| 6 | Elemental

The following day, Lenna left her tent, aroused by the smell of breakfast.

She saw Krom stoking the fire while intently watching the food.

After briefly stretching, she went to go and see what Krom was making. Lenna sniffed the air, "Breakfast smells good."

Krom shook the pan a little, "It seems like you slept well. I'm cooking a few sausage links and diced potatoes with cheese."

Once Krom finished cooking the food, they quickly ate before departing for the port.

Krom chucked the pan into his storage ring before helping Lenna fold up the tent. Following this, Lenna threw her pack over her shoulder and met up with Krom, who was already standing near the road's edge.

Krom asked, "Are you okay with going the same speed last time?"

Lenna secured her bag a little tighter before responding, "Yep."

They once again began to run along the road.

Fortunately, contractors had significantly higher stamina than ordinary people, so Krom and Lenna had no trouble maintaining this speed for extended periods.

Krom asked Lenna, "Do you know the difference between the lower ranks?"

Lenna had an ignorant expression.

Sighing, he said, "Did Morg only fill your brain with fighting?"

Krom proceeded to explain while they traveled.

Ordinary people were considered G-rank and had no unique abilities because they hadn't gathered enough mana to form a contract. F-rank was the stage at which someone would have formed a contract with a relic and now had special abilities.

The special abilities an contractor had would always align with some type of element. There were many elements throughout the Aquerima, and new islands occasionally brought new elements when they broke free from probation.

Coming after F-rank, a contractor at E-rank and D-rank would have increased stamina, mana capacity, and natural regeneration. It was needless to say that, at higher ranks, a contractor's capabilities would be monstrous.

Krom proceeded to conclude the brief lesson by saying, "Information is important. One of the most powerful contractors in history once said: 'Only by having a wide range of knowledge can one bring out the most of their strength and surpass their limits.' "

"The contractor's sayings still hold true even to this day. And, his teachings are regarded as one of the best to study from. One of the only reasons I'm as strong as I am is due to the vast amount of knowledge I have available to me." Krom mysteriously said.

As they traveled along the road, Krom continued to tutor her. However, as they jumped from topic to topic, he learned that she didn't have good mathematics skills!

Although it might not seem like it, math skills were incredibly useful both in and out of combat. It helped develop your critical thinking and analysis skills, which were essential in any fight. If you could respond faster than your opponent, it would be easy to get the upper hand.

It was also a good life skill when handling money. With Lenna being a Hero, Krom knew that she would most likely have a lot of money in the future, and learning it now would benefit her later.

By the end of the second 'lesson,' Lenna had essentially shut down all of her auditory receptors and was in a daze of confusion.

She was a combat genius, not a math one.

Boom!

Suddenly, an explosion sounded out from ahead!

Krom and Lenna glanced at each other before dashing faster to see the cause.

Arriving at the scene, they saw a carriage flipped on its side with three figures who had their backs pressed against it, relics manifested, and swords in hand. Facing opposite of them were about a dozen two-meter humanoids and a seven-meter tall humanoid who had seemingly just turned their former fourth companion into mangled, burnt flesh with a punch.

The humanoids looked elongated and had lanky arms that reached their knees. Their bodies looked like someone had taken the general shape of a human but were composed of dark stone segments that seemed to be held together by bright, orange flames.

The seven-meter-tall one looked especially menacing as it had glowing, orange eyes and was wielding a large great-sword made of black stone with engravings on it in one of its hands.

They were elementals.

Krom looked amused as he said, "It seems like the big one has killed quite a few people. It should be at about mid C-rank."

Lenna stared excitedly at the elemental. She had seen elementals before, but only up to D-rank. If an elemental that was only at mid C-rank was already this big...

She got excited, thinking about what the future had in store.

D-rank elementals were about the size of an average person, while E-rank elementals were the size of a toddler.

Elementals were innately stronger than the average contractor of the same rank. If you were to pit a D-rank contractor against a D-rank elemental in a dual, then chances are the contractor would lose— unless they were some anomaly.

However, that was only in a one on one situation.

Contractors could use the power of friendship, camaraderie, and teamwork to get the advantage.

Krom said to Lenna, "Why don't you go take care of those flame elementals and save those D-rankers. Consider it a test of sorts."

Lenna nodded happily, "Okay, I call dibs on their mana essence!" She summoned her relic, "Wolf Cloak!"

Krom chuckled. The mana from a C-rank wouldn't do anything for him at all, let alone the twelve D-ranks.

Lenna dashed towards the group of elementals as if she had just spotted a gold coin on the floor.

Her cloak flapped in the wind as she neared the nearest elemental. If she wanted to have a chance to fight the C-rank on even footing, she would have to clear out the small fries first.

Elementals were challenging to kill. They were beings of pure mana, so they didn't have vitals, and elementals could easily regenerate damage they had taken by using their own mana to restore themselves.

There were only two ways to kill an elemental, either by damaging them past a certain threshold or by making them use up enough mana and cause them to become unstable and fall apart.

Targeting the nearest elemental, Lenna jumped into the air and swung her leg around while activating snow control ability.

"Flash Freeze!"

Her movements sped up to double their normal speed for a brief moment as particles of white ice swirled around her leg.

The elemental sensed the attack and tried to shield itself but was too slow. It was no match for Lenna's enhanced speed.

Her leg collided with the elemental, and ice rapidly spread across its body before the now frozen elemental shattered into bits and pieces.

Both sides momentarily froze, now aware of the third party.

However, the fighting quickly resumed as half the elementals split from the main group and ran towards Lenna.

'Well, this makes it a little easier,' thought Lenna.

She kicked off the ground towards the approaching elementals.

