Flashback

Four days ago Blink was running towards the forest clearing for his daily martial arts training when he heard the flapping of what sounded like a gigantic pair of wings.

He turned his head towards the source of the sound and there it was—perhaps the largest creature he had ever seen in his life. And it was flying!

The huge flying monster carried a squealing pig in its talons. It was definitely a pig of the domesticated kind and not one of the wild.

"Could this be the culprit in the disappearance of animals in the village?" Blink muttered.

Without hesitation he chased after the winged monster. As the creature was very large, he had no problem trailing it. Soon enough the large monster landed. It was around five meters long, excluding its tail. Immediately, it started chomping down the large swine. With its huge maw, it didn't take long for the creature to devour its prey.

Blink had never seen a creature remotely resembling the monstrosity before him. For one, it wasn't a bird though it could fly. Its wings weren't made of feathers but seemed more like those of bats. It also didn't have a beak but had a snout. Finally, it stood on four legs, the forelegs being shorter and smaller than the hind legs. While the rest of the monster's body was covered in scales, the legs were covered in fur.

Perhaps the scariest part about it was its tail. It was two meters long and was as large as a big man's thigh at its base. Like its trunk, it was covered by tough-looking scales similar to that of a crocodile. At the edge of its tail, five or six double-edged blades protruded—they looked like they could easily cut through even the thickest leather armor.

The monstrous winged creature flapped its wings anew. In a short while it flew away, obviously to hunt more prey.

It was so huge it blocked Blink's view of the nearly full Ganawil. Close to the bigger moon was the also nearly full Bulan. The combined brightness of the two moons illuminated the monster's lair well enough for Blink to see the gory sights pervading his surroundings.

As soon as the monster flew away, Blink took this chance to look around. He found piles of bones scattered all around.

'There must be over a hundred animals eaten by that dreadful beast here,' he thought.

Estimating the time it took for the monster to get to this spot from where he first spotted it, Blink deduced that it should be back in a minute or two.

Blink was about to go away when he almost stepped on something that made his hair stand on end. It was human skull! Based on the size, the skull used to be a child of about four to seven years old.

The old feeling of dread gave way to rage. Thinking of Hegla and Hubr, Blink resolved to do one thing.

"I must kill it," he said quietly.

Blink searched for a good spot for a sneak attack.

At this time his [[Flame Shot]] could already reach an optimum range of twelve meters. Its power was also sufficient to bore through the trunk of a tree as long as it was no thicker than the thigh of a grown man. Blink figured that if he could get a shot to the creature's head, he might be able to kill it in one go.

Blink settled on a wall of rocks from which to launch his ambush. It was right behind where the monster was eating the pig a while back. The shortest of the rocks had a height of almost three meters while the tallest exceeded five meters. Together, the rocks stretched for over fifteen meters.

While the creature's body was close to five meters in length, its height even with neck stretched was barely two and a half meters.

The row of rocks therefore provided him good cover. Also if he were to bungle his shot, Blink figured he could always retreat behind the rocks. Should the creature chase after him, he could always run to the other end and make his escape from there.

With that Blink took his position behind the wall of rocks and waited.

He didn't have to wait long. Barely a minute passed by and Blink could hear the flapping of a large pair of wings. In a short while, the monster appeared inside the range of Blink's vision. It was holding a medium-sized dog. He recognized it as the dog of a neighbour five houses away from theirs.

As soon as the monster landed, it munched into the hapless dog. Blink took the chance to get into the blind side of the monster. He aimed for the area right behind the monster's ear.

All this while, Blink's heart was pounding really hard.

Steeling his resolve, Blink took his shot. Just as he planned, the [[Flame Shot]] hit the monster behind its ear. But contrary to his expectation, the beast did not die. It was merely staggered for a few breaths.

The monster turned its head toward Blink and prepared to attack.

Blink was shocked that he didn't get the result he was expecting. However, he didn't remain flustered. He quickly fired a barrage of shots at the head of the beast before it could step towards him. The shots staggered the beast backward.

Relieved that his [[Flame Shot]] could actually hurt the monster, Blink retreated towards the edge of the rocks where he emerged from. With every step he made sure to fire three successive shots at the monster to keep it at bay.

As soon as he could hide behind the rocks, Blink ran towards the opposite edge and peeped at the monster. He saw the monster open its mouth towards the spot where it saw him retreat. Fire emerged out of its mouth.

'Shit!' Blink thought. He didn't expect that the darn monster could actually breathe fire.

Blink initially thought of running at the first opportunity. However, with this new development, he had to change his plan. He needed to learn how far the monster's breath of fire could reach.

He emerged out of his hiding place and sent a probing shot to the creature's neck. Standing ten feet away from Blink, the beast took the shot and, with a blood-curdling shriek, turned and opened fire at Blink.

Blink immediately stepped behind the wall of rocks. Seeing that the fire didn't reach the edge of the wall, he realized that the monster could only breathe fire at a distance of less than ten meters. Blink felt glad. This means he could stand twelve feet away from the creature and safely blast away at it.

