The ogre was standing about a 100 meters away. Seeing that it’s attack failed, anger could clearly be seen in its face. It was tall, taller than some of the shorter trees. And looking at the size of its muscles, the attack earlier didn’t seem ridiculous coming from it.

It plucked out another tree along with the roots as if a person would pluck a weed. I wouldn’t be able to block another attack like the previous one. But since Jesse also had her guard up now, we could dodge it.

But the ogre rested the tree on its shoulder like a club. So now it was going to swing it at us instead of tossing it. It could be dangerous.

“Jesse, how do we fight it? Do you know its weakness?” I ask while preparing myself for the next attack.

“I haven’t fought one before. It’s atleast

an Iron rank monster. Normally people below Iron rank run away if they spot one. But since it has spotted us, we can’t outrun it.” Her legs were shaking but she still was in a defensive stance.

“So we have no choice but to fight it then.” The ogre was step by step getting closer. The fear of impending doom was creeping upon me. I absolutely cannot die here.

I can’t just wait for the ogre to approach me so I just charge forwards. With my speed, I’m confident enough to evade it’s attack.

“Are you crazy? Why are you in such haste to die?” Jesse was shouting at me from behind but I just ignore her. The ogre raises the tree above its head to squash me but before it could slam the tree, I’m already behind it.

I slashed at it’s heels to cut its tendon so it can’t walk. But it’s skin was tougher than I imagined. I could barely cut just the skin. With it’s free arm, it tried to grab me but I jumped out of reach immediately.

Jesse was chanting some other spell meanwhile and now air was violently revolving around her sword like a blade. While the ogre had turned to grab me, she attacked it in its arm holding the tree. Its arm was bleeding. Seems like the attack wasn’t still strong enough to cut off its arm.

If I hadn’t depleted my wind mana earlier then I could have done more damage with that attack. I can still use attacks of other elements. Unlike most RPG games, I have different mana for different elements of magic. Even if I deplete my mana in any one element, I can still use magic of other elements if I have the aptitude for it. Though I haven’t learned any other element than wind.

The ogre was now enraged. They say that a wounded lion is more dangerous. It was thrashing the tree blindly hoping to hit us. Any normal person would already be squashed but we aren’t normal. We are adventurers.

Since the ogre couldn’t hit us, it changed its strategy from thrashing blindly to targeting only me. Why me??? As the attacks were directly aimed at me, I had to dodge more frequently and I was getting tired. Jesse was trying to attack it from its blind spots but not all attacks were landing as it was using its free arm to block her.

If only I could use some other magic, it would be a lot easier to end this fight. At this rate, we’ll be seriously injured if not dead. I really want to learn another magic.

[Do you want to learn magic now?],a voice said out of nowhere.

[Who was that? Who are you??] such questions were in my mind.

[I’m the guardian angel assigned to you. Since you have the special ability“Angel’s wisdom”, you can freely converse with me and get tips, suggestions and guidance from me.] The voice answered the questions I hadn’t even asked yet. Was it telepathy?

[I’m in the middle of a fight so I don’t think I’ll be able to learn Magic right now. If I had known about this ability, I would have made full use of it. But I might not be able to use this ability again coz I can die today.]

[Have you taken a look at your surrounding?] The angelic voice asked.

[Obviously I have. I’m in the middle of a forest fight a..... Wait a minute!! Why is everything happening in slow motion?] The ogre’s tree was approaching me from the side but at an extremely slow speed. Even my phone cannot shoot slo-mo video this slow.

[It is because this ability utilizes the fastest speed your brain can process as the information is directly injected into your brain. Thus there is no delay in the relay and processing of the information. This causes you to experience everything else at a slower pace.]

Just as the angel said, the ogre’s tree was approaching me bit by bit. I had to dodge it. So I decided to jump over it. As soon as I stopped conversing with the angel and started to interact with the world, everything went back to normal speed. I barely managed to dodge the attack.

If I wanted to learn a new magic from the angel, I would have to get away from the ogre. It’s too dangerous to talk and fight.

“Jesse, can you distract the ogre for a minute? I have to prepare for a new skill.” I say as I roll on the ground to avoid another attack.

“How? I’ve been attacking it for a while now but it doesn’t even look at me” she sounded like a girl not getting attention from the guy she liked.

“Stab it in its a*s. That should get its attention.” I was fed up from getting all the attention. I don’t mind getting attention from a beautiful girl but this thing is too ugly.

“How can you get so low?? Even if it is a monster, that’s too cruel. I can’t do it.” Are you kidding me??

“Ok then. Guess I’ll die today.” Does she care more about the monster than me? Then why is she attacking it instead of helping it to kill me.

“Fine! I’ll do it. But your skill better be good.” She says as she violates the ogre. That took care of catching its attention.

I retreat a couple of meters away from the fight. Jesse isn’t as fast as me but she was doing pretty good at dodging.

[Angle, teach me magic, quick.] I can’t waste any time.

[Which magic do you want to learn. You seem to have the aptitude for all magic.]

[I want to learn one which will be most effective against this ogre. Otherwise I won’t be able to win.]

[Fire magic it is then. I will teach you the most basic but an effective spell. It’s called ‘Red sword’. Imagine that your Fire mana is heating your sword till it’s red hot. Then use the sword to cut your opponent.] The angel gave me a short and simple explanation.

