Aezaleon's expression hardened.
He could feel that this battle would be unlike anything he had fought before.
But that in fact excited him even more, considering after the eight calamities he just absorbed, along with the previous Calamity: White Ibex, he could feel that he was halfway done to reaching ascension rank three already!
Three to four ascension rank three calamities and he was sure that he would ascend to the next rank; the sole reason behind his excitement.
"Remember the moment you kill this Calamity: Galescourge Bearer, the leader of this colony would definitely notice your presence," Clementine reminded him in a sharp, cautionary tone.
"And obviously it would come for you—the invader killing his subjects—along with the other calamities to hunt you down! Meaning, you would only have two to three minutes to rest, prepare or even kill the other rank three Galescourge Bearer residing in the north or the south, before the others reaches you."
Aezaleon nodded without even glancing at her.
Coming out of the concealment, he rushed towards the Calamity: Galescourge Bearer, who was roaming the treeless land just two hundred meters away from him.
The calamity immediately noticed his presence as his head snapped towards Aezaleon's direction. His purple eyes narrowed, aglow with an eerie light and full of wrath on finding some other calamity on his land.
In four seconds, Aezaleon reached the calamity, who had not moved from his location even after discovering him. But he did not care why that was the case, as he came to a sudden halt, his feet digging into the ground and creating a cobweb-shaped crack from the massive strength exerted.
Such movement generated a strong flow of wind that put pressure on the calamity, while Aezaleon's claymore slashed towards the calamity's foreleg!
SHOOWH! CRACK! SLASH! CLANG!
However, that was when the unexpected happened, as instead of feeling pressured by the gust of wind, the calamity used it to change the position of his body with a masterful precision. His head tilted as one of his antlers blocked the sword, creating visible sparks.
With a slight jerk, the Galescourge Bearer pushed Aezaleon backward, following after him immediately. His antlers glowed in an eerie purple, which spread to his dark black-purple fur. The coat rustled and the calamity roared, unleashing the Darkwinds—silent, precise, and fast.
It was a gust that shot in every direction, with an acceleration far surpassing that of Aezaleon's!
Therefore, the instant he steadied himself from the push, the Darkwinds struck him, sending him rolling backwards fifty meters with many irregular cuts. The lacerations spread all over his body, from deep and shallow to even longer, running vertically, horizontally, and diagonally; his shirt was completely shredded apart. The attack left him soaked in his own blood, with much of the flesh on his hands falling down.
"UAGH!" he groaned out in raw pain.
Aezaleon gritted his teeth while his gaze narrowed, realizing that even though the calamity has not awakened its soul core yet, it was still able to match his speed because of the unique wind elemental force it had grasped.
Not to mention the concepts this calamity had comprehended. He observed his body, noticing how his wounds had begun to fester already, within mere seconds!
"How troublesome!..." Aezaleon muttered in a grim tone, looking at his skin. It truly looked disgusting.
It was fortunate that as a Normalblood calamity, unlike him a Pureblood calamity, this Galescourge Bearer could only utilize one inferior concept at a time. Otherwise, with strong inferior concepts such as [Infection], [Paralysis], and [Energy Drain], the calamity would have become far more dangerous than it already was.
"Let's go long range this time! Those noiseless and fast-moving wind attacks are really dangerous..." he voiced with a determined edge.
Meanwhile, the calamity obviously wouldn't wait for him to recover. It shot towards him with his antlers glowing in purple again but in a different pattern, indicating the usage of another ability.
On the other hand, Aezaleon also stretched his left hand to the side, for the first time utilizing the power of his inferior concept: [Lesser Frost].
He created a meter-long and five-centimeters-thick Ice Needle in his left hand.
He threw it towards the charging calamity with his full strength, and without a second thought, moved backward.
Maintaining the distance, he kept throwing the Ice Needles, which the calamity did not dodge at all because of not feeling threatened by them.
However, killing the calamity with these ice needles was never Aezaleon's goal from the beginning. Rather, it was his other inferior concept, [Movement Impairment], that he imbued in those ice needles before throwing them at the Galescourge Bearer!
In a twenty-second chase, the deer calamity was wounded by more than seventeen ice needles, and despite that, the calamity had not noticed how much his speed had fallen and how stiff his movements had become because of the cold that spread in his body and the ice that froze his muscles and major internals.
Meanwhile, in these twenty seconds, almost all of Aezaleon's wounds had recovered. This was quite easy for him to pull off, considering that as a Pureblood calamity, the quality of his energy was plainly higher than a Normalblood calamity.
In other words, all he had to do was fight against the festering rot from the Darkwinds, powered by a low-quality energy, with his high-quality energy. He was able to do it in these twenty seconds, while letting the natural regeneration of his body as a calamity take over afterwards to patch up his skin.
Also, he was simultaneously getting his lost tissues regenerated by his companion—Clementine!
Now, with the time ticking at thirty seconds since the start of the battle and with twenty-five ice needles piercing the Galescourge Bearer, Aezaleon suddenly shot towards it instead of distancing himself from the charging calamity.
This action left the calamity shocked, making his eyes go wide, but he also felt elated.
Finally, he had the annoying rat in his hands.
ROAR! He was fucking as hell going to paralyse the shit out of this rat now, so it won't run anymore. Afterwards he would surely eat him alive for annoying him so much. It was vengeance time!
With such thoughts, the savage calamity grinned, (figuratively) and advanced towards his prey with renewed vigor. However, that was when the unexpected happened, as the rat, by the calamity bitch, became faster than him all of a sudden!
SLASH!
He didn't even have the time to blink, let alone activate his ability with the inferior concept of paralysis, when he saw the world spinning. Subsequently, he saw his body; headless—with blood gushing out in a conspicuous amount.
SPURT!
The Galescourge Bearer's eyes became blank as the darkness consumed him. The head hit the ground along with the headless body with a small thud.
"This was pretty easy...!" Aezaleon commented in a cool tone, resting the blade on his shoulder. "I wonder how their leader would turn out to be?!"
"Don't waste the time, absorb this calamity and let's go kill another before facing the final boss," Clementine said in a calm voice, landing beside him in a graceful manner.
However, this time Aezaleon shook his head in denial. "No, I'm out of energy! Constantly running at my full speed and creating so many ice needles had drained me a lot. I only have about twenty percent energy left in both my cores combined," he voiced in a weary tone.
"Ooh... Well, it is to be expected when you have so many unnecessary movements and with almost zero proficiency in your concepts," Clementine remarked, shaking her head.
"And you had the arrogance to say it was an easy battle, just because you suffered less compared to the previous battles!" she added in a teasing yet firm voice.
Aezaleon smiled at her remark but didn't say anything. He threw the calamity's head near the headless body and used
"This would surely get me back to a hundred percent. Also, let's see if I can get a concept or two!" He voiced with an expectant glower.