Rishi was in a dilemma as he looked at Sheru in front of him, who was in a trance state. It was very rare to enter this state, and whenever someone did, he could improve rapidly. He knew this was a fortuitous encounter that his contracted beast had earned himself, but he couldn't help but get worried about its health. It had lost a lot of blood, and its situation was critical. At worst, he could lose his life in a trance state. He now needed to decide whether to stop it and save its life while snatching away this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from it or let him completely utilize it by risking its life.
The decision was tough; he activated his 'Extreme Focus' and started thinking of an alternative way. From what he could see, he could only go on for two minutes in this state. His mind started calculating various ways and their results. One minute passed, but he could not think of a way to escape this situation. Despite not being involved, he was sweating heavily.
He knew the future of his contract beast depended on his choice, and with each passing second, he was getting even more anxious. Then, he suddenly remembered that he had won a support type Forbidden Art as Prize. This art made the contract beast strong by burning the life force of the beast tamer in return. He didn't know if it would work or not, but he only had ten seconds left. He took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and activated them as his last hope to escape this situation.
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ An evil gray fire started burning over his palm; this fire didn't harm him. It was different from all the other fires he had seen; it didn't have any properties; it was like it didn't exist. But this illusion broke apart when Rishi saw a small percent of his life force dissipating from his body and the size of the flame increasing.
The ground beneath the black-colored contract beast shone with a blood-red aura. A magic circle appeared there before shining in a mysterious glow. When Rishi thought he had been fooled, a red mist enveloped Sheru's body. It healed the wounds and increased Sheru's strength. It was as if a transparent, blood-red aura surrounded him that increased all its stats; this resulted in him training in an even more violent way.
Rishi sighed when he saw that this art didn't affect the trance state. He shook his head and came out of his other distracting thoughts. Five seconds had passed, but even with the bit of healing, it didn't look like Sheru could keep up for a long time. Now he only had one choice. He clenched his teeth and said, "I can't let this fortuitous encounter go to waste." He closed his eyes and activated the second mode of this art.
The small gray flame in his palm moved a little as if crying in excitement before increasing in size and covering his whole body. From far away, it looked like he was burning and would die at any second, but only he knew that this fire was very special; it only consumed life force and ignored everything else. The maid had her eyes wide open, and her right hand was on her mouth. She was not able to believe he would use a forbidden art. She was worried for him, as she knew these things with the title "forbidden did more harm than good, and only a few special and talented people could take advantage of them.
The magic circle below the magic beast shone brightly before the red-colored cloud surrounded Sheru and started to enter his body. It rapidly healed all his injuries while enhancing his basic stats to a level incomparable to others at the same level. His comprehension ability also increased, and he started to master SWRD techniques at a very fast pace. Sheru was unaware of all this; he only realized a warm feeling and the feeling of getting stronger. This strengthened his determination and motivated him to keep going, and while the trance state had special effects, it lasted for a short time due to the pressure it put on his body.
Being in Trance State for so long was not easy; only a select few could remain in it for five minutes, but here was Sheru, who had passed this time frame due to the support of Rishi. Time kept passing, and the tiger kept swinging the sword every second. His way of using the sword was refined. It was improving at a very rapid pace. While before it looked like the beast was swinging the sword like a toy or any other object, now each of his sword swings was beautiful and contained an intent to cut.
The walls and ground beneath were getting destroyed with each passing second. Sheru had recovered and was in better condition thanks to its increased basic stats, but the same could not be said for Rishi, who was losing a large amount of life force every second. If this continued, Rishi could not keep on for a long time.
This continued as the Black Tiger swung the sword in his mouth like any other sword user, each of its deadly attacks. A red aura was burning like fire around its body, giving it the strength to keep up and be in a trance state. It danced from one place to another, performing a beautiful sword dance. While the sword dance was of low grade and nothing special, the precision with which the beast performed it made it look heavenly.
One minute passed, and the silver-haired boy was on his knees. The life force inside his body had depleted to only ten percent. It could be seen from his look that he couldn't keep on doing it for a longer time, but he remained quiet. There was a determined expression on his face. He activated the "Life Force Magnet' skill, and the life force around him started rushing into his body, recovering the life force inside his body.
His face brightened to his natural self as the life force inside his body was again at forty percent. Despite having such cheating abilities, there was no joy on his face. The mana this technique required was immense, and while it had little cooldown if it was used in a short time, it required even more mana. Sheru, you can do it. I am here to support you; don't give up.
Despite being in such a bad situation, he was cheering for his contract beast. While his life force was consumed and recovered, he was not feeling well because the recovered life force was not his own, which caused little problems for him. The effect appeared all over his body whenever his life force depleted to less than ten percent. His skin started getting dry, and he started aging. He was only so calm because he knew those effects were temporary.
The contract had only a few seconds left. It had learned a lot about the basics of swordsmanship but had still not learned a single sword technique. This made Rishi worried, as he looked at Sheru with a worried expression. He saw the Balck Tiger holding a sword with his jaw jumping in the air before the sword in his mouth shone brightly into a golden glow. The beast then swung the sword, turned his body, and attacked from all sides in a circular motion.
The first time, it could only make a quadruple circle, but it didn't give up and tried again. After ten seconds, it succeeded in creating a semi-circular sword slash but was unsatisfied.
It tried again and again for a few more seconds before it again jumped in the air with its body surrounded by a red aura burning like a fire. Despite being extremely tired, there was a determined expression on Sheru's face. It spun while jumping in the air beautifully before it again concentrated the sword's energy on the tip of the sword. The sword shone in a bright golden glow one more time before the beast tightened the sword grip on his jaws and swung it. Sheru again slashed and moved his body to create a circular path for the sword.
It slashed again; this time, it succeeded in almost 90% of the circular sword slash. Before the sword, the glow started to dim, but Sheru concentrated and completed the attack before its four feet landed on the ground. A circular sword slash made up of a golden color shot moved around Sheru, destroying anything that came into contact in the circle with a radius of seven meters.
Sheru released the sword's grip in its mouth as it fell, and he roared before fainting. His unconscious body started falling when someone appeared next to it and kicked the sword away so it didn't hurt Sheru.
He also stopped the Forbidden Art; his whole skin was breaking apart. His silver hair now had some traces of white hair, and his rough skin was loose on his face. It was due to only having five percent life force left inside his body. Despite being in such a state, he was more worried about his contract beast and checked its health before sighing in relief and collapsing.
The maid supported him, and a trace of a smile appeared on her always serious face. "Why are they both so eager to die, Like Master Like pet" Even when she complained, she was happy for them.