With a deep growl, the demon barg appeared from behind the tree. Standing on all its legs, it was nearly twice the size of John. Its muscles were bulging through its barred skin, and its eyes were yellow and glowed faintly as it stared at John.

‘Holy shit you’re big! But it’s definitely a barg, just evolved into a demon.’

He could feel his body tensing under the beast's stare, feeling an instinctual fear. But at the same time, he could feel his excitement building. With essence flowing through his entire body, he felt ready.

Both of his arms already had an air blast prepared, but his weight remained as usual. During his training, he found that decreasing the weight after he started moving instead gave him a higher speed.

The beast circled him slowly, sizing him up. It at least had the intelligence not to attack blindly when something was standing up to it. But then it stopped and lowered its head, going completely silent.

‘Here we go…’

It blasted off, kicking mud behind it as it sprang into action. The short distance between them would be gone in a second, but John was ready. He fired the air blast with the liquid essence, which sent him hurtling to his left, safely avoiding the attack.

But he wasn’t just going to dodge. He had aimed for a tree with the blast and landed on his feet while summoning the short sword in his right hand. Taking aim for the head of the beast, he fired the remaining blast, sending the sword hurtling through the air at an incredible velocity. It had four times the force behind it as the previous version, after all.

Before looking to see how it went, John activated the solid essence in his feet, attaching himself to the tree he was standing on, defying gravity. The sword had a good direction and timed well with the barg turning to look at him. It hit it perfectly in the neck. But no damage was done whatsoever.

‘What?! Is that… metal skin? That’s your fucking aspect?!

A metallic sheen had appeared on the barg’s neck before impact, deflecting the sword with ease. Even John’s upgraded sword shot was unable to leave a single mark, and now he started to worry.

The barg left him no time to think as it leapt after him with its jaws open, showing fangs that could bite him in half. Its speed was far greater than anything John had fought before, but so was he. Another burst of air while releasing his feet from the tree allowed him to safely dodge again, choosing to jump to another tree.

‘If I can’t damage him… Well, a full-power attack should do it, but that forces me to jump right past him. It’s dangerous!’

The beast didn’t mind his sudden dodge. It landed on the tree John had been standing on and pushed off with its claws and hind legs, following him to the next tree. The tree bent and shook under the massive force it exerted, catapulting it forward.

‘Do I have to use its speed against it? Let’s try this!’

With little time to think, John decided to take a risk. He knew the beast wouldn’t have any chance to dodge in mid-air, so he jumped at an angle toward it. He would be able to attack with Larang, but the barg wouldn’t have enough reach to touch him.

John leapt hard with the liquid essence, leaving cracks in the wood under his feet, and immediately lightened his weight. Then he summoned Larang in his left hand in front of the demon before lowering his speed again. The difference in momentum caused Larang to swing forward against the barg with incredible force, slashing through the wind.

The barg twisted in mid-air to dodge, but it was unable to avoid it completely. Larang slashed into the side of its chest. A violent reverberation through the sword almost caused John to lose his grip, but he managed to hold on with the liquid essence coursing through him. The impact created a loud noise of metal clashing against metal, but it was interrupted as the blade penetrated the hide.

The wound was disappointing, only digging about ten centimeters into the beast, but it at least showed that it was possible to wound it. It roared as it was hit before hitting the tree awkwardly and falling to the ground.

John was in free fall after his attack, spinning slowly in the air from the force of the blow. ‘Damn! Do I just escape? Killing this thing will be a damn challenge!’

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Once the beast was back on its feet, it ran below him, likely hoping to get an attack in after he fell. The wound didn’t seem to have done much, but it was bleeding enough to eventually weaken it.

Not willing to fall into the open jaws below him, John used the spinning motion to throw Larang down with all his might, aiming for the barg. The momentum caused him to continue flying forward, letting him land on another tree.

Larang flew down with force aided by gravity, but the beast simply whacked it aside with its claws, avoiding the attack with ease. It looked at John again and suddenly swiped its paw in the air toward him. The claws seemed to send out some kind of wind-blades, which were now rapidly flying toward him, making high-pitched cutting sounds as they traveled through the air.

‘What?! It’s got ranged attacks too?! Fuck!’

John was forced to summon his greatshield, hoping the blades weren’t more dangerous than they looked. He reinforced it with liquid essence since he didn’t have time for the soild type, but it would probably be good enough.

Only three of the blades hit the shield, but the force was still great enough to push John into the tree behind his shield. He could hear the sound of shredded metal and feared the worst.

‘Fuck, I’ve got to get out of here first!’

He dismissed the shield and used another airblast to push himself far up into the tree, hoping to take a breather. Once it got out of range, Larang returned to his core. With the added danger of such a powerful ranged attack, he no longer felt confident in his chances of survival.

While looking down at the beast, he briefly looked into his core, checking the damage to the shield. Three deep grooves had appeared on its front, digging halfway through the metal like butter.

‘I won’t be able to use that to defend again… How long will it take it to heal?’

All equipment stored in the core would mend over time, so he wasn’t scared of losing the shield. But he didn’t like the lack of defensive equipment while going against such a formidable enemy.

The barg growled up at him and started to jump from tree to tree, climbing its way up. John had to decide what to do.

‘Hmm, I could probably do some real damage if I stood my ground and swung with full force, but that would make me an easy target. If I can get below it, I can do the strongest attack. And if it is jumping down against me at the same time, that has to be enough to inflict a mortal wound, right?’

Once the barg was about fifty meters up, John jumped down from the top. He passed the giant dog and waved with a smile, hoping it would cause it to follow him down. The ground came closer very quickly, but an air blast gave him enough braking power to land safely.

He looked up immediately, seeing the barg jump after him just as planned. And so he started to prepare.

Liquid essence flowed into his hands and feet, preparing two airblasts and his most powerful jump at the same time. His weight was normal now, but once he decreased it mid-air, he would fly so quickly that the air would hurt his eyes.

The barg was already merely twenty meters above him, but John was ready. He bent down quickly before putting all the force he could muster in his legs and jumping. Once he was off the ground, he fired both air blasts, increasing his speed by at least three times.

He had no time to think at this speed, so he merely followed his plan, immediately decreasing his weight and summoning Larang to his side. He didn’t bother holding it because he didn’t want to be that close to the barg, so Larang could be summoned while pointing directly toward the beast.

The wind alone was enough to blind John, so he could not see what was happening. He knew Larang was aiming directly at the demon, but he did not know what happened after that.

The next thing he knew, he was flying high up in the air, punching through the leaves in the treetops and still flying way past them. Once he was able to see again, he was already way above the treetops, perhaps even two hundred meters above them.

‘Holy shit! Shit! Holy shit!’

At the peak of his height, John was panicking. He had a plan for what to do when falling from a great height, but it almost escaped him as he saw the view around him.

The forest wasn’t as large as he feared; in fact, he could see the end easily from there. The only problem was the fractured land he could see stretching past it. It seemed to have been torn in pieces, with its cracks leading to the black space below it, continuing in eternity.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the giant black bird he had seen when he arrived was nearby as well, merely a couple of kilometers away. The shadow it cast on the ground was definitely unnatural, spreading out way past what should be possible, as if it consumed the ground below it.

It was flying in a different direction, but it might still be able to see him. John dearly prayed that wasn’t the case.

‘Fucking shit, please don’t come over here, please! I’m way too small to be a worthy meal, right? You’d need at least an elephant to be full. I’m really sorry about being this high up!’

He breathed out slightly as the bird kept flying, not seeming to have seen him, or at least not bothered enough to hunt him. But then the wind started picking up, reminding him of his situation.

‘Oh, right… ground.’