Humming filled the air and he traced the sound, quickly changing directions from one tree to another. Despite not stopping in a single place the arrows were just a step behind him, any obstruction and he would be riddled with them. He caught a glips of the monster, the torch within his mouth making his skin uncomfortably hot but he had to bear with it.
He circled around them, his senses sharpened to notice where the fighters were hidden. The closer he got, the greater his caution. Finally, he was nearly upon the archers his eyes darting to some specific areas he had noticed beforehand. One after another, his knives stabbed into the trunk and he quickly circled the trunk dodging the arrows and then leaped at the archer. He could hear the sudden activity below making him act even faster.
A flame collided with the archer. It was small but as the sparks converged upon its hand it lit up on fire, unable to maintain its balance. He jumped, his sword cutting through its neck while it tried blocking with its burning arm. His legs sprung the moment he landed upon the trunk, and his sword swung, deflecting some of the arrows, and then he was rushing towards the other archers.
The fighters were just starting the climb and already the first of the archer was already lost. He rampaged through the archers until they started gathering together with the fighters spread around to protect them. It made it difficult to physically get anywhere near them but this forest was filled with obstacles that protected him now.
His movement pattern was everchanging. The arrows chased after him, the hell he had experienced on the previous floor making sure he did not stop despite the burning lungs and pain-filled arms. A wave of sparks rushed out, forcing the fighter to stop. It was all he needed as he struck down another archer.
The blood on his blade disintegrating, he huffed and puffed. He spat out the torch and fell down. He bit on a knife's hilt. Fingers warping around the arrow, with one swift movement he tore it out. The arrowhead had flesh attached to it. With a long low grunt, his body shook. it took a while when he centered himself preparing for something even worse, the bleeding had to be stopped. After the wound was burnt, he cut off the creepers and moss, using them to bandage his wounds.
He rested after hiding. Why had it exploded? For now, he did not try again but his mind kept thinking of it. Closing his eye he focused on the energy. Willing it to move into the barrier. The energy again appeared suddenly without any notice but as it was being pulled towards the path connecting to the barrier he sensed something.
The feeling was hazy but he was sure that he had sensed something. He doubled down on the feeling, hopeful that it would be enough with the enhancement he had received this time.
Coming out, he moved some distance from his camp while making marks to retrace his steps back. As his fingers moved upon the moss he could feel the energy leaving his body and going into the ground. He felt excited about having another spell through which he could observe the movement of energy but for now, focused on the task at hand.
The spell was completed and he became confused. Dismissing the spell he felt the energy being released from the diagram. Taking out another new piece of wood and started etching the spell upon it.
Visually there was no difference but he could sense the energy flowing out of his fingertips as they moved. His focus was set on the piece of wood. After reaching a certain point he started feeling resistance as his fingers moved. It was fragile, easily overcome as when he moved his finger but the energy within became chaotic. The wooden block started vibrating and he stopped.
He dismissed all of the spells and took out another piece of wood. Before starting, he connected with the spell module of Incinerate, lowering the amount of energy that was needed to be provided. He halved the energy and started again. Again he felt the resistance but this time it was much later in the process. He again restarted the process from scratch while lowering the energy again by half. This time the process was nearly complete but just before the end he again felt the resistance.
Not wanting to waste his time he pushed forward and complete the etching. Closing his eye he focused his senses on the piece of wood held in his hand. A connection was already established within his mind that would act as a trigger to blow up this bomb. By using that connection he sensed the energy within. It was chaotic like it would go out of control at any moment. His previous experience allowed him to remain calm even though he was now holding a magical equivalent of a bomb.
He dismissed the spell and moved back into the camp. He tweaked the amount of energy until the wooden sticks would consistently endure until the end. He took out the wooden spear he had made a long while ago. It was much larger than the swords he had looted. Lowering the energy to half of what was required by the spell he started the etching process.
His eye was closed and he focus on the energy as it moved. The process was completed and as he checked the energy within, it was stable. The size of the material mattered, he confirmed. Despite the success, he could not repress the bitter feelings.
He had allocated most of his time to sensing energy, to somehow gain the ability to control it but he had succeeded in neither. He could not directly manipulate the energy and he could not sense its location even after all the time and hard work he had spent upon it. He wanted to control the energy just like what he did a moment before; controlling it as naturally as the movement of fingers when he was etching the Incinerate upon the wood.
