Aaron put his body weight on his left leg, leaned forward and pushed off.
BOOM!
His body shot forward as if it was a bullet being fired. He instantly appeared before the serpent's head, already launching his fist towards it.
SWISH
Just as he was about to land a hit, the serpent swiped its tail towards him at mind numbing speeds, barely giving him enough time to cross his arms before his chest and activate a shield on them.
'What the...'
BOOM!
His body was sent flying passed his group and into a wall of a building 50 metres away.
BANG!
Dust scattered everywhere, and the building came crashing down on him. The beast didn't give him timeto recover and went straight for him, trampling everyone on its path.
"Everyone get as far away as you can!" Cecilia ordered.
BOOM!
An explosion blasted the rubble from the collapsed building away. Revealing Aaron body lying in the remaining debre.
'A single attack broke through a shield with with a (100 damage) defense.' Aaron thought and immediately sensed the beast headed towards him.
When it was 10 metres away from him, he fired 7 sparks off in the serlants face.
BOOOM!
The serpent was sent flying back and Aaron immediately got to his feet and chased after it, his speed leaving but a golden streak to show his passage.
Before the serpent's could land, he jumped into the sky and sent his fisht crashing down onto the beast's back.
BOOM!
The serpent seemed to have taken minimal damage from those two attacks as it immediately swiped its tail at him again just as he landed.
Aaron ducked down, evading the attack this time.
'Its fast but I'm a bit faster, it got me by surprise last time.'
BANG!
Aaron pushed his legs against the ground sending his body flying towards the serpent's head.
'30 seconds of Ignition left'
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He sent a barrage of fists as soon as he reached the beasts head.
HISSS!
As it's head was being assaulted, the beast released its signature hiss, managing to disorient Aaron and pause his movements for a moment.
But that's all it needed. It oppended its maw wide and seemed to gather a sort purple energy inside it.
VOOOOM!
It fired it the next second, engulfing everything in its path.
'SHIT!'
BANG!
Aaron set off a spark on his left side, pushing him out of the way fast enough to evade the purple beam of energy from the serpent's mouth.
"Ugh"
Aaron grunted in pain, but still sprinted at his fastest speed towards the serpant. It quickly gathered energy for another energy beam when it saw him coming.
Aaron pulled his recently acquired sword from his system and threw it onto its mouth, piercing its soft mouth tissue and disrupting its attack.
'That damaged it?'
He reached the serpent's head the very next moment and thrust his injured left hand into its eye and set off a spark inside.
BANG!
A muffled explosion went off within its head, burning everything within.
THUD!
The beast's enormous head dropped to the ground kicking up dust as it hit.
Huff, Huff, Huff
Aaron slowly pulled his bloodied hand from the monsters head, taking labored breaths as he did.
'That took everything I had. MANA is nearly at 0, stamina below 10 and my left arm is broken plus some minor burns.' He thought whole letting his body fall down.
THUD
__
Level 6 monster "Vanishing Serpent" slain]
[300 Experience points gained]
[20 STRENGTH points gained]
[20 SPEED points gained]
[15 MANA points gained]
[10 STAMINA points gained]
[Ability gained]
[Level Up!]
[5 ATTRIBUTE points gained]
__
__
[Level 5 reached!]
[+20 to all stats]
__
"Hahaha. Worth it." Aaron chucked as he saw the gains from this battle and closed his eyes .
Step, step, step
Only to open them a few seconds later, hearing the sound of approaching footsteps.
He turned to see three figures walking towards him, but he was too tired to see who it was from that distance.
"You look like crap man." Dave's voice sounded out.
"Try fighting this thing and then we'll talk." Aaron said.
He finally got to see who the approaching figured were when they got closer. Dave, Cecilia and Alex had come to see the results of the battle. Also to fight the beast if he had lost, in an effort to buy time for the rest to escape.
Dave though had come to vent his rage in the case Aaron had died.
"This thing is even more terrifying up close." Alex said as he ran his hand along the serpent's scales.
"Are there more of these things put there?" Cecilia mumbled
'I need to get stronger' She thought, clenching her fists until his hands bled.
