Odyssey of Infinite Strides [1]

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘚𝘰, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.

The trees swayed back and forth with the wind; it was as if they moved as one. The ground was nothing but snow. The two moons shine just as bright as the stars surrounding them. Azrael begins to remove himself from the carcass of the dire wolf and stretch his body under the tree. The wounds from the impact were completely healed, not even a scar remains. Though his coat and vest were ripped, his pants remain intact. Taking up his sword from the eye of the beast, Azrael starts to inspect the condition of it. Apart from the bluntness of its tip, the sword remains in an acceptable condition.

Azrael begins to plan what to do next. He first replaced the ripped clothing with intact clothing from his storage ring. Following a moment of contemplation, Azrael swiftly prepared himself to embark on his journey, wasting no further time as he set off without delay. While walking he begins to search for small creatures to kill. However, due to it being the dead of night there were no animals in the vicinity. Knowing it would only get more dangerous as he ventured deeper into the Elm Forest, Azrael decided to find a cave and stay there until daybreak.

Backtracking to where Azrael had first seen the wolf, he began looking for any tracks in the vicinity. Luckily the snow hadn't removed most of the tracks and using what's left he followed them. Soon he found a cave presumably used by the dead wolf. As he walked closer to the cave Azrael brandished the short sword in his hand. Entering the cave, he was soon disappointed by the lack of any creatures. Setting down, he lays his sword next to him and begins to rest. Ragnar lay close to Azrael, gradually succumbing to the beauty of slumber. Before long, he too descended into a profound and restful sleep…

Just as dawn arrived, Azrael woke up. Slowly getting up, he grabs his sword and heads out. As dawn began to pass the sunrise was just beyond the horizon. Birds began chirping, small animals began to rush out of their little burrows, and fierce nocturnal animals rested for the day. On top of a tree Azrael monitors a small rabbit hole. Enhancing his eyes with mana, he spots a camouflaged rabbit in the vicinity. A horned rabbit: not particularly dangerous unless it rams you with its horns. Its aura is a translucent white, the weakest of auras.

"Perfect!" Azrael softly exclaims. Shifting his body into a launching position, Azrael aims his sword at the rabbit. Before attacking, Azrael coats the sword with the little mana he has left giving it a metallic blue sheen. Finding the perfect opportunity, Azrael launched himself towards the rabbit. The rabbit noticed the danger too late and couldn't move out of the way.

The sword struck, easily beheaded the rabbit. After killing it, a thin colorless thread floated out of the rabbit and was absorbed into Azrael's body. "I didn't think it had a skill. What a surprise." Before checking the skill, he grabs the dead rabbit and stores it in his ring.

Dash - Inject mana into your legs for an immediate burst of speed.

Looking at the skill, he expected as much. Knowing he only needs to kill one more creature to ascend he goes to search for more prey. Riding through the forest with the help of Ragnar, Azrael soon finds a suitable spot for an ambush. Taking out the headless rabbit he flips it upside down spraying the snow with copious amounts of blood. Dropping the rabbit onto the ground, Azrael jumps on top of a tree waiting for a creature to take the bait.

Within a few minutes the shadow of a creature appears in the bushes. The creature sniffs around then slowly walk out into the open. What appears is another dire wolf, Azrael begins smirking at this. Unlike the last one, this one was much weaker, with its aura being spring green. As the beast got closer to the carcass Azrael prepared to strike.

Apart from using mana, Azrael replicates the same steps as before and is positioned for the killing blow. When the wolf was only a meter away from the rabbit, Azrael launched himself and struck. Unfortunately, the wolf was nothing like the dead rabbit before it and noticed the danger in time. The wolf used all four of its limbs to push itself out of harm's way and successfully evaded the blow.

Azrael, unperturbed by this quick development, immediately struck at the wolf's eyes. The wolf dodged once again and went on the offensive, clawing at Azrael. Parrying the attack, Azrael coats the sword with mana and strikes at the leg that struck at him. The sword easily went through the skin and nearly amputated the leg, but before that could happen the wolf howled and backed away slightly.

This retreat gave Azrael the opportunity to strike at its eyes once again. This time the strike landed but only one eye was struck. After suffering two consecutive injuries the wolf was furious. Its once black and beady eye turned bright red, an aura of blue began to emanate from its body, and it howled loudly into the sky as if asking for backup.

Azrael's once expressionless face showed a frown. He knew he had to end this quickly or else he may be overwhelmed. Retracting mana from the sword he began to enhance his legs to move faster. Appearing right next to the wolf, Azrael tries to strike the remaining eye. The wolf was faster however, sticking out its neck the wolf attempted to bite Azrael's jugular.

Yet after biting down the wolf didn't feel a thing. To the wolf, the human simply disappeared. But in the very next second it felt an imminent danger from above. It was Azrael, he had used the skill dash to propel himself up into the air. With the aerial advantage, he made a sweeping motion with his sword and aimed at the wolf's nape.

The move was too sudden and too unexpected for the wolf to react. The sword cleanly went through the nape and exited from the neck decapitating it. The wolf's head was sent flying and blood shot out of the headless corpse. This was now the second animal Azrael decapitated.

The moment Azrael killed the wolf, an all too familiar rejuvenating feeling washed over him. It was a sign of leveling up. Upon leveling up every creature's strength, vitality, and soul increases by two times. Looking at the dead wolf Azrael sees two thin like strands coming out of it. One strand was blood red. While the other strand was yellow green. Azrael chose to absorb the yellow green thread. Grabbing it, it soon faded into his body.

Danger Sense – a skill providing invaluable warnings and insights to navigate threatening situations effectively.