As the horde spilled out around the city walls, he finally got a glimpse of the true enemies to come. There were three of the titanic Ash Mammoths trundling across the ash, each of which was about the same level as the first one had been. These Mammoths were an imposing sight, and as one, they began to form their signature fireballs in their trunks.

Jonathan and everyone else on the wall ducked for cover, and the fireballs soared overhead, landing in the middle of the town. Luckily there were no wooden buildings, but there was a scream of pain, which signaled that the attack had hit somebody. Jonathan ignored the noise, and began to prepare himself for the battle to come.

He could hear the dull thumps of the enhancer mage’s attacks going off, but he doubted that they were doing much to the mammoths. As the gates underneath him started to swing open slowly, Jonathan stood up and leaped over the edge. That had been his signal, as it meant that the other high leveled warriors were leaving the city.

He landed in the midst of them, in between the two warriors. They looked over at him in surprise, a look that quickly turned to gratitude. They all knew that he was by the far the strongest among them, and that this battle, more likely than not, would hinge on his prowess. Jonathan gave them a smile in return, and he made his way towards the mammoths with the others, his fists glowing blue. The monsters trumpeted loudly, and then charged, heading straight for the city.

The ground shook with each of their gargantuan steps, and Jonathan could feel his bones vibrate within him, an uncomfortable side effect of his heightened senses. He had tested them earlier, finding that he could sense things at a superhuman level. He could hear people speaking through two foot stone walls, he could feel a grain of dust touch his skin, he could even smell the footprints of one person over all the others.

However, he had found that it made bright light a little bit uncomfortable, and if not for his thresholds being passed in all of his stats, he knew that it would have been far more uncomfortable. Then again, he wouldn't have had the enhanced senses if not for passing all of his thresholds, so perhaps it was meant to be.

His sight rendered the fetid fur of the monsters in uncomfortable detail, showing him where pieces of their prey had been stuck to their flesh. Unlike the mammoths of Earth, these monsters were no placid giants, but rather carnivorous monsters. Their tusks were sharpened to a wicked point, and if one looked into their mouths, they could see rows of razor sharp teeth. Then again, there were no plants in this world, as far as Jonathan could tell. At least no naturally growing ones that was.

In any case, there was no option for any beast to be a herbivore. They could either eat meat, or starve. As the mammoths neared the fighters, the two warriors broke off, heading towards the rightmost of the mammoths. The mages headed for the left, leaving Jonathan to deal with the central one, which of course, was the largest of the three. As the monster barreled towards him, he jumped over a whip-like snap of its truck, and grabbed onto it, using the trunk to pull himself up onto the monster. It whirled and hissed through the air in an attempt to dislodge him, but Jonathan was too strong, and he hung on like a limpet.

As he slowly but surely climbed the monster’s trunk, he spared a few glances to see how the others were doing. The two warriors were concentrating their efforts on the back leg of their mammoth, all while it stamped around, trying to crush them.

Jonathan quickly turned his attention back to his own quarry, just in time too, as it pumped some sort of fiery mana along the length of its trunk and towards Jonathan. There was no way for him to dodge, it was moving too quickly, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He closed his eyes, and sent a tendril of hardened mana towards the encroaching blaze, and pierced deep into its midst. It was hard going, as the attack was immensely powerful, but the beast did not have any actual expertise in the realm of mana manipulation, and only possessed raw power.

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The attack detonated with a thunderous crash, blowing off a large chunk of the monster’s trunk. It let out a muffled cry of pain, and Jonathan used that time to dash up the rest of the trunk, reaching its head. It stared at him with pain filled eyes, a gaze that quickly turned to one of utter rage. The monster’s skin started to smoke, and tendrils of fiery light began to arc out of it. The beast seemed to grow in size, and its muscles expanded dramatically. Its eyes went a deep shade of red, and soon Jonathan’s hands were burning through his gauntlets.

He yelped, and jumped the last few feet, landing on the monster’s head, which now looked like it was some fiery wasteland, covered in magmatic energy. Jonathan danced from foot to foot, not wanting to melt his shoes, and quickly made his way towards a likely spot to test his new abilities. With a roar, he punched downwards, sending his Divinity rocketing along with the attack. His gauntlet struck with an explosion of red light, blasting back the fiery heat for a moment. A spike of energy slammed down into the monster’s head, and it roared in anger as the strike slid all the way down to the bone.

Before Jonathan could strike again however, a pillar of fire erupted beneath him, sending him flying away. This mammoth was clearly of a higher level than the previous one had been. His entire body was covered in low level burns from that attack, meaning that without his thresholds, he would have been utterly immolated.

Jonathan pushed past the pain and did a flip in the air, landing on the ash securely. His entire body burned as he moved, but compared to some of the pain that he had been in, it was nothing. Instead, he ran towards the mammoth, not wanting to be struck by one of its fireballs. He left small bits of peeling flesh in his wake, but he purposefully chose to ignore the macabre sight, instead focusing on his breathing.

By the time that he reached the mammoth, he was in the trance-like state of his Meditation skill, but with something else added into it. Something martial and warlike. Instead of taking him away from the outside world, his skill allowed him to focus on his battle abilities above all else.

He could sense a notification waiting for him, perhaps for a new skill increase, but he slid it to the side of his awareness, blanking it out. It was not important now. As he approached the mammoth,his breathing slowed to a crawl, and he slid effortlessly around the strikes from its trunk, as if he had been predicting its attacks. He quickly made his way to one of its legs, and shimmied up it like it was a hairy firepole, completely unaware of the pain that grabbing onto the incandescent surface was causing.

By the time that he reached the top, his skin was charred from the heat, but he paid it no mind. Scurrying over to the site of his previous attack, Jonathan began to widen it with his mana abilities. Every time that his Divinity recharged fully, he struck with his gauntlet, doing more damage than any of his other attacks. Soon he had cleared a dinner plate sized area of the monster’s skull, and he punched downwards, his gauntlet blazing with the red light of his rune. The metal struck bone, and fractures radiated out from the impact point. His wrist shattered, but he simply used his other hand instead. This time, he broke through, and reached the brain. The monster stiffened, and Jonathan sent his mana coursing into the beast’s head, killing it almost instantly.

His body began to heal as the essence coursed into it, and he leaped off the side of the monster as it fell, landing effortlessly on the ground. It was time to help his beleaguered allies. Jonathan exited his meditative state, and quickly looked through his notifications as he ran.

You have upgraded one of your skills!

Meditation:Uncommon->Warrior’s Trance:Epic

You can use your ability to retreat from the real world to further your material abilities, ignoring pain, and allowing you to use your power to its fullest extent. Be sure that you do not kill yourelf in the process.

Jonathan quickly opened up the next one afterwards, a notification that spoke to his levels from the fight.

You have killed an Infernal Ash Mammoth!

You have leveled up!(x3)