"It's time for you to die."

"So, who's doing it? The kid? That kid looks pitifully weak. Yeah, you human. When did you crawl out of the womb? A few weeks ago?"

"Not too far off compared to you."

"Shove off. Let's get this party started."

"The grouping of sharks will be your foe, not my disciple. If you survive. I'll take you to your forest, no matter the cost."

"Don't be stupid, Giles. The elves will skin you alive... You promise?"

"Yes, old friend."

"Give me thirty minutes to make peace with my god. Just kidding, no god would want me. Hehe. But seriously, I got to take a shit."

The massive white rhino backs into the house. The doors close in front of him. I looked in my [Lexicon] for information on the [Faux Unicorn]. I don't have much. They're a magical quadruped with a single horn. I think the reason they are "faux" is self-explanatory. They can share similar aspects to more "conventional" unicorns, but since unicorns are mythological beasts on par with dragons and phoenixes, they shouldn't be looked down on. Beings of life, light, purity, and all that shit.

"Would it be rude if I asked for his horn?"

"Yes."

"I'm assuming his body won't be looted like an average hunted beast."

"You'd assume correctly."

"Master Giles, I don't know if we can go through this. I could easily find a level 200 in a fracture somewhere and have them massacred, but having to fight an elder akin to a unicorn? I have full confidence in my creature if they have to fight someone double their level, but I think this is a bit overboard as they're still technically above level 200."

"Think of it as a test. If you interrupt the fight and save your beast, then you fail. But if your beast manages to win, you pass. I know you are very reward-motivated."

[Ellis, thisss one would like to speak to the fake horse. It might be a key to gaining the final component thisss one needs. Thisss one also needs more blood from you. If a conversation cannot occur, thisss one calls dibs on the mass of keratin on its face.]

"Master Giles, can I converse with that creature? I want to understand a little bit more. It would be respectful."

"You do not need to explain yourself to me. Go ask old white himself."

I wait until he comes out. I won't walk in there while he's still doing his business. The doors open, and I'm met face-to-face with the rhino.

"I would like to talk to you."

"Fuck off, kid. I don't have time to waste. I have a life to lose."

"Yeah, and it isn't worth it for me to let you die. No matter what, you have something to gain. Either you die, or you kill my beast and get to go home. I only get something if my beast kills you, and you are interchangeable."

"Put your tail between your legs and listen to your master."

"I wanted to know about your species rather than get into a pointless verbal dispute. What makes you different from non 'faux' [Unicorns]? Is it the hooves?"

"As I said, I don't have time to waste. Fuck your mother."

"I can walk away and let you rot. There should be some reason you haven't been put down yet. Maybe everything else here is too strong, and now you punch down, fearing a pointless death. Since I can't harvest your body, nor am I getting compensated, I want information. I have a few questions, and you should answer them before I walk."

"Awe, the little baby will go against his master's orders out of spite. Tell me how that goes. Giles doesn't need a disobedient dog. He knows a thing or two about taming a wild mutt."

"This isn't an order but a request that turned into a test. If you are trying to agitate me, fat chance."

"If YoU aRe TrYiNg tO blah blah blah. Kill me or not, I'm going back to bed."

The old rhino lumbers back into his house. I head back to master Giles and tell him that "old white" walked.

"Like I said. Too bitter."

"Can you tell me about him instead?"

"[Faux Unicorns] and [Unicorns] share a common ancestor/origin. The 'fake' ones get offended when you insinuate that they have [Unicorn] blood in them. They are called 'faux' because they are the weaker of the two species. Innate affinity to the 'holy' element. It's similar to the 'cloud' element since it's an amalgam of three different energies. Radiant, life, and bless rather than wind, water, and lightning."

"Bless is the opposite of curse?"

"You are catching on quickly. Blessings and curses are just magical afflictions that are either positive or negative. They aren't mutually exclusive since they can mix with each other. Typically anything with a negative is a curse. Even if they bring positives. But there are always outliers."

That wasn't in my books. [One Thousand & One Curses, by Dr. E. Deathmen.] does have some suspiciously positive curses, but I guess I see why now. I knew 'bless' and its interaction with 'holy' since it was in [The Other Elements]. I didn't mean to say that as a question, but whatever. If I want to understand the interaction of the element of 'holy' and the gods, I'll need to put myself in danger and open one of those forbidden books I stashed away. I wonder if the "evil" gods have their own version of 'holy,' or if gods inhabit specific elements and those specific ones are a middle finger to the undead.

"I'll be going now, master Giles. If you need me, I'll be at master Wang's estate using his fracture."

"Hold on. I know how to talk to old white. Let me say a few things to him before you go running off. You are the only chance he can meet peace. The beasts here see him as an elder and wouldn't give him the send-off he wants, and my other disciples are ungrateful and don't visit their master except for birthdays and holidays."

"There is no other beast? Couldn't you do it yourself? An act of mercy."

"The beasts that don't see him as an elder wouldn't struggle and would dispatch him immediately. That fact applies to me as well. It's cruel to toy around with his life to simulate the fight he wants. I can always find somebody, but what's the point in disciples if I can't get them to do things for me? Stay here. If he doesn't relent in something, I wouldn't be angry or disappointed that his death wasn't by your hands."

Master Giles walks away with a hint of sadness in his steps. I decided to follow him. [Heal Anything] has technically brought someone back from the dead and has healed many faults and ailments. Can I 'heal' old age? Aging happens because our cells are damaged and are worse at replicating themselves the longer we live. Can I heal the damage? Can I reinvigorate cells? Am I willing to show such an ability in front of an asshole and my master? If a [Faux Unicorn] has a great life affinity, wouldn't they be able to do that themselves? Is there some disconnect I'm not seeing? Perhaps, the spirit and life force have their own lifespan, and mana extends it. I wondered why mana was attributed to longer lives when the life force exists.

