I go to the next mist gate and touch it. As soon as I touch it next one appears. This one looks like some kind of lion with four wings. Reversed single horn on its forehead and scorpion tail. As big as the spider before. And for some reason, it has only one eye.

“Human stench.”

Ooh it speaks.

“You got problem with humans?”

“They are creatures akin to an ant.”

“Hey what do you got against ants? They can lift ten times their body weight. Can you do that?”

It looks at me with shocked expression.

“Strange insect.”

Now this piece of shit is starting to piss me off.

“Seeing that you possess sentience, I suppose you have a name. What is it?”

“I have no name to give to an insect.”

“Then you will with no one remembering your name.”

ROAR!!!

Are all of them gonna be this loud? After roaring on top of its lung it opens its wings and takes to the sky. Those wings are unexpectedly powerful for ones so small.

After reaching about hundred meters above the ground, it stays there for a while as if channeling something.

As soon as I got that, I sit cross-legged on the ground and start to channel my fourth technique. Whirlwind with five meters radius start to form with me as center.

And just as I finish channeling my dragon, it starts to freefall. As it falls, I see its body glowing. A bombing free fall, huh.

But just as it reached fifty meters, I unleash my dragon toward it.

BOOM!!!

My dragon and it collides in the air. My dragon grinds its glowing protective film. And after few seconds, its protection shatters like a glass. As soon as that happens, my dragon throws the beast far away.

But while flying away, it opens its wings and stop itself in the air.

“Come on chicken, let me fry you.”

ROAR!

It roars once again and flies toward me. Idiot. I meant it when I said I wanted to fry you. I cast two fireballs on my two hands and start to over dose them with mana.

Last time I directed the explosion with cannon barrel. This time will direct it with mana construct. My mana purity almost tripled since last time. So, as soon as my fireballs turn black and the chicken gets in range, I smash my fireballs together.

BOOM!!!!!!

They explode with a glorious boom. And I almost get thrown by the impact of it. As they collide, my fireballs explode, and I redirect that explosion with conical shaped mana construct. Making it explode toward the incoming chicken.

Most glorious flame thrower. It rages for five minutes like before and goes out. And I see what it did after it goes out.

There is not even a feather left from the chicken. But the medallion is still there. This one is square shaped with the chicken’s shape on it.

I put into the square indention and it fits perfectly.

Two down, two to go.

Next mist gate and next something.

It has the lower body of a large bull, the legs and feet of a lizard or dragon, the upper body of a human, and a lion-like face, topped with vicious horns. And it is as big as the previous ones. Its body is black, like cooled lava, with large, wing-like jets of flame sprouting from its humanoid shoulders and more flames cascading off his tail. In addition to its claws, it has a massive flaming sword.

Looks sick.

“Ahhh, finally outside world. It has been too long.”

“Great, another talking one.”

It looks to me.

“Curious. When I roamed the earth two thousand years ago, there was no such humans as the likes of you.”

“And I’m here to make it eternity.”

“Silence.”

After shouting, it stabs at me with its flaming sword. I summon my katana in an instant and stab with it at the beast’s sword.

CLANG!

Once again, metallic collision sound.

“Futile pest, you will suffer the wrath of Iltund.”

Arrogance of this campfire. It swings its massive sword at me. I try to block it with my katana and fails miserably. The momentum behind the sword was too powerful. I get thrown away like a dust cloth.

So, I guess close combat is out. And my fireballs are out for obvious reasons.

“Fenrir, stall him.”

He jumps out of my shadow and throws his blistering darkness at the campfire. His darkness swallows the campfire, but its fire is too bright for Fenrir’s darkness.

So, it simply waltzs out of his darkness. Next, Fenrir throws out another blistering darkness, but he controls it to surround the beast and conceal us.

While he is doing that, I started to channel my fourth technique. But this time I channel it using water elemental mana.

Since I never did it before, it takes a bit of time to channel it. While I was doing that, Ilmund got tired of the darkness surrounding it and explodes with blistering fire. And that fire almost reaches me. But Fenrir’s darkness gathers in front of me and protects me.

And just at that moment, I finish channeling my dragon and unleash the whirlwind at the beast. This time instead of usual white, my dragon comes out blue.

It charges at the beast and collides with it.

PSSSS

As that happens, steam comes out of the collision of Ilmund’s flame and my water dragon. As my water dragon continues to grind at Ilmund’s flames, I see Ilmund’s flames get extinguished and his body takes on more of smoldering orange glow.

And just as his fiery glow was about to go out, he does the exploding thing again. My water dragon disintegrates into steam along with that explosion. But this one was smaller than the previous one. So, I guess he is getting somehow tired.

And as if he is trying to prove me right, after exploding he crouches down panting. I think I will take that chance. I jump up high and uses micro explosions to aid myself. After climbing almost fifty meters above the ground, I start to freefall at Ilmund while charging my second technique.

My second technique’s power can increase limitlessly, as long as my body can handle it. I rotate my two vortices and wait for the moment of impact.

CRUNCH!!!

I fall on Ilmund’s back like a meteor with crunching sound. Ilmund falls face first into the ground. I think that did it. Still, seeing that he is yet to disintegrate, I take some distance from him.

