A few hours went by peacefully with no beast assaulting us, unsurprisingly resulting in a tense and cautious atmosphere.

This is definitely not normal. Normally we should have encountered at least some herbivores but even with my mana sight on I didn’t even a single hint of one.

Now this might have been normal for the first hour, but we have been walking for ages! I have the feeling that there is something off…

Frank suddenly turned around and pulled his bow out, notching an arrow in the same motion and firing it off into the direction of a gigantic lion I hadn’t noticed following us.

The at least five-meter-tall beast roared as the arrow harmlessly bounced off its tough hide and it pounced at us, the distance of at least ten meters quickly shrinking.

Seeing that I didn’t have enough time to fire an arrow I hurriedly equipped my hammer and leather vest, the robe I was wearing quickly vanishing into my core. I started to forcefully pump mana into every part of my body and pulled the hammer back, swinging it at the pink colored blur.

I was pushed pushed back at the tremendous force, my arms slightly trembling. The lion however wasn’t as affected as me and swatted me away with its massive paw, smashing me into the sides of the road of destruction.

While I was struggling to get out Greta and Owen kept it busy by dodging its paws and slashing or hammering at any part of its body that got close. Frank was at the back, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The lion roared, the sheer intensity of the mana pushed out by it making us flinch for a moment. It used the opportunity to bite at Greta, who was standing directly in front of it.

Thankfully it was stopped by Frank who stabbed the spear at its eyes repeatedly, forcing it to pull back.

Despite the immense force it hit me with I was mostly unharmed though, so I pushed the dense soil away with a small blast of pure mana, picking my hammer that had fallen to the ground up.

I pushed off the ground and hit it in the flank while it was being pushed back by Frank.

This time the damned beast flinched when my weapon dug deeply into its unprotected stomach, the temporary loss of concentration enabling Frank to slice a new bloody hole into its cheek.

Greta used her whole weight to strike the paw that had somehow gotten stuck in the ground. Owen swung his axe at the other side of it, the two attacks hitting at the same time.

A sickening crunch could be heard as its ankle was broken by combined force of the two, causing the monster to roar in pain.

A fiery explosion erupted from the spot where Greta’s club was stuck in its flesh, the flames caused by it quickly covering its entire body.

Finally remembering that I could also use my core I conjured a few metallic spikes and shot them into the direction of the lion’s pink head.

The beast, somehow still sane enough to dodge them even though a big part of its leg body was already set aflame, glared at me with its dark, beady eyes.

I stared back fearlessly whilst extracting a big amount of fire from my core and circulating it through my channels.

I used some of it by causing a small explosion under my feet that propelled me high into the air, where an extremely hot flame shot out of my left hand at the nearest leg.

The beast, already in pain by the flames caused by Greta, wildly hit everything around it. When my attack arrived it was further infuriated by me. Before I could evade it jumped at me, its gigantic maw rapidly coming closer.

Fuck, why always me?

A gust of air blew me away in the last second a row as a whole slew of projectiles hit it everywhere, especially in the area around its stomach where I had hit it before.

Using a few small explosions to stabilize myself in midair, I swapped the hammer with my greatsword.

A big explosion in my back that nearly consumed nearly all of the mana currently circulating through my channels propelling me with frightening speed towards its side that was opposite direction the projectiles were coming from.

I was lucky as the flames hadn’t reached this part of its body yet as most of them were at its front part, burning their way towards the beast’s head.

With the tip of my sword pointing in the front the blade managed to sink in a for about a foot, but got stuck inside the still massive muscles.

“Owen! Got a hole!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I twisted and turned the sword a bit until I finally got it out, the beast shaking and turning all the while.

I was nearly shaken off a few times, but thankfully the beast’s hair was far longer than that of a normal five-meter big lion, so I was able to hold onto its hairs, remaining hanging next to the newly opened hole but at a distance great enough that I wouldn’t be hit by all the blood that was gushing out.

