Jiran didn’t move a muscle as beams of mana leaked from the ground to drift toward the sky. He could tell how dangerous they were by the way they melted the rock and caused the air to boil. The beast grew noticeably less agitated when they appeared, seemingly content to stand and wait for whatever was about to happen; Jiran had no such desires.

  More mana appeared with each passing second and from what he had seen before entering his cave, this was still only the start. Suddenly, a lance of energy tore through the ground and his armored foot, shearing off half of it. The energy was so hot it cauterized the wound and evaporated his blood. Regardless of how dangerous the beast was, he knew that sticking around any longer was suicide.

  Jiran jumped back, his movement powerful enough to send him halfway down the mountain. The moment he moved, the beast spun so fast it didn’t even blur. It was simply facing him with its lips pulled back in a feral snarl that didn’t belong to any sentient creature. The obfuscations Jiran had erected around himself were apparently useless so he cut them off and reabsorbed the mana. Mana Confluence restored his lost foot and since he was already discovered, there was no reason to withhold the use of Identify any longer.

  [Error: (???) Anomalous being detected. Caution recommended. Retreat advised]

  Trying!

  The creature appeared before him, its open palm lashing out and crashing into his armor with a groaning screech. Graphene layers bent, warping beneath the blow. Blood splattered the inside of his visor as immense pressure slammed into him. He rocketed backward, the attack containing more than enough power to send Jiran flying for several kilometers and he would have been happy to do just that if not for several factors, most working against him.

  First, for the time being, he was trapped inside an arena with a monster that he was beginning to believe didn’t belong there. And if he didn’t find a way to deal with it, it would almost certainly deal with him. Second, several emperors' worth of the creature's mana was currently outside of its body where it wasn’t being used to kill him, yet. If given the time, that would almost certainly change. Then, the situation would become… very bad for his health.

  Third, at this very moment, the beast was likely at its weakest and if he didn’t take this chance to do as much damage as possible, he might not get another. Lastly, the two weapon formations that Jiran left behind the moment he was struck went off and he wasn’t about to miss the perfect opportunity they afforded him to counterattack.

  A wave of healing swept through his torso and he couldn’t help but be impressed by how well his armor had protected him. At the same time, he was sure the anomaly could hit much harder if it wanted to. Now that Jiran had survived something he shouldn't have, the next time it attacked him would most certainly be far less easy to shrug off.

  Aspected mana blasted from his skin, sinking into the framework and grinding down his momentum. Unfortunately, mana wasn’t nearly as good at manipulating his weight as aura and he continued to race away from the mountain. With a quick prayer to the Fathers that he wasn’t making his situation worse by attracting a horde of revenants, Jiran’s aura snapped out for the briefest moment. It ripped thousands of synapses, creating several long gashes in reality as he slid backward. Yet he managed to stop and instantly came to the conclusion it was a good thing he had flown as far as he did.

  Volatile liquid hydrogen, compressed by elemental gravity and trapped inside his two weapon formations detonated. Each formation released an explosion capable of reducing the entire mountain to free-floating atoms, except they didn’t get the chance. The moment they began eating away at the rocky landscape, the unfathomable quantity of mana locked within the mountain was released. It blasted forth, snuffing out his attacks and racing upward to breach the clouds. The column released several thousand times more mana than Jiran had with each second and showed no signs of stopping.

  The anomaly was gone and Jiran had no way of knowing how much of an effect his formations had on it as everything happened too quickly for him to see. He spared enough mana to repair his armor while desperately scouring the scenery, hoping he found it before it found him. Mana Omnis was of little help since the beast had no mana inside it and utilizing the skill caused the pillar of mana to become blindingly bright.

  If it was hit by my formations, it should have been flung that way. Not assuming I actually hurt it but at least it's somewhere to start.

  Jiran blasted around the mountain on a jet of ignited gases. It was significantly harder to fly without utilizing his aura but he managed it by creating two additional jets of flame from his hands while spreading streamers of aspect out to latch onto the framework. More than a few revenants tracked his progress across the sky. They must have been just intelligent enough to stay out of the fight that was clearly beyond them as they merely released puffs of mana into the air, screeching in his direction.

  Every moment that passed without finding the beast, the more terrified Jiran became. Even Enthralling Touch draining mana from the column to refill his reserves wasn’t enough to soothe his frayed nerves. If the anomaly were to attack him full force from behind, there was a real possibility he would die without even realizing it was there. But now wasn’t the time to be paralyzed by fear. Retreating to formulate a new plan wasn’t an option either. If he didn't kill the anomaly before it reabsorbed its mana, he would certainly die. Even a fraction of that energy was enough to eradicate everything in the arena. Jiran flew close to the column and watched it carefully with Mana Omnis, despite it making his eyes water. He had to be sure that if the anomaly began absorbing its mana, he would notice right away.

