Chapter 15: Challenger

A few moments later, I hit the ground to launch dust and cut grass into the air to distract the manticore before running to the side of its body. I was now positioned under its wings, so the manticore would would find it hard to hit me with its tail. I swiftly attacked with my claws, leaving five long, deep cuts that bled profusely. I think I even hit bone in one of them. However, to my surprise, the manticore didn't give up, and instead swung back to face me, biting at my neck. In response to its ugly head flying at me, I curled my hand into a fist and punched it in the face, knocking a few teeth loose. They would regrow, but any brain damage I caused was permanent. Again, my expectations were wrong. The manticore immediately steadied itself before launching at me again. It should either have fainted from lack of blood or given up by now, yet it continued attacking. My best guess was that it really couldn't afford to loose this territory, maybe because I had claimed a large amount of it, so it was fighting to the death. However, I had finished all the practicing I wanted for today, and was getting bored. I used a little of my real speed to punch it in the face again, almost throwing it to the ground. It still didn't give up though, and got up again and charged at me. That was my final warning, so I will end this fight now. I then ran straight towards it, and when I reached its face I used my claws to cleave its head in half. Sadly, I had to use wind magic to make my claws sharp enough. Maybe I should try to sharpen my claws more, It seems that average rocks are not strong enough to help me sharpen my claws anymore. For the first time in ages, I actually felt a bit hungry. It was probably because of all the travelling I had done away from a ley line intersection. Luckily, I had a meal ready right in front of me. Only te tail of a manticore is poisonous, so it wasnt dangerous to me. I had seen humans cook their food on fire before, and I was quite intrigued. I tried it, but it didn't taste much different and was a lot of effort do I stopped doing it. I nimbly cut some meat from the manticore's side before having some to eat. It was surprisingly not horrible. After eating my fill, I burnt the rest to ashes, cleaning the forest. all that was left was its mana stone, which I almost forgot about. All monsters have one, and they allow them to control mana easier than humans can. Depending on a monsters overall strength and ability with magic, the size, clarity and colour of a mana stone changes. Intelligent monsters can also drain mana stones to increase their own strength. Not wanting anything to go to waste, I drained the mana stone until it turned to dust before flying back to my cave. There were no other challengers, which I was quite surprised about, as I had taken a large amount of land. Maybe it all belonged to that manticore? Well, I dont really care. I'm just happy I get to live here now.