72 The Mammoth Hunt P2
Lightning. Swoosh. Connect.
Eren executed Blitz Steps and approached the mammoth. He jumped 5 meters in the air before sending a flying sword attack in the mammoth’s way.
Meanwhile, Reece retrieved her flying daggers and cast her fire-element spell. She also used her movement spell to get behind the beat in the next moment before trapping the beast in her circle of green flames.
Kree!
The beast seemed more than ready to take on the two puny humans who had dared to intrude on his territory. Using his trunk as a whip, he extended it with his spell to attack the biggest threat he considered in the fight.
Swoosh.
The flying attack connected with the approaching trunk and stunned the beast’s trunk for a while. But all it could do was stun. The trunk reflected the afternoon brilliance– indicating that it had been coated with iron-element mana.
The beast was called Iron Trunk Honey Mammoth for a reason. They could use their trunks like an iron whip.
The mammoth didn’t need to coat his body in an iron-skin-like spell because he had something way better. Eren saw that his attack had become ineffective. He wanted to change his position right away while he was in midair. However, the beast’s stunned trunk moved surprisingly fast with exceptional agility and flexibility, catching his right leg within a fraction of a second.
The trunk latched onto the right leg’s ankle like a tight knot. Eren felt his vision change rapidly as the beast swung his trunk and sent him flying towards Reece who had just sent her flying daggers towards the beast.
Reece had sent her flying daggers in another direction. The flame circle was her go-to spell for near-omnidirectional attacks. The attack could come in any direction Reece wanted as long as she had fine control over her pyroportation skills.
Kree!
The beast was indeed caught off guard when the flying daggers that had been sent away from him ended up targeting him from the opposite direction. However, the attack couldn’t do much.
The flying daggers were sent flying before they could touch the beast’s skin. That’s because the beast could create a gravitational field around himself, preventing any attack to close in on him. Using his gravitational abilities, he made himself lighter and chased the intruders nimbly.
Reece saw a lightning streak coming her way and was about to change her direction using her movement spell. But it turned out she didn’t have to. Eren used his Tachi as an emergency brake and drove it into the ground while covering it with his lightning mana.
Screech.
The blade created a distinct line on the ground as it was dragged by the vector force acting on its wielder body. Eren felt like the ground was a bottomless pit that would absorb all his lightning if he didn’t stop supplying his lightning mana to it.
Infinite Mana Core.
Eren tapped into his infinite mana core and felt that his body had been rejuvenated by the unlimited supply of mana it was given. His senses were sharpened. His movements and his reaction time enhanced as he did a flip turn and stood on the weapon’s hilt.
‘This beast is almost untouchable with his gravitational force. He is fast on his feet while chasing us. But for some reason, he is standing still on his feet.’
Eren narrowed his eyes as he told Reece something.
“Reece, it’s time to yeet.”
Eren said and jumped from his blade while pulling the weapon out with both his feet. He cast his spell immediately before running in Reece’s direction.
Reece didn’t understand anything but followed his direction anyway. She cleared the path for her and Eren, allowing the duo to pass through the flame circle.
Kreee!
The beast cried out in part anger and part panic as he saw his intruders were running away. He felt a subtle mana pulse coming from the beast’s body as he adjusted the gravitational field around him, making himself lighter in the process. It was like the beast’s version of a gyro vehicle, except that the beast could treat his body as a vehicle.
Eren was keeping tabs on the mana beast using his mana sense. He sensed the mana fluctuation that the beast gave away and started to believe his hunch. There were various inherent spells available for each species.
So the guild’s database always kept on updating. The ability this beast had seemed unrecorded in the database. Nevertheless, the database had helped him come up with this hunch. As such, it was helpful anyway.
While running away, Eren told Reece to start executing her flame spells. She was supposed to leave a trail of flames in her wake as she kept on running. Which she immediately did with her movement spell.
Eren then told Reece to send her flying daggers in the beast’s direction as he was chasing them. He wanted to see what would happen with the weapon now that the beast was in motion.
Pichook!
The flying dagger disappeared from the flame closest to the duo and appeared out of the stray flame nearest to the beast. It closed in on the beast before he could react and lodged itself deep into the beast’s right hind leg.
Kreee!
Eren flashed an evil smile when he understood how the beast’s gravitational field worked. It could only concentrate on certain parts of his body. And he had used its powers to make himself lighter than he was. Hence, he couldn’t deflect the weapon that was closing on him.
‘This hunt needs to be done on the move.’
Eren thought to himself as he crafted a plan to slay the beast eventually. The hunt was going to test their endurance.
First, Eren used Reece as a distraction to injure the beast with each of his timely attacks. However, she was almost tapped out of her mana reserve when the hunt lasted for more than 20 minutes. Plus, her jitters didn’t allow her to approach the beast head-on, forcing Eren to do all the grunt work.
The beast also had a few more attacking spells in his arsenal. He could use his trunk to shoot iron shards at the duo. These shards were only half an inch in length and were like needles. Yet they had injured the two rankers just as much as the beast was injured by them.
Reece’s mana storage was drying up. Their chase had taken them away from Mia who was dealing with her mammoth on her own.
Eren and Reece both would be in a lot of trouble if another beast from the mammoth horde joins the fray. And at this point, Reece was like a dead weight. So Eren immediately decided to take the hunt away from her.
Reece wanted to stay with Eren despite her condition. However, she stopped speaking when she heard Eren’s next words.
“Reece, if you can’t help, don’t become a burden!”
Eren said to Reece without caring about how his statement would affect her. He then attacked the beast again with his flying blade attacks and pulled his aggro on him.
The beast and Eren headed their separate ways, leaving Reece flying aimlessly in another direction. She watched Eren’s departing figure with a bit of moistness in her eyes as she repeated Eren’s words in her head.
‘Don’t become a burden.’
Reece repeated these words to herself and clenched her feet. As a result, her jitters dissipated, and clarity returned. This one incident had brought her back on track. Unfortunately, she lacked the mana to show her resolve to Eren.
Eren on the other hand felt that this was just the right scenario to test his infinite mana and his on-field performance. He was about to lead the beast to his doom.