Being weak. Being unable to do anything.
Mares thought he had forgotten such a thing, that now he would be able to grasp the opportunities to retake control of his life and destiny and no longer be at the mercy of others.
He was wrong.
And as he looked face to face against the Earthly Brute for one more, and definitely last, time, he swore to never make this mistake again. He couldn't afford it.
His survival instincts screamed, and his consciousness became less clear and more animalistic.
Without wasting even a second, he attacked with a spear, and for the first time, the Brute tried to evade instead of counter-attacking.
Mares noticed how one of the beast's four arms was limp and not moving, so it probably lost movement thanks to the damage the Brute sustained in his brain. He was also much slower, and thanks to that Mares' attack did land.
A scratch formed in the armor, a result of both Mares' strength being increased after his regeneration but also of the armor being weakened after Luo's attacks. The silver-eyed would be lying if he said a bit of his pride wasn't hurt since he needed so much help to win this fight, but he also wasn't going to let that cloud his thoughts now.
The Brute knew he couldn't flee, as the injuries sustained were too deadly and other Beasts, even those that were weaker than he, would try to take advantage of his current state. To defeat Mares, kill the others and feast on them was his only option for survival.
The beast tried to go underground, but Mares jumped high in the air and screamed, throwing a beam of Astral Energy on the Brute, that only manage to bury half of his body. The attack hits with full force, breaking the ground even more and sending the Beast away in the air.
Kicking the air with the rejection ability, Mares approached the beast and changed his multi-weapon to sword form, trusting in the direction of the hole in the Brute's head.
The Brute reacted by stopping the sword making it stab one of his arms, and trying to attack with the other two, but Mares had the advantage while on air and simply kicked and went higher.
He changed his weapon back to a spear and aimed it at the beast. Throwing his left arm to the sky a beam of Astral Energy is launched and throws Mares forward with great impulse. Air rings also cover the tip of the spear and weird marks started covering the silver-eyed body, enhancing his physical strength to a new level.
The attack was too fast for the Earthly Brute to do anything about and it pierces through his chest, piercing the beast on the ground.
A primitive screech left the monster's mouth, not showing any resemblance to the intelligence the creature had shown at some point. It just looked desperate and primitive now.
And in answer, Mares also screamed, a bestial scream that was nothing similar to a humanoid species.
The two started hitting each other savagely. There was no planning or technique in Mares' attacks, and any semblance of intelligence the Brute had shown before was also gone. They were just brutalizing each other, refusing to back down even one step. They would either kill or be killed.
Only for Mares to grasp him and throw him back in the air.
'It can't pass through Astral Energy.'
Even though Esen said that it was unclear if Mares understood it or was just acting by instinct.
The two meet in midair, the gladiator giving up on his weapons to finish this brutally. With his body still covered in an armor of crystals made by Esen, his fist meets the Brute's face, who tried to use his three arms to counterattack, but Mares stopped one with his other arm and the other two by kicking them.
He was pushing his strengthening technique to its limit, and before the silver-eyed noticed, marks started covering his body, lines going from his hands to shoulders and feet to the waist. Neither the students nor Mares perceived, only Esen.
'I see…'
With his fist on the Brute's face and having stopped the other three arms, he moved his thumb and pressed it into the hole in the beast's face.
Mares seemed determined to destroy the Brute's skull, but Esen wasn't willing to waste any more time. From his thumb, she formed a crystal that pierced through the Earthly Brute's brain. It didn't matter the strength the beast once hold, a fifth-ranked one wasn't strong enough to survive having its brain pierced.
Finally, the beast's body stopped completely, and as it fell back on the ground, it stayed still.
For a second the students looked, waiting for the moment the beast would start moving and attacking again. They barely allowed themselves to believe this would finally be over.
And then the second passed and nothing happened, making them realize that the variant Beast had been taken down for good.
Calon just fell on the ground, his body finally relaxing as all the tension left him. Venissino did the same, sitting down on a rock and taking a deep breath, looking at the sky.
Winna breathed a sigh of relief and tightly hugged Luo who was still out and probably wouldn't awake so soon.
"S-sir? Are you ok?"
Lhian and Clest went to talk to Mares, both very relieved and glad things finally ended on a good note. But once they got near the silver-eyed, they noticed something was off with him.
'Mars, dear, pay attention to my voice. Calm down.'
