Not even a moment passed before Ariel heard the rustling of leaves and saw a shadow jump out of the depths of the forest. Scanning the beast, he thought it looked like a lynx, but it had a body three times larger than normal and it was covered in glossy red fur, its two blood thirsty eyes were staring at Ariel as if the beast already saw him as dinner. The black and deadly claws glinted in the light and its tail swayed from the excitement of finding food.

Ariel took a step back from the ferocious beast and looked through his memory. Soon a serious look appeared on his face as he recalled this things identity. It was a “Crimson Fur Hunter” which when fully matured, like the one in front of him, would reach the late level of Elite rank.

They were famed for their speed and sharp claws making it difficult to battle them when there was more than one. Unfortunately it was impossible for Ariel to make an escape and all he could do was fight. That’s why he calmed down his beating heart and evaluated the situation.

Since the monster still hasn’t attacked it meant it was wary, so Ariel would make use of this opportunity. He slowly started casting several ice shields while not alerting the beast and only when he finished did the crimson fur hunter finally have a glint of anger in its eyes.

As an Elite rank beast it had some intellect and after Ariel cast his spell he understood that its prey intended to fight. However it also saw that Ariel was careful, meaning he wasn’t powerful, which made it start underestimating the human a bit.

While observing his opponent Ariel kept his patience, waiting for it to attack, and he wasn't disappointing. Thinking that Ariel was easy pickings the Crimson Fur Hunter charged towards him intending to rip Ariel apart.

This however was its mistake. Ariel was already waiting and when the monster started charging he also began casting his spells. The beast quickly reached its destination and Ariel instantly aligned his three ice shield one in front of the other. The beast crashed into the firs one, completely breaking it and managed to reach the second one, damaging it a bit, but at that time Ariel finally took action.

Five different ice spears appeared around his body and flew towards the Crimson Fur Hunter from different angles. Unfortunately though a beast's reflexes were very fast and it managed to dodge three of them, the other two on the other hand managed to graze through the beast’s side and stomach leaving some serious damage.

Retreating back the monster howled in anger, but Ariel didn’t think of letting it off easily. He quickly followed up by manifesting a frost bolt and shot it. The distance however was much farther now and even though the frost bolt was more powerful and faster it still didn’t manage to hit the target, as it dodged to the side.

Of course he could have detonated it, but Ariel decided against it and let it crash down near the forest since the beast was on guard and he would have failed to get any results.

Glaring fiercely at Ariel the lynx once more charged recklessly at Ariel, however it wasn’t stupid and only did it because it noticed that Ariel needed time to cast his spells and it couldn’t let him stay at a distance.

As it once again hit his second shield and shattered it, the monster didn’t actually go after the third one, but unexpectedly moved around from the side aiming for the kill.

Ariel felt a chill go down his spine due to the beast’s intelligence, and if he was still the same person like before he might have died, but now he managed to learn many different ways to use magic. When the monster’s sharp claws were already close to his neck, Ariel used Mana manipulation and made a fragile shield to protect his life. It couldn’t take more than a single hit before breaking, but it managed to effectively neutralize the strike.

This was a way of defense he learned from one of the books about magic. Although against much more powerful experts it would be useless, against opponents only a couple levels stronger it would do its job perfectly.

Like this Ariel started kiting the beast sometimes using his ice shield, while others times with his pure Mana. It was a bit draining, but under the assault he was using his Mana to freeze his opponent and slow down its speed.

The deadlock he was currently in was actually part of his plan to more easily deal with his enemy, if he let out a spell it might retreat again, making it difficult to create this engagement scenario again. That’s why he only defended while freezing the beast and slowly moving towards the trees.

After a minute of struggle Ariel finally reached the edge of the clearing and when the Crimson Fur Hunter tried to do another swipe, for the first time, Ariel dodged by rolling back. Then he quickly hid behind one of the tree’s and without delay finally detonated the already forgotten frost bolt, making the ice shards shoot out. The careless beast got caught off guard and was hit in several vital spots.

Feeling the pain and noticing that he has fallen into a trap the crimson fur hunter howled in rage, but didn’t continue to look for Ariel and tried to retreat. However there is no way he would let it do so, when the creature turned around to run he saw Ariel standing there with silent killing intent clearly visible in his eyes. Ariel waved his hand in a slashing movement and used one of his newer spells “Ice Slice”. A wave of sharp ice expanded from his arm and sliced the monster from the throat to its back, not leaving any room for survival.

The enemy fell and after several seconds of rough breathing passed away, only then did Ariel let out his breath and started breathing more raggedly. In the fight he didn’t receive a single injury which was extremely impressive when fighting an opponent of higher level, but his Mana consumption was quite large and if he fought another one he wouldn't have succeeded so easily.

Looking around for any dangerous creatures he let out a sigh when he didn’t find anything and planned his next course of action. He first needed to restock the amount of Mana he had for any incidents like these, but he had to do it further away since the corpse would attract more beasts.

Thinking for a moment, he decided to follow the river upstream and at the same time, he wanted to look for a suitable place to settle down.

Setting out, he walked for half an hour before finding a place to stay at momentarily and absorb Mana. Only when an hour passed did he stand up, satisfied with his Mana, and started actively looking for a better place.

It took a rather long time of searching before he finally managed to find a cliff side near the river that had a space surrounded by stones making it hard to notice and also decently closed off from the wind. What also made it a better choice, was that it's harder to get flanked because of all the rocks, which made Ariel feel it was good enough for a camp.

Taking out a tent and some other things like firewood and such he started setting up. He put up the tent and made a campfire in a way it wouldn’t be spotted, then he sprinkled some dust that would repel bugs and weak magical beast before taking out some food and making himself some “edible” food for dinner.

Creating his campsite took quite some time and the sun was already setting, eating his fill he recalled the whole day and let out a sigh, thinking that the coming days would be hectic, causing him to shake his head, but Ariel also remembered his friends and felt some concern for them and what they might have encountered.

Trying to stop thinking about it he decided to end his day and go meditate to prepare for the upcoming month.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there