Chapter 26. Monster

The gazelle stumbled backwards as Alaric brandished his axe leaping into the air. He springed several times heading towards the distracted gazelle. He cut through its skin as its head rolled several meters away. The body stood tall for few seconds before collapsing on the green grass dying it red. Alaric proceeded to remove his axe from its throat as he prepared to slaughter it. There was no way he could finish it. The fact that it was a third stage just stated it had more energy compared to him. Maybe even a leg would be enough to satisfy him.

This was the last day he would be staying in the forest. He was deep far enough to take an entire day to leave the forest. He had only two days left as the sun was setting. He sat close to the fire roasting the gazelle. He decided to head out after sunrise. He would just sit there the entire night and reminisce about his life till then. Now that he thought about it, he had come to realize something strange. He had his memories starting from when he was five. He had not realized it had Sarah not told him that he had sealed memories. To think he knew nothing about his body.

He could not help but wonder who could go to the extent of sealing his Origin Source and then seal his memories. What was it in his memories that he was not required to know. Until he got a strong mind? He would only scoff. What a joke! He lay staring at the skies counting stars. The moon was no longer in its period so only the stars remained. He thought of the step forward. If he thought about it, it was like he was lacking in everything. His arrays could barely be called practitioner. He had zero smithing skills. He even regretted carrying all those bones. How were they important if he could not use them? He had to take the smithing studies seriously. Once he got to the Master Plane the academy would allow him to roam freely and look for new cultivation methods. One could also join sects that interested them.

There was no way he was going to roam in the word without sufficient knowledge though. He had to at least make a practioner level weapon even if it was a third grade. He had already stopped taking smithing classes but now as he thought about it, he would start over again. His arrays were better off compared to smithing but the array could only hold a person of the same stage as him for five seconds. He was yet to form a single inscription. To say that it was difficult was an understatement. There was no way he could form an inscription without sufficient array skills. Though, it could be said that he needed only one push and he would finally connect the last pattern of his inscription.

He started connecting the patterns in his mind trying to fill them with energy. The first part of forming an inscription was forming an array. The array was supposed to be the central part of it. After the array was formed then would someone start altering it and add new patterns. The patterns were supposed to be connected from the array and thus draw power from it. If the array was not powerful enough then the entire pattern would crumble. Alaric knew all this and he was sure that his array was powerful enough. What he did not inderstand was why he had failed to connect the last of the patterns. He had succeeded in creating the array and now he was in the process of tampering it.

If one was not careful at this stage the array would just crumble. If one connected the patterns wrongly, the same would happen. Alaric was sure that he followed every pattern the teacher had described. What he did not understand was the last pattern. There was one major issue here. The last pattern was seperated by a narrow line of space from the rest. One had to make sure that the energy seeped into it and power it. If one managed to fill this pattern, then the inscription would light up in the sky. Then one would use it to release their elemental attack. Now he had filled all patterns and and all that was left was to make the energy cross the boundary and fill the last pattern.

In the sky, a golden glow appeared. One could see the golden array forming first as its structure started changing. Then there was an entire pattern that appeared like a maze originating from the central array. The patterns started flickering golden and one could see as they slowly started to gain life and stop flickering. The patterns stopped and a thin line appeared at its edge. One could see the central array glowing brighter with every passing second and this glow was then passed to the entire pattern. The glow was now brighter that one could not tell the difference between where the glow was originally from and the outer patterns. It was then that a thin line appeared and after that started to glow with another pattern which was more intricate than the others. It flickered like it would collapse any time. This was where he always failed, he was lucky that the last pattern was appearing.

This outer part started to gain life as its glow increased. Having crossed the barrier, the influx of energy from the central region came to play as the energy rushed to the outer regions filling them. A golden light like the stars filled the dark sky. And below it, one could see a boy in meditation position open his eyes and wiping the sweat from his face. A big smile plastered on lips. He raised his hand and the inscription lit up and obediently released a lightning strike at one tree burning it to ash. Now he could be said to have a trump card! He lifted his hand again and double powered silver lightning struck the ground next to him. A small crater of about thirty centimeter deep appeared on the ground.

'You actually did it,' Sarah voiced out and Alaric could only smile. She had not criticiz... 'But it really is a shame you took so long to create such an easy thing.' Alaric swallowed his words. He was actually the first to create one in his class. It usually took even five years for best geniuses to create one. He only took three.

"Would it hurt to one day acknowledge me?" Alaric asked but was met by deadpan silence. "There she goes again," Alaric just sighed and disbanded the inscription. He felt his mental energy drained and he chopped of a limb and started tearing it apart. From his estimation, he would last the array at maximum of two minutes and push to the limit of three. He just hoped that he would not need to fight for long using it or he would face defeat. He would make sure that everytime he brought out his trump card was a certain victory.

He stayed awake the entire night making plans of his way forward. He could not help but shake his head as he thought about Rey. That guy had a new girlfriend every week or a month at most. Often times he would get attracted to another one and leave the current one. Aurora was trying her best to not clobber him for playing around with girls. At the moment, Alaric was fighting a green lizard with brown eyes a meter high and five meters long. He just shook his head. He had concealed his aura and now a beast of the second stage had confronted him. He even felt like he would fight it with his eyes closed. He was in a hurry and he would not allow it to take his time. He needed to return to the missions hall and take proper rest.

Alaric flashed past the beast and in an instance, it was dead. Beheaded actually. He quickly removed its core and put it in his bag. He decided to kill each and every beast that dared stand in his way. By sunset as he was a few meters to leave the forest, he could only shake his head when he looked at his bloodied clothes. He really would look like a tyrant if he were to enter the city like that. Even the guards at the city gates would not let him in. He spent about five minutes creating new clothes and changing those he had at the same time. Since he did not need them he would just destroy them. Since they were his own creation he turned them to dust in a flick of his finger as he headed towards the city gates. If one was to look inside his bag, they would beleive that appearances are deceiving. That handsome guy though, one could see the two weapon handles protruding from his backpack, they would not know what he carried inside. Over a hundred beast cores.

Beast core sizes varried according to plane but since these were of the Cryptic Plane, they were barely of two centimeter diameter. When the guards saw a teen walking in carrying weapons, they stopped him but when he showed his academy badge, they let him through. This badge was the array plate he had received during his admission. It really came in handy in such situations for the academy was respected and had the utmost trust of the people. Alaric walked towards the school gates and it was already dark. The gate man just glanced at him as he walked in and waved at him. Alaric then proceeded to his room not bothering to visit his friends first. The Library had already been closed so he could only get his points the following day.

When Alaric opened his door he was shocked beyond words. He found Rey sleeping and snoring on his bed. Angry could not explain what he was feeling. He was going to teach him a lesson. At the moment only Oliver was around as the others were on a mission. Alaric thought of the best course of action to take. Some thugs like these ones needed to be taught a very dangerous lesson. Alaric contemplated and after ten minutes of preparation, he decided it was time.

Rey heard Alaric's voice waking him up and he shot his eyes wide open. What he found above his head made him almost fall back asleep so he would wake up afresh and stop seeing things. He closed his eyes for several seconds and opened them slowly but he was met by the shock of his life. No this was not true. He had to confirm for the third time. He closed his eyes and the same sight appeared. Only a fool would not know what that was above his head.

"Monster!" He spoke but his voice gave an ominous foreboding. The next moment, he would be begging for his life.