A man sat near a bed, closing the book he just finished reading to his son.

  The boy sat there, a bit scared from the ending.

  The Hero of the story barely defeated the Ogre with red skin. Though most kids would find this end happy, the boy was afraid. To think that an Ogre could push a Hero that far made him shiver…

  “What type of Ogre was that?” The boy asked, trying to hide his fear.

  “The red-skinned one? It’s called a Superior Ogre, an evolution certain strong Ogres go through.” The man expined calmly.

  “What’s the difference between them?”

  “I suppose the biggest difference would have to be their skin.”

  “Huh? The hero didn’t mention that though.”

  “That’s because it’s not widely spread knowledge.” The man said with a smile.

  “So what makes their skin different? The color?” The boy asked, his curiosity beginning to prevail over his fear.

  “The Superior Ogre’s skin is resistant to everything, whether it's physical or magical.”

  “So that’s why the Hero struggled so much!? How didn’t he notice?”

  “There wasn’t any point in acknowledging it, but that’s not the only difference, they're stronger, and much more aggressive than normal Ogres, now go to sleep, Ren, otherwise I’ll have to call one for you!”

  Ren flinched and hid under the cover, tightly closing his eyes as he heard his father's ughter from outside.

  *****

  Akari’s mana began fluctuating. During her walk to the cave, she wasn’t only focusing on sensing her environment but also focusing on maniputing her mana. Though she didn’t know how to use any magic yet, she could strengthen her body with the overwhelming amount of mana inside of her.

  The gigantic Superior Ogre reached her in seconds, its long powerful legs allowing for extremely quick travel.

  What Akari faced was an A-rank monster, not a C-rank, though, she didn’t know this.

  Without stopping, the Ogre unched its fist in Akari’s direction. The fist of the thing was rge, bigger than Akari’s entire body, though, to be fair, she was still a child.

  This attack wasn’t one Akari could just take, and she instinctively knew this. Mana exploded into her legs, allowing her to jump out of the way.

  She nded on the roof of the cave, immediately bouncing off straight to the shoulder of the Ogre.

  ‘Heh, I’m like a lil’ rocket!’

  Akari thought this as she began letting mana flood into her left arm, punching the Ogre in the shoulder right as his fist made contact with the ground Akari was in moments ago.

  *Booooom!!*

  The cave shook with the impact of the two blows.

  When the smoke cleared, Akari could see that she did absolutely no damage to the Ogre. There wasn’t even a bruise on it. Even the loud explosion was due to the Ogre alone.

  This wasn’t a battle Akari could win.

  Akari wasn’t dumb by any means, she knew she couldn’t win, just from this exchange.

  She pumped her entire body with mana and began running out of the cave at full speed. She was running extremely fast, but she could feel the Ogre gaining on her. Right as she was about to escape the cave, she got hit from her left side.

  The Ogre had punched her, unching her out of the cave, into the air.

  Her vision blurred for a moment. Although she couldn’t feel the blow, she knew it hurt extremely badly. She lost all feeling in her left arm.

  ‘It’s intelligent!?’

  Akari immediately noticed this. It aimed for what it assumed was her dominant side. Akari hurriedly looked around, trying to find any signs of other people to get help.

  However, all she saw was a white light, deeper in the forest.

  Now freefalling, Akari didn’t have time to figure out what that light was. She needed to figure out how to nd safely.

  Her left arm was definitely broken, so she decided to make use of it. She pumped it with mana, blood leaking from her arm continuously. She began maniputing that mana to make the arm move.

  With semi-control of her broken arm, she punched the ground, cushioning her fall.

  Her arm was completely done now and she didn’t want to risk permanent damage.

  “Phew..!”

  As Akari exhaled her built up stress, just to look up and see the Ogre falling towards her.

  ‘No way!’

  She jumped out of the way, her body constantly being filled with mana.

  It had jumped after her, determining exactly where she’d nd.

  The Ogre didn’t stop at this, it began attacking Akari nonstop, giving her no time to situate herself.

  All she could do was dodge. Luckily for her, she was faster than the Ogre, and a small target. However, all this meant was that one more blow could probably kill her.

