In reality, our fight was just getting started.

I immediately began to craft my mana again, this time, however, drawing my mana out was noticeably easier, but what was even more astonishing was what happened after the mana left my body. I no longer was limited to making a simple and small ball of flames. No, I could do much more with it. I felt as though I could literally... Shape it.

I didn't have time to experiment with this newfound discovery, and I had to do something quick. With my increased intelligence attribute, I began to try something... Divergent, with the mana ball I now possessed. My current situation brought back a sliver of memory, from when I was in the seventh grade, years ago. There was one thing I learned that year that seemed undeniably important right now, and that was, friction generates heat.

If I couldn't make a massive ball of fire with my limited mana capacity, then maybe I just needed to be more efficient. Instead of blowing everything out in a crude blast, if I was more meticulous then maybe I would see better results.

The thing is, in order to generate friction, there has to be something to actually generate friction in the first place. That's impossible with normal flames, as they were incorporeal. But, it's also impossible to literally throw a ball of flames, and up to this point, that was exactly what I have been doing. The thing that I realize was, that the mana being used to make the fireball was in and of itself a form of matter.

And, where there is matter? There is also the possibility of friction. My mana control, even if it had improved, could still only do so much. I knew I wasn't about to make a sphere that looked like the sun by any stretch, but I knew I could at the very least put some finer touches to this crude ball of fire mana. Enough, where it may potentially win the day.

It was interesting, as I realized fairly quickly that manipulating mana required, well, more mana. Not nearly as much as conjuring mana from your body, but enough where it was noticeable. Still, it was more efficient than just crudely throwing all of your mana into a ball.

I strained my senses and began to feel the mana particles that were currently resting in between my hands. With some concerted effort, I was rewarded when they began to vibrate even faster than they had before. They also began to move, to brush against each other, and I almost instantly felt the fireball undergo some type of transformation.

Skill [Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 7

50 experience points received.

274.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Skill [Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 8

55 experience points received.

329.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Skill [Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 9

60 experience points received.

389.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Skill [Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 10

70 experience points received.

459.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Skill [Basic Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level 5

40 experience points received.

499.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Skill [Basic Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level 6

45 experience points received.

544.71 / 438.9 experience points until Level 10

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 10!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

105.81 / 504.74 experience points until Level 11

...

Skill [Fire Elemental Affinity] has reached the requisite eligibility to be advanced into the Tier 2 skill: [Intermediate Fire Elemental Affinity].

Would you like to use a skill point to advance the skill?

Yes / No

Holy Hell, I thought. I hadn't realized that what I had just done equated to being that advanced. Granted, perhaps it was a no-brainer. My intelligence attribute was insanely high for my level, in fact, one would have to be nearing the Tier 2 class advancement point to start reaching that high as far as their attributes go. So it was amazing that I had reached that juncture in the first place. As such, it was probably simply unexpected for me to be capable of performing a feat likely reserved for a Tier 2 skill. I wasn't complaining though, so I selected yes.

With a smile, I began to manipulate the ball of fire even further. My previous efforts were now suddenly being rewarded as I watched a color shift in the fireball, signifying an increase in the heat's intensity. Whereas before it was an orangish-red color, now it was an orangish-yellow. I could practically feel the increase in heat, and it was searing, to say the least.

I knew this wasn't all I could accomplish now though. So, I began to morph the fireball into an entirely different shape, and after a few moments, I was rewarded with success. Instead of a crude ball of fire, I was now presented with a crude spear of fire. Likely it wouldn't do too much, but my goal was simple, remove the tentacles. Whereas the ball of fire was definitely more explosive and dealt blunt damage. The spear of fire would be a lot more penetrating. It was my hope I could take the tentacles out of commission with my next attack.

So, with a growing confidence, I launched the spear of fire forward.

Vvwooossh!

The spear rocketed through the air, and displaced the wind around it, superheating it as it went by. The second effect was the piercing scream that accompanied my new projectile. The Floweroid only had a moment to react, as it once again pulled back its tentacles to block the attack. I was expecting this though, and my efforts to craft a much more powerful spell was rewarded when the resulting impact bore a lot more fruit than my previous attempt. Whereas my first spell has only scorched the Floweroid, this attack did something entirely different. It pierced it.

The projectile didn't stop there either, no, it continued on through the two tentacles it had used to deflect it. The Floweroid must have believed that only using two of its tentacles to block the attack would be sufficient, likely imagining it wouldn't be any different than my previous attack.

The spell went on to clash against the chest of the beast and only then did it explode. The explosion didn't do too much damage, with the spear having weakened itself getting through the tentacles, but the significance of the attack was not lost. It had worked.

However, it was obvious that the beast was unhinged after I finished my attack. The two tentacles it had used to block the attack were now hanging limply, only held together by a sliver of its vine-like skin.

The attack had been effective. Much more effective than I imagined it would have been. It reiterated one fact that I had learned from Holy Arc Online, that is, magic reigned supreme.

