A wild rabbit bounded through an open field, its sleek white fur glistening in the sunlight as it moved along the blades of grass.
Until the ground beneath the rabbit began to vibrate with an intense force, sending ripples through the earth.
It frantically scanned its surroundings, searching for any signs of danger, but it was too late, in a blink of an eye the rabbit's body was impaled by talons.
A giant beast, one wouldn't normally encounter.
The body was intimidating, lion from the waist back, and eagle from the chest up, its talons digging into the earth while its paws stood on guard.
A rank 4 mana beast, the griffin, as well as the ruler of the forest.
As the creature was savouring its newly captured prey, sudden footsteps approached the creature.
Step Step
The griffin slowly turned its head, its golden eyes locking onto the approaching figure.
Standing 6 feet in height, the boy grown enough to be called a young man.
His hair was a cascade of onyx and purple, drifting past his shoulders, it danced freely in the wind, yet never brushed against his face.
His features were developed and sharp, his face was handsome enough to turn eyes.
But his eyes, a shimmering violet, marked by narrow slits for pupil, gave off a beastly aura, his cold gaze locked straight onto the griffin as if looking at a prey.
Unlike any of his previous hunts, Alan could be said to be overly prepared.
He wore armour with dark metal covering his body, on his back was a spear, on his waist was a sword, as well as numerous daggers.
'Prey' the griffin thought to itself, it could immediately tell Alan was overwhelming weaker than itself, but at the same time Alan gave off a unique pressure that told the griffin to not take him lightly.
"Hah." Alan sighed. "You're the last one in this forest, as well as the ruler."
Then paused. "And the last one I need to kill to advance."
He took a single step forward, but the one step changed everything.
[Gaze]
His hair whipped behind him as his eyes flared with a cold violet light, his vertical pupil narrowed to thin slits.
The very pressure around the griffin changed, not metaphorically but literally, its paws and talons dug into the ground leaving behind fractures, its head began lowering as if to bow.
The creature immediately sensed danger, then without hesitation it released a screech, not a normal one.
The trees besides the griffin uprooted itself from the impact, while Alan immediately covered his ears, blood dripped from his nose and ears.
Bang
The griffin took off, the single impact of taking off left a deep, hollow crater in the earth.
"Shit..." Alan cursed, wiping the blood away.
"SCREEECCH"
But didn't get much time, from above the creature was rapidly diving towards him while spinning like a torpedo.
Alan took out the spear from behind him, then coated the blade in a violet hue of mana.
It was mana blade, the act of infusing a weapon with your own mana to create an even stronger blade.
Alan bent back, then thrusted the spearhead straight towards the diving griffin.
BANG
A massive impact blasted the surroundings as the spearhead collided with the griffins beak, trees broke in half, the ground left deep cracks running across the forest.
Kirk
The shaft of the spear was the first to crack, then without thinking, Alan infused the weapon with his affinity rather than his mana.
Violet flames conjured from the spearhead, then Alan thrusted it with one last force.
BANG
The violent impact tore through the air, the griffin took the entire force point black, propelling the griffin through the air, crashing through numerous trees before coming to a stop.
All that was left was Alan standing with a broken and burnt spear shaft, even the metal head of the spear was shattered and melted.
Infusing a weapon with one's mana to create a mana blade was a common practice, infusing with one's affinity to create a special coating with your own affinity provided a great destructive power.
But Alan's flames were either too hot or too cold for his weapons to handle and broke off, so it was always a one-time use for him.
Alan sharpened his focus, the griffin was already getting up, the moment it did, it released another screech before violently flapping its wings towards Alan.
The very air in front of the griffin began to twist, before creating two spiralling tornados, rapidly advancing towards Alan.
Alan lifted his feet, beneath he conjured frosty white flames, before stomping down on the floor.
A giant wave of white flame washed over the approaching twin tornados, it didn't burn the flames, it took its momentum by freezing the wind, shattering the tornadoes into falling snow.
But the griffin didn't wait, through the snow it charged straight towards Alan with open beak aimed directly at his head.
Alan reacted quickly, he ducked below the griffin, but the moment he did, the creature's two talons cut towards him.
Relying on instinct, he drew his sword and parried one of the talons, redirecting it to stop the one.
But it still proved useless, the talon sliced through Alan's chest plate like butter, effectively cutting into his skin.
Entirely ignoring the injury, Alan drove his sword, infused with his mana, straight into the griffins stomach.
Spurt
The weapon penetrated through its skin, lodging itself into its stomach.
"KIIIIII—"
Another ear deafening screech, though this time it was a cry of pain.
The griffin stood on its hind leg, its figure towering over Alan as it raised their talons high, to crush him deep into the earth.
Alan didn't wait for that, igniting violet flames beneath his feet, he lunged accelerated by his explosion, then drew two daggers kept on his waist.
In that small moment he passed through the griffins back legs, he dug the daggers deep into the creature's joints.
RUMBLE
The moment he finished, the griffin already smashed its talons, the ground caved in, the earth erupted into a fog of dusts.
