Before Harris could make sense of the change in the situation, Nick appeared amidst the blue light in front of Harris, and then both their surroundings became entirely different than what it was a moment ago. Now, the ground was made entirely of sand, which seemed to spread endlessly into the horizon, and instead of a blue sky, a completely black one now lorded over them.
Harris hovered about four feet above the sandy ground and did not miss a beat in trying to ward Nick off after easily concluding that the change must have been due to the latter's method. Harris waved his right hand towards Nick, who was in midair, three feet away from him, casting:
(Grueling Wind)
About half of the pale-brown wind enveloping Harris blew out from him and sent Nick flying backward, but the influence of the wind was not all that harsh. Nick landed on the ground safely at about fifteen meters away from Harris, while in the meantime, Stoic Grave and Hard Marvel flew into his left and right grips, respectively, from seemingly nowhere. Although Nick tried to grip his swords firmly, his body was experiencing some slight weakness, which he assumed was due to the faint, brown winds that still plagued him even now.
Nick internally commented:
(These brown winds are annoying, but as far as offensive magic goes, they are pretty weak.)
Nick exuded his black miasma like magic energy to resist the brown winds, and very soon, the brown winds around him dissipated due to the conflict arising between them and his own magic energy. Still, the lingering weakness plaguing Nick remained for a few more seconds until Nick circulated Saturn's space magic power throughout his body to suppress Harris' subtly lingering magic power.
Nick then flexed his arms while tightening the grip on his swords as if he had never been inflicted by Harris' wind path spell in the first place. Harris was not surprised by the fact that Nick so easily neutralized the winds generated by his spell:
(Grueling Wind may be a rank 3 spell, but it is nothing special. Getting decent rank 3 spells is expensive and difficult if you don't have a strong enough background. That's why I have been putting up with that stupid kid for so long while trying to get a hold of his wind path inheritance.)
Harris looked around, trying to understand where he was at the moment, but soon, he realized that he would not be able to answer that question through mere observation, and so he frowned intensely. This area was clearly filled with both space and blade magic power that was too easy to sense. Harris was becoming nervous because of how unfavorable the environment was for him. He asked Nick:
"Where the hell have you taken me to?"
Nick did not respond right away to Harris' question and instead swung Hard Marvel downward towards Harris, casting:
(Tyrant Aurora.)
Black blade light erupted from Hard Marvel and was rapidly launched towards Harris in a wide arc, seemingly colliding with him in a matter of moments as Nick watched on, just using his eyes. Harris did not expect Nick's attack to be so fast, and so was partly caught off guard, but Harris still managed to cast his defensive method before the blade light was able to harm him:
(Repelling Wind Barrier)
The pale-brown wind currents revolving around Harris increased in amount and rapidly spread outwards towards the black blade light with an acceleration that seemed instant. In that way, the blade light actually collided with the brown winds a few feet away from Harris' body. While the brown winds did resist the blade light to a degree, eventually, the black blade light overwhelmed the brown winds and forced them to dissipate.
Realizing his momentary defeat, Harris maintained the thin layer of brown winds situated immediately around his body and flew away using another one of his spells before the remaining blade light reached him.
(Energizing Wind)
The brown winds began revolving at greater speeds, soon becoming brick-red winds, and Harris quickly flew towards his right flank, out of the way of the blade light within less than one second of impact. Nick, however, was not going to let Harris go easily:
(One minute and twenty seconds left...)
The Advanced Blade Works Formation only held people within its space for two minutes at a time every twenty minutes, so Nick had been keeping track of the amount of time left remaining until he and Harris were ejected from its special space. Nick released Stoic Grave from his left grip, but the soul path sword remained floating as a result of the Advanced Blade Works Formation's magic power.
Nick pointed directly and accurately at the fleeing Harris using his left index finger by making use of his superhuman agility, thinking:
(I should be able to use the Advanced Blade Works Formation like this...)
Stoic Grave's blade tip quickly pointed at Harris in accordance with Nick's left index finger. Nick then gave one internal command:
(Go.)
The space around Stoic Grave suddenly warped inwards, influencing Stoic Grave's form in the process. Stoic Grave quickly vanished amidst the warping space, and just as quickly appeared at Harris' immediate front with its blade's tip pointing at Harris' abdomen.
