The following day Ace ughed as Killian struggled to get up, but his hangover was really getting the best of him. He threw up several times, and his head ounding, but somehow, Ace got them to the top of the mountain in time. Ahey were still the st to arrive.

  “Kil,” Alissa hurriedly called out, “What happened? Are you alright?”

  She wasn’t the only one surprised about the gargantuan teen’s dition. All the other kids looked at Killian with worry.

  As there were only ten disciples in the whole pavilion, over the st five years, they’d all grown very close to each other. All misgivings any of them may have had toward one another had all but disappeared.

  Whilst the other children were crowding around, Ad Killian showing their worry and , weird looks started appearing on the faces of the instructors.

  “Killian… Does he look huo you guys?” Lazerim asked as he studied the youngster from afar.

  “That little idiot!” Mathias cursed. “He knew he was about to go on a dangerous trip to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, a he chose st night to take up drinking! What was that idiot thinking?”

  “I don’t think it was just him,” Lauriel said helplessly as she looked at Ace, who, although nowhere near as bad, still exhibited a few hangover symptoms on a lesser scale.

  “Do they think this is some kind of joke?” Kimika asked as her frown deepened. “They’re supposed to be two of the team leaders for the training exercise.”

  “I wonder where they got alcohol from anyway,” Wukong voiced as an amused smile pyed on his face.

  “I gave it to them,” Aiden said as he and his wife seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

  “You did?” Mathias asked in shock. “Why would you do such a thing?”

  “Ace asked,” Aiden replied with a casual shrug as if it weren’t a big deal.

  “What do you mean he asked?” Mathias asked, clearly displeased by the nonce of his master’s husband.

  It wasn’t just Mathias. Other than Wukong, eared just as carefree as ever, each of the other instructors looked at Aiden with furrowed brows.

  “You really are terrible at expining yourself,” Arianna sighed helplessly at her husband before turning to her eldest disciple. “Back when little Killian first entered closed-door training with you, Ace asked Aiden for a bottle of wine so that he and Killian could swear an oath of brotherhood before they left for the training exercise.

  Unfortunately, the day your disciple came out of seclusion, it was annouhat they’d be leaving the day. He probably would’ve preferred to have do earlier, but there was no way he would be willing to wait till they returned.”

  As his master filled in all the bnks Aiden was too zy to, Mathias was able to uand Ace’s reasoning.

  Though he saw Killian as a son, Mathias khat his p his disciple’s heart would never pare to Ace’s, and it was clear from how they ied that Ace felt just as strongly.

  It was horrible timing, but he didn’t bme them. In fact, he was happy for his hungover disciple. He khat his ck of family had always been a sore spot for the boy. It was a big part of the reason why his retionship with Ad his family meant so mu. Mathias could only imagine hoy he must’ve been upon hearing Ace’s suggestion.

  “Maybe we should postpoheir departure by another day,” Lauriel suggested.

  Mathias and the others were ined to agree with her, but there was one person who didn’t.

  “Why?” Wukong asked. “If you ask me, you should just carry on as pnned.”

  “They’re venturing into one of the most unfiving enviros on the ti. You ’t seriously want to send them on their way whilst they’re not at 100%.” Kimika retorted.

  “You know as well as I do that you’re not always going to be at 100% going into every battle. The whole point of the exercise was for them to gain valuable experiehat could save their lives iure. This should just be another lesson for them,” Wukong replied.

  And as much as they wao disagree, each of the other instructors knew his words made sense.

  “Little Kong’s right,” Arianna stated. “Anyway, the trip for each of them will take at least three hours, so they still have more time to recover. Between that, the fact that they both have strong teammates to watch their back, and that their all being dropped off at the outskirts of the mountain rahere’s not much reason to worry.”

  Hearing that, the minds of Mathias and the others were put at ease. Now all that was left to do was set off.

  “Okay, everyone, split into your three teams,” Mathias announced directly. “Let’s get ready to go.”

  As he said that, the Pavilion’s head put both his index finger and thumb in his mouth a out a loud, high-pitched whistle summoning three terrifying giant birds.

