I didn't recognize the kind of magical beast, but it seemed Aria did, because as soon as she saw it, she shouted, "Tidejaw!"
When I heard what she called it, it felt funny. Well, now was not the time to laugh. I turned to ask Aria, "Can you fight that thing?"
She looked at me like she was looking at an idiot. Then she asked, "Can't you feel the pressure coming out from that thing? It's probably at Arcane Fang Peak stage, equivalent to an Arcanist, and I am just at Spellweaver 4th stage."
Then I started thinking this was going to be a problem. Remembering the cultivation I know, and according to what my mom told me, or let's just say the memories, the cultivation process for awakeners and for magical beasts are:
AWAKENERS
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Manamancer: has 9 stages
Spellweaver: has 6 stages
Arcanist: has 3 stages = early-mid-high/peak
Ether Sage: has 3 stages = gas core-liquid core-solid core
Aetherlord: has 3 stages = gas core-liquid core-solid core
Mythweaver: has 3 stages = gas core-liquid core-solid core
MAGICAL BEAST RANK
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Mana -sprout : has 9 stage
Spell - Maw : has 6 stage
Arcane -Fang : has 3 stage = early - mid - High/Peak
Etherborn - warden : has 3 stage = gas core - liquid core - solid core
Aether - Howlers : has 3 stage = gas core - liquid core - Solid core
Myth-Born : has 3 stage = gas core - liquid core - Solid core
There were more stages, but it seemed that was all my mom told me. And according to her, Mythweavers are very strong but are hardly seen.
So hearing this magical beast was at Arcane Fang Peak stage, at that, I knew we were done for. But seeing its injuries, I knew it probably got into a fight and got those wounds. If it truly was a crocodile, I know I can't use Earth logic with this world, but on a normal scale, crocodiles come out from the water just to sun-bathe. Since it was noon and it wasn't out, that meant it was probably afraid of something, and that something might be what left those claw marks on its body.
So I just hoped my calculations were right. I turned back to see the kids. I could already see they were scared shitless from the mana pressure alone. I could tell that magical beast was slow, but that didn't mean I should stand around so it could come eat me. I could tell it was scared of land, probably because of that beast that gave it all these wounds. So it was basically using mana pressure to intimidate us. I was not going to fall for it. If worst came to worst, I could easily command Aria to attack that thing to buy me enough time to escape. Just because I was not afraid of death didn't mean I had to just stay there and die.
I turned to Aria. She, at the same time, turned to look at me. Then I looked at the forest and shouted to her, "Let's go into the forest!"
I looked for a trail that gave me a clear path of where the magical beast had been, and I saw one, and I just followed it. I didn't care about the kids. I already gave my command to Aria; she dared not defy it. So we moved.
I turned to look at the kids and was surprised to see them running after me. Perhaps my shout had snapped them out of their daze. And I could see the magical beast's hesitation to come after us before it overcame it and roared at us before running our way.
A surprised look appeared on my face because despite how it looked, it moved quite fast. We just kept running. I was pretty sure it was going to get one of those girls, mainly the human girl. I didn't even turn back, but the next thing I heard was a roar in our front.
As soon as I heard it, I changed direction to the left, running as fast as I could. Then the magical beast paused for a second, looking at the direction the roar came from, giving the human girl enough time to put a bit of distance between herself and it.
The magical beast probably got irritated that its prey had escaped just when it was so close to eating it, so it roared back. Sure enough, not up to one minute later, another magical beast appeared.
This one was a wolf with a single horn on its forehead, with its body being all purple, standing extremely tall, the size of a full-blown delivery truck back on Earth, staring directly at the Tidejaw, probably because it stepped into its territory and was also excluding the pressure of a Peak stage Arcane Fang-level magical beast. It didn't even give us a glance, just staring at the beast below it.
By now, we had already put quite some distance between them, so we just hid ourselves, staring at them both. Then I turned to Aria, simply asking her to explain.
Then she said, "That's a Purple Nightmare Wolf. They are different from other wolf-type magical beasts. They don't move in packs, and they are very wary of their territory."
I nodded my head. That's why the beast went for the Tidejaw first. Then I looked back to see two different beasts clashing. It felt weird from the way I saw it. The Tidejaw magical beast was shooting ice water beams from its mouth while the wolf was basically moving so fast, dragging its claws down, giving it more claw wounds.
I tried to picture how it would look like when a lion and a crocodile fight. It would be like the lion just slamming its right paws on the crocodile's head. And then seeing this felt kind of weird in some way. The wolf probably had an edge in this fight due to it being a land-type magical beast, and it was quite agile too, making it the main nemesis for the Tidejaw magical beast. Since it wasn't in the water and wasn't even fast, it got more and more claw marks on its body. It then switched to using its tail as a whip. I had to say, that thing packed a punch, and it seemed the wolf was scared of the tail, with the way it kept moving backward and the way the tail kept cutting down trees.
I looked at Aria and asked, "Is it possible to create a spell strong enough to hurt an Arcane Fang magical beast?"
And she asked me, "Why do you ask?"
From her reply, I knew she had it but wasn't sure. And from what I saw, I was pretty sure that wolf magical beast would come after us because they've got a crazy high sense of smell, so it could track us down. I'd rather do something to it now than let it come to bite me later.
So I asked her, "What is it you have?"
And she replied, "Four early-stage Arcanist attack crystals."
And I looked at her with my brows up, asking her to continue.
"Crystals are crystals which store magic spells of one person and have a seal placed on them. As soon as you infuse a bit of mana in it, the seal breaks, then it attacks anyone you want it to attack."
I started thinking—stored mana, more like stored spells. And she said she had four of them at early-stage Arcanist rank at that.
Then I turned, saying, "Get them ready. We will use them."
Then I turned back to the fight. Aria already brought out four dark purple crystals. I looked at them before turning back to the fight. We couldn't use them now; we just had to wait till they both weakened.
By now, the wolf already had some parts of its body frozen, and also, its front legs had large cut marks, probably from the other beast's tail. So I turned to it. I could see its body was already full of scars, blood dripping from the wounds. And it seemed they were both the overlords of this part of the forest because I hadn't seen any other magical beasts joining the fun.
So when I saw the water beast retreat and the wolf chasing after it, I turned to Aria. "Let's go."
I didn't even glance back to the rest of the group. If they chose to follow me, I didn't care. So we tailed them till we could hear the roars of the beasts in front of us. They probably didn't pay much attention to us, probably because they simply didn't care or were just too engrossed in their fight; they didn't bother to look our way. But that was simply perfect.
When we got even closer, I could see the wolf beast biting down on the Tidejaw beast, probably to stop it from getting back to the water while it was thrashing around. Then I told Aria to get ready. As soon as I saw the opportunity, I saw the Tidejaw open its mouth. I shouted to Aria, "Now! Activate the crystals and throw them in the mouth!"