Rose was left speechless. Since going on this hunting expedition, she had always thought her true targets were monsters.
After all, monsters' souls and bodies could be used by hunters now.
But now, she realized she had failed to put spirits into the equation.
No, she did. She did count spirits as their enemies, but not in this way.
"But if we target spirits, four of us will be left unable to fight." Jacob couldn't help but speak.
Tyler nodded his head and said.
"That is indeed the case. But only for now. As long as you generate enough ideas, we will have more than enough Natural Energy to promote four of you."
"After all, that is the purpose of this hunt. To help you improve while collecting resources."
Rose calmed down a little and stared in the direction the wind came from, mumbling.
"That wind was pretty scary, but I can't see a single tree being uprooted. It feels like these trees are stronger than us."
When Rose said that, Tyler narrowed his eyes and muttered.
"Indeed! They are incredibly strong."
'Either I am just delusional, or they do have some kind of plan. Even back on Earth, scientists had hypothesized about a plant-based alien race.'
'That was just a hypothesis. In this world, even fiction can become reality. Superpowers are as normal as superheroes from comics.'
'It is hard for me to believe a tree that can absorb Natural Energy would only produce Natural Fruit for no reason.'
'Unfortunately, I don't have any clues. So, let's not waste my already lacking brain cells in this.'
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but chuckle.
Rose noticed this but didn't raise any questions. She had some thoughts about this kind of destruction.
But before they could think much about it, Tyler stood up as he noticed something coming their way.
"Spirit!"
A humanoid body that was hovering in the air. With most of his body pale and a bit ghostly, he was still recognizable as a human.
But his face….It was disfigured. It didn't even look like the face of a man, but rather ten different humans.
With every corner of his face different from the other parts, it was hard to recognize his identity.
"This is one terrible thing about Spirits. If it is a hunter or a monster, their soul is enough to create a spirit."
"Unfortunately, the same can't be said for normal humans. At least, dozen or so souls need to merge to form a single spirit."
Tyler spoke.
Hearing that, Rose replied.
"Till now, I always thought that was a rumor. Despite losing my family during the Outbreak, it's laughable how little I know about them."
Tyler shook his head and said.
"It's not your fault. There is no education system in our city. Even in the country, only a few big cities have academies."
"And, I am trying my best to make sure they don't invade our city."
"Let me handle this!"
Rose stepped forward as she summoned her lance.
[Sixth Skill- Blood Lance]
Seeing this move, Tyler decided to let her fight. At this moment, he could sense her Aura emerging from her body.
This Aura was slowly swaying around her arms, moving towards the lance, coating it with a deadly energy that could touch the spirit.
At this moment, Jacob and Liam felt an incredible pressure acting upon them. Liam managed to recover pretty quickly.
After all, he had faced a stronger aura before.
But Jacob was panting hard. If this Aura didn't belong to a second rank but a third rank, he would've passed out.
After all, the previous battle was quite taxing for him.
Liam turned towards Tyler and asked.
"Lord, will it be okay for her to fight? She just used her Blood Healing on Jacob."
Tyler had also sensed her Blood Healing while he was thinking and pondering about the trees.
He could feel her condition before using that skill and after using that skill. So, he directly nodded his head and explained.
"That skill didn't cost her a lot of stamina. She is a Second Rank. Her stamina has increased by at least fivefold."
"Amazing!"
Liam gulped heavily as he shouted.
"Look!"
Jacob shouted, drawing their attention towards the battle.
Rose dashed forward, leaving behind a red trail as she approached the spirit floating in the air and stabbed forward.
Her lance tore through the air as it reached the spirit, but just before it touched the spirit, a block of ice emerged between them.
Bang!
The blood lance managed to pierce through the ice, but losing all of her momentum, Rose kicked on the ice, somersaulted, and landed on the ground.
"Ice powers! Is this the capacity of a Spirit?"
Rose muttered as she jumped once more. She swept her lance, trying to strike down the spirit, but the spirit easily dodged it by lowering himself.
Suddenly, a sharp pillar of ice rose from his palm and rushed towards Rose's head.
But just before it could reach her, she moved her lance and struck down the ice with several slashes.
As the ice got scattered, she quickly found herself falling to the ground.
"I can't go on like this. That guy can fly. I have to jump every time."
Rose grumbled as she turned towards Tyler and complained.
"You said you can do it yourself."
Tyler shrugged his shoulders and replied.
Hearing that, Rose could no longer complain. In fact, at this moment, the spirit had already launched a small ice ball towards her.
The speed at which it travelled was enough to catch her off guard, and Tyler wanted that.
The moment Rose noticed the ice ball, it had already reached in front of her. She couldn't dodge it, nor could she activate her other skills.
She was only able to hold the ice ball with her hand or block it with her lance.
She went with the second option, trying to stab the ice ball from below. As she did that, the ice ball exploded, releasing a large amount of ice.
This ice instantly spread around her, freezing her inside a thin coating of ice.
Crack! Crack!
"Lord!"
When Jacob and Liam saw this, they panicked and shouted at the same time. They wanted to go and help, but Tyler stopped them.
"Don't worry! That wasn't enough to freeze her. Let her finish this by herself!"
At this moment, a powerful aura burst out of Rose, breaking the ice into small pieces as she freed herself.
"I have had enough of this. Let me show you the true power of a Second Rank, Spirit."
She wasn't sure how powerful this spirit was, but considering Tyler didn't interfere, she still had confidence to take it down.
She released all of her Aura at once.
To produce Aura, she needed to constantly pull out her stamina and mental energy at the same time. She couldn't feel her mental energy before.
But after reaching Second Rank, she could do it. As for stamina, she was able to do it on the First Rank.
As every single skill required her to extract a portion of her stamina, which equates to physical energy.
So, every time physical energy and mental energy were extracted, her body and soul would get tired.
That's why Aura had Reserve.
The amount of Aura she could produce depended on how long her body and soul could last and how long they would take to recover.
By using so much Aura, she was basically pushing herself to her absolute limit.
As her Aura gathered, it reached every corner of her body, increasing her strength by several levels.
Even the spirit noticed the change in her body. He didn't run away, but he raised his palm.
Suddenly, a large amount of ice emerged from his palm and turned into a dragon. It opened its mouth and rushed towards her.
Just by moving towards her, the ice dragon froze the ground underneath.
[Blood Manipulation]
[Fourth Skill- Blood Dash]
Only a red light could be seen as Rose pointed her lance towards the ice dragon.
Because of her Aura, the lance hadn't disappeared despite being used for such a long time.
Crack!
The tip of her lance pierced through the head of the dragon. Her body didn't stop as the lance kept piercing through the body of the ice dragon.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ice scattered everywhere, and Rose kept moving forward.
Before the spirit could even react, her lance pierced through the chest. Even so, the spirit kept releasing ice through its wound, moving towards her hand.
At this moment, Rose's aura suddenly traveled towards her hand and reached her lance as she jumped back.
A lance stuck inside his body suddenly dissolved into a pool of blood that was covered in ice, and an intense red light emerged from it.
The spirit sensed a powerful energy coming from that pool of blood, but the pool was just inside of him.
[Blood Manipulation]
[Fifth Skill- Blood Explosion]
Boom!