Getting comfortable sleep in a place such as this, was almost impossible... at least for Darius and Cassian anyway.

Adrian, on the other hand, ensure that his lady was comfortably asleep by establishing a small [Shadow Domain] around her tent.

This allowed him to filter out all sounds that came from the outside and everything else that would disturb her rest, letting her get a much deserved rest.

After that, single shadow discreetly disconnected from himself and moved into the domain before he then stood up and approached the entrance of the cave.

Adrian then looked down and noticed the gathering of beasts trying to climb up, since they had noticed the mana of a prey.

The cave was quite high up, so it would take a while for the beasts to reach them, corrupted spirits on the other hand, were a different case.

Cassian looked at the damn butler standing by the cave’s entrance before asking, "what are you doing now?"

He hadn’t been able to sleep due to the unending sound of nocturnal beasts howling and the amount of bugs around.

As the son of a Grand Duke, he definitely wasn’t used to this and he was ill prepared.

Compared to him, Darius was faring much better, though he hadn’t had enough sleep for a different reason.

The black flames.

He had both feet crossed as he expelled that mana from what Bob had labelled, [Void flames]

They were flames bestowed on him by Noctis as a side effect granting the dragon a name.

It was the reason why he was able to burn the Lizard’s tail without it being able to regenerate it.

Though that power didn’t truly belong to them just yet, so he couldn’t allow the mana to settle in his pathways else, he’d risk exploding....

Literally.

"..."

Adrian looked at the crossed leg Darius for a short while before finally turning to Cassian and answering, "hunting."

Without adding anything else, he jumped down causing the wind to violently blow against his hair.

The ground drew closer and the beasts below suddenly seemed eager for him to reach them, but just before he got within range, he vanished mid air, replaced by a silhouette in his form.

[Shadow Clone.]

The clone fell and transformed into a puddle of shadow the moment it touched the ground.

The beasts curiously approached, but the moment they were close enough, the shadow transformed into multiple large spikes, immediately impaling the beasts.

Adrian, sitting on a tree quite a distance away, dismissed the shadow and then stood up,

"Alright then Noctis," he said to the cat laying on his head, "let’s gather enough mana for another breakthrough."

«As long as you can get me special cores,» it answered and with that, the two disappeared.

****

It didn’t take long for the two to find a group of beasts a short distance away from the cave.

Though, Adrian wisely chose to avoid them , after all, not only were they a group of C-ranks with a B-Rank as their leader.

Their number was definitely not something he could comfortably handle, at least, not without exhausting himself and being left vulnerable.

So, he moved ahead without them noticing his presence only to suddenly stop when Noctis spoke up.

«A core with high mana,» the cats said and it attention was focused exactly where Adrian was trying to avoid.

Towards the pack of beasts.

"...." Pretending as if he hadn’t heard its words, he was about to continue ahead when the damn cat suddenly made their presence known by suddenly increasing its mana output.

The beasts, a pack of bulls, each with different type of elements visible on them, immediately stopped in their tracks and turned towards the direction of the mana.

At first, they seemed hesitant to approach, but Noctis withdrew the mana the moment it was sure that they had noticed them.

And that’s when one of the beasts with a flaming horn rushed towards the tree he was on.

"You damn cat," Adrian cursed as he quickly switched places with his clone just before the beast rammed itself into the tree, causing it to immediately fall, "you did that on purpose."

«You did promise me a special core,» Noctis didn’t even bother denying, «and I want this pack’s leader’s core.»

The tree came crashing down behind him, splintering against the ground as the flaming-horned bull skidded to a halt, snorting violently.

Adrian landed lightly a few meters away.

"You have a terrible sense of timing," he muttered.

«And you have a terrible sense of priority,» Noctis replied, its tail flicking lazily, «getting me a core is long overdue.»

The damn cat had blackmailed him back in that reality created by Isla and now, it was forcing him to get the core.

It made him wonder if it truly was on his side.

Adrian shook his head, he’d think about it later, for now, he had a pack before him that he had to deal with.

The bull-like beasts were each made of a different element, ranging from fire, ice, lightning, wind a lot more.

They numbered up to ten, but that wasn’t what he was worried about.

What made him wary was their leader, not only was it at B-Rank, it seemed capable of harnessing its entire pack’s elements.

Evident enough by its horn that was on fire and the arcs of lightning running through its entire body, alongside other elements.

Fortunately though, it hadn’t made its move just yet, So Adrian could focus on the C-Ranked beasts that were currently rushing at him.

He switched places with his shadow again.

Reappearing mid-air just as the earth beneath him collapsed inward, forming a crater where he had been standing.

Within the crater was a massive massive bull that obviously controlled Earth.

Before he could get the chance to retaliate, a force slammed into him, launching him backwards and crashing into a tree.

Or at least that’s what it seemed like.

"Gravity too?" Adrian let out as he watched from another tree as his clone slammed into a tree before disappearing.

Thanks to his glasses, he had seen distortions in the environment mana, and he immediately switched himself with a clone just before the attack could reach him.

Although he managed to get to safety, he quickly realized one thing,

This fight was going to be a lot harder than he initially thought.