Survive'
As he stood covered in his own blood, he only had one thought in his head.
'Survive'
He engulfed his fists in flames and kicked the floor for a forward leap. He appeared before the beast and threw his fist forward, slamming his flame coated fist into the beast's left rib. while the beast swung its paw at his head.
Already sensing the attack, he reacted by squatting a little, dodging the beasts claws before throwing his flame coated right fist upward resulting in an successful uppercut.
The beast slide several feet backwards before dashing and sending its claws. He reacted by dodging to the right before jumping on the beasts back. He placed his hand on the beast's head before igniting it in flames.
The beast growled in pain was being burnt. The next moment, the beast slammed the boy into several trees to remove him from its body.
'Die. Die. Die.'
Even as he began losing his bearings from blood loss and being slammed into several trees, he could only hear one word as he kept burning the beast head.
"Die, Die, DIE."
He kept burning the beast head with intensity as the beast kept slamming him into the nearby trees. But as the fight progressed, the winner had already been decided and the beast eventually fell to the ground, lifeless.
"I .....Won." He mumbled so with a smile as he began to lose consciousness.
***
3 Months earlier
In a house somewhere in the kingdom of Fiora, a young man could be seen laying on his bed playing with fire. No, he was literally playing with fire. He was a 17 year old boy with a height of 5"8" ft, spiky black hair and charcoal grey eyes. Combined with his skinny build, he was someone considered to be extremely handsome.
"What a Joy kill, and here I thought my future was very bright. But reality is often disappointing." He sighed with a look of disappointment.
The young man continued having idle chatter with himself as he thought back to the incident that's been coined as the "World Awakening" which happened 1000 years ago.
At that time, the world completely changed, mana awakened in the world, magic beasts started appearing and people started awakening something known as the mana core. People who awaken their mana cores become mages.
The mana is a container of mana inside their body that determines the limits of their mana. In the case that it becomes empty, Mana will come from the atmosphere and enter the Mage's body and, after a while, their mana shall return to normal.
As each mage awaken their core, they become able to manipulate and use their magic which mimic a certain element like wind, earth etc. But in some cases, some people awaken unique magic like gravity and spatial magic.
And within this myriad of abilities, the young boy known as Kai awakened the 'Fire Magic', a elemental attribute which allows the user to manipulate and generate fire at will. Due to its destructive nature, this magic is usually used for offensive attacks.
At first, he was excited, thinking about intense battles and gaining great power, but the reality was quick to shoot him down.
He awakened a faulty mana which will break if he uses it intensity. A broken mana core can never be fixed. Thus, he is forced to only use a couple of times before getting exhausted.
To be honest, once he realized his own weakness, he never wanted to become an adventurer and hunt magic beasts. However, he was left without a choice. He had no useful skills for the changing world but was in desperate need of money.
So he persisted. He joined the Guild Association, which manages adventurers, and became a member of a collection team for the guild his best friend was a part of, keeping him relatively safe from attacks.
"Damn. After that last quest, I haven't been able to get a job in a while.' He thought to himself.
"If I don't manage to join another raid in the next week, I probably won't be able to pay the house's rent."
Apparently Kai's parents died in an accident so Kai is living by himself. After all, 15 years is the legal age for one to become an adult.
"What am I even supposed to do about my core?" Kai thought out.
It should be noted that it's possible to heal the mana core as long that it's not broken. In order to do that, one would need a mage that specialize in healing magic but the current person who is able to do that, is an S rank and affording his services is near impossible for Kai right now.
"Even my Fire magic is one of the strongest and most challenging elemental magic to train. After all these years of constant effort, I can use it to light a candle and my core is to blame for that." He thought as he sighed once more.
As his thoughts continued to get more and more self-deprecating, he decided to go the guild and get a job. He stood up from his bed and went towards the bathroom to clean himself before getting ready.
When he was reached with his business, he walked towards his wardrobe and bought out a set of clothes.
He changed out of his current night wear and wore a simple black shirt with a v-neck collar and a red design on the front which patterns out into a Y-shape, and a sports baggy, white-colored trousers which possess noticeable black details on both sides. Lastly, his choice of footwear are a pair of simple, black boots.
Before leaving, he moved towards his drawer and pulled it open. He then bought out an old photo. Apparently, this photo was a family picture which was taken when his parents were still alive. The photo was taken when he was nine years old.
He looked at his parents in the photo background and smiled. His mother was a beautiful woman with dark red hair and blue eyes while his father was a handsome and talk man with black hair and green eyes.
"Mom, dad watch over me, I'll be leaving now. I promise you, one day this son of yours will stand at the top of the world and become someone you will be proud of."
After leaving those words, he returned the photo back into the drawer and left his apartment to head for the guild.