Somewhere in the dimension, a strange energy fluctuation broke through and opened a portal deep within the Northern Mountaintops. Soon, a person stepped through the portal and inspected his surroundings.
"That's strange… What is this place?" The human said.
As he was inspecting his surroundings, he looked right and drew one of the two blades along his side. From the looks of his physical well-being, he had two scars running down both of his eyes.
This was Leo, the human instructor, who was sent by the human to the Werewolves as a sign of trust. Unlike other humans, he was a bit special as he was an ancient race of humans but that's a story for another time.
Coming out from within the winter fog, an ice giant appeared and seemed to have sensed his presence as well. It made the first move as it swung a giant club made of ice down onto Leo but almost instantly, the club was shattered and soon the giant's head almost followed.
"Although I may not know what you are, I can tell you possess extreme strength and power." Leo said.
He then drew his other blade and plunged both of his blades into the ground before they sent out a ringing noise. As the ringing sound had reached the giant, Leo finally understood his opponent's location and picked up his blades before quickly cutting through the air.
Slash!
Thump!
Soon, the giant fell over and blood gushed out of its wound as its leg had been chopped off. The next moment, Leo appeared beside the giant and released his mana pressure onto it. As its fear had taken the giant's heart, it pushed off the ground and tried to run away.
"Mana Zone: Thousands Slashes Tenfold." Leo whispered.
Just as the giant almost escaped, its other leg had been chopped off and soon its entire body followed with. Soon after its body had fallen, it started to split into thousands of pieces.
"Lycaon and twenty others are supposed to be here? How would they survive in such an environment or did that portal take them somewhere else?" Leo questioned.
As if the entire mountaintops sensed something in the domain, a few hundreds of giants started the move and shook the mountaintops. Other beasts in the surrounding area of the mountaintops started to run away in fear.
"What are these ranks?! AAA-Rank, S-Rank, SS-Rank, and a Legendary Rank?!" Leo said in disbelief.
Even if he was strong, he already knew the limits of his own strength. He knew he could fight at least both the AAA-Rank and the S-Rank at the same time but any more than that was a death sentence.
Making the smart choice, he looked the other way and ran with all his might until he arrived in a cave filled beast but at least they weren't A-Rank and above as he sighed in relief.
"If they are here, then they must've gotten a lot stronger."
—
"Antares! Where are you?" Lycaon asked.
Currently, Lycaon is on an island in the middle of a lake. As for how he got here, he was chased by a large Basilisk. After being chased onto an island, he couldn't make his way back to land since the Basilisk was waiting for him on the other side.
As if his prayers were answered, a figure could be seen approaching and thinking it was Antares, he called out to the figure.
"Antares! Look, I may have been a bit aggressive but you'll forgive me, right?" Lycaon shouted, squinting his eyes.
Once the figure finally stepped outside the forest, it was revealed to be a humanoid beast. Unsurprisingly, the Basilisk slithered away in fear for its life. Unlike normal beasts, humanoid beasts were more powerful but that also meant they were rare.
'Great! Just great! Of course a humanoid beast would show up.'
To make matters worse, the humanoid beast wasn't any ordinary one as it was an elemental beast. Elemental beasts were strange beasts as they were born small before they encased themselves in their primary elements.
This beast just so happened to be a Water Humanoid Beast, which wasn't too surprising considering the tropical forest mostly received a lot of rain. Speaking of rain, it started to rain around Lycaon, which further increased the lethality of the beast.
Though, the rain around him had stopped in the air as if they were stuck in a stasis-like field. It was then that the humanoid beast made it move as it appeared in front of Lycaon and swung its blade-like arm down onto him.
'Depending on its rank, I should be able to last longer against it.' Lycaon thought as the blade neared his body before stopping.
He then made a surprised expression as he felt a chunk of his mana disappear from within his body. Then the realization hit him, he never fought against humanoid beasts so he had no idea what their exact strength was but now he truly did.
Some people thought wielding space magic was great as you could create a slowed field or stasis-like field around themselves, but there was a flaw in the skill. While the field was up, it required mana to slow down attack and the mana was directly proportional to the amount of strength used in the attack.
Bang!
He then delivered a jab toward the beast chest but felt his fist be propelled back from the intense water flowing within the beast. In retaliation, the beast's leg grew in size and turned into a blade before delivering a swift kick.
Soon, Lycaon found his mana half its normal capacity and panicked. He only encountered two people with the strength to take chunks of his mana away and one of those people was Sebastian while the other was Antares.
"Repulsive Red!"
He then clasped his hands together before releasing a red orb of space magic toward the beast.
Bang!
The beast, taken by surprise, was sent flying through the air until it was across the river. Suddenly the rain stopped as blades of water were being formed in the sky and were pointed at him.
'Sh*t!'
Soon the sound of blades cutting through the air was heard as Lycaon was facing a constant assault of water blades. Slowly, his mana was decreased until it was no more.
