(June 20)

I was meditating to train my dragon essence and inner energy so stayed in my room all day.

I couldn't neglect my training, even if I was on a mission.

I tried to visualize myself fighting the Hippogriff again and out of 10 mental battles, I imagined myself winning 4 times. Of course, this is only a mental imaginary battle, however it helped me think of ways to combat against the Hippogriff.

The day was uneventful, no monster attacks but everyone was on their guard.

I had also sent a letter back to the kingdom to report saying that a Hippogriff appeared and to change the difficulty rank. Also send some help.

(June 21)

Yesterday night, the hippogriff didn't appear.

Although some goblins and some wolves did and they attacked the village, but they were quite easy to fend off.

I am still waiting for the city to send more people to help investigate the hippogriff so I can complete the mission and just go home.

The hippogriff must've quite injured and if it does appear again, I'll be prepared.

(June 22)

In the afternoon when the sun was just slowly sinking beyond the horizon, the hippogriff appeared!

This time I was prepared. I had full leather armor, which is not the best defense but it's just enough to stop some attacks while still being light and mobile.

I had a small wood/iron shield and a long steel straight sword.

When the hippogriff appeared again, it seemed like its wounds were gone ands was all healed up.

The hippogriff screeched and landed on the ground a couple meters away from me, I think it now viewed me as a threatening opponent.

Today, I told the villagers to stay back. Who knows what the hippogriff would do if the villagers tried to intervene again.

We were lucky before that none of the villagers were attacked by the hippogriff and I was able to chase it off, but now the hippogriff is aware of the villagers.

Over the past couple days, I’ve been training and preparing.

I also experimented with my powers and I learnt a new technique.

By creating a flame and lighting my sword ablaze with my dragon essence, I can create a burning flame sword.

At first it was hard to maintain the flames and half the time the flames would get extinguished just by swinging my sword but after hours of training, I was able to control my flames enough to keep it burning.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

This would be my first time using it practically in battle.

When my sword started burning, the hippogriff flinched and took a step back. It must've been shocked by the flames. After all, just a few days ago it was almost killed by these very flames.

With one hand on my sword and my other hand raised with my shield, I charged forward.

The hippogriff quickly stabilized itself and spun around in a circle, with its wings wide out. Its wings were like a spinning blade, and I knew if I touched it while it was still in motion, I would probably be chopped right in half.

And as it was spinning like a tornado, feathers shot out like knives in all directions randomly.

I raised my shield over my head and blocked all the feathers coming at my face. My lower body was still exposed but I could easily dodge that by jumping around.

The speed at which the hippogriff was spinning at slowed down, and it eventually stopped spinning.

It seemed quite dizzy, so I saw an opening and lunged forward.

With a great horizontal slash, I left a burnt cut into the hippogriff's side.

I could hear the sizzle of its flesh being burnt by my flaming blade.

I immediately jumped back because I knew I would be vulnerable when attacking and I was correct because right after I jumped back, a claw came slashing down at me, but since I jumped back in time, I barely dodged it.

The hippogriff bent its fours knees, and then shot at me like a wild horse.

In panic I raised my shield as the hippogriff rammed into me and my shield knocking me back. I was thrown off balance for a moment and the hippogriff in that split second used its hind legs to kick me in the face which made my mind go fuzzy.

When you get hit in the face with a tremendous force, it obviously hurts but it also leaves lasting damage as well.

The impact on my head left me feeling dizzy and made my vision go blurry.

I quickly got up and retreated a bit.

I’m not going to lie; I was quite scared.

Panic was starting to set in and I didn't know what to do.

My mind wasn't working straight. In battle, things don't always go how you imagined and its easy to forget the plan and make stupid mistakes.

The hippogriff was aware I was dizzy and jumped onto me. It clawed at me and tried stabbing me with its beak.

It pushed me onto the ground and it attacked me from above, all I could do was block. I knew I had to quickly do something, so instead of fighting back I relaxed my entire body and breathed slowly.

I focused all my mental energy and time briefly slowed down due to the help of dragon essence resulting in all my senses were boosted for a second.

Time seemed to have slowed for a mere split second, and within that split second, I stabbed upwards through a crack in the hippogriff's feathers and struck its slightly exposed neck.

Since I lost my control earlier, the flames on my sword had extinguished so it wasn't burning anymore and didn’t inflict burning damage.

My body was also in a bad position so there wasn't a lot of force in my arms pushing the blade into the hippogriff's neck and I wasn't able to do much damage.

The hippogriff stabbed my shoulders with its claws, pushing my left hand off the blade leaving only my right hand gripping the blade into the hippogriffs neck.

In a last-ditch effort, I gathered all my willpower and strength into my right arm causing my arm to nearly implode. The amount of dragon essence I streamed into my arm cause my veins to burst.

It was painful at first but soon my entire arm went numb, so the pain was tolerable.

Using the dragon essence in my arm, I gathered it all into the palm of my hand and created a mini explosion that caused my sword—that was already in the hippogriff’s neck—to explode.

Once the sword exploded, the shards of steel shot into the hippogriff and some of the broken blade pieces even cut me a bit. But the hippogriff suffered the most damage as the blade had exploded inside of it.

Half of its neck was blown up with blade parts sticking out, and its left eye had a long piece of steel stuck in it.

It screeched loudly but my mind was already fuzzy and I couldn't hear the screech.

The world was spinning around me.

I couldn't feel my body.

I felt numb all over.

I thought I was going to die.

The last thing I saw was the hippogriff staggering away, leaving a small trail of blood.

It was injured too, as much as me if not more, so it was surprising it was able to move.

And then I passed out.