PPPUUUCCCCHTTT!
Stoic Grave hovered in place like an immovable wall. Due to Harris' speed and already proximity near to Stoic Grave, he collided with the sword without being able to stop his forward movement in time. In the split second that Harris noticed Stoic Grave's appearance, he truly believed that his surrounding wind magic would block and/or repel the sword, but contrary to his expectations, the sword remained in place even as the brick-red winds bore down on it; Stoic Grave could not be moved.
Moments after Nick's maneuver, Stoic Grave's grey, glass-like blade impaled the center of Harris' torso and emerged at his rear. Harris was shocked:
(What the hell is this? Since when can an apprentice-grade sword remain firmly in place against and pierce through apprentice-grade spells on its own? I didn't even have a chance to stop my forward movement before I was impaled. That means that my Energizing Winds was not able to mount a significant resistance at all. How is that possible?)
Harris fell backward towards the sandy ground while his brick-red winds dissipated, and with Stoic Grave lodged into his torso. He tried to pull the sword out, but again, Stoic Grave firmly and stubbornly remained in place. While Harris fell, Nick mused:
(This special space perfectly combines the powers of space path and blade path while mitigating what significant conflict there is between the two paths. The magic power that fills my swords while they are influenced by the magic formation controls their movement and speed, spatial position, and sharpness, allowing any of these characteristics to be pushed to their upper limits and absolutely kept within that range of intensity according to my will. In that way, the Wind Magician did not just collide with Stoic Grave; he collided with a hard-to-move steel-like spike. It's unfortunate for him that his own magic power could not overcome the power of the Advanced Blade Works Formation, and so he was abruptly pierced through after my prudent positioning of the sword.)
Harris hit the ground and still tried with all his might to pull the sword from his torso by holding its blade, but all he did was cut his own hands, which resulted in them bleeding. Harris had already enveloped his hands in layers of pale-brown wind while he pulled, but Stoic Grave's double-edge actually cut through his magic power. One word permeated Harris' mind at this time:
(Unbelievable!)
During this period of weakness, Harris bled from both his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth, not just because of the injury to his abdomen but also because of the injury to his soul. Nick reasoned:
(Stoic Grave's passive ability involves a chance of directly harming the soul when a target is cut. By extension, the longer that the blade remains in contact with the target and the more significant the cut, the greater the chances of harm to the soul. A rank 3 initial stage Magician has actually been taken down and put into such an awkward position by me so easily. Magic formations are really the best.)
The more that he experienced using magic formations, the more he became increasingly aware of their usefulness and power:
(It just so happens that the Advanced Blade Works Formation is very well-suited to be housed within my special mindscape, considering my affinities and my foundation laws that concentrate my mindscape with only blade, space, rule, and soul magic energies. This increases the effectiveness of my Advanced Blade Works Formation, which is constantly bathed in a high concentration of space and blade magic while it is activated or otherwise. Thirty seconds remaining.)
Nick decided to finish Harris off while he could, since he still had four other rank 3 initial stage Magicians left to fight. Nick cast Neptune and disappeared from his position amidst a flash of blue magic power, and reappeared in the same manner, standing at Harris' left side. By this time, Harris was bleeding so heavily from his hands and facial orifices that a shallow pool had already begun forming below him. Unfortunately for Harris, Stoic Grave did not budge from its position within his torso. Nick cast another of his spells:
(Tyant Form.)
Black miasma magic energy exhaust emanated from Nick's two arms and even Hard Marvel itself after his advanced grade blade path spell resolved. Harris opened his eyes wide in response to sensing the quality of Nick's blade magic power surge. At that point, Harris let go of Stoic Blade and pointed his bloody palms at Nick in an attempt to cast one of his wind path spells at him, but before he could finish forming its laws, both his arms were suddenly cut away.
SPLAT! SPLAT!
Blood from his new open wounds splattered at Harris' side and on his body. Harris gritted his teeth in pain and anger. Nick had managed to cut away both Harris' forearms, and Harris was unable to follow the former's sword movements when he did so. Following the loss of his forearms, Harris stared at Hard Marvel in Nick's right grip that was currently resting at the latter's right side. The sight of the cold, black edges of the blade that did not even have a drop of blood on them despite what Nick had used it to do, filled Harris with terror.