Owen dashed towards my side with a gale that nearly sent me flying. Using his momentum his axe crashed into the wound, widening the hole.

Repeating this process a few times with the help of the abundance of wind coming from many parts of his body, he hacked away at it.

Its paws couldn’t reach us due to biological reasons, making our current position quite safe. Though its tail was occasionally coming dangerously close it hadn’t reached us yet, making me even gladder that I chose that specific position to poke a hole in.

A massive pushed me down, causing me to fall off and Owen, who was in the process of striking to miss.

While we stabilized ourselves a massive shadow suddenly fell over us.

When I looked up I saw that the lion was falling down at tremendous speed, its massive frame slightly turning as its mouth opened again, a massive roar that nearly stunned us again coming out of it.

By now flames were covering its head and the wound we had caused was bleeding profusely. It was a sign that the battle was going well but me and Owen pushed ourselves away at the same time with a small explosion at our backs.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough so the beast managed to hit me with an outstretched paw. I crossed my arms to mitigate the force a bit but it was of no use as I felt the bones in my arm painfully break as I fell down at a terrifying speed.

“AAHHH!” The horrible pain caused me to scream loudly, but it was cut short as a sudden impact on the ground pushed all the air in my lungs away.

My back arched up as I struggled for breath desperately. My lungs wouldn’t work, breathing was simply impossible.

I twisted and turned, trying to get some air into my lungs. When I finally managed to draw a most precious breath I noticed that the beast was coming closer.

It had managed to shake the others off and was rapidly advancing, most likely intent on crushing me.

““JOHN!”” The voices of the others reverberated through the area.

As I rolled over and pushed myself up a massive weight smashed into my back.

Dirt was suddenly everywhere and I was extremely happy that my eyes were closed, otherwise they would have lots of dirt in them.

Nearly fainting at the intense feeling of pain all over my body, I barely managed to extract all the core fire I could muster without injuring my channels.

I sent it all out at the same time in a powerful explosion that formed a small crater around me and pushed the beast away.

Using a massive gust of air, I propelled my body away from the beast.

“I’m okay!” I shouted to alleviate their fears.

Pain flared up with every quivering breath I took, indicating that my ribs were really broken. My forearms were a mess of broken bones, making me wonder how I hadn’t passed out until now.

Conjuring a small conjured platform of compressed soil for me to sit on, I flew back a bit to prepare for what was going to come.

As I closed my eyes and focused I felt a faint connection with the greatsword that was not too far away.

This is a skill that I’ve only managed to use recently: Telekinesis.

It enables me to control projectiles even after firing them, something that is far harder than it sounds. As the strength of the connection determined how much control I had as well as how much mana is being wasted, the only exception would be objects that were in direct contact with me, as the connections became stronger the closer they were.

Pushing mana through the connection, I felt as if the sword were a part of myself, a necessary requirement for telekinesis to work.

I moved it around a bit, testing its maneuverability. Its size and weight was both a burden and boon at the same time as, although it would take more mana to move it around, the power behind it would also substantially increase.

Waiting until the beast showed its wounded site to me I observed my friends agilely dodging its attacks. It seems that they have become more cautious after seeing me getting trashed like that.

Switching their tactic, they were aiming to tire it out now. This tactic was especially effective as they only attacked the side with the broken ankle, making counterattacking extremely awkward and painful for the beast.

They moved bit by bit, the beast slowly exposing its wounded side to me. After a few minutes where the beast received another few smaller wounds I was able to shoot my sword with a straight trajectory.

Pushing big amount of white mana into the connection into the link, I saw the turn into a blur as it flew into the direction of the gaping wound.

The beast, noticing the approaching weapon, tried to turn around, but it was too slow.

The sword sunk in so deep that only the hilt was barely visible. I wriggled it around, intent on widening the wound enough to shove the whole sword into it without any problems.

While I was doing that the others weren’t idle. They noticed what I was doing and used the opportunity I presented them, mutilating the broken ankle even more.