  *Boom Boom Boom!*

  The Ogre’s onsught just wouldn’t stop, as if it had infinite stamina.

  Akari jumped away from the Ogre, mana still coursing through her body but her stomach feeling tight. She was exhausted. Even if she couldn’t feel it, she could tell.

  Although she had a lot more mana to use, her body couldn’t keep up with all the dodging.

  When she thought about still having a lot of mana to use, it reminded her of how she killed the Guard. She slowly began increasing the output of her mana, allowing it to exit her body instead of keeping it all in.

  The Ogre uprooted a tree, realizing that its fist couldn’t touch Akari.

  Using the tree as a spear, it hurled it towards Akari. This deadly weapon was instantly crushed once it entered Akari’s mana zone.

  She had her eyes closed by this point, realizing that her eyes couldn’t keep up with the monster anyway. She was relying on sensing the Ogre’s movements the entire time, predicting where it would attack and dodging at the slightest muscle movement.

  If she hadn’t dodged in this way, she would’ve been caught long ago.

  Mana continued flowing from Akari with no end, the mana being contained in a 4 by 4-meter radius. Akari was amazed. Although she poured so much mana out, she still felt more in store. It felt bottomless, and she could use all of it.

  The Ogre unched its fist at Akari again, a crimson fsh hitting the zone.

  By this point, the mana around Akari had condensed to the point that it was tangible, acting as a shield that protected her from the blow.

  Normally, any normal person or even a normal ogre would have it’s hand crushed by the immense pressure this shield creates, but the crimson skin of the Superior Ogre protected it from that fate, allowing for it to punch it with little consequence.

  “Ha!”

  Akari had released the barrier she created, allowing the condensed mana to explode in all directions outwards. This knocked the Ogre back, nding straight on its back.

  Every tree in the vicinity was uprooted and the ground was disheveled.

  Akari immediately began running.

  She ran towards the light she had seen not too long ago in the sky.

  She felt the Ogre running towards her, around 18 meters away, gaining on her quickly.

  Akari smmed her right first into a tree, breaking it and making a small block.

  She felt the tree get trampled, not stopping the Ogre at all.

  *Rooooar!*

  It was getting closer.

  10 meters away…

  8 meters…

  7…

  6…

  5..

  4.

  *Booooom!!!*

  The Ogre punched Akari with more forced than ever.

  Akari heard the bones in her body cracking, her limp body flying through multiple trees, nding right next to the bright light she saw earlier.

  ‘All according to pn..!’

  She filled her body with mana again, forcing her broken body to reach for the light.

  Upon closer inspection, she realized that it wasn’t just light, but a flower. It was a sunflower emitting a bright white light constantly. It reminded Akari of Liebe, and how she met him after touching a simir flower, just blue.

  She touched the flower, hoping for something simir to what happened with Liebe to happen again.

  However, nothing happened.

  The flower showed no reaction to her touch.

  The Ogre stood over Akari, towering over her.

  Akari flipped her body over, the realisation that she’d die slowly setting in.

  Her eyes welled up with tears, but none came out.

  The Ogre simply stood there, prompting for Akari to wonder what’s it waiting for.

  “Why are you on the ground?”

  She heard from behind.

  Akari turned to the sound, hearing her body creaking. She shouldn’t even be conscious right now. Her body was damaged beyond repair, or so she thought.

  She saw a figure, all white, the complete opposite of Liebe. It had no mouth, but it had eyes. Everything about it contrasted with Liebe, except for how she got to meet it.

  They had to be reted in some way, but Akari couldn’t figure out how.

  The figure had pitch bck eyes, no mouth or any other features that could be seen.

  “Do you kn-”

  As Akari was going to ask it if it knows Liebe, the figure extended a hand towards Akari, her wounds healing extremely fast.

  As this happened, Akari watched how his mana moved, how it not only moved towards her, it’s structure changed. Even the color, which was originally white, became tinted with green.

  Akari could see all of this, she could understand it as well, she could replicate this.

  Her eyes began glowing, a dim light emitting from her crimson eyes.

