"Hey guys! Over here!"
In the distance, Tiana was jumping and waving at both Ray and Cù. Her excited face was clear for everyone to see.
Unlike everyone else, she was not wearing the academy's uniform as one should. She was not wearing the blazer but instead had it tied around her waist. She was also wearing a few accessories that she didn't have earlier in the day.
"I haven't hunted in a while. I'm so excited, I wonder how different the game is around here."
Once they approached, that was the first thing she said.
Hearing her question, Ray turned to Cù.
"You went hunting at lunch, right? How are things around here?"
"Well, it is pretty modest compared to the area I usually hunt in. The prey are normally smaller and, weirdly, less alert. There are mostly rabbits, deer, and boars. There are some magical creatures around, but they are pretty rare and sensitive, they run away as soon as they sense you."
"Hmmm. I haven't had rabbit for a while, but I prefer bigger game. What about you, Ray?"
He really didn't know how to respond, after all, when he was hunting before as a Dragon, his prey were always gigantic beasts that dwarfed any mundane animal. Normally there weren't that many beasts of that type in the forests, so he sometimes went into the ocean to find some, as those were normally bigger.
"I like the bigger ones, the stronger, the better."
"Haha! Me too! The stronger they are, the more fun we get when hunting! It gives you such a good feeling to eat something that actually put up a fight."
"Yeah, I suppose."
Once again, Tiana's cheerful and outgoing personality left Ray feeling a bit awkward, like he wasn't excited enough.
"Let's go. Although I don't mind hunting at night, I prefer eating before midnight."
"Geez, Cù, live a little. What's the use of hunting if you don't have some fun? Otherwise, it would be just for hunger, and for that we have farming, which is boring."
"Does your family deal with farming alot?" Ray asked.
"Not really our family business, I'm the daughter of the matriarch, after all. It's just that farming is one of our exercises to strengthen the body, you see."
While saying that, she pulled the sleeve of her shirt and flexed her muscles, revealing a bicep that a lot would envy.
"Hmm. I think I saw that plot somewhere before. . ." Cù started.
"Every similarity is purely a coincidence."
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Nothing!" Tiana rapidly dismissed it.
"I will show you later."
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!!"
Hoping to change the subject, Tiana grabbed the arms of both of them and pulled them in the direction of the forest where they were supposed to hunt.
When they got there, the sun was already setting, painting the sky with an orange hue.
So, without waiting any longer, the three of them jumped straight into it. At first, they were planning to split up and then regroup later, but Tiana insisted that going together would be more fun, and both of them complied.
It was hard to say no to her.
And although Ray did not have much experience in that area, it was indeed more fun that way.
Cù was really serious when hunting. It was different from his stoic and relaxed expression that Ray had seen today and was vastly different from the frenetic and battle-lusting warrior he had fought during the entrance exams.
Tiana was... loud. It was actually quite impressive how she didn't scare any prey. Perhaps the reason why she liked the bigger and stronger ones was simply because they didn't run off as soon as her voice sounded.
Still, the way the three ended up working together was rather smooth.
Ray had decided to limit himself to only using his aura, and that caused him to lag a bit behind the other two, but that was good exercise.
Regardless of his self-imposed disadvantage, the other two adapted quickly enough to his practice and also restricted their mana.
Tiana was the most flexible and agile of the three, so she was the one that did most of the rapid movement, like catching a rabbit or pursuing an animal.
Cù was rather sensitive. His senses were sharper than a normal human being's, much more than Ray's, if he didn't use mana or aura. He was the scout of the trio.
And Ray, being the physically stronger, was the one in charge of killing off the prey.
***********
A deer ran off at an impressive speed thanks to its aura-enhanced body. All of its life it had lived quite the comfortable life, being one of the few supernatural creatures in the region, its mere presence was enough to offset several dangers.
But today, the instincts that before allowed it to control aura to arm itself were now screaming at it to run away.
Tiana was jumping from tree to tree, her body covered in a blood-colored aura. She was chasing it and making sure that it did not escape their sight.
A few moments ago, Cù had noticed its scent and directed the direction fairly quickly.
Tiana was the first to sprint in the identified direction.
Ray soon followed.
A red aura encasing and enhancing his body to its fullest extent. Right now he was using a special way of aura enhancement.
Much like mana, aura could also be affected by affinities. For example, with Ray's fire affinity, he could cause various changes to his aura by making use of it. Said changes being the use of aura in powerful explosion-like bursts, allowing sudden and powerful enhancements to the body.
Or it could be used to enhance the body to another level for a short period of time in exchange for a period of exhaustion.
So he was using the former method to perform various dashes at various and very well-timed moments.
It didn't take long for him to reach the poor dear.
Using bursts of aura on his feet and hands, he rose up in the air at an incredible speed.
Seeing Ray rise into the air, Tiana sped up, surpassing the deer and cutting it off, forcing the animal to hastily try to stop and change directions while successfully evading the girl that was seemingly faster than it was, and her cheerful smile was oddly terrifying.
However, such a pause was deadly. With another, particularly powerful, aura burst sent from his hands and feet, Ray rushed to the ground at great speed, landing with both reinforced feet on the deer's back with enough force to kill the magical creature at that very moment.
Watching the debris and dust being blown away from the area of effect, Tiana watched with shock.
Walking off with the dead deer on his shoulder, he looked at her weirdly.
"Why are you so shocked? You thought I would be weaker?"
"No! It's not that! It's just..." She glared at him while widening her eyes. "Why would you kill it like that?! Couldn't you be more clean?"
'Is that really such a big problem?'
"She is right. Now I will have to be careful to remove any bone fragments that are now imbued into the meat after that strike, besides the whole dust."
Cù approached.
"That's not a big deal."
"That's right, you shouldn't overreact, Tiana."
"Huh? I wasn't overreacting."
"You were screaming at Ray because of the way he killed the deer."
"Yeah! The dust ruined my clothes!"
Hearing this, both Ray and Cù suddenly realized that not just her clothes but also her entire body was covered in dirt and dust.
""Oh.""
"Ah! Forget it! Let's just prepare the fire to heat it up!"
"Yes. Let's do that."
After saying that, Cù approached Ray in order to take care of the deer in order to make it actually consumable while Ray and Tiana prepared the fire.
"Right, I've been meaning to ask you, Ray. Why do you utilize such unrefined ways to control aura when you obviously have outstanding control over it?"
Tiana suddenly asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, when you use mana and your magic, you use it in such incredible ways, but when it comes to aura, you only use it to reinforce your body. Why not use it for anything else?"
"Like what?"
Ray obviously understood that Aura was a great weak point of his. After all, even though he possessed great control over it, he did not know how to make use of it besides what he already did, he knew it was possible to do more, hence the question.
"I mean, I sometimes use it to make my weapons sharper or even sharpen my own hands. My mom can even control things with it."
Ray listened silently until he had an idea.
"Could you teach me?"
*************
Author's Note: Sorry for the update schedule lately. I will try to update more consistently from now on on this novel and my other ones.
Check out my other novel:
-> This Novel's Plot has Completely Changed