While other paths of magic may not be common around this region, it wasn't something too surprising to find them.

Hadrian had chosen to attack the death fiend now, because it had just come from a hunt itself, and had surely used some of its essence. Even if not a lot, every drop of depletion counted.

Like a lot of the other paths, he didn't know anything about the abilities of the death path, but like he'd said back then, sometimes no plan is better than a plan, and a true test of one's abilities.

Even if he failed, he would still learn something, and in the future, were he to face a death path mage or another fiend, he would have an idea of what he was fighting.

While the black gas interfered with his spatial sense and heat vision sense, his view of the essence sea still worked fine.

One of the orange haired monkey Hadrians scanned the black gas and located a sea of essence with three spinning fogs.

By now, the main Hadrian vessel, a hundred metres away, was at the edges of the black gas. The pungent smell still got to him, making his eyes watery, his nose and throat stinging.

The monkey Hadrian dodged as it saw the essence sea in the black gas being stimulated and coming for him.

The tree branch groaned one last time before its snap echoed in the forest and it broke off, falling down from the great height, creating a cacophony of chaos.

The gas must have decayed it….

As he thought this, Hadrian heard flapping noises.

No way, I pierced its wings!

Another one of monkey Hadrians had already been channeling the elemental essence, and grabbed the rock spears before the branch fell.

However, these too, like the branch, were decaying. Even with the elemental essence, Hadrian couldn't manipulate the residue.

Still, the decay speed wasn't fast, and enough of the rocks were left. They might be fractions of what they originally were, but they were still useful.

With his monkey hands moving about, Hadrian manipulated the now small rocks, and aligning with the positioning of his vessel that was calling the essence, he shot forward the rock particles into the black gas.

The essence calling vessel, meanwhile, was jumping down branches.

Hadrian and Alia did too, as if running from himself.

The death whistle split the air once more.

This time however, Hadrian had channeled flesh essence, moulding all his ears to be blocked with flesh.

It still affected his body and soul, but this helped with his focus and even reduced its effects a little.

Eventually, the essence calling vessel made it out of the black gas. The fiend followed, black blood dripping like acid from where it had been wounded, decaying whatever it touched.

With its wings and body pierced with the rocks, its flight was more of a fall.

The black gas came out of its skin, and as it got closer, its aura of hopelessness spread to Hadrian, making him want to stop escaping, stop fighting and stand there to embrace death.

The essence calling orange haired monkey swapped for force path essence, and shot itself from the bark of the tree with great force, such that it flew past even the main Hadrian vessel that had been in front of it.

The fiend, like a black gas meteorite, followed, flying past Hadrian.

When that gas touched him, Hadrian's throat tightened and his entire body went stiff, his sensory details overwhelmed with bitter cold and stench.

With his hands to his sides, he channeled elemental essence, and fire formed on his hands.

As a heat wave and the stinging mist emanated from him, he let fire rise up his arms, busting his clothes and body into flames and he regained control of himself, and at a wide enough distance, resumed his descent down the wide stem of the tree.

The essence calling vessel hit the ground hard, breaking some of its bones. Because it was in mechanical control, he'd miscalculated.

Though there was little pain because of that, there was little he could do to save the vessel, since the fiend descended on that vessel with its black gasses and decay aura.

Hadrian cut his connection to it.

He was now down to five orange haired monkeys and eight small brown furried vessels, together with the Alia and Hadrian vessel.

As soon as his vessels' feet touched the ground, Hadrian didn't waste time, channeling elemental essence, earth rose from beneath his feet and another orange haired monkey channeling force path essence placed its hands on the sharp shaped rocks, augmenting them.

Shooting his hands forward, Hadrian sent the rock spears descending on the fiend, which he could still see parts of as its black gas was yet to coalesce to block his vision completely.

Next, one of the small brown furried Hadrians peered into the fiend's essence sea, calling at its essence.

Channeling elemental essence, the earth rose and swallowed this vessel.

As long as Hadrian had already peered into the essence sea and called at it, within range, this call can't be interrupted with obstructions.

Of course, if he'd already grasped the fog tendrils, even outside his call range of ten metres, as long as he does not let the fog tendrils completely break off and disappear, he could still chase the target returning it into the range, just like with his first ever rat vessel.

The fiend's beak descended into the spot where the vessel had buried itself, its beak and gas causing the earth to turn grey, and like ash, easily part for it.

In the meantime, more augmented rock spears rained down on it.

Hadrian, of course, had to be careful not to fatally wound it. That was if he could.

In that moment, Hadrian's teeth gritted as he finally grasped a wisp of the Fiend's essence fog tendril, and the true effect of grasping it descended on him.

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