The rhythm at which new beasts formed was slowly ramping up, but an equilibrium had been reached. The weaker people had already been slaughtered and the fastest one had already fled the scene. Only those strong enough to survive and contend with the aggressors remained.

The Perimeter would not fall as this was Tobias’ land, but he wouldn’t be able to intervene effectively until the storm had passed or the remaining people had evacuated, as his attacks would involve everyone and everything, not only the beasts.

I tried to locate Faye unsuccessfully. The fact I couldn’t smell her blood anywhere encouraged me that she had escaped the area. After all, beasts were usually messy beings.

“There you are!” Caleb’s voice resounded.

He was looking at me, pointing the greatsword at me, still surrounded by his not-so-candid aura. His shout attracted the attention of many present on the scene, the nearer ones and also those far away. Even the beasts reacted to his words and turned towards me.

Dozens of gazes fixed on me. Every single beast stopped moving the moment they laid their eyes on me. They remained passive and kept on scrutinising me while the people around them slashed at them or crushed their skulls.

Things were going to become hectic. Immediately after that thought passed through my mind, an ear-rupturing screech broke the air. Many people fell to the ground in pain, bleeding from the side of their head. Every single beast looking at me had started to cry, howl, roar or neigh. Their noise attracted the attention of the remaining ones in the area; even the ones that were forming at that very moment started looking at me.

The air-splitting scream lasted for a long time. I abruptly came to a stop and for a split second, it was complete silence. The next instant, the sound of talons, claws and hooves filled the atmosphere. Although the people present were continuing their onslaught against the beasts, the latters ignored all sustained damage, even lethal one, and remained focussed on their target.

They were converging towards a single point, which turned out to be my current position. In their soulless eyes of mana-born puppets I could see a sentiment reminding me of the hostility held in the gazes of the audience of the tournament. Their sole purpose was to kill me.

I tried to find a way out of this predicament, but unfortunately there was none. I was completely encircled by the approaching front, while every person had taken advantage of the situation to leave the area. I was completely alone. The last face I saw was Caleb’s smug expression. I promised myself to cave his face in one more time someday.

There was not much time left before the front of the beasts reached me. I turned around, trying to find something with which to arm myself. I found a halberd with its shaft broken in half and a dull sword. It was not much, but still better than fighting bare-handed.

I bit my tongue and let my blood fill my mouth. I spat it on my weapons, covering their surface. The blood was viscous enough to stick, and it partially clotted, ensuring it would stay in place.

The onslaught began. I ran among the beasts slashing at them like a madman, avoiding their attacks at the last possible moment to have them collide against one another while I was moving in their blind spots everytime I could.

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I used the spike of the halberd to penetrate the hard chitinous carapaces of the insects, used the axe and spike against the reptiles and cut the skin of the mammals with the sharpest edge of the sword.

The aggressors were many and steadily increasing. I had to move continuously, in order to avoid getting pinned to the ground or buried, albeit only temporarily, by the falling bodies of the beasts poisoned by my blood.

Soon enough I realised there was no way for me to get out of the situation unscathed. Although I was tirelessly moving around and twisting my body to avoid claws and pincers alike, wounds were accumulating on my body. I managed each time to employ aura and rapidly close my wounds. Moreover, I didn’t let the spilt blood go to waste and I regularly reapplied it to the weapons by rubbing them over my body.

As I couldn’t completely avoid damage, I concentrated on avoiding insect bites which could detach huge chunks of my bodies, and herbivores' charges, especially if they were armed with horns or similar. Concerning carnivores, I tried to evade their claws as much as possible but I let their fangs graze me, in order to have them poison themselves and die. Bloodloss wasn’t ideal, but I could recover faster from it than body parts removal. In my current condition, it was wiser to prioritise bodily integrity.

Even though the beasts were dying by the dozen and the ground surrounding me was completely covered in cerulean dust, they didn’t stop their relentless assault; but neither did I. The more time passed, the more it became clear that my body wasn’t simply mana-resistant but was becoming mana-refractory. With every beast bite or cut, mana entered my system, but corrosion took place only momentarily as my aura scattered it as soon as it penetrated further than the skin.

Nevertheless, the fight was still taking a toll on my body. To restore my physical condition I needed to consume biomatter. Fortunately, there was plenty of food scattered on the ground. It was what was left behind from the fleeing crowd.

Due to the mana storm the food was quickly degrading, so I had to keep my eyes wide open to actually locate it. In between kills I rolled on the ground, gulped down whatever I could sink my teeth in, be it actual food or the occasional rock, stood up and resumed my assault.

Eventually, after a long battle of attrition, the mana storm started to settle down and the number of beasts to dwindle. From the screams I could hear coming from outside of the encirclement, there were still people fighting and helping me cut down the enemies.

In the end, a single beast remained, a deformed horse with seagull-like features the size of a big dog charging at me on his three legs and one wing, improperly used as a support in its rush. I immediately disposed of it by blocking his charge with my two hands, forcefully opening its mouth and thrusting in my bloodied arm.

The nature freak got a seizure and quickly fell to the ground, before disappearing into thin air. I lost all strength in my legs. I sprawled on the ground and looked at the sky. The sun had moved quite a bit. I had probably been fighting for more than two or three hours, but I couldn’t say it for certain as I had lost all cognition of time.

I had enjoyed the battle more than I thought I would. After spending a year basically immobile, with nothing to do, fighting like a madman against a tide of opponents and emerging victorious had helped me let off some steam.

Tobias had made me feel incredibly helpless, but today's events had helped me realise that, although I was still weak, I was on the right path to power.

As I was having these thoughts and the remains of the mana storm were disappearing, I felt a strange accumulation of mana bear on me. I raised myself and sat down, trying to pinpoint the origin of what was happening.

I immediately pushed me off the ground with my hands, moving away from where I was just in time to see a stalagmite emerge from the ground with the speed of a bullet and sever my right arm. I clicked my tongue. A geogenai was here and even it was targeting me.