Six small snow orbs appeared in her hands, which she promptly threw into the air above the approaching elementals at stagnated times.

The nearest elemental swung its arm, causing a barrage of fire to be shot forward towards Lenna at point-blank range.

Staying calm, she nimbly avoided the attack before weaving in between the elementals while striking them and disorienting their formation.

She quickly jumped into the air and caught the snow orbs she had thrown earlier before redirecting each of them into the elementals.

Seeing that they were still disoriented, Lenna smiled and brought her hands down in a dramatic motion, "Engulf!"

The snow around the orbs rapidly multiplied before homing into their targeted elementals, binding their movements and trapping them.

Lenna wasn't done with the elementals yet and snapped her fingers, "Cryo-maim!"

After a short moment, the snow spheres ripped apart violently and shredded the elementals to pieces.

By making the inside of the snow spheres rotate chaotically, she could make anything inside twist, bend, and be torn apart before scattering outwards.

The bits and pieces of the elementals rained from the sky and gradually turned into gray wisps of energy that was absorbed into her body.

Lenna steadily walked towards the main group.

To her pleasant surprise, only the C-rank was left!

Thanks to their newfound hope and impeccable teamwork, the defending D-rank contractors fought with increased vigor and managed to strike down the remaining D-rank elementals.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Krom was inwardly shocked. Lenna didn't have nearly as many techniques from when they had sparred the night before!

'Her growth rate is insane! It might actually be more monstrous than mine now that I'm teaching her!'

He had found out from Lenna that Morg had focused on the combat basics rather than flashy moves to give her a good foundation. A weapon in the hands of someone unskilled would be nothing more than a slightly more dangerous club, hence why she didn't have many techniques initially.

Unbeknownst to Krom, Lenna had taken Krom's advice to heart and thought up various techniques that may or may not have been during the math lecture.

Lenna stood before the C-rank elemental, intently observing it. She wouldn't underestimate it.

Stories of contractors dying from carelessness were not uncommon. Elementals were the most common cause of death by a large margin from any others.

Lenna smiled wryly. Ironically, the next closest was elemental diseases.

Elementals increased their strength the same way contractors did, so they would actively hunt out the inhabitants of the Aquerima.

Taking the initiative, the elemental raised its sword into the sky as the runes embedded on the surface began to glow orange.

It swung its sword down at a frightening speed, like a meteor, with streaks of flame following it.

Boom!

The elemental's sword reshaped the landscape around it, leaving a smoldering molten crater behind.

Lenna wiped her brow in relief. Fortunately, she had dived out of the way in time.

Not wanting to be outdone, she quickly jumped onto its sword before saying, "Flash Freeze!"

Lenna accelerated while running up the sword and, in an instant, appeared next to its head.

Bang!

The elemental's head became half coated in white ice and was knocked off its feet from a kick.

While falling, Lenna created more snow orbs.

Four snow orbs appeared in her hands.

She threw each orb at each of the elemental's limbs.

"Engulf!"

Lenna snapped her fingers.

"Cryo-maim!"

Clang!

The elemental's limbs were shredded apart by the snow, leaving it immobile and limbless as it dropped the sword.

The elemental crashed to the ground.

Lenna only had a little bit of time before the elemental regenerated its limbs. She also only had about a third of her mana left, so she doubted she would be able to safely mangle its limbs again if they regenerated.

Lenna landed squarely on the elemental's chest, causing it to cave inwards.

'This isn't enough! it will regenerate!'

Lenna tried to use one of her techniques, but she was too late. The elemental's torn segments squirmed for a moment before new limbs erupted from them.

"Flash Free-!"

The elemental grabbed Lenna and flung her across the road.

Crack!

"Gah!" Lenna crashed into a tree while coughing up blood. She had tried to make a cushion of snow but could only make a small layer and barely prevented herself from sustaining fatal injuries. She had multiple cracked ribs damaged internal organs, and her left arm had gone limp.

The elemental slowly walked to the middle of the road, the ice on its face made a hissing sound as it melted.

Once there, A sinister, orange glowing, maw split open on its face.

A spiraling vortex of flames began to gather in front of its face. The vortex got smaller and smaller until it shrunk down to a single point.

Lenna tried to stand up but couldn't. She smiled bitterly before saying, "It's truly a pity that I couldn't kill it. I was so close to reaching B-rank as well."

The glowing orange dot shot from the elemental's mouth, leaving a shock wave in its wake.

When it was less than a meter from Lenna, a voice said, "I can't have you dying on me now, can I? I still have a job to do."

Krom appeared in front of Lenna.

his hand had petrified into the unknown green crystal, and the iris of his eye now glowed brightly.

With his back facing Lenna, he took a stance with one arm extended outwards and the other seemingly aiming the former.

As the glowing dot reached Krom's arm, he flicked his hand, deflecting the dot to the side.

Boom!

A distance away, the dot exploded into a torrent of fire, sending a blast wave of heat their way.

Krom's hair swayed from the heatwave, "If the opponent is stronger than you, you have something to learn. Take his techniques and make them your strength. The only way to get stronger is to keep learning. The way to the top is not by taking the easy path but the hard one."

As if thunder had struck, Lenna suddenly had a realization.

She staggered to her feet and walked towards the elemental.

'Take its technique... and make it my own...'

The elemental's only thought was to eliminate the creature in front of it.

Once in front of the elemental, she raised her fist.

'Compress it to a point...'

The elemental raised its leg to stomp on her.

Lenna jumped into the air and swung her arm towards its chest, "Snow Piercer!"

Right as her fist impacted the elemental, a hole was blown straight through the elemental's chest, followed by a flurry of snow a moment later.