Granted there were several asterisks to be had there. If that Guardian Floweroid had focused all of its attention on me I never would have been able to have the reprieve necessary to cast the spell, so it was entirely the result of both Alex and Kevin's efforts that allowed us to get to this point.

With the Floor Boss largely incapacitated, dealing with the trauma of the attack, Kevin took advantage of the moment. He charged forward, his makeshift blade in hand, and went on the offensive.

The Floweroid was left reeling and failed to notice Kevin's approach until it was too late. With a shriek, it stepped back and subsequently made use of its larger, thicker, but shorter tentacle in the middle as it attempted to strike Kevin down. Kevin deftly dodged the attack though, just as I suddenly activated [Paragon's Charge]. With a 10% attribute boost, Kevin was now at the point where he could comfortably dodge the Floweroid's attacks, and even deal some of his own in the process.

So, with a flurry of movement, Kevin managed to slash partially through the primary tentacle, sinking his blade halfway into it before pulling it out, as well as go for an assault on the main body.

It would have been somewhat comical to witness Kevin attempting to tackle something triple his size if it wasn't for the incredible amount of danger involved in the maneuver. That's what he did, however. He charged straight into the beast, and I could almost feel the full brunt of his impact as the shockwave blasted the particles of dust in the air outward.

It was slow at first, but the Guardian Floweroid had lost its balance and was too slow to catch its own fall, and it slowly toppled backward, and Kevin began to assault the beast, impacting it repeatedly.

His assault was ended soon enough though when the Floweroid regained its composure and swung one of its arms and knocked him aside. All I could see was Kevin flailing in the air for a dozen feet until a nearby tree stopped his trajectory, breaking in half in the process.

It was a familiar scene really, and it seemed at this point Kevin was largely prone to being knocked around. Practically the same thing had happened when we were fighting against the [Treant] Guardian just the other day, so it was impossible to ignore. This time though, I doubted he was hurt nearly as bad as the first instance. Granted, I'm sure he was still under an immense amount of pain.

With the Guardian Floweroid now incapacitated for the moment, I took the opportunity to begin conjuring more mana. Right now my attacks with the new fire spear utilized about fifty points of mana. It was a bit more than the crude fireball I had been using previously but was exchanged with a much more effective result in turn. I could deal out several more of the fire spears before I would need to begin worrying about my mana levels decreasing too much.

The current position of the Floweroid was a bit unfortunate, however, and so I jumped on top of a five-foot-tall boulder just a few feet away. The vantage point provided just the amount of height I needed to target the Floweroid where it hurt, that is, its head. If there was one thing we learned from dealing with its smaller counterparts, it's that the Floweroids mana cores were located somewhere behind the lavish appearing fronds.

As such, I began to form several more of the fire spears in quick succession and fired them away. My aim wasn't perfect, but the assault proved its worth. At first, the Guardian Floweroid had attempted to shield itself from the attack, but as soon as my first two spells blew away its remaining tentacles, it was defenseless, and could only await its fate. After several more fiery impacts, the Floweroid was rendered immobile, and it slowly wilted away.

On my end, I fell to my knees, gasping. It wasn't so much as a lack of air, as just pure exhaustion. Even though I still had about a hundred mana points left; using my mana network like that in such quick succession had taken its own fair toll. In the midst of my predicament though, I was rewarded with a beautiful message.

Level 17 [Guardian Mordremic Flesh-Eating Floweroid] [Unique] defeated with the help of others.

212.5 experience points received.

318.31 / 504.74 experience points until Level 11

...

Skill [Intermediate Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 2

60 experience points received.

378.31 / 504.74 experience points until Level 11

I hadn't received a level up from the defeat of the beast, but, I suspected with the experience having been divided between the three of us, that was going to be a given. Plus, I had already leveled up in the middle of the fight, and I was already close to leveling up once again. So there really wasn't much of a reason to be frustrated with that outcome. I figured that Alex and Kevin on the other hand were likely much happier with the results and may have gained one or two levels from the fight.

Speaking of which though, as I climbed to my feet and slid myself down the boulder that I had used as an impromptu platform, I noticed Alex was already standing over Kevin and surveying him for damage.

I felt a bit guilty at once again having had him take the brunt of a lot of the damage of this fight, but he was certainly accustoming himself to the role of a tank quite well. Granted, I figured we'd be having a talk later about the situation once again. Not that it was a bad thing at all really. We were all still rather new with this whole 'fighting' thing, and it was to be expected there would be a lot of issues to iron out before we had any real semblance of cohesion.

With that taken out of the way through, I made my way over to Kevin and was happy to find out that my earlier assumption was correct. He was fine, a bit bruised up, but he'd be walking momentarily.

So, while Alex tended to Kevin, I made my war over to the Floweroid's remains. Maybe there'd be something useful.