  On the left was Elise, the now ninth-ranked four-winged hurrie fal that brought word of the soon-to-be invasion of Silverlight City to Wukong and Ace.

  On the right was a ninth-rank Wildthuormhawk with a body full of glistening silver feathers, a crest of blue feathers atop its head, and goldehat made it look especially magical.

  And in the tre, a saint-level Hellfire Phoenix slowly floated downwards, silently exuding an aura that seemed to and respect from all who y eyes on it.

  Five years ago, anyone of these three beasts would’ve inspired no small amount of fear in the youngsters. Still, after half a decade in the Pavilion, they’d all bee very familiar with these particur magical beasts.

  The Four-Winged Hurrie Fal was the beast partner of Kimika, whilst the Wildthuormhawk, Silver, was the familiar of Lazerim. As for the Hellfire Phoenix… Its name was Jax, and he was the partner of Arianna.

  After the three avias desded, the teens proceeded to say their goodbyes before following their respective instructors onto one of the three birds, preparing to set off.

  “Couldn’t we take Elise, or even Silver?” Ace asked helplessly as he hopped on Jax’s back. “I could do with as much sleep as possible before we arrive.”

  “You bme your master for that one,” Lauriel smirked. “He said that as you were the one who led Killian astray, this should be your punishment.”

  Hearing that, Ace turo gre daggers at the man who was supposed to be his master. “You shitty old fart! Isn’t a master supposed to take care of their disciple?!”

  “Who told you to take Killian a drunk st night?” Aiden replied dismissively.

  “I didn’t want to do it st night, but It’s not like I had much of a choice,” Ace argued back.

  “What does that have to do with me?” Aiden asked back as if he seriously didn’t know.

  Ace was about to get into a war of words with his master, but he forcibly stopped himself. He’d learnt the hard way how unreasohe man could be. “After putting up with your shit for five years, I’ve more tha this six-month holiday.”

  “You? I was the one who had to a lot of my normal rest time to train you, and what did I get iurn? A snot-nosed disciple who still ’t even fuse both states of wielding!” Aiden argued back. “These six months are more a break for me than for you!”

  “Whatever!” Aorted, trying his best not to get wound up, knowing that was exactly what the ‘old man’ wanted.

  “Ooh and brat,” Aiden called out as Lauriel anded Jax to take off. “Don’t die out there.”

  “I won’t!” Ace replied, fshing a fident grin before taking off.

  .

  .

  .

  Even though Ace’s group had the furthest to travel, with Jax being a genuine saint-level beast, they had spent the least time travelling.

  And if that wasn’t bad enough, flying at that kind of speed, the wiance prevented Ace from falling asleep. But it wasn’t even him who had it worst in their group.

  Seeing how he wasn’t even a warrior of the first rank, Julius spent the whole of their flight in near-stant pain with the wind spping against his face. If it weren’t for the fact that Lauriel had held him by his brown mage’s robe, he wouldn’t have even been able to remain on Jax’s back.

  He heard Lauriel say that their taking Jax unishment for Ace, but whenever he looked up at the violet-haired warrior keeping him on board, he saw a mog smirk suffusing her cherry-coloured lips.

  “We’re here,” Lauriel stated as Jax finally came to a stop allowing the three youths to look down at the long winding expanse of forest that effectively cut the whole of the ti in two. “I know you’re all strong enough to look after yourselves now, but ihe mountain range are several beings, human and magical beast alike, that are strohan both my husband and me. So look after yourselves and, more importantly, look after each other.

  I’ll meet you all back here in six months. Ooh, and Julius, if at that time you’re ready to start training as a warrior to increase your survivability, just know, I’ll be more than happy to train you.”

  An almost nefarious ugh escaped the supreme warrior desdant as she and Jax took off again, leaving the trio to begin their journey.

  P.S. Support me oreon listed below to read ahead - Release rate is at least 2x as many chapters every week! XD

  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon: Book 3 - Chapter 28