Turned out, snails were a dominant force inside this valley. It didn’t take too long before Zalanir stumbled upon another. This one wasn’t sleeping, but was fighting a blue and purple hydrangea flower. Both of them were level 44 only, so not really what he was looking for.

  However, their fight was still quite intense. This dawdler had actually used its shell to attack. Different to the one he had killed, this one had a spiral shell with an open part on top instead of a cube. The way it used the shell was through absorbing the light, then firing a beam made from that light to damage the flower. Looked like another channeling attack, but this one took advantage of the external magic rather than its own, or perhaps both.

  The usage of the light was an interesting concept. Zalanir wondered if he could do the same to speed up the channeling of Sonic Lance. With Sound Sense, he basically had an expert sensation for sound magic, so if he could borrow or even snatch them in supply to his own magic, his idea could likely be possible. Though that needed him to be able to control ambient magic at first. Without it, sensing sound magic only wasn’t enough.

  In the fight, whenever the snail accumulated enough power and launched the beam attack, the flower would have to say goodbye to several of its sepals. The attack just blew them off with such force and speed that the hydrangea couldn’t evade. Almost half of its left side was now bare, exposing part of its bud in the open.

  But that was basically it from the snail, as the opponent’s assaults were even deadlier than its beam. The hydrangea’s main attack of shooting some kind of blue air bubbles just did wonders on the snail’s shell. Even though the bubbles looked fragile, whenever they touched the shell, the contact part just got pummeled like it was hit by a devastating punch from an MMA fighter.

  After a while, the shell showed the first crack when its shape was now being molded and pressed into something resembling an unfinished ceramic creation. The fact that it held on for this long spoke of how tough the shell was. But that alone wasn’t enough. The second and third cracks appeared soon after only three bubbles, and from that point, it took just another three bubbles to shatter the gastropod’s shell.

  Seeing enough already, Zalanir released a salvo from his spot, stepped onto the battlefield with a translucent shield on his arm, dodged the bubbles, and finished off the flower with another cast of Adaptability Bolt. Could he spare the hydrangea? Yes. But it could be an annoyance when he fought other monsters, so no, it was the best choice to take it out, even if such action rewarded little to no experience.

  The day ended without him being able to find any other peak D-grade. The brocade bag still drew flower monsters to his spot, but the highest level was only 45.

  ***

  The next three days repeated in the same fashion. Looked like his luck had already run out. Thinking about it, perhaps those that he had killed — which did net him another level for all of his diligence, and he still put the free point into Dexterity for the time being — would soon grow into peak D-grades in the near future. His appearance in the area might’ve already disturbed the balance of the valley, cutting off its own supply of strong monsters.

  On the next day though, he finally found a worthy opponent, or rather, it found him. He was just wandering around the valley as usual, looking for monsters to kill when a loud screech from above took his attention. A dark violet and brown eagle, with each wing the size of a double bed, swooped down from the top of the cliff and almost landed on top of him. Its talons missed his arm by just centimeters.

  The missed sneak attack didn’t really let it down, as the eagle took off right after that and glided through the air. Whenever it plunged to strike, its wing flaps created winds that pressed nearby grasses down on the ground. The dropping snowflakes, because of that, had also been blown away from Zalanir’s spot, which some of them seemed to remain perpetually in the air, drifting without any agency.

  Despite its bulk, the airborne predator, through mesmerizing aerial acrobatics, dodged Zalanir’s bolts without breaking a sweat, while at the same time dived and assaulted him non-stop with its talons, wings, and beak. Energy Barrier helped somewhat, but it could only prevent two attacks before breaking down. The energy wave released from it also did nothing, as the beast was too quick to return on to air right after.

  Thus, Zalanir ran. He knew that he was outmatched here. Air superiority was just too big of an advantage for him to do anything. He had no time to charge Sonic Lance, and even if he did, he wasn’t confident at all in hitting a target this mobile. The same went for his bolts. So realistically, all he could do was to shield off the constant assaults.

  No, this was a losing battle, so he needed to find a way out. Why did a predator of this caliber even target him in the first place? Its place must’ve been at the top of the cliff, so why bother diving here and attacking a small target like him? Considering its massive size, he doubted he could be the main dish for its meal.

  But it wasn’t like he could just ask it. He wasn’t a beast tamer or someone with the ability to talk to an animal. So he scurried off as fast as he could while giving it some bolts as distractions. On his way, he even saw some grasshoppers jumping away as well, despite the fact that their places weren’t even directly on his path.

  He lost almost half of his health bar when he saw something that could potentially give him a way to reverse this beatdown. The tricky part was how to drag the bird onto the ground. No, it dove to attack him anyway, so the right question was how to press and shove it down. Or pulled? He did have a way to do just that.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The closer he got to that place, the faster his heart beat. If he messed this up, he could be the one losing his life, as there was no way he would survive the failure. Even if he did, there was no way that eagle would let him be. He needed to do that perfectly right here, right now, with no rehearsal or second try.

  With his back against the bird, he rushed toward the green-orange herb bush that sowed him some pain the other day. That conceited face thought that he was on the dish already? Let’s see how it would like the taste of some herbs.

