60. Assea

The rank 3 Earth snake retreated once the wound was inflicted but it was met by the fangs of the blood companion that had appeared behind it.

Noah had made it retreat inside his body and released it toward the beast to speed its attack.

The companion stabbed its fangs into the rank 3 beast's body and held them firmly into it, Noah followed shooting a dozen wind slashes.

The Earth snake could not avoid the assault since Noah's snake was keeping it still and was hit by the river of flying slashes.

Wounds appeared on its body as it hissed in pain, meanwhile, the rank 2 snakes left behind in its retreat had reached them and were jumping on the two enemies.

Noah once again absorbed the companion and launched it at the pack while he jumped at the rank 3 beast.

The blood companion thrashed out its body on the tens of rank 2 beasts and madly attacked without caring about the injuries that it was experiencing.

Every time its body was bitten or hit, part of Noah's "Breath" would be expended to heal it.

In the few minutes since the battle had begun, Noah's reserves of "Breath" were halved.

While the blood companion was keeping the pack away, Noah engaged in a solitary fight with the rank 3 snake, assaulting it relentlessly.

He managed to heavily wound the beast in the initial clashes and was pressing in his attacks to slowly exhaust the strength of the snake.

The Earth snake was a rank 3 beast, its intelligence was superior to that of the weaker magical beasts.

It understood that, with the initial advantage of the invaders, its situation was turning grim, so it continued to defend its head waiting for the pack to come in its rescue.

Noah, though, could not waste time as his reserves of "Breath" diminished rapidly with every second that he spent fighting and the absorption from his acupoints was barely enough to sustain the blood companion's battle.

He violently stabbed the snake's skin, increasing the number of wounds on its body as blood rained down from its figure.

When more than forty deep cuts were on the beast's body, it finally slowed its movements and Noah managed to deliver a firm lunge at one of its eyes.

The rank 3 Earth snake convulsed like crazy when the saber stabbed in its head but was stopped by a huge mouth clenching on its throat, the blood companion had appeared below it and immediately attacked.

The pack of rank 2 snakes could not keep up with the speed of Noah's snake retreating in his body and were left behind, forced to watch their leader's last moments.

The Earth snake collapsed on the ground and Noah stabbed his saber in its head again while his companion ripped off a big part of its throat, leaving their enemy's head hanging on a small piece of skin.

The rank 3 Earth snake was dead!

Its pack stared at the two figures near its body for a moment and then dispersed in fear.

Noah looked at the retreating snakes and heaved a sigh of relief, he was almost exhausted and there were still around twenty rank 2 snakes in the pack.

If they had attacked, he would have probably had to hide in the companion's body and retreat.

He plucked out the fangs of every Earth snake's corpse he found on the ground and hastily retreated in the first cave he managed to find after putting them inside the space-ring.

He didn't dare to do that with the corpse of the rank 3 Horned snake because of the strong poison on its fangs.

When he was in a safe space he relaxed and let the fatigue from the combat assault him.

'This battle was so dangerous! If my "Breath" had exhausted during the fight, I would have been doomed. Yet, having this guy assaulting from any direction I want is really useful, I wonder how stronger it would be if it was of my element.'

The head of the companion came out of Noah's body and stared at him.

Noah simply patted its head while continuing with his thoughts.

'The capacity to enter and exit my body at will with that speed is definitely one of the stronger aspects of the spell. Another one is the healing ability of the companion which is almost limitless as long as I have enough "Breath" to keep it going, only a really strong attack might force the companion to hibernate to recover.'

Noah took some meat from his space-ring and ate till he was full, then he neared the end of the cave and laid himself on the ground to sleep.

The ethereal snake had its head outside Noah's body staring carefully at its surroundings.

'The expenditure is not even that much since the blood companion is mostly autonomous, only one order will keep it working for hours. I guess that is balanced by the requirements for the activation of the spell and the constant pressure that is forced on the user due to the sharing of their senses.'

He remembered some of the words in Uriah's diary and nodded internally.

'No wonder Uriah called it "the pinnacle of their art", only by fighting as two instead of alone, its power matches the magic that Orson used and this without considering the other aspects of the blood companion and the fact that our elements are not even the same.'

Noah was extremely satisfied with the power of the spell and knew that the one showed in the previous battle wasn't its full potential.

'When I get the dantian and find out my element, I would have to change companion otherwise I would be wasting the real strength of the spell.'

He turned to look at the snake's head that was guarding him and smiled a little.

'I guess I should give it a name while I keep it. Let's go with Assea, in honor of those that created the technique.'

Then, Noah closed his eyes and slept, with his companion now named Assea rigorously guarding him.