The first fight. Man versus beast. A solo mage versus a dire wolf.

Raze lets out a deep exhale to calm his nerves. Feeling reassured as he grips the iron shaft of his battle mace. His body feels like it’s in better condition than any person on Earth thanks to the Strengthening spell. Raze’s mind drifts slightly. He could enter a strongman competition and probably place among the top contestants with his current raw power, even lacking the technique. Making him wonder what each additional level of magic will do to the spell, and by extension him.

His train of thought halts as he notices the dire wolf barks and lets out a low and short howl. It’s body starts to glow a dim green color, just like Raze’s has a somewhat bright brown. He thinks to himself “What spell was that?” He isn’t given time to think however, as the dire wolf lunges forward at extreme speed. Maw opening wide with massive teeth flaring out.

Raze weaves to the side and narrowly avoids the attack and grips near the bottom of the hilt with both hands. Reeling his mace back before swinging forward towards the torso of the dire wolf! Using both hands to swing at full power with a golf style swing! The dire wolf glances over in the direction of the blow and darts away. Raze grits his teeth and grunts out as his blow swings wide, his target no longer where it should have been. His mace smashes the air itself instead. Leaving a brutal sounding “whoosh” sound behind.

The dire wolf’s paws thump against the grassy ground and circle around. Raze twirls his battle mace and chokes up his grip. “Too fast to hit with big swings now. It must have enhanced itself with a speed spell.” With his new hand position, he starts to circle with the dire wolf again. Staring it down and exhaling in and out slowly. Chest rising and falling as he thinks to himself.

“It thinks I’m a big swinger now. I gotta catch it with something a lot faster…” Raze subtly chokes his hand all the way up the handle of the weapon. His right hand is just underneath the head of the mace while his left is close to the center area. “But I have to wait for it to make its move… I’m too slow like this. I gotta learn that Speed spell!”

Raze starts to approach the dire wolf slowly. Staring it down as he closes the distance himself gradually. Rather than allowing him to fully approach, the dire wolf goes on the offensive again! It dashes out to the side and starts to circle Raze. Paws thumping against the grassy ground faster and faster. Raze assumes a defensive and agile posture as he waits for his moment to counterattack once more.

The dire wolf suddenly breaks it’s circling stride and launches itself at Raze twice as fast as it had done so before! Raze’s eyes surge open wide in shock at the sudden increase in speed as he dives out of the way. The dire wolf coming to land on the ground with its bite once again chomping onto thin air. The attack was so aggressive and fast that Raze could not even counterattack back! Raze gets up back on his feet and locks his eyes with the dire wolf again.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me… it’s so stupidly fast now. And it’s just testing me. If it goes for repeated attacks I’m gonna take bites...” His mind starts racing as he thinks of a solution. His breathing starts to accelerate as his nostrils slightly flare to compensate for it.

Raze isn’t left waiting as the dire wolf starts to get extra aggressive now. Charging forward without hesitation to attack once again! “Head on?” The dire wolf’s body is starting to turn into a blur of gray fur. “I’ll meet it. I can’t keep dodging forever it’ll outlast me or just get me eventually…!”

Raze’s grip tightens and he himself lunges forward to meet the dire wolf. Waiting for it to perform it’s pouncing maneuver. As predicted, it does so with only a few feet between the two. Rather than dodge again, Raze swings much faster than the dire wolf likely expected. Choked up to the head of the mace, his swinging speed is astonishingly fast! He catches the head of his mace into the dire wolf’s maw and watches as it’s teeth instinctively clamp down against the iron just as if it were flesh.

Raze grits his teeth as he’s locked in a struggle of strength with the dire wolf. The wolf’s much larger body gives it the advantage. It firmly plants it’s four paws and starts to yank on the mace backwards. Trying to yank it out of Raze’s grasp! “It knows this is my only way to really defend myself! It’s extra intelligent! Stupid fucking wolf!”

