Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang took a deep breath when he heard Duke Whirlwind’s voice.

If beasts got the chance to take a good look at him, they would attack. Dealing with this issue wasn’t hard under normal circumstances, but if a Zone Beast decided that it wanted to kill Shang…

Only death would wait for him.

“I will be careful,” Shang said.

Duke Whirlwind nodded and led everyone into the Thunder Horse Zone.

The Thunder Horse Zone was just a huge desert with plenty of sand dunes. Usually, one wouldn’t associate a desert with lightning, but Shang quickly saw why this Zone was a desert.

BANG! BANG!

From the clear and bright sky, one lightning bolt after the other hit the ground, throwing small bits of sand everywhere.

There were very few clouds present, and the lightning seemingly came out of thin air. Sometimes, the lightning didn’t even come from the sky but just directly appeared in the air before striking the ground.

Surprisingly, the bits of sand didn’t seem to mind the lightning. Sure, they were flung around, but they didn’t get destroyed or burned.

 In comparison to all the other Zones, Shang barely saw any beasts in this one.

“Why are there no beasts?” Shang asked.

“This is one of the rare Zones where nearly all the fighting is done either very high in the sky or below the ground inside different caves and tunnels,” Duke Whirlwind explained with a neutral voice. Obviously, after realizing that they would soon meet the Thunder Horse, Duke Whirlwind’s good mood had vanished.

Shang looked at the sky, at the few clouds he could see.

The biggest clouds were only two kilometers wide, which really wasn’t that big for a cloud, and there were a couple of clouds that were only a hundred meters across. There were even very small clouds, only about ten meters across.

The most numerous clouds were the smaller ones, and there were only three gigantic clouds.

‘Duke Whirlwind said that most beasts are fighting in the sky and below the ground. Does that mean…?’

“Are the clouds beasts?” Shang asked.

“Correct,” Duke Whirlwind answered. “The three big clouds are beasts of the fifth Realm. The ones that are a couple of hundred meters across are True Path Stage beasts, and the smallest ones are Commander Stage beasts. Soldier and General Stage beasts live underground until they become powerful enough to take to the skies.”

Shang took a deep breath.

Those three gigantic clouds were beasts of the Fifth Realm!

Shang had never seen one before!

BANG!

Shang’s gaze was pulled to a spot in the sky where two small clouds had just met. As soon as they had met, the sound of thunder reverberated throughout the desert, and Shang could see several bolts of lightning shining through the clouds.

Two Commander Stage beasts were fighting.

A couple of seconds later, Shang saw a body fall from the two clouds.

It was a silver hawk, heavy injuries and burns visible all over its body.

The hawk had obviously lost.

And then, Shang saw the victor.

A long, snake-like beast with a long, jagged horn and four relatively small legs exited the cloud.

Shang watched with widely opened eyes as the thing grabbed the corpse with its claws and retreated to the cloud.

‘Was that a Chinese dragon?!’ Shang thought.

Shang had seen plenty of Chinese dragons in fantasy movies and games on Earth, and they looked very similar to the beast he had just seen.

“What is that beast?” Shang asked Duke Whirlwind.

“Desert Lightning Serpent,” Duke Whirlwind answered.

‘It’s not a dragon? Or is the name simply different?’ Shang thought.

“It feels different from other beasts,” Shang said. He actually didn’t think that it was different, but he wanted to know if there was something special about that beast. After all, it’s a dragon!

“It is different,” Duke Whirlwind answered. “In comparison to almost every other beast, these Serpent beasts don’t focus on their bodies.”

“They don’t?” Shang asked.

“Their bodies are still far more powerful than ours, but most of their power comes from their ranged attacks. They have many varied abilities that they can unleash from range.”

“In a way, you could call them Mage beasts.”

Shang looked at the cloud where the Desert Lightning Serpent retreated to.

‘A beast that focuses on abilities that are very similar to Spells?’ Shang thought. ‘That’s quite interesting. Sure enough, there are plenty of things I still don’t know about this world.’

“How is it flying without wings?” Shang asked.

“If there is enough Lightning Mana in the atmosphere, the Desert Lightning Serpent can manipulate magnetism just enough to let it fly. That ability consumes a lot of Mana, but with enough Lightning Mana present, it won’t run out. If it were to leave this Zone, it wouldn’t be able to keep flying,” Duke Whirlwind explained.

Shang only nodded.

After that, Shang no longer asked Duke Whirlwind any questions.

The Duke was obviously preoccupied with thinking about the Thunder Horse.

Speaking of, just five minutes later, Shang saw several tall buildings in the distance.

He had expected that these buildings would be made of clay, but surprisingly, they were made of yellow stone or metal. Shang wasn’t quite sure which of the two it was.

This was obviously Spark Oasis, and the reason for its name was just a kilometer to its east.

Shang could see a lake about two kilometers wide east of the city. Surprisingly, there was no vegetation around it.

It simply looked like a big lake in the middle of a desert.

Oases were known for having lots of greenery around them, but this one didn’t have any.

However, Shang could see a couple of weaker beasts drinking from the oasis. All of these beasts came out of the ground to drink.

Yet, even with so many beasts present, there was no fighting.

Additionally, there was a big city of humans just a kilometer away. If this were Warrior’s Paradise, a swarm of eager hunters would charge over to the oasis to kill all the beasts.

But here, nothing.

No one fought.

“Why is nobody fighting?” Shang asked.

“The Thunder Horse doesn’t like fighting near the oasis or inside the city,” Duke Whirlwind said as he focused on the city.

“Wait,” Shang said. “I can understand the oasis thing, but why does the Thunder Horse not want any fighting in the city?”

“We are not entirely sure,” Duke Whirlwind said, “but the Thunder Horse likes humans to some degree. It enjoys being in their company. Of course, everyone is still allowed to kill each other, but not in the city nor the oasis.”

“There has only been one instance of a powerful beast attacking the city in the past, and the Thunder Horse very quickly took care of that beast.”

“Some of the Mages focusing on beasts believe that the Thunder Horse is viewing us humans as pets.”

Shang blinked a couple of times in surprise.

A horse keeping humans as pets?

That was not something Shang had expected to ever see.

“You have to be careful now,” Duke Whirlwind said as the group closed in on the city. “I will try to make our stop as briefly as possible.”

“Let’s hope your luck is not too bad.”