"Why the hell am I paired up with you two?" Lycaon asked Baron and Lendell.
"Tch! You better not get in the way." Lendell replied.
"In your way?! You better not g-"
Bang!
Before he could finish his sentence, Lycaon was sent flying by a beast while the others were surprised by the sudden surprise attack.
"Haha! He just rocked your sh*t!" Lendell laughed.
Lycaon stood up and noticed he was bleeding through his abdomen as a spike could be seen inside. They looked in the direction of the attack and it was a Great Boar.
"That's a Peak F-Ranked beast! How does he expect us to take that on!" A girl named Mia Chaos said, panicking.
"Who do you think we are? Our powers combined, we can kill this beast." Lycaon said, limping.
"How aren't you dead?" Baron laughed.
"Mia, get rid of his mana supply! Baron try to limit his movement and Lendell slow his speed!" Lycaon shouted while rushing forward.
"I don't take orders from you." Baron replied while erecting walls.
Lendell's gravity manipulation was enough to slow down the beast while the mana around the beast disappeared. Though it may seem easy to take down the beast, the skill each of them used was using their mana rapidly.
"Die, you beast!" Lycaon appeared above the beast with his sword equipped, coated in space magic.
Slash!
Lycaon's blade cut clean through the boar's neck like a hot knife cutting into butter.
The four thought they were done fighting but the Boar's corpse slowly turned into mist and revealed another Giant Boar watching from the trees.
"A mirage? I knew killing it was too easy!" Lycaon stood up, shaking.
"Oi, Baron! Create a wall between us and the beast. I'll try to lure it away and weaken while you three try to recover some of your mana." Lendell spoke.
The boar increased in speed and closed the distance quickly between them. Suddenly a wall was erected and without breaking a sweat, the boar broke through.
"Take this!'
Unable to dodge, the boar charged forward and decided to take Lendell's attack straight on.
Bang!
His attack managed to disorient the beast and took of advantage of this by slamming his other fist into the beast's jaw. Angered by his attacks, the boar chased Lendell, who was running deeper into the forest.
…
Roar!
A loud roar reverberated throughout a dark cave. Everything in the surrounding area rushed as far away as possible while inside the cave stood a beast standing and surrounded by multiple different skeletons of different beasts.
Bang!
The barrier that was trapping the beast inside was broken and the beast immediately rushed outside. Coming out from the shadow, the beast's body was covered in acid and multiple different battle scars.
…
Bang!
"Tch! These beasts are too weak." Sebastian spoke.
Sebastian was surrounded by multiple corpses and each had claws marks in their weak points. While under the man's tutelage, Sebastian learned how to partially transform his body into a werewolf.
He was currently roaming around the forest, killing and eating different beasts to increase his power. Although he was able to kill the beasts, partial transformation consumed a lot of energy to use so he needed to eat some to recover his expended energy.
Roar!
A beast holding the presence of a Mid E-Ranked beast, which up until now, Sebastian had been killing Peak F-Ranked beasts. This beast didn't bother hiding its killing intent as the whole area in a half a mile radius was covered in killing intent.
"Finally! Someone worthy!" Sebastian said, rushing toward the beast.
Upon arriving, Sebastian saw a tall wolf and acid dripping from the wolf's body. Sebastian had a strong impulse to attack the wolf but he felt a strong uneasiness gripping his heart and body.
'This feeling… is this fear? Why am I feeling fear from an inferior beast, who couldn't develop its own intelligence!'
Sebastian was angered by his natural instincts and tried to approach the beast but a scene played in front of him. This scene showed his body being melted to nothingness and dodging away, he tried a different approach and another scene played in front but this time his head was decapitated from his body.
'What the hell? How can this beast have the ability to kill me instantly!'
Swoosh!
In an instant, the wolf appeared in front Sebastian and attempted to claim his life with a bite. Dodging out of the way, Sebastian coated his arm in a red aura and used partial transformation on his arm.
"Haha! That's the spirit!" Sebastian shouted, rushing toward the beast.
Thrusting forward, Sebastian hoped his claws could penetrate the wolf's hide but it deflected off and the wolf counterattacked with an acid attack. The acid caused Sebastian to suffer major injuries as the acid began to burn through his skin, causing a huge scar on his arm.
"Argh! You bastard!"
Sebastian disappeared and fled the area with the wolf was in hot pursuit. He continued to run until he felt a group of five nearby.
'Tch! If they see me then they'll tell the others that I was running away from a beast.'
Sebastian was having an internal debate between accepting the fact he was running away from the beast or attempting to kill the beast with the high chance of dying. Of course, Sebastian chose the other option as his reputation as the strongest would be destroyed.
"Bring it on beast!" Sebastian activated all of his abilities to fight the beast.
…
'They're doing good so far… I wonder how Sebastian is doing… Knowing him, he probably already killed multiple beasts but why do I have this uneasiness?' Jack said, internally.
…
"AHH!"
Sent flying through the sky, Sebastian was bleeding profusely through a bite wound on his body and crashed into the camp of the five.
"Who's there?!" The boy shouted.
"Shut up!" Sebastian replied, smiling.
Everyone noticed Sebastian's injuries and felt dread enter their hearts. They thought if a creature caused Sebastian major injuries then it would mean they couldn't survive against it either.
Roar!
