After leaving the mist, not even 2 minutes passed when a monster appeared. The creature was like a boar but had black spikes going down its back. Its eyes glowed in a nauseatingly bright red color. From its mouth flowed a never-ending river of drool. Meanwhile, its curved serrated tusks poked out towards the sky. A Glutton Boar is the name of this creature since it eats everything in sight, even dirt.
As I readied myself to fight, the thing caught a whiff from me. Squealing, it charged like a racehorse after the starting gun. I have faced this kind of creature before given how common they are in Eliador, even more common in the forest where I live. However, the tiny piglets are nothing compared to this big and fast piggy.
As the boar was about 2 meters away, I sidestepped and slashed my sword which surprisingly sliced the creature in half. Usually, that little move leaves a bloodied wound, but never bisects it! Well, it must be the sword as the blade is made of pure magoi and uncle's full magic understanding. Not wasting time, I harvest the surviving materials and bury the rest.
This trend continued for a few hours where I would meet a monster, the monster would charge at me only to die in less than 5 seconds. It was when I began heading back where I met a challenge, a Wingless Manticore! The beast had the face of a hornless hannya with a bushy lion's mane. Its body was as big as a bison with a metallic tail in the shape of a serpent.
This type of manticore are the lesser version of the Demon-faced Sire or better yet, it's offspring. Although they are not super special like the Sire, they are still unique monsters, thus making the perfect gift for Ivy the mandrake. I can store the corpse in my inventory until I go back to the dark elf settlement. Still, nothing could prepare me for the fight. Although the manticore was alone for now, I had no idea what danger lurked not that far in the darkness.
This time I pre-emptively attacked the beast catching it off guard. Still, its hide was thicker than the trees around us and harder than magic steel. Angered by the attack from what it considered food, that beast swept its right foreleg at me.
I blocked it with my sword but felt like I was hit by a speeding truck. I can block one or two of these strikes but no more. The manticore didn't give me time to react as it whipped its tail in my direction. Naturally, I dodged given the poison their tails secrete like sweat and the force the tail struck with was enough to kill a Knight stage in one hit.
This game of cat and mouse continued for about 8 minutes when I adjusted to the rhythm of the fight. Before, I never fought with magic since I didn't know any arcane arts, nor had any mage cores. Now, I have 15 mana palaces each attuned to one of the 10 elements, and one palace full of mystery. Time to see what my body can do.
Thinking of the beast's elemental weakness, I used the celestial language to evoke a coat of wind to wrap around my sword as fire ignited from it. The flaming twister was difficult at first to use since it was the first time I used magic outside the inheritance realm. But I adjusted quickly as my life depended on it. This all took me another 3 minutes of dodging. Once I got it though, I was able to then evoke it at will.
Now armed properly, it's time for round 2! I again attacked the manticore only this time I aimed for its face. One thing to note, manticores are weak against fire and will try to move away from the heat. Exactly what I was waiting for. As I expected, the manticore moved its head away which exposed its chest to my slash.
With my sword digging deep into its flesh, I greatly wounded the beast. With a roar of pain, the manticore tried to make distance between us. How foolish would I be to let it? I immediately pressed on until after 4 minutes, I slew the beast. In its last moments, it wailed out calling for help. Single mindedly, I was too focused on my fight to pay attention to that.
Its to be expected. After about 18 minutes of fighting, I felt drained, so I knelt down. At that very moment, I was made aware of what that wail meant. In response to the yelp, a group of ancient roars sounded out not too far from where I was. (Shiii, don't tell me what I think is on the way.) Not even 15 seconds since the battle ended, when a few more beasts appeared. The bitch of a manticore called for more manticore to avenge it! Even though I am tired, I still readied myself for the fight to come.
What stood before me was a group of 3 lesser manticore, two of which had the same appearance as the one I just killed. The third was all grey with a white mane and what appeared to be small, inverted batwings growing from its back. Welp, it looks like a manticore from the Sire's nest is leading this group of human-faced ass hats. If that wasn't bad enough, all three of the manticore seemed to be a step away from entering a crazed state from seeing the corpse of their brethren.
Putting uncle's sword away, I retrieved a spear provided to me by the Elder when I first left the settlement. The spear was made from moonsilver and had many neutral magoi crystals adorn down the shaft. The spear blade appeared as translucent as glass but was as tough as orichalcum. The exquisite design of this weapon was legendary, yet what I was gonna do with it would be considered a sin against such artwork.
Although I prefer using a sword, I don't think it will be enough to kill the 3 manticore in front of me. Using the same fire-based spell as before, I readied myself for another deathmatch. Yea, that's not at all how this went down. It was a slugfest! One I regret but would not trade for any other fight as I needed to test the limits of my current body.
-End of Chapter