"Maliaa!" I shouted as I rushed to her limp body. She rested against a tree, I could hear a heartbeat, that was good but her bpm was dropping. She was dying.

Her mana was all used up; I searched her surroundings, there was a charred carcass of what seemed to be a B rank beast not too far away.

She must have killed the beast that abducted her. I could smell a were man's scent coming from the charred carcass; so my predictions were right, she was kidnapped but why? Why would anyone want to kidnap Malia?

I looked back. Sh*t! I Wasted too much time here. Dozens of beasts surrounded me, from D rank to B rank beasts. Even for me, this was going to be a hard fight.

I unsheathed Voadhailis's Claw and intercepted a ground rat aiming for Malia's limp body. Cleanly slicing the Ground rat in half, 3 more replaced it.

Imbuing the blade in flame mana I sliced at the ground rats, a horizontal slash of flames cut crisply through the weak beasts; the slash carried on, killing a total of 12 ground rats.

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

…

The notifications kept piling up.

[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]

[You have received 10 stat points]

[Total available stat points: 20]

[MP has been restored]

Perfect! My system was really a cheat code, every time I levelled up, my MP would replenish on its own. Now my MP was full again at 10,000; I did some calculations.

I would use 3000 MP on the low rank beasts and 6000 MP on the S rank beast. Best case scenario: I stack up EXP from farming the low rank beasts and avoid fighting the Forest King.

I looked for escape routes using my demon eye all while defending Malia. For some reason I could see the beasts only targeting her. Every time I opened up an escape route, the beasts would replace the dead ones. This was going to be troublesome.

I had to conserve my mana.

I put away my blade and activated 'Indra's spear', a violent voltage of blue lightning formed around my hand. I pounced off of the trees like a leopard, ricocheting off them; Using Gravity Magic I kept a number of them still. Quickening myself with 'lightning aura', I pierced through the beasts, leaving blood splattered all over the forest floor. That was about ⅛ of them killed.

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 8000 EXP for killing a B rank beast!]

…

I didn't know If I was meant to be worried or happy. If the Forest King didn't interfere, I would easily breeze through the hundred or so beasts and farm EXP but adding the Forest King into the equation, I doubted my win rate.

Sh*t!

I dodged a kick at the last second, I pounced backwards towards Malia's limp body; she was still unconscious. I really needed help right now.

Oh yeah! I could clone myself using Blake's skill! I thought about it a little but I knew it wouldn't work, my stats would divide by the number of clones I made; it meant that each clone would then have an equal number of Stat points including me. Halfling my stats in half, would cause more harm.

The Forest King miniaturised to mirror my body type. Did it want to fight me hand to hand?

"Hand over that girl Demon."

The beast's true voice echoed in my head. It could talk?! I had never even heard of this phenomenon. Just how strong was this S rank beast, that it had its own voice?

I had hunted a couple S rank beasts before, but they were always with the help of Xanxus or Miss Elena or Gramps and they were on the weaker end of the spectrum.

Sweat dripped down my forehead.

"Why should I?" I stated, pulling out my short sword and spinning it in my hand before holding it in a reverse grip.

"We have to take h-"

"Aaaarghhhh!" It screamed in my head.

I grabbed my head in pain as its true voice shrieked in my head. The Forest King also looked to be in a state of agony.

The mental pain subsided due to the system protecting me. The S rank beast then stopped twitching and a red glow appeared from where its eyes were supposed to be.

It didn't waste a second and covered the distance in a flash. A fist aimed for my face was blocked using my forearm and I sliced down with my blade in my alternate hand.

To my surprise, it twisted its body and kicked me instead in mid air. Was it learning from my previous moves I used on the other beasts?

The hand-to-hand assault continued and it was learning at an incredible speed. It started landing more hits on me; this beast might have been more talented than even the great me.

I smiled as I enjoyed the light spar. For the first time I wouldn't need to hold back, I released my full demon Aura and Mana Pressure; my right eye glowed an intense hue of red and streaks of blue lightning formed around me. I released my killing intent and the beast flinched before stepping back.

Its instincts kicked in.

[S rank - Forest King is momentarily stunned]

[All B rank beasts are intimidated]

[All C rank beasts are intimidated]

[All D rank beasts are intimidated]

The notifications made me sigh as I now brought some time by removing the annoying low rank beasts out of the equation; now they wouldn't bother with my fight.

This time I attacked first and landed a huge overhand right, blowing its plant made head back. It froze on the ground before getting up and throwing a fit of punches and kicks at me, I avoided all of them using my 'levitation' skill.

All demons could fly, but for now I could only levitate; when I got my wings by levelling up would I be finally be able to fly.

I couldn't see it but a punch knocked me back. Did it get faster? I decided to stray from the hand to hand combat and I condensed flame balls in my hand before side flipping and flicking my wrists.

The flame balls were dodged and instead made contact with the other low rank beasts. Huge explosions killed dozens of low rank beasts and some fled in fear.

[You have massacred dozens of C rank beasts!]

[You have earned 30,000 EXP]

The S rank beast roared once again and this time grew to its original size. Was it going to attack seriously now?

"I'll just take the girl by force then!" A voice said in my head, this time it sounded like a human's voice and was completely different to the Forest King's.

I peered at the Forest King with my Demon eye. I could see its meridians, it was definitely a beast, so where did the voice appear from?

Vast amounts of plant magic enveloped the atmosphere and for the first time I panicked. Large, thick vines popped up from the ground as the beast raised its hand. The beast was aiming for Malia!

I pounced, leaving a large crater in the ground. I skyrocketed towards her, breaking the sound barrier. Everything moved in slow motion, the vines were inches away from grabbing her. I reached my hand out and threw small lance-shaped lightning Bolts. They pierced through the air radiating lightning mana, in a second the vines were severed.

I grabbed Malia up and sped through the forest, leaping from branch to branch. I could definitely not fight that beast. That sharp rise in mana pressure that was emitting from that beast was unreal. I would die if I fought that beast alone.

Suddenly, vines strengthened by mana, popped up from the ground and grabbed onto my foot . I tried to kick it loose but it wouldn't unfasten, instead it tightened and started rising up my body.

NO!

The vines started to wrap around Malia and I could feel her cold body moving out of my grasp…