Chapter 47: The Tiger's Rage Part 2

"Let's go, Bahamut. First, we'll travel the mountains. We won't go to the heart. I want to at least get some experience fighting the monsters in the mountain and how they tracked and hunted. It will prove useful when I decide to try to find that hidden valley," Shu said as they watched Wraith and Supaiku disappear.

Bahamut roared as it flew into the sky. Shu followed it, using his Phantasmal Sky technique to weave through the trees. As he ran, he also trained his Black Cloud Desolation technique, his lightning spirit technique he mastered the least. He tried to maintain a fist-sized cloud around both hands as he ran through the forest. Occasionally, he would shoot spears of blue lightning at empty spaces in the forest, creating small pits with each lightning bolt. He would often manipulate the clouds, until he only needed a cloud the size of a thumb to create enough lightning to incinerate and explode a whole tree.

He was also able to expand the cloud to three hundred feet in an instant. He could freely move within the cloud, able to hide inside the tiniest speck of cloud without revealing himself. At night, he was practically invincible as his clouds would be invisible and he could easily escape any magical beast, striking them with a spear of lightning when they least expect it. He was finally able to use the hidden trump card. A highly concentrated and condensed black cloud of lightning that he could eat to temporarily increase his strength and speed. The drawback was great fatigue and exhaustion of spirit energy.

He also began using the dagger he got from the ancient clan member. The skull dagger really was a great asset for any stealth attacks. His arm never made a sound whenever he wielded the dagger. He would use the dagger whenever he needed to ambush a magical beast. The more he hunted, the more he felt a hunger to kill stronger magical beasts. It was as if he had a goal to become the most powerful on the mountain. He would often track by smell and sound, heightened beyond normal human capacity. He would stalk his prey, brandishing the skull dagger as he imagined tearing the flesh.

Even now, he began shaping his palms and slightly bent them, in imitation of claws. his lightning paw attacks simulated a tiger clawing at flesh. He discarded his palm techniques and began using claw and fist techniques. He also began learning grappling techniques. He would often wrestle with the weaker magical techniques. He didn't want to kill them outright. He wanted to learn how they fought, how they think. All in order to become a stronger, faster hunter.

"You know, master, you scare me sometimes," Spook said.

"Hmm?" Shu asked as he was eating the leg of a magical beast bear he killed on the mountain. "I scare you?"

"You're eating the magical beast meat of a bear. Raw. Your acting more like a beast everyday. Constantly hunting. It's been a month. You should spend the rest of your time back in civilization. You have got to get rid of your bloodlust. You'll scare the humans," Spook advised.

"I guess I should....what's that? I smell blood, a lot of it, but I'm not the one who caused it. Someone's on the mountain," Shu said as he stared east. Someone was running, frantically, from the mountain and to the village. No, not someone. A group. They were running from something. Something dangerous. Something delicious.

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"BAHAMUT!" Shu roared and leapt on his dragon's back as it sped toward the action. He spread out his spirit sense and counted three people: two girls and a boy. One of the girls was carrying the boy while the other one desperately tried to fend off what seemed to be a monster.

The trio looked up as they saw a huge shadow block the sun. They saw a large, shining green dragon with a student with golden fox ears wearing the crimson jacket of their academy. He leapt from the dragon and landed next to them, the dragon landing in front as it blocked their path.

"Hi there! Uh, don't mind the blood on my clothes. It's not mine," Shu said as he looked at himself, seeing them take a defensive stance at him. "You might want to get out of the way. I have business with that magical beast. It looks tasty, I mean dangerous."

"Tasty?" they thought as they quickly moved aside.

Shu grinned and pulled out Arctic Emperor. He didn't want to use the skull dagger in front of others. He observed the magical beast, looking for a weakness. It stood at fifteen feet tall, had four limbs, and had mammoth-like tusks. Its face was like an eel, but had six golden eyes that closed horizontally. It had four limbs and its fur was dark blue, a bright red mane around the back of its head. Its tail looked like a tree root, but moved as if it were a living snake. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

"Oh, how can I eat you," Shu said. "If only we didn't have an audience. Oh well. I'll settle for draining you dry of all your spirit energy."

Shu roared, stunning the magical beast and forcing it to crash onto the ground as its velocity was too fast. Shu created two large, black clouds and had them cover the blade of his katana. He used his Phantasmal Sky technique to appear at its neck in a flash, cutting down with his katana. Blue lightning crackled, showing a blue lightning rainbow as he beheaded the magical beast. Resisting the urge to lick the blood that sprayed on his mouth. He placed a palm on the magical beast, draining its spirit energy. Its fur dulled and Shu quickly carved out the demonic core from its head.

