Chapter 264: New Technique Chapter 264: New Technique "Boreal—Charge!!" Dhalia shouted, her lips stretched into a battle-junkie grin. She slammed both fists together in front of her chest and launched forward. But instead of charging straight at Lily, Dhalia bent her knees and leapt high into the air, arcing directly above her opponent, aiming to deliver a crushing downward punch. Lily smiled faintly and lifted her arm. "Treant, wrestle the beast and keep it restrained," she said calmly as she activated her wind element. Swwosh! A powerful gust roared out from her palm, surging straight upward. The air warped as it slammed into Dhalia mid-jump. Dhalia’s eyes widened as her body jolted. "Wind?" she scoffed, quickly recovering. "Hmph! Must be a skill from some low-levelled beast." She sneered, convinced it wouldn’t affect her much. When a skill is inherited from a beast, its output is tied to the beast’s ’major’ star rank. That means if a beast is a Low 3-star, any skill it possesses can only exert Low 3-star strength. Low 3-star is a minor rank within the major 3-star tier. When a Beast Master inherits that skill, if they themselves possess Peak 3-star strength—which is higher than the beast, they can raise the output of that same skill up to Peak 3-star—since Peak 3-star is still within the same major rank. However, they cannot push it beyond that ceiling. So even if a Beast Master reaches Peak 4-star strength, a skill inherited from a Low 3-star beast will, at best, exert Peak 3-star power. Nothing more. This limitation often appears when a Beast Master already has a high-ranking main beast, raising their personal rank. But when they tame a low-ranked beast later on, the skills inherited from that beast eventually hit a hard cap. Because of this, most people assume that any skill not coming from a main beast must be weaker. What they didn’t know was that Leo and Lily were ranked higher than their own main beasts. And apparently, there was no main beast for them since all were equally ranked. Lily herself was a Mid 3-star individual, while both her beasts—Treant and Lunaria—were Low 3-star. Even though the beasts’ skills were capped at Low 3-star, Lily could still exert Mid 3-star strength through them. "Eh?" Dhalia blurted out, genuinely stunned as all of her downward momentum vanished—and then reversed. Her body was violently flung higher into the sky. "Are we seeing this right, my friends?!" the host shouted, barely containing his excitement. "Our secret star seems to have another contracted beast she hasn’t even brought out yet! Look—it’s a wind type!" — Back in the Top 10 room. "This..." Uraan muttered, his brows knitting together as Lily unleashed another beast skill. "What would be the rank of her second beast? High 2-star? Peak 2-star?" His fingers clenched. "Just don’t be a pseudo 3-star... or capturing the 3rd position is going to get troublesome." — DHAAAM! The Boreal Shellbeast slammed into Treant as the towering spirit caught both of its shoulders, trying to halt its charge. Treant skidded backward, wooden feet carving grooves into the arena floor, as thick vines erupted from the ground and wrapped tightly around the Shellbeast’s body. "GRRRROOOWWWLLL!" The Shellbeast snarled, cold energy pouring out from its massive frame. Frost spread rapidly, freezing the vines solid before snapping them apart—but even as they shattered, new vines burst forth to replace them. "Boreal! Use Ice Burst!" Dhalia screamed from high above. The Shellbeast obeyed, its eyes blazing blue. "Treant! Back away!" Lily shouted. But it was already too late. A violent torrent of icy energy exploded outward from the Shellbeast’s entire body, swallowing Treant whole. When the freezing mist finally cleared, Treant stood locked in place, completely encased in ice. Cracks spider-webbed across its spirit body, making the damage obvious. Then— Crack. Crack. The ice began to fracture. Vines erupted violently from the ground, shattering the frozen layer as Treant broke free. The damaged portions of its body rapidly regenerated, wood knitting together until it returned to peak condition. "Tsk." Dhalia clicked her tongue as she landed smoothly on the arena floor. "Healers on the battlefield are always a pain." A chilling mist clung to her gauntlets, frost crawling along the metal as the temperature around her dropped sharply. She bent her knees, this time preparing to dash straight at Lily. [Wind Blade]! Several compressed blades of air screamed toward her in rapid succession. Dhalia lowered her stance, planting her feet. Ching! Ching! Ching! Ching! She punched and swatted the wind blades head-on, shattering them with brute force—but her eyes narrowed as she sensed something wrong. "What the fuc—!" She leapt backward just in time as the remaining blades surged forward, growing sharper and more violent with each passing second. Landing a short distance away, she glanced down at her gauntlets. Deep cuts scored the metal. The ice coating them was cracked and flaking away. "You..." Dhalia muttered. "You’ve got some strength." Though she looked confident, she was shocked. If she had taken just a few more hits, her gauntlets would have shattered completely. Then her grin widened as an idea struck her. She broke into a sideways run, ice energy flooding into her boots. Her focus sharpened—and solid footholds began forming in mid-air beneath her steps. At the same time, the Boreal Shellbeast began charging another attack. Countless ice spears materialized around its body before firing toward Treant in a relentless barrage. Treant raised an arm. A towering wooden wall erupted from the ground, the spears slamming into it and embedding themselves deep inside—like a target riddled with practice shots. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺 Watching Dhalia sprint across invisible footing while her beast’s floating spears hung suspended nearby, it was difficult to piece together what was happening. It almost looked as if Dhalia possessed some form of telekinesis, allowing the spears to hold their weight just long enough for her to pass them. Lily narrowed her eyes and drew her sword. A bluish wisp wrapped around her form as wind-like particles spiralled tightly around her body—though Lunaria’s physical form was never revealed. A faint glow pulsed through her limbs as Lunaria dissolved completely, coating Lily’s body in shimmering energy that hummed softly. Dhalia’s eyes widened. Out of nowhere, Lily stepped onto empty air. Then another step. And another. She surged upward, running straight toward Dhalia as if climbing an invisible staircase which her sword ready in position for an upward strike Back in the room, Leo let out a low whistle. He recalled that this technique was used by Lily back in Kendru City when he had to rush to Sister Sera’s rescue. At that, it merely ousted the effect of wind resistance. But Lily seemed to have worked on it and made it more usable. Literally running on empty air. --- A/N: I am really sorry for not being able to publish the Chapters on time. Exams are over my head, and I need to keep running between cities