  “Ah, so that’s your soul weapon? That’s just unfair.”

  The figures eyes crinkled, as if it were smiling.

  She’d never know if it was, as the only feature it had was it’s eyes. No mouth, no nose, no ears, just eyes. Two pitch bck eyes that were mimicing a smile, a cresent moon.

  Akari got shivers at this, not know what it was talking about.

  She had heard something about souls before, at the adventurers guild. At the time, Akari was more focused on making money so she didn’t really investigate what the receptionist meant. However, hearing it again made her curious.

  ‘A soul weapon huh? I wonder what he’s talking about…’

  The Ogre stood there, still behind her, but it still wasn’t moving.

  Akari got up, her body being completely healed.

  Looking closer at the Ogre, she could see that it was sweating. It wasn’t frozen because the figure did anything, it was frozen in fear.

  At this realization, Akari looked back at the pale figure, asking,

  “What… Who are you?”

  “Hmm, I suppose I’d be simir to a spirit to humans. I’m Ataki.., the spirit.”

  “You don’t sound too sure about that.”

  “That’s because I’m not.”

  “Why?”

  “Look, that’s not important ok? All I know is that you need to kill that Superior Ogre.”

  “Superior? Is that why it’s so tough?”

  “E~xactly!”

  “Why should I defeat it while it’s frozen… I should just run.”

  “Huh?”

  Ataki looked at Akari with wide eyes.

  “Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do. Cya, and thanks for healing me!”

  Akari began walking off, happy since she gets to live a little longer.

  “If… If you promise to fight the Ogre.. I’ll show you some attack magic… It’ll be really cool, magic you won’t see anywhere else!”

  Ataki said, desperation filling his voice.

  Akari’s head turned instantly. She’s had an interest in magic ever since coming to this world, yet she hasn’t seen a single person use any other than Ataki.

  The way the guild receptionist spoke about mages made her think that they are rare, and the way Ataki phrased what he said, they must actually be rare.

  “...Fine, show me!”

  Akari folded in no time, her excitement clouding her sense of judgement.

  “Phew!”

  Ataki excimed.

  “Alright, theres no need to expin this to you thanks to your soul weapon, go ahead and activate it.”

  “Huh? I don’t even know what a soul weapon is..”

  “But.. you just used it, wait, let me check something.”

  Akari sat down on the ground, legs crossed over eachother. She was curious as to what Ataki was pnning. She didn’t feel any danger, so she simply watched.

  Ataki exhaled before saying,

  “Blood magic: Type A, Blood spear.”

  As he said this, his mana flow changed. Akari’s eyes began to glow again, watching his mana’s transformation intently.

  His mana flowed from his heart to his hands, leaking out and changing colors, becoming red, more condensed. Suddenly, a spike in mana happened.

  This spike made Akari flinch for a second.

  Once it stabalized, Ataki was holding a spear made of blood. Akari analyzed how the spear was made, her eyes glowing slightly brighter.

  She felt like she could do this, easily.

  *Boom!*

  The spear flew past the Ogre, breaking the sound barrier and piercing many trees next to the monster.

  Seeing that Ataki did notice it’s presence, it began to move again.

  The intelligent monster seemed to believe that if he stayed still, Ataki wouldn’t attack it. It was proven right, til now.

  Now that it knows that Ataki can see it, it began moving, rampaging once again.

  “Roaaar!!”

  The Ogre roared as Ataki turned to Akari, with him saying,

  “Well, it’s all up to you. Have fun!”

  Ataki disappeared as the Ogre turned it’s attention to Akari, smirking.

  The monster knew it should be able to win now that the other man left and under normal circumstances, it’d be right. But at the moment, Akari was in the zone.

  Her eyes, at first emitting a dim light, was fully shining. Her mana was constantly leaking from her body, mimicking how Ataki’s mana was moving.

  The Ogre saw the environment get darker, Akari’s dense mana filling the air but staying in a 30 meter radius from her. That’s how far she could sense by now. She was growing exponentially.

  Mimicking Ataki, she shot an astronomical amount of her mana right infront of her, willing it to turn into an bow and arrow.

