The creature let out a sound that seemed eerily familiar. Almost as if Arvion had heard it in the past, he felt his hairs stand on edge as he knew deep down that this creature was stronger than any creature he had faced before.

The creature's maw seemed to have a simple rabbit lodged in between his razor-sharp teeth. it ran through the forest at a strange pace due to its disproportionate figure. And as it ran in this off-putting pace it dropped the rabbit that was lodged in its mouth onto the ground with a plop. It seemed like it had found bigger prey...

Arvion quickly thought of what to do, trying desperately to think of something that would work against the beast, and quickly remembered his analytical eye skill, which he activated shortly after.

---

Species: Cursed One

Titles: None

Tier: 1

Level: 20

HP: 300/300

SP: 200/200

MP: 0/0

XP Value: 2500 XP

Exclamations: One of the Blights of the world.

---

---

'A quest?!' Arvion thought before continuing 'Nows not the time for it. Let me see its stats...'

After looking at the stat's he frowned with obvious concern on his face.

'It's strong physically but completely illiterate when it comes to mana. All of its stat points must be in physical stats for it to be that strong.'

'Axel, stay back. It's some sort of brawler-like creature!'

Axel nodded in acknowledgment and quickly started to back step as quickly as possible.

'It's reach is too long for us to hide in a tree so our only option is to keep as far away as possible.' Axel thought towards Arvion.

Arvion noticed its long arms seemed to tear the bark off of the trees as it passed them, almost like a wrecking ball destroying everything in its path.

'Stealth will be useless here. There is no way I will be able to hide from that thing.'

'Ugh! Half of my skills are useless against these things. I wish I could just replace them with better ones!'

'System spend all my current evolution points on wisdom. I need to keep up my reservoir. I can't risk it running empty in this fight!.'

'I wonder if darkness magic will work in this scenario.'

'Aether Manipulation Activate' Arvion thought to himself as the system sent a ding in return telling him that he had activated it and it was waiting for input.

"Shadow Spear Form * 10" Arvion squeaked as 10 gleaming black spears appeared in mid-air.

They swirled around chaotically as they seemed to hunger for blood.

"Attack" Arvion commanded as the spears whirled through the air one after the other.

He felt his control over every aspect of the spears and felt his focus move through each one as he commanded them to move in a specific pattern and follow the creature as it moved.

He sent the spears at a fast pace, but not too fast that it wouldn't be able to adapt to the creatures movements if it decided to dodge.

As the spears headed towards the creature, which at this point was easily a few hundred feet away from Arvion, the creature seemed to stop moving and focused on the moving projectiles that were headed towards him.

As they approached and neared their target the creature suddenly jerked to the side and took the blow head-on towards its face.

Arvion smirked as the spears neared the creature.

'This creature is so stupid. It's gonna get its head blown off by my spears!'

But right as Arvion thought that the spear entered the creatures mouth, and with a wave of force, the creature consumed the spear in one single breath.

Arvions small mouse jaw dropped as his mouth hanged open. Axel was sprinting away while Arvion was still trying to focus on the blur that was far away from him.

The system screen that was still open to the side of Arvions view seemed to update as new info was displayed.

---

This creature can consume the mana of its enemies and can use it to grow stronger temporarily or possibly even permanently.

This ability scales with its level and doesn't work on magic above its tier. Current level: Unkown.

---

And after it had consumed all of the spears the panel updated once more.

---

Increased Speed * 2: Speed is increased by 2 times.

---

"Fuck, at this rate it will catch up with us!" Arvion squeaked towards Axel as they both sprinted away as fast as possible.

Axel's breathing was already at max as he huffed and puffed air into his lungs as it got converted into oxygen that his body could use to run faster.

As he ran it was almost like he had a breakthrough as he sprinted even faster, almost leaving Arvion behind.

Arvion wracked his brain trying to think of something that could work against this monstrosity.

'If it's gonna eat my spells then I will just make my spells too big to be eaten!' He thought to himself as he began to chant simple English to the System.

"Shadow Sphere Form, Increased Size and Rotation," He shouted at the system as it dinged and notified him that the orb would cost 20 mana per minute of use.

'It's a small price to pay for fighting this thing.'

It started small as the wisps of shadow from the surroundings fluttered in the wind and seemed to be attracted towards a small black point in space. But it quickly accelerated as more and more shadow became attracted and over the span of 6 seconds it was the size of a small car.

'Attack!'

The sphere then launched forward while rotating at an insane speed that made its surroundings be pulled into its inky void of blackness.

The creature seemed confused for a second as it saw the incredible-sized sphere heading its way. It cocked its head and opened its mouth before closing it and righting itself.

It tried to dodge to the side but the sphere was relentless as it followed the creature quickly despite the creature's increased speed.

"Ha! If I had enough mana it would follow you to the end of the Planet no matter where you went. No matter how long you ran, you would Die!" Arvion Squeaked.

The creature let out a shriek before growing in size as it seemed to be consuming its own lifeforce in return.

'Damnit. What is it doing!?' Arvion thought as he continued to run away while sparing glances to look back at the Cursed One.

The creature continued to grow in size until it was roughly half the size of the tree. It seemed to want to continue to grow but as it did so the black cracks on its body oozed a black puss that dripped down onto the ground creating acid burns throughout it.

