I narrowly dodged a boulder from the creature and dove behind another. Breathing hard I casted a another fire ball spell and launched it at the creature. Half its head was blown away I'm the process bit it just regenerated.
I clenched my teeth and leaped into the air again as it came down on me crushing the boulder totally. Damn it. The creature looked up at me and leaping after me it fired a barrage of blows again. Using my daggers, I threw one in another direction teleporting to it instantly as the creature punched a bunch of instead of me.
I just needed a way to expose the core. Then suddenly an idea hit me like a nut between your eyes. If the core moved around then there was a high chance that it's movements were visible but yeah night sky made it difficult to track either way, I needed to light this place up. I raised my hand to the sky and with a strained cry I fired an illuminate spell lighting up the whole area. The creature cried out and fell from a tree it was poised on. It fell hard thrashing around wildly.
Landing hard, I ran at the creature sword in hand. I needed to Catch it off guard. The creature sensed me coming and roared to it's feet coming at me. Now it was a matter of close combat.
I leaped and rolled and dodged as I slashed at the creature and fired inferno and frost magic at it as I dodged. The creature had a seriously higher advantage since it had four hands and worse still it's tail which kept lashing out at me. This fight was intense. Feeling the burn of it's blows and the intensity of my speed and quick reactions to counter it's moves made me almost enjoy the fight.
No. I was enjoying the fight. The thrill of it all made laugh and it startled the creature as it fired a heavy left hook to my right flank. I clenched my teeth, grunting hard as I did, eyes widening as I heard the fatal crack of my ribs breaking.
The creature spin around like a table top and smacked me hard in the gut with it's thick tail. I cried out in agony as I was sent flying through the forest and hitting the ground hard rolled like somersaulting car. The creature was on me in seconds grabbing my head and driving me further through the ground before spinning around and flinging me so hard towards the ground I bounced like a ball, creating a sizeable crater in the process. I couldn't even make a sound as I did. The pain so intense that I felt like collapsing.
Only a few minutes ago I'd been telling those rookies that I could handle this.
Looking at the current situation I was beginning to think I couldn't. Before I could hit the ground the creature came at me with a heavy blow to my guts again sending me flying into a rock wall. I as literally sitting in the wall now, blood trickling down my face and sides of my mouth. I was still clutching my sword in all the commotion but now it slowly slipped from my hand and clattered to the ground. The creature now walked towards me slowly from the distance, it's red eyes glowing menacingly in the now gathering darkness as my Illuminate spell began to fade, spreading it's claws wide for the final blow.
I pulled myself out of the wall falling on my face. I struggled to my feet, looking up at the creature as it approached. I got to my feet slowly. There was only one option left. A raw mana blast. It would drain me of most of my mana but it would hopefully severely wound the creature and reveal the location of it's core.
At that point it wouldn't be able to heal fast enough or move it's core giving me enough time to destroy it. I stood up straight, painful as it was and raised my arm to it.
The creature, sensing I was up to something ran at me full force. My aura, a brilliant violet black colour blazed around me as my hand began to glow.
" Die ", I said.
A massive blast of raw manna shot forth like a dragon going after it's prey, burning everything in its path. The creature was totally engulfed in it. I listened to it roar and screech as the raw mana burned it alive.
When the blast subsided the creature fell to it's knees, smoke coming from it's body like a pot.
And sure enough the core had been exposed. It was now resting in its rib cage also partially burned.
But the creature was already regenerating from the blast and though it wasn't healing as fast as before it was picking up the pace.
I didn't have much time before it fully healed. If I missed this chance I wouldn't get another.
Raising my hand to chest level, I took a deep breath.
" Lire", I whispered.
Lire was a high speed lightning and fire combo attack that was meant for one shot kills. It was extremely deadly and difficult to control but I'd managed to get the hang of it. Now in my current state however, it was unsteady, my body was throbbing violently from the pain but I needed to get this done.
Mustering all the speed and strength I had left I ran forward like a lightning bolt, the whole world turning into a bright blue of light as I ran. The creatures healing instantly increased to hide the core, simultaneously shooting out four pincers in my direction. I managed to dodge three but the third hit me in the shoulder but I don't stop moving forward even though I was impaled.
With a cry of rage, I shot through the creature taking its core with me as I tripped over it's tail and fell heavily tumbling into a tree. The creature hissed and roared but it couldn't do anything about it. I held the core and with the last of my strength, crushed the it. The beast gave a small,tired hiss and slowly faded to ashes, leaving only a skeletal form that would fade away by the end of tomorrow. I raised my battered arm and checked the time.
It was two am.
I heaved a sigh of relief, now that it was over. Getting to my feet slowly, I groaned holding my broken ribs. This had been a close one. Another second and I would've been a very dead man. I began the long trek back to the cave.
It took about another hour to find the cave and trace my way back to the survivors, who were healing themselves up. It took me a while to be able to cast a healing bubble. As I lay in it I learned that the boys name was jack and the girls names were kim and Andressa, Andressa being a hunter like jack. By the time I'd called Trisha for back up and the other hunters arrived to check the situation it was well past six am. I was exhausted and weak from the fight. This beast had been insanely strong. It must've been enhanced. There was no way it could've been that strong or that powerful.
Something wasn't right here and I needed to find out before I ended up getting killed here or something.
I didn't have any energy to get to school so I guess I was gonna have to skip. It was a bummer since the interschool training program would end today and I wouldn't get the chance to kick Zack's ass in the session since he was clearly powering through with out any difficulty. It stings a lot, especially since he could go bragging that I'd chickened out or something and that was not cool.
But it couldn't be helped. In my current state even a zombie could take me out right now. I'm not kidding either and that was that.
Guess I'd just have to miss out on it after all