We enter the home, and it's cozy inside. It's a big room with a cushion in the middle big enough for old white. Along one wall is a large kitchen and on another wall is a pile of old stuff. It's not one room, as I assume the bathroom is behind a massive door off to the side. Old white is dozing off on his bed.

"Wake up. We should talk, friend."

"Fuck off, Giles."

"Give the kid a break. He's doing you a favor. You should appreciate that."

"Nah."

"You won't need your horn when you're gone or anything else. Why not leave something to your slayer? It's different if it's in your will than if he desecrates your corpse."

"If only I get his horn if his beast dies. And I'm not talking about his nose, heh."

"Can I ask what's ailing him, master Giles? Is it only age? How old is he anyways?"

"He is so old he forgot his age. We only know that his organs are failing. We don't know the cause. I'm a talented veterinarian, but I haven't spotted anything besides age ailing him. He refuses to see more qualified healers or diagnosticians."

"They are all quacks. If Giles here says I'm fine, then that's that."

"But you aren't fine, friend. You're dying."

"We all have to die at some point. I've been ready to go far longer than I've been in this condition. If the kid takes the bet, we can fight right now."

"Sure."

~

I'll try de-aging someone when I'm at a higher level and have more mana. Even with my mana exploit, I don't think I'd be able to de-age a monster like that by any significant margin. We are standing in a mostly cleared field. The only thing ruining this flat landscape is a handful of large rocks. It's a clear and sunny day, but I don't think it'll be like that for long. Khan is swimming in circles a distance away from the rhino. I wonder how it will fight. Will it use its massive body more or its holy affinity?

Khan can choose Flash Gordon's [Fortify] skill to double his defenses. Not just armor but any other 'defenses' he has, like his elemental ones. But I have him take [Living Fortress] instead. The skill allows the user to infinitely increase their size by spending mana. It isn't stated, but I noticed an increase in defense and damage when active. And since Khan doesn't use mana for anything else, giant sharks look pretty good. I don't know if using [Empower] on him would count against his feat of soloing a creature twice his level, so I'll hold off on it.

The fight starts without any fancy fanfare or remarks. I told Khan to hunt, so he did. The rhino was wise, and a barrier made of light springs into existence, covering his entire body like a second skin. Khan has a passive penetration on his bites, so I'm curious how that interacts with magical barriers. During the final battle in the tournament, I couldn't give my full attention to Khan, so I didn't see how well he did against the healer's shield.

The rhino tries to use a buffing spell on itself but fails. First blood was drawn by a nosebleed caused by a miscast. The barrier stays strong while Khan gets whipped into a bigger frenzy by the scent of blood. I don't know if he can smell blood through the shielding, but his energy rises throughout the fight. A localized storm kicks up as the air around him gets agitated by his presence. Khan gets faster.

Every attack from his one hundred mouths chips away at the barrier faster than the rhino can regenerate it. It's an eye-opener once you realize that at max capacity, Khan is one hundred level one hundreds that share health. The rhino's eyes shift and move, looking for a way out of the fury and flurry of sharks. The barrier expands, turning from armor to a dome, giving the rhino breathing room.

The horn starts to glow a magnificent pure white. A sword of light, twenty feet tall, slips out. It slashes once, cutting half of the swarm at once. Unfortunately, you'll need one hundred attacks to kill Khan. Khan has a neat trick he does to bypass the power of an aoe. Instead of bearing the damage 100 times, since his bodies share health, he can only take it once by using his bodies. It doesn't really negate the amount of damage technically, but it does activate his skill. Since what he is doing is considered sacrificing his life, just one of many.

It doesn't seem like the rhino can maintain both the barrier and the sword at the same time for much longer, but Khan doesn't know patience. He attacks relentlessly to get closer to the flesh hidden beneath the barrier. It shatters.

Khan's penetration doesn't ignore the barrier but hastens its destruction. Noted. The sword breaks, turning into a spell I recognize. [Flash]. Duchess has this skill, but most likely a weaker version of it. The dust in the air, the grass growing from the dirt, and the ground itself disappeared. A steaming crater is the only thing left besides the rhino and Khan, badly injured.

Khan would be dead if it wasn't for the slight health gain from [In Passing]. Only two bodies remained. All the others had to be sacrificed so Khan could live. The rhino pants as Khan attacks.

A new barrier doesn't go up, nor do new spells get cast. The rhino is either preparing something or using all its mana to conjure that sword and repair the barrier. Although [Living Fortress]'s cost stacks exponentially, its effect does not. Khan can only get four times as big since any further would cost hundreds of mana per second he does not have, mainly because his stats have fallen so low.

Khan advances, one from the front and one from the back. The rhino's eyes are cloudy. I don't even know if he's aware of the danger his backside faces. He gores one of the bodies, turning it to dust against his charged horn, but the rhino ultimately gets his dues. While one body approached his horn, another had the same idea.

Khan's supercharged, mega-boosted attack was critical. That rhino wanted my '"horn," so it's ironic. Even with one body, with all the buffs, Khan's might is larger than Rob's.

Critical!

-18057

If I did my math correctly, almost 12,000 damage has been negated. Maybe that's what the rhino used its mana on, buffing its defenses. A defense that high is absolutely broken. Too bad they aren't as broken as Khan. The rhino dies on his feet, and the last Khan standing starts to shudder with anticipation. Khan was blinded by the [Flash] but got by using his other senses. His eyes drip with blood as his bones break and flesh rips as his evolution commences, meat still in his mouth.