A Growing Power
Fighting against the large centipede-like beast, Kayla was doing her best to evade its attack. Now, standing a good distance away, she activated her ability, covering both her fists in flames as her eyes glowed bright yellow.
She rushed forward, delivering a punch to the centre of its body, quickly moving away before it would close its legs, attempting to slash at her skin. Observing the beast, she was waiting for another opportunity to move in to attack. Whenever she would see a chance, she would rush in and deliver a strong blow, her flames burning the area she would strike.
Meanwhile, the adventurer had made quick work of the beasts that were rushing towards them. Instead of focusing on Kayla fighting against the large beast, he was more interested in the reason why so many beasts were running towards their direction.
'Before these beasts came, there was a loud bang coming from the north. Maybe it's a higher grade beast, or maybe…' he began to run in the direction where the explosion had occurred, leaving Kayla on her own to deal with the large beast.
Although she had no idea she had been abandoned, she was more focused on the task before her, and that was to kill this beast, and claim its Mana core for herself.
Moving in, she continued to swipe her hands, using her flames to burn the sensitive parts of the creature's skin. Although there didn't seem to be much weak spots to begin with, that didn't stop her from doing the best she could to win the fight.
As the fight eaged on, a little distance away, some other beasts could be seen slowly making their way towards the battle field. They were similar to the one that had tried sneaking up on Kayla a while back-the one that had inevitably been killed by the adventurer.
It wasn't much of a struggle, and after a few well-placed strikes, the man was able to kill the beast before him, before sending other beasts in the area that were gradually making their way towards them.
'There're more of them!' He quickly headed off to the location of the nearest beast, blitzing past Kayla and the worm-like beast on the way. Not long after, he came face to face with the beast.
"I'll kill you all and take your Mana cores," charging his attack, he fired out multiple bolts of lightning, hitting the beast in multiple spots simultaneously, almost illuminating the creature with his power. A few seconds of this, and the beast had collapsed onto the ground, showing no signs of getting back up anytime soon.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more mana she would loose, but despite knowing this, Kayla wished to get the most of this fight as she could. Rushing in for another attack, she readied her fist, further channelling her Mana and condensing her flames. Increasing her speed, the flames around her fist condensed further as it was being pushed further, forming a thin layer of flames around her fingers that burned brighter than any flame she had ever generated before.
"I will get stronger and stronger, until I'm able to kick some sense into that bastard of a brother!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, swinging her fist, striking the beast on the area right below its mouth, barely avoiding its jaws as she dug her fist further into its skin, causing it to spew out blood as it was pushed back by the punch.
Hitting some rocks not too far away, the creature quickly regained itself, however, Kayla was tailing it closely, and before it could prepare another attack, she had slammed her leg right across the side of its head, causing it to fly into the air, before crashing into a bunch of trees somewhere else.
'This beast doesn't seem too strong. It is something above the intermediate grade… or am I just too strong for it?' she wondered to herself, as she quickly closed the distance once again. This time, she grabbed hold of the other end of the beast, before spreading her flames across its body, attempting to burn it alive.
The creature struggled immensely, trying to break free. However, her grip around its tail was just far too strong, and with a tighter squeeze, it popped open, and spewing across her face and ground, was nothing but black blood and the guts of the beast. Her ability was still active, abd even now, as it burnt through the beast, the creature eventually succumbed to the heat, before meeting its end.
"I am… the strongest," she said, before walking forward, street hibg her hand out. "If I remember correctly, dad once told me that a beast's Mana core cannot be destroyed easily. So even if I burn away the body, I will still be able to aquire it intact," that said, she activated her power, burning away at the remains of the beast. She didn't stop until the creature had been reduced to a pile of ash, and with a puff of air, she blew it all away, revealing a brightly-coloured object laying on the ground.
"Ahhh… my hard work has paid off," she then picked up the Mana core, inspecting it closely before she began to concentrate, feeling the energy from the crystal heading into her body. She stopped focusing on the environment around her, and poured all her focus into the absorption technique. Not long after, and her eyes opened, and the crystal now had a dull grey color to it.
"I can feel it… I can feel myself getting stronger!" She said, as she brought both of her hands close to her chest before swinging them both out, and with that, her flames erupted, encircling her body and giving her a bright orange aura. Her body blazed with an intense heat that threatened to burn down the entire forest, but she didn't mind.
After all, she wished to hunt down even stronger beasts to I crease her power.
"This power… it feels just like the time Henry went rogue. I can feel it. Sooner or later, if I keep this up, then I will surely be able to catch up with him in time," she said, before shifting her gaze upward. Up in the sky, there was a monkey-like beast with sharp claws and a deranged look marred on its face. Swinging its arms, it attempted to injure her in that moment she was distracted, however, that moment didn't last long, and as soon as she realized what was about to happen, she smiled, holding up one hand as a bright yellow aura began to form.
"I don't sense as much power from you like what I sensed from that worm, which just means that you're weak,' she said, sending a ball of fire towards the monkey, burning it before it could even touch her garment.
"I wonder what that adventurer is still doing?" She asked herself, deactivating her power as she began to search for the man. On the other hand, the adventurer had already dealt with the humanoid beasts that were circling the area. After obtaining their Mana cores, he began to wonder something else. That was until, he felt something tap him on his shoulder.
"Aaahhh!" He yelled, quickly channelling some of his Mana to activate his lightning, sending a heavy shock to the beast Wich had managed to sneak up on him. However, upon a closer inspection, he realized that it wasn't a beast that had tried sneaking up on him.
"What… is… wrong with you…?" Breathing heavily, Kayla was trying to recover from the attack. It was clear that the adventurer wasn't holding back much of his power from that attack. Despite the fact that she had absorbed the energy from an intermediate grade crystal, the fact still remained that this man held far more power than her.
"So you managed to slay that beast on your own," he said, looking at her clothes from head to toe. They looked burnt and ripped at certain places. However, he made sure that his gaze didn't linger for too long upon certain areas, and a stern glare from her had also forced him to avert his gaze quickly.
'Perv…' she thought, before quickly changing the subject to something else.
"Seems like you also managed to kill the other beasts. Not bad, for an adventurer," she said. "So, are we just gonna remain strangers or are you gonna tell me your name?" She asked.
After thinking for a while about whether or not he should disclose his identity to her, he eventually opened his mouth to reply.
"Just call me Red Band," he said, with a serious expression on his face.
"Red Band? Seriously? After all we've been through, and that's all you're willing to tell me?!" She complained.
"'After all we've been through?!' Listen here, little girl, I don't even know you. You just happened to get in my way while I was hunting some beasts! And now, you expect me to tell you my whole life history or something? No, thanks. I'm outta here," he said, as his body was then covered by lightning before shooting off into the sky.
"Wait! At least help me find my way back to Earth! C'mon, man! Red Band! You still there?!" Try as she may, it looked like the adventurer had vanished into the skies. Not sure whether or not she would ever see him again, all she could do was shake her head, muttering a couple words under her breath before raising her head up, staring at the path before her.
"I guess it's back to running," she said, before kicking off against her feet, running at top speed across the land.
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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
I have finally made it to onr hundred chapters.
See you all in the next chapter.