[What is the chant for this spell?]

[You don’t have to use chants for magic. Chants are useless. You just need to be able to visualize the magic you are going to use. People think chants help to visualize the magic so they use it. If you get too dependent on chants to visualize magic then you won’t be able to use it in case you lose your voice.]

[Ok I’ll try it.] I say as I mentally start to visualize the sword being heated by my fire mana. Slowly, I could feel the sword getting hotter. But it wasn’t red hot yet. I needed to heat it more. The sword was getting hotter than I was comfortable with. I must be doing something wrong so I stopped heating it further. I didn’t want to burn my hand, did I?

[It started to burn my hand. Is that supposed to happen?] I asked my mentor, the Angel.

[Did you heat the hilt of the sword? You were supposed to heat only the blade. Don’t imagine the fire mana flowing through you into the sword. Imagine that it is release from your pores into the blade.] Words of wisdom were bestowed upon me by the wide Angle. He even knew what exactly I was doing wrong.

I start imagining just like he said. It took a while but the sword was finally getting red hot. I could feel the heat radiating from it.

[Looks like you managed to learn it. You’re lucky that you have the special ability “Genius Wizard”. You were able to learn this spell quite easily due to it. Now go and attack the ogre while maintaining the heat.]

As soon as I stopped conversing with the angel, everything went back to normal speed. It seems like a little over a minute had passed. Jesse was doing her best in dodging the attacks. She was good for a ceramic rank.

I charged at the ogre but it noticed me. It swinged the tree at me from the left but I ducked to avoid it. I sliced as hard as I could in its arm that was already wounded by Jesse’s attack earlier. I felt some resistance for a while which I think was the bone but the rest was easily cut. It was like cutting butter with a hot knife.

As the ogre lost its arm, it could no longer attack us with the tree. It’s wound was instantly cauterized so it wasn’t bleeding. If it was, we could stall for a while and it would die after a while due to blood loss. I guess this was a downside to this attack. It could be used to amputate someone’s limbs though.

I could see the shocked expression on Jesse’s face as I cut off the ogre’s arm in one swing. The same arm that she previously just managed to wound with a strong looking spell.

“You can use fire magic?? Why didn’t you tell me that you were a dual element wielder??” She seemed more shocked due to the fact that I could use fire magic than that a Paper rank nobody cut off the arm of an Iron rank monster.

I didn’t reply coz I was busy dodging the even more enraged ogre. Its blood had cooled down my red sword so I couldn’t hurt it that much. But the ogre seemed to be worn out than before. Of course I was getting tired too.

“Jesse, can you distract it one last time. I’ll finish it with the next attack.” I shout as I dodge a punch.

“Ok I’ll try. If you make me do this ever again, I’ll make sure you are at the receiving end.” She said and proceeded to violate the ogre one more time.

I heated my sword till it was red again. As the ogre had turned around to deal with the perpetrator responsible for its pain, I leapt at its neck, using its back as a foothold and sliced it off.

As the large ogre collapsed, Jesse barely managed to get out of its way, drenched in its blood. She looked like a pile of ground meat. But she was alive and ok.

“I still can’t believe that you killed an Iron rank monster. And you are a dual element wielder on top of that!? You are full of surprises.” She said as she collapsed on the floor due to her legs giving up. This battle must have had quite a toll on her both mentally and physically.

“Let’s leave the questions you have for when we return to the inn. It’s already past noon. We won’t make it before sunset if we don’t head back now.” I save the explanation for later. I don’t want to be late for school. I also have to cook lunch for Miya.

“Ok then. Let’s take out the mana stone from the ogre first,” Jesse took out a knife from her belt and started to cut the ogre’s belly “we’ll earn quite a lot of money by selling it.”

“What’s a mana stone?” I was clueless about what she was talking about. I really am illiterate in this world.

“You don’t know even the basics? I guess it’s fine since you are a paper rank. Every monster has a mana stone in its abdominal cavity. They draw their energy from the mana stone. Stronger the monster, higher the quality of the mana stone.” Jesse was flaunting her knowledge.

“Wait! Don’t tell me you haven’t collected a single mana stone from the goblins you hunted??” I could see flames surrounding her. Could she use fire magic all this time?

“Was I supposed to?? I didn’t know. We can collect them on the way back.” I was sweating due to her bloodlust. Is this what those poor goblins faced earlier. I pity the ogre. May its soul Rest In Peace.

“We still have to collect all the bodies and burn them to prevent attracting more monsters. You are safe for now. But next time...” she said with a smile on her face but her eyes were saying otherwise.

We collected all the goblins’ corpses where the ogre was laying dead. After removing all the mana stones, we added some dry wood and burned the corpses. We took the ogre’s head as a proof of our kill.

We headed back to Stellar city. We weren’t that lucky when returning as we didn’t meet any travelers on almost half the way back.

It was already 5pm by the time we reached back. The guild had already closed so we couldn’t claim the rewards today. We stored the ogre head and goblin noses in the inn’s shed.

Taking a hot water bath after a tiring day was the best feeling. Both of us were so tired that we quickly had dinner and went to bed. Jesse didn’t even have the energy to ask me the questions she had. And I didn’t have the energy to remind her not to squeeze me to death.