“They are, but you were fag magical beasts of a higher rank than you. A weakness or two is to be expected.

  Not to mention, among rank three magical beasts, the Emerald Sloth ranks pretty high up the list. Its magical ability [Wind Speed] coats its body in a skin-tight green aura that allows it to move at the speed of a rank four beast, and its cws are no less sharp or hard than yive even after you use that haki of yours.

  The fact that you could hold your own and eve it is an impressive feat in and of itself.” Wukong expined, having had front-row seats to the fight.

  “Is there nothing I do to improve my speed?” Ace asked, clearly not happy with this gring weakness.

  “You have three options:

  One, wait till you bee a warrior of the third rank.

  Two, get your hands on a movement teique, but those are extremely rare.

  Or three, prehend oh the give. Even though it’ll do nothing for your movement speed, the speed and power behind your attacks will see a drastic improvement.”

  “What did you say?” Ace asked as his eyes fshed with excitement.

  “What, prehend oh the…”

  “Not that, the sed option.”

  Wukong raised an eyebrow at the youngster’s overexcitement. “Get your hands on a movement teique.”

  Notig Ace’s broad smile, Wukong shook his head as he expined, “This king advises you not to get your hopes up in that department. Movement teiques are extremely rare, and virtually all of them require the use of battle-qi.”

  Ace barely registered what Wukong had said as his mi into overdrive.

  “Instead of fog on that, shouldn’t you focus on yive prehension? You only have two more weeks before the deadline for the bet.” Wukong said semi-gloatingly.

  Ace could only grunt in respoo Wukong’s teasing. He’d been rapidly improving every day since his enlighte, but he noticed he'd hit a bottleneck during the battle with the sloth just now. It wasn’t a physical bottleneck he could feel, but he could still se.

  He could feel that if his prehension of the give took even half a step forward, he’d really bee oh the give, but at the same time, he couldn’t see a path ahead. Ever since he had his enlighte, it was like he instinctively knew what he o do to improve, as if his give was guiding him, but towards the end of that fight, that guide just suddenly vanished.

  “Haha, judging by the expression on your face, you’ve hit a bottleneck. I guess I look forward to you being my little minion for the year.” Wukong said with a mog smile, but the truth was, even he was a little shocked by Ace’s rapid improvements.

  Wukong expected it to take him at least six months to reach this bottleneck. To do it in a little over two was incredible, even by his standards. ‘Even if he ’t do it in the wo weeks, it shouldn’t be lohan another month…

  This kid never ceases to amaze…’

  “SCREEEEECH!”

  Before Ace’s head could turn to face what he subsciously believed to be a threat, his [observation] haki had already locked on to the source of the screech. As he did, his eyes couldn’t help but bulge in shock as he ses strength. ‘Magical Beast of the 8th Rank?’

  Gng up, he saw a giant silver feathered fal with four wings diving towards them. He instinctively wao jump back from the ining threat, leaving it to the seemingly invincible Wukong, but the eagle was too fast. By the time he had tensed his legs, the ra bird was already virtually on top of them.

  “That’s enough, you silly bird, don’t go around sg kids!” Wukong said zily as he casually spped the ining bird as it nded in front of him.

  The fal stood at a little over 10 feet, pouting at the staff-wielding warrior with an expression that looked like it had been wronged.

  “Don’t give this king that look, you dumb bird. Ooh, and give me that!” Wukong snorted as he snatched the scroll that was in the fal’s beak.

  Sihey met, Wukong’s expressions had always remained light and easy, so Ace was a little surprised to see Wukong’s face darken the more he read. Ace didn’t want to disturb him even after he’d finished reading but seeing the look in Wukong’s eyes when he looked at him made Ace curious. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “This king o take care of something and thought you might want to e.”

  “What…”

  Not wanting to waste time with interruptions, Wukong cut the youngster off. “Before you ask anything, let this king expihing.

  Silverlight City is one of the more powerful cities in the Anarchids and is currently the only formal ally of our Yin-Yang Paviliht now, they’re fag a beast tide. Meaning swarms of magical beasts threaten to overrun their home, and this king has been asked to support them.

  Seeing as the vast majority of magical beasts are between the first and third ranks, this king thought it would be the perfect opportunity for you to gain some invaluable experieill, you to uand it will be dangerous, and this king won’t necessarily have the time to take care of you.”

  “What about Kil and Alissa? Are you going to ask them as well? And what about my mom and Lance? We ’t just leave them here…” Ace replied after listening to Wukong’s suggestion.

