Protecting Monsters

A passionate flame burned deep within Asher's mind for this mission. The odds are impossibly surmounted against him, and yet he had no intention to give up or kill over.

Today's training only reaffirms Asher's determination. If he ever wants to keep up with his girlfriend and eventually be the one to protect her, he needs to take tremendous risks like this.

Moreover, he also doesn't want to constantly keep Elsa up at night because he's so weak that he needs to be handheld.

Asher doesn't care about the status or fame Elsa has. Even if people made judgments about their relationship, he would pay it no mind as long as he has the power to stay with her.

And, of course, Asher didn't forget about the first reason why he had chosen down this impossibly dangerous mission route.

Reese and Kylee are two close people of his that need his protection.

Even as he wants them to grow in power and character, Asher came to realize that sometimes in life, he just needs to take an active role.

And if he doesn't have that power to assuredly protect them, Asher would only consider that a massive failure on his part.

Asher wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he commits such a colossal failure like that. This is why he didn't even give himself any break after Elsa's training.

Yuki had mentioned to him that he technically had some leeway in timing because the mission gave no specific time deadline. She had even mentioned for him to go home and prepare more as it could help his chance of survival.

But Asher knows he's prepared enough. And delaying this would only be delaying the inevitable. He considered it was better to just get it over with than to slow it down.

With thoughts like these in his mind, it was a no-brainer why Asher felt so pumped up.

To make it to the mission point, Asher had to pour his Aura Sense into his System's soul, just like last time. He didn't have a visual guide, but he had a direct tracker on where his mission point lay.

Of course, even with his blood pumping for this mission, Asher wasn't blindly rushing in.

Asher took the time to carefully observe the route he's on. And as he continued down here, he found this route a bit surprising.

Typically when he gets far deep in the wood's starting area, there would be some ravenous beast around the corner just waiting to tear him to shreds.

But, on this route, there essentially weren't any Mana monsters.

It was a little bit off-putting and gave Asher even more ominous omens about this mission. Still, he bravely continued on, expecting the worst already.

Eventually, after a few more minutes of quietly walking, Asher had arrived at his mission point with seemingly no trouble. As he made it just mere feet away, Asher had to stop when his eyes gazed at a particular sight.

Going off by the mission description of a 'beast maiden,' Asher honestly didn't know what he should be expecting to see.

But these Mana monsters had genuinely made him take a step back.

Up ahead from him, at least fifteen feet away, were two tiger-type Mana monsters.

The first tiger beast was considerably large, being over a staggering ten feet tall. It had beautiful white fur that would emanate a noble grace under normal situations.

Directly under the giant tiger beast was a far smaller tiger beast. Given its size and how closely the larger tiger beast was hugging it, Asher presumed that it was its cub.

If this was any other time, Asher would've seen a frightening-looking yet graceful appearance of a mother white tiger Mana monster. Even for how daring Asher is, he would've felt some trepidation then.

But now, this tiger Mana monster didn't exude any haunting or chilling aura. It, in fact, had an extremely pitiful appearance.

The tiger beast's whole back was dye in dirt and blood, revealing large horrifying gashes that would make any other tiger beast kill over.

Its large eyes were still contorting in pain, but it had actually managed to level a direct glare towards Asher. For the little one, its eyes were closed, probably in a deep sleep.

Asher didn't make any sudden movements. He stretched his Aura Sense on the beast and was mildly surprised.

Even in its heavily injured state, Asher could still sense a decently powerful Magical Aura radiating from the beast.

Just from that Magical Aura alone, Asher felt some slight threat. He had even wondered just how powerful this mother tiger beast was if it was full power and no injuries.

Since this was where his Aura Sense is pointing him to, Asher guessed this really was the beast maiden.

Seeing how much of a deadly glare the tiger beast was giving him, Asher didn't dare to run to it to help or call out to it. Doing so would probably have the beast take a swing at him because it wants to protect its cub.

For a moment, Asher thought of something he would've never thought of before.

So there really were Mana monsters that have other feelings than killing?

Just from the way how gentle the tiger beast held that little cub, it was more than apparent it cared immensely for it.

Asher knew these Mana monsters have a certain limit of intelligence. Since these beasts could even match Spirit Tier cultivators, it would be weird if they didn't have any intelligence and were still giving them so much trouble across the world.

But feelings….it was something Asher thought he would never see on a Mana monster.

It sounded like an interesting concept to explore, but Asher was given any time to think further on it.

Right then, all of Asher's thoughts were interrupted when he felt the ground shake ever so slightly. He immediately tensed as his Aura Sense had suddenly picked up on a tremendous presence rapidly approaching him and the tiger beasts.

While sensing the powerful Mana monster come to them, Asher blinked his eyes in mild disbelief.

Whatever this creature was it was incredibly fast!

Even before it got close to him, Asher felt a faint pressure on his body that made his pupils dilate.

The beasts' Magical Aura blared throughout the entire area, and Asher snapped his sights over to where the beast was coming from.

Several enormous trees were getting savagely tossed over by an equally massive shadowy figure.

And right as he noticed the shadowy figure, the beast appeared in Asher's vision. From over sixty feet away from him was one of the most terrifying creatures Asher ever had the displeasure of looking at.

