15 The First Battle

“Oh shit.” Ashur cursed himself for not being more careful when finding a spot to rest. The growling meant that there was a beast nearby. From the sound of it, it was out hunting. And he was its prey.

While he was deep in meditating, the beast had caught him totally unprepared. And now he was going to pay for his moment of carelessness.

He slowly got to his feet. It wouldn’t be wise to make any sudden motions in case he startled and provoked the beast.

Looking around, he tried to scout the whereabouts of this beast. If he knew what creature he was facing, he would stand a better chance in escaping alive.

The forest was thick with shrubs and bushes, and he couldn’t tell where the beast was. It must be well hidden. His eyes darted left and right. Could it be that the beast had already left?

Just then, he caught sight of the beast and breathed in sharply.

The beast was a simply hideous sight to look at. It was about the size of a bear, and looked like a cross breed between a grizzly bear and wild boar. Thick brown fur covered every inch of its skin, and with its large claws, it looked fierce and terrifying.

“Grrr.” Catching sight of Ashur, the beast bared its teeth threateningly at him. Its teeth were long and sharp, and looked like it could tear through human flesh easily.

Ashur subconsciously shuddered in fear. He was panicking greatly, and didn’t know what to do. Was he going to die? He didn’t want to die, right here, right now.

Breathing heavily, he forced himself to calm down. What he needed to do now was to formulate a plan of action. Yes, that was what would get him out of here alive.

The cogs in his brain started whirling. He knew that it would be almost impossible to outrun this beast. Even though it was large in size, it moved quickly. If it charged at him, he wouldn’t have a chance.

In that case, it would be better to fight it head on. While he wasn’t going to be able to overcome it via physical strength, he could use magical powers to his advantage.

While he was deep in his thoughts, the beast suddenly leapt toward him and pounced.

In a split second, he threw up an energy barrier to defend himself, momentarily repelling the beast.

Roaring in frustration, the beast swiped a claw at him. With the nimble reflexes that he had acquired in training, Ashur managed to dodge in time.

Up close, Ashur saw the true monstrosity that the beast truly was. Three hundred pounds of solid muscle in a creature that towered greatly over him. As a young man with a rather small stature, the beast was easily twice his size.

All the hair on the back of his neck stood up in fear. He momentarily froze in terror.

“Focus, Ashur, focus.” He reminded himself. “You can do this, you have been training hard. Just focus.”

Thinking that a sharp metal blade would be a good choice of weapon to face the beast, Ashur raised a hand and summoned a long iron spear. With incredibly precise aim, he threw it swiftly at the beast.

The iron spear slammed hard into the beast’s chest.

For a second, Ashur wanted to yell in victory. It was an almost perfect shot that would have killed any ordinary beast.

But this was no ordinary beast. It was a beast that lived in the forests of Etheria. These creatures were legendary for having mythical powers and strength.

Many Warriors who underestimated the dangers of the forest had been killed by the Etherian beasts before. They were absolutely ruthless killing machines. If Ashur wasn’t skilled enough, it looked like he would be joining the list of casualties.

Instead of killing the beast as Ashur had hoped it would, the spear simply bounced off the thick hide of the beast.

Almost unaffected by his initial attack, the beast leapt once again at Ashur.

Instinctively, Ashur threw himself to the ground. He was so close to the beast he could feel its body heat radiating off it.

Rolling away, he sent a ball of fire towards the beast. The fiery flames rapidly flew right into the beast.

Although it didn’t manage to penetrate through its extremely thick hide, it must have caused some damage as the beast roared in pain.

Gasping for breath, Ashur took the opportunity to seize his temporary advantage and used a wall of wind to push the beast backwards.

Maintaining a steady pressure, he ensured that the beast couldn’t come any closer to him.

The beast repeatedly ran towards the barrier, but kept bouncing off the solid barrier. After a couple of tries, seemingly disappointed, the beast slowly prowled away.

Just when Ashur was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he froze when he saw what the beast was doing in the distance.

The beast was preparing to charge at him.

If the beast charged at him with all his might, his wind barrier might not be enough to hold it back.

With almost all options exhausted, Ashur realized that he had to use the Lightning Technique to strike it down. It was the only power strong enough to pierce through the beast’s thick skin.

But he only had one shot at this.

If he failed at conjuring up a lighting bolt, he was going to be dead meat.

Urgently, he teleported a distance away and desperately gathered energy as quickly as he could.

“Grr.” With a final battle cry, the beast charged.

As it came nearer and nearer, Ashur’s heart started beating faster and faster, until he knew that he couldn’t wait any longer.

Pointing a finger at the beast, he hoped that the energy he had gathered was enough.

Zzz!

A bolt of lightning flew from his fingertip and squarely hit the beast in its chest.