Chapter 314 Coordination
Jason tried to think of ways to improve Artemis and Scorpio's coordination when he remembered how high their current combat prowess was.
'They're neither weak nor extremely strong among Unblemished beasts, but they're trying to work together to fight against the large horde of beasts...somehow it worked out…'
Their coordination, however, was still extremely bad which he had to improve.
Rather than that, it could be said that they would need to establish a better, synchronized coordination.
It was fortunate for Jason that he has only two soulbonds right now because it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to create an acceptable coordination between the both.
If he were to add himself in this calculation, all three had to work together in order to prevent obstructing each other, survive at all costs, and become even stronger by fighting.
As such, after storing away all corpses inside his spatial ring's area for preserved goods.
Once that was done, he ignored Artemis' demand to be washed.
If they were to venture into a place that was even more dangerous than the abandoned lands, Artemis would have to be able to accept her dirty plumage.
Otherwise, she might lower her guard when Jason washed her while the same could happen to him.
Furthermore, it would be weird to wash Artemis after every single small battle, considering that all of them would end as it happened in his soulbonds' first skirmish.
Walking through the plains, they encountered many different beast races, but almost all of them had either something to do with poison, whether it was that they innately had poison or a poison affinity.
There were also other beasts, with all kinds of affinities, however, all of them had to have faint poison resistance.
Other than that, there were also flying beasts that were unaffected by the poisonous soil and poisonous reeking stench radiating from it, until they had to land on the ground.
While walking around, Jason started to experiment with his two soulbonds to figure out how long it would need for either of them to enter his mana core when they were summoned outside the soul world.
After several tries, it was clear that Artemis required slightly less time than Scorpio which was probably thanks to her slightly thicker fortified soul conjunction which allowed her to enter his soul world faster.
This was interesting to know, but before he could continue with other experiments he was interested in, the three of them encountered a suitable group they could prey on.
More than 100 meters away from them was a large group of Rotten Triceratops grazing innocently.
Rotten Triceratops were heavy and large four-legged beasts with a head that was shaped similar to a shield, protecting them from most frontal attacks.
Three horns protruded out of their head with one small, yet razor-sharp one above its nose while two long horns erected above its eyes.
From Jason's knowledge, Triceratops were already an ancient beast race that lived a long, long time ago on Argos, only to return when rifts opened which revived many extinct races.
However, even if some fanatics were happy about this outcome, Jason didn't really care.
He could only acknowledge that these triceratopses looked great if they were not rotting right now, as they missed large chunks of flesh in some areas, revealing their rib cages and large bones.
Jason wanted to try out something new which led him to instruct his soulbonds to enter the soul world before Artemis entered his mana core to manifest her wings.
With large, wings manifesting behind him, he ascended more than 100 meters into the air before he carefully approached the rotten Triceratopses not without neglecting to look if something were to surprise attack him from behind.
Fortunately, nothing like that seemed to happen and the Triceratops were still grazing, indicating that they had neither heard nor seen him.
Once he was above them, Jason dived down towards them, with Artemis' wings pressed on his shoulder blades, only to open them when he was barely 10 meters above the ground.
Through his acceleration, he was forced to descend further and he reached the height of five meters when he was able to slow down slightly.
Summoning the new weapon he forged not long ago into his hand, Scorpio emerged in the air next to him, only to crash into the ground, barely two meters away from the closest rotten Triceratops which noticed its danger slightly to late.
Scorpio pierced out with its stinger while at the same time using its claws to inflict cuts in his opponent's thick hide.
Meanwhile, Jason dissolved Artemis' wings, allowing her to leave the Mana core as she emerged next to him, while he fell down to the ground.
With his newly forged light longsword in hand, Jason injected mana into it before enveloping it with black, violent flickering flames.
Slashing out at the first rotten Triceratops, he immediately noticed that its horns were extremely durable and they seemed to be even harder than his mana grade-1 longsword.
This caused Jason to smile as he exerted the weightless steps technique with its perfect mastery fully, to increase his speed by 60%.
Leaning forward Jason tried to rush past the rotten Triceratops, only to notice that he was still slower than it, which caused him to frown.
Forced to retreat because the Triceratops thrust its horns towards him, Jason had to think of a different way to approach his opponent that was only a low Unblemished beast.
Using his ice affinity to erect a small wall in front of him to distract the rotten Triceratops, Jason created small cracks below him in the soil when he pushed his feet from the ground to speed up in order to leave his current position.
While the rotten Triceratops couldn't see him, it didn't remain idle and charged towards the ice-wall which it shattered without much resistance only to see Jason from the corner of its eye, slashing at it with a faint smile on his face.
Most beasts would never think that anybody would stealthily attack or even use tricks to defeat their opponent because they wouldn't do that either.
However, this was mostly because of these beasts' intelligence that was still lower than humans and their instinctive way to fight against others head-on without trying to think of a better way to fight.
According to his masters, there were not many beasts that tried to use tricks to defeat their opponents.
Rather than that, they would die while fighting or try to flee from someone who was noticeably stronger than themselves.
There were a few beasts that were intelligent enough to fight head-on and use tricks at the same time, while it was even possible for intelligent beasts to coordinate lower-ranked beasts with their wisdom.
Something similar to that was the reason for the Goblins to gather under a higher-ranked, evolved being like the Goblin King that was stronger and more intelligent than them.
However, the rotten Triceratops neither had a leader to instruct them nor a high-intelligence to figure out if someone was scheming or trying to do something else.
This was also the reason for Jason's small ice wall trick to work out better than he initially expected as the rotten Triceratops' side was now open, completely unguarded as he slashed out with his mana injected longsword that was still enveloped with his black origin flame's black flames.