From the sheer power contained in its roar alone, it seemed to be a C-danger level mana beast attack or even worse… a B-danger level one.

He didn’t know where the roar came from but he knew a mana beast attack must be taking place.

‘Why does this have to happen now? I need to run…’ Harry thought. He mustered all the remaining strength he had left and started running for his life.

As if the day couldn’t get any worse, a huge amount of pain suddenly shot up from his legs.

His body still ached badly from Han’s earlier ‘training’, since he hadn’t put his body through any strenuous exercise, the pains from his legs reduced to a manageable level. However, the moment he made the decision to run, the pain shot up from his knees down to his feet, making his movements slow and sluggish.

Every other person had gotten ahead of him as he was the only one behind. Luckily for them, there was only one mana beast, although it seemed to be quite powerful, it didn’t chase after anyone. It only stayed in one spot, taking slow strides as if to observe its new surroundings.

Harry wasn’t able to cover up to three meters before he fell down face-flat on the ground.

“Sh*t, not now… come on, just… move,” Harry started muttering to himself. No matter what he tried to do, his legs just wouldn’t move, or rather he couldn’t get them to move due to the huge amount of pain he felt from them.

His nose was already broken due to the force at which he hit the ground, a drop of blood trailed from his nose down to his upper lip. Even his lips appeared swollen as there was a slight bruise just below them. ‘Please… just—’

Whoosh!

A loud gust of wind broke him off his thoughts. His uniform bloated slightly due to the amount of wind that temporarily accumulated in them. 𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t

Unfortunately for Harry, the mana beast which had been stagnant suddenly made a move. And it didn’t just move to a random location, it appeared right in front of him…

Harry felt a huge shadow, which was simply the huge figure of the mana beast, loom over him. All the blood in his face dried up, he felt like he stood, or rather laid as a sacrifice in front of the grim reaper himself.

Growl!

Harry heard the beast growl, he slowly lifted his head. His entire existence shuddered as he saw what could only be described as his worst nightmare.

The creature had tough brown skin along with two large tusks on each side of its head. Each tusk had a length of about one meter, the beast itself stood at a frightening height of five meters. It stood on both its forelimbs and hind limbs, its hind limbs were slightly bent backwards, making it look like it wanted to make a jump.

But Harry couldn’t care less about the appearance of the mana beast. He only stared blankly at the huge creature because at that moment, he was about to become food for it.

‘Why do I have to be so unfortunate? Is this how I’m going to die?’ he kept thinking to himself. He knew there was no way he could escape the mana beast.

His still felt pains from all part of his legs, the mild pains assaulting him from his midsection only served to worsen the situation.

Even if his body was at its peak condition, there was no way he could outrun a mana beast that seemed to be at the fourth stage or if possible at the fifth stage…

It all started two hundred years ago, when mana came into the planet. Different animals transformed into huge and ferocious monsters. They attacked everyone on sight, plunging the earth into chaos and forcing humanity to the brink of extinction.

These monsters were later called mana beasts. They weren’t able to handle the mana that directly invaded their system. Animals weren’t like humans who could actively draw mana, the mana directly entered their bodies. Due to this, their cells and all part of their bodies mutated, turning them into beasts. They became far stronger, faster and also extremely aggressive.

After sometime, human beings finally learnt how to utilize mana to its full capacity. They were able to fight back against the mana beasts that littered the planet. It was no longer a one-sided slaughter. They killed most of the mana beasts in the planet.

However, after a few years of peace, another strange situation happened, different portals suddenly opened around the planet. Through those portals, more mana beasts would directly enter the planet, attacking random people and also causing destruction.

These portals were later called ‘rifts’ and the phenomenon where the mana beasts came through those portals was called ‘mana beast attack’.

Harry looked at the mana beast in front of him with an ashen expression. ‘I guess this is the end,’ he thought as he finally gave up, believing that there was nothing he could do in this type of situation and was only hoping the adventurer mages organization would get to his location quick and save his life.

The adventurer mages organization which was later abbreviated to AMO was in charge of dealing with mana beast attacks. They ventured into rifts in order to eliminate any mana beast in it to prevent future mana beast attacks. Those who venture into rifts were called adventurers.

Harry also dreamt of becoming an adventurer, however that dream was shattered by the harsh reality of him not having the ability to draw mana.

The beast took slow strides around Harry as if to inspect him. It seemed to be enjoying his despair.

Harry didn’t know if it was just his imagination but for a moment he felt like he saw a smug expression on the mana beast’s ugly face.

‘I knew it… it might not even be a stage four mana beast but rather a stage five!’ Harry inwardly exclaimed as he realized that the beast seemed to have some kind of intelligence.

