Terror and I charged at one another. When I got close enough I grabbed his sabre-like teeth and rove my knee right into his nose. I smiled when I heard some bones breaking as blood ran down Terror's destroyed nose.

"How's that Terror?!" I yelled with widened eyes.

Terror responded by hitting me in the side with the bottom of his paw. I crashed into a tree, making it fall over.

Again? Really?

I grit my teeth and got back up in time to block another attack. I grabbed onto his front leg and spun around, bringing down multiple trees using Terror's body as a sort of club. He let out pained growls. I let go and threw him right onto the tallest tree around which was barely shaken by the impact of the at least fifteen metres long and five-metre tall cat.

I jumped after him and buried my fist in his chest, I could once again hear bones breaking and a pained growl from Terror. Laughter escaped my lips as I began using Terror as a punching bag. At the same time, the wind picked up, distracting me slightly with the voices it carried.

"Die!"

"Slave!"

"Cockroach!"

"Weakling!"

"Rat!"

"Shut up!" I yelled out in anger, and that was the moment Terror used to pin me to the ground with a swift move that I didn't even see coming.

I coughed up blood as I hit the ground and felt Terror's paw pressing down on my chest. On top of that was the pressure of his mana that helped pin me to the ground. I bit down on my teeth in anger and made a grimace.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked as I became angrier and angrier.

With my anger grew the amount of mana that was violently surging around me. Something was different about it, I saw the usually blue outline of my mana becoming white. But that wasn't important right now. What was important was the fact that I felt strength I had never felt surging through me. I channelled more mana into my arms to gain more strength and the mana began surging around them and form somewhat of a gauntlet.

I let out a warcry as I lifted myself from the ground with one hand and punched Terror in the leg with the other. I broke the leg but to my dismay, Terror fell right onto me. He was heavy and I felt crushed.

With another loud warcry, I lifted Terror up and threw him away. I was covered in blood, sweat and dirt.

"How disgusting," I whispered to myself.

I looked up only to see M staring down at me from the branch he was sitting on.

How long do I have left? I asked Ira.

About ten minutes, she said.

More than enough.

When I burst forth the ground beneath me split and I left behind a small crater. By the time I arrived next to Terror he had barely even recovered. I buried my fist in the bloody and empty socket where an eye had been before. Instead of just punching him away I drove his head into the ground, creating a crater. Small pebbles flew all around us as his head hit the ground.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Now then, Terror. What do you say we end this?" I asked, bringing my mouth as close to his ear as I could.

He just let out a loud growl filled with pain and I could see that his eyes looked slightly wet.

"Oh no, don't cry! I didn't mean it of course... we won't end it quite yet!" I said as I lifted up Terror's head and drove it into the ground again.

"No, instead of ending it now-" I did it again, "-I'll make you suffer-" I did it again, "-because-" and again, "-because-" and again, "-that-" again, "-is-" again, "-so much more fun!" This time I put more force behind it and a stream of mana surged around my right arm which was still inside the empty eye socket.

The mana looked almost like a flame stirred up by gasoline. I took my bloody hand out of the empty I socket and stood above Terror, putting one foot down on his head as mana was emitted from my body like a flame. It slowly changed colour. I could tell. The blue turned darker and darker while the outline became whiter and whiter.

I began laughing again, and oh it was a maniacal laugh, even I knew that.

"Now listen here, Terror. We've played for long enough. Either you overpower me or I kill you," I said, leaning close to Terror's ear again.

Suddenly his broken leg tensed up and he let out a loud roar that instinctively made me jump back.

You just had to provoke him...

I smiled.

"It's more fun this way, isn't it?" I asked Ira out loud.

I got no response, although I wouldn't have had time to answer anyway since Terror appeared next to me even larger than before and with a golden shimmer around him. He only rammed me with his shoulder but I felt like I was hit by a fucking bomb. My shoulder got dislocated and I was hit back multiple metres before I crashed through multiple trees and coughed up blood.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" I yelled out as I stood up with a smile on my face as I relocated my shoulder.

I launched myself at Terror with mana surging around me even more violently. By now it was grey with a white outline. I drove my fist right between the two front-most eyes Terror had. For a few seconds, there was resistance but then he was blown back.

The forest around us was a mess. Fallen over trees everywhere, trampled plants everywhere and then there were the two of us. Terror, standing in front of yet another fallen over tree, a strong golden shimmer around him and me, walking towards him with grey mana raging around me and a look of joy on my face. And then there was my laughter which echoed through the forest.

Terror once again charged at me. When he got close enough I jumped and then kicked him from above. His head hit the ground yet again.

Three minutes... Ira said.

I smiled as I grabbed Terror's spine from above and dug my fingers in deep enough to grab the underside as well. He let out a loud cry of pain, it was something that could be called neither roar nor growl.

"Goodbye, old rival," I said as I pulled and ripped his spine out from his back.

The ribs broke as they tried to get past Terror's tough hide, or maybe because they came in contact with my mana pressure, I didn't know and I didn't care. All I cared about was the fact that it felt good, standing on Terror's back, his spine in hand and covered in the blood that gushed forth from the wound like water from a fountain. It was a blood fountain. And I stood there, drops of blood raining down from above, laughing.

"Now this, this is what I call a satisfying end!" I yelled, completely covered in blood.

I could hear Ira chuckling in my mind. M returned to my shoulder and I jumped down from Terror's corpse.

"Now then, where shall we go?" I asked as I walked away, both my hands in my pockets.

"The nearest city I know of is to the north. I'd say if we start now we'll be there in about a month or so," M said.

"Sounds like an idea, but first we'll have to find a river or something like that," I said.

"There's one not too far from here," M said. "Just follow my directions."

I chuckled and did as M said. After a while, we reached the river and I washed my clothes and face, when I was done I put on the dark cloak with fur lining I had and pulled the hood over my head.

"Hmm, what should we do when we get there?" I asked as I walked along the path that M had suggested.

"I dunno," M said.

Build up a network so you can gain information on the church, Ira suggested.

That sounds good... let's try that.