Frey’s figure emerged from the tree-line.

The spirit turned its head slowly, its emotionless eyes locked onto Frey.

Woosh!

The spirit retrieved the sword from the beast’s body, leaving it to swim in its own crimson blood. Then, It turned to face Frey fully and began to walk toward him.

Its strides grew longer as its speed increased every fleeting moment. Within a second, it had closed nearly ten meters.

Frey’s heart skipped a beat. He stumbled backward, his hands already moving. He hurled three runes at the ground directly beneath the spirit’s feet.

The explosions detonated simultaneously. Dirt, smoke, and debris erupted upward, swallowing the spirit in a cloud of destruction.

Frey’s eyes shrank as a silhouette tore through the smoke before it the wind could take care of it.

The spirit emerged mostly uninjured.

A few scratches across its arms, including scorch marks on its body armor. But it was nothing meaningful.

Still, the spirit’s expression had changed from indifference to hatred.

"Pathetic human." It muttered, raising its sword. "Die."

The blade swung in a horizontal arc aimed at Frey’s neck.

Frey’s eyes sharnk, he immediately activated one of his protective runes, but he knew, even that won’t be able to stop the sword.

"Hel-"

Before he could finish, a blue streak of light flashed from the canopy.

The spirit’s eyes snapped toward it instantly, feeling an abundance of energy converging towards his position. It abandoned the attack mid-swing and leapt backward, the killing blow left unfinished as avoiding the attack toke priority over its desire to kill the human.

It soared high into the air, putting distance between itself and the incoming attack. But the lightning wolf followed to the spirits horror.

It curved upward after the spirit, crackling with violent energy, closing the gap with terrifying speed. The spirit swung its sword mid-air, releasing a powerful air current that tore through the space between them.

The wolf punched straight through the attack.

The spirit landed and tried to leap again. Its legs coiled, ready to launch towards a nearby tree, but the earth underneath its foot moved fast.

Two massive makeshift hands erupted from the ground, they were like magma, molten earth. They closed around the spirit’s legs like a vice, molten fingers locking tight.

The spirit thrashed, its sword hacking at the restraints. It managed to separate them, but it was too late.

"Got you." Moon grinned from the treeline.

The wolf struck the spirit squarely in its chest with the full force of a Thunderclap Raiju.

Lightning detonated on impact. The explosion of lightning ripped outward in every direction, arcs of blue-white energy tearing through the spirit’s body and jumping across the stone and fire hands that held it in place.

The thunderclap that followed was loud enough to flatten the grass in a ten-meter radius and send Frey stumbling backward with his hands over his ears.

The spirit screamed in agony and pain.

The chains of lightning crawled across the spirit’s skin, snaking into the wounds the initial impact had torn open, burrowing deeper. The spirit’s sword fell from its twitching fingers and clattered to the ground.

When the lightning finally dissipated, the spirit’s body was in ruins. A gaping wound had been torn open across its chest where the wolf had struck. Burnt flesh peeled back from the edges covering its arms, neck, and face.

One of its eyes had burst from the attack, leaving a hollow socket that wept a mixture of blood and smoke. The diamond on its forehead flickered rapidly, its glow unstable and fading.

The spirit’s remaining eye found Moon. Filled with disbelief.

Its mouth opened. Blood spilled from between its lips as it spoke.

"Human... you are the one with the lightning element...that killed one of our own."

Moon’s brows rose. ’The news about the previous spirit spread across the pavilion, already? Even this one knows about it.’

"Yes, I’ll also be claiming your life."

The lightning wolf in his hands surged forward.

The spirit grabbed its sword from the ground with trembling arms, the blade wavering as it tried to meet the attack head-on.

Whoosh!

The wolf diverted at the last instant, curving around the blade and striking the spirit from its exposed side. The impact drove the remaining air from the spirit’s lungs. Blood splurged from its mouth as its legs gave out.

Its sword slipped from its fingers for the final time. Its remaining eye dimmed, the light behind it fading into darkness.

A few seconds later, it was dead.

[You have killed the Level 31 0-Star Spirit]

[You have gained 180 Lives]

Moon didn’t waste a single second. He darted toward the body and dropped to his knees beside it. His blade opened the chest cavity in one clean cut, and he reached inside, pulling out the diamond-shaped spiritual crystal.

Moon shoved it into his storage ring before he flipped the spirit’s body onto its back and placed multiple runes across its torso.

"Let’s go!" Moon shouted at Frey.

The Runesmith stood frozen at the edge of the clearing, his face white, his legs locked in place. Moon’s voice snapped him out of it.

He blinked once before nodding frantically, breaking into a run beside Moon.

As they sprinted through the forest, Moon summoned Mirage behind them, out of Frey’s line of sight. The horse appeared silently, and Moon issued a quick command. Mirage’s eye flared purple, the doppelganger split from his body, and Moon directed it back toward the spirit’s corpse.

The clone picked up the body and took off in the opposite direction, carrying it as far from their position as possible.

Moon kept the real Mirage close behind them. He wasn’t sure if there was a distance limit on summoning Mirage back to his beast taming space, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way. Better to keep him within range.

Once he was certain the doppelganger had put enough distance between the body and their location, Moon returned Mirage to his beast taming space.

They reached the hollow tree within minutes.

"Hurry up! Get in! Place your concealment runes!" Moon barked.

Frey scrambled into the crevice, his hands shaking as he pulled out the rune materials. He worked fast, within moments, the concealment rune activated,

Frey let out a breath of relief and began to turn around.

Moon’s staff connected with the back of his skull.

Frey’s body crumpled to the ground. Unconscious before he could make a sound.

Moon stood over him, shaking his head.

"You really need to stop turning your back to me." Moon smiled wryly.

He pulled the body to the same position as last time, placing him to face away from him, near the furthest wall of the crevice.

Moon then took a seat and pulled out the two spirit crystals from his storage ring, they were both filled with an abundance of spiritual energy.

Moon activated his Eye of Truth on the two crystals, and nothing of importance came up to him. Without further to do, Moon began to cultivate using the spiritual energy inside the crystals, slowly extracting the spiritual energy and guiding them to his acupoint.

The process was smooth but delicate.