While it was just a second exchange of blows, it felt like an eternity has passed before I was able to find a way to effectively attack my opponent. If I had the time to count it, from the moment I placed the first firewall to block my enemy vision to the point when it was punctured by my attack, only about ten seconds passed!

"You little…!"

I guess this lovely beast never expected that despite being far weaker than it on paper, I would still be able to attack him!

But instead of rejoicing and continuing my attacks, I kindly stopped.

What others might take for the act of fairness and mercy aimed to let the opponent recover from the attack, was in reality just me trying to observe and make sense of what was happening.

Because my hit didn't end with just puncturing the beast's defences!

Even with how fast the tunnelling of the fire from my weak fireball was, it still took quite a while to finish. And all this time, it continued to feed condensed fire inside the beast body!

Unwilling to lose such an opportunity, I added a single rank one, tier five shockwave in the middle of the weak fireball. Before it even managed to erupt, it was swiftly sucked by the vector and transported inside the beast body!

BOOM!

"ROAR!"

With a huge chunk of the flesh from its upper leg erupting away, the beast couldn't speak normally anymore, and let out an animalistic roar. I guess if someone ripped my biceps away from my body, I wouldn't pay any mind to appearances either!

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

With the anger and pain shedding away the fake kindness of the beast, it launched itself at me.

In a flash, I saw an enormous pair of claws flying towards my neck. I guess it was unwilling to make the common mistake and decided to go for the head!

Shockwave and vector.

Combining vector with my other skills turned out to be an awesome antiarmour tool! That's why even if I had no hopes of stopping its attack, I could at least redirect it upwards!

With the huge wound hindering its movements and the continuous loss of blood despite its body already regenerating, both the sense of balance and stability of the beast was off. Exploding the shockwave at a low angle before its paw was enough to make its attack miss.

"It's not over yet!"

If something works, then there is no reason to use any other means!

With how many times I was thrown around by my own shockwaves that were to close to me for my comfort, I used yet another one at a considerable distance to distance myself from the beast. Even if I had the flight ability, it was a way to slow and unreliable to use it in the fight!

Gaining meter by meter of the distance didn't come at a cost though.

This beast, even with its wounds, was still inherently faster than I could ever hope to be without upgrading my system and unlocking the limit on my attributes. That's why, as I moved backwards, I continued to throw 'burials' and 'firewalls' in a growing radius, to gain this one more second required to cast another fireball.

STOMP!

Before losing my momentum, the beast already appeared behind me, reaching for me with its jaws even before it's body managed to stabilize on the ground.

I guess using the shockwaves to move around isn't the best idea. Not only every single time I'm doing so, I'm at risk of sustaining unnecessary injuries, but the path of my movement is obvious as well!

"Just fuck off!"

With no other choice, I tripled my barriers and cast double shockwave right under my body.

BOOM!

Cough!

This was a close one. Even before I reached the peak of my ascend, I felt some liquid filling my mouth, before coughing it out.

Blood. And a lot of it!

Taking this pristine moment of peace as I was ascending, I inspected my body.

I had no idea how tattered I am! Maybe because of this feeling of overwhelming love calming me down, I dropped my guard and just went at it, thinking only about obtaining the victory at all cost, clouding my sense of danger in the process!

What's worse, after taking a glance at my status window, I only now realised how low my mana is!

With only fifteen thousand remaining out of my initial nearly forty thousand increased by yet another twenty from the rings, I had to finish this fight as soon as possible! As I was at that, I took a look inside myself, only to see with a desperation that more than of the energy stored in dantian was already gone!

I really need to learn how to be conservative when spending mana! With at least five thousand required both to refill my dantian or to cast a spell powerful enough to break the barrier, I was left with only five thousand more to safely operate, without even taking any attempts of escaping from the city into account!

While if the push will come to shove, I still had some means to replenish my mana in a quick manner, I preferred to abstain from it, as it could do WAY more harm than good!

Bonger, what are the chances to incapacitate this guy with one more attack like the one from before?

"Blop!"

"System is not authorised to directly help in battles unless the situation will warrant the use of emergency mechanism"

Wait! You can drop a bomb like that in the middle of the fight!

What emergency mechanism?

How many times I can use it?

When does it activate?

Fuck, there is no time to think about that. It's better that I forget that Bonger even said something like that, or I will end up relying on it and handicapping myself with that attitude!

Weak fireball twice, shockwaves two for each of the fireballs, add some vectors to each serving and diet coke to top it up.

"I'm coming for you, you little bastard!"

While I was still in the air, I heard a small tremor, before the clouds made of dirt and dust knocked up during our fight unveiled the silhouette of this best, ascending to my level with the flaps of its wings.

Damn it.

My flight spell can only be used to maintain my position in the air, not to manoeuvre or fight without a stable footing! While it gives me way more options of movement with whole new dimension opening up, I had to save my mana, so using shockwaves to more around was only the last resort of the options, not to speak about how it still provided me only with linear movement!

Redirecting my vectors towards the new threat, I kept them at bay, waiting for it to close the distance. Once fired, I wouldn't be able to influence them, so I need to make every shot count!

"WHat's with you? Don't you want to rush to help your mate? What are you waiting for? Hit me with it!"

It's strange… Even now, its wound was still open, albeit way smaller than before. I highly doubt that it managed to devise a plan to defend against this weapon of mine in such a short amount of time.

After all, it's still a beast, not human cultivator!

What's his problem then?

With a sudden idea sparking up in my head, I closed my eyes and scanned the entire area with my energy vision.

Just like I thought, the beast hovering in front of me, was just an illusion. With its energy barely present at all, there was no way my real opponent lost all its prowess! It was even hard to notice it's a presence at all when it was almost completely hidden behind a powerful aura with its epicentre located on the ground!

I guess, it either tried to trick me into wasting my energy, into putting myself in a certain position, or it simply wasn't able to run up with that wound of its!

It's time to end this then!