Chapter Sixty One - The Hunt

Hallan and Noah picked up Sir Isan, when they flew in his mouth was wide open as he stared in awe at Noah's faith in his magic aura but not just that Hallan. He had put his faith into someone else's dragon without having ever truly spent a good amount of time together. trust like that was rarely given so quickly and it left him confused.

Getting over it as quick as he could he mounted Hallan behind Noah - giving his shoulder a hard squeeze without saying a word, silently showing his respect. This boy would make a great man; let alone a great competitor for the throne.

They took off flying towards the Sil zone, it didn't take to long to find a decent sized forest that would have some good prey for their late breakfast.

Finding a small clearing in the trees, Hallan flew low enough where Isan could drag off Noah and could easily use his magic to cover both of them. While they fell through the sky Noah was having flashbacks to when he first met Sir Quin, being forced to drop like this before and how harrowing the fall was yet now...

He was doing his best not to shout out in glee as the wind blasted through his hair and clothes pushing him to the side as he fell, Sir Isan keeping him wrapped up in his magic aura as they fell faster and faster down the ground.

Just before they smashed down completely Sir Isan whispered something under his breath that made them start spinning from their face down to their feet aiming at the ground first, the speed that they were falling drastically as well, he felt like a spider had caught him in its web and was pulling him back into the sky.

The slow descent made it easy for the two of them to gently land without making much sound at all, not even the bending of the grass and a few leaves under their feet made any noise. The air around them felt like it had never even been disturbed by them, just as Noah was away to take his first step

Sir Isan held him by his shoulder. Noah felt a warm feeling reach his head which felt like it enveloped him similar to how Hallan would speak to him; he could suddenly hear Sir Isan speak to him but couldn't see him move his mouth, "We are gonna practice you using your magic aura to stay as quiet as a mouse as we hunt, you seem to have a good enough handle of it to practice this."

Noah returned Sir Isan's connection before replying, "Extra training? Is it just by circulating my magic aura around my feet?"

"No. The easiest way for me to explain it is to imagine your aura acting as a cloud as you walk while you circulate it otherwise it will just make you faster and not quieter. It's normally a technique that only Captains can master completely but it should be good practice for you."

As soon as he heard that Noah thought of Alaric teaching him how magic aura can be changed into mana which can be used a lot easier than even using a magic spell. Learning this from Sir Isan was an opportunity that could help him understand that and gave him away to grow further and understand magic.

Starting to circulate the magic aura around himself he built up a decent layer of magic aura before sending it around his feet, imaging the clouds the from the day Hallan had first flown them to the capital and how fluffy they had been on that day.

Sir Isan watched captivated as Noah had no problem with the technique and took to it like a fish to water, the only thing that concerned Sir Isan; was how quickly Noah had managed to gather the aura and how easily he found taking his first step - without even leaving any sound. Most captains would take a few months to learn the technique completely but he seemed to have conquered it.

Clenching his fist as he watched Noah start to take bigger steps then the small step he first took, his heart let a small amount of jealousy in before completely being wiped away at how much of a great student Noah must be. It explained why Noah was so advanced in his fighting techniques and how he had even gotten noticed by the Emperor; he wasn't sure how the Emperor knew but he had a feeling that the Emperor had seen through the young boy without even meeting him.

Noah looked at the dragon trooper before nodding and starting to walk into the forest deeper looking for tracks of an animal they could hunt and kill for some breakfast, with the way his belly was screaming at him every ten minutes he got worried that he would scare away any prey before they could kill it.

Sir Isan simply fell in line behind Noah taking mental notes of how well Noah navigated the forest even though this was the first time he had been there; he had no issues with sliding by accident on the moss of giants rocks and the branches of trees. He hadn't taken out his sword which was something that made Sir Isan have a small doubt about how well Noah had started the hunt, most would have it in hand so they were prepared.

They wandered around the woods picking up the pace after they noticed the tracks of some type of cat that could only make it about half their height, ignoring the small pieces of prey like birds and rabbits. Following behind the tracks they found other small evidence that they had stumbled across its territory.

In an area that opened up to a clearing similar to where they entered from they could hear the roar of a lion and rushed closer, taking safety on a tree that was as thick as some houses that were in Noah's village. Looking down into the clearing and seeing a large cat about three quarters their height easily outweighing them by three or four times. Its fur a deep green, only standing out as the sun shined down on it.

It was circling a large hog with three horns, one in the centre of its head and two out the sides. Its skin a pale pink. It snortled and grunted at the cat; digging its hooves into the ground and kicking dirt behind it, making a small molehill.

Just as the cat was lining up a pounce, a dragon roar echoed throughout the forest. Noah felt his heart do a double-take before both he and Isan both looked up to see a giant grey dragon diving towards the two; its fangs bared, smoke coming out of its nostrils and its claws out in anticipation at its lucky catch.