Isaiah and the manticore were in a standoff, “Let’s equal the playing ground shall we?” The light that covered Isaiah’s lifted hands turned to take the shape of claws. He now had two claws made of condensed light matching the matricore’s.

Isaiah ran towards the manticore both his arms open wide in a position to wrestle. Manticore leaped forth seeing Isaiah make the first move, it applied its strength to its goat hind legs launching itself towards Isaiahs with its two front claws raised ready to slice him to pieces.

CHANK, CLASP! Isaiah’s clawed hands locked with manticore’s, his feet were dug into the ground clearly losing in the physical strength department but not in intelligence as he exploded formation on his elbows pushing back the manticore and managing to get out of the small hole that was dug into the ground due to their clash.

BOOM, BOOM, as an explosion rang on Isaiah’s elbows the manticore was slowly taking steps back and Isaiah progressing forth. They must have both realized that this was going nowhere with neither of them gaining ground over the other, they both made their moves.

Manticore’s maw opened launching towards Isaiah but it didn’t bite down but instead, its dark void-like mouth lightened up as ambers came out, followed by a torrent of flames that blew towards Isaiah’s face, on pace to melt his face off.

Isaiah’s grin turned wider as he also opened his mouth, in his tongue was a formation which held on top of it a dome of condensed light mana. They both released their attacks, one breathing scorching hot flames, the other shooting a beam of blinding light ray from his mouth.

BOOM! Both forces collided, Isaiah at first got the lead due to the potency of his light beam as his beam managed to pierce the manticore’s flames to burn its face but his light beam soon ended while the manticore’s flames continued to prevail just as strong.

However, by that time, both sides were pushed back due to the force of the collision of their attacks so Manticore’s flames didn't find their way to him.

The Manticore paced at him immediately after it regained its footing but Isaiah just avoided it and its flames as formations under him made him slide through the deserted plains, letting him keep a safe distance from it till it gave up on its attempts to burn Isaiah alive for now.

Seeing it couldn’t get its opponent to engage in an actual battle, it once again dove towards Isaiah; its maw was open wide, looking to bite his life away. Isaiah’s hands raised as the huge manticore’s body dove onto his with its sharp fangs nearing his face.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

CLASP! Isaiah held the manticore’s lower and upper jaw with his hands, just as the maw was about to close onto his hands as nutritions, BOOM! The exact moment the manticore closed its jaw Isaiah exploded formations on his backhands not allowing it to close its mouth.

Isaiah's mouth opened to reveal a formation inside as a dome of light shone till it burst into a blinding beam directed right into the manticore’s mouth towards its internals, THUFF! The manticore's body fell limp into the ground, half of its insides were gone, the other half had turned into barbeque.

“That was fun, I wonder what other types of beasts are there.” He turned his attention back to the corpse, a small blade made of condensed light materialized on his index finger. He held the snake head which was surprisingly still alive despite the main body being dead.

However it was on the brink of death and with a single swoop of his index finger blade, its body fell to the ground leaving its head on Isaiah’s hand. He opened its mouth and carefully removed the serpent's poison glands once he could identify it.

He didn’t bother taking the creature's other valuable parts such as claws, fangs, leather, etc., as he couldn’t be bothered with such items he could easily purchase once he returned from his journey.

Isaiah held the beast’s tail and cut it from its base, he then drew a heat formation on the ground and placed the serpent tail on top of it, “I was starving, I have high hopes for its taste.” Isaiah mused.

It took a few minutes before it would cook as Isaiah didn’t want to burn the fat stored inside the tail otherwise it would be too plain and flavorless, “Let’s see.” He took a bit of the serpent tail, it was chewy as expected but the taste was decent.

The slight poison within the serpent’s body acted as a slight flavoring, giving it a liquor-like taste. Isaiah enjoyed his meal as he sat on top of the sand dune, his gaze wandering to nothing as it was nothing but sand all around.

After he finished his meal, he wore back his backpack which now stored a few meals he had brought alongside the poison gland he had extracted.

Formations took form under his feet as he began to slide across the sand once more, leaving behind a trail of dust in his wake.

His hands were in his pockets and his back was straight like a spear as he stormed forth, “This is quite relaxing, to say the least.” While Isaaih was enjoying his time so far, he knew that looking for the floating island came first but unfortunately, there was no real way for him to find it apart from sheer luck.

In all honesty, all the Veridians might have simply gone extinct a long time ago. That was the reason why he wasn’t here simply to look for Veridians but also to gather as much earth mana gems he could.

Earth mana gems were mana gems that stored earth mana as the name suggested, It was nearly impossible to purchase in the market due to how valuable they were and how wide their applications were.

It didn’t help that locations that could produce earth mana gems were also the best habitats for Rank 2 beasts to emerge, making the process of getting one's hand on them even harder.

“Is that... Water?” Just as he was busy in his thoughts sliding through, the dunes the sound of water penetrated his ears. He wasn’t sure if it was a fortune or an omen to hear the sounds of water in the middle of a desert.