"Bahamut, that's your lunch," Shu said as he pointed behind himself as he walked to the trio, a quick moment of envy on his face as he watched Bahamut fly to the corpse. "Here, it was chasing you. I have a lot of demonic cores I can sell. Next time, you shouldn't head to the mountains. At the fourth stage, you guys are just asking to be eaten. Later."

Shu's vermillion wings broke out from his back as he tossed the demonic core to the uninjured girl. They watched him leave, unable to believe their eyes. They had heard about the first year God Eater who broke into the sixth stage. They didn't think they could actually meet him.

Shu first headed to his room to cut his hair, bathe, and wear clean clothes. He sighed as he wore his hood over his head once more. Wraith and Supaiku had been waiting in his room as they had arrived a week prior. Wraith returned into his shadow as Supaiku followed Shu, now at the fifth rank. Bahamut actually made a breakthrough to the seventh stage. Shu sighed as he strapped Artic Emperor at his waist and left his room. Many people, below his cultivation, bowed as he walked to the cafeteria. After all, he was a sixth stage Spirit Shaman. Another reason was that he walked with his spirit armor on his arms and legs still. He radiated fear, danger, and power. Some bowed out of respect of his cultivation stage. Others bowed in case it would anger him not to.

Along the way, he saw the professor. The professor was headed to the faculty cafeteria. They exchanged a few words and the professor advised that he wait until he was a Spirit Shaman to condense his soul further. True experts continued condensing their soul past the soul lake forming at the second stage. However, the physical body could only withstand so much. In order to grow a powerful soul, the Practitioner needed a powerful vessel. They left once the professor gave Shu a few more pointers about how to harness his spirit energy.

Supaiku purred happily as Shu gave him a large plate piled high with magical beast meat. He stroked its back before eating his own pile. He looked up and saw Joey and the others, tired and slightly injured. Hinako also joined him as she had returned from her closed door practice. She also looked tired and sat next to him.

"Whoa. You guys look beat," Shu commented. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Weiss, that asshole," Joey cursed. "Max and Mary got broke their bottlenecks and advanced to the fourth stage. I did a half month later. I was the only one who joined the first year representative list after beating Weiss's thugs. Mary and Max did not want to be targeted by Weiss and opted out. However, Kei and Bella reached the fifth stage. The only problem was that they were not picked because Weiss ambushed them before their qualification matches for the open spots. They were forced to compete with the other members of the fifth stage for the regular fifteen spots. Luckily, they managed to win."

"That coward almost cost us our spots," Bella agreed. "Geo qualified as he learned a single intermediate spell: earth golem summoning."

"That leaves Daniel, Mary, Max, and Kai out," Jiyeon said. "Another first year fire mage was chosen so Daniel didn't qualify. Kai also did not qualify as he can't control the toxicity of his poison spells."

"I tried to learn as many spells as I could," Kai shrugged. "Next year, those mages better watch out."

"Why are you so tired?" Shu asked Hinako.

"I've been cultivating so long, I'm not used to moving so much anymore. I recently broke through to the seventh stage and I have to participate among the seventh stage Spirit Shamans," she smiled weakly. "Where did you go? You don't look like you did closed-door practice."

"I don't need to. I needed to get my body used to the sixth stage. I have the body and a higher soul condensation level than anyone at my cultivation stage. I needed to get more practice using my techniques. I also had to get Supaiku to grow stronger. This little guy is at the fifth stage now," Shu grinned as he pet Supaiku's head. "It's just not fair how they rise so fast. Still, I'm surprised you reached the seventh stage. Are you the youngest?"

"Yes. I was especially chosen for the competition because of my fast cultivation rate, However, my fighting prowess is not great. I mainly fight using formation barriers. That's why I came here. The principal is a master at them. I hope to learn some of his techniques when I head to the top floor of the pagoda," Hinako grinned as she drank some water. "I'm not like you. I don't improve my techniques by killing magical beasts or hunting them for food. If you didn't cultivate, then you must have went to the forests and mountains behind the pagoda."

"No wonder you radiate such an oppressive atmosphere. Even now, I feel like you can kill me if I even stumbled on your path," Joey shuddered. "How many did you kill?"

"Only magical beasts," Shu shrugged. "The forest held too many weak magical beasts. Once I got the hang of my techniques, I started hunting in the mountains. I didn't go to the snowy mountains in the heart of the mountain range. I'd probably get killed there. I spent the last few weeks hunting and mapping out the mountains. I'll know where to go and how to avoid the denser areas of magical beast, in the future."