A bulb lit up. He connected to the spell module of Incinerate and started testing, trying to find out the part that made it possible to manipulate the energy with his fingers to etch the diagram.
It was like he was consumed by something. After months of getting no result, he became excited now a clue had appeared in front of him and so he kept on etching the spell until the headache became too much to bear.
Cutting the torch into even smaller pieces he lowered the energy even further till a stable diagram could be etched onto it. Leaving everything else he kept on doing it. Despite not achieving any results he was confident he was, at last, he was moving in the correct direction.
Cutting off the makeshift bandage he stretched his back muscles. Tensing the back muscles he felt only a dull pain. He stretched, slowly increasing the load upon his back. After not feeling any tears in his wound he moved out.
In his hands were two knives and within his mind, he could sense five new connections all connecting to the five pieces of wood which he had fixed upon his body using a creeper.
A hum sounded and he felt excited. Jumping aside, evading the arrows and running towards the archers. As he started climbing the trees fighters came to obstruct him but he sidestepped or instead tried to but they were more nimble than him. His knives stabbed into the tree and he moved up. Locating one of the archers he waited for them to attack. Dodging another volley of arrows, he ricocheted from one tree to another. Mid-air he grabbed one of the pieces of wood and threw it at the monster with full power.
Just before the collision, he pulled the trigger. A burst of flames exploded forth, engulfing everything within its path.
A burning body rushed at him while the remaining archers fired another volley of arrows at him. From below the fighters rushed towards him.
The heat would constantly be felt as he was chased. Seeing the flame spreading caused him much anxiety but the archers and fighters made sure that he could not end the burning monster.
His limbs compressed, the force of the jump making him stick on the tree for a brief moment. Feeling the gravity pulling him down he pulled out the knife and started climbing upwards in a circular motion. The arrows left a trail behind him while the fighters started tightening the circle.
Just when he was dodging another volley, the flaming monster jumped towards him again but this time it fell down, its jump not having enough force behind him to reach the tree. The sound of impact came while he jumped to another tree. The fighters started closing, ramping up the pressure.
Flames appeared above both his arms and rushed forward exploding just before his head. The swarm of sparks bursts into the fire as they collide with the head of two monsters. Crashing into the tree they fell down while the other kept chasing him.
With the gap created in their formation, the pressure was lowered. Evading another volley he threw the remaining wooden bombs just when the fighters were mid-air.
The fires made them lose their balance mid-air causing them to fall down. They had barely escaped the fire but their scales got badly brunt. He grinned and started his hunt.
The quicker he got the higher the danger got, only allowing him milliseconds to react or the arrow would strike him. A pleasant feeling exploded within as the arrow rushed past, only a few centimeters away from his cheeks. It tried to reload but the flame exploded setting it on fire.
He struck the burning moss trying to put out the fire. During the fight, the fire had already started spreading. With each swing, the forest fire came into his mind making his strikes even more vigorous.
The memories flooded in, the melting of his skin, the rigid movements as the muscles stiffened, the burning hot air that escaped from his lungs burning everything along the way, being unable to breathe in as the air refused to come in. His grip loosened causing him to drop the wooden fan.
Clinching his teeth, he pulled the fan back and started to move away. It was a race against time now. What he had been trying was useless and he knew it deep down. The fire that was burning upon the trunks high above was starting to burn brighter and the occasional winds only sped up the process. Where would he even start trying to stop them, even if he had time?
Wandering through the forest he considered how to speed up the process. The critical point to take into consideration was his safety. If in every fight he started taking in wounds, even light ones, across hundred of fights he would not survive. It was more like a war and he had to make sure he did not shorten his sight upon just a few fights.
His mind processed all that happened. Now that the fire was already spreading he did not need to be careful of fire, the time he usually spent putting them out would also be free now. His thoughts went to how he had made the fighters fall using the Incinerate bombs. If he could make them even smaller, just enough to interrupt them mid-air he was positive the fights could be shortened. Hardy as they were, he now had results that they would not survive the fall from far above.
His fighting style started changing again. Instead of dispatching the fighter first, he chased after the archers from the start and as the fighters chased from behind he would suddenly change his targets, throwing wooden bombs while they were midair, messing their jumps which resulted from them in falling down.