Still An Otaku

I'm listening…"

[You can kill both of them by intruding when they're both heavily injured]

"I'm supposed to do that, how exactly?..."

"I don't even know how to use any of my skills yet! "

"Are you trying to get me killed!?"

[Fair point, give me a sec…]

BAAM!

"Shit!, Could you hurry up!?" Zephyr had goosebumps as the battle between the two predators resounded throughout the forest.

[I'm done]

"What's done?"

[I'll explain, but let's get away from here first]

"Huh? What happened to capitalizing on the situation?"

[I had overestimated your capabilities because I used battles from the alien invasion to calculate both the risk and outcome without including your battle sense as well as the enemies]

"So you were reall-"

ROAR!

"Shit, let's get out of here first". With this said, Zephyr ran a hundred meters away from the site of the battle before stopping, and thankfully, the leopard was too busy fighting to notice.

"I think I've gotten better at controlling my speed," Zephyr said as he examined himself.

[Didn't they ever tell you that practice makes perfect]

[Now, Zephyr, I need you to activate your [Firebolt] skill]

[Concentrate, close your eyes, feel the mana in your body and visualize the burst of fire]

Zephyr did as he was told, and began to feel a distinct energy coursing through his veins.

[Now, use your willpower to control the mana in your body to produce the fire you visualized]

"Okay, here goes nothing". Zephyr began to move the distinct energy to create the fire.

After doing that for a whole minute, fire began to spark on the surface of his palm before gradually building up and condensing into a ball of flame.

"YES, I DID IT!"

Zephyr shouted as he felt exhilarated while observing the ball of flame on his hand.

He was a neet as well as an otaku  throughout his teenage years in his past life, and naturally, it was every otaku dream to be able to use magic.

Although he had been able to disintegrate during the invasion, otaku's like him couldn't really accept that as something magical, rather it looked scientific from his point of view.

[Dude, what are you doing, have you forgotten that we're still in the midst of beasts]

[Are you trying to get yourself killed by shouting]

"Oh…" Zephyr muttered

He had indeed gotten seriously careless by doing something so outrageous as shouting in a forest filled with beasts.

Luckily, no beast was nearby as the confrontation of the white-furred leopard and the black snake had made all others flee from the vicinity long ago.

[Don't ever do that again, or you might really end up dead the next time]

GULP!

Zephyr swallowed hard as he committed Xenon's advice to heart, he might have fought monsters during the invasion, but that could only do so much.

He had been able to run from the leopard instead of being paralyzed due to fear because of it, but he hadn't been able to get rid of his fear of death.

One would think that reincarnating would have eased Zephyr's mind a little, but it had amplified it instead.

The pain he felt when the two he felt a pull on his soul, he didn't want to feel it again, but this fear was buried deep in his subconsciousness, mostly because he had gained a sufficient level of confidence after fighting beasts on earth during the invasion, but he hadn't been able to get over the fears of his past life.

Deep down in his heart, he still thought of himself as a neet and an otaku who could never achieve as much as his siblings did.

That was why he vowed to himself to grow stronger and achieve the pinnacle of strength, to never give other people the chance to suppress him nor belittle him ever again.

His thoughts were soon interrupted by a male voice in his mind.

[Are you okay]

"I think I am," Zephyr said, sounding sarcastic.

"What's next?"

[Now aim and throw the [Firebolt] towards a tree not too close]

'Let me move away from this side, the trees are too close to each other' Zephyr thought as he walked a few metres to the side before stopping. He didn't want to accidentally burn the whole forest.

[That's unnecessary, the trees are far more formidable than you think, because they have also been revitalized by Mana]

"Oh, okay". Zephyr became carefree after he heard that the [Firebolt] was conjured on his right hand which stretched forward and used his left hand to support it.

"Here goes nothing" He said, and then shoot out a ball of fire towards a not-too far tree and then;

Bam!

The ball of fire made contact with the tree causing it to light up like a torch, rapidly consuming it. But it didn't stop there, the fire raged continuously as it began to spread at a rapid pace to other trees, causing those ones to also light up.

Seeing such a scene, Zephyr became apprehensive as he called out to Xenon to explain the situation.

"I thought you said this won't happen!" He said, clearly annoyed by the current situation.

[I said the trees should be able to withstand it]

"Then, what is this?!" He asked 

[This is your fault, you have cut the supply of mana from the fire to stop or it will continue to burn endlessly]

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?!" Now Zephyr was even more infuriated than before, but it won't help to solve the situation faster. 

Calming himself down, he quickly inquired from Xenon how to cut the mana supply.

--------------

Meters away from Zephyr's position, an animal could be seen standing triumphantly in the middle of what used to be a forest, with everything around being devastated, with blood constantly dripping from the large cuts and gashes all over its body.

In front of the leopard, the body of black snake, specifically a Python, had been shredded to pieces.

The battle between the leopard and snake had finally come to an end, with the leopard coming out on top, but not without it's fair share of wounds and battle scars.

Nonetheless, a victory was a victory, and this leopard knew that.

Exhaustion was beginning to kick in, the leopard would have to recuperate before recovering to tip top shape, with this in mind, it began to move towards it's hideout when its fur suddenly stood on edge at the bizarre sight in front of it.

Trees had lit up like torches as inhumane amounts of fire consumed them rapidly and kept spreading towards other trees.

RAR!

The leopard immediately growled, as it camly watched the trees.

It wasn't that it didn't want to run away, but that it couldn't. The last battle had drained too much of it's stamina and was still draining it as blood continued to leak from multiple gashes along it's body.

It had absorbed the Nova core of the snake into it's own, but it's body wasn't healing fast enough.

It could run, but it wouldn't get very far.

Yet, if that was all, it might have risked it but the real problem was food.

To run, the leopard would have to expend a lot of energy, it had enough energy to make a short sprint before collapsing because of exhaustion, and that was a no-go.

Just like it had killed the Python, other beasts would definitely want to kill it too, losing consciousness out of one's territory was a sure ticket to the afterlife, but it couldn't possibly stay here for too long lest it dies from excessive bleeding.

So now what would it do?

Yet, as the leopard thought of a way to solve it's current dilemma and survive till the next day, another weird thing happened.

The flames suddenly grew dimmer and became docile before it began to dissipate rather quickly, leaving behind multiple charred trees in it's wake.

Rar?

The leopard couldn't help but get confused as it observed the ensuing events looking for anything that would stand out.

RAAR!

It growled the moment its eyes caught onto a man clad in black that hadn't caught onto the leopard's presence. It began to move to the man with the intention to kill, albeit at a very slow pace.