A Year On

*Crash*

The sound of a tree hitting the ground echoed throughout the forest, birds squawked taking to the skies as an imminent danger trudged through the undergrowth.

Milo crouched down, peering at himself in a lake, his long white hair that was usually neatly kept had become dishevelled, dirtied by blood, mud and other grime. His normally pale body was slightly burnt by the sun, his new scars running across his chest had been masked ever so slightly thanks to this.

He scooped a handful of cold, crisp water and washed it over his face, lightly letting out a sigh before standing back up and jumping to a rock perched in the middle of the lake.

The echoing sound crept closer to him as he nestled down, entering the state of meditation. He let his own mana flow, stretching his range of detection throughout the entire forest.

It had taken him a year to reach this point. Now 13-years old, Milo had reached a level of mana mastery some mages couldn't hope to reach even if they spent their entire lives trying.

The only issue that he faced was that, despite his brilliance at a young age, it also came with plenty of disadvantages. The most notable of which was that his body and core could no longer hold more mana, leading to a bottleneck which he was desperately trying to break through.

He allowed the mana to freely flow in and out of his body, attempting to reinforce his core. Feeling a violent strum followed by the swift bout of sickness, he was forced to relent and reopen his eyes.

"Good to see you old friend", Milo smirked as he climbed to his feet, using one knee to prop himself up he met the eye of a creature oozing mana so potent he felt like he was beginning to choke.

The creature towered over the lake, standing at nearly 25 feet tall and resembling a typical bear. That is, if it didn't have the terrifying features that even Milo found himself struggling to counter.

Along it's back, sharp, jagged stones protruded to protect the vital points, it's black fur was as sharp and sturdy as steal, it's deep crimson eyes oozed an intent to kill so strong it made Milo physically recoil.

At the tips of it's paws, claws that were at least 10 inches long threatened to tear his very skin apart. Each time it opened it's mouth, it's terrifying maw showed 8 sharp fangs, two in each corner, four on the bottom and four on top. This monster was capped off with a deep scar running across it's right eye, courtesy of it's previous bouts with Milo.

Milo felt the scar on his chest strum as the bear waited for him to attack, letting out another fearsome roar as if announcing he was ready.

The bear dropped onto all fours, opening it's mouth, allowing the saliva to drip from each fang. Each drop burned a hole into the ground, the acidic substance was coated in a thick green hue, each drop that fell giving off a rancid stench akin to rotten eggs.

'Can this guy not wait …'.

Milo dashed, not touching the waters surface, blowing it to the side as if he had parted the seas. He cocked his fist back, the mana from his core rapidly racing towards his arm. He struck out, the mana finally reaching his fingers, coating his entire arm in the thick black aura.

The bear vanished; Milo heard a crunch from his right. Before he had the opportunity to look, he was forced to dash away again as the bear plucked a tree from the ground like he was simply picking up sticks and tossed it in Milo's direction.

Milo stood, carefully analysing the bears moves as it dropped back onto all fours, gearing up for a charge. His aura continued to overtake his body, fully establishing his state of what he called, perfection. His draconic armour had been fully cemented through his year long training in the forest and it had reached a level where he felt he could comfortably deal with people of a much higher core level.

What made his armour so powerful was that not only was the mana continuously working his way out of his core, but it was also hyper focused in certain points.

His feet, granting him terrifying speed. His fists, granting him absurd power and finally his armpits and kneecaps, granting him a much larger range of movement than normal humans.

Of course, this mode of his came with drawbacks which were unavoidable. Thanks to his less than mature body, he couldn't fully utilise the mana circulating the way he envisioned it. What he really wanted was to be able to infuse every muscle with mana and essentially super charge his entire body beyond human limits. With his young body, he was forced to let the mana circulate the area surrounding him, and only focus on what parts were truly necessary to his strength.

Milo dashed, cocking back his fist and allowing the claws to freely extend, he struck out towards the bears stomach. The bear slipped to the side, to which Milo responded with a pivot, driving his left foot into the bears stomach, sending him hurtling back through countless trees before smashing into a cliff, shattering the wall and causing a minor land slide.

Milo felt his foot sting with a sharp pain, he looked down, focusing more mana down to support it.

'Fractured … how fucking heavy is he?'.

It was the first time throughout the countless fights he had with the bear that he had actually landed a solid hit with his own body. Typically, he was only able to slash the bear with the fabricated mana claws, but not this time, he had actually struck the fur that felt like scales and understood just why the bear seemed to be the king of the forest.

Another shiver ran throughout Milo's body as he watched the bear drag itself to its feet, it's fur flaring a deep red colour.

Milo lowered himself closer to the ground, allowing his arms to sag in front of him. The bear mimicked this pose, dropping to the ground but not landing on all fours, it's mouth opened slightly and a spark flickered to life at the back of its throat.

'SHIT!", Milo squealed, realising too late what was happening as a cyclone of flame shot from the bears mouth.

Milo swung his arms up, taking the blow with the aura on his forearms. He winced as the flame still burned through, seeping through each layer of skin without any regard for his mana.

He swung his arms out wide, dissipating the flame. He looked back up, his eyes widened noticing the bear's after image blow away in the wind.

*Thud*

Milo crashed into the wall following a dull blow to his right hip. He found himself up ended in the same pile of rubble the bear was in, watching the bear slowly approach him. The entire world was upside down for Milo, so gaging the correct distance was nearly an impossible task.

