"Than-sama, wake up!" I heard Ara nervously calling my name. Ugh, what the hell was that, some creepy dude appeared in my dreams and began scorching my back.
"Than-sama, wake up! We are in danger!" Ara is now quietly gulping her tears in an attempt to lessen the sound she's making while waking me up. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Ara's scared face as if she saw a ghost.
"Than-sama, there's a big monster coming to us. It is coming this way!"
"What? What do you mean?"
"I've been hearing weird and loud footsteps in my sleep so I woke up and noticed that there's really something coming this way. It's only a few steps away from us. Hurry and stand up, Than-sama!"
Out of panic, I quickly stood up and asked Ara where the direction it's coming from and she pointed southwest. I stood shakily and prepared myself when I saw a big silhouette appearing from the darkness of the wild. Luckily, the sun is starting to rise so I will see it when it comes out to attack us. My eyes widened and my legs felt like soggy noodles when a huge black tarantula monster appeared on us. It has ten goat-eye like and is as big as a tennis ball each. It also has a big mouth with sharp fangs similar to a snake. And each of its legs has the thickness of a tree in this forest. If I'm going to measure its height, it will be three times my height.
"Ara! Hide on my shoulder and hold tight on my shirt!" I let Ara hide on my shirt so that I will not gonna lose her while evading the attack of this monster.
The tarantula monster raised its right leg to strike me. Good thing that it looks heavy so I have time to avoid its attack. It's been attacking like this and I keep dodging like money since the moment it appeared in front of us. I can't bear to waste a second using my skill because I know for a fact how fragile they are. I kept running and jumping left and right until I forgot how painful my back was. All of a sudden the monster started to say something.
"Acid Web!"
As it recites each word, his mouth begins to produce a thick yellow fluid and rapidly spew it out in our direction. My instinct acted before I could even think and I raised my hand in preparation to do Aqua Defense. Instead of waiting for it to strike at one, I locked it even if it was still at five and I closed my eyes as I brought my hand back to my chest. Even if I don't trust the durability of my shield, I just imagine it will be like a mighty five barrier shield since I locked it at five. I also imagine it to be spiky since I happen to see Ara's horn at that very moment.
"Aqua Defense!"
I turned my back against the monster and took Ara from my shoulder and covered her with my whole body. I know. You should never turn your back against your enemy. But my whole priority is to protect Ara and also, do you remember what I said before? Yes, I am letting this monster eat me alive. I just tried to chant my skill for the first and last time for experience. I've been imagining how tasty I am going to be while evading and at last, I will rest now for real. For real, right? Am I in heaven now? Is it heaven? I've been closing my eyes off because I am afraid that the moment I open it, I will see myself in hell.
But to my surprise, when I opened both of my eyes, I saw the monster struggling to get off in a huge five-layered aqua shield with sharp spikes on it. Its blood has been dripping off against the shield I created. Although it did not leave a deep wound on it, I bet it still sting a little.
"Argh!" That little sting made it throw a tantrum.
Oh God. I thought I'm with you by now but what the hell is this? Aside from that, did I manage to create a strong shield? How did I do that? Just how? I've been practicing my shield yesterday and it barely made any progress. Oh wait, that roman numerals, is that supposed to be the level of manifest I can make? I thought it's just a countdown! What a waste of time! Not only that, but I made it look spiky out of nowhere. Is it because I manifest it to be like that? Is it as simple as that? Damn that very reason I am here, that "knowledgeable to manifest and energy", I know nothing at all!
"Than-sama! Behind you!" Ara snapped the hell out of me. I quickly evade the monster's left leg and run the faster I can so that it can catch up to us.
"Sorry for spacing out, it is my first time seeing a real monster this close!" I defend myself for being a lame dog.
"Than-sama, hurry!" Ara reminded me as if she's not been gulping her tears down out of fear.
I've been observing this monster the whole time. Its eyes look overwhelming because it looks like the eyes of a goat but only its third pair of eyes are blinking. It also keeps on attacking with a predictive move but its size is what makes you panic a lot. It also keeps attacking the same height so let's see if it can see us if I climb up on a tree.
"Ara, hold onto me, I will climb that tree."
I instructed Ara before I proceed to climb one. Fortunately, I trained myself to climb into tall trees because I kept being bullied when I was still a kid. After I climb myself up, I stand on a thick branch and put my hands together. As I moved my left hand counter-clockwise, I observed every unknown figure and letter written inside the rings on my wrists. Like I did with Aqua Defense, I make sure to hit it at five and manifest it to be as thick as claymore.
"Aqua Blade!" I successfully strike its head and it's back and as expected, I also manage to create five blades at once. It does not make the monster bleed but it's been rampaging a lot because it must be really painful.
"Argh!" The monster kept on swinging all of its legs hoping to ease the pain but it's useless since I haven't removed all the blades. It keeps on swinging and ends up banging the tree I was standing on.
"Ara! Hold tight!"
"Than-sama!" As Ara kept shivering in fear, I raised my right hand again and manifested it to be shaped as a ball to keep us away from falling directly to the ground.
"Aqua Defense!" We landed safely and sound and while the shield is activated, I regroup my blades using my left hand, raise them as high as possible and quickly prepare myself to manifest another skill. I manifest this skill to be huge and thin needles.
"Aqua Blade!" I made sure to only hit the head of the monster and those huge needles successfully penetrate the head of it. Due to a sudden strike of pain, the monster is finally unable to move.
"Ara! Are you alright?" I checked up on her since she's been holding herself up.
"Than-sama! I was really scared huhuhu!" She finally cried at last, I thought she's going to keep it to herself. I sighed out of relief since I know how shitty it was to store everything up to yourself.
