Chapter 26.

Adrian POV

Watching Trystan and Isis fight was teaching him a lot about fighting. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Adrian didn't fight, he just butchered his targets. They didn't get a chance to retaliate or to show their tricks or anything like that. All they could do once they were in range was die.

The Lesser Drakon that Isis and Trystan were fighting was a perfect example. Adrian had killed half a dozen of them with ease. He had never seen a living one up close, as the simple combination of Blindsight and Thousand Swords had been more than enough to kill them along with a few hundred other monsters. The only remarkable part of the monster had been that it had unlocked 14 different sword forms which was much greater than the average of five.

Trystan and Isis however could not simply slaughter them from a few hundred meters away with a single attack. The monster had more than enough defense to survive one of Trystans's kicks or Isis' spells. It couldn't hurt them either, Isis was well defended by Trystan, and the black filolial had enough defense that he could probably stand still and barely be injured.

All in all, it was a wonderful demonstration of what combat between beings who were in range of each other's strengths should look like.

It was probably why Adrian was seriously tempted to eviscerate the drakon. Every attack from the drakon that almost hit Trystan, or whenever the monster approached Isis while she chanted her next spell tempted him to just kill the thing and be done with it.

It was a foolish impulse. Combat practice was something necessary for them. They didn't have his advantages, Adrian would almost always have the edge in terms of versatility and raw stats, his allies would not. In fact if they faced people like Glass or L'arc, it would be wise to assume that they would be at a huge disadvantage stat-wise.

It didn't stop the heart attack he had every time Trystan was sent flying by an attack. The superhuman nature of the Filolial meant that an attack that would have turned an elephant into a puddle of blood and guts was something that he could just shrug off but it was still heart-stopping to see the bird go flying through the air before he regained his bearings and bounced back into battle.

Only the fact that he could see his filolials life force and the fact that he had access to some pretty miraculous levels of healing let him continue this sort of training.

Raphtalia was not as calm as he was. The girl had become attached to the filolials, Trystan in particular was very fond of her, and she flinched every time they were attacked and watched with tense anticipation no matter how trivial their enemy. Adrian feared that he might have been exacerbating her issues. She had lost her parents to battle, it would not surprise him if she had an immense aversion to it.

She kept on turning towards him, but didn't say anything. Adrian wondered if she was considering asking him to stop making the filolials fight. He knew that she liked them, she probably didn't like to see her friends fighting giant monsters. He kept a portion of his attention on her using Blindsight, she was right next to him, but most of his focus and his eyes were on his filolials. He felt bad about exposing her to battle like this, but they had to be his priority for the moment.

Isis was chanting even as she moved away from the monster, Trystan interrupted the snake-like monsters charge by slamming into it feet first, the scales where Trystan hit shattered and the organs and muscles beneath them turned into pulp.

The Drakon hissed in fury but backed away from Isis and turned its attention towards Trystan. It tried to bite the black filolial.

That was its' final mistake.

Isis took her chance and finished her long chant. She had an incredibly focused expression and through his mana sight he could see that she was collecting an incredible amount of power. She began to glow both in his normal sight and mana sight and he could feel the world around him shudder.

An instant later her whole body lit up with a corona of lightning that coalesced into a thin beam that slammed into the drakon while it was chasing Trystan.

The results were horrific. The beast died in an instant but its dead body continued to twitch as the lighting ravaged its' muscles, eventually, that stopped but only because its entire nervous system had been utterly ravaged and its muscles were basically vaporized or liquified. The smell was eye-watering and made him feel like throwing up.

But it was very effective.

He smiled at the two filolials as they approached him, Raphtalia looked relieved and a little sick, she alternated between staring at the filolials and the still smoking monster behind them. It was interesting to see the combination of awe and fear she held.

"Well done," he said, then turned his full attention towards Trystan, "Trystan I know that you are durable but you must stop taking unnecessary hits."

It had been the only real flaw that his inexperienced eyes had noticed. Thankfully the battle had been slow enough for him to analyze it easily.

The bird looked a little ashamed but nodded seriously enough and said, "Yes brother, I will. I promise."

It was good to see that he was willing to take the battle seriously. It had worried him a great deal to send the cheerful boy into battle. No matter the fact that he was a giant bird, he was still two days old. He had been worried about the filolials getting traumatized or not taking the battles seriously enough. Thankfully they took the problem seriously enough.

"Raphtalia," he said, waving his hand towards Trystan.

She nodded and scrambled up on top of Trystan with Isis and they began to move towards their next target. Adrian kept an eye on them with Blindsight but took went towards the smoking corpse and began to harvest it. It would not unlock any powers but he wasn't willing to leave it to rot.

Plus, any additional drops would see some use later on.

Adrian frowned as he tried to feel the flow. It was better than before, he could tell that something was there, but it was like trying to hold onto air. He could feel it but it just...slipped away.

He sighed, closed his eyes, and then tried again. Adrian took a deep breath, focusing on the point on his hand where Isis had inserted her magic, and then did his best to feel it.

One breath, as slow as he could make it. A second and then a third. He felt his senses focusing on the feeling of lightness. It was hard to describe like there was something crawling underneath his skin, it was odd but it felt good. Like it was making him stronger in some way.