One moment later, Harris was forced to violently cough out several mouthfuls of blood because he had failed to completely form the laws for his spell due to the shock of having his forearms amputated. Nick didn't hesitate to act once he saw further weakness. Harris waved his upper arms around in panic, causing the blood that poured from them to get onto Nick's pants and shoes; he seemed to forget to even attempt to cast another spell.
(Ten seconds remaining...)
A line of tears left both Harris' eyes as he felt death creep ever closer. Stoic Grave, being lodged in his torso, was still harming his soul and basically also suppressed his mind, making the casting of his previous spell far more difficult than it should have been, which is why Nick was able to cut away his forearms before he finished forming his spell's laws.
WHOOSH! SPLAT!
More blood spattered onto the ground because Nick finally acted to decapitate Harris, but the latter did not see the sword's blade as it cut him because its movement was so fast. Harris seemed to have been decapitated, beginning at the center of his neck, and so his head flew four feet away from his body at an upward curve. When Harris' head lied still on the ground, bleeding profusely, it was clear that Nick's enemy was now dead. Nick quickly willed for Stoic Grave to vanish from Harris' torso wound and appear floating at his left side.
Nick cast Tyrant Armor, following which, he covered his left hand in sparking black soul magic power. He then used Tyrant Armor's soul power to capture Harris' soul and store it in his newer space band; Nick stored Harris' corpse, including its head, in his newer space band as well. The Advanced Blade Works Formation's two-minute duration ended immediately after. Nick then found himself hovering outside Sidon again, surrounded by the other four Rank 3 Magicians with Hard Marvel still in his right grip, but he had left Stoic Grave with the Advanced Blade Works Formation's special space.
Austin smiled when Nick finally appeared, floating slightly off the ground. He had assumed that the disappearance of Nick and Harris had been due to Nick's magic powers because he knew from their last fight that Nick practised space magic. Austin gave himself a psychological pat on the back for his astuteness:
(I figured that Nick Capitol must have dragged Harris into some kind of space path nonsense, and so I knew that all I had to do was probably wait for him to return. Carrying away a rank 3 Magician like Harris, even using space magic, could not have been easy. Hmmm...where is Harris, anyway?)
Nick raised Hard Marvel, pointing it towards Austin, before saying:
"This is your last chance. Don't be stupid and just walk away."
Austin frowned and sneered at Nick in response to his words:
"You are going to die here, Nick Capit..."
Nick acted before Austin finished his words; Austin was situated at Nick's left while the other three were situated at Nick's front, right, and rear. Nick's right arm and Hard Marvel seemed like blurs as they were swung incredibly fast towards a short, brown haired Magician wearing an auburn robe at Nick's right.
(Tyrant Aurora.)
(Neptune.)
Black blade light rapidly emerged from Hard Marvel's obsidian-black blade in a wide arc, which enveloped the brown-haired Magician on the right within moments. Following that, Nick instantly disappeared amidst a flash of blue magic power and then reappeared just as quickly in the same manner at the immediate rear of the black-haired, pale-robed Magician that had been standing about ten meters to his immediate front.
An eight-meter pyramid of brown mud emerged from the brown haired Magician's spot while Nick quickly swung Hard Marvel at the black-haired Magician's neck. The hair on the back of the black-haired Magician's neck stood up as he sensed the danger and cast a cloud path spell to begin enveloping himself in a mass of white, defensive clouds. The defensive clouds, however, did not form quickly enough to manifest their entire defensive power, and Nick's blade magic power coursing through Hard Marvel was so great that the small amount of clouds that had already formed were cut through at a speed too difficult to observe clearly with the naked eye.
The black haired Magician's eyes opened wide as he was unexpectedly decapitated; his head flew two meters into the air at an arc before falling tragically to the ground. At the position of the brown-haired Magician who had received the wave of black blade aura, although a pyramid of flowing brown mud had been erected to protect him, the blade aura had cut its way through the mud, following which the mud was reformed, hiding the events that were occurring inside the mud pyramid at this time.
By the time that Nick had killed the black-haired Magician, the mud pyramid fell flat onto the ground, and soon, red blood appeared mixed into the flowing brown mud. The tainted mud soon moved apart, and the totally flayed, ruined, and still corpse of the brown-haired Magician could be seen.
