With a huge hole in his arm, James’s entire left side was in searing pain. He was barely able to move his arm. But he was prepared for this. Helios’s test wasn’t nearly as painful as the feeling of having your muscles torn apart by a giant fang, but the test was useful nonetheless.

At this moment, that test that seemed insane and extreme was actually a constant reminder that he had to endure and ignore the pain.

James also felt a mild pain in his other hand, but in the heat of battle he was too busy to pay any attention to it or question why his healthy and intact hand was hurting. He didn’t notice that the tattoo of the spirit cat that had been sleeping for so long was glowing brightly.

The wound from the fang could have killed him, especially now that he was cursed. But, Lunaris dedicating her entire being to shielding and supporting them had paid off. Even though the tiger’s attack tore through James’s bicep, it would’ve been much worse if not for her shields.

James’s body had been enhanced and buffed to the point he was several times more durable than normal, even with the curse. But that’s exactly why Lunaris was now so vulnerable, she had to persistently focus on keeping the support up.

Without moving a step or stopping her incantations for even a second, Lunaris was casting a variety of spells to mend James’s wounded arm. Healing spells, pain dampening spells – James could feel the pain easing by the second. But the wound was too big, the hole couldn’t be closed with just the rushed heals Lunaris was casting in the heat of combat. He still barely had the use of his hand.

Even a few more seconds to heal and recover was something they couldn’t spare. Lunaris’s intense focus on healing and supporting left her defenseless. Helios was dealing with one tiger, James had to jump right back into the fray and deal with the other one.

One hand being useless, James cast Mana Drain with his good hand, while awkwardly casting Magmafrost Bullets with his foot. There was no reason why one couldn't cast magic with his feet, there isn’t anything special about a hand.

Luckily, none of his skills required complex incantations or gestures.

Regardless, humans are much more accurate with their hands than with their feet, so James’s spells would be less accurate. He didn’t have any choice though.

Mana Drain was a spell that required more precise control, so he had to reserve his one good hand for that.

The tiger’s target was Lunaris, it knew it would cripple the trio if it could only get rid of her. But James wouldn't let it have its way.

He started pelting it with Magmafrost Bullets, his foot moving like he was hitting imaginary footballs every second.

The accuracy was way off, but the tiger was a big target. Try as it might, it couldn’t ignore him.

Every time the the tiger would try to jump at Lunaris, James would abandon all caution and hurl his bullets like a madman. With a crippled hand, his frenzied flurry of spellcasting using his legs made him look like the inflatable tube dancers outside of car dealerships.

But all that mattered is that it worked, the tiger couldn't touch Lunaris until it dealt with him.

The Mana Drain was another element of his strategy. Even though it wasn’t damaging the mighty beast much, it was a constant annoyance that got its attention. It couldn’t let itself be drained of mana, thus James had successfully diverted it from Lunaris.

But Lunaris being safe didn’t mean his difficulties were over. Now he had a pissed off tiger constantly lunging at him.

SARM was an incredibly effective defense though, James was glad his homemade skills were proving their usefulness.

But the tiger was so just so fast, he couldn’t avoid every attack completely.

As big as the tiger’s fangs were, its claws weren’t exactly weaker.

For each attack SARM helped James completely dodge, another one would graze James just enough to make him bleed.

The bleeding would stop fairly quickly thanks to Lunaris’s extreme focus on healing and shielding them, but the damage was still adding up.

He couldn’t keep doing this much longer. His bullets were powerful spells, but he wasn’t exactly throwing them with their maximum strength. As it turned out, casting with your feet isn’t really as effective after all.

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And he was a mage, ideally he’d be able to take a few seconds to really focus on casting his spells. But he was dodging and spinning and moving around frantically. That really decreased the efficiency of his spells.

The tiger was showing signs of being damaged, but not nearly enough. This was a crazed beast, it would fight with ferocity until its last breath. Merely damaging it wasn’t a good enough result.

If only he could use his Razorice Saw, his problems would be solved in an instant. But the tiger wasn’t stupid enough to wait around while he cast it. This wasn’t a mere skeleton or demon that James could dodge while casting whatever he wanted, the tiger was just too damn quick, it would rip him to pieces if he tried.

But it was clear that the Bullets weren’t going to do the job.

If only he had some help from Helios, they’d be able to quickly finish it off. But Helios was still fighting the other tiger.