  ‘Does the blood type matter? Lets go with type A as well..’

  In moments, a bow made of pure blood formed infront of Akari.

  “Huh? I thought I’d need to say it outloud..”

  An arrow formed along with the bow, falling straight into pce.

  The Ogre flinched at this, seeing the same magic that entity made that could’ve pierced though it with ease.

  She drew the arrow back, pumping even more mana into it.

  The arrow bloated up, having much more mana inside of it than it should.

  The Ogre grabbed a tree, pnning on testing if her magic was as strong as Ataki’s.

  Akari shot the arrow.

  The Ogre unched the tree.

  *Kkrack.. Boom!*

  The arrow pierced the tree and smmed into the Ogre, exploding on contact. Akari put too much mana in the arrow. The unstable arrow was able to hurt the Ogre, the first bit of damage it’s taken yet.

  However, since the arrow piered the tree, the tree still hit Akari as well. Akari slightly anticipated this though, blocking the tree with retive ease.

  Her body was brimming with mana, the bottomless well not being dried at the slightest.

  ‘Let’s go with daggers next!’

  Akari was having fun now. Though her arms were scratched up, she began mimicking the spell Ataki had casted on her to heal her. This was even easier than the blood magic was.

  Her scratched slowly began healing.

  ‘I wonder if I could do other stuff with this healing!’

  She was gd she took Ataki up on the offer, feeling as if this Ogre couldn’t beat her now.

  “Hehe, the tables turned, didn’t they.”

  The Ogre held it’s arm, bewildered at how that arrow not only broke the crimson skin of a Superior Ogre, but also dislocated its shoulder.

  However, this sight only served to anger it, it letting out a deafening roar in response.

  Two blood daggers formed in Akari’s hands, her rushing in to attack.

  The Ogre sweeped it’s arm, trying to swat Akari away.

  *Crack*

  Akari had quickly created a condensed mana shield to block it. It had cracked from the force of the attack, but it was able to stop it from reaching her.

  Landing on the Ogre’s chest, she began trying to stab it.

  *Shink.. shink.. squelch*

  She had to stab the same spot 3 times before she could draw blood. However, the wound wasn’t deep enough.

  Akari wasn’t too greedy, so she jumped off it, just in time to avoid getting hit.

  *Boom, Boom, Boom!*

  She had let free a barrage of unstable arrows, each charged with way too much mana.

  The Ogre was wounded all over, crimson blood staining it’s already crimson skin. It’s rage only grew with each arrow, until it began running through the explosions to reach Akari.

  Seeing this, Akari formed two daggers, changing the structure a bit to make them less durable but more sharp.

  *Kkkkrack!*

  The Ogre kicked Akari into the sky, It’s rage allowing for the Ogre to reach new heights of strength.

  Akari was knocked out for a second, immediately waking up right after.

  She began healing herself as she fell, slowly being able to breathe again.

  That kick had colpsed her entire torso. There was most definitely internal bleeding, warm , sticky, blood coming out her mouth as she ascended.

  Once she stopped ascending, she had fully healed herself.

  Although it wasn’t as fast as Ataki’s, Akari could heal herself extremely quickly, feeling no strain from doing so.

  She created two hammers made of blood as she fell, slowly gaining speed.

  She was directly over the Ogre, which was screaming in pain.

  Right when the Ogre kicked her, Akari stabbed both daggers into it’s toe and cut it off, which is the reason she didn’t die from the blow.

  She flooded her entire body with mana and prepared to strike the Ogre from above.

  **Boom!!!**

  The entire forest floor shook as she smmed the hammers into the Ogre’s head from hundreds of meters in the sky.

  This blow made the Ogre’s head explode and broke Akari’s arms, a double edged sword.

  Akari was covered in blood, a new yer over the dried blood of the guard covering her, this time it actually being monster blood.

  She lied on the back of the Ogre, healing her arms as she mumbled,

  “Magic is amazing, and just how much mana do I have?”

  Akari’s arms slowly regained their original appearance at a rapid rate.

  “Well, that’s my victory, yay.”

  She said as she raised her bloody arms to the sky.