  “Killian has improved drastically over the st three months, but he’s not ready for something like this yet, and as strong as Alissa is, she isn’t suited towards direbat with rge groups of magical beasts in that sort of enviro. Something like this would be too much for the current her.

  We’ll drop the others off at Shurgard City. It’s on the way, and the city lord owes me a favour.” Wukong expined. “So, are you in or out?”

  Hearing that, Ace’s blood began to boil iement as he uantly replied. “I’m in!”

  .

  .

  .

  “Alright, mom, I’m going. We should be ba a few days,” Ace said as he gave his mom a tight hug.

  “Ok, honey. Stay safe and follow Mr Wukong’s instrus,” Milianna replied.

  “I will, don’t worry,” Ace said before jumping on the back of the giant silver bird.

  “Why ’t we all go if you’re just going to train?” Alissa asked, clearly displeased that she was bei out.

  “Because you and Killia ready yet,” Wukong answered for the huh time.

  Instead of telling everyohe truth, that he and Ace were about to fight against a rampaging horde of magical beasts. Wukong told the others that he was taking Ace to do some interaining for a few days to try and help him prehend ‘oh the give’.

  Although frustrated, Alissa didn’t say anything further. Over the st two months, she’d been Ace’s sparring partner a few times and watched how his ability with the give had improved at an astonishing speed. Although it wasn’t as exaggerated as Wukong’s speed when learning to wield a dagger, it was still like nothing she’d seen before.

  She, who’d been hailed as a genius by those in charge of her training as an assassin, wasn’t used to kids her owshining her, but she had no way to pete with Ace.

  “Oii baldy, take care of them. If whe back, there’s so much as a single hair missing… Hmph!”

  Hearing Wukong’s threat, a stocky bald man donning shining silver armour hurriedly stepped forward. “Do…

  Don’t worry, milord. I…

  I will treat them as if they were my own family.”

  Sensing his meaning was uood, Wukong turo the bird beh him and said, “e on, you stupid bird, let’s go.”

  “So, how long will it take to get to this Silverlight City?” Ace asked when his family and friends had disappeared from view.

  “We should arrive by nightfall.” Wukong zily replied.

  “Nightfall?! I thought flying on the back of a ra bird-type magical beast would only take a couple of hours at most.”

  “The Anarchids isn’t just the most chaotic region on the Yun ti; it’s also the biggest! If we were taking the cloud wolves, it’d take the better part of a week to get there.” Wukong expined. “Ooh, and hold on tight.”

  “Wh…” Before Ace could ask, the fal took off like a bolt of lightning, almost shaking Ace from its back.

  Looking down at the side of the bird’s face, Ace could’ve sworn he saw it smirk. But, wheuro Wukong, he saw the man standing steady on the bird’s bao different to if he was on the ground.

  Using his [observation] to really observe him, Aoticed Wukong seemed to be using energy to keep him still.

  “It’s my battle qi. When you develop the ability to use battle qi, you’ll be able to do this too.” Wukong expined when he sensed Ace’s haki.

  It was then that Ace realised not only was he using ‘battle qi’ to keep him steady but also to project his voice. Even with the winds raging in his ears, Wukong’s voice was easily heard, as if the Ape-like warrior was talking directly into his ear.

  Ace then noticed that Wukong had removed the battle qi from his feet but could still easily stand on its back.

  ‘It’s slight, but every time the stupid bird is going to fp its wings, Wukong shifts his weight to ter its movements.’ With his [observation], Ace could easily see how Wukong could stand so easily on top of a giant speeding bird.

  Wukong watched with a smile as Ace tried to copy him. He almost fell off a few times, but he quickly started to get the hang of it.

  Standing steadily on its back, an intoxicated grin suffused Ace’s lips as he felt the wind against his face. ‘Now this is freedom!’

  With time, he could even apply the same meics so he could sit down. Whehe bird turned or fpped its wings, Ace shifted his weight accly.

  ‘This brat really is a little monster.’ Wukong thought to himself as he saw the incredible speed Ace was able to learn to bance from him and even improve on it.

  Ace had no idea what Wukong was thinking; he just couldn’t be bothered to stand for the few hours.

  The sun hadn’t lo when Ace saw what he assumed was their destination. He only thought that because he saw a couple dozen archers standing atop the city walls staring vigintly at the forest to their east.

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  Patreon./ACoilingDragon: Book 2 - Chapter 11