The Absolute Brink

Asher snapped his head up while his teeth gritted painfully. Already that monstrous bear neared just ten feet away from him. Its fighting style resembles his own, being incredibly ruthless and relentless.

In this situation, Asher essentially had no time to react. The beast's ferocious speed would near him in a mere split second.

With no clear options laid out for Asher, he finally pushed himself to the absolute limits. Right then, a ferocious Killing Intent exploded from Asher's entire being!

His eyes gained a frightening blue glow as Asher had then decided to surge the slumbering Spirit Mana within his veins and combine it with his Spirit Aura!

'Zzzt!'

Asher's Ghost Lightning Aura erupted into intense surging chaos as his Magical Aura explosively increased!

A smirk curved up Asher's lips as he noticed the monstrous bear abruptly stopped for a short moment. Not even the beast could have ever expected Asher to erupt with power that directly matched its full power!

Acting on the beast's momentary lapse of focus, Asher had then sprung towards it, becoming a raging azure blur and even slightly surpassing the beast's speed.

Under the monstrous bear's widening eyes, Asher reached within two feet from it in just a split second.

And all in one smooth motion, Asher swiped his axe up at the beast's enormous right arm.

The monstrous bear could only flicker a red glow on its arm in an attempt to block Asher's Lightning speed attack.

'Chi!'

Blood erupted into the air like a fountain as Asher sliced right through the beast's red glow and savagely tore right through over half of its enormous arm! Some of its horrific blood sprayed on Asher's body, but he didn't care in the slightest.

Before Asher could let his body flow freely again, he paused as his danger sense frantically went off.

"RWAA!!"

The monstrous bear unleashed a blood-curdling roar that nearly burst Asher's eardrums open.

Instead of getting dazed from the pain of having its arms brutally chopped off, its power only erupts to new heights! Its pupils had vanished within its eyes, and a hauntingly bright red aura covered its entire vast body.

Asher only had a nanosecond to recognize the immense danger from above him.

The beast had entered its berserk state!

At this point, Asher's instinctive reaction was to get as far away from the berserk beast.

But, he was too slow to avoid a horrifying flash of red. Asher felt immensely suffocated, and his vision was painted entirely in red.

The monstrous bear speed exploded to where it now slightly surpassed Asher. And with its only good arm, the beast reached out at Lightning speed and grabbed Asher like he was a ragdoll.

"Gaa!!" Asher couldn't contain his anguish as he had actually let out a shriek of pain.

No matter how many injuries he would receive, Asher was the type to always hold in his pain and ignore it. It wouldn't do good at all if his mind was distracted during the midst of a fight.

But, the feeling of having his bones painfully tightened to the point of cracking exuded an immeasurable amount of pain he never thought was possible.

Botches of blood puked from Asher's mouth as the beast's berserk power caused an additional layer of pain for him.

Asher's following instinctive action would be to desperately escape out of this iron grip.

But the beast gave Asher zero chance to process anything as it raised its massive palm high and had then violently slammed him into the ground!

'Bang!

A foot crater formed underneath Asher as he hurled a seal of blood from his mouth, and his injuries turned critical.

Asher nearly felt his consciousness leave his body. Throughout his entire body, numerous bones cracked, his organs violently churned, and he had even lost some feeling in both of his arms.

The monstrous bear slowly took its palm off from Asher and examined the battered human under its massive body. A vicious glint was swirling within its eyes as its Killing Intent was turning even more feral.

Its eyes glowered down on Asher's bloody form, and even in its berserk state, the beast was going to enjoy tearing apart what had caused him so much.

The monstrous bear had then raised its only good arm, and its red aura became harsher and darker.

But right then, Asher, who was on the verge of a complete daze, suddenly snapped back to reality. On the brink of near-death, a mysterious energy jolted within Asher's body, forcing him back to complete focus.

And in that very instance, Asher pushed himself beyond his limits!

He surged a massive sum of Ghost Lightning energy all at once as his expression turned ferocious. He strutted his right palm up while Ghost Lightning arcs wildly spewed out of it.

And all in the same motion, Asher unleashed his Omni Striker Skill, bursting out a barrage of voltage Ghost Lightning bolts straight at the monstrous bear's face!

The bear was caught entirely off guard. Asher's sudden explosive power increase immensely pressured its body and made it utterly froze up for a split second.

