Chapter 7 - Hell [3]

A/N: Last chaps qual of writing was mid, my b

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I kept my eyes on the beast, whilst it seemed to have physical power that wasn't too far off my own. It didn't seem to be particularly fast, after all, when it created between us I was able to perceive it even in my unenhanced state. However, my intuituon told me that it was likely to be extremely durable. And due to my inexperience with the blade, I decided that I would abstain from using it in this fight.

After all, I sliced at something too tough with all my strength and with terrible form my sword was going to break. And although I knew I wouldn't be able to get any formal training for a while, I knew that I would slowly get better in my time here, destroying my sword would rid me of the opportunity to improve for the next seven or so days.

I dropped my sword and ran at the beast, I could feel that it had began enhancing itself as well, allowing it's speed and power to increase. However, it was using Attributeless Mana while I used Arcane Enhancement, and because of that, despite my lack of mastery over Magic I was faster and stronger.

I threw a punch at it's stomach once I was close enough, but, the impact didn't feel right. As a matter of fact, it didn't feel like an impact at all. When I looked at my fist, I saw that it was drenched in blood. The bear like Mana Beast's fur was sharp, it was made of the same metallic substance as it's two front limbs. The bear snarled as it leaned down to bite me, my hand seemed to be stuck in it's fur.

And so, I did the only thing I could think of. Partial Enhancement, it was what I had done when I first Enhanced myself. From what I had seen from both the old man, and the bear, they spread their Enhancement reasonably evenly without thinking about it.

However, I didn't have that habit, and had to consciously spread it evenly. However, I could also enhance only certain parts of my body.

So, I did just that. I stopped enhancing the bone that lay beyond my elbow joint in my right arm, then I contracted the muscle surrounding the area, crushing the bone. Then, using all my strength, I pulled.

And so, the result I desired came to be. I had managed to tear my right arm into two. And once I had done that, I dodged the bears jaw by crouching lower than it could reach. Then, I took a couple steps back, in attempt to create some distance.

I looked at the remnants of my arm, and the part of my arm stuck to the Mana Beast. I wasn't sure on whether or not my move was the smartest, but I was sure that it had saved me from being hit by those weapon like limbs it had.

I then used my Arcane Healing, I grit my teeth as my arm was reconstructed. It was so... painful. The sensation was indescribably agonising but I couldn't scream nor cry. Either of those things would lead to nothing but trouble. If I screamed, monsters would know where I am, and I'd be hunted. If I cried, then my vision would be obstructed and blurry, leading me to be incapable of fighting at my full strength.

So, I could only grit my teeth, and bear all the pain that came with this power. But when I thought about it, pain wasn't a bad trade off for my power. My ability to regenerate was great, and my ability to enhance myself was also great.

However, my enhancement wasn't guaranteed to be above everyone else's.

If you were to consider your skill with Enhancement as a number, and Attributeless Mana Enhancement and Arcane Enhancement with multipliers I was easier to think about.

For example, for the sake of argument, let's say my skill with Enhancement is a 2. Someone with a skill of 10 would be stronger than me even if they only used Enhancement with Attributeless Mana as opposed to Arcane Enhancement.

Of course, these values are arbitrary and dont represent the difference between the Enhancement methods. But, that was my understanding of it.

What this ultimately meant was that my ability to physically enhance myself wasn't absolute, however I highly doubted that anyone could match my healing factor through sheer skill.

Breaking me out of my own little world, the bear snarled and slowly approached me. I ran at it, but before I was too close, I jumped right over the beast and landed behind it. I quickly turned on my heel, and jumped once more.

Once my arms were close enough, I wrapped them around the bear like creature's throat. This of course made the the Beast's quill like fur stab into my arms and torso. Thankfully, my legs weren't injured due to how I was dangling off of it's body.

This creature couldn't be punched to death due to its quills, but...

"Tell me, can you breathe while your airways are being crushed?"

I said, as I began to tighten the chockhold I had created. The bear thrashed violently at first, but its defensive trait, its quills, made it impossible to actually shake me off. One of its greatest assets was now a detriment.

The bear couldn't reach me either, even with those long limbs.

And so, it could only bash my body against a tree as it pitifully fought for it's life.