Chapter 22: Hunting the Blood Crow

Although it was just the simplest hunting mission, Lucien still made thorough preparations and even brought along the few life-saving trump cards he had.

After all, in a sense, this was not only Carly's first combat but also his first real battle.

"After we're out, try to conceal yourself, and also, the academy's rule that forbids fighting is only applicable inside the academy and prohibits fratricide. If no one reports it, even if someone is killed, the academy won't investigate..."

After leaving the academy, Lucien rode on while imparting some knowledge to Carly.

As Carly listened, her right hand gripped the round shield even tighter.

Walking along, Lucien slowly came to a stop, bent down slightly, and made a silencing gesture towards Carly.

Carly quickly crouched down and followed the direction Lucien pointed, soon spotting their target.

Perched on a nearby branch was a crow the size of an owl.

It had a pair of crimson eyes and a clearly visible blood-red crown atop its head.

This was their mission target—the Blood Crow.

Lucien waved his hand lightly, pointing to himself, indicating that he would give Carly a demonstration with this first one.

Carly nodded, holding her breath as she wanted to closely observe how Lucien would carry out an effective hunt.

But, in fact, Lucien was somewhat nervous inside.

After all, strictly speaking, this too was his first actual combat. Especially under Carly's watch, if he messed up, it would be a major loss of face.

Thinking this, Lucien narrowed his eyes. After silently reviewing the procedure in his mind, he began to rapidly construct the witchcraft model.

In Lucien's right hand appeared a "blue Choo-Choo Gel," but beneath its calm and beautiful exterior was a heat exceeding that of common flames.

"Go," Lucien flicked his hand quickly, and under the control of his spiritual power, the unstable Blazing Technique reformed Flame Gel shot towards the Blood Crow.

"Caw!" By the time the Blood Crow perceived the danger, the projectile had already reached its front.

"Hold." Lucien's eyes blinked lightly, and to ensure absolute success, he quietly cast another level zero witchcraft, binding the Blood Crow for a moment.

Hiss—The seemingly gentle "Choo-Choo Gel" exploded upon contact with the Blood Crow, instantly turning into a blue flame that engulfed the crow.

Lucien revealed a smile.

But the next moment, he realized his smile had come a bit prematurely.

Under the scorching blue flame, the body of the Blood Crow was almost instantly burnt to a clean crisp, leaving only some ash-like burnt residues falling down.

As for the beak that served as proof for the mission? It had already turned to ash in the blue flame.

Lucien's mouth twitched, and his gaze covertly swept over Carly beside him.

Fortunately, her expression was still normal at the time, and even as she looked at the Blood Crow reduced to ashes, there was a hint of admiration in her eyes.

"Cough, cough, these fifty Blood Crows are your mission for this real combat exercise," Lucien coughed lightly, forcefully covering up his embarrassment. "I am just demonstrating to you what a proper attack looks like, but I won't give you any advantages with mission proof. You need to rely on yourself, understand?"

Carly nodded seriously, feeling the good intentions behind Instructor Lucien's guidance.

[Your student Carly looks up to you with great admiration, Admiration Value +1]

Lucien turned his head and felt a flush on his cheeks when he saw the system panel pop up with the message.

"Ahem, alright, next up, you," Lucien said, giving his cheek a light slap, then looked at Carly, signaling that her turn to take on the next blood crow came.

"Instructor Lucien, just watch me, I won't let you down!" Carly silently told herself with a resolute look in her eyes.

Soon, they spotted the second blood crow.

This time, Carly made her move.

She took a deep breath and silently adjusted her witchcraft model. Then, a slightly unstable blue gel materialized in her hands.

Carly manipulated her spiritual power, pushing it out swiftly!

Boom—

Perhaps due to nervousness, Carly's spiritual power became somewhat unruly less than three meters after pushing out the Flame Gel, which, already unstable, exploded under the excitement of the spiritual power. Although it caused Carly no substantial damage, the sudden high temperature gave her a rather unsightly hairstyle, and her whole appearance turned somewhat dirty and disheveled.

Carly instinctively looked towards Lucien, and by this time, the startled blood crow had already taken flight, speeding towards her direction.

Its sharp talons seemed to reflect a metallic sheen, and getting caught by them would surely result in a nasty torn flesh and skin injury at the least!

"Raise your shield!" Lucien shouted.

Carly then belatedly realized that she was still in combat and quickly lifted the round shield that Lucien had earlier thrust upon her.

The next moment, she heard a clang; her shield felt heavier, obviously having blocked an attack from the blood crow.

Carly breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, preparing to rebuild her witchcraft model for another spell cast.

"Yaah—" However, the blood crow, frustrated by its failed attack, let out a piercing scream.

The sound carried a weird penetrative force, as if it resounded directly in Lucien's and Carly's minds.

Pssh—Carly's nose started bleeding a little, the witchcraft model she was beginning to construct completely collapsed, and even her spiritual power suffered a slight backlash. At least for the moment before she recovered, she found herself incapable of casting witchcraft.

The disruption caused by the blood crow to Lucien was much smaller in comparison. After all, his spiritual power was more refined, and he had solidified 82 spiritual runes, rendering his Spirit Sea extremely stable.

The interference from this blood crow was almost negligible to him.

Lucien waved his hand, and the Flame Gel flew out towards the blood crow still in mid-air.

This time, Lucien didn't use any other witchcraft to assist, he even diminished the power of the Blazing Technique·Modified considerably under his control.

"Caw!" The blood crow drew a beautiful arc in mid-air, almost evading the Flame Gel thrown by Lucien.

"Explode!" Lucien thought, and deliberately used his spiritual power to detonate the Flame Gel, which at the moment wasn't far from the blood crow.

The explosion created a fireball in the sky, and half of the blood crow's body was engulfed by the flames. It could no longer maintain its flight and tumbled awkwardly down from midair.