The First Life-and-Death Battle

Marcius leaped forwards as he stabbed the tip of Obsidian Edge, into the head of the demon beast in front of him.

"Alert! The bounty of Lycanis has been claimed. Calculating the appropriate reward." Kio's voice echoed in his head.

"Calculation completed. Host had been awarded with 300 bounty points, for hunting down Lycanis of savage rank."

Marcius frowned. This is the second time the system had given him just 300 bounty points for killing a demon beast of savage rank.

The demon beasts of Rubrum had a different power ranking than cultivators.

The most commonly known ranks of demon beasts were Savage, Hazard, Disaster and Apocalypse.

They were usually referred to as 'Danger Ranks.'

And each danger rank corresponded to two of minor cultivation realms.

A savage beast could be as strong as a spirit soldier realm, or a spirit elite realm.

A hazard beast could be as strong as a spirit master realm, or a foundation lord realm.

And the rest were also likewise.

The reason why there was a more generalization of power ranking in demon beasts than the cultivators was simple.

It was difficult to study demon beasts, their cultivation methods were completely different from the humans. And their amount of spirit energy never indicated what they were actually capable of.

They used both great physical strength and spirit energy. And, it made them difficult to predict. You could never know the exact strength of a demon beast until you actually fought them.

And, that was where Marcius faced a problem.

Marcius actually fought the Lycanis. And he knew it fell within the spectrum of a spirit elite realm.

When he first killed Felix Argus, who was also a spirit elite realm, he not only got 800 bounty points, he even got a skill book.

But now, killing Lycanis, he only got 300 bounty points.

He had already killed two Lycanis now. And the two of them only gave him 600 points in total. Nothing else.

When he got his first Lycanis kill, he thought the system had miscalculated. But on his second try, he got the same result.

So, he saved his last bounty slot. Because doing the same thing while expecting a different result was just stupid.

Also, he had already used two slots of bounty on two Lycanis. The slots were in 24 hours cooldown.

He was saving the last slot for something stronger.

Marcius quickly evaded to the left, as he felt something coming from the right side.

The Seven Circles Position technique gave him a complete awareness of his immediate surrounding.

He looked to the position he just moved from, and saw another Lycanis.

Lycanis was a wolf demon beast. Overall, the beast looked like a wolf. But Lycanis was bigger than a horse. And the eyes were purple with red furs.

"F**king Lycanis. It seems the forest is just full of them!"

Leon shouted from beside him, as he bisected another Lycanis from the middle. His sword was covered in bright red flames.

Marcius momentarily ignored his friend in favor of sheathing his sword.

The wolf in front of him and Marcius seemed to be in a standoff.

But a moment later, the Lycanis leaped forwards and Marcius sprang into action.

He quickly pulled the sword out, as he slashed using Red Serpent Slash technique.

The cut made contact with Lycanis's forehead from the middle, and continued though the entire length of the beast's body. The beast was neatly cut in half.

Well, that was not neat. There was blood and organs, and everything. It was messy.

The entire battlefield was messy.

After making sure that the entire was in order, Marcius took a quarter of his troops as well as Ser Janus, Leon and half the cultivators with spirit beasts to scout the forest, and start clearing it if the situation was favorable.

Marcius only had two days and a half until his trial. So, he wanted to get some jobs done, claim some bounties, and get some power ups.

So, he conducted a systematic clearing of forest area nearest to the camp.

At first, it was going well. Most of the wildlife they encountered were not hostile, or just too few in numbers and strength.

Then, a pack of Lycanis ambushed their group, and now, they were in this mess.

To Marcius's soldiers' credit, they reacted quickly and effectively. The results of rigorous drilling and training could be seen.

It seemed the troops were doing well. At least, Marcius hoped that there would be no heavy causalities.

After Marcius cut down two more Lycanis, he noticed the battle was coming to a close. He could see most of his soldiers clearing out the last few remnants of the Lycanis pack.

The lucky few demon beasts managed to get away.

Marcius observed the situation, as Ser Janus approached him.

"Young master, we counted 23 dead Lycanis in total. We suffered no causalities. But around 30 of our men were injured. Four of them need immediate medical care."

"Gave 'green blood' to the injured. Especially focus on the four who are gravely wounded. It will not cure them completely, but it will give us enough time to carry them back to the camp." Marcius commanded.

Then, he directly addressed the troops.

"Alright boys, we are going back. I wanted to scout the area to get more understanding of the situation. Now that I know what we are up against, we will be better prepared tomorrow."

A chorus of affirmatives could be heard, and the troops prepared to leave.

Marcius, himself, drank a bottle of green blood to refill his stamina. And then he slowly walked back to his mount.

At the start of the battle, Marcius had to abandon his horse, as fighting in the forest on horseback was just hindering him. If he was mounted, he couldn't even use most of his techniques.

As luck would have it, his mount was still alive and well, despite the messy battle.

Which was good, because it was a fine mount. And expensive too.

As he was preparing to climb onto his horse, Marcius saw a shadow moved from the peripheral of his vision.

He quickly jumped high, using the horse as leverage. With the help of Movement of Gaea, he quickly sored through the air and intercepted the incoming slash from a huge claw.

It was an Alpha Lycanis. And, it was waiting for its moment to ambush the expeditionary troops.

Had Marcius not intervened, the Alpha Lycanis could have taken out a huge number of soldiers.

The beast was even bigger than a normal Lycanis. It was twice the size of ordinary wolf demon beasts.

The huge beast had darker purple eyes. And it furs were red, with black tattoos running across the back.

As his soldiers prepared to attack, Marcius stopped them.

"No! Do not engage! Ser Janus and Leon will assist me. No one else will get involve. It is too strong."

The beast was at the hazard level in 'Danger Ranking.' And it was also very strong.

In terms of cultivation, it translated into roughly the peak of spirit master realm.

Marcius was not strong enough to fight the peak of spirit master realm alone.

Ser Janus was at the middle stage of spirit master realm. And, Leon was at the peak of spirit elite realm.

Together with Marcius, who was as strong as the middle stage of spirit master realm, it was normally enough to handle a peak spirit master realm.

That was, if their opponent was a human cultivator.

Here, they were facing a demon beast. A far stronger entity than a normal cultivator.

Marcius knew they had to be careful. But he also felt quite excited.

This was the closet he came to a life-and-death battle, since he woke up from the coma.

'Kio, put the Alpha Lycanis in the last bounty slot.'

'Acknowledged. Bounty placed on Alpha Lycanis.'

After hearing Kio's confirmation, Marcius slowly put his black sword back into its sheath, charging up another attack of Red Serpent Slash.

"Fine. You wanna play? Let's play."

*** *** ***

'Rubrum Trivia'

Flavic Forest

The Flavic forest stretched from the northern side of the city walls of Mediolan to the western side, where it met the Pire River and ended.

In other words, the forest covered a great portion of Mediolan's surrounding.

There were several attempts in the past, to clear the forest for the city's expansion. And all attempts had failed, due to the forest's dangerous wildlife and unfavorable terrain.

Every few years, a demon beast incursion would come from the depths of the forest itself. And the city would have to fight it off.

Sometimes, the incursion was small and the city guards would get an easy victory.

Sometimes, the incursion could be of great danger for the city. And the soldiers would have to fight tooth and nail, to protect the very existence of their city.

And to this day, the Flavic forest would remain a major thorn in the side of Mediolan city and its overlord, Aemilia clan.

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Author Notes

Hello! MidnightMK here!

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