The beast, noticing the opportunity, swiftly appeared in front him and attempted to decapitate his head. Luckily, he reacted swiftly as he dropped to the ground an swept his leg across to cause the beast to fall.
Instead of hitting a solid object, his leg just went through the beast's leg and soon delivered a punch upon Lycaon.
Bang!
The strength behind such an attack caused him to cough up a mouth full of blood as he bounced off the ground and was soon grabbed by the face, and thrown away.
Heavily injured, he stood up and stared at the powerful beast. Slowly, he felt his mind become fuzzy and felt himself losing consciousness.
'No! I must stay awake! I must defeat this! I can't keep relying on Antares to defeat my opponents!' Lycaon thought, trying to use encouragement to prevent himself from passing out.
Thinking of an attack, he remembered one attack he read from an ancient book within his room in the past and remembered trying it. The only problem about trying to attack was the fact that he was currently out of mana.
"Interesting human… No, werewolf. Why do you struggle against something stronger than you?" A mysterious feminine voice spoke in Lycaon's head.
"I must prove to a person that I'm just as strong as him." He replied to the voice.
"A rivalry… Very well, you have peaked my interest. I shall fill your mana reserves and watch you fight from here on out." The voice said as it was fading away.
Soon he felt a warm feeling enter his body before feeling energized. His injuries were gone along with his defeated thoughts.
"Y-you c-can s-still stand?" The beast said, not fluent with its words.
Two orbs appeared in Lycaon's hands as he activated both Repulsive Red and Blue Abyssal Attraction. He then started to attempt to push them together. As if they were magnets of the same ends, they started to repel each other.
'Come on!'
The two orbs then fused together as he clasped his hands together and slowly opened them to reveal a small black orb. Sweat dripped down his face as it proved as evidence that this attack was difficult to control and powerful.
Pushing it forward, the black orb started to rapidly expand until it was bigger than his own body. Soon, an overwhelming pressure descended upon the humanoid beast, causing it to fall to one knee.
Unable to control the attack, he released it toward the beast and noticed that the attack distorted the surrounding space around it, vaporizing anything it touched. The water around it vaporized and soon the beast was next.
The beast, in fear, watched as its impending doom approached it. Soon the large purple orb enveloped the beast, killing it and vaporizing it from existence.
While the attack continued on forth, Lycaon had fallen over and coughed up another mouth full of blood. He didn't realize it but it used up all of his mana like a blackhole.
Clap!
"Bravo! I must say, I'm rather surprised that a person like you killed it. But I can see that it came at the cost of the crystal and you are going into a mana deficit state." The feminine voice returned.
"Rest now. I'll be taking you back to my domain, where beasts will not even dare to harm you."
Soon, a soothing feeling entered his body and caused him to feel at peace before falling asleep. His body then floated into the area and went further into the Eastern Region.
While his body floated away, Sebastian finally arrived the scene. He had felt an overwhelming presence and assumed that Lycaon was in trouble so he quickly tried to arrive at the scene, but realized he was too late.
Inspecting the ground, he found the island in the middle was greatly destroyed and noticed the amount of blood on the ground. He knew that the amount wasn't enough to cause death unless Lycaon was eaten whole but he doubted that as there was no beast in the area.
"Lycaon! Where are you?! It's me! Antares!" Sebastian shouted.
As he was shouting for his name, he felt a hostile gaze and became defensive. As he looked west, he saw a giant Thunderous Behemoth staring at him.
"Listen here! Just because you're strong, doesn't mean I have to bow to you." Sebastian stuck his middle finger up.
In anger, the beast rushed forward and stopped a few feet away from him. It glared at him as if it was telling him to either die or submit to it.
"For the last time! I said… I won't bow to you!" Sebastian finally said before delivering a jab infused with world energy toward its head.
Bang!
Thump!
In front of the beast's very eyes, it watched as one of its tusks had fallen to the ground. A great anger rose in the beast's body as it lashed out in anger and nearly struck Sebastian.
"Fine! Have it your way!"
With a swift motion, he drew his greatsword and swung its down onto the beast, cutting one of its eyes. Enraged, the beast let out a roar before retreating, knowing it was outclassed in strength.
Instead of pursuing the beast, Sebastian expanded his energy in an attempt to find Lycaon. He knew what the beast had thought. Since he too acted like that before and learned that the hard way.
'Just because you become a D-Rank, doesn't mean your the sh*t.' Sebastian thought as he noticed a strange mana in the air. He then surrounded the mana with his energy and started to concentrate hard.
He learned that if he concentrated hard enough, he could make mana become visible but never in his wildest dreams did he think he would see such mana.
"This purity of mana… This is the mana of a SSS-Rank or higher!!!" Sebastian shouted in surprise.
If Lycaon was kidnapped by a beast of such rank, then he thought he was good as dead. No way in hell would he even attempt to rescue him from such a strong beast, especially a beast that was SSS-Rank or higher..