Austin and the remaining Magician, who had shoulder-length, flowing brown hair and wore a light-orange magician's robe, were shocked by the fact that Nick killed their companions with one shot each. Austin screamed internally in response to the deaths:
(What the hell is going on? Nick Capitol is clearly rank 3 initial stage, like the rest of us, so how can he be oneshotting Magicians of the same rank and stage? Wait...why hasn't Harris returned from wherever Nick Capitol dragged him to yet? Don't tell me...)
Observing the results of Nick's last two attacks, Austin felt a disturbing premonition creep up on him. Being a fairly intelligent person, Austin decided that Harris was probably dead, and so he only had one thought that dominated his mind at the moment:
(Run!)
Even before Austin acted on his own thoughts, the remaining brown-haired Magician summoned a large, bird-like magic beast from seemingly out of nowhere onto the ground. The magic beast had the likeness of a sparrow, except that it was twice the size of a crop duster airplane and had bright-red feathers. The brown-haired Magician jumped onto the magic beast's back, following which, the magic beast attempted to fly into the sky.
Nick was not going to let anyone escape, so he pointed his left index finger at the sparrow magic beast, which was ten meters to his rear, and Stoic Grave appeared halfway between Nick and the magic beast before the sword rushed forward like a bullet. Stoic Grave moved to pierce into the sparrow magic beast's throat and impaled the sparrow magic beast's throat within moments.
The sparrow magic beast tried to scream out, but with its throat compromised, nothing but incoherent choking noises were heard. Nick then slightly waved his left arm towards his right side, and Stoic Grave moved vigorously by rotation. The sword ripped out the magic beast's throat as a result. The sparrow magic beast was therefore almost entirely decapitated, its head only hanging to the rest of its body due to a stubborn piece of its flesh.
The brown-haired Magician was appalled by the outcome of Nick's move. He cursed internally while the now dead magic beast began falling over:
(What the fuck? The scarlet twit is a rank 3 fire path magic beast, and it wasn't even able to display its skills before it was killed. God damn it, it was my only rank 3 enslaved magic beast. I even had to get rid of all my rank 2 and rank 1 enslaved magic beasts so that I could bear with the influence that enslaving such a magic beast had on my soul. Now that it is dead, I am fucked!)
Nick was somewhat surprised that he was able to kill a rank 3 magic beast so easily, but that was before he sensed the faint signature of enslavement path magic being emanated from the sparrow magic beast's carcass. Nick assumed:
(Maybe its power was restricted by that Magician's ability to control it properly, which did not seem very great, considering how the magic beast died. That's a shame.)
Nick did not hesitate to continue guiding Stoic Grave in continuing its violent rotation, which led it to cleave through more than half the base of the brown-haired Magician's neck before the sparrow magic beast's carcass even hit the ground, and Stoic Grave was returned to the Advanced Blade Works Formation's special space. Both the magic beast's and the Magician's dead bodies fell lifeless onto the ground. Austin seemed surprised by their sudden deaths, but Nick was not:
(Enslavement Magicians generally have fragile defenses once their enslaved magic beasts are dealt with. What was surprising was that the man only seemed to have the sparrow magic beast enslaved; if not, would he have just let himself be killed so miserably? Sure, it was a rank 3 magic beast, but once I killed it, the Eslavement Magician became helpless to resist my attacks. These were the rank 3 Magicians that Austin planned to cause me trouble with? They were a motley and half-baked crew at best.)
Nick then turned his attention towards the lone Austin and spoke dirisively at him:
"You are alone now. Was trying to avenge your brother's death really worth your own life? Oh, and before, when I said that you could just walk away, I was lying; I planned to kill the five of you as soon as you announced my name at the gates."
Austin immediately cast his spell in response to Nick's words:
(Gold Breeze Escape)
Faint, gold winds suddenly wrapped around Austin's hovering body, and he was about to flee, but Nick had already seen him do that in the past and would not allow him to do it again. Nick cast Tyrant Domain, instantly causing the surrounding space, tens of meters around them both, to develop a grey hue. Nick then used the powers of his spell, Saturn, to surround them both instantly in all directions using a sphere of cream colored magic power.
