The pieces of the winged-rodent's body fell to the ground.
Reon took a deep breath and felt relieved.
He didn't previously think that he could handle a 3-Star creature yet.
"Once again, I'm alive thanks to you, Uncle Ken." said Reon.
He walked back to the small tunnel to go check how Roland and Richard were doing against the horned sap badger.
When he walked into the den, he saw Roland and Richard were struggling to finish their battle.
By now, the horned sap badger had many cuts and burn marks on it.
It was heavily damaged, and weakened but each time one of the boys' would run in to make a decisive blow on it, the horned sap badger would bend the walls of the cave to protect itself.
It was clear to Reon that Roland and Richard had the upper hand, and would have already won the battle if they were not inside this type of environment.
"Richard." Reon said to get his attention.
"Master Reon, your back!" said Richard.
It had only been about five minutes but to Richard, the fight felt much longer.
"Can you lend me your sword for a moment?" Reon asked.
"Of course, but the sap badgers' defenses are quite strong." said Richard, handing the flame greatsword to Reon.
Reon held the weapon and got a feel for its weight.
It was quite light as it was made of condensed flame and not metal.
The size was perfect though.
Reon wanted a blade of this size for himself.
The difference was that swords were symmetrical, and were better when it came to stabbing, while blades were curved and were better when it came to cutting and slashing.
Each type of weapon could still do what the other could, but Reon preferred curved blades over symmetrical swords.
"Roland, step back." Reon said.
Roland did as Reon said, and ran behind Reon to where Richard was standing.
"There is one important thing that I forgot to teach you both. Something I want you guys to remember till the day you die." said Reon.
Roland and Richard were surprised by this comment and payed close attention.
Meanwhile, the horned sap badger lowered the walls that had been covering it. Seeing Reon now it got ready to attack.
"At some point, you might think that you've reached the limit of your power, but..." said Reon.
Suddenly, the horned sap badger launched itself at Reon planning to claw his head off.
Reon seemingly blitzed in front of the sap badger slashing quickly at its claw.
Both the badgers slash and Reon's slash met in the middle, none seeming to have an advantage.
"You can always push past that limit!" yelled Reon.
Once again both slashed at each other, but this time Reon's slash was much faster and stronger than before, the new slash now bushed the sap badger's claws back while cutting and burning the beast's paw.
"How is this possible?" Richard and Roland thought to themselves.
"Use more power than you thought you could!" Reon said, slashing toward the badger again.
This time though, the horned sap badger bent the stone floor to create dozens of stone spikes that shot at, and bended toward Reon, forcing Reon to dodge before any of the spikes could reach him.
Roland and Richard were shocked by this as well.
The horned sap badger had yet to use this move on them yet, so it must have been a special move that drained a lot of energy.
They thought about it, and realized that they would not have been able to dodge as fast as Reon did if it was them in that situation.
"If you think you've reached the limit of your speed, then still move your body even faster!" yelled Reon.
After saying Reon ran quickly toward the dozens of spikes, moving extremely quickly as he dodged each spike.
From the left, right, above, below, one at time, multiple at a time, all were dodged masterfully.
"Your opponent's defense is too much for you to handle? Break through where they least expect it!" said Reon as jumped straight toward the horned sap badger.
Once again, the horned sap badger quickly raised a thick stone wall like a dome around it to protect itself.
Reon wouldn't have it though, with multiple intense slashes he carved a opening into the dome.
The badger saw this and panicked but it was too late.
Reon jumped into the stone dome through the small opening he created, and while doing so he stabbed Richard's flame great sword straight into the sap badger's eye.
It let out a fierce shriek of pain, right before Reon dropped to the ground with the flame sword and made another powerful slash at the beast's neck.
It was extremely thick and sturdy, but using Richard's sword, Reon pushed through his physical limit as he told his students to, finally chopping the horned sap badger's head off once and for all.
As the sap badger lost its life, the stones it had morphed around the cave began to return to their original form.
The dome around Reon returned to the floor, and Roland and Richard could now see that he had succeeded.
This was something that they could hardly believe, and they knew no one else would believe them if they told them.
3-Star beasts were already special in that they could harness their internal energy the same way 3-Star warriors could.
Their beastly nature and wild environment made beasts naturally stronger and fiercer than people.
With the ability to harness internal energy in addition to that, they were on a whole other level than basic 3-Star warriors, which is why it usually took multiple 3-Star warriors or one 4-star warrior to handle one.
The horned sap badger was even a step beyond this, as it was a Powered Beast.
Beast that can harness mana similar to mages, and use it to alter elements, these were Powered Beasts.
They were the same as the genius mages who unlocked magic before they ever consumed mana stones.
As a matter of fact, powered beasts were the original source of mana stones, according to the Daimo history textbooks that Roland and Richard had studied.
Just now, their master and teacher, Reon, who was only a 2-Star warrior, slayed a 3-Star powered beast, practically by himself.
Although they had helped they realized their contributions to finishing the fight were miniscule.
Even with the two of them they weren't able to close out the battle, and if they were it still would not have been in the same manner as Reon did.
"Master Reon! That was incredible." said Roland.
"Truly it was master. It's still hard to believe you are only a 2-Star warrior of Akram." said Richard.
Reon smiled from the compliments.
He understood them, although truthfully, he wasn't a warrior of Akram, more like a warrior of Valt.
Reon has only been in Akram for less than 2 months, and most of his time here so far has been spent training young nobles from Daimo.
This gave Reon a fresh perspective.
There were differences and similarities between all countries.
Good and bad people seemed constant.
Still, so far, Reon didn't regret anything about his journey away from home.
He had learned a lot, and even grew much stronger since he left Valt.
Especially in that last fight.
He gained a new grasp on what it meant to pass his limits, and the proof was in the pudding.
When he first saw that horned sap badger, he didn't think he could handle it on his own.
Just now though, he slayed the horned sap badger without taking a single hit, and that was all after killing a different 3-Star beast.
Reon was making great progress and he was quite excited about this.
"Master Reon, you should check the beast's body! It should have a mana stone!" said Richard.
Richard and Roland excitedly explained about the origins of mana stones in powered beasts, and how if he consumed the stone Reon could harness mana too!
Reon used one of his blades to cut into the beast chest area, and he found a tiny brown colored stone with it.
Reon heightened his Kinshi Sense, and gazed at the tiny spherical stone.
It was drawing pure white mana from the atmosphere just like mages did.
This mana was converted into a dense orange mana that circulated through the stone.
Reon was curious about the stone, and the possibility of being able to harness mana. He pulled the stone out of the sap badger's corpse.
Once he did though, a dome shaped wall in the corner of the room now dropped exposing the horned sap badgers cubs.
Reon had forgotten about the cubs, and looked at Roland and Richard.
He decided that the horned sap badger had to die for trying to kill him and his students, but that didn't mean that its babies did as well.
Reon, Roland, and Richard walked over to the cubs now, and saw them shivering with fear and tears in their eyes.
"They must have woken up from the commotion of the fight." said Reon.
"What should we do, master?" asked Roland.
"We can't just leave them here, they won't survive long without their mother." Reon said, thinking of a solution.
"I'll have to take care of them. At least until they can fend for themselves." said Reon.
"Before that though, Richard, Roland." said Reon with a cold face.
"What is he about to say?" thought Richard.
"Please teach me how to use this mana stone." said Reon putting his hands together bowing to his former students.
Now the students would be the masters.