Aaron glanced at her but chose to stay silent about it, replying to her earlier question.
"Most likely. Some may be even stronger. This one seemed to be more of an assassin type given its ability to turn invisible, yet it's vitality and defense were still ridiculously high. I managed to kill it by attacking its only weakness, it's sofy insides.
It's scales were way too tough, I didn't manage to severely damage it even after spending all my MANA. Had I not thought of the idea after using a sword to stab inside its mouth, I most definitely would have died." Aaron said while slowly sitting up.
'This snake is likely among the weaker level 6 monsters. What really made it dangerous was its ability to turn invisible and attack while its target has its guard down, but it would pribably lose to an opponet at the same level once discovered' Aaron analyzed.
' another reason I won is due to the earring's effect' Aaron thought as he recalled the item's description.
__
ITEM: Mana Earring
LEVEL: (Classless) level 4
DURABILITY: 10/10
[An earring that increases the wearer's MANA stat by 30]
REQUIREMENTS: None
__
'Fate works in mysterious ways' He internally chucked.
Meanwhile, Dave was staring at the beast for some time when he suddenly thought of something.
"Didn't a few of the people back at the gymnasium get abilities related to forging? Couldn't this thing's scales be used to create armor?" He asked.
"Theoretically, it could work. But they'd have to have sufficient power to work with the material." Alex answered.
"Although,this could be worth exploring with weaker monsters." He added.
"Now that you mention that, are we sure that monster meat can't be eaten?" Aaron asked.
Everyone went silent and thought about what he'd just suggested. Truthfully speaking, no one had even considered eating the monster meat.
They hadn't gotten to the point where everyone was desperate for something to eat, so nobody thought about it.
But..
"I don't think anyone would be willing to test out whether or not the meat is edible." Alex said.
And tht was the truth. As long as there were other options, no one would choose the one that could kill them.
"But what if we offered a reward for those who volunteer, an ability scroll or a weapon perhaps." Aaron suggested.
Everyone once again went silent, contemplating the viability this new idea had. But at the end of the day, only one person could make that decision. So they all turn towards her.
'This could solve the food shortage problem if it works' Cecilia thought.
"We can try it out once we return, but that's only if people volunteer. We won't force anyone." She firmly said.
"No complaints." Dave said, and th other two agreed.
"Can you still continue?" Cecilia asked Aaron.
"Just 30 more minutes and I'll be back in traveling condition." He replied.
Cecilia nodded and walked towards the serpent's corpse to examine it.
"I'll go let everyone know they can come over." Alex said and walked off.
"That reminds me, how are the casualties?" Aaron asked.
"Eight were trampled over and died while two were injured. Another five were killed and 3 injured by the energy beam" Dave said, continuing to stare at the beasts body.
"I see" Aaron said.
'System'
__
NAME: Aaron Shaw
AGE: 18
LEVEL: 5
EXPERIENCE: 95/ 1500
TITLE: Child of fire
STRENGTH: 91
STAMINA: 80
HEALTH: 220
SPEED: 81
MANA: 150(+30)
ATRIBUTE POINTS: 17
ABILITIES: Spark, Chained Heart, Ignition, Body Shield.???
__
'Killing higher leveled monsters really is the best way to go, that fight alone double my stats. Even more reason to leave this place.' Aaron thought with mirth.
'Now, let's see what we got here'
__
ABILITY: Air Walk
LEVEL 6
[Allows one to walk on air as if it were land for 5 minutes. ]
-70 MANA per activation
__
"You're kidding." Aaron mumbled.
'Not even a defensive skill? What the hell am I supposed to do with a skill that lets me walk on air with this kind of MANA consumption?'
This skill wasn't that bad actually, it would enable him to engage in aerial combat. Yet, the amount of MANA it required was just ridiculous!
"Sigh, I'll learn it anyway, it might come in handy when my stats are higher." Aaron said and agreed to learn the ability regardless.
"This thing is huge up close!" An annoyingly familiar voice sounded out not far behind.
Aaron turned back to see a familiar blonde haired, blue eyed simp walking towards the serpent's corpse with shining eyes.
'Sigh. It's about to get noisy'