And just as I got some distance, he suddenly stands up and explodes again. But this time he turns into some kind of flaming meteor and flies toward me.

Shit, he is fast. I dash to my right and dodge his charge. He circles around and flies toward me again. I dodge him again with my micro explosion dash.

I need to do something fast. Or else this might continue forever. So, I start to charge my third technique. But like my fourth one, I charge it up with water elemental mana. But this time I won’t shout out the name. that was lame.

As I charge it with water elemental mana, it starts to expand outwards and rotate little bit slower than the one charged with normal mana.

I wait for Ilmund to circle back. And just as he was about to collide into me, I hit him in the head with my water sphere.

PSSSSS.

As my water sphere and Ilmund’s head collide, scalding hot steam gets generated around us. And after few seconds, Ilmund disintegrates completely into steam.

And in his place is another triangle medallion. I do the same with it.

Three down, one to go. This fight with Ilmund taught me that I need to diversify my arsenal in element. There are countless creatures in this world and countless kind of powers.

So, if I’m to be triumphant in every battle I come across, I need to have diversity. I will keep that in mind with my next moves. More I fight with different kind of enemies, more I get grateful for my impeccable mana control.

Only thanks to my mana control do manage to come up with everything in a moment. If not, I don’t think I could have defeated Ilmund.

Last gate. Same crap. Different enemy.

This time it’s a dark horse with a blue flaming mane and hoof. It leads a nasty hearse. Looks dangerous. Still as big as the previous ones. Again, sick looking one. If I could, I would love to have it as a mount.

I don’t feel any hostility from the horse, but that hearse is looking bad. That thing is giving all kind of bad vibes.

I think it doesn’t speak. Good. It starts to chop the ground.

NEIGH.

Food. At least it makes appropriate sound. It gallops toward me. What is it? A game of chicken. I simply dash to the right to get out of its way. Even though it is impressive, it still fails to change direction immediately. While it passes by me, the hearse suddenly opens and shoots flaming arrows at me.

They fail to wound me from behind my armor. Still. This hearse is suspicious. I think the real enemy here is the hearse.

The horse continues to gallop around me. And suddenly a portal opens up in front of it and it enters it. With my enemy gone, I look around and wait for it to appear again. And another portal suddenly opens behind me and the horse comes out.

I dash to my left to dodge the horse and get slashed on my back by the spikes on the hearse’s wheels. And just as I fall on my knees, another window opens on the hearse and this time it throws flaming spears at me.

I throw myself forward to dodge the spears and still get impaled by one of them. Shit, it hurts. I take the spear out and my wounds heal.

This is getting dangerous. What do I do? It is too mobile for me to cut and punch. So, I need long range solution.

It’s been a while since I last did it. I make a bow out of my left arm and make an arrow out of fire elemental mana. You know, those exploding arrows.

I almost forgot about it since I came up with it out of desperation. I draw my bow and aim at the hearse and as soon as it enters my sight, I let go.

WHISH!

BOOM!

My arrow travels at the sound of speed and hits the hearse with an explosion. But fails to damage it. Still, it somehow affects the horse.

It stops for a while and starts to gallop again. Seeing it is not teleporting again, I guess it has cooldown. Good, I will use that time. I start to spam arrows at the hearse.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

My arrows keep hit the hearse with mild explosions. And every time it gets hit, the horse stops momentarily.

And I increase the mana contained in my arrows each time I shoot one. I think I can kill it with my OD fireball, but I don’t want to kill the horse.

I will kill it if I really run out of options. After about minute of spamming arrows, I finally see some damage on the hearse.

And just as I was about to rain fire on the hearse, the portal opens once again. They disappear. I wait for them I appear. And once again, the portal opens behind me. And the horse gallops through.

I dash again to dodge the hearse but fail to locate it behind the horse. Just then I noticed another portal behind me again.

And from there come out the hearse. Clever piece of shit. This time I fail to dodge the hearse and it crashes into me. And for some reason I get pulled toward it.

As I get stuck onto the hearse, suddenly steel spikes like the ones on its wheels protrudes out of the hearse and impales me through my guts.

Cough, Cough, Cough.

I vomit blood without much choice. Shit, it hurts a lot. I have been impaled twice today by this fucking hearse. I’m gonna blow this shit up for sure.

Something keeps me stuck to the hearse. Suddenly window opens next to my head and scythe comes out to cut my head off.

CLANG!

I cross my arms to block it. Next windows that opens will be my window of opportunity. I start to OD fireball while waiting for the next window.

And the hearse doesn’t betray my expectations. Another window opens on my right side and another scythe comes out.

I block the scythe with my left hand and throw my fireball into the window. The scythe goes back into the window.

BOOM!

After few seconds, muffled boom comes from inside the hearse. As that happens, something that is keeping my stuck to the hearse stops and I fall to the ground.

Hearse keeps going forward and stops after a few seconds. And after few seconds, it starts to melt from the inside.

And just as it started to melt, it turns into dust and dissipates. I see an octagon shaped medallion on the ground. I knew it. Hearse was the enemy.

The horse is just standing there and observing me.