"Fuck. There's Weiss now," Joey cursed as they all saw the familiar, white-haired kid with his bunch of thugs. "Even mages flock to him now. Cassandra's worried a war might break out amongst first years. The principal was warned, but he said he didn't care, so long as no one is missing a limb or got killed."

Shu didn't know why, but he felt angry when he stared at Weiss. Killing intent flowed from his body, suffocating many people. Once someone reaches a high enough cultivation, they could utilize an aura of killing intent. It was similar to baleful aura, but the aura is violet and not black. Of course, one had to kill a substantial amount of people. Such violent aura could only be made through effort. Shu had killed millions on Earth and dozens of magical beasts. How could he not develop a fiendish aura. Even the seventh stage senior students were alarmed.

"Weiss. I don't know why, but you continue to piss me off. I can tolerate you cursing me silently, but now you messed with my friends. I can't kill you, but I will break you. You and your whole pathetic faction," Shu growled and disappeared.

Weiss looked around and saw Shu behind himself, howling with pain as Shu kicked him in the genitals. Shu grabbed the head of one of the mages and smacked it against another. Shu stabbed a Practitioner with his fingers covered in spirit energy, intentionally missing the vitals as he couldn't kill. Weiss drew his two-handed sword and slashed at Shu. Shu spat on the floor and caught the sword with his bare hands, spirit energy protecting his skin fromt he edge as he caught it using his tyrannical strength. He jerked the sword and kicked Weiss in the chest, sending him flying.

A mage quickly cast a fireball on his back, but Shu was uninjured. Pissed off, Shu punched at the mage with a dark tiger paw, punching the kid eight times with a single punch. Due to his tyrannical strength, the boy crashed through the wall. Many senior students cheered, enjoying the action as it was above their expectations. They were not chosen for the competition and had no need to enter closed-door training.

"How dare you! Men, let's trap the bastard in a formation!" Weiss roared and his Practitioners stood in front of him in a pyramid formation. Shu narrowed his eyes as he was trapped in a four-square point formation.

"HAHAHAHA! You think you can trap me in one of the two most basic formations? Do not test me!" Shu roared, blasting his spirit force into the barrier. Weiss and the others coughed blood as several cracks were made before it shattered.

Supaiku enlarged to its full size and pounced at Weiss's men. It bit and slashed some of them, careful not to kill them. Saint level magical beasts were intelligent. Furthermore, a magical beast that had bound to a master would also gain a boost in intelligence. Weiss paled as he had no more men to fight for him. His weapon was knocked out of his hands when Shu had kicked him. Shu brandished his katana as he walked to Weiss, slowly. Weiss could hear his heart thump louder with every step Shu made, the fear growing stronger as each slow step felt like hundreds of swords were pressed against his flesh.

"I beat you once, and you only came back more determined. I can't kill you, seeing as the academy needs you. However, I can cripple you for a few days. You won't even be able to move once I drain you dry of all your spirit energy. You'll recover, seeing as you have a Mystic Stone. Know despair," Shu grinned, cruelly, as he grabbed Weiss's face and drained his spirit energy from his body.

"Spirit sealing technique?" one of the senior students frowned.

"I think so. It's not a permanent one as the God Eater said the guy would recover," another said.

"That mean the faction war is over? What do we bet on now?" another sighed.

"We can bet spirit pills, gold, and demonic cores on how they fare in the competition!" one shouted.

Many seniors began huddling together to exchange information on who were already competing and who would most likely qualify for the remaining spots. There was only a week left until the chosen were finalized. The stronger students gave lists of people to find info while the rich and noble students would use their connections to discover the info of the other academies. Then, they would team up with the gamblers of all the other academies. Why did they do this? Many nobles and powerful figures would be watching the competition. There was plenty of benefits to be had while watching the games.

"That felt good," Shu sighed with relief as he sat down on his chair. "Good work Supaiku."

"Uh, I guess Cassandra's faction wins?" Joey asked, tilting his head in shock as the tiger returned to its adult cat size and continued eating its meal.

"Yeah. No more worries of ambushes by Weiss," Bella agreed. None of them were scared as they saw Shu smile at his magical beast. They knew he was kind to those who showed him kindness. They made a note, in their hearts, never to anger him intentionally.

"You really need to eat some vegetables or some noodles," Hinako commented. "You're not a magical beast."

"I'll eat some chicken vegetable dumplings. They're the best. Whoever created them, thank you," Shu grinned, nodding at the ceiling in respect, before heading off to grab three bowls of dumplings. He would have nodded at the sky, but they were indoors.

"I guess we better eat now," Geo sighed, amazed Shu can still eat after all that blood he and Supaiku caused.

"Yeah. I agree with that," Daniel said, rubbing his stomach as he walked over to the food.