As I charged at Terror the ground beneath my feet split from the force of each step.

How long do I have?

A few minutes, five at best at this point.

I smiled as I dodged Terror's paw, his long claw almost scratching my face. I punched him in the spit between his torso and right front leg with all my might. He yelped, only making my smile wider.

That'll be enough.

As I punched Terror I noticed that the voices had become louder, making me angrier and angrier. The mana around me became stronger and stronger and Terror became slower and slower, but never so slow that it was not a challenge to dodge his attacks. Multiple times he hit me. Multiple times I was launched into a tree or boulder. But as I coughed up more blood I also became stronger since [Blood High] had activated.

Bad news honey, you're getting too angry.

What?

Her words confused and annoyed me. Once again I hit Terror right in the head and he hit the ground, leaving behind a small crater as he jumped up again almost immediately and rammed me with his shoulder. I flew right into a tree which was crushed by the mana swirling around me before I even hit it.

Right now you only have two minutes left...

That made me even angrier.

How am I supposed to beat him in two minutes?! With five, maybe, but two?!

The angrier you get the short your time gets... you either need to run or... wait, if I remember correctly wood elves are able to call upon the power of an ancestor. You're part of the Lyrius family. Call upon the power of Alvas Gravious Lyrius, he was a powerful warrior during my times. Why do I only remember these things in times like this...

...

I dodged an attack from Terror and repaid him with a strike of my own.

...

I kicked Terror right in the face, making him fall back a little further.

...

What are you waiting for? Use it! With his power, you can wipe this entire fucking forest out of existence. Damn, I'm an idiot for forgetting. Why did you never use it before?.

I can't.

What, why? I thought you had this whole wood elven magic thing mastered.

I'll explain later.

I barely dodged another of Terror's attacks. He was becoming faster as well.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

All of this made me even angrier. Especially the fact that Ira's suggestion made sense but I couldn't use it. I landed another hit on Terror with such speed that I was sure that I was fairly close to breaking the sound barrier. He was hurled backwards at least twenty metres and crashed right into a large boulder that buried him beneath a few pieces of stone and hid him behind a cloud of dust.

One minute.

Ira sounded concerned. If I were to run now I would definitely get away from him but I would also lose my momentum and the opportunity I now had with Terror on the ground. If I don't run away I might have a chance at killing him but if I didn't manage to kill him within the next minute I would blackout and die. I spit on the ground again and turned away. I focused all my mana on speed and ran away from a fight I didn't want to run away from. It made me even angrier. Which at this point made me faster but also got me closer to blacking out. I could already feel the exhaustion creeping up in me. I could see myself falling to the ground, Terror standing over my defenceless and unconscious body. I could see him crush my head beneath his paw and then eat my corpse with a look of satisfaction on his feline face.

I simply ran, trying to get away from Terror as far as possible.

You need to calm down, now.

I know.

I clenched my fists and tried to calm down. But I couldn't.

What should I do...

I looked around and to my luck, I spotted a cave, not large enough for Terror to enter even in his normal state.

He'll sense you.

I have an idea.

And thus I deactivated everything and focused my remaining mana on [Predator's Prowl]. The mana that was swirling around me disappeared immediately and I managed to stumble into the cave. It was tight and dark in there. But I might be safe from Terror in here. I still hadn't quite calmed down but I found out that a side of [Predator's Prowl] was to lower the effects of the Power of Wrath since it stopped me from taking in large amounts of mana.

I kept my eyes on the narrow entrance and just took deep breaths. In my hurry, I had forgotten all about the voices that had been yelling at me. They now came to me again. And they made me angrier, completely throttling my efforts of calming down.

This won't do at all.

I suddenly felt myself being pulled away from my body. Ira was in control now. My body was still shaking and I still heard the voices but my body calmed down. The voices didn't make Ira angry, only me.

"You really are a problematic child aren't you?" my body said.

I guess so...

After a while, I regained control of my body and I had calmed down almost completely. I was still breathing heavy but at least my mana usage wasn't out of control anymore.

We better stay here until we know he's gone.

As if to give us some sign I heard a loud roar coming from far away. Terror must have retreated. But I still decided to stay here, it was safer. Right now I was in no condition to fight him anymore. I couldn't control my anger and lost because of that. The very thing that fuels my strongest power is the thing that made me lose.

Some day you'll be able to use it correctly. Right now your mana usage is simply higher than your intake when using the Power of Wrath. In the future, you'll be able to let your anger loose without any worry of ever running out of mana.

Ira's words were encouraging. They made this failure almost seem worth it. And the simple thought of using the power that allowed me, at least slightly, overpower Terror without any time limit was enough to calm me down. For a few moments, there was complete silence, even the voices had stopped. But then I could hear things again. There were footsteps and I was sure that I could hear voices above me. They sounded like they were looking for me.

"Find the little cockroach!"

"He went that way!"

"Once I find that fucker I'll whip the shit outta 'im!"

Ignore that. I want to know why you can't use the signature ability of a wood elf.

I sighed.

The village cut itself off from the past, those were the words of the elder when she explained why we couldn't learn this power. I know it's stupid, my parents said the same but the only one alive that knows how to use it was the elder, and she wasn't gonna teach us anything about it besides its existence. And even that was stopped quite quickly. Pretty sure the ones that started being taught after us didn't even know it was a thing... probably because we asked too many questions and she was getting too old.

Thinking about the village made me sad. It made my body shake and I felt a tear in the corner of one eye.

So it's some stupid reason?

Pretty much. But shouldn't you know it already? You can see my memories, can't you?

Theoretically. But it takes time. Most of the things I can see is stuff from your old world.

I see.

Anyway. Since neither of us knows how to use that power we'll have to go with either looking for a dungeon or a powerful magic being.

What are our chances of finding a magical being anywhere close to here?

There was silence for a few moments again. Moments in which I could hear the voices clearly again.

"There he is!"

"We found him, boss!"

"Just shoot him already!"

I suddenly heard a gunshot, in reality, it was just a branch cracking but to me, it sounded like the shot of the gun that killed me. It made me jump and hit my head on the low ceiling of the cave. The pain was bad. I rubbed the back of my head but the pain didn't get any better.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Why me!

Calm down! Ira said loudly and suddenly, almost making me jump again. And to get back to your question. Your chances of finding a magical being powerful enough to grant you magic are low, very low, but not zero, since every forest has at least one dryad.

And what about finding a dungeon with a... magic concept or whatever?

Practically Zero...

Guess I'll go and look for a dryad or some other powerful being then...

But for now, you need to rest.

I know, I know. What are you, my mother?

Ira chuckled a little but I got sad at my own joke. What I fucking idiot I am... making myself sad when trying to make a joke...

I took some dried meat and nuts and began eating. When I was done I lay down on the cold stone floor of the cave and closed my eyes. Exhaustion overtook me and I quickly fell asleep. It was another night where I saw the faces. I got sadder and sadder. When I woke up I was curled up, holding my knees to my chest, and sobbing. And the voices were there to mock me again.