The creature, due to its size, moved at an incredible pace though seemed to be moving incredibly slow as its movements were exaggerated and slow.

The creature then bursts down and slammed its face towards the ground at a great speed before consuming the mana orb Arvion had created.

"FUCK!" Arvion thought as he continued to run as the system notified him that the status effect of the creature had changed.

---

Increased Speed * 10: Speed is multiplied by a factor of 10

Increased Size and Strength * 10: Strength and size are multiplied by a factor of 10.

---

"Is this creature invincible?!" Arvion said as he looked back in front of him only to see Axel a clear 100 feet in front of him.

'How the hell is he moving so fast?'

Axel seemed to be moving in measured paces that seemed more concise than before and he also seemed to have some sort of breathing technique that he was practicing that increased his blood flow and legs strength.

The veins on his body were bulging in a way that made him look slightly terrifying but even though he was in this strange condition he gritted his teeth and moved onward.

"How can I stop him?" Arvion thought to himself before remembering something important.

"I can teleport?! Am I stupid or what!"

"But more than that, I should be able to use gravity instead of shadow in my Aether Manipulation Forms.

"System summon a Spacial Sphere on his leg with the aspect of increased gravity * 10."

"Just do it already!"

The system dinged in annoyance as it sent out a simple tear through space itself that seemed to move at a speed indescribable by words. After moving more than 300 feet in a matter of seconds it expanded instantaneously and formed a dome around the creature's two lanky legs.

The creature, without noticing the strange tear at its feet, tried to move before tripping and falling at the immense pressure that had appeared at its feet.

"That should hold him until we reach the town. But will the town be able to survive an attack by this thing?"

Arvion ran through the scenario in his head and all he saw was this 200-foot tall giant crushing the few dozen buildings in the village just by stepping on them.

'It would take no effort for this thing to destroy this thing... but we have mag and his friend that resurrected me.'

'We should be able to survive. It's that or we die and I'm never going to die again!'

Arvion increased his speed to its max as he felt the mana signature behind him feel farther and farther away. As he moved he felt it weaken significantly but he could still feel something huge in the sphere which he could only assume was the creature's legs.

Arvion felt his breathing quicken as his body tried to manage the heat it was produced by forcing himself to run at such a pace. As he ran he felt his body adapting to the strenuous activity and he felt something inside of him break as the system let out a simple ding and his speed increased.

---

has been learned. Its description is as follows:>

By using stamina you can temporarily increase your speed as the sprint skill corrects your movements and enforces body strengthening techniques to increase your speed.

The stamina required by this skill increases as you upgrade the skill but it is currently at 1 point per minute of use.

The speed increase is currently a factor of 2 times.

Please spend 5 evolution points to upgrade this skill.

---

He felt his speed increase as his stamina was quickly depleted. He only had around 1 stamina after all and after all the training he did he knew he had to sleep to be able to regenerate it.

'I have 25 mana left. Let's try spatial form.'

Arvion felt a huge drop in his magical reserves and knew that the deed had been done as the magical threads of the world that surrounded him seemed to move naturally towards his body and in doing so increased his speed by a huge margin as he felt gravity lessen on him and felt that he was warping space to increase his speed.

In that minute he not only surpassed Axel but also doubled the gap between them.

'This form is insane!'

After the huge boost of speed that only lasted for 1 minute, he could finally see the large walls of the village. But at the same time, he finally felt his Spatial sphere break.

'Damnit, I thought I could keep it up longer but I just don't have enough mana.'

Arvion after seeing the wall noticed he had a few seconds left on his Spacial Form and immediately leaped up and felt gravity lose its hold on him as he moved at a speed that he had never moved at before. He soared through the air unrestrained and quickly reached the other side of the wall before plummeting to the ground.

"Fucking system!"

Arvion waited on the other side of the wall in anticipation, waiting for Axel to make his way across it before realizing that he didn't have any type of skill that would allow him to climb it. He had effectively stranded him on the other side of the wall.

Unbeknownst to Arvion however Axel was climbing the wall at a speed that Arvion would have never seen before. Axel felt his muscles bulge as he simply launched himself up with his massive amounts of strength.

After a few seconds, Axel simply flung over the wall and plummeted to the ground before landing on his knees, creating a large crater where he landed.

His muscles bulged as he seemed to have grown a few feet and now stood at a surprising 7 feet tall.

His previous clothes were mostly ripped and useless as he stood mostly naked.

He gave a large grin at Arvion as his skin looked almost stone-like in the moonlight.

"Let's go find Father quickly!" Axel said in a voice that was a few octaves lower than it had previously been.

'It looks like my familiar has grown up in the matter of a few minutes!' Arvion thought to himself as confusion filled his being.

They quickly made their way through the town and as they did so they awoke many townsfolk from their sleep as Axel's large footsteps created divots in the ground where he stood. Almost like the very ground itself couldn't support his strength and weight.

After a few minutes, they reached the house that they had stayed in for a few days a week prior.

Axel knocked on the door in a rush and accidentally broke the door. A few minutes later a startled Mag stood outside the small house and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Arvion and Axel.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked calmly. "And what happened to you?" He said, nodding towards Axel. And at that statement, his voice started to raise slightly as he seemed to lose his cool.