My Summons Are Mythical Beasts

Lucas summoned Spot and ordered him to lure the Shadow Lynxes to where he set up the trip traps.

Four of them were behind a giant dark tree, and this time, Lucas made sure that they were the only ones and did not have any hidden companions. This time, the Shadow Lynxes appeared to be on the move, as Lucas spent almost thirty minutes trailing behind them before the Shadow Lynxes eventually stopped to get some rest.

After they did so, Lucas hurriedly retreated for a few yards and set up the trip traps and then ordered Spot to invite the guests over.

Spot did as he was told, and a few seconds later, he was back with four Shadow Lynx trailing behind him in a frenzy.

Lucas, on the other hand, has already hidden himself far away as he observed the battle with caution.

From afar, Lucas observed that Spot had indeed grown a lot stronger compared to when he was still at Iron Star 2.

It easily lured the enemies over, not even letting any of them hit him even once.

The moment they arrived at the center of the traps, one of the Shadow Lynx quickly stumbled over the trap, creating an opportunity for Spot to attack. Spot dove towards that Shadow Lynx and slapped its head with his paw.

The next second, its claws suddenly elongated and shone with sharp and fierce light.

What surprised Lucas, though, was the fact that the claws this time around had actually elongated to a large margin, unlike when he used it earlier during his normal form.

Earlier, the claws only extended by ten percent, but in his current state, they increased by an amazing more than fifty percent.

The surprise did not end there for Lucas.

The long, sharp claw descended in a fierce light. Previously, Lucas thought that the beast hit by his claws would surely receive serious injuries, but the scene that played in front of him was nothing that he had expected.

Instead of getting severely wounded, the Shadow Lynx's neck, where Spot had been aiming for, was torn and sliced in half as if it were tofu instead.

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The Shadow Beast died in an instant, and it seems that even Spot was surprised by the sharpness of his own claws.

There was no time to examine it, whatsoever, so Spot hopped away to dodge an incoming strike from a Shadow Lynx that emerged from his blind spot. Twisting his body, Spot swiped his sharpened claws toward the closest Shadow Lynx.

An unbelievable sight occurred as a deep and ghastly wound appeared on the skin of the Shadow Lynx.

The claw was extremely sharp and lethal.

The Shadow Lynx purred in pain as it staggered before falling to the ground with a thud, dead as it could be.

With that as a precedent, Lucas and Spot realized the lethality of the claws almost at the same time. And before Lucas could order Spot on what he must do next, the Gentle Dog had already proactively attacked another Shadow Lynx that was about to blend into the shadows.

His claws glistened as blood splattered like rain.

After that, everything was as easy as it could be.

***

At the top of a tree branch, Lucas stared at Spot with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

The previous battle replayed in his mind, comparing the sharpness and lethality of the Sharp Claw skill in normal and Hellhound form.

"Try cutting this," Lucas ordered as he presented the web that he used for the trip traps to Spot.

Spot, in his normal Gentle Dog form, used Sharp Claws and swiped toward the web obediently.

Tringg!

However, instead of breaking or cutting it apart, the line woven by multiple web threads remained steady and firm.

Lucas then turned to look at his side, where a woven web line was cut into pieces. These were the webs he set up as trip traps in the last battle.

At one instance, Spot accidentally slashed them along with a Shadow Lynx. At that time, Lucas saw with his own eyes that the tough lines had not offered any resistance and were instantly cut into pieces by Spot's sharpened claws.

'So the effect is different if used in two different forms?' Lucas pondered in curiosity.

This discovery was also new, even for someone like him who liked to read a lot of information in the library.

Usually, the efficacy and might of the skill depend solely on the beast's strength—star rank and grade.

Take the Sharp Claws for example. When used by Spot in his Gentle Dog form, the effect was not great, and it was mild at best, since a Gentle Dog was after all not an offensive beast to begin with. Although the sharpened claws were enough to cut vegetables and some ordinary materials, it would not be able to cut a beast's skin as effortlessly.

Meanwhile, if used by another beast with a higher grade, a higher star rank, and an offensive-type beast to boot, the effect of the Sharp Claws would rise, and it would become more effective in combat.

This was a detail that he had remembered but had overlooked when it came to Spot.

After all, for him, Spot was still an Unranked Grade and support-type Gentle Dog.

Now that he had confirmed that the Sharp Claw were strengthened when used in Hellhound Manifestation form, Lucas could basically confirm that his theory about Spot's grade being elevated during the transformation was true.

As for how high the elevated grade was, Lucas still had no idea. But from how Spot had managed to defeat enemies with a higher star than him, Lucas guessed that his elevated grade should be at least Silver, or maybe Gold?

'As expected of a skill gained from the system,' he muttered to himself, glancing at the silent gray system screen in front of his eyes.

The system, though, was silent as always. If not for the fact that it was there and always responding when he summoned the interface, Lucas might have thought that the system had left him for good.

Anyway, confirming that there was an elevation of grade during the Hellhound Manifestation form, then it was logical why the Sharp Claws get a different effect as well.

What confused Lucas, though, was when Spot used Gentle Gaze in hellhound form before, why did it not show any sort of differences?

Or could it be that the difference was always there, but he had unconsciously believed otherwise as he was also overlooking the possibility that Spot's grade was elevated in Hellhound form at that time?

"Well, there's only one way to find out, right? Spot?"

Woof?

Lucas chuckled and jumped off the tree branch. "Let's go search some test subjects, then."