God of Tricksters

"You motherf—!"

*Roar!*

Before she finished cursing Theo, the monster let out a roar. It had a huge humanoid body like that of a bear but with shorter hands. However, the monster had a long bone coming out of his elbow as if it was a blade.

When it saw Theo and Rea, it let out a roar and charged at them.

Theo used his Blink to disappear from the battlefield, leaving Rea alone. However, he didn't forget to give the instruction.

"Ah, you must have swung your swords 900 times in the morning. Remember, I haven't lifted the ban."

"What the fuck? You sadistic bastard! Are you telling me to fight a Mythical Rank Monster with only one hundred swings?" Rea shouted, wanting to curse him more.

However, she was forced to leap back as the monster punched from above. The fist ended up hitting the ground, causing the ground to crack.

Still, the monster had no intention of letting Rea go. Since he couldn't find Theo, he rammed his body into Rea.

The latter clicked her tongue and unsheathed her sword, trying to cut this fist. The fist had been imbued by Magic Power, forming a thin layer of smoke that covered the entire arm.

But to her surprise, when the fist was about to strike the sword, it immediately moved faster so that the sword clashed with the bone behind his elbow.

*Clang!*

'His bone?' Rea gritted her teeth before seeing the monster spinning.

The spin was so fast that the next thing she realized, the monster's fist was already right before her head.

She directed her energy to form a turtle to block this fist.

Unfortunately for her, the fist punched through the turtle shell and ended up hitting her cheek.

The force blasted her away as her body bounced on the ground a few times.

"Gah." She let out a mouthful of blood. Luckily, the turtle managed to receive a portion of that power or her head would have gone. "Kh."

She tried to find Theo but to no avail. In the end, she could only rely on herself.

Seeing that the monsters came toward her again, she hurriedly rose from the ground and poured all the Magic Power she had into her sword. She imagined the power but couldn't form the animal that would be stronger than what she had right now.

In the end, this unstable Magic Power only became a bit stronger than what the animal could provide.

Even so, it was better than dying here. She struck the monster with this unstable Magic Power. The monster was too powerful, so she tried to repel its attack instead of taking it head-on.

While waiting for an opportunity to attack, she fought the enemies for another fifty rounds. Unfortunately for her, the power difference between them was too much.

She couldn't do anything to the monster. At the same time, the monster had been injuring her this whole time.

Her left hand was numb, and there were many bruises all over her body.

'As expected, fighting against a Mythical Rank Monster is still too much for me.' Rea gritted her teeth. But before she could shout for Theo's help, the monster had appeared before her, suppressing her.

The worst part of this fight was the fact that she couldn't exceed one thousand swings. Theo looked like the worst boss to work for because he was just toying with her life at this point.

In the end, another thirty swings had been completed. And all she could do was defend herself.

It took her everything to defend against the monster's attacks. In the meantime, her injury kept increasing.

There was even a cut on her forehead as the blood started flowing from her right forehead to her right cheek, causing her to close one of her eyes.

Due to the injury, her performance gradually decreased. Her consciousness had been slipping from time to time.

'Tsk. I only have five swings left… How do I even fight against this monster? I haven't even dealt a single injury to the monster. Is he not going to help me? Is he going to let me die here? No, knowing his personality, he won't let me die here. But he'll make me get enough injuries so that I won't be able to complete the requirements I've set for myself. In other words, I might not be able to reach the Mythical Rank within a year and get kicked out of the group.' Rea gritted her teeth.

She didn't know why but she remembered their earlier discussion. Rea was talking about her power at first, saying that she couldn't shape it.

However, Theo suddenly changed the topic to her ambition.

'How in the world did the conversation change from my power to my ambition? I know that my previous ambition was to become my brother's helper. That was what I wanted and believed until this point…

'Wait a minute. Believed until this point? Isn't that what defines me? Does that mean he wanted me to know that the path I've forged until this point is not wrong? This power I've acquired from my decades of hard work.

'My power, huh? Does that mean he approves of my power?'

The image suddenly connected to what Theo said back in Argelia when she fought against Walker.

"Just hone what you currently have. Whether it's strength, speed, or even your unique ability, you need to use what you're comfortable with."

These sentences stuck deep in her mind.

'That's right. I've been comfortable with shaping my power into an animal. Why would I even think of another form like a blade or dual-wielding? But the animal can't withstand this amount of power.'

Rea looked at the monster while raising her sword. 'If that's the case, I need a stronger animal. That's right. If I want to become the best right hand man in the world, I need absolute power… Something that is far beyond the animal… the being that the animal considered a God…'

The Magic Power in Rea's sword gradually began to take form. It looked like a tiger. However, this tiger had a white color and gray stripes all over its body.

"If a tiger doesn't work, then I'll call upon the god of tiger in my memory." She muttered in a low voice as her consciousness became fuzzy due to straining her mind when shaping this power. She then swung her sword, releasing the white tiger. "Go, Celestial White Tiger, Byakko."

*Roar!*