Chapter 33：Assassination

Standing up within the bush, Jason made himself some space to dash out immediately when both would appear.

Jason could sense Artemis´ astonishment.

Afterward, he felt that she used large amounts of her mana to enhance her wings in order to accelerate her flying speed.

Jason grew worried but he told himself that he had to remain calm as Artemis plumage could be seen from far away.

She was at least 20 meters high in the sky, while below her Jason could see green bison pursuing her on the ground.

The bison was enveloped by a light green mana, roaring enraged.

Shooting out wind-blades towards Artemis, she had to use her utmost efforts to evade them, which was barely possible.

Artemis threw stones at the bison and made fun of it, which made the bison extremely furious.

Following and attacking the flying beast pleased the bison as it was reassured once again that it was the overlord in this area.

It knew that the small beast could only endure the onslaught of wind blades for a few minutes at most before it would be exhausted.

The small wind blades it used didn't take much of its mana because of the bison's mutation, which it instinctively figured out.

Completely without a single thought of protecting itself, the bison stared at the sky, not looking at what happened in front of it as it bypassed a big green bush.

Suddenly the bison felt a painful sting at its ride-side as it grew weaker when its legs couldn't handle the bison's weight anymore before it collapsed.

Turning its head, the bison saw a long red stripe with white bones sticking out of its body, caused by a Jade green dagger that stuck on its hindleg.

The bison's whole side was torn apart, blood and organs spilling out of the huge laceration caused by the dagger.

Crying out in pain once it saw a youth squeezed himself out of the bush, the bison felt enraged.

With its last efforts, it gathered the remaining mana inside it to shoot out a wind blade.

Jason was still completely on-guard against his first opponent with an elemental affinity.

However he was still only barely able to evade the wind blade as the blade´s draft blew away his hair.

Artemis dived down in rage after Jason was attacked, only to pierce into the bison's eyes with its sharp talons.

Immediately afterward, the weight of the white beast vanished once the bison died without taking revenge on any of its attackers.

Jason was astonished that his plan worked out so easily, causing him to sigh in relief.

The only thing that worried him was the fact that the wind blades were faster than he expected while Artemis was almost hit by some of them.

Still, the bison was way too full of itself as it didn't even notice Jason jumping out of the bush, tearing apart the bison´s whole side with his dagger.

Sometimes even a hunter might be hunted, and one should never feel too safe anywhere.

Jason ran to the dead body, only to see Artemis picking out the slightly green incomplete core which he instantly took out of her talons.

The amount of mana inside this core was almost at the awakened rank and he didn't want Artemis to eat this core.

Otherwise who knows how long he had to wait for her to wake up.

There was not much time left, as he had to hunt another four five-star wild beasts.

However, he had to rely on Artemis for that.

Artemis mana replenishing process was relatively fast while she sat on Jason's shoulder.

Jason strived around carefully to look out for some lone five-star wild beasts.

His luck couldn´t be considered good as he walked around until afternoon, even neglecting his Heaven's Hell practice, only to find nothing.... not a single solo five-star wild beast was in his sight.

He saw many larger groups of youth within the mid and a few peak Novice ranks fighting a large group of five-star wild beasts.

Finally!  Jason's luck paid off.

Seeing a group of youths overwhelming a pack of five-star greater horned wolves Jason rejoiced.

They split up and an injured wolf-headed his way.

Jason was still approximately 100 meters away from the whole battle.

He was delighted seeing that the youths pursued other wolves while the particular wolf who ran to him was alone.

Deciding to hide behind a tree, he waited for the perfect moment to ambush the wolf.

Seeing the wolf running past the tree, Jason gathered enough mana in order to push his speed to the limit in the shortest amount of time, thrusting out with his dagger, cutting through the unaware wolf's neck.

The whole assassination took less than a second and it was only possible because the wolf was foolishly running along the bush, not caring about any possible danger.

Not knowing what happened, the wolf collapsed on the ground, with its eyes turning dim in a short amount of time.

Storing the corpse without further delay, Jason vanished from the spot.

Only half a minute later, a few youths found the spot where the greater horned wolf was killed, looking down at the green patch of grass that was stained with fresh blood.

These youths were all at least a year younger than Jason, but they were already at the 8th Novice rank which indicated their strength.

One youth, in particular, looked at the blood-stained grass patch.

Jason was running far away with a big radiant smile on his face.

Only three out of five beasts had to be hunted down and Jason had still time until two days later, when he had to meet Greg.

He didn't think that he would find a lone five-star wild beast until the evening which was only around two hours away.

But even so, he continued his journey around the wild zone.

Artemis circles around him in the air, looking out for possible targets.

Suddenly, around half an hour later something that both of them didn't expect happened.

Above Artemis, the sky turned dark with a weird sensation approaching her, as she looked above, only to see a huge vulture diving down.

Horrified, Artemis cried out and also dived down with a ninety-degree angle, only to evade the vultures' talons by a hair length.

Noticing Artemis´ feeling horrified, he heard her crying out as he looked above.

The vulture was heavier and thus way faster with its dive than Artemis and Jason knew that the vulture would catch up to Artemis only a few moments later.

He made up his mind and utilized the only thing he could think of.

Gripping his dagger firmly, Jason pulled his arm back as he aimed with his other hand, following the trajectory with one finger.

Injecting half of his mana into the arm that held the dagger, Jason threw the dagger with a loud shout.

Jason knew he couldn't instantly kill the vulture, causing him to aim at a biggest part of the vulture, that was the abdomen.

But even so, he was still slightly off as the dagger pierced into the vulture´s wing.

The impact from the flying dagger changed the course of the vulture dive.

Noticing that, Artemis felt as if a stone was plucked from her small and tender heart as she continued her dive until she reached Jason.

She looked extremely horrified as if she was completely out of her wits and Jason had the urge to cuddle her.

However, he was unarmed and the vulture which landed slightly apart from them.

With his mana eyes activated, he figured out that the Vulture was a five-star wild beast.

Jason saw the dagger stuck deep into the vulture's wing which made him sigh in relief as he had at least injured it slightly, causing its best advantage to discard.

It couldn't fly with the dagger in its wing but its razor-sharp beak and talons were still more than threatening to the unarmed Jason.

Both Artemis and Jason were only faster than the injured vulture with some mana as enhancement but they shouldn't underestimate their sole opponent, as the vulture's physique and strength were still much higher than theirs.

Because he had no weapon to defend himself, Jason had to envelop his hands with a thin layer of mana in order to prevent them from being cut off or seriously injured.

Another major issue was that Jason that Artemis was injured!