Austin ignored the appearance of the cream sphere around them and tried to fly through the space magic, but the cream sphere's push and pull forces kept Austin firmly within its boundaries. Seeing that he could not escape, Austin turned around and simultaneously launched many gold wind blades at Nick from many angles. Austin also cast his scouting spell that generated discrete wind currents that traced all the air movements within the range of the cream sphere to indicate to him all of Nick's movements.
At this time, Nick's entire body erupted with black miasma magic energy exhaust, which soon dissipated. Following that, the push and pull forces of the cream sphere saturated the space and harshly scattered the golden wind blades, rendering them harmless.
Nick then swiftly raised Hard Marvel above his head and mobilized the power of Tyrant Domain to instantly shift Austin's position in space so that he would appear immediately in front of him. Doing that consumed more than one quarter of Nick's magic energy reserves, but right now, Nick counted the cast as worth it to end the battle quickly enough. When Austin suddenly appeared so close to Nick, he was stumped for a moment, and that was his final mistake:
(Huh?)
Nick slashed down with Hard Marvel the moment that Austin appeared at his immediate front. His right arm and his sword moved so fast that they presented as faint blurs for a few moments. Austin could hardly keep up with Nick's sword movements, even when his scouting method fed him the details of those movements; Nick was simply too fast, and Austin's body and magic could not adapt enough to counter such hair-raising speed.
(Cross Stream Sword Technique.)
Nick used all ninety-nine sword placements of his sword technique to cut through Austin's gold wind currents and then his flesh in a profound crisscross pattern. The intense blade magic emanating from Hard Marvel was evidently not something that Austin's wind magic or bare body could resist, not just because of the influence of Tyrant Form, the Advanced Blade Works Formation, and Tyrant Domain, but also because of Hard Marvel's passive ability to increase its own hardness and strength with every successful cut.
Austin was cut to bloody ribbons within moments under the savage might of Nick's blade path powers; another rank 3 Magician died at Nick's hands. A soon as Austin's minced flesh splattered onto the bottom of the cream sphere, Nick dispelled the cream sphere and canceled Tyrant Form, Tyrant Domain, and stored Hard Marvel into the Advanced Blade Works Formation's special space.
Nick acted to cast Tyrant Armor to retrieve the three other Magicians' souls, as well as the soul of the sparrow magic beast. Nick also took away the corpses of the rank 3 Magicians, except Austin's corpse, which was practically useless because of its minced state. Nick also took away the corpse of the sparrow magic beast. Nick looked back at the settlement gates, and no doubt many people discreetly witnessed what he did, but he wasn't going to let that bother him too much.
Nick raised himself fifty meters into the air using Saturn's power before he began to fly rapidly towards Reckless State. Nick traveled for about three weeks to get to the border of the region, at which point, he summoned his Space Craft magic formation in midair, hovering at his altitude while rotating on its axis. Nick flew a few feet above the magic formation, following which, Nick willed for Space Craft to grow uniformly in size.
Nick did not stop growing Space Craft until it had a radius of about three meters and a height of about one and a half meters. Nick mused at this time:
(Space Craft can grow up to twice its current dimensions, but this works for now.)
Nick flew downwards and lightly leaned against the panels at the sides of Space Craft that were made from cursed glass. Nick soon passed through the cursed glass like it were illusory. Nick stood firm on the hardwood floor of the magic formation and observed its internal features.
The interior of Space Craft was simple as designed; it consisted of tan, hardwood floors made of a soul path material called nether jasper and an all-black padded chair made of a soul path material called midnight plush. From the interior, the whisper glass that made up the panels at the side of Space Craft was see-through, so Nick had a very good view of what was going on around the magic formation.
(I created the interior to be this simple because I really did not need anything else to make use of the magic formation. When it comes to magic formations, I am interested in practical value, not style.)
Nick sat in the padded chair at the center of the interior and willed for Space Craft to fully activate. When the magic formation became fully activated, Nick's mind became filled with many organized scenes of the environment around Space Craft in real time. Unlike with Silent Ark, Space Craft solely transmitted information to Nick by sending him soul messages that were reorganized and interpretted within his mind.