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  A group of five revenants drew his attention. Usually, the beasts were solitary creatures. The only time he had seen them converge was when they ambushed him. Moving closer, he was surprised to find the anomaly crouched between them, slowly pulling itself together exactly the way Jiran had seen before. Meanwhile, the revenants were snacking on the aura being released during its reconstruction.

  Jiran conjured four chakrams, each of a different element and released them without an ounce of hesitation. Before the beams could hit, the creature completed its reconstruction and roared. The release of sound was far greater than when it had been grumbling on top of the mountain. A powerful shockwave expanded in a perfect circle, blowing the revenants into nonexistence as the framework and space were sundered. Jiran’s attacks were likewise scrubbed from reality the moment they came into contact with the wave of force.

  He grimaced, fighting off his dread with tooth and nail. If not for the fact the beast used the last of its mana in that single attack, he might have given up on his plan and found a place deep, deep beneath the ground to hide.

  If it had to rebuild itself again, then my formations can hurt it! But it knows that too. Next time, it won’t let me use them so easily.

  Jiran didn’t waste a single moment, even while thinking, four of his minds were tasked with constructing new weapon formations. They doubled up, two per formation. One mind created the graphene outer layers while the other stuffed them full of volatile elemental energy. When the smoke cleared and the framework reconstructed itself, the anomaly was standing right where it had been, staring up at Jiran with fangs bared in a furious snarl.

  Instead of coming after him, it jumped toward the mountain and the column of mana, caving in a huge section of the ground from the force of its leap.

  “No you don’t!”

  Unable to halt constructing the formations without them blowing up in his face, Jiran utilized his suit’s built-in formations. He raised both arms, spreading his fingers wide to release the stored mana along his forearms. The energy flowed into multiple release valves that converted it into elemental fire. Six beams of fire lanced through the air, striking the anomaly and surrounding it in collimated plasma.

  Predictably, the anomaly was unharmed, its fur smoking the only indication it had been attacked. Jiran did manage to redirect its flight though, and with no mana or aura remaining to fly, it was forced to the ground well away from its target, which bought Jiran the time he needed to finish constructing his formations. Upon crashing into the ground, the beast slid half a kilometer through the snow and soil, Furiously pounding the ground and releasing additional shockwaves that actually sent it further off course.

  Jiran barely managed to reposition himself between the mountain and the beast by the time it came to a stop. Suddenly, it was behind him, having regenerated enough mana to Teleport. Without his aura being spread out, he had no way to detect the move, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared for it to display speed well beyond what he could accomplish. A thick field of aspect had been surrounding him since he began making his formations. Now, it was doing exactly what he always envisioned, slowing down a beast too quick for him to fight head-on.

  The anomaly struggled mightily to move through the viscous field, its movements incredibly fast right up until the point when it ran out of juice and could no longer fly. It hung limply in Jiran’s frigid aspect, squeezed and frozen, though far from defeated. Jiran had just enough time to realize something was wrong when out of nowhere, its fist was extended and the shockwave from that simple punch shattered his aspect. He flew back, caught in the expanding ring of force until he once more used his aura to stop himself.

  By then, the beast had dropped to the ground and was sprinting toward the mountain, each step eating up hundreds of meters. Jiran grinned as the two formations vanished from his grasp. Having figured out how to manually Teleport objects through the framework, planting the explosives in its path from a distance was a simple feat. He triggered them with a thread of mana and the explosions took the anomaly completely by surprise. Jiran’s brows rose when its body was torn to shreds right before the blasts engulfed the pieces.

  Winds that put the blizzard to shame howled as the formations released their pent-up fury. Jiran dove, hugging the ground and erecting several layers of stone around him for shelter.

  Considering it can come back from a pile of bones, I doubt this is going to be over so easily. It must only be tier eight. I don’t think a tier nine would be hurt so badly from a simple explosion. Regardless, it's no emperor, so how did it make all that mana?

  Wait, it's been regenerating mana at a ridiculous pace since I first saw it. Considering it was a pile of bones with no stomach and didn’t stop for a snack, it must be creating mana from thin air. My skin naturally pulls in density and converts it to mana but it's about ten thousand times less efficient than what this thing has displayed so far. If I’m right, it must have been slowly adding to the mana inside the mountain for… a really long time.

  Why? And why let it all shoot up into the air like that?

  The raging aftermath of his explosions abated enough that he could stand. He was in the air immediately, once more madly searching for the anomaly. It didn’t take him long to find it. Half its body was regenerated and the last of its bones were zipping through the air, snapping into place as the rest of it formed around them.

  Even better, over a hundred revenants had gathered and were taking the lul in their battle as an invitation to converge on the both of them like a pack of scavengers.

  “This arena sucks,” Jiran growled, two more formations half-formed in his palms.