Air slowly grew colder as mountains on the horizon kept getting closer. I decided to vent out all of my frustration from paperwork and possible schemes behind my back on the innocent corrupted beasts.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaa!" a weird screech came from my left flank. Seven large birds with a wingspan of four meters flew towards me, their wings crackling with electric sparks and their eyes glowing in a faint blue light. Their aura was flickering like an old lamp. A smile immediately grew on my face as I could finally vent out all of my frustration.

"Crackle!" birds split into two groups and released bright arcs of lighting toward me. I flapped my wings in an attempt to dodge by accelerating forwards. An arc of lightning hit my barrier, creating a firework of sparkles around me. Almost instantly, second and third arcs followed, creating thundering sounds throughout the skies.

'Am Idiot? Why did I think that I could outspeed lightning.'

The staff appeared in my hand together with glasses on my eyes, and I pointed it towards the nearest bird monster. The tip of my staff glowed in a magenta light before a thick solar-flare-like beam shot out, directly hitting the bird, before evaporating it and continuing to the distance. Other birds quickly flapped their wings increasing distance from their evaporated kin and my beam. The beam suddenly bent, quickly changing its direction towards another bird.

"Gaaaa!" The bird screeched in surprise as the beam hit it from a side. Electrical sparks already started to concentrate around the beaks of the three remaining birds. I quickly interrupted my beam and blinked to the position behind the birds. Just in time, as three bright arks of lightning passed through the position, I stood just a second earlier.

'Fastened reflexes are really a cheat.'

I prepared to send another beam on my adversaries, but small flashes of orange light from the surface under me distracted me. I reflexively blinked again to a new position. Immediately over a dozen thin rays of concentrated orange flame beams created a web of beams around my old spot.

'And they are trying to tell me that they are unthinking... This was a planned ambush on one-hundredth per cent.' I quickly analysed the situation to determine the best approach to win as quickly and cheaply as possible. Luckily my [Fast Thinking] gave me enough time.

'If I tried to attack the birds, I would be attacked from the ground, but if I try to ignore the birds and destroy my enemies on the ground, I would be attacked by the birds... There is only one solution. I will have to tank one barrage of attacks. Honestly, birds look like they have much smaller firepower than the enemies on the ground.'

I dived straight downwards with my staff pointing forward. The air around me whistled as a sharp crystal on my staff kept cutting through the air. I started to focus as three miniature magenta-coloured suns started to orbit around me, quickly growing in their size and brightness.

"Crackle!" two lightnings hit my barrier from behind me while the third one missed me by twenty meters. Another salvo of fire beams was launched from the ground. I flapped my wings, maneuvering between them. Most of them missed, but a few hit my barrier, blocking my vision with flames. I became nervous as my barrier dropped by a large chunk. The ground got even closer, and my three suns grew even bigger. I could finally see my attackers. It was a small contingent of lizards with golden scales that kept shining in reflected sunlight. My hands were trembling, and my head was hurting as I started to have problems controlling the three growing suns. I stopped my dive and took a ninety-degree turn to straighten up my trajectory, releasing all three of the spell at the same time. They flew towards the ground like bombs.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three big explosions, each covering at least eight meters, sent waves of light and heat through the surroundings. Turning stone surface into molten lava and vegetation together with lizards into ashes.

"Crackle!" Three streaks of lighting came from the skies, striking me down. I blinked, appearing hundredth meters further, quickly searching for enemies. Three birds were flapping their wings high above me with lightning already concentrating on their beaks. I released another beam from my staff. Then, I swung my staff like a blowtorch, easily wiping out the remaining birds.

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'Why do I always feel that there was a better and faster way to win a fight... Well, it doesn't matter. It is hard to find the best way when you are under pressure.' I looked at the landscape devastated by my magic, and all of my doubts vanished as they were replaced by excitement from my magic.

System Announcement

You killed LV 17 [Storm Sparrow] (Corrupted x1.5 XP) X5

You killed LV 18 [Golden Salamander] (Corrupted x1.5 XP) X4

You obtained 3366 XP

You obtained 4446 CE

You are now level 32

Level of [Increased Elemental Damage] increased to 7 as a reward from class

Proficiency of spell [Death-Infused Empowered Solarbomb] increased to 8

Level of [Enhanced Senses III] increased to 4

I knew that more monsters were probably rushing towards my location, so I slowly descended towards a stone surface to regenerate my mana and barrier. Everything around me was quiet except for the sound of trees moving in the wind. There weren't any animal sounds or sounds of insects. Then I focused my gaze on the ground-level foliage, and I immediately noticed something, 'There is no insect. Normally ground-level foliage would be full of them. Is it possible that they were corrupted too? '

I was standing there for ten minutes until I finally noticed small dust clouds in the distance, quickly closing the distance towards me. Soon I could hear an orchestra of steps. As they closed on, I could see that a small horde of monsters surrounded me. I could see different kinds of lizards, monkeys like humanoids and a plethora of different animals and monsters. The only thing that they had in common was their flickering aura. I knew that I couldn't defeat all of them, but it wasn't my intention. I only wanted to vent out some of my frustration and gain some XP before escaping.

'There is a whole horde of them. I need something versatile that can be quickly used.' I analysed the situation, and searing hot white plasma started to pour out of my body. Then it started to change colour into magenta as I started to infuse it with nether and death elements. Streams of plasma formed into rings that started to orbit around me as I moved it with [Plasmakinesis]. In the meantime, beasts shortened the distance between us even more. Rings kept growing in size as more and more plasma poured out of me. A circle of molten stone started to form under me. I looked at the value of my barrier and noticed that it started to drop. I instinctively decreased the density of the plasma rings, increasing the diameter and moving them further away from me. The barrier was still dropping, but it was slow enough that I could ignore it.

'Interesting, I never noticed this until now. My while bound in spells is not causing any damage to me, but it is still harmful to me when I summon it without bounding it into a spell. I will ask Aliford about it.'

The ape-like beast grabbed a big boulder from the ground and threw it at me. A small tendril of plasma moved like an octopus tentacle, intercepting and melting the boulder in the air.

"Huhuhu!" more apes followed the first monkey, grabbing stones from the ground and throwing them at me. Tendrils of plasma moved, intercepting stones that would hit me and letting the rest of them hit the ground. I didn't attempt any offensive as I focused on producing more of a plasma. The rings of plasma grew in size, and the first monsters reached a ten-meter distance from me. It was a wolf the size of a refrigerator. Its teeth were shining in the light of the plasma. It leapt from the ground with its powerful legs, opening its mouth for a bite. A small wave of plasma charged moved in its direction. At first, its pelt caught aflame before the whole wolf started to twist and rot. Finally, plasma itself came into contact with it, turning it into a pile of ash. More wolves followed soon. Some of them were like regular wolves from the earth, while others were of tropical colours or unnatural sizes. Plasma kept moving around me, lashing at them before they could reach them. Another barrage of stones came. I couldn't focus on it as I was occupied with wolves. Most of the stones hit rings or rotating plasma around me, but some passed by, creating ripples on my barrier as they shattered on its surface.

The ground under me shooks under heavy steps coming from a distance. A massive golem made out of stone appeared on a horizon. Its height was enough rivel a six-floor building.

'Well fuck!'