Mid Afternoon - Early Fall : The Forest of Giants | Temnota

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  *Fip* *Tap* Flipping my axe up onto my shoulder, keeping my eyes on the spiney drake dragging its prey through the field, Bel gave me a worried look. "Y..you 't be serious..."

  Gently shrugging, I looked down the drake and started idly ing up with a pn. "I shouldn't have any problems as long as he doesn't target you two. Worst case sario, I'll lure it away from here." -I just o stay close enough for my aura to feel presences around Eve... Actually, before that...- Turning around, I quickly opened my system and tapped through it.

  "Huh?" Almost immediately, Bel's face was lit by a panel as well.

  With just a few button presses, I had transferred her a few million gold. "If anything about Eve ges, transfer me some gold." Unlike most things, gold could be transferred between us instantly, withard for distance. "If you send me gold, I'll e back as fast as I ."

  Staring at the panel in a daze, she sat down and raised her paw, navigating through the panels before mumbling. "Like.. this..?"

  *Beep* My system sounded out instantly. "Successfully transferred 4,216 gold from panion robotic 'Bel'."

  Swiping through the pao close it, I nodded. "Exactly like that, alright?"

  Seeing her somewhat hesitantly nod, I finally turned back to the horizohe massive, spiny drake tinued across the pin, and started walking down the long tree branch to get a better view.

  It was pletely alone, dragging its still-wiggling prey through the grass with its spines rexed, ying like armor on its back while its heavy horns caused its head to gently sway bad forth just off the ground.

  Uhe wyvern, it was pletely focused on defense, with its ck of speed and attack power being pensated for solely by its spines.

  However, while its spines indeed made it a tough nut to crack, it relying too mu them was also a weakness when it came to fighting an intelligent foe. -If I close the distance before it shoot any spines, I should be fine.- sidering its belly was yered with armored scales rather than spines, I retty fident that I could get through it.

  The matter was just getting there. -As soon as I head in its dire, it'll spot me.- Even as I stood on the edge of a tree brane eighty kilometers away, well outside the range of its aura, its eyes were aimed in my dire.

  It knew I was nearby, and that was going to make getting close to it without it notig me o impossible.

  However, after everything I had learned fr to teach Bel how to trol her mana, I had some ideas, so while there was still quite some distaween me and the drake, I ran through them. No matter how stupid the idea was, I tried it, modified it, and tried again.

  Until eventually, I mao create a blindspot in my aura even at extreme ranges.

  The thing was, the farther from me my aura was, the less trol I had over it, so at les I didn't really think I had any trol at all, but as it turned out, even at close to two hundred kilometers, I could trol my aura. However, that trol was like stig a massive, dozen-kilometer-wide fan down into a cloud.

  It was terrible.

  However, it was also just enough for me to keep my aura pletely out of tact with the drake's aura up until I got within a few kilometers. -The question will be if I close that distance before it peppers me with spines...-

  But, with plenty of space to accelerate, I retty fident. -Alright, let's see what I do.- *Tap-WoooOOOOSH* Finally hopping off the branch, I rushed to gather mana in my legs, plummeting dowhe very edge of the pin before using my aura to catch myself, fttening a swath of metallic, bde-like grass and springing forward. *FWOOSH*

  Doing everything I could to accelerate, I kept myself low to the ground while remaining focused on the horizon that now hid the drake from sight.

  But while I couldn't see him, he couldn't see me either.

  *WOOOSH* Finally getting up to speed, the drake eventually peeked the horizoly where I expected, and I popped my axe off my shoulder.

  While there was still easily a dozen kilometers between us, that was a distance I would cover in just a few seds.

  "Hooh..." Letting out a heavy breath that instantly turned into a steamy fog when it touched the trail of psma I created, I stiffened my legs and tightehe grip on my axe before finally, my aura met the drakes.

  *VWOOM* But while I expected a fast rea, its eyes instantly so me and its quills stood up.

  Before I could eve within two kilometers, a wall of spines was already headed for me. -But they're slow...-

  At least that was pared to what it shot after me when I was carrying Eve. *TING-TING-TING* Quickly parrying a few of them with the side of my axe, I closed the remaining distaween us befathering mana in my arms, sliding us side as it lowered itself to the ground and swinging up into its gut with everything I had.

  But the thick ivory-like armor ptes yering its stomach just absorbed the impact like it was nothing. *THUNK*

  But I wasn't oo let go of my on so easily.

  ing to a halt on a dime, I swung my axe around, pnting my feet on its stomach before accumuting mana in my shoulders and back. -So your armor is malleable, huh? How troublesome...-

  Feeling the drake falling, attempting to crush me against the ground, I forcefully straightehe axe up so the hilt faced the ground before creating a massive structure of aura that focused the creature's weight onto it.