Occasionally a red explosion followed by a booming noise could be heard, with a few blurs of many different colors flying at the beast’s head whenever it paid attention to the sword cutting into its side.

The roars never stopped for more than a few seconds as its wound worsened with every second, causing me to be thankful for my reinforced eardrums.

A few minutes went by like this until I felt that the sword would be able to slip into its body.

Not wasting any time, I transferred a big part of what remained of my mana to the sword, pushing it forward as far as I could.

The whole weapon disappeared into its body, carving it way through its internal organs.

The beast visibly stiffened for a moment, but it quickly continued as if nothing had ever happened.

Sometimes I wonder how beasts can be so resistant to pain. If it were a human, he or she would have fainted long ago with all of their internal organs being shredded like that.

Adding the broken pieces of bone that were sticking out of one of its leg right now to that it should have been enough to put almost anything out of commission.

Why was it still here anyway? Normally a beast would have already run away after being wounded like that.

I mean, sure, lion beasts are supposedly quite proud creatures, but I don’t think that it would fight to the death over food with our mana content.

This smells fishy.

A sinking sensation ripped me out of my thoughts. I looked around frantically, only to notice that, as every bit of mana that was coming from my core was redirected to the sword, the platform was starting to falling down.

Hurriedly redirecting the mana, the descent slowed down until it was nearly unnoticeable.

Looking at the ongoing battle I noticed that the beast was quickly slowing down, showing that its fate was already sealed.

As I didn’t have enough mana to spare and it wouldn’t be wise to use a mana core in this situation, I simply waited for the beast to succumb to its wounds and cheered my friends on.

“C’mon Owen, hack harder! Frank, I know you can do better! Man the hell up and swing that spear of yours as if it were midnight and you think everyone is asleep!” I started to laugh like a maniac.

Although the situation was more than inappropriate for jokes I did it anyway as our victory was pretty much assured at that point.

“Greta, move your whole body when swinging that oversized club of yours!” I continued.

By now they were clearly annoyed but they didn’t let themselves be distracted, which was unnecessary caution as the beast was running on fumes.

Seconds turned into minutes and the roars eventually turned into low moans. The wounds on the beast’s body multiplied and soon all of its legs were broken.

It finally collapsed, causing a light tremor to run through the ground.

Tension I didn’t know was present left my body. It may have seemed that I was having fun but the chance that it would suddenly retaliate and injure someone else was still present.

The pain in my whole body worsened as I cancelled the mana injection.

Reaching out to grab the bag of mana cores that was somehow still attached to my shredded clothes I grabbed the brightly glowing miniature house.

“Erm, how do return it to its former size?” I asked my slowly approaching friends.

Frank looked at my current state. “I’ll get my revenge when you have recovered, asshole.” He casually said those frightening words., the others nodding in agreement.

Seems like I’ve overdone it…

Owen ripped the miniature house out of my hands, examining it carefully.

He then sent a small burst of mana into it. “WARNING! Return to original size in ten seconds!” The same male voice shouted.

Owen let it drop onto the ground as we quickly scrambled away from it. Thankfully we had more time so when the house expanded with a bright flash of white light we weren’t in range anymore.

Quickly entering the house, I sat down on the ground of the entrance. I grabbed a mana core and popped it into my mouth.

The smooth pearl like object quickly dissolved in to pure mana as it poured into all mana channels in my mouth.

A warm feeling enveloped me as a sudden burst of mana coursed through the nearly empty channels.

It didn’t take long until my entire body was nearly brimming with mana that was wildly coursing through the channels. If I wouldn’t be strictly suppressing it they would rampage through everything in their way, hurting my channels substantially.

The pain wasn’t really helping though.

I had to be careful in placing my hands, lest an even more intense would overwhelm me and cause the foreign mana to go out of control.

When I finally managed to establish a good circulation I started to use it to meditate.

I sighed, knowing that it would take a few painful hours until I was completely healed.