As expected, Helios, who has lived in this world for much longer, was doing better than James. Even with his level dampened. But even he couldn’t defeat the tiger easily.

But at least, the tiger he was handling was completely unable to aid its ally, even though it was persistently trying to lunge towards James or Lunaris. Helios was blocking it with his shield, bashing it, stunning it, while making it bleed with his sword.

James could constantly hear the sonic booms made by Helios launching his sword.

Even though Helios would probably soon be done, it wouldn’t be quick enough. The bastards just had too much vitality and stamina. James had to figure something out on his own.

But as the fight went on, somehow it was the tiger that was gaining the upper hand, not James. Even though it was also losing strength and becoming more and more exhausted as the battle raged on, its endurance and stamina were much higher than James’s. James was even constantly draining its Mana, but the beast was just too powerful.

Its attacks were becoming more accurate as well. It was learning James’s patterns, its bites and scratches getting closer and closer to his vitals.

James had to switch his strategy urgently, his life wasn't the only one at stake here. He was beginning to get frustrated, and even a bit desperate. It seemed like he was actually losing progress as the battle raged on.

But for a split second, his mind remembered a lesson he learned all too well.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was lunacy. James had learned this lesson even back on Earth. He kept being a recluse day in, day out, year after year. He enjoyed the lifestyle somewhat, but he was still expecting more from life, he dreamed of a much better life.

And yet he kept doing the same thing, living the same lazy lifestyle. Even though he was a jaded nihilist, far from what one would call an optimist, deep down inside there was still hope that one day he would wake up and life would be much better.

He knew it was naive, but he didn't have the energy or willpower to change . He ended up repeating the pattern until the day he died.

But now, he had a better life. And it's not even the fact that he was living in a world of magic and levels. But he had such wonderful friends too. He had so many reasons, so many things motivating him to push forward.

Remembering those motivations were like a powerful tonic that made his mind clearer and more alert even in this desperate battle.

He'd never forget the futility of dong the same thing over and over. One had to take life in their own hands.

Reenergized by the burst of motivation, he stopped casting Mana Drain from his hand and instead used it to cast Mana Chains.

Even though the chains weren’t completely immobilizing the tiger, they were slowing it down. And that’s exactly what he needed.

The chains weren’t holding the tiger down for more than a split second. James had to keep spamming the skill over and over. He needed to buy time to fully create a Razorice Saw.

SARM was taking care of the dodging while James’s hand was spamming Mana Chains two times a second. Meanwhile, he was sending mana towards his feet, conjuring at his feet the ball of ice that would turn into the Saw.

Even though the automated system was dodging for him, focusing on the Mana Chain and on casting on his feet was a bit too difficult.

At first it seemed that the new strategy was going to work. But because his focus was split in so many directions, the minute motions that he had to perform manually in order to fully dodge the tiger’s attacks were ever so slightly off.

SARM was dodging for him, but he still had to adjust his body and twist around a little bit in order to avoid the swift tiger completely.

And that was all the opportunity that the tiger needed.

As James was dodging, the tiger attacked his neck, aiming for his jugular.

James sensed his mistake immediately, and so he used Blink right away to teleport from the tiger, abandoning the huge chunk of ice he was trying to transform into a saw.

But the tiger was an experienced hunter. It was used to its prey having escape mechanisms.

Not surprised for even a second, as soon as it sensed James land, it was already jumping at him at an unavoidable speed.

Perhaps if he were a better mage, or if he had trained for a lot longer, he'd be able to use Blink again. But since it was still a relatively new spell, it had a cooldown. He tried using it again, but such a powerful spell having no cooldown was too good to be true, at least for his level.

He panicked, scrambling to defend himself, but it was of no use.

He subconsciously blocked with both of his hands, even if he could barely move the other one. The tiger’s attack was too powerful to be stopped even by both of his hands though. The fang penetrated through both hands like it went through butter, headed straight to his jugular.

In that split second before the attack could reach James’s neck, the tattoo on James’s hand glowed even more brightly, the light being so powerful that it temporarily blinded both James and the tiger.

In this moment of extreme stress, the cat emerged out of its slumber!

The cat instantaneously materialized a physical form, shooting out of the tattoo like a missile, before the fang could even reach James’s neck. It knocked into the tiger, pushing it away from James.