Raze grits his teeth and digs his boots into the ground as he enters a full-on tug-of-war with the dire wolf. His breathing grows more rapid as he starts to think of solutions. He then remembers the fireball spell. A somewhat opened up mouth making a perfect point-blank target. He releases his left hand from the mace but is suddenly jerked forward! Putting his hand right back to continue the fight of strength. “If I let a hand go… it can almost immediately overpower me! I’ll lose for sure that way!”

Raze starts to think and looks over his weapon. Closing his eyes as he is gradually but slowly losing ground to the dire wolf. About every 5 seconds or so, he loses about a foot worth of ground! “Feel the mana in the air… see it.” Raze can once again see the ambient mana in the air. Wisps and streams of misty blue energy that normally can’t be seen with the naked eye. “Draw it in…”

Raze grips his hands tighter and starts to collect the mana in his hands. “Guide it… upward. I’m connected to this mace…” Raze channels the mana from his hands directly into the handle of the mace. “No… into the head.” His breathing is getting heavier as his stamina in this tug-of-war is running out. The dire wolf’s strength is matching his own! A blue sphere of mana collects around the mace’s head. Raze opens his eyes and in his mind yells out “Flame weapon!”

The head of his mace ignites into a burst of flame. Just like the fireball spell, but placed onto the mace itself. He grins wide as he sees the wolf isn’t a fan of the fire. In only 3 seconds flat it releases the mace. Lapping it’s chops and mouth as it was nearly burned from prolonged contact. Raze smiles wide. “Not a fan of fire? Good.”

He twirls his mace slightly. Allowing the flaming head to whoosh through the air. A continuous effect. Raze continues to draw in ambient mana to fuel the flame like oxygen. The dire wolf’s confidence has been blatantly cut down. Raze notices this, and he starts to approach once again. This time however, he is charging forward himself rather than cautiously approaching. Unlike the last time, the dire wolf actually takes a step back. Thinking about how best to approach the flaming weapon.

It launches itself to the side once more before Raze can get too close. Circling around him once more. “Not giving up, huh?” He turns his head and body, following the dire wolf as it circles him. Running in a rough circle as it dashes around. “It’s trying to get behind me…!”

Raze tries to lunge forward but it’s useless, the dire wolf is simply too fast. “Well… I know what you’re gonna do. Go for it you fuckin’ oversized wolf!” He stops circling around and manually accelerates his breathing to feign being tired. The dire wolf immediately sizes the opportunity and strikes from behind!

Raze turns and greets the wolf with the head of his mace again. The bright red flaming head of the mace getting launched towards that dire wolf’s face! The dire wolf preemptively closes it’s maw without even biting hard. Raze lunges forward. “Can’t let it get away! It won’t let me do it again!” Raze gets a little extra aggressive himself and lands a light bash on the side of the dire wolf’s face, near the base of the snout.

It lets out a yelp and staggers back. It’s fur has been lightly singed by the flames. Before it can fully recover it’s footing, Raze presses the attack! Adjusting his hands towards the center of his mace to go for a medium weight swing. This time he makes full contact into the upper torso of the dire wolf! Launching it several feet as he knocks it over. “Again! I gotta cripple it to win! I won’t get to hit it again. It’s just gonna run away and come for me again!”

Raze dashes inward to close the newly made distance between the two. The flame of his weapon is still going strong as it slowly feeds off of ambient mana. The dire wolf’s gray fur singed and burned in two different locations now. Stumbled and fallen to it’s side, Raze lowers his grip and grips near the lower part of the handle. He slams his boot down onto the dire wolf’s chest to pin it down in this vulnerable position.

Reeling his weapon upward, he goes for a heavy downward slam! The head of his weapon punches through the air in a wide downward arc as the head makes full impact with the hind left leg of the dire wolf. The head of the weapon’s flame explodes and then quickly dissipates. The leg lets out a sickly crunching sound as bone is cracked and crushed underneath. The flanges of the battle mace digging in and slightly penetrating its hide. The wolf yelps out in pain again as its hind leg is contorted. Clearly badly broken. In addition, the leg has a massive black patch where the fur has been seared away.