Leaning into the rock, Blink tried to check the creature out anew. This time it was facing in his direction and had already advanced a little closer to him.

As soon as Blink partially let out his head, the monster let out fire from its mouth. Blink merely had to pull his head back and the fire just passed without causing him any harm. Almost immediately, Blink stuck his head out of the wall. He counted five breaths before fire could gush out of the monster's mouth again.

Blink repeated the process a few more times until he was able to establish with certainty that there was an interval of five seconds between each breath of fire. He had also noted that the creature could sustain its offensive for about three seconds.

With a wide gap of time between attacks, Blink estimated that he could shoot the beast around eight times before he had to hide again.

Blink implemented this new tactic. He counted twenty rounds of exchange between them. He was able to hit all his shots at the monster, but the monster never hit him. Not once. However, he got careless and leaned on the edge of the rock not realizing that it was already very hot from all the fire that the creature was sending towards it. The rock edge burned his right shoulder. Luckily, he had enough presence of mind to pull away quickly, so he only received a minor burn.

Sensing that he was almost about to run out of "magic fuel", Blink went for one last round of [[Flame Shot]] barrage before running off into the forest.

Pouring every strength in his limbs, Blink raced like a madman. Twigs and small branches whipped at different parts of his body as he sped past, but he didn't feel any of it. It was only when he had reached his training spot and felt safe that the soreness overcome him.

"Damn, that run hurt me more than the monster did!" he said in self-mockery.

Blink waited for several minutes for any signs of the monster chasing after him. When ten minutes had passed without a sign of the monster, he could finally relax. He checked the state of his soul. He had only a few drops of that bluish matter left.

He summoned his flame daggers and left them on until he could feel the slight headache indicating that his "magic fuel" had emptied out. He then sat in meditation until his "magic fuel" was fully restored. Blink has long since ascertained that he needed around thirty minutes to completely refill his storage or soul.

Blink also realized another benefit from meditating. It was clear to him that his ability to mentally control his [[Flame Shot]] had gained an upgrade. In the past, he could only have optimal control over his [[Flame Shot]] at a distance of five meters. His optimal control had since been raised to twelve meters. While he couldn't declare it conclusively yet, he couldn't think of any other possible reason for such a progress.

That wasn't the only breakthrough Blink had achieved.

After several days of emptying out his "magic fuel" twice in the morning and once in the evening as he practiced magic, Blink noticed that his soul had expanded a little and that very faint bluish splotches in his "magic fuel" had become a bit more visible.

Those many rounds of practice also established a rule of a maximum of three rounds of practice only. Whenever Blink emptied his soul of that cloudy matter, he experienced an unpleasant state that became worse the more he burned away his "magic fuel".

When he emptied his soul for the first time during the day, Blink would experience a slight headache that lasted for ten seconds. The second time, the headache would last for two minutes and be more severe while also accompanied by dizziness. The third time happened only once, but Blink didn't dare to go through it ever again. When he used up all his "magic fuel" for the third time in that only day he tried, he suffered a splitting headache—like his skull was being pounded by several hammers—and a horrible spell of dizziness. He was able to hold on for over twenty minutes until he fainted from the exhaustion of holding on to his life and sanity.

The above phenomena came, of course, with the presumption that he had enough rest, especially in terms of sleep. Since he had never been sick since discovering this recent ability, he could not gauge how much an illness could affect his "fuel" regeneration rate.

"I wonder if my progress is on the right track," Blink pondered. It seemed to him there was no way to find out. It was his bad luck that he had nobody to guide him through his practice of casting magical spells.

With his extensive knowledge and experience in martial arts, Blink could practically be able to guide himself and others through the beginning to middle levels of technical proficiency and skills mastery.

As for his magic practice, he could only move forward blindly until he could grasp the principles, or at least some of it.

Having filled his soul to full capacity, Blink recalled in detail what had happened in the fight with the monster.

Blink discovered that his mental state always seemed to improve after meditating. His mind gained a state of clarity that helped him grasp the best course of action to take in a given situation. Not only did he understand what needed to be done, he also could deduce how best it could be done.

Initially, Blink thought that he could kill the monster with a single [[Flame Shot]] right behind the ear. However, he had shot at the monster over a hundred times, yet the monster didn't die. The only good news Blink got from that exchange of fire spells was that his tiny missiles could hurt monster.

"It must have some resistance to fire," he could only conclude.

Despite that, Blink didn't feel discouraged. He figured that while he could not kill the monster in a single engagement, he could at least grind it until he could finally kill it. He estimated that it would take three days at the most.

After thinking it over for ten minutes, Blink decided to stick to the strategy that worked. However, he decided that his first strike should be tested on the monster's hind legs. If his [[Flame Shot]] could effectively hurt the creature on that part, he planned on shooting the legs for his last barrage. This would ensure that he had a better chance of escaping, notwithstanding that he had already escaped earlier.

As he walked towards the monster's lair, thin golden rays were emerging out of the distant mountains to the east. Morning has arrived.