"Didn't you say that you will polish me into a man worthy of you or something? Then please do tell me, how am I suppose to defeat this already higher ranked Calamity who also has a deadly weakening and pain inducing poison in his arsenal," Aezaleon questioned with a sharp, challenging tone.
Currently, Aezaleon really was thinking of pulling this woman inside his soul again, which he was perfectly capable of doing despite already having created a physical body for her. Afterward, he would go on the Calamity hunting on his own, testing himself out slowly and safely.
Clementine, on sensing his not-so-very good intentions, immediately responded as a matter of fact.
"Of course, I'm not trying to kill you. However, if it really came to that, and you really weren't able to kill this savage Calamity in the end, then regardless of my disappointment, I will still save you; I won't let you die. It's just that, I really wanted to see how strong the endurance of my future husband is, for obvious reasons you know," she teased playfully, her lips curling into a cunning smile.
Aezaleon gritted his teeth, and in spite of knowing what Clementine was trying to do, he really couldn't ignore her after what she said. He exhaled a long breath in defeat.
"At least give me a weapon to fight him. I don't want to fight a venomous Calamity with my bare hands in my first battle, let alone a porcupine," he demanded.
"So picky," Clementine chuckled softly, her amusement plain to see.
With her hand stretching forward, she condensed a blood claymore for him from a single drop of her blood by using her concept of Blood Construct Condensation. Presenting the claymore to him, "Here you go," she voiced.
Aezaleon took the two-meters-long, crimson-red blade, grasping the hilt and admiring it in absolute amazement. He couldn't understand how a simple drop of blood could create something that appeared even tougher, more compact, and harder than an actual metal.
"It's an amazing weapon!" he complimented with a genuine tone.
"Of course it is. I made it with my own blood, the blood of a Primordial Vampire," Clementine stated proudly, scoffing at the obvious fact. Nonetheless, she still smiled warmly. "Now that you have your weapon, why don't you go and show your future wife your first battle? Give me a good entertainment, future husband!"
Aezaleon's gaze twitched. He saw first-hand how arrogant this woman was. However, because of his own shallow knowledge, he did not realize how lucky he was to actually have her as his first companion.
Anyway, with the weapon firmly in his hand, Aezaleon shot forward. In four seconds, he was within the detection range of the venomous Calamity, which was a hundred meters. He landed fifty meters away from it. Also, from Clementine, Aezaleon just learned through their soul connection that as a material Ascension rank three Calamity with an unawakened soul core, the porcupine's speed was only forty meters per second.
Nonetheless, for his first battle, Aezaleon was playing it safe. In other words, this fifty-meters distance gave him the perfect advantage in offense, as he could cover it in a second to initiate his attack, and also defense; if something unexpected were to happen, he would have the needed time to react accordingly.
He scrutinized the Calamity: Venomous Porcupine, who had also become alert of him while also observing him attentively.
He was a three-meters-tall rodent with red eyes, thick gray fur, and innumerable pitch-black quills with baleful, sharp green tips. Both could feel the sense of immense danger from each other when locking their eyes, making a single second feel too long and letting their base instincts take ahold of them.
A few seconds passed in pure tension.
Aezaleon gripped the claymore in his right hand even tighter, feeling the subtle shift in the air. Furthermore, the moment he noticed this change, abruptly the three-meters-tall porcupine jumped, curling its body in the air and executing a violent vertical spin.
Thus shooting its barbed quills, coated in a deep and dense green liquid excreted from its needle-like green tips, directly towards Aezaleon at an acceleration far greater than its current speed.
Aezaleon realized that despite his cautiousness, he still underestimated his enemy. There were more than two hundred barbed quills shooting towards him, spread in a radius of seventy meters with him as the center. He knew that dodging these quills was definitely impossible for the current him.
Also, even taking cover behind one of the many trees would be pointless because of the massive penetrative force behind these projectiles.
Henceforth, Aezaleon utilized the only thing he had currently: his sword. Normally, it would've been impossible for him to make use of a greatsword properly, let alone such a long and heavy claymore, considering this was the first time he even held a sword and all.
However, now things were different, because when he was given this greatsword by Clementine, she had also shared with him the three most basic moves of a sword or any other weapon with blades, alongside the needed footwork: parry, slash, and pierce.
She shared them through his sub-ability, [Shared Strength], of his fourth ability effect, [Eternal Oath of Dead: Master's Fortune].
The knowledge flooded his mind rapidly, completely settling into his muscle memory.
The second passed.
Aezaleon completely focused on the approximately thirty barbed quills that targeted him while disregarding the others wholly, as they were all spread around in a seventy-meters distance. He grabbed the claymore with both of his hands, took a decisive step back, and slashed and parried with his two-meters-long red greatsword more than thirty times within but a mere second.
Such an action made the veins on his arms bulge while his feet dug into the ground, slightly cracking the earth beneath him.
Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!
The thirty slashed and parried quills pierced the ground around him, all simultaneously. While the strain of pushing his body to such a limit so suddenly made the skin and even some of the muscles on his arms crack and tear apart, leaking fresh blood. Blood painted his arms red, some even splashing and warming his face. His breath was labored.
His gaze remained cold as he saw the venomous porcupine land on the ground, clearly surprised that its attack was neutralized thoroughly by a Calamity weaker than itself.
"Grrr..." it hised in anger, while its green eyes shone brightly. The first exchange that felt minutes long ended the second it began.
[I'm impressed!] Clementine voiced clearly in his head.
[To think you were able to completely neutralize that attack with the least amount of damage to yourself, truly amazing, husband. In any case, a good performance deserves a good reward. So here is a tip from your future wife; if you don't want to embarrass yourself before me, then kill that venomous porcupine as quickly as you possibly can, otherwise you will hundred percent die!]
"What do you mean?" Aezaleon demanded mentally. Even though he asked, he still heeded Clementine's warning and immediately shot towards the Calamity.
The porcupine, on noticing his rapid approach, instantly turned around and shot more of the venomous quills towards him, but this time Aezaleon was fully prepared and had already jumped high into the air, focused entirely on butchering this venomous Calamity no matter what.
THUD!
He landed before the savage Calamity, completely surprising it, and within a millisecond covered the few meters of distance separating them. Aezaleon stopped right before the three-meters-tall porcupine. The Calamity straight away used its sharp claws on him, but as his speed was greater, he dodged the swipe easily.
Subsequently, he swung the claymore downward, cutting the Calamity's hand, which he was easily able to do, thanks to the amazing greatsword in his possession, of course.
SPURT!
The sound was a wet rip, marking the very first drawing of blood in this encounter.