It was a bear-type Mana monster whose appearances alone sent slight chills down Asher's spine.

The bear beast's fur was entirely drenched in fresh crimson blood, and there were spots of rotten guts littering all over its vast body.

Asher saw some gruesome beast in his time but never had he seen one that looked like it just got done massacring numerous other Mana monsters.

The bear beast didn't even spare one glance at Asher, treating him as if he was an ant.

Its chilling, beating red eyes glowered down on the tiger beast mother and its cub. A massive surge of Killing Intent was blazing in its eyes as it bared its horrifying razor-sharp teeth at the tiger beasts.

But before the beat beast did anything, Asher instantly reacted.

Asher knew he had to lead this beast away from the tiger beasts. Otherwise, the shockwaves of their battle could worsen its injuries.

In an instant, Asher raised a finger, formed a small ball of surging Ghost Lighting at the fingertip, and flicked it towards the bear beast's giant head.

The small Ghost Lightning ball soared through the air at incredible speeds, dashing across fifty feet of distance in a mere second!

In exchange for this kind of speed, the Ghost Lightning ball didn't have much power. But, it did reach the bear beast before it could even attempt to think of killing the tiger beasts.

'Bang!'

The Ghost Lightning ball crashed right on the bear beast's head and caused it to actually feel slight tingling pain.

Finally, then, the monstrous bear whipped its enormous head towards Asher, and its feral Killing Intent crushed down on him.

"RWAA!!"

The Mana monster bear unleashed an earth-shattering roar that had even shaken the ground just from its sheer power!

Asher felt the pressure on him vastly increased as the bear beast's Magical Aura explosively surged.

Without hesitating at all, Asher unleashed his full power Spirit Aura state, gaining his signature Ghost Lightning aura. Just from that roar, he could already tell this fight will be a close one.

In the instance Asher discharged his Spirit Aura, the monstrous bear spewed out red rays of light from its eyes and made its brazen dash towards him.

The ground shook with each massive step the beast took, and its speed was insanely fast! In just a second, it already crossed over fifteen feet of distance!

However, Asher was never the one to be idle. He charged at the bear beast with the same brazen intensity and swift speeds.

As Asher got immensely close to the beast, he felt that its Magical Aura got a bit more imposing. But it couldn't affect his speed or power.

In a few seconds, Asher made it just a foot away from the beast.

And on his danger instincts, Asher had immediately ducked as a strong gust of wind whipped right past his head. He had just managed to narrowly avoid that beast's massive palm cleaving his head right off his shoulders.

Despite how narrow that dodge was, Asher didn't lose momentum. He swiped his axe right towards the beast's blood-stained gut, becoming a blue blur in the wind.

With a considerable impact sounding out, Asher tore his axe three inches deep in the beast's huge stomach, causing a pool of blood to stream out of it.

Even though he had landed a solid direct hit, Asher was actually feeling shocked.

He felt his arms quiver! Striking against this beast was like striking against some impenetrable metal!

Asher didn't have the time to stay in shock as he sensed tremendous danger from just above.

Another gust of wind whipped by Asher's body as he immediately jumped back while his axe dripped with the beast's blood.

'Bang!'

By the width of a second, the beast's monstrous palm had slammed right down where Asher previously stood, causing a two inches deep crater to form from its immense power.

Asher managed to land fifteen feet back in just one jump. But immediately when his foot touched the ground, the air currents turned tremendously heavily.

The monstrous bear didn't delay its attack for even a nanosecond. It immediately followed up its first attack by slamming both of its beastly paws together, unleashing a powerful compressed shock wave at Asher!

Asher's reaction time wasn't slow at all. He raised his palm and erupted a surging Ghost Lightning stream straight at the compressed shock wave.

'Bang!'

Their powers evenly clashed against each other, throwing the air into a tornado whirlwind.

Asher had to raise an arm to block the heavy tornado air pressure.

But the monstrous bear barreled through the heavy air pressure like it was nothing. It instantly reached just seven feet away from Asher, jumped surprisingly high into the air, and dived straight down at him.

Asher narrowed his eyes at the immense shadow crashing down on him. In an instant, he jumped backward again, going even higher in the air.

But as he was airborne, the monstrous bear already crashed to the ground with an enormous thump, forming a massive crater underneath it.

Without letting Asher get away again, the monstrous bear moved at instantaneous speed. It snapped up its beastly palm towards Asher and blasted out a giant red bear palm aura imprint straight at him.

Asher felt a bit suffocated under the beast's power and immediately erected a Ghost Lightning shield just before the aura imprint reached him.

'Bang!'

The red bear palm aura imprint utterly shattered Asher's Ghost Lightning shield to mere tiny Lightning wisps!

Asher had spat out an arrow of blood as a tremendous force barreled through his entire body.

He was sent flying back like a bullet, but before he shot off too far, Asher violently gritted his teeth, took control of his body, and forcefully dragged his legs through the ground.

Asher stopped skidding only after ten feet of distance.

"Nnng…." Blood continued to pool from his mouth as that one attack already did heavy damage to Asher.

He felt some of his organs brutally ruptured, and his arms felt nearly entirely numb.

"Haa-"

Asher started to leak a breath, but right then, he sensed immense danger rapidly approaching him again.