There were ten mana beast stages, however the stage at which they become truly terrifying is the fifth stage.

This was because at that stage, they wouldn’t just be mana beasts that attack based on wild instincts alone, They would unlock their Intelligence at that stage. Their insane strength, coupled with the ability to think was what made them truly terrifying.

The mana beast, not knowing what Harry was thinking suddenly placed his foreleg under Harry’s right rib.

Harry instantly panicked when he felt the cold and hard brown leg of the beast on his body. His already pale face even became paler, he couldn’t even summon the courage to look at the mana beasts and only remained frozen on the ground.

However he didn’t have to wait long as the beast slowly lifted his figure off the ground before sending a kick towards his chest.

Due to the position the mana beast put him in, his chest was wide open and the mana beast’s leg was huge enough to cover up his whole torso.

The mana beast didn’t use its full strength when it kicked Harry as it simply wanted to ‘toy’ with his new prey, but still, that ‘little kick’ was still an attack from a possible stage five mana beast and it was something that even a person with a stage one mana core would struggle to endure talk less of Harry who didn’t even have a mana core—he was just a weak human being.

Harry felt like he was hit by a huge truck. His chest caved in, he could even feel some of his ribs shattering, the pieces grazing his lungs. The force behind the kick slightly lifted him off the ground before sending his figure sliding, an action which gave him another bruise on his left hand.

However it was nothing compared to the pain he felt from his torso.

“Arrrg!” Harry exclaimed in pain as the pain he felt from that ‘little kick’ of the mana beast was too unbearable for him.

If he thought the pain from Nell’s water ball was unbearable, this one could only be described as agonizing.

He really wished the mana beast would finish him, he looked at the mana beast, waiting for it to show its disgusting teeth and bite his head off, giving him a much quicker death. But alas, the mana beast kept circling him, as if he was some kind of toy.

He didn’t even know how he was still breathing, his lungs surprisingly didn’t suffer much damage. He wished for nothing more than a quick death, he didn’t need anyone to tell him that the mana beast was toying with him.

He was simply that insignificant… even to a beast.

‘Even a mana beast finds me useless,’ he thought. A wry smile appeared on his face as he shook his head in self-pity.

Harry felt his consciousness slowly leaving him, the immense pain coursing through his entire body made him feel like he was knocking on death’s door. He looked at the mana beast that was busy taking slow strides towards him; he had already accepted that his life was going to end today.

Even if he died, who would miss him? Who would miss the Harry without a mana core? He was sure his parents would be happy about his death… all they would think is ‘one trash gone’, same with the academy. Why does he have to struggle, only to get back into the same life…. Into the same life of being insignificant and useless?

It was better the mana beast ended his life that moment.

‘You foolish beast, at least hurry up with whatever you want to do!!!’ Harry wanted to scream those words at the mana beast that was obviously ‘toying’ with him but he wisely refrained from doing so. What if the mana beast gets angry and decided to end his life in a very painful way?

Harry slowly turned his gaze away from the mana beast and then looked at the sky, he noticed something strange.

There was a strange white line moving slowly in the sky. It looked sharp and pronounced as it danced around in the sky. It looked like some kind of streak. It had a length of about five meters and moved in a slightly curved motion.

That wasn’t what Harry found strange though, the strange thing was that the ‘white streak’ suddenly took a sharp turn and started moving downwards… towards him and the speed at which it moved was nothing to scoff at.

Harry looked towards the mana beast, he noticed that the mana beast didn’t seem to see or even sense the strange white streak.

Though the mana beast was backing the white streak so it naturally wouldn’t be able to see it, Harry still felt like it was strange for it to be unable to sense something moving that fast. Mana beasts had enhanced senses so even a stage one mana beast should be able to sense it.

Harry looked at the white streak once more, he didn’t know if it was just his imagination but the white steak seemed to be increasing its speed every passing second.

‘Perhaps it’s just my imagination,’ he thought. A wry smile appeared on his face as he finally closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

He once heard about how people hallucinate when placed in near death situations—like the one he was in currently—so he simply associated that to be one of his hallucinations.

However, just as Harry closed his eyes, the white streak also closed the distance between them. It passed through the head of the mana beast standing in front of Harry. A wide fist-sized hole instantly appeared on the head of the beast, the beast dropped limply to the side making a loud thud sound. The mana beast didn’t even know how it died.

The white streak didn’t even pause after passing through the head of the beast, it rapidly entered the body of the unconscious Harry.

A strange white and blue hue shone around Harry for a few seconds before gradually seeping into his skin. Harry didn’t know it yet but the strange white streak had just saved his life.

*****

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