  Zalanir tumbled near the targeted area because of a gust of wind hitting him on the back. The bastard changed its tactics to a range attack now? No, he needed it to come down. Discarding standing up, he scrambled toward the bush with his hands. His body tilted to the left slightly, with his toes pushing up on the ground. Preparations were done, but he still wondered if this was enough. If the eagle continued using its head instead of …

  The loud screech, the sudden lack of wings flapping, and the downward air pressure from behind made his goosebumps appear again, but also made his heart race. What a dumbass! If it wasn’t for its superiority in the air and overwhelming strength in its talons, this eagle would have died a long time ago already. But well, perhaps it was balanced that way with its stupid head. Otherwise, it would be unstoppable, and he would be inside its stomach already. So, no more analysis. The way it was was completely fine.

  Zalanir greedily waited for half a second longer before casting Hurukele Whirlwind and rolled to the left. His legs kicked the ground, and coupled with the upward force from his hands pushing up against the ground, he motioned into a running posture in the blink of an eye. At the same time, he empowered his legs with Wind Rush, fired a salvo of sound bolts when the eagle just passed him by and started to descend hoping to ground it in the spot for just a brief moment, and got the hell out of the raging whirlwind.

  That brief staggering moment worked even better than what he had envisioned, as the bird was caught right in the center of the swirling vortex. Who was the better wind user now? And to his expectation, the poisonous herbs were easily uprooted and were now spinning, touching and colliding with everything inside the affected area.

  This dance of leaves would be such a magnificent sight if not for its lethal attribute. No, it was indeed a marvelous creation that Zalanir gifted to the conceited bastard that assaulted him. A slight touch the other day had already given him hell. He couldn’t help but smile broadly now that the eagle was basically swimming in them.

  But his vision of receiving a kill notification from the System, as well as seeing the corpse of an eagle with wrinkled skin and loose feathers, didn’t manifest. His ears still picked up a screech — though weaker and even sounded like a weep — inside the whirlwind. And when all the herbs dropped slowly down, he saw the eagle flap its tattered wings and slowly ascend.

  Similar to a dog just finished shaking water off its body after falling into a pond, the beast’s feathers had become tangled and fluffy. Zalanir was disappointed to see the majority of them still sticking to the eagle’s body, but whatever. It looked spent. That combination of attacks must’ve done something. He refused to believe otherwise.

  Zalanir started channeling Sonic Lance. This was actually a big mistake, as he had been too confident in the power of the herbs and the whirlwind. As a wise man had said: “Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer”, he should’ve loaded the attack as soon as the eagle was trapped inside. Taking something for granted, like assuming an overhead smash would always score a point — even though they did, most of the time — had come back to bite him plenty of times in the past already. He really needed to correct this certain behavior.

  Though he got away with it this time. Or perhaps the eagle did, since the outcome of the battle, should they continue to fight, wasn’t black and white yet. But seeing the eagle fly off to the top of the cliff meant that it was his win in the end. Not getting the kill sucked, but at least he was still kicking, and that was enough. He stopped the channel and released the lance into the air right after, as it wasn’t necessary anymore.

  Dropping down onto the ground, with his face looking up toward the sky, Zalanir let the snow fall onto his skin. Cold and soft. That battle just now happened in minutes, but that was intense as hell.

  That eagle must've been close in power to the birduomera. He wasn’t sure which of them would prevail in a 1-on-1 battle, but it didn’t matter. The important thing was that he hadn’t only survived, but chased off a monster of that strength. As he had also killed two other peak D-grades in the case of the garrle and the dawdler, he couldn’t refrain from laughing out loud at this moment. Belonging to the top hierarchy within a certain group felt good.

  His mind drifted off into the dream of reaching world number one. He was two matches away from clinching that spot when his chest gave up on him. That tear of his pectoral muscle during the training when he overreached for a volley basically marked the downfall of his life on the tour. It might be superstitious, but even after healing that serious injury, he kept on piling more and more wounds of various kinds, from wrist, ankle, to shoulder, which prevented him from competing at the highest level. The fire was still burning inside his heart, but his body had seemingly given up when he had just crossed 25 years of age. After trying for two more years, he had made the decision to transition into becoming a local tennis coach, as competing was out of his reach at that point already.

  Did he like that decision? No, it sucked! But competing without seeing any results put a serious financial burden on his shoulder, and when Nguyen came knocking on the door about his tennis center idea, he just kind of went with that option. If he was getting robbed of the chance, then he could just do it with his students. Coaching a world number one player could be a similar achievement. Or so he thought — or lied — for a while.

  But the situation was different now. This world had given him a second chance to once again aim for the top. He had no idea how powerful the strongest god was, as well as being clueless about how to advance through the level, but at least the probability wasn’t zero. Injuries could be healed here. Heck, a mutilated arm could be reattached or regrown on its own, and if he was strong enough — according to Djaxinz — he could even survive having his head or heart blown up.

  If god grade was the pro tour level, then he was at some random local challenges of the challenge tour now. But the top of the current level was within reach. Three more levels, and he would finish the first step. After that, all he needed to do was just to keep advancing through tour after tour, and then one day, surely he would be in the race for the highest spot. He started playing tennis at the age of 7, so 28 would be his starting point in this world to learn everything. Was it late? Yes. Was it difficult? Also yes. But his body was as strong as ever, so who cared?