In that small moment, the griffin made a choice, to flee rather than to continue fighting.
Its wings lifted high then flapped down, clearing the surroundings dusts before rising off the ground and soaring into the sky above.
But where was Alan?
On the griffins back, of course.
His hands dug into the creature's back as the two drifted in the air.
The view from there was phenomenal, the enormous forest just below them, the city of Duskendale in the far distance.
Although right now wasn't the right time for admiring such a view.
Alan grit his teeth, strengthening his hold on the griffins back.
He was in pain, his ears were ringing, his chest was burning, flying through the sky while desperately holding on wasn't exactly helping much.
The griffin realised Alan was already on its back, without much hesitation the beast began rapidly spinning itself.
"Fucking... piece... of shit..."
Despite the crazy g-force acting against him, he still had to spell out his curses.
Letting go of one hand, Alan pulled out another dagger, then embedded it into the griffins back, then did the exact same thing with the other hand.
"KKIIII—"
Then with another sharp cry, the creature started slowly descending to the forest, it had a sword impaled into the stomach, two daggers in the back legs, and two stabbed into its back, holding out in air was no longer an option.
Alan decided to help the griffin fall faster.
From the hands holding on to the daggers, he poured immense amounts of flames into the blade, and within moments the blade could no longer handle it.
BANG
The two daggers simultaneously exploded into dark purple explosions, directing in the flesh of the griffin.
It couldn't even scream, the force of the explosion sent the two plummeting straight for the trees below.
And within moments.
Thoom
They crashed down onto the ground below.
All that remained was a large crater, within that crater was the griffin lying on its stomach, and Alan hunched over on its back.
The griffins back was gory, the explosion tore away the flesh, leaving behind charred bits and pieces of the creature.
Alan's vision was shaking, blood poured from his nose and ears, not to mention his chest, an open wound that gushed out crimson.
"Kiii..."
The griffin let out a small cry, carrying none of its formidable strength.
Alan lightly sat on the griffin's back to catch his breath for a moment.
He just succeeded in hunting a creature two ranks higher than him.
The equivalent of a child killing an adult.
But even then, there was no chance of him handling a rank 5, from rank 5 the power dynamics begins to shift drastically.
"Hah..." Alan let out a long breath, then dragged his body over to the griffin's head.
It was still alive, to put it out of its suffering Alan placed a hand on its skull.
The griffin closed its eyelids in acceptance.
Then, Alan ignited a white flame into his palm, penetrating the creature's skin and freezing the entire skull.
Raising his fist, he brought it down, shattering the frozen head of the griffin, finally ending the hunt.
[Reaper]
The moment he used his skill, the mana concentrated within the griffins core flowed into his own.
Badump
It was his heartbeat, Alan doubled over, clutching his chest through the blood that soaked his fingers.
Despite the pain, he was smiling, it was a similar process he experienced when he advanced previously.
Badump
His heart was beating loudly.
Alan concentrated, drifting his mind towards his core.
Then in the darkness of his consciousness, he saw it, a sphere was swirling violent, with red, blue and golden sparks mixed within the depths of the violet sea.
The sphere was pulsing rapidly, frantically, producing mana at an unreal pace.
The mana naturally settled into his blood vessels like before, but something was different, rather than flowing along with the blood, it was settling itself.
It mixed with the vessels, slowly becoming a part of it.
Then Alan realised, the capacity of his mana was increasing, rather than just his core containing all of his mana, bit by bit his body was becoming a vessel to hold more mana.
"Hah!" Alan shot out with a jolt, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding.
[Mana core rank advanced]
[core rank: 3 (Manifest)]
Alan slowly stood up, and his body felt incredibly light.
If before he had to channel his mana through his blood vessels to strengthen a specific point, now he could just strengthen that point through his blood vessels, rather than having to utilise his core.
This simple change was game changing, the speed of infusing mana was vastly quickened.
Not to mention his overall mana capacity, it being increased tenfold.
His body's natural regeneration also seemed to increase, he could feel wounds closing, although it did little to help the giant cut on his chest.
Alan took his armour and yanked it to the floor.
Blood flowed over all of his body features, he was aesthetically well-defined in muscles, his lean physique was something all men would want.
Although it quite gnarly due to the blood, as he was inspecting his injuries, a voice called out to him.
"Seriously, you and Lucian are not bloody normal." A familiar lock of blonde hair and blue eyes.
It was Edward, he glanced over at the corpse of the griffin, as his face shifted in utter disbelief.
"You dealt with a rank 4 as a rank 2, do you even realise what kind of achievement this is?"
"Well, I was also quite injured?"
It was true, in the past six years, Edward had never seen Alan this bloodied before.
"Hah." Edward sighed. "Sit down, Lucian should be coming soon, he has all the treatment stuff."
Alan sat down beside the corpse of the griffin and leaned against its still warm body.
As he momentarily caught his breath, the leaves scrunched over, Alan raised his head to see who it was.
"Yo, Lucian!"