CHAPTER 60: PROFICIENCY IN THE PHANTOM STRIKE AND SURPRISE

Three days went by and the siblings diligently practiced the phantom and used it against the dummies whose strength had been amplified to rival theirs, and their progress was steady.

*SWOOSH*

The weapons of the siblings blurred and appeared at the back of the swords of the dummies before impacting their heads and sending them flying backwards.

The siblings could now use the skill with a being of their won rank without any issues and were currently just sharpening the skill.

However, they didn't ask Draven to increase the ranks of the dummies since they were not allowed to use any form of enhancement and fighting someone a rank above them without said enhancement would just result in their death. It's also the reason why Victoria always uses her purple empress mode anytime she fights Gideon since it can boost her to that rank. Otherwise, Gideon would just mop the floor with her.

'I take back what I said before, these two will probably master this technique the next time they come here. I underestimated them big time!' Draven thought with his mouth twitching.

Although three days wasn't a significant amount of time, it wasn't short either, and so the fact that they were able to make such progress that quickly was definitely a blow to Draven's consciousness.

'Well, I should've seen this coming, Baal's layering technique is in no way inferior to my phantom strike, the only difference is that the process to learning the phantom strike is a bit more complicated, but when they've grasped the theory, mastering it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Still, at what point will their progress actually slow down? It sounds like I'm trying to slow down their progress on purpose, but at the same time, if they keep on progressing without any sort of bottleneck, then they'll become complacent.' Draven thought with some worry.

'Maybe Sia will be able to do it. That technique of hers is quite devastating, but equally as difficult to learn' He mused as the memory of a certain terrifying technique used by the fox girl entered his mind, causing him discomfort.

"Ahem, Gideon I remembered that you have a tamed beast, show it to me." Draven decided to distract himself from distracting thoughts (Yes, I did that on purpose) and asked Gideon to summon Lisk.

"Hm? Oh sure." Gideon immediately complied and decided to summon the Basilisk that had been silently devouring the corpses of other monsters in his inventory.

"Here it- WOAH!" Gideon exclaimed as a massive brown snake with uniquely patterned green scales emerged.

Lisk was now bigger, a LOT bigger than before. Moreover the pressure it released actually caused Gideon's eyes to widen as he felt as if he was being suppressed to some degree.

"You're at the mythical rank? When did that happen?!?" Gideon was stunned as he stared at the half a kilometer long snake in shock as it had already surpassed the size of its mother. Moreover, a small pair of horns had emerged from its head. Although they were the size of cows in reality.

"Wow you got big!" Gideon said in awe and pride as he patted Lisk head who closed its huge eyes as it enjoyed its master's touch. The sight caused Draven and Victoria's mouths to twitch as Gideon was casually petting a literal walking, or rather slithering disaster.

"Hmm, it seems to me that your beast has two attributes. That's really impressive!" Draven couldn't help but praise as he was shocked in his heart.

'What an impressive beast, it seems native to his home world and is different from our own snake type monsters. But for some reason, something tells me this beast is incredibly talented, probably no less talented than those two.' Draven couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

'Wait so brother's pet beast is stronger than me? What the heck!?! Even though I started training later, I can't let them get ahead of me. And I'm pretty sure that Lisk is younger than me as well. I can't accept this!' Victoria thought as determination blazed in her eyes. She would not be left behind.

'Hmm, now that I think about it, maybe Lisk can learn somethings related to earth magic from Teran. But it might be a bit difficult since it's intelligence should only be around that of a nine year old child.' Gideon seemed oblivious to Victoria's burning conviction and Draven's mild depression.

"You've been cooped up in there for too long, it's about time you have some fresh air. Also, we should probably let you practice your abilities a bit, since strength with no practice is pointless." Gideon said out loud.

"Let me practice with it." Victoria immediately spoke up surprising Gideon a bit.

"Are you-" Gideon was about to say something when he noticed the determination in his sister's eyes.

'Well, she can boost her strength with purple empress mode, and both of them actually lack in fighting, well, each other. Lisk hasn't fought a human before, and Victoria probably hasn't fought a monster either.

"Alright, I don't see why not." Gideon decided to agree, besides, it wouldn't hurt anyone. Not permanently at least.

"Hey, fight somewhere else, I don't want you two wrecking my house!" Draven said causing everyone to look at him weirdly.

"Can't you just create a barrier around it? You could one shot everyone here so defending from our attacks shouldn't be much of an issue, right?" Gideon asked in puzzlement.

"Yeah well I don't want to spend my astral energy on something so pointless. Besides, I will take your fight as a break for myself, and I don't want to start listening to the aftershocks of your fight." Draven spoke like an irritable old man which amused the siblings. Meanwhile Lisk just looked at the small human wondering why it was rambling like an idiot.

"Well alright." Gideon stepped back and decided that they would have their fight deeper in the forest.

As the two humans and giant snake moved away, Draven stayed true to his words and went into his house before entering his room to sleep.