesitate to charge up his attack again.
Around 5 seconds later, Rowan's sword was covered in flames, only this time there were no cracks. Alex was shocked at the amount of power he felt, this was definitely the most powerful attack he would deliver by far!
'I guess the upgrade to my Flame talent decreased the amount of time it takes to charge up the attack.'
With that confirmed, Alex ran up to the madly raging bear, with Rowan about to slip off and once again went in for the kill.
Only this time he jumped.
With the length of the sword, his attack penetrated much deeper into the chest of the bear and when he reached a certain point where the sword was almost three quarters buried, the bear's rapid rampage stopped suddenly.
Alex was so close to the bear, he could feel the energy pulsating through its body and when he penetrated its heart, he felt those energy pulsations stop.
[You have killed an E rank beast, Forest Bear.]
'Interesting… So energy has something to do with the heart!'
"Oh shit!" Alex was so engrossed in his thoughts that he forgot that the four metre tall was still standing there on its two hind legs, and he was right in front of it.
The thing was dead for sure, and the Primordial Expanse had confirmed it.
But that didn't stop the 2 ton corpse of the huge beast from toppling over right on top of him.
"Alex!" Rowan, understandably worried, jumped off its back and pushed the corpse aside with all his strength, going red in the face as he rolled it over onto its back.
"You okay?" He reached his hand down to help Alex up.
Alex just looked at him with a deadpan face while he grabbed his hand.
"You could've warned me." He said to Rowan.
"You could've been more aware." With that quick response, Alex returned to silence. He didn't want to admit it openly, but Rowan was right.
Just because the beast is dead, doesn't mean the danger is gone.
Thankfully, with his F+ rank body along with the increased strength he had gained by the absorption of the soul orbs, he managed to avoid any major injuries, only gaining a few bruises here and there.
"You fight so clumsily I don't even know how you've survived up till this point, didn't the federation teach you anything about fighting?" Rowan was genuinely surprised at how incompetent Alex was when he fought.
"Where I come from, people like me rarely make it back from the Primordial Expanse." Alex said.
"Oh."
With that, the conversation was over just as quickly as it started.
By now, most of the fights between the beasts and humans were already over.
The beast tide had sustained over 1500 deaths, with the remaining few hundred fleeing back into the forested wilderness.
While the human side had only sustained around 60 deaths overall.
Most of these deaths had been from when that minotaur-like beast barrelled towards the unawakened group of people near the city barrier. But with the prompt action taken by Wildblade and the other two D ranks, it had been killed before it could slaughter any more of the masses.
After that point, the other D rank beasts were weak enough that the D rank human trio could split up and deal with them one on one.
"Is it over?" Jones, the 12 year old F- rank boy, asked.
Just as he asked that, shouts and cheers came from all over the battlefield. Every adventurer no matter how injured cheered at their triumph over the beast tide.
"Now it's time for the best part. We loot!" Rowan commented with a wide smile on his face as he headed over to the beast corpses he and his team had killed.
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GOT IT