"It's okay for now, we don't know if it's going to wake up any sooner so we should do something to kill it. If we are not gonna deal with it, it might chase us or worse it might kill someone else."
"What are we going to do, Than-sama?" She asked.
"I will enclose us in my shield first while I think of what to do next." I reassured and proceeded to manifest.
"Aqua Defense." I manifest it to look like a multi-layered ball like I did before. After I set everything up, I started to open my window panel and check my other skills. I confirmed that I have three more skills I can use.
[Advanced Skill:
Calming Tide (B rank)
Details: Creates a circular aquatic platform around the bearer. It has a radius of 10 meters and works vertically. Regardless of level manifested, this platform will negate every physical attack directed to the bearer.
Note: This platform has three levels that can negate poisonous attacks, magical attacks through incantation, and other elemental attacks, respectively. If an attack is elemental, only one element can negate at a time.
Tutorial: Place your right palm at the top of your left hand and cross both of your thumbs. Left thumb should be upward and the right thumb should be downward. Recite the word Calming Tide afterwards.]
The heck! I have a skill like this? You must be joking! If I read this skill beforehand, I shouldn't have experience running back and forth just to evade that monster's attacks! I will test it later if necessary but I need to have a skill that can cut this monster. I will read the remaining two skills to decide if I can use any of that.
[Advanced Skill:
Tsunami Strike (B rank)
Details: Draw a huge amount of water by sucking up half of the source of water it came from. It has two forms, water state and pressure state. This skill will also cost half of the water from its source and the water used can be back to its original state.
Note: During water state, this skill will draw out the water and it will form an arc-like shape to form its momentum and prepare itself to strike.
During the pressure state, the arc-like shape of water will rapidly flow towards the target and the bearer can thin out the flow to increase the pressure. The higher the pressure, the stronger the impact it will cause. The thinnest flow a bearer will manifest can cut any object except magical ores and minerals.]
Tutorial: Put your left hand below your lips and your left thumb must be erected to 45° and put your right hand at the top of your left one and make your right thumb erect at 45°,too. Upon forming a triangle near your mouth, recit the word "Tsunami Strike".]
Wavering Falls (B rank) Requirements: Must be conducted near sea or ocean
Details: Ability of the bearer to trap targets into the void of water. The effectiveness of this skill varies on a given situation. No one can escape from being entrapped under this skill. Note: This skill is only possible if the source of water is greater than or equal to three thousand gallons of water. Only the bearer activating it or higher rank bearer yields the same manifestation can undo its effect. After trapping the target to this skill, the bearer can minimize the size of the target as well as the water used on it. Hence, an abundant source is required to perform this.
Tutorial: Put your right hand parallel to your lower lip and put your left hand parallel to you belly button and bring both of your hands together. Recite the word "Wavering Fall".]
After quickly reading the remaining skills I have, I realize that I have an overpowering skill if correctly utilized. I set aside my curiosity and decide to use Tsunami Strike as my final move to totally defeat this tarantula monster. I should not take a lot of time deciding since this monster might wake up in the worst possible time and upon reading these skills, I assessed that Tsunami Strike can deal with it in the fastest way possible so I quickly position myself and form a triangle around my mouth using both of my hands. Everytime I use my skills, there's always magical rings revolving around my wrist and this time, these magical rings are layered a lot.
"Tsunami Strike!" I shouted after I charged up the water I needed to completely lit all the magical rings around my wrist. Because of so much pressure, I was pushed back by the force and I barely managed to keep my feet on the ground. I control myself and end up cutting the monster in half and cutting several trees alongside it. I was so shocked about the result that I ended up kneeling down.
"Than-sama, you've made it! I thought this would be the end of our journey!" She exclaimed.
I looked at the mess I've caused and I saw how much water I lost just to launch the attack. Shit! I must bring back the water to the pond!
I immediately stood up and manifested to gather every single drop I used to defeat my enemy. Even a single drop that has evaporated must be back to the pond. By the time I checked the pond, I felt glad that it got back to normal. But I have another problem and it's the body of the tarantula monster I just killed. I don't want to let it rot here because it might cause a lot of danger here.
"Than-sama! Some people are going this way! What are we going to do?" Ara panicked.
"Come here, let's hide first and observe what they need to do here." I waited for her to hold onto my shirt and quickly hid at the nearest bushes.
"They said that they saw a big spider coming this way, and it seems like there are five people talking, three males and two females. " Ara informed me by whispering everything to my ear.
"They are a few steps near us!" She warned me.
"I can see the spider from here captain!" I heard some guy shout from the other side of the forest. They must be really near since I can hear them already. I hid deeper when I saw a guy behind the tarantula I killed.
"It's already dead, captain. It seems like someone already defeated it." A tall guy with a large build said.
"You're right. I wonder who killed it. Maybe some bandits got cornered by this monster. It's alright, we can still use some of its parts. Go ahead and do your thing!" A guy instructed that seems to be their captain. What are they going to do with it? I haven't moved an inch and even control my breath so that I can limit the possibility that they might see us.
"Aeron! Do not scratch its bones okay? We can sell it at a higher price if it looks good as new." The captain reminded them.
Oh. They will use some parts that seem to be valuable and sell it. Why didn't I think of that?
After the three guys separated the skin and flesh to its bones, the two females step up and held their hands and began to say something.
"In the name of the brightest fire from the burning sun, heed my prayer, burn this sinful flesh and bless us with thy grace. Burn!"
Woah! The monster's flesh turned into dust and it looks like they did magic incantation. Glad I end up having manifest. I might say nonsense if I have to say something like that.