"Didn’t you say that you will polish me into a man worthy of you or something? Then please do tell me, how am I suppose to defeat this already higher ranked calamity who also has a deadly weakening and pain inducing poison in his arsenal."

His words were a sharp challenge, like the first strike of flint against steel.

Currently, Aezaleon really was thinking of pulling this woman inside his soul again, which he was perfectly capable of doing despite already having created a physical body for her. Afterward, he would go on the calamity hunting on his own, testing himself out slowly and safely.

Clementine, on sensing his not-so-very good intentions, immediately responded as a matter of fact.

"Of course, I’m not trying to kill you. However, if it really came to that, and you really weren’t able to kill this savage calamity in the end, then regardless of my disappointment, I will still save you; I won’t let you die. It’s just that, I really wanted to see how strong the endurance of my future husband is, for obvious reasons you know~"

She winked. Her lips curled into a cunning smile. Using her words to compel the man to prove himself, which worked splendidly. She was a master weaver, pulling the threads of his pride to make him dance.

Aezaleon gritted his teeth, and in spite of knowing what Clementine was trying to do, he really couldn’t ignore her after what she said. He exhaled in defeat. His sigh, a white flag raised before a battle even began.

"At least give me a weapon to fight him. I don’t want to fight a venomous calamity with my bare hands in my first battle, let alone a porcupine."

"So picky~" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Clementine chuckled, while her boobs jiggled. Her laughter rang out like silver coins falling onto a stone floor.

With her hand stretching forward, she condensed a blood claymore for him from a drop of her blood by using her concept of [Blood Construct Condensation].

Presenting the claymore to him. "Here you go." She voiced.

Aezaleon took the 2-meters-long, crimson-red blade, grasping the hilt and admired it in amazement.

He couldn’t understand how a simple drop of blood could create something that appeared even tougher, more compact, and harder than an actual metal.

"It’s an amazing weapon!" He complimented with a genuine tone.

"Of course it is. I made it with my own blood, the blood of a [Primordial Vampire]." Clementine scoffed at the obvious fact. Nonetheless, she still smiled. "Now that you have your weapon, why don’t you go and show your future wife your first battle? Give me a good entertainment, future husband~!" Her smile—A dark moon reflecting off a pool of fresh blood.

Aezaleon’s gaze twitched. He saw first-hand how arrogant this woman was. However, because of his own shallow knowledge, he did not realize how lucky he was to actually have her as his first companion.

Anyway, with the weapon in his hand, Aezaleon shot forward. In four seconds, he was within the detection range of the venomous calamity, which was a hundred meters. He landed 50 meters away from it.

Also, from Clementine, Aezaleon just learned through their soul connection that as a material ascension rank 3 calamity with an unawakened soul core, the porcupine’s speed was only 40 m/sec.

Nonetheless, for his first battle, Aezaleon was playing it safe. In other words, this 50-meters distance gave him the perfect advantage in offense, as he could cover it in a second to initiate his attack, and also defense; if something unexpected were to happen, he would have the needed time to react accordingly.

He scrutinized the Calamity: Venomous Porcupine, who had also become alert of him while also observing him attentively. He was a three-meters-tall rodent with red eyes, thick gray fur, and innumerable pitch-black quills with baleful, sharp green tips.

Thie calamity was like a fortress of needles, waiting for a reason to erupt.

Both could feel the sense of immense danger from each other when locking their eyes, making a second feel too long and letting their instincts take ahold of them.

A few seconds passed in tension.

Aezaleon gripped the claymore in his right hand even tighter, feeling the shift in the air. Furthermore, the moment he noticed this change, abruptly the three-meters-tall porcupine jumped, curling his body in the air and doing a vertical spin. His movement like a lethal clockwork spring suddenly snapping into action.

Thus shooting his barbed quills, coated in a deep and dense green liquid excreted from his needle-like green tips, towards Aezaleon, at an acceleration far greater than his current speed.

Aezaleon realized that despite his cautiousness, he still underestimated his enemy! And the realization hit him like a bucket of ice water in a midsummer heat.

There were more than 200 barbed quills shooting towards him, spread in a radius of 70 meters with him as the center. He knew that dodging these quills was definitely impossible for the current him. Also, even taking cover behind one of the many trees would be pointless because of the massive penetrative force behind these projectiles.

Henceforth, Aezaleon utilized the only thing he had currently: his sword!

Normally, it would’ve been impossible for him to make use of a greatsword properly, let alone such a long and heavy claymore, considering this was the first time he even held a sword and all.

However, now things were different, because when he was given this greatsword by Clementine, she had also shared with him the three most basic moves of a sword or any other weapon with blades, alongside the needed footwork: parry, slash, and pierce!

She shared them through his sub-ability, <Shared Strength>, of his ability effect five, <Eternal Oath of Dead: Master’s Fortune>.

The knowledge flooded his mind like a river breaking through a dam.

The second passed.

Aezaleon completely focused on the approximately 30 barbed quills that targeted him while disregarding the others wholly, as they were all spread around in a 70-meters distance.

He grabbed the claymore with both of his hands, took a step back, and slashed and parried with his two-meters-long red greatsword more than 30 times within but a mere second! Such an action made the veins on his arms bulge while his feet dug into the ground, slightly cracking it.

Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!

The 30 slashed and parried quills pierced the ground around him, all simultaneously. While the strain of pushing his body to such a limit so suddenly made the skin and even some of the muscles on his arms crack and tear apart. Like a machine forced past its breaking point.

Blood painted his arms red, some even warming his face. His breath was labored. His gaze; cold as he saw the venomous porcupine land on the ground, surprised that his attack was neutralized thoroughly by a calamity weaker than him.

"Grrr!..."

It hissed, while its green eyes shone in anger. The first exchange that felt like minutes long ended the second it began.

[I’m impressed!]

Clementine voiced in his head. [To think you were able to completely neutralize that attack with the least amount of damage to yourself, truly amazing, husband. In any case, a good performance deserves a good reward. So here is a tip from your future wife; if you don’t want to embarrass yourself before me, then kill that venomous porcupine as quickly as you possibly can, otherwise you will hundred percent die!]

Her warning was a cold shadow creeping across a sunny meadow.

HuH!

"What do you mean?" Even though Aezaleon asked, he still heeded Clementine’s warning and immediately shot towards the calamity.

Who on noticing his approach, instantly turned around and shot more of the venomous quills towards him, but this time Aezaleon was prepared and had already jumped into the air, fully focused on butchering this venomous calamity no matter what.

He was a hawk diving for its final meal.

THUD!

He landed before the savage calamity, surprising him and within a millisecond covered the few meters distance between them.

Aezaleon stopped before the three-meters-tall porcupine. The calamity straight away used his claws on him, but as his speed was greater than him, he dodged easily.

Subsequently, he swung the claymore downward, cutting the calamity’s hand, which he was easily able to do, thanks to the amazing greatsword in his hand, of course.

SPURT!

The sound was a wet rip, the first note in a symphony of slaughter.