Bad Encounter.

As I was power-walking through the forest, going to the western side, I came across some strange-looking plants.

None of them looked anything like the plants from my world. Which made a lot of sense, because these plants were mutated variants.

I could see some kind of green gas being emitted by the plants. It was most likely poison gas.

I didn't waste mana on an energy magic spell to defend myself against the poison. The ring of pestilence was more than enough.

I noticed the emerald embedded in the ring's front side glowing faintly.

I paid it no mind, as I know that that just means that it's working well.

As I was getting closer to the western side, I could sense that the carnivorous plants had started to react to my presence.

Suddenly, as I was walking-

*WHHHHHIIIIIP!*

A whip-like thing flew past me and made a deafening sound.

I frantically looked up and saw a disgusting-looking flower, with hundreds of teeth on its petals, and a whip coming out of its centre.

'Fuck! That's nasty!', I yelled internally before activating Mage's Fortitude.

I quickly dodged away from the whip's retreat path and cast an uncharged Gravity Bullet towards it.

The bullet landed on one of its petals and imploded, violently pulling in some of the neighbouring petals into that petal, damaging itself.

The fight lasted for a good 4 minutes before I emerged victorious over the flower.

'Hmm... Since that flower was a living thing, and I killed it... This should work...'

"Syphon.", I said out loud.

*wannngg*

*SHHHHHHOOOOOOOUUUUUU*

Amaranth's purple crystal glowed a dark and sinister shade of purple and I could see the mana being drained from the dead flower and sucked into Amaranth.

After a few seconds, I could feel the mana flowing into me and refilling my reserves.

'Holy shit... this feeling... I could get addicted to this...', I thought while smirking.

Mage's fortitude was active, but I still felt the intoxicating feeling of siphoning mana from a dead enemy, which could only mean that that feeling was ridiculously strong.

I decided to keep Mage's fortitude activated as I went through the forest now. There was no guarantee that I'll get that lucky with the enemy missing its first shot again...

...

After walking around for 30 more minutes and slaying 7 more plants, I finally saw something promising.

'There it is...', I thought as I saw the tall, unusually tall tree whose surroundings strangely had little to no foliage. The tree had a mystical blue hue in the moonlight.

But, for some reason, it didn't feel quite right...

I decided to not approach the tree directly and started surveying its surroundings.

What I found astonished me quite a bit.

'But, I don't recall killing this thing here...', I thought, staring at a few dead flowers.

They were cut cleanly. Almost like some gardener trimmed them off their parent plants...

As I was about to take a closer look-

*SHHANG!* *WHOOSH*

I felt bloodlust and instinctively jolted away from its targetted position.

My eyes widened at the sudden assault.

'That can't be a monster... That's a-'

"Oh? You dodged that? Lucky you... ", I heard the shaky voice of a boy.

I jolted back to face the culprit and was shocked to the core to see his face that reflected the moonlight.

"Michale...", I said out loud.

"The hell? Do I know you?... hehehehehe were you stalking me? Me? An assassin? Gotta say, impressive...", he said with a disgusting grin on his childish and seemingly innocent face.

Michale, the villain who was originally supposed to get the Spirit boots. A psychopath that killed a student in the Nexus academy, took his identity and wreaked havoc later on in the story. A top-notch assassin-type hunter... and my worst matchup...

'But he was supposed to be present here the next day! Not today! He was supposed to take the spirit boots tomorrow, early in the morning!'

Before I could come up with a plan to deal with Michale, he suddenly charged at me with an unbelievable speed.

"HAHA! DIE!", he yelled with a psychotic smile.

"Krgh!", I barely dodged the attack aimed at my neck and only got a slight scratch on my shoulder.

"Oooooohhh! You're good!", he said before jolting around and attacking again.

This time though, I was prepared and casted Force Smash right before he could reach me.

"Urgh! Ouch! What was that?!", he yelled out after falling down on the ground.

I wasted no time and casted Gravity bullet.

"Nope!", he yelled and effortlessly dodged the bullet's area of effect.

"Why are you here?", I asked.

"Finally talking? Haha! I'm not obligated to tell you anything!", he yelled before charging again.

This time, I could see a faint blue glow on his knife.

'Aura!', I yelled internally.

His speed had suddenly almost doubled.

"HAHAHAHA TRY DODGING NOW!!!"

"URGH!", I could feel my arms getting cut and even my legs getting cut.

"Let's end this now, with this!", he smiled again and launched at me for the killing blow.

--- Narrator's perspective ---

Michale dashed toward's Samuel at a speed inconceivable by the naked eye. The blow was directed toward's Samuel's neck. Michale intended to slice it off.

*SHIIIINNGG!*

Within a flash, Michale was already behind Samuel, smiling manically.

As for Samuel, he just stood there, motionless. Until-

*SPAAALLTTT* *THUD* *DHRUG*

Samuel's head fell off from his shoulders and his lifeless body fell to the ground like a ragdoll.

"*Sigh... that was fun! I had a lot of fun killing you! Thanks for the experience! Well, I guess you can't hear me now, can you? HAHA! Never gets old!", Michale started to spout gibberish.

As Michale was toward's the tree, he crossed Samuel's corpse and stretched out his arms.

"UUURRRRGGGGHHH!! *Sigh... let's go home now-"

He got interrupted though.

*CRUSH* *AHHHGG!* *COUGH!*

Michale suddenly felt immense pain in his abdomen and coughed up blood.

"Wh-what the... what... happened...?", he said out loud in a trembling voice.

He turned around to investigate.

What he saw, could only be described as something 'Unholy'.

Samuel's headless corpse was standing up, on its two legs. Its right arm was stretched and had a dark purple magic sigil glowing on it.

*THUD*

Michale collapsed to the ground because of the pain and terror he felt.

"W-w-w-w-what.... is.... this.....?", his eyes reflecting traumatizing horror.

The corpse then turned around, its movements sluggish and wanky.

After walking a few steps, it bent down and picked up something.

What happened next, was more than just Unholy. It was straight up monstrous.

The corpse had picked up its own head from the ground and was fitting it on its shoulders.

"aaAAhha... HaahHHHAaaaaaaaAAAHH", it was making some strange noises, like its voice box was damaged.

After a few seconds, the noise stopped.

Samuel was back. Alive and kicking.

His infernal, yet cold eyes now locked on the dying Michale.

"If you want to take someone else's life, you should be prepared to give your own too.", Samuel said coldly before casting-

"Gravity Bullet."

*CHRUNCH*

Michale's head imploded on itself, killing him instantly.

"Syphon."