The dire wolf thrashes around and gets out from underneath Raze’s boot in a surge of desperation. It creates distance between the two, but notably cannot stand on it’s rear right leg anymore. Having to hobble and compensate for the difference using it’s rear left leg. Raze looks at the ground and notices the blood left behind. Knowing his blow struck true, he gains quite a lot of confidence.

He starts to channel Flame Weapon again and starts to approach the wolf again. Thinking to himself again. “C’mon buddy. I don’t wanna kill some random animal that was looking for lunch. Just run away…!”

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He watches as the dire wolf starts to snarl and growl towards him, so he stops approaching and stands his ground instead. “Just leave…! I don’t wanna put you down…!” Raze glares at the dire wolf. Not backing down from it, but not approaching either. Currently locked in a stalemate.

Raze gets an idea and waves his mace slowly. Showing off the flaming head to the dire wolf. Attempting to discourage it from any further fighting. It takes an entire half a minute of “encouragement”, but the dire wolf eventually hobbles away and leaves. Raze’s breathing gets actually heavy now as he stops channeling his flame weapon spell.

He waits for the dire wolf to completely exit his view before he holsters his mace. “So… what was that spell?”

As if responding to the thought itself, the magical tome in his view appears. Showing the spell in its entirety.

Flame Weapon (Destruction)

Verbal component: Flame Weapon

Using the ambient mana in the surrounding area, form a ball of flame in the head of your weapon. The flame will persist so long as you channel ambient mana. Dealing additional fire damage on melee strikes. The flame can be detonated for an explosion of fire damage on impact!

At higher levels, more ambient mana can be collected to deal more damage.

“Ah… I must’ve triggered the explosion subconsciously. Because I knew I wanted to hit it as hard as I could at that exact moment.”

Raze looks around and from where he’s standing, he can only see an open field around himself. Letting out a sigh, he decides to simply go the opposite direction from where the dire wolf went. Which is conveniently directly away from where he came from!

“I need that speed increasing spell… I felt at a complete disadvantage in that fight pretty much the entire time. If it wasn’t for me surprising it, I would’ve been done for.” He grits his teeth. “If I could just see it done one more time, I could try to copy the spell!”

Raze checks his health and mana again as he walks along.

HP: 22/24

Mana: 6/14

“Didn’t need any of my own mana for that aside from Strengthening. And I can tell. If I didn’t strengthen myself, I wouldn’t have landed a hard blow. Might have not even made contact… Wait, I’m down 2 HP? When? Where?”

Raze looks over his body somewhat semi-frantically and finds he has a rather large gash along the left side of his stomach. The fabric of his outfit is torn in that location, exposing the ripped skin underneath. He grits his teeth and suddenly the pain hits him. His breathing becomes more ragged. “It was when I barely dodged… I think his dewclaw got me!”

“I need… healing magic… basic restoration… how would that work?” Raze thinks to himself. “I can recover naturally from this cut… but it’ll take weeks… maybe even a month or two. I can’t see how deep it is… Fuck me, that stings!” Raze looks around and gets up close to a tree. Putting his back against it and leaning back. “Healing… I need healing…!”

Raze thinks through his mind. “To close a wound… You need platelets. The platelets have to clot it… gotta create more platelets… Speed them up!” Raze closes his eyes and senses the ambient mana in the air again. Collecting it in his hand as he imagines the platelets in his body, and then copying them.

The ambient mana takes shape and form, retaining it’s wispy and misty nature but gaining a bright, mostly transparent golden yellow color.

The tome opens in his view again as he holds this newly colored ambient mana over his wound.

Minor Healing (Restoration)

Verbal Component: Heal

Using the ambient mana in the surrounding area, form a create a stream of healing mana that is capable of healing small wounds! The longer the spell is cast, the greater the healing effect. Most wounds require several minutes to possibly hours to heal with magic. Major injuries cannot be healed with Minor Healing.

At higher levels, more ambient mana can be collected to heal larger wounds.

Raze reads the spell and nods at it. The tome vanishes on it’s own this time around. Raze looks around himself as he continues to channel the spell over his gash. Looking down at it as the bleeding stops slowly. His breathing steadies as he continues doing this for several more minutes. Eventually he becomes more confident with the spell and continues to cast it while walking. The wound has almost entirely closed. Raze checks on his HP again.

