43 Chapter 23: Stone-claw Bears
“Hmm, I wonder if Brother Claude is still in the mountain” Rezen mumbled, his heart yearning for a certain someone
“Of course, I wasn’t hoping that Brother Claude would massacre more magic beasts and that is the reason why I want to see him again” he justified to no one
Unfortunately, when Rezen arrived, Claude and his subordinates are already in the Greenwood City, submitting their reports for the incident in the Ratois Mountain
Not seeing the cool Brother that might possibly give him thousands of magic beasts’ corpses along with his dazzling smile dampened Rezen’s mood a bit
“Alright, Zero, just stay near me and make sure that I wouldn’t die” Rezen said
For now, he wanted to fight magic beasts by himself to train his fighting skills that the damned artificial human kidnappers insulted. And might or might not be also because using magic to fight ‘monsters’ is a cool thing by Rezen’s standards
Despite the cleanup days ago, there are still many roaming magic beasts in the mountain, especially the grey wolves
When Rezen encountered magic beasts at ungraded to 1st fusion rank, he would simply kill them using [Sun Blast] and have Zero store the corpse in the void storage ring he received as a gift
Magic beasts at that level won’t pose danger to Rezen nor would it make him sweat unless of course there were tens or hundreds of them
As a result, Rezen decided to head deeper into the Mountain where stronger magic beasts were living and he was not disappointed
He met a group of three Stone-claw Bear and each of them is at the 2nd fusion rank!
Since the battlefield is not chaotic anymore and all the bears would only focus on Rezen, fighting them would be harder compared to the cleanup operation days ago. Besides, these bears are stronger than grey wolves
However, that was only the case for Rezen that was still a 1st fusion rank mage. Now that he reached the next rank, things would be easier!
“[Water God’s Armor!]” Rezen directly used the strongest magic spell that he know of
Now that his soul is at the peak of 2nd fusion rank, he could use this spell for quite a long time
“Come with me my experience points!” Rezen said happily as he charged at them
His hands were tightly holding his water whips
“Grrrr!!!”
The three bears growled at the same time as they shot forward
Their claws were covered with a thick layer of stony armor, making them durable and also more lethal
The fastest of the three bears arrived in front of Rezen and the latter wildly swung his water whip
The claw and whip met each other, the former was sent back while the latter trembled
With the durability of the bear’s claw, Rezen had to stabilize his water whip if he don’t want to lose control over it
“Grrrrr!”
The other two bears attacked Rezen from the side and the latter jumped back to dodge
His base physical stats were slightly improved by the sunflower seeds and with the addition of [Water God’s Armor], Rezen is definitely much faster compared to normal people
However, while Rezen put on some distance, two of the bears suddenly slammed their claws into the ground
Magic circles appeared on the ground and two lines of sharp earthen spikes formed, trying to reach Rezen that run to the side to dodge
However, the remaining bear opened its mouth and another magic circle was formed
A barrage of fist-size rocks targeted Rezen and he swung his whips again to smash these rock attacks when the two bears from before started crawling and pouncing at him
“The heck? I know that they are individually stronger than grey wolves but what is with this godly level of cooperation?”
Rezen groaned as he casts another spell
“[Water Spears!]” Above the bear that was targeting Rezen with stone rocks, an ocean blue magic circle was formed and from it, three spears of water came out
The bear hurriedly stopped using its magic to deflect the spears with its claw but one spear still managed to injure it
“Even their defense is this strong? The 2nd fusion rank grey wolves definitely can’t compare to them!” Rezen cried out as he clumsily defended himself with his water whip but he was still thrown in the air by the palm attack of the bears
Rezen’s lips were dyed with blood as he gritted his teeth to forcefully stabilize himself
He was lucky that he was attacked by a group of grey wolves three days ago and not a group of these Stone-claw bears!
If not, the outcome might have been different!
The bears also have their own magic as two of them coated their arms with even thicker armor of stones while the remaining one raised its head
A magic circle formed above that bear as it condensed a boulder at least 4 meters in diameter formed
“Bitch, now I know why they say that normal human mages are weaker than magic beasts!”
These hateful beasts already have a more durable body compared to normal humans and their magic isn’t necessarily weak!
Even if these bastards don’t study magic, they would still be able to instinctively use the magic of their species!
Rezen was faster than before but even with the heavy bodies of these bears, although they might not be the fastest but they are also not slow!
Not to mention, there was one of them that is targeting Rezen from a distance!
“Master, should I help?” Zero that was watching not far from Rezen asks. His tone has a hint of worry after seeing his Master being pushed back
“No, need, I will take care of this!” Rezen replied, unwilling to lose face
“Die!” Rezen said angrily, his potential bursting again in the face of danger
He dashed past the two bears and their claws can only hit the ground
Rezen approached the bear that was using a long-distance attack and the boulder was thrown at him
“Nah, ah, ah, not so fast!” Rezen said, his arm swinging his water whips again but this time not with the intention of smashing
The water whips coiled around the boulder and Rezen rotated his body as he used his water whips to throw the boulder toward one of the two bears that are now approaching him
Even Rezen cannot perfectly control the trajectory of the boulder since he threw it as fast as he could so that the boulder’s lethality will not diminish
However, Rezen was lucky as the boulder hit a bear in its head. With the size of the boulder and the speed that it was flying, it cracked open the bear’s skull
Its head bled, dying its brown fur with the color of blood before it fell into the ground, life leaving its body
“Growwwll!!” The remaining two bears were enraged and since Rezen just threw the boulder and his balance was off, he failed to completely dodge the claw attack of the bear
The bear landed a hit on his shoulder, the impact and force from it throwing him away as he smashes several trees with his body
His shoulder bone cracks, Rezen can’t even hold one of his water whips anymore as it fell to the ground and turned into a formless puddle of water
The pain was painful enough for a person to wish that they were dead and Rezen is no different
He experienced some pain now thanks to his few experiences but it doesn’t mean that he was already used to it
Rezen wanted to defeat the bears with his power alone but he was forced to consume another recovery pill to heal his shoulder, especially his bones
The pain vanished and Rezen’s mind regained its clarity and in his vision, a stream of earthen energies was flying to hit him in the face
“Fuck! I knew that acting cool without enough power is suicide!” Rezen cursed in his head as he clumsily rolled on the ground
He thought that since when he was still a 1st fusion rank mage, he killed several grey wolves above his rank, the bears wouldn’t be much of a problem
He forgot that as much as he managed to defeat mages above his rank as his power was higher compared to them, in the world of the magic beasts there are also beasts the same as him!
These bears can definitely slaughter groups of grey wolves and if not for Rezen’s complete comprehension at the 2nd fusion rank, he would have died already
Comprehension enables him to use spells with ease for a lower cost but it doesn’t mean that he has great fighting skills
Just like what the artificial humans said, Rezen’s fighting skills were basically at the level of trash. He can cast powerful magic spells easily but on how to use and utilize them to the fullest… he was clueless
And since Rezen cannot overpower these bears using his raw power, this kind of situation has happened