'Crap, it can use element based attacks as well? What the hell even is this creature?'.

Milo was more confused than anything else, he struggled to understand why something as powerful as this bear was just … existing. For him, someone now at the peak of the Ascent realm to be struggling to such an extent must mean that this creature was beyond the King realm, maybe even bordering the Emperor realm.

It reminded him of a creature he engaged in battle frequently with during his adolescence as the Azure Dragon, The crescent peak beasts.

To put it plainly, their name was an amalgamation of how they were first discovered, they were a bear species of terrifying strength right from the moment they were cubs and once fully matured they reached the peak of strength in no time at all. The Dragonborn founder lost a bout to one of these creatures beneath a crescent moon and after trying to tame it, he quickly realised it had no room for thought other than it's instincts.

Hence the name, Crescent peak beasts.

His attention was swiftly drawn to the tip of one of the bears claws on it's feet. Milo noticed a strange fluctuation of mana, followed by the quick spurts and flares of the fire that coated its fur.

Without hesitation Milo flipped himself over and dashed towards the bear, who fell into Milo's expectations and lowered himself, tucking his back paws behind it's front paws. It was only now that Milo finally noticed what the bear had actually been doing all this time.

'It's protecting that claw in specific … but why?'.

To Milo's knowledge, it didn't matter the species the emblem always appeared on the backs of the creature, and the core was always located somewhere centrally. So the fact this bear was protecting that single claw with his entire body was bewildering.

Again, the same fluctuation sprung from the claw, and the bears fur matched it, but this time it's colour flickered from red to blue, before settling back at a paler red.

'Is it expiring?'.

Milo dashed forward, cocking his fist back to feign a strike at the bears stomach. The bear followed the pattern, shifting upright for a split-second allowing Milo to dip beneath the bears out swinging paw and slide through it's legs, grabbing onto the claw that was overflowing with a potent type of mana.

'THE HELL!?'.

The bear roared, jumping onto it's back in an attempt to squash Milo.

Milo rolled out of the way and before the bear could regain its footing, dashing into the trees bouncing off each one until he was atop the cliff overlooking the entire forest. He dropped down, allowing one leg to dangle over the ledge, taking in the breeze.

"Why was it so potent?", he asked himself, thinking back to what he felt when he grabbed the claw.

He looked down at his hand, allowing his mana to fade from existence leaving a bright red burn that still stung now where he had grabbed the claw.

"That was far more potent than anything I've encountered so far, hell it was able to rip straight through my armour with no real effort", he mumbled to himself, failing to hide the faint nervous smile creeping onto his lips.

If he had seriously fought the bear at any point other than now, he would have been killed with no real effort. He winced again, feeling a stabbing pain running down his right hip, he shuffled slightly causing the pain to flicker again.

"Damn, did it fracture that as well".

As soon as he said this, the pain spread throughout his entire body, causing him to lurch forward, nearly toppling over the cliffs edge. He jumped back to his feet, stumbling back a few steps and slumping against a cold rock.

He held his right hip, unsure of what was causing the sudden pains.

"Fuck, did one of my organs go?", he tried looking inward and focusing his mana, but it yielded no results.

If one of his organs had been heavily damaged, that was the worst-case scenario for more reasons than he cared to count. The first was that as a human, his recovery power was far weaker than any other animal, the second was that the royal selection was set to take place soon and taking part while heavily wounded was a serious risk even for him.

"Sir", a muffled voice called from behind Milo. Appearing from a cloud of dust sweeping through the air, Marcos' figure slowly emerged dressed in a lavish black tailcoat and red button up shirt, with his long hair tied neatly behind his head.

Thanks to Milo's continued growth, Marcos underwent an upgrade too, on top of regaining his, or at least a fraction of his original power, he was also able to begin to utilise some of his previous, more mana consuming skills. The most useful of these was his instantaneous movement, dusk follow.

It allowed him to teleport to wherever Milo was located using the connection formed between the blood pact, the only issue was that it contained a substantial amount of Marcos' mana, leading to him needing long rests after each use.

"Ah Marcos", Milo replied, looking him over, "What's the occasion?".

"Please do not joke with me, it is time for you to depart for the royal capital", Marcos said, helping Milo back to his feet and leading him down the cliff.

Milo winced, an act Marcos picked up on.

"Please don't tell me you are injured?", Marcos asked concerned, he released Milo and looked him once over.

"Hip, foot, potential concussion and a back strain, also more blunt force trauma", Marcos mused bringing his hand to his forehead and letting out a sigh, "How could you get hurt this badly before the royal selection?".

Milo clicked his tongue at his words, annoyed by Marcos' flip-flopping speech. Sometimes he acted and spoke as a friend, then as a father, sometimes as a servant and others as if Milo was the servant. To say Milo was growing agitated was an understatement.

Marcos slipped his arms under Milo and let his own mana flow into Milo's core. Slowly, Milo's body began to heal itself, although not to the extent he could move freely, but the constant stabbing pain subsided and was replaced by a blunt thud.

"What was that?", Milo asked, feeling the change in his own body.

"A recovery method used when another's wounds are only minimal", Marcos replied and continued to lead, "If the bones were broken or shattered it wouldn't be possible, but fractures are mere trauma wounds that are easily mended".

Milo rolled his eyes.

'He's still pretty useful though'.

"So, when is the royal selection?", Milo asked, unsure of what day it was.

"A week from today", Marcos replied, hurrying his pace, "So we need to leave tomorrow at noon".