(Space Craft is a space path and soul path magic formation that focuses on defense, suppression, and movement. Its defensive and movement capabilities are mostly related to space path, while its two suppression abilities are mostly related to soul path; its other miscellaneous abilities, such as its scouting ability and ability to resize itself, are a well-balanced mixture of both paths. All in all, Space Craft, in my opinion, is better designed than Silent Ark as a result of my learning much while using the latter, and so I knew what pitfalls to avoid when designing Space Craft.)
Space Craft had no concealment abilities, and so its movements through the sky were apparent to all magic beasts on the ground and within the air. Many magic beasts roared and grunted in Space Craft's general direction, but their cacophony of sounds could not harm it. In addition, when Space Craft flew forward, it created a sizable stream of warped space twenty meters ahead of itself at any one time that allowed for its fast, smooth, continuous movement. Like that, Space Craft traveled over one kilometer per second, near its median speeds.
Soon, a rank 3 flying magic beast that looked like a three-meter-tall, orange-furred ape that had eagle-like wings quickly flew after Space Craft. Nick did not know whether the magic beast had been provoked by the powerful magic that Space Craft emitted or by its physical structure. No matter what the reason, the ape magic beast seemed absolutely intent on catching up with Space Craft. Nick sat in his chair and pondered:
(Should I deal with this magic beast? Before, I probably would have avoided it for fear of attracting the attention of other rank 3 magic beasts, but things are different now...)
Nick steeled his resolve and manipulated Space Craft to stop moving forward, killing its momentum almost instantly. A stream of warped space was then extended towards the ape magic beast within the duration of a blink. Nick then launched Space Craft directly towards the ape magic beast, achieving a top speed of three kilometers per second while accelerating instantly. Even at this speed, Nick did not suffer any inertia or recoil resulting from the sudden acceleration due to Space Craft's qualities.
Nick could sense the intense fuel expenditure that this kind of speed caused, but Space Craft's reserves of soul power could sustain such expenditure a few thousand times over if it had to. With that in mind, Nick quickly rushed towards the ape magic beast, which had only been a few dozen meters away from him when he decided to engage with it.
The ape magic beast became visibly frightened when it realized that Space Craft was flying at it at such high speed, far faster than the speeds that it was capable of itself. So much so that it could not readily dodge the incoming Space Craft, and so it decided to emit a ghastly cry from its mouth that was obviously imbued with magic. Moments from crashing into the magic beast, Space Craft tanked the magical cry, the sound waves causing its exterior armor to vibrate vigorously, but it ultimately remained intact. Nick mused at this time:
(The layers of materials that make up Space Craft's armor include space path and soul path metals and metalloids that mitigate and displace shock, passively convert certain amounts of offensive magic power to free-flowing magic energy, and also passively resist magic of other types. These rank 3 materials are usually used to construct buildings and complex devices, but they were appropriately used to build the magic formation's physical structure. These valuable qualities of the rank 3 materials are the reason that it required a few trillion pounds to construct Space Craft. The advantage in using a magic formation of this type is that its physical components can overcome much of the damage or pressure that a living body of the same rank cannot bear, even when compared to the rank 3 magic beasts' thick skin and flesh. I don't know if things are the same at higher ranks, but if the rank 2 Silent Ark could be used to harm relatively weak rank 3 magic beasts, the rank 3 Space Craft can do even better.)
Nick, of course, was not just going to have Space Craft tank the ape magic beast's magic scream and then hit it using Space Craft's bare armor; he activated one of the magic formation's suppression methods inches away from impact:
(Soul Ram.)
Space Craft's exterior armor became enveloped with thick layers of solid, translucent crystal almost instantly after Nick activated the method. The soul magic power that the magic formation emanated was now manifold times as concentrated as before. A split second later, Space Craft crashed into the winged ape's front, following which, the ape magic beast's eyes rolled over into its head, and it coughed out multiple mouthfuls of blood while it also bled from all its other orifices.
The ape magic beast was only able to resist being pushed back by about one meter before it fell limp towards the ground, clearly unconscious. It crashed into the ground within seconds, after which, the magic beasts below acted against the ape magic beast, all of them being rank 2. Nick knew that the rank 2 magic beasts inhabiting Reckless State were vicious and fearless, but what followed the ape magic beast's fall proved it further.
