In the middle of the night,
A noise suddenly startled Alex awake.
"Huff, huff," Alex breathed, hand raised.
He was sitting down, mana potion in hand, and ready to cast Windslicer at the first head that showed itself through the leaves.
The rustling and breathing noises were getting ever closer, and his anxiety was rising by the second.
After some minutes of tense waiting, the noises started fading, the sound slowly dissipating.
The noises disappeared together with his anxiety, and letting out a sigh, Alex lay back down, head on his bag.
But safe to say, he was already wide awake.
"Guess I'll sit and practice mana gathering." Seeing there was no light to speak of, Alex did the only thing he could now that he was sleepless.
An unknown amount of time later, the sun started to shine through the leaves at the entrance. Alex knew this was going to be a hard day. With how little he slept, he was bound to face sleepiness in the middle of the day, slowing his already not-great reaction time.
Still, he ate something, then packed up and left.
He followed the sound of running water and finally reached the river. Seeing the current, he started following it. He knew the trick to reach Perrin's Gate after watching a regional map back at the orphanage.
It was very simple, to follow the river downstream without crossing it. That way he'd circle around the forest and reach the village directly.
'I'll need to be extra careful. After all, every animal probably drinks from this river,' Alex quickly realized.
Still, he got on the move, looking as far ahead as he could to see if there were any monsters on the riverside.
His travel was quite smooth in fact, only needing to hide a couple of times, once from boars and once from some kind of wolf that was strangely alone.
He was lucky that this was a relatively low-danger jungle. After all, it was near not one but two villages and one city to the south, so it was quite shaken down and explored.
'Still, how could such a monster wander around?'
The memory of the monster that had frozen him in fear came back to his mind.
He kept walking down the river for a while more, collecting on the way some Waterbead flowers and putting them in the bag.
A couple of hours later it was midday, and drowsiness began to kick in.
"Fucking monster…" He resented whatever beast had woken him up last night, not allowing him to sleep properly.
A while later,
'Thump, thump.' Stepping noises made Alex suddenly whip his head back.
The drowsiness made him unable to focus, hearing the noises too late.
On the other side of his view, looking back at him, was a bear. A grizzly bear.
"Fu-fuck me…" muttered Alex at the sight.
The bear on the other side stood on two legs and growled loudly.
Alex quickly pulled the mana potion from his pocket watch. With one hand on the potion and the other raised, he cast Windslicer.
He tried to aim at the animal's leg, trying to cripple its movement, but with how far apart they were, the skill landed more on the thigh and with less efficiency since distance impacted performance.
He quickly cast again and started running toward the forest, not knowing exactly where his second skill landed or even if it did.
Still, he heard running noises quickly catching up, so he uncorked the mana potion and managed to take a sip while running with all his might.
He quickly felt the sensation of being full of mana.
Without even looking at his status, he knew his mana was full.
He placed the cork back in, the noises behind him getting closer.
The tree was close, but as he was going around it, pain surged from his back.
The bear caught up, and before Alex could hide behind the tree, it slashed with its claw, barely grazing him but still lacerating his back, claws passing through his skin like a hot knife through butter.
"AH!" he screamed as the increasingly familiar sensation of pain struck him again.
Tumbling forward, Alex still managed to get behind the tree. Looking back, he raised his hand and cast Windslicer at the bear's eyes.
The bear moved its head sideways, noticing the danger, but the Windslicer slammed into one of its eyes, mangling it.
The bear was now blind on one side but still able to see.
The bear rose on both legs and lunged forward, trying to bite Alex.
As he moved backward, still using the tree as cover, Alex tripped and fell on his butt.
Still, thanks to the tree, the bear's attack failed, landing against it and shaking it heavily.
Alex took advantage of the position he had accidentally found himself in and aimed another Windslicer at the back legs of the animal.
This time he was close, so the skill landed perfectly, hitting with full force and maiming the bear's ability to move properly.
Having been left out of mana again, he uncorked the mana potion for the second time, which was a miscalculation.
The bear seized the moment to jump at him again. This time, the bite landed on his left shoulder, crushing it harshly.
The pain almost made Alex drop the mana potion, but he held onto it for dear life.
The bear raised its head, trying to bite the shoulder off, but Alex was so light it actually lifted him off the ground.
Then it slammed him down, knocking the wind out of him. Alex was still holding the mana potion.
In his desperation, he came up with something.
Alex used his free arm to place the mana potion in his mouth, using his tongue to control how much he drank, and aimed his now-free hand at the monster's neck.
Then he started casting one Windslicer after another directly at the bear's neck as it carried him in its mouth toward the river.
The bear, sensing the pain, lifted Alex up and used one of its paws to slash at his midsection.
"HMM!" Alex let out a nasal sound of pain as the slash opened his stomach cleanly, blood flowing and his intestines spilling out.
Still, he kept casting Windslicer.
With death looming so close, Alex's casting became almost prodigious, reaching 0.1 seconds per spell.
In a matter of one second, he cast the spell ten times, and the mana potion became empty.
He let it fall from his mouth, his head growing hazy.
The bear finally started to become sluggish as it approached the riverside. Then, with a rumble, the bear released Alex and dropped dead.