Chapter 316 - Using All Means

After having seen Artemis and Scorpio's battle, Jason not only knew that their coordination was lacking but also that they weren't fighting with all their might.
It was not that they didn't fight half-heartedly but they subconsciously held back by not using every they could.
Scorpio only used his stinger, and claws to fight against the rotten Triceratops, while he didn't utilize his affinity or even mana to enhance his body.
Jason used his poison affinity more versatile than Scorpio which shouldn't be the case.
He was already able to manifest several different kinds of poisonous fogs, and even poisonous shards by enveloping any kind of poison desired into a layer of mana.
It was much easier to do the same with a faint layer of ice surrounding the poison within because one didn't have to continuously supply mana to a poison icicle as it was the case with a normal poisonous shard.
However, it was still possible with enough effort and Jason was sure that he could improve this type of attack more to reduce the mana consumption and increase the lethality further as long as he had time
Meanwhile, Artemis only utilized her affinity and didn't seem to bother about using her body to enter close combat as long as it was not necessary to survive.
This meant that not only Scorpio held back while fighting, but also Artemis whose blood was mana-infused which allowed her to be slightly stronger than normal peak-Unblemished beasts under normal circumstances.
With that in mind, Jason couldn't help but think that he had to force them to use everything in their means to fight against other beasts or even humans which might happen in the future.
He was not a fan of this thought but it would happen sooner or later.
As such he had to be prepared for everything which included improving his soulbonds' combat strength.
Searching for a good place to rest, Jason passively absorbing mana while he observed everything with his mana eyes.
Additionally, he looked around if there was anything around that didn't release any mana which would also be counted as a threat by him before he knew what exactly it was that he couldn't detect through his mana eyes.
Since he encountered manaless poison and even a beast he couldn't detect with his mana eyes, Jason started to act more careful with his mana eyes.
He didn't trust them completely anymore!
This was unfortunate but definitely a necessary step to stay alive after he noticed how much he relied on them.
He could only say that if it was fortunate for him to notice this early enough, otherwise, he might already be dead by now.
Only half an hour passed before Artemis emerged out of the pure-white mana circle that manifested next to him.
Adjusting her size, Artemis squeezed herself on Jason's shoulder, where she rubbed her dirty head at his.
Caressing her while continuing to walk around, he noticed that her mana replenished extremely fast as her mana core was already filled by three-quarters.
Squeezed on his shoulder, she continued to absorb mana passively, which she already learned to do a while ago.
It was nothing special for beasts that had the potential to reach the magical rank because absorbing mana from the surrounding was one of the requirements to maintain one's life as a magical ranked beast that required it, but Artemis was still somewhat unique in this field.
Not only did she learn how to passively absorb mana shortly after she finished her evolution, but her conversion from natural mana to ice transmuted mana was extremely fast which allowed her passive mana absorption to accelerate by a small margin.
Scorpio was also able to passively absorb mana, but he only learned it several days before their departure to the abandoned lands.
His passive mana absorption speed was also noticeably slower than Artemis' because his conversion from natural mana to poison transmuted mana was also slower.
This was also one of the reasons for Scorpio to pay more attention to his physical state instead of mana.
His control was lower than Artemis', and he also knew that his racial limit was not far away for him to reach.
When he first figured out that Artemis, his rival, had a higher potential than he had, Scorpio immediately complained with loud noises and a vulgar outbreak of words he didn't even knew the meaning about.
At that time, Jason was sure that a fortified soul conjunction was not established to act like this with each other.
However, it hurt him somehow to see how Scorpio felt, knowing that its potential was lower than Artemis', but that was not because of the apparent reason.
Jason felt hurt because Scorpio didn't seem to appreciate how much effort and pain he and Dalia had to endure to allow Scorpio to reach his current strength and this thought hurt extremely.
Somehow he felt the desire to tell everything, Dalia, in order to share his pain but Jason felt like his master would feel even more betrayed about that because she was so happy to see that Scorpio became stronger, considering that he started as a Miniature Parascors.
Scorpio was definitely greedy but it couldn't be considered bad because one would think that it was a positive trait as long as one was ambitious enough to strive for more.
However, unfortunately enough, Scorpio seemed to be in a slump at the moment which was why Jason had to think of a way for it to leave this hell hole of a slump for good.
Less than an hour later, he found the perfect place to initiate his plan, with several small beast groups, consisting of 3 to 7 beasts that were at the low-Unblemished rank in the surrounding area.
Smiling lightly, Artemis on his shoulder noticed that something was off which caused her to flee from Jason's grasp as she ascended into the air where she remained, gazing at him with her ice blue eyes.
Summoning Scorpio, whose stinger was still not fully healed he transmitted his soulbonds his plan.
[Artemis, you are not allowed to use your affinity for long-range attacks. You have mana-infused blood and your talons are sharp enough to pierce through low-Unblemished ranked beast hide.
Furthermore, you can use your affinity much more versatile. There is no need for you to attack with icicles all the same if you don't want to drain your mana every single fight.
Scorpio, you are not allowed to rely on your physical strength alone. Your task is to constantly use your mana and affinity.
It is good that you have great stamina and that you can fight other beasts head-on with your physical strength alone, but you have enough mana to prevent the injuries you sustained during the last two fights and your poison affinity is also not only an accessory or something I use alone, but it's innately yours!
You already saw how I used the poison affinity and I doubt that your proficiency should be worse!]
When he finished with his Instructions, Jason could only hear reluctant and frustrated screeches from Artemis and Scorpio directly transmitted into his mind.
However, Jason just ignored their pleading and shouted "Go go!", which was heard by the closest, small beast group that turned towards them with bloodshot eyes before they charged towards the three of them.