All the monstrous bear saw was blinding flashes of blue covering its entire sight.

'Chi!'

Asher's power was unstoppable as his barrage voltage Ghost Lightning bolts tore straight the beast's enormous head! Several bloody holes opened on the bear's skull as Asher's Ghost Lightning fried its brain to a crisp and broke every bone inside.

The Mana monster bear went limped as its lifeforce was instantly wiped away.

Even though the beast was overpowering Asher and was just about to kill him. The prowess of a Battle Skill wasn't anything to be underestimated.

In truth to legends about Battle Skills, Asher's attack instantly overturned the tide of battle in a single split second.

If Asher were to perform this attack at any time before, the beast would've just avoided it, or it wouldn't have dealt a death blow. But with the beast being in a feral berserk state and Asher was just mere inches from it, it all worked to catch the beast off guard.

Before Asher did anything next, the massive Mana monster bear corpse slumped over backward and crashed into the ground with a loud thump.

"Haaah…." Asher leaked a huge breath. Now that everything was finally over, he could take a moment to quell his frantic nerves.

Taking a few seconds to lay on the ground, Asher had then wearily stood to his feet. His face was contorted as he was in tremendous anguish. Every part of his body was nearly failing coming on him. It took all of Asher's willpower just to remain conscious.

Because of his experienced Spirit Tier body, Asher was enhanced enough to survive, having multiple organs ruptured and numerous of his bones cracked in half.

But, this didn't save him from this massive mental drain of experiencing so much pain all at once.

'R-really wasn't kidding….' Asher silently remarked to himself.

Even though he expected this mission to be grueling, somehow, that fight even went past his expectations. At least now it is over.

Right then, Asher was about to turn around and see if the tiger mother and its cub was still there. His body was in tremendous pain, but if he just forced it down, Asher was sure he could walk at least.

However, when Asher had only taken a half step around, he went entirely rigid. The frantic sense of imminent death took hold of the entirety of his mind!

Asher didn't think at all, and relying purely on his bodily instinct, he sprang to his left.

But no matter how quick Asher's reactions were, he was still too slow.

A fierce gust of wind shot straight towards him, and a black glow hazed Asher's eyes.

'Chi!'

Asher's eyes nearly burst out of his sockets as an unbearably sharp pain had just torn right into his left arm. His axe almost dropped out of his right hand just from the shock of pain.

Terror swirled in Asher's mind as he turned his eyes over to gaze upon what just struck him.

And to his horror, there was a terrifyingly long black widow spider leg drilling deep into his arm! A tremendous power had immediately ruptured his left arm, rendering it entirely useless.

A stinging pain course through Asher's already battered body, further weakening him and putting him a step closer to death.

Before Asher could even properly react, the black widow spider leg had suddenly raised him into the air and flung him to a nearby tree!

Asher soared through the air like a speeding bullet and had brutally crashed into the tree with a sickening thump. Another botch of blood puked from his mouth as the blood from his back stained the tree trunk.

The pain was immense, nearly forcing Asher to unconsciousness. But he stubbornly persisted in seeing what just attacked him. As he slumped to the ground, his eyes caught what had ambushed him.

Genuine dread began to wrack his mind as a terrifyingly enormous black widow spider came into view.

The Mana monster widow spider was at a staggering fifteen feet in height, and its horrifying spider legs were stained with some sort of revolting green fluids.

And from its face, the same putrid green fluids were dripping from its mouth. The most terrifying aspect was seeing that acidic green fluids drill right through the ground like it was lava.

Staring into this spider monster abyss like black eyes were like staring at death's door. Compared to when he was facing off against the monstrous bear, a clear genuine sensation was wracking every part of Asher's mind and body.

This was the actual sensation of looming death!

Asher wanted to desperately run away, but he simply couldn't get up anymore. His body violently spasm, but he was under too much intense pain to do anything.

Suddenly then, Asher's pupils dilated to tiny needle sizes as he saw white string blast out from the spider's beast abdomen. The single white string split off into several white strings as it soared through the air, reaching Asher almost instantaneously.

There simply wasn't anything Asher could do in the face of this beast's spider webs. Without any resistance, the numerous spider web strings wrapped around Asher's body, locking him into a small cocoon.

The only part of Asher's body that wasn't covered was his face.

And immediately the next second he got wrapped up, the black widow spider whipped on of its grossly long leg straight at Asher's face!