They heard the roar and everyone immediately started to panic. Suddenly a ominous feeling descended upon them, freezing them in place. They all watched as a big wolf covered in acid land on their camp, staring at everyone.
"Jason! Heal me!"
Jason Nerthus wielded nature as his magical power and had multiple different uses but mostly nature magic was used for its healing powers.
"Healing Drop"
A drop of green liquid fell on Sebastian's body and the injuries on his body disappeared except for the acid that scarred his skin.
"Katlynn, use your sword magic to gather his attention and inflict heavy damage. Natalie, use your dark magic and create undead beasts to combat this wolf. James, create a barrier between me and the wolf's attack to reduce the damage I receive. Madison, try to blind the wolf's eyes with your light magic." Sebastian instructed the group.
Katlynn summoned two medium swords and coated them in golden aura while two dead beasts were rose from the ground to battle the wolf. Sebastian was using James' barriers as steps to gain height and using his barriers to block the wolf's acid attacks.
Madison had the hardest job as using light magic to blind the wolf was attracting the wolf's aggression.
"James, protect Madison!" Sebastian shouted.
A large ball of acid was heading toward Madison that caused Madison to freeze in fear. James wasn't able to act quick enough and the ball of acid engulfed her body.
"NOO!!!" Katlynn and Natalie cried out.
The three remaining friends fell to their knees and watched in horror as Madison's figure slowly fell to the ground. Upon seeing the death of Madison, Sebastian snapped and flash stepped behind the wolf's head.
"BASTARD!!!" Sebastian shouted.
As Sebastian fist connected with the wolf's head, he added aura at the last second and produced an 'Aura Strike.'
Bang!
The wolf's body dropped to the ground while letting out a loud whimper.
"You dare kill one of my people!?"
The aura around Sebastian's arm started to change color from red to a pink. A small dagger appeared in front of Sebastian and spoke in an alluring voice.
'Do you want the power to kill this enemy? If so, grab me boy and kill him.'
As Sebastian was about to grab the dagger, Jack appeared and swiftly knocked Sebastian out while releasing a small orange ball at the wolf. The wolf saw the incoming attack and couldn't do anything as its body was paralyzed in fear.
Bang!
The small orange ball engulfed the wolf's body and disintegrated into ash. The trio cursed the wolf even after it died to Jack.
"Madison died!" Natalie told Jack while tears continued down her face.
"Relax, she didn't die. I was watching from a distance to analyze your fight but then something bad happened with Sebastian so I had to interrupt." Jack replied.
The next moment Madison reappeared beside Jack, shaken to core from her near death experience.
"Madison!" Katlynn and Natalie ran to embrace their friend.
"Now that you've realized how weak you are compared to these beasts. I hope you'll make smarter choices from here on out, otherwise you'll die." Jack said, disappearing into thin air.
The group of five sat down and remained seated while Sebastian watched. He thought about leaving them but he also thought about another beast appearing so he decided to stay till they regained their composure.
Even though he treated them with violence, he didn't want harm happening to his future subordinates.
-------------
A Few Minutes Later…
The group finally stood up and began to plot their next move while Sebastian, realizing they've regained their composure, stealthily left the area.
His primary goal wasn't to survive but rather hunt enough beasts to reach Peak F-Rank. If he could reach that rank, then he would be able to kill nearly every beast in the forest.
While Sebastian was with man, he learned something new about himself that no one else knew other than the man. His energy and life force reserves were massive compared to others.
He had nearly ten times the amount a normal child of his age would have. This left the man baffled as not only did Sebastian have ten times the amount but his reserves were still increasing.
The only problem Sebastian found with having a massive reserve was the difficulty of controlling the energy in his attacks. If he uses too much of his reserves, then he'll use too much power.
'Where the hell is this beast? That wolf was running from something before it found me so where could it be?'
Sebastian found it strange that the wolf chased after him. He wasn't in its territory or a being worthy of being killed.
The only logical reason would be another powerful beast was near or something special had happened.
"So he escaped then?" A woman's voice could be heard in the distance.
Stumbling upon a cave and hiding in the trees, Sebastian was watching as multiple powerful individuals were inspecting a dark cave.
"We better hurry. We can't have any of his students stumbling upon this location." A male said.
"I doubt any of them are capable of going this deep but even if they do, we'll be able to sense their mana."
Walking deeper into the cave, Sebastian decided to follow them while carefully avoiding the other people around.
"Did you hear about that boy? I heard he doesn't have any mana or magical powers." The man said.
"True… Wait, no mana?"
"Yeah, he doesn't have any mana but he does have five auras."
"If he has no mana, then we won't be able to sense him."
Swoosh!
Turning around quickly, both the male and the female took a defensive stance. The area was soon filled with strong energy as they released a partial part of their power.
"Who's there?" The woman asked.
Stepping out of his hiding spot, Sebastian revealed himself with his hands up in the sky. Although he was crazy enough to attack anyone that was strong, he wouldn't attack someone whose strength couldn't be gauged by him.
"You're that boy without mana, aren't you? How did you manage to get past the guards?"
"Guards? There weren't any guards."
Within seconds, blades suddenly appeared out of thin air against Sebastian's throat. Unbeknownst to Sebastian, the guards were around him the entire time.
Chop!
"W-what?..."
Thump!
Sebastian fell to the ground as he was knocked unconscious.
"Take him back to Jack." The woman instructed.