"Fire Lance"

As Yuuto endured the pain, Alice finally finished her chanting and hit the manticore. Using that time, he ran to his side. The pain only doubled when he moved but he needed to endure it in order to tell his plan. Creating more distance, he shouted at Alice.

"Alice, attack the manticore with your most powerful attack" he shouted.

"What are you talking about, can you survive while I'm chanting that magic"

"Just do it, I don't know if we can survive this for any longer. I will stall the manticore."

"Fine," she reluctantly said "Give me 30 seconds, no, give me 45 seconds"

He paled from her words "What 45 seconds, Did you think that I will survive that long" he retorted.

"You're the one who said that will stall the boss, and now you're complaining"

'well she has a point' he said in his mind "Then, let that attack finish that monster"

He let out a grunt, and stared forward at the figure of the manticore still hidden in the cloud of smoke from the earlier attack. The manticore roared and the smoke vanished in the air. Both he and the manticore look at each other's eyes, oddly fixated to him Yuuto used that to run and use himself as bait.

Followed by his expectation the manticore began hunting him once again. He runs and runs to the limits of his already broken body, but he is already not thinking about where he will go and just lets his instinct guide him. Although their plan works as intended, the plan itself is a double edge sword. If the manticore suddenly shifts its attention to Alice or Yuuto run out of breath and collapse on the floor, their plan will instantly crumble to dust. He could just hope that neither of this would happen.

'How can I survive for 45 seconds?' he grimaced in his mind.

Alice began her chant. A large magic circle emerges, her being in the center and extending for 3 meters.

Forty seconds left…

Seeing the large incomplete circle, the result of those five seconds is no doubt that what she conjures is a very powerful spell. But it is still slow.

On the other side, Yuuto is not very amused by the at five seconds. The manticore keeps attacking him, he stops running and focuses more on defending his back. One of the attacks of the manticore managed to graze, though very shallow he felt like he had been cut by a high grade knife. Even when some time has passed since he's been hit, he can still feel like it's brand new.

'I can't keep going like this'

Though it only has been a moment, he is already panting combined with the attack that he received earlier. His body is going to break down if he keeps draining his stamina on running. It really didn't help too that the manticore noticed the sudden change between him and Alice, that the boss changed its attack pattern to swift movements. Yuuto needs to change his plans of stalling time or else he's going to be hunted.

He let out a hard sigh and stop running 'If I'm not able to outpace him I'm going to face his claw'

The manticore grew surprised at what his prey did for a moment, even decreasing its speed. But quickly the manticore regains its pace and opens its Jaws ready to mangle Yuuto.

He narrowed his eyes, and relaxed his body. In order to fight properly even with his battered body and use his predicting technique he needs to focus on the subject and forget everything.

In that moment, two objects clashed at each other, ringing his ears with metallic sound.

'Hard' he grunted.

His sword's edge clashed with black claws of the manticore. For this miracle block to happen, Yuuto needed to predict where the attack would land and move just fast enough before the attack was released for the enemy not to change its attack.

Losing its patience, the manticore bite forward however sensing his prey's movement use his scorpion tail to spray acid at the pest in front of him. Without losing any momentum from the first attack Yuuto took a step back, just millimeters aways from the edge of acid.

As his attacks continuously fail, the manticore stops thinking. The mindless attacks of manticore gave Yuuto a much easier time to dodge.

At a glance Yuuto is somewhat winning against his enemy but if you look closely at him. Though the manticore is already attacking mindlessly with the goal of killing him. Yuuto could just parry and defend with his sword. If he attacks at any moment that the manticore gives any opening, it will instantly close and the manticore will instantly bite him. As good as he is in defending himself, he could only last as soon as his stamina runs out, and considering all that he endured earlier. He doesn't have much of that. One wrong angling in his sword or reading the attack of the manticore and he would surely die.

"Just how long could this last?"

That short amount of exchange between him and the manticore felt like it was already minutes, no it felt like it had been hours.

For a moment Yuuto created a distance between him and the boss, his gaze fell on the side where Alice is chanting her magic. The magic circle is already forming an intricate design and the pale light it has earlier is getting brighter now. The colors are also being visible compared to earlier.

'I think I still need twenty seconds' he grumbled.

Yuuto gripped his chipped sword and drained what energy he had left on his body.

Every time that manticore attack, Yuuto would take that moment to grazed his opponent. As the assault continued his vision also got blurry. Head, claws, and even the size of its body, though he managed to attack it there was no visible no would or blood to speak off. As if his attacks are just for nothing, it just made the manticore more mad at him. If it goes on this rate he will plop down in the floor sooner or later

'No, I need to create more time,' he said in his mind.

On his desperate move, Yuuto with all his adrenaline, blood, power, and thinking. He put all of it on his last attack.

Two weapons clashed at each other. One wins and one loses; one is the winner and one is the loser. His swortword breaks into pieces, falling into the floor. He could feel a tinged of iron in his mouth and some kind of heat wants to go out of his mouth. He gazes down, Yuuto is the loser of the exchange.

Gigantic black claws impaled straight into his chest, crimson red blood slowly flowed into it. He could only feel pain, there was no fatigue nor fear. All what he was feeling earlier was drowned by the pain and the burning heat coming from his chest.

Only 5 seconds, if only he managed to move on at that moment Yuuto could survive. If he doesn't confront the manticore and instead just runs, then he will survive. But it's no use to think of the past, he chose this path and paid for it. His mind hangs between life and death.

With the last glint of light remaining in his eyes, he peeked at his side. Then he found Alice still standing, alive. Due to his poor vision Yuuto couldn't properly see what she was doing but she was probably shouting her last spell. If he just made it then he would have seen it.

He let out a grin, finally vomiting his blood. It was the end of Yuuto's life.