Horus' sword met the arm of one of the Greenjaws. It blocked the blade with sharp bone protrusions on its forearm.
Despite Horus' Adept-tier strength, the monster was only slightly pushed back. Even if the Greenjaw was Common-tier, its monstrous strength was naturally greater than a human's.
The monster's claws raked the air in retaliation, almost slashing through Horus' skull.
They both exchanged strikes. The beast was powerful, its limbs were long, but its main advantage was the lantern hanging over its head.
The cursed thing swayed and blinded Horus repeatedly. The monster's scales were also very strong. His sword slashed over skin multiple times, but it didn't dig in as he expected.
The beast sensed this and closed in. It might have been a common tier, but its abilities and intelligence were rather high.
But Horus wasn't done yet.
He parried a claw and jumped back for some distance. Then he got into a solid stance, crossing his arms and laying his sword over his left forearm.
Twilight Swordsmanship had forms based on what Seraphina gained from her Legendary class. The children of the clan were all drilled in these forms, even if they didn't have the Class Skills to fully utilise them.
It all brought them closer to the essence of Twilight.
The Greenjaw sensed nothing wrong and charged at him. Horus met it with a chain of extremely fast attacks.
Slashes rose from beneath, above, and its sides in a flowing dance. The glowing sword left deeper cuts, and every attack seemed faster than the last.
The Greenjaw raised its arm to protect its vital organs, allowing damage anywhere else, its grotesque face twisted in rage and agony. It let out a hasty roar and attacked.
Horus leaned back, dodging a backhanded claw attack, before whipping his sword upward from the right.
It raised a hand to protect its throat. This attack was strange, not as fast as the others. It managed to get its guard up, but the blow never landed.
Horus' arm flickered, and suddenly he was stepping back.
The beast lowered its hand and opened its mouth to growl, only to choke on its black blood. Raising one clawed hand to its throat, it found a deep gash spraying blood over its narrow chest.
With his sword still raised, Horus watched the beast fall to the ground before letting out a breath.
He didn't think it would work, but he managed to use the second technique derived from Twilight mana.
[Moonshadow]
Horus used one of the forms he learnt as a child to guide and manipulate his mana, but using Moonshadow was his intent from the beginning.
While [Fading] allowed your weapon to phase through defences, [Moonshadow] changed how your attacks were perceived, speeding them up or slowing them down until your enemy made a mistake.
The sound of metal groaning made him turn towards Wally, who was still fighting his Greenjaw.
The Kappa's claws tore over the shield, leaving lines in the metal. Wally lashed out after the attack, but he was too far away, his sword left a narrow cut in the monster's leg.
It proceeded to slam a hard kick into his shield and send him sprawling to the ground. Horus inched forward but held himself back.
"Fel this," Wally growled.
The monster closed it, but was stunned when Wally threw his shield at it. Even on the ground, his form was perfect.
The shield spun and bounced off the beast's head, making it stagger. Wally jumped to his feet and threw his sword like a spear.
The Greenjaw slashed it out of the air, but Wally had already drawn and thrown the small axe at his hip.
The axe thudded into the monster's collarbone with a spray of blood. While it tried to pull out the weapon, Wally drew his second axe and closed in.
Dodging a hasty swipe from the beast, Wally slid and cleaved into the monster's thigh, leaving his axe there to make moving harder for it.
He grabbed the other axe embedded in the Greenjaw's shoulder, pulling the beast down while slipping under a deadly hug.
He was now behind the beast, so he kicked it to its knees. Ripping his first axe from the monster's shoulder, he then tried to slash its arteries.
But the Monster swung its elbow back with an enraged roar, slamming into his chestplate, and sending him flying back like he was weightless.
That would have been a killing blow if Wally wasn't too close to the creature or wearing armour.
The beast had a bone spike on its elbow, and its strength was great.
With it's enemy on the ground, the Greenjaw pulled the second axe from its thigh with a hiss.
But Wally rolled to his feet, then, with a powerful, sharp movement, threw the axe in his hand.
The axe spun through the air and slammed into the monster's eyes with a sickening thud.
While it's pained screams filled the cove, Wally pounced on amphibious monster, grabbing the hand that currently held his other axe.
Instead of fighting a stronger creature for it, he manipulated its elbow to place the axe at the Greenjaw's neck.
Then he slammed his palm into the monster's to push the axe in, before ripping it out.
Black blood covered his face and armour. Wally staggered back and spat frantically. "Damnation. That's foul."
The creature fell face-first as its blood pooled over the ground. The cove's brief violence had ended and only the two boys' laboured breaths remained.
Horus whistled. "Not very Knight‐like"
Wally glared but said nothing about it. He focused on the clear water of the oasis. "How about a bath?"
"Fetch some drinking water first," Horus advised, turning to his own dead Greenjaw. "Then we have to harvest their blood and the moss."
They were both done in around an hour, and their journey was rather fruitful.
In the last hour or so, they harvested ten Firespitter Core cores in decent quality and now potion ingredients that they could sell to the Slayer's guild, military or even independents.
"Altogether this is around ten thousand credits," Wally calculated as they left the oasis behind.
Horus glanced back at the glowing green room hesitantly. "There are probably more valuable things in there."
The oasis constantly resummoned those Greenjaws to protect it. It was like a mini dungeon in its own right.
Most likely, there were extra rewards if you dove down the oasis, but there could be hundreds of Greenjaws down there, and they were far stronger underwater than they were up here.
"Whatever's down there, we can come back for when we're Elite tier," Wally said with a cocky smile.
"You can barely fight like a Knight," Horus teased. "Your skills will never grow if you don't use them in a fight. You—"
Horus froze and glanced backwards, trying to pierce the thick darkness hanging over the rugged road. The growing glow of the cove intruded on the dark some steps back.
"What?" Wally said, drawing his weapons. "Did you hear something?"
There was nothing there.
But Horus could feel something, like a premonition that he was being watched by something sentient.
"It feels like a human is watching me," he murmured. With a shake of his head, Horus exhaled. "Might be my nerves. But stay—"
"Ready," Wally completed.
They both kept walking. Only one more stop, and then they would have enough money to cover three years of the military academy for Wally.
So the two boys disappeared into the darkness.