HP: 23/24

Mana: 6/14

“Well… it’s a start. Maybe another 5 or 10 minutes of this?” Raze thinks back to his previous life on Earth in his childhood and teen years. Remembering dozens of times he got cuts, bruises, and other minor injuries from incidents. Having to wear bandages as they healed up gradually over the course of days or weeks. He then remembers back to helping children as an adult clean themselves up and bandage up.

“This spell is too convenient… I wonder what higher levels of healing can do. Restore limbs? Cure major illnesses? Are diseases even a problem in this world?”

Raze continues along his way until he eventually finds a path. “Oh? An actual dirt path? People must walk through here… It’d be nice if I could get some directions. I’m out in the middle of nowhere, meanwhile Ritz started right next to a safe town! Oh right… I should check in on him.”

Raze’s mind echoes out, calling his friend’s name. It takes a few moments, but Ritz’s voice echoes back. “Hey, Ritz. You okay? How’s that town?”

Ritz responds “It’s pretty chill and peaceful overall. The people are nice. I just ate. What are you up to?”

Raze scoffs. “Battling for my life.”

Ritz sputters out “How? What? Why? Already? Right now?” The questions come out very quickly.

Raze replies “A dire wolf or whatever this world calls it got to me. I figured out a way to turn myself invisible, but that wasn’t good enough. It just followed the sound of my footsteps instead. Not to mention it sniffed me out while I was hiding from it in the first place. A total monster. I challenged it to open combat in a field, and broke its hind leg. I figured out how to channel fire into my weapon and got a few choice hits in. I don’t think it was a fan of flames.”

Ritz responds “Is anybody?”

Raze shrugs to himself as he continues walking. “Dragons or whatever, maybe. You think this world has dragons?”

Ritz hums “Probably?”

Raze sighs “Yeah. Probably.”

Ritz switches the subject back. “So you got away unhurt, yeah?”

Raze shakes his head. “Nah. It got me a little bit, but I didn’t even notice or feel it in the moment. I think one of it’s claws sliced me on the side. Too much adrenaline to notice an indirect hit, I think. Maybe that was for the best. I wouldn’t have been staring it down so confidently if I knew I got hurt. According to my Health point counter, it took me down 2 HP. Not a tragic amount. I’m already recovering.”

Ritz responds “Did you bandage yourself up somehow? I only came in with clothes and my spear and shield.”

Raze answers “No. I figured out a super basic healing spell. I have to cast it for an extremely long time and channel it for a while, but it works. I’m already not bleeding anymore and the cut was huge. I think in another minute or two, the whole wound will be gone.”

Ritz responds. “Wait, you turned yourself invisible, added fire to your weapon, and you can heal yourself? How many spells do you know already? And how do you do them?”

A thumping sound subtly rings out from above. Raze’s eyes jump upward and spots a brown-haired woman. Staring down at him. Wearing leather armor and a cloak. Sporting a shortbow of some kind, made of wood. A quiver on her hip.

Raze stares at her directly and speaks in his mind. “I’m gonna need to call you back. I think I just made first contact.”

Ritz calls out “Just do your usual thing! You get along with anyone you want to.”

Raze nods. “See you.”

His gaze turns back and stares down at the brown haired woman. After a few moments, her folded ears pop up in an alert state. Flicking around slightly, revealing their wolf-like shape.

Raze starts to consider whether or not he should even try talking first. Simply holding his ground as he waits for the somewhat mature looking wolf woman to make the first move. Flinching slightly as the woman leaps down from the branch and lands gracefully onto the forest floor below, right on the trail.

Raze looks over the woman, who stands nearly as tall as he does. Maybe just an inch or two shorter. Her body appears fully matured, and she has confident movements. It must be an adult.

He continues to channel the minor healing spell as he thinks to himself. “So, this is my first contact. Is she at least friendly? Chronus explained that demi-humans dislike humans…”