(50 Powerstones for Bonus Chapter, you guys can do it!)
His eyes opened, and he looked around to see the darkness, except for some light peeking through the leaves.
'Okay, I am still alive. Cool. I thought I would die somehow while being trapped here,' he thought. Cautiously, he peeked out of the small hole and only emerged once he noticed no animals were nearby.
He also noticed that, while he had slept, much of the chakra concentrated in his solar plexus had spread throughout his body.
'Well, it would take a long time for me to make it automatic, but let's see if any animals notice me,' he decided. He began to traverse the forest to find some food. Looking at the sky, he could deduce it was still around three to four hours before sunset—enough time to find some food.
However, just after a few steps, he noticed a rabbit heading toward him.
'Okay, that thing looks ferocious. Plus, the fact that it's hopping makes it even more bizarre.' He had noticed that some of the mana was being released from his body despite his efforts to suppress it. That was why he had initially compressed all the mana in his solar plexus—it wouldn't escape that way.
The rabbit suddenly skyrocketed toward him with its paws outstretched, seemingly intending to tear his flesh. But he had anticipated this, so he dove down before it could reach him. The rabbit hit a tree, but after bouncing off, it rushed toward him again.
'This guy is too fast. I can't even see him move—only his charges,' he thought, diving in another direction and barely dodging the rabbit's "pawbutt."
'Let's see. He's using his leg strength to do this, which means it's mana-enhanced. How annoying.' This time, he released bursts of mana from his palms, propelling himself into a quick stand and dive, causing the rabbit to crash into the wall.
The area where its paws landed left small craters in the ground.
'I'm hungry. I don't think I'll be able to escape this guy. I have to kill him now,' he thought, racking his brain to find solutions to this predicament.
Due to his hunger, his mind wasn't functioning properly. So he acknowledged that one strike from the rabbit's paw would likely kill him. The speed of the rabbit made it harder for him to pinpoint where its paw would hit—unlike a slower strike like from a slaver, which had a wider surface area.
Adrenaline began pumping throughout his body, and he finally felt a sense of danger.
His brain started working, and he quickly came up with solutions to escape this predicament.
'One way is to somehow escape his senses and hide my mana, but not only would that be hard, but completely suppressing my mana takes a few hours, so that option is out.'
Suddenly, his eyes widened in realization, and he dove again with deadpan focus. He rushed toward a high wall.
He stumbled backward, and the rabbit took the chance to attack him. Mana burst from his body, making his upper body rotate and dodge. He used it to propel himself backward, where the rabbit hit the wall.
Just as he emerged, a blade of mana rushed toward its head, killing it.
'Finally, it's over. The answer was so simple—I just had to use the gap between its successive charges, which it used to prepare them in the first place.' He shook his head and then began to escape from the area—or at least he tried to.
'Fuck,' he thought when he noticed a dozen more rabbits in the area, all staring at him.
He released mana from his feet while jumping sideways, just as one of the rabbits passed through that area.
He quickly reached a tree and began climbing it.
However, while doing that, a rabbit's paw hit the tree, causing it to shake violently. He had to release bursts of mana from his lower region to speed himself up and dodge.
Once he reached a branch, he jumped from it. Just as he did, the entire tree fell, courtesy of the rabbits causing so much destruction.
The gap between the branch he jumped from and the one he landed on couldn't be shortened by his jump, so he quickly released some mana from his feet, propelling himself forward.
A rabbit, smart enough, had aimed to charge initially at the spot, but due to the change, it missed him by mere inches.
'Fuck, these guys are not only too many but smart too. I can't use that tactic, as others will charge while one is preparing to attack. I have to somehow lose these guys—or start dwindling their numbers,' he frowned, landing on the branch and crouching while one hand rested where his head had been moments ago, holding a mana blade.
A rabbit decided to kill itself by putting its head on the mana blade and his hand. This forced him to stumble forward toward the ground from the branch.
He dissipated the mana blade and let himself fall to the ground. However, just as his foot left the branch, he released a burst of mana, making his fall very quick.
Instead of using mana to soften his landing, he performed a roll on the ground.
The dead rabbit's body hit the ground shortly after.
'Tch, their blood is different from human blood,' he noticed, looking at his hands and then at the dozen rabbits now looking angry.
"You guys started this. Better get ready to die," he said with a calm face, motioning with his palm for them to attack him.
'I need a sharp object or something. My mana won't last long. Plus, I'm hungry, and fatigue is catching up. Adrenaline is keeping me conscious for now, but I would've passed out from the energy I'm expending.' He internally frowned but didn't show his trouble externally.
Three rabbits charged toward him. He formed a rod with mana between both of his hands, complete with thorns extending from it.
All three hit the mana rod with such force that he was sent rocketing backwards like a cannonball.
He released mana bursts from his back to slow himself down until he hit the back of a tree.
'OUCH,' he thought, feeling intense pain. Luckily, none of his bones broke, and he didn't show his pain outwardly.
The three rabbits had died from the thorns piercing their heads.
'That was a gamble, but it seems they're aiming for my heart instead of my head, which makes it easier,' he thought as he picked up one of the rabbit corpses and threw it toward the other rabbits, who were temporarily stunned.
"COME AT ME AND DIE!" he yelled like a madman. Luckily for him, his bluff worked as the rabbits started backing away, and then eventually ran off.
'I'm almost out of mana. One more mana burst, and I'll go into mana exhaustion, which has a high chance of making me unconscious—especially since I'm hungry,' he thought, grimacing.
He got up and began moving, but he felt the world spinning.
He spotted a tree with some purple apples. He looked around and found that this tree was his only option.
'Well, it's do or die. Time to take a gamble,' he thought as he climbed the tree the normal way and stood on a branch.
He took a bite of the purple, apple-like fruit.
"Damn, at least if I die now, it would be in peace. The taste is so good." He began gobbling the fruit, and soon the entire tree's apples disappeared.
"Now, that's what I call a good meal," he said, patting his stomach while looking at some beasts that had come to observe the aftermath of the commotion. Due to him already removing the blood from his body before climbing the tree and hiding within its leaves, they didn't notice him.
He then lay down on a thick branch and focused on recovering his mana. He noticed that the rate of regeneration was higher than usual. 'Oh, is it due to that purple apple?'
He decided not to focus on that for now and quickly moved all his mana toward the solar plexus. With not much mana left inside his body, he was done in around 15 minutes. Any new mana that formed inside his body, he quickly moved to his solar plexus.
'Now, that's a shortcut I found for this technique.'***
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