Dozens of rank 2 magic beasts bit into the incapacitated ape magic beast's flesh, and because the ape magic beast could not resist while unconscious, even if it had thick skin and flesh, they were bitten through within seconds. The scene was similar to a colony of fire ants stripping a carcass of its flesh and components. Nick mused from within Space Craft at this time:
(Soul Ram uses the numerous souls stored within Space Craft's fuel reserves, as well as the magic generated by the soul path materials assimilated into the magic formation's base and Space Craft's physical soul path armor, to create an offensive covering that directly harms the soul upon impact. I already determined that for rank 3 magic beasts, their souls are still relative weak points, and so a method like Soul Ram that directly impacts the soul using Space Craft's speed and weight supported by its soul magic, deals immense damage. A human being without a sufficiently cultivated soul could die upon impact if hit using Soul Ram, even if they had a decent defensive method active.)
Nick kept Space Craft rotating in place and observed the mighty rank 3 ape magic beast while it was being killed by rank 2 magic beasts, and the entire duration of the ape magic beast's stripping took merely ten minutes. The ape magic beast did not wake up throughout its unfortunate circumstance. The ground was a violent mess, but eventually, Nick lost interest in what the rank 2 magic beasts were doing. He had already confirmed that Space Craft could effectively suppress rank 3 magic beasts using its soul path methods, so he carried on with trying to move deeper into Reckless State.
Nick traveled within Reckless State for four months and, using Space Craft's incredible speeds, he got past various treacherous terrains and inclement weather to arrive at a wide plateau that seemed just right for what he planned to do. Nick had killed a few more rank 3 magic beasts along the way, including, one that seemed like an elephant-sized, black panther, which could jump to high altitudes, one that seemed like a commercial-airplane-sized vulture, whose feathers persistently emitted dark magic and even a magic beast that looked like a hippo-sized grasshopper that moved quick enough to evade the first few attempts at ramming into it using Space Craft.
Nick did not fail to dominate the latter three mentioned rank 3 magic beasts in almost the same manner as the rank 3 ape magic beast that he had killed when he arrived in Reckless State. The apex of the plateau was about forty meters above ground and had an almost oval surface area that amounted to nearly three thousand square meters. The problem with this plateau, however, was that it was home to three rank 3 magic beasts of the same species.
The magic beasts seemed like very large alligators, which had brown scales that were similar in color to the plateau's rock and soil surface. Each rank 3 alligator walked on four relatively short legs. Their bodies were about twelve meters long and had a girth of about three rum barrels. The alligator magic beasts were living together and lying over each other at the center of the plateau. They noticed Space Craft as soon as the magic formation arrived directly overhead of them by about thirty meters.
The alligator magic beasts did not roar or growl but instead glared at Space Craft silently while their long, U-shaped snouts opened wide, as if waiting for something to enter them. Nick did not want to use Soul Ram on either of the alligator magic beasts while all three of them were in such proximity.
Space Craft rotated in place while Nick was contemplating a course of action. Nick soon decided to use Space Craft's other soul path method to deal with the three alligator magic beasts rather than fight them himself because he did not know their powers and would rather risk destroying Space Craft than exposing his bare body to them. However, before Nick began to use the magic formation's soul path method, the three alligator magic beasts simultaneously emanated a dark-brown colored gas from their mouths.
The brown gas spread quickly, soon covering the entire apex of the plateau and moving upwards to meet with Space Craft. Nick found out which path the alligator magic beasts belonged to very soon after they emitted the brown gas from their mouths:
(These three magic beasts are actually of the poison path. They may have blocked my line of sight using that gas, but Space Craft's scouting method, although mediocre, senses souls, which allows me to keep track of the magic beasts perfectly.)
Nick willed for Space Craft's second soul path suppressive method to activate. Nick's fuel reserves of souls dropped to very low levels within moments after that. Nick had been operating Space Craft for a little over four months continuously, so its fuel reserve of souls was woefully depleted, but it still had enough fuel remaining to help Nick deal with the rank 3 alligator magic beasts. Nick felt it likely that he would have to store Space Craft in his newer space band after his current move.
(Compromise Soul.)
Following the activation of Space Craft's suppressive method, it continued to rotate in place and began to release spiraling waves of translucent soul magic power. At this time, Nick muttered under his breath:
"These three magic beasts aren't ready for this."