Point-of-View: Ilex Sarralot

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"D-damn it, it’s too fast!" Cried an Adventurer, narrowly evading a fatal blow and desperately scrambling away to safety.

"Argghhhhhhh, m-my...my arm...!" Another Adventurer yelled out in pain, as the Monster sliced off his right arm with a rapid swipe of its claws, blood gushing out and splattering the ground as he stumbled back with a look of terror and agony.

As the Monster then began to charge up flames, I took aim as I got within range and fired a lightning projectile with my Mana Armament Soul Weapon, hitting the side of its mouth and piercing through, dissipating the flames.

A Chimera, huh...a few years ago, I’d have been convinced that this is a creature that I absolutely cannot win against. But that’s changed, I no longer see it as an unbeatable beast that’s out of my league...now, it’s just an opponent that I can kill.

My sneak attack managed to shoot holes through the sides of the reptile head of the Monster, and it managed to graze the top of the lion head too, though that damage inflicted there is pretty minimal. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

All three heads growled threateningly as the Monster turned towards me, narrowing all six of its eyes as it locked its gazes onto me. It’ll stay alive so long as even one head is still alive...it can’t regenerate though, so killing it actually isn’t all that difficult.

As the lion head suddenly opened its jaws, I swiftly raced across while simultaneously firing out Mana bullets from my Soul Weapon. The lion let out a deafening roar in my direction, as I picked up speed and sprang behind an alley to avoid taking on the full brunt of it, the explosive burst of sound still making my ears ring as I evaded it, my vision blurring slightly.

It can’t roar like that in quick succession, this is my best chance to take it down. As adrenaline began pumping through my body, my excitement began to rise, a smirk spreading out across my lips as I let out a slight chuckle.

I then sprang out from behind the alley, leaping up as the goat head fired out a blast of wind towards me, springing over it before I pointed my Mana Armament behind me and fired out a sharp, pressurized burst of flames, shooting myself forward through the air.

I’ve been training hard for the last few years, and I’ve gotten help from Larrk and the others. I tried but failed to learn Spellcasting, but I managed to get a grasp on the basics of Elemental Plasma...thanks to that, I can now fire plasma, lightning and fire from my Mana Armament, instead of just basic Mana shots.

Additionally, I’ve learnt new ways to use my Soul Weapon...so long as I can clearly visualize and imagine a new form for the output to take shape as, I can pull it off!

"You’re the perfect target to let me test some things out...try to keep up, don’t die too quickly!" I exclaimed with a wide smirk, as I closed in on the Chimera in the blink of an eye, the Monster quickly whipping its tail towards me in response.

Compared to Larrk’s whip...it’s too slow! I swiftly formed a Mana blade from my Soul Weapon and slashed it up and across, slicing off about half a meter of its tail, the smirk on my face widening.

"Well, that’s disappointing...come on, you dumb beast, is that all you’ve got?" I scoffed with a laugh.

The lion head let out a vicious snarl as the other two heads began to charge and combine blasts of flames and wind. I quickly shot forward towards the Monster, the air in front of it shimmering with the heat of the combined, swirling sphere of wind and flames.

As it fired out the charged up attack in a massive, scorching wave, I formed a mass of Mana out in front of me, in the shape of an outward-facing dome, manifesting it in as wide a shape as I could manage. The flames spread out upon impact and got redirected back forward in the direction it came from.

The flames clashed and swirled against itself violently, a stifling wave of heat bursting out as the air shimmered around me, beads of sweat trickling down my face as I grimaced.

My eyes then widened as the Chimera suddenly sprang out from behind the flames, leaping over my shield and raising its claws as I got within its sights.

"Heh, not too bad...but not good enough!" I exclaimed gleefully, as I raised my Mana Armament and fired out a massive blast of lightning, hitting the Monster in the middle of its chest and eliciting agonized roars, hisses and bleats of pain from all three heads.

My attack scorched off its fur and gouged out a thick chunk of meat and bone from its chest, its heart partially visible through the opening I’d created. As it began to land, I took a couple of steps back as it crashed down onto the ground where I’d been standing.

I then took a swift half a step forward, the lion head starting to open its jaws, before abruptly freezing in motion...as I stepped onto the Chimera’s shadow, paralyzing it.

"It’s over now...time to die!" I declared with a wide grin, as I slashed off all three heads with one, rapid swing of my Soul Weapon with a Mana blade formed out from it.

Thuds echoed out as the heads fell off and hit the ground, before I stepped back a few faces to avoid getting splattered with blood as it began gushing out from the stumps where the three heads of the Monster used to be.

Hm? More Monsters...two Four-Armed Apes, Disastrous Grade Monsters. They’re Monsters that can grow upto around ten meters tall, with dark brown fur and four powerful arms.

They move faster than you might think, taking on two of them isn’t easy. There are some Magic ape and monkey like creatures that are considered Magical Beasts since they are generally docile towards humans.

But Four-Armed Apes are different in that regard...while they’re not technically carnivores, being omnivores instead, they very much prefer meat to plants when it comes to food.

These two have blood coating their fists and splattered around their mouths, and were chasing some fleeing children, catching up to them rapidly. The other Adventurers here had fled when I showed up and fought the Chimera...fine by me, I can handle this.

I took aim and fired out a couple of shots at the Monsters as they began to close in on the kids, hitting one of them on the left shoulder and grazing across the other ones nose. Their attention instantly shifted towards me, one of them tearing up a chunk of concrete from the ground and flinging it at me with immense force.

I formed a vibrating Mana blade, extending its length as I swung it down, slicing the incoming slab of concrete in half before sprinting forward at top speed.

"Alright, you dumb monkeys, ready to die!?" I yelled with a cackle, picking up the pace as I neared them.

One of them stepped forward with a deep, angry growl as I closed in on them, reaching for me with two of its arms. Right as its hands began to touch me, I stepped onto its shadow, using Shadow Bind to paralyze it before swiftly slicing off its head, killing it instantly.

My eyes then widened in slight alarm as its body collapsed down, the other Four-Armed Ape coming into sight. It was crushing a chunk of concrete into smaller pieces, letting out a snarl as it arched back its arms and flung the dozens of crushed bits of concrete at me.

I quickly formed a Mana shield as fast as I could, my heart skipping a beat as a piece of concrete flew past the left of my head, narrowly missing my left eye as it grazed my skin and the side of my left ear, blood trickling out as I just barely managed to block the rest in time.

"Okay, now you’ve done it...I’m gonna kill you!" I exclaimed as I took down the shield and fired out a barrage of Mana bullets.

The Monster raced away, a few of my bullets grazing its fur and skin but it managed to avoid any direct hits. It suddenly halted abruptly as I chased after it, a couple of my bullets hitting its torso and inflicting shallow puncture wounds on it.

It then sprang back straight towards me with a bellowing roar, balling its fists together as it began to drop towards me.

"Talk about desperate...and stupid," I scoffed, as I formed and raised a Mana blade, pointing it towards the Monster and rapidly extending the blade, skewering it through the middle of its forehead before swinging my arm up, splitting open its head.

I then stepped off to the side to avoid its falling corpse, which crashed down and skidding away, blood pouring out of its head and gathering on the ground around its body.

I let out a slow exhale to calm myself down, after looking around to see if there were any other Monsters in the vicinity...there’s a lot of damage done here, but there aren’t that many Monsters. Repelling this shouldn’t be that difficult...

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