  *Crackle* With su immense force, the axe had no problem digging through the malleable yer of armor, but right as it hit something hard, the creature noticed and caught itself, rolling onto its side as it went to grab me with its oversized cws.

  -Well, since you won't do it for me...- Ign the cws, I rapidly increased the amount of mana in my shoulder before pulling back a fist and driving it into the hilt. *WHAAAM-CRAACK* The harder, but more brittle yer of armor instantly exploded, sending my axe deep into the monster's chest cavity with a shotgun bst of bone before barely managing to catch the axe's staff and ripping it back out. *SPLAT*

  "Oooh, that felt good..." Feeling a rush of adrenaline as crimson blood glistened in the sunlight, my pupils thinned before snapping to the drake's paroag like an immovable wall. *VWOOM* But without realizing it, I strengthened nearly half my body with mana at once.

  And that led to a punpletely inparable to anything I had thrown sihe system wipe.

  *WHOOM* ing the light around my fist, the impact melted the drakes scales on tact before sending a shockwave through its arm that splis metal-like bones, and blew the spines coating its arm out into the air. *CRRRAAACKKK*

  Still failing tthen my bones enough, cracks instantly spread through my hand and forearm.

  But there was so much adrenaline pumping through my veins that I didn't even notice it.

  Bolting to the ground, I darted toward its head. With it ying on its side, the underside of its neck was an easy target.

  Or so I thought.

  As I jumped over its leg ying ft against the ground, one of its massive horns smmed down in front of me, trapping me in before its bulky tail curled uself, whipping a dozen barbed spi me so fast I didn't have time to dodge.

  But even though my body was too slow to react, there was ohing that didn't deteriorate after my system was wiped.

  My mind.

  *VWOOM* Instantly taking trol of my aura, I meticulously pushed around the barbed ends of the spines, each far bigger than me, guiding them around me before f the tail to aim up in the air. *TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THUD*

  Finally panig, the monster raised its quills, and its front legs started to close on the cage of spines I had made around myself.

  I didn't let it get that far though.

  Before it had a ce to react, I slipped out of the cage and darted up us arm, and onto its enormous horn. "Geez..." It was so oversized I holy struggled to believe it. -Its skull might be a challenge...- With such a huge mass of bone ing from it, the skull was bound to be built like the wall of a fortress.

  But the skull wasn't the only pce I could hit. *WOOSH* Darting up to its neck, right at the base of its skull, I used my aura to push up omosphere, turning my parably light body into a huhousand-ton monster before stomping my fht on the edge of one of its vertebrae. *CRACK-Pop*

  A dull pop instantly sounded, as if I only mao give the creature a readjustment.

  But in the same moment, its body rexed, its quills id down, and its tail limply fell out of the air. *WHAM*

  *Beep* It was only a few seds ter that the kill-firmed panel appeared in front of me. -Level 8,600, huh...- "That felt pretty good..." Shaking the tingling feeling out of my fractured hand, I let out a breath to try and ease my nerves. -It's a shame it died so fast...- Idly looking up at the tree branch Eve and Bel were on, I felt a bit disappointed.

  My inal pn to to just paralyze it, knock it out, et it on the brink of death, and give the kill to Bel to see if she could level up, collect items, and collect upgrades, -But maybe this would've been too much for her anyway...-

  Tempted to find something a bit more tame to have Bel kill, I made my way back to the forest after tossing some of the drake's materials in my iory to try and find anything, even if it was a small bird or rodent.

  Nothing ever caught my gaze though. -No wohis world's popution was so low...- Even though it was a world siderably rger thah, it had nothing but megafauna, pensating for the ck of creatures keeping the ecosystem in check with size and appetite.

  In other words, it was a world of predators.

  One where the drake I had just killed was only half the totem pole. -Of all the worlds for me t Eve to...-

  But thankfully, the hardest part was behind us. With her body moving to live off mana, it would iably get stronger with time, and things like finding food to eat, water to drink, or even air to breathe were irrelevant. -We just o be careful until I run with her on my shoulders without nearly putting her in a a...-

  That was a challehat was going to be far harder than I could have ever imagihough...

  I just had yet to realize it.

  *Beep* Hearing my system sound out of nowhere, I looked over to see a transfer of one gold from Bel. -Is she waking up?-

  sidering it was just a single , it likely wasn't anything serious. -But I shouldn't lollygag...-

  So, kig it into high gear, I made my way back to the tree she was resting on as fast as I could while starting to think about how I would expin what happeo her without sounding insane.

  And well, it went about as I expected...

  "YOU DID WHAT?!"

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