But then the feeling started to fade.

Adrian opened his eyes and looked at Isis who had been waiting while nibbling on some grilled dragon meat, "Again," he said.

She nodded and then touched his forearm. Instantly he felt a spark flare through his body, starting at his arm and then spreading, he nodded and closed his eyes. Trying to remember the feeling as best he could.

Another series of deep breaths but this time he felt something more than before. It was like he suddenly had another sense. He tried to move this phantom limb but it didn't respond, it was eerie, like deciding to move your fingers only to find that they didn't respond.

Inhale and hold.

He focused all his will onto that pseudo-limb and as he exhaled he pushed.

"You did it!" came an excited voice.

His concentration shattered in an instant and he felt his control go haywire. The feeling of the limb faded like it had never been there and Adrian felt oddly empty as he opened his eyes and stared at his hands.

They were glowing for a moment. It was a short moment all told but with his stats, it was basically an eternity.

Adrian didn't fight the smile that wanted to emerge. Even Trystan's obnoxious interruption didn't change anything, he had finally started on the path to be able to do magic.

He looked towards the young lady who was the only reason he had gotten as far as he had, "Thank you Isis." he said, " I owe you one."

And he meant it. Isis did what she did intuitively, without any real thought behind the matter, that was impressive but it meant that this method she invented and Adrian modified was something she had worked hard to figure out.

Isis smiled brightly and immediately stopped berating her brother.

Adrian stared at the results of his late-night hunt with annoyance. His efficiency had risen yet again. He had gained more experience than ever before but in every other measure, he had gained less than before.

Fewer levels, less than two hundred new sword forms and practically no useful skills. All in all the Dragon Territory was proving to be a location with diminishing returns. He had not expected to reach this point after just two days but it was clear that he had overestimated the variety of monsters in this area. If his suspicions were right then it must have been because of the Dragons destroying all the other monsters in the area, cutting down on the species diversity.

The plants were still pretty varied but most of them had started to give him stat boosts after he had unlocked a lot of plant growth boosts, plant alchemy, poisons, herbology related swords and such. He had no problem with the stat boosts of course but the simple fact was that it was becoming more and more difficult to make a profit hunting here.

Considering that his party was at level 38 with Raphtalia a little lower at 35, it would probably be wise to head towards the coast. He needed to hunt down some aquatic monsters beyond the freshwater monsters he had hunted, some more swimming and underwater combat skills would be good to track down the hourglass at Cal Mira and hunt down some unique monsters underwater where he was likely to find a lot of interesting monsters.

Adrian sighed, annoyed, at how badly he had overestimated the usefulness of this area. He had assumed that just because it was rumoured to be full of powerful monsters he would have a good chance of reaching level 50 swiftly. Yet, here he was at level 43, barely able to level up once despite leveling solo for four hours. It was a horribly slow rate in comparison to his previous achievements. To be certain it probably exceeded anyone else on the planet but considering that he was going to fight an apocalypse for certain and potentially nations who wanted to control him while protecting three young children that he had dragged into this mess...well he had good reason to rush.

Adrian blinked in slight surprise as the camp he had set up for the filolials and Rapthalia came into view. They were talking, no, it was more like Isis and Trystan were teaming up against Raphtalia.

He stopped and tried to understand what they were saying, Blindsight didn't help here as he couldn't read lips and even if he could Trystan was in his filolial form and Raphtalia and Isis were not speaking English, but he could tell that Raphtalia was not feeling cornered.

The hug from Trystan confirmed his suspicions but also bought up the question of what they were talking about that Raphtalia seemed to be on the edge of crying. She was smiling and wasn't sad but she was unquestionably worried about something and the other two were comforting her.

Adrian smiled a little at their kindness, their trust in each other, tentative as it was, and crushed the swell of melancholy that threatened to swamp him.

He waited until they had calmed down and then used Dash to get close to the camp. He ensured that his footsteps were loud enough for them all to hear them. Demi-human and monster ears were more than good enough to casually hear his footsteps and Blindsight let him catch the scramble to prevent him from realizing what they had been doing.

He kept his smile up as he walked into camp, sat down near them, but far enough for them to feel comfortable, warped his sword into a smaller form and then looked to the three of them.

They still looked a little tense but the filolials had already started to relax. Raphtalia, however, looked even more worried than she had before. He would need to start this conversation, or at least allow her the opportunity to speak with him if she wanted to.

"Did something happen?" he asked, keeping his voice light, palms facing his party. With Raphtalia's growth she was much taller than him when he was seated so it would likely help her consider him as a little less intimidating...though the slaughter of thousands of monsters and the smell of blood as a result of that probably didn't help matters there.

All three of them exchanged looks before Isis looked away. Trystan, on the other hand, pushed Raphtalia forward with a wing and said, "Raphtalia wanted to say something to you big bro! You have to help her!"

Adrian sighed, a little frustrated, at Trystan's horrible explanation. Even worse Raphtalia looked at Trystan with betrayal in her eyes. This would probably not end well but he had to wonder about what help she needed.