All Mares could hear was the blood pumping through his veins, his heart beating at a rate that would have killed him had he still been a human, and Esen's gentle voice. It was a source of calm and hope in the middle of a storm.
For a second or even less than that, with all the tension and battle instincts in his mind, the tension of facing an enemy that took everything he could offer to defeat while facing the very real possibility of failure.
And because of that, at some point during the battle, all that was left was his most basic instincts of fighting and surviving.
'Mars, calm down. I am with you… I am always with you.'
It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and if it was not for Esen, it would also have been harder for the silver-eyed to come back. She was the one that could hold the pieces of his consciousness whenever it threatened to fall apart. Like it once did already.
'I know little bunny… Love you too.'
He sat down to rest.
"Yeah… just needed a moment…"
Now that his mind calmed down Mares finally took a chance to notice the condition his body was in. His regeneration had hit its limit a while ago, making his injuries heal so slowly that would probably take a day or more to do so.
He also felt drained from Astral Energy, which made the silver-eyed severely confused.
'You run out of it a while ago, I was giving you mine.'
Esen said, stunning Mares.
'I didn't even notice it.'
And that was a big surprise for him, since it was the first time he just run out of Astral Energy completely. And he being too entranced in his battle, he failed to realize that.
'I could see. Honestly, your control of energy is horrible, you just throw everything at your techniques, and there is very little precision or subtlety. It only works because you have a lot of Astral Energy.'
He started rolling his hair around his finger as Esen said those things. Until now how he controlled his Astral Energy wasn't even a factor that Mares ever considered.
'It seems we will have to work on that once we make it back.'
He felt Esen's agreement and his mind came back to the surroundings, where Lhian and Clest looked at him weirdly.
"Did you hit your head? You've been staring at nothing for a while now."
Clest said while yawning, waving her hand in front of Mares' head to see if he would react now.
"I was just thinking."
Shaking his head and yawning, Mares got up and went to the Brute's body. He was in no condition to absorb the core, but the spatial box Qiulei had allowed him to borrow would come in handy now.
"This is weird…"
Calon suddenly said, looking around. He yawned and widened his eyes, slapping his face.
"What's your problem?"
Venissino, sitting down on a rock with an expression that made clear he was almost sleeping, questioned his friend.
"As tiring as this was, we shouldn't be… be like this right now…" He yawned once more and shake his head trying to focus. "It should take a bit… a bit more… something's wrong."
When he finished speaking, Calon was down to his knees, barely keeping his eyes open.
Mares had just put the core on the box when Calon said that. He did notice he was severely tired, but being out of Astral Energy for the first time, he just chalked it up to that.
However, Lhian and Clest had fallen asleep when he wasn't looking, and so did Winna, probably the first one to sleep since all this time she said nothing. Luo never even had a chance to wake up to see their victory.
Venissino was already snoring, and as much as he tried, Calon could not keep his eyes open.
Mares clicked his tongue and turned his multi-weapon into a spear, planning to use pain to ignore the sleepiness. He didn't even get to raise the spear before falling, the drowsiness suddenly intensified tenfold. His weapon automatically went back to its glove form.
Silence reigned for a moment, a huge contrast to all the noise that happened during the intense battle.
"I would say this was quite a success."
In the middle of the air, Quilei and the other professor, the one that had wolf ears like Luo, appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"Your definition of success scares me. We will never hear the end of this."
Her colleague did not share Qiulei's feelings.
"Oh, please dear, don't worry. It won't be our fault that the students couldn't contact us."
The orange-haired woman had a smile that would make most of those from Battle Crown Academy tremble.
"At least there was no way this could have backfired. Hey, you idiot, when are you going to stop drinking and get here?"
"Took those kids long enough."
A man appeared beside the two. He had short purple hair and a normal human-like appearance, except that his hair moved in waves even without wind to mess with it and his eyes seemed made out of pure energy.
"How was the trip?"
Qiulei asked with a smile.
"You got an interesting guy to guard them. Made things worth it. And the drinks were good, as usual."
He proceeded to chug down a drink before continuing.
"Either way, those five brats, and your student did well. The others were average as expected. I think they might be able to get a thing or two from this trip."
The two female professors nodded, satisfied with the brief rundown.
"Give me a more detailed report once we are back. Now…" Qiulei looked around, a smile showed on her face looking at a specific point in the forest. She waited for a bit, but nothing happened. "I see… let's wrap things up then, there is still a lot to be done."
With that, she moved her arms and everyone teleported away.