Chapter 9 - Hell [5]

A/N: wtf, 10k views and 100 collections in a week is absolutely absurd. Love you guys.

A/N: you lot got me to 11k views in the time it took to write this chap wth

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The beast approaching me was powerful, just looking at it gave me chills. It was a hefty creature, but even so, from the way it moved I could tell that it was a fast runner. Was it faster than I was? I didn't know, and although it probably wasn't faster than I was, my instincts told me not to run.

The flight or fight response, if was a phenomena that occurred when humans faced something they perceived as a threat. And my body, my soul, and my mind all came together and arrived at a conclusion.

And that conclusion, was to fight this Mana Beast. It was more powerful than I was, but that didn't mean I couldn't beat it. Nothing in this world was infallible nor inviolable after all, so long as a creature was alive, it could be hunted.

I was going to hunt this beast. And so, I increased my Arcane Enhancement's output to its highest. The beast did the same, and now, I could tell, and with absolute certainty, that it's physical strength and durability were above my own.

I considered leaving my sword on the ground, like I did in the fight with the bear to avoid shattering my sword. But, I didn't think I could beat this creature without a sword.

Then, I realised something. Wasn't there a possibility that my sword wouldn't cut the beast's hide? If there were beast's who couldn't be cut by sword, then what was the point of my having it?

I calmed down as the Mana Beast approached, it's footsteps making the ground tremble under it's might and tremendous weight even though it was barely half way through the river.

'I wonder... if I can enhance my flesh, bones and everything else in my body then would I be able to enhance this sword as well? Well, first of all, I should run a test.'

And so, I picked up a nearby stick, and concentrated. For the first few moments, nothing happened, but then the stick split apart.

'It broke?'

I had been using Mana for at least a day now, so my understanding had increased by leaps and bounds. I could understand what had just happened, the stick couldn't withstand my Enhancement output.

Looking at the sword, I enhanced it, controlling the output until finally, I felt that it had reached its limit.

'Different items can Enhanced to different extents, and if the enhancement output of the user is too high, then the sword can break. Or maybe its a skill thing?'

Output was dictated by skill, and there were currently three possibilities in terms of what would dictate how high an Enhancement output a weapon could handle.

Either it was up to the user's own skill, as it was with regular Enhancement, or it could be a innate limit set by the material the weapon was crafted out of. Or, it was a mixture of these two factors.

In my personal opinion, it was either a mixture of the two factors or wholly skill dependent.

But, that didn't matter right now, I could test that out later on with sticks and stones. The Mana Beast was only a few seconds away from reaching my side of the river. I could worry about everything else later.

Right now, all I needed to kill the beast. I decided to lower the enhancements placed on my body to a level where I wouldn't need to focus on it. And although I would be weaker this way, I could focus solely on managing my sword's Enhancement output, this was possible due to my increased mastery over power levels of Arcane Enhancement.

And so, I readied myself and my blade, using only one hand to grasp it.

Once the beast was close enough, I charged in. When it came to moveming shorter distances and overall agility, I was superior. In other words, when you excluded running speed, I was guaranteed to be faster in every way. However, that gap wasn't overwhelming, it was a gap that could be considered negligible should the beast play its cards right.

First, I decided to jump, landing on the beast's head before slashing at its hide. Thankfully, I was able to pierce the beast's skin. But, I could tell now that I had made contact with it that I wouldn't be able to pierce the hide with my hands anywhere near as easily as I did with the blade.

This meant that Enhancing my blade was the right move.

And so, running across the beast's body, I creates a long and narrow cut along its body.

'I won't be able to kill him yet, I'll weaken him first by making small wounds.'

With that I created some distance, waiting for the Mana Beast to come at me.