[Who knows, maybe it's the Corruption keeping it alive~]
"It could've been less obvious if you wanted me to figure it out myself..." He wasn't even asking how to kill it; he was just surprised it didn't die from its brain being vaporized.
[Rude!]
"Oh, sorry about that then." Caelus didn't mean to be rude; he was more teasing, if anything.
Caelus stepped back as he felt the touch of another animal, not a Goat, but larger, a lot larger. Caelus, looking back, saw it was something half-humanoid and... Half horse, so logically it'd have been a Centaur. Yet even then, he saw it was corrupted, struggling to move. Caelus moved to the side to avoid disturbing it. Since it didn't instantly attack.
He'd jinxed it, the Centaur, without a futher notice or any sign of readying to attack launched out a multitude of blasts made of Mana, only it was inefficient and wasted a lot of excessive Mana, Caelus tried dodging the first few by stepping out of the way, yet it only moved to follow him, the first three hit him, causing his scales to crack.
Right after the first three, which gave him a stun due to the pain, which even if he could handle, his human brain could barely even hold it back. After he regained himself, Caelus jumped up and shot out a larger, less efficient but wider Simple cut, enough to destroy the entire body. Albeit it was sloppy right now, he wasted more Mana than he wanted to.
"That still stings," Caelus spoke, his eye twitching slightly from the pain slowly fading.
As soon as it launched forward, it crashed into its extended arm, which was charging a blast, only for Caelus to redirect the direction of his Mana to a different angle so it wouldn't collide with the blast.
Cutting right through the arm, the Mana dissipated as Caelus realized that wherever it was being used to draw Mana was where it was most vulnerable, alongside the fact that he couldn't cover his staff with the Mana barrier despite being fully able to.
As the cut exploded outward in a circle, reaching the skies only to dissipate just as quickly, the Banshee, along with the two other Goats caught in the crossfire due to the broader area, were completely eviscerated. Caelus, landing on the ground, saw that the trees, which were no longer there, had nothing.
[Good job! You beat these three corrupted entities, and from that, you went from the Foundation Establishment II to III!]
Even the vegetation and the dirt were all but gone, yet some of it remained. Caelus was sure that an attack could destroy a part of the City in the Empire. But he was getting lost in thought, noticing he had 7 hours left. Caelus looked toward the mountain, becoming calmer, though for a normal person it wouldn't feel different; for Caelus, the air changed, just subtly.
[Also!, Your reward, remember? You get to decide, it just has to be proportionate-]
"The Amount of Mana you can refill from my pool, as much as possible, in comparison to what I did in the fight." Caelus had nothing else to ask. It would be better, considering he was going to fight whatever was up or in there.
[Seriously, boringgg, not something like a pill that'd help make it regenerate faster?]
Caelus listened to Aphro, and his eyes, now half-lidded, turned away. "...I do not want to get addicted to eating that, that is one reason why. And because it's better for right now, since I'm going to fight something else anyway."
Caelus continued the mountain upwards, reaching about midway up as he noticed a cave entrance, though he didn't see it from below, even when he had extraordinary vision.
Getting closer, he noticed a rumbling, the sound of something thrashing inside. Caelus knew that was where he was supposed to go. Right as he took a step inside, he saw Aphro's timer stop.
As it paused, the sound of low rumbling, or even growling, echoed through the inner area of the cave. One that looked like the entire mountain was hollowed out.
"Okay... So this is definitely where I need to be-" The wind snapped shut as the entrance dissipated, becoming a part of the mountain, with Caelus being pushed by the sudden gust of wind forward. He began to fall for a few seconds, landing with the ground cracking from the speed and Caelus's physical strength.
[Your First Mission, Defeat the Corrupted Wyvern, And no, it's not at its full power, it's a lot weaker, so you still have a chance~]
"Thanks for the clarification, Aphro." Caelus stared ahead, enhancing his hearing and sight with Mana to make sure he couldn't be sneak-attacked, holding his staff out as he formed two layers of the barrier he used against Tellus. He wasn't going to take a risk.
The Wyvern, large in size, being eight times the size of Caelus, at least in its proper form, its scales, scarredand covered in slashes, burn marks, and even deep wounds, from its head protruded five spikes, a dark blue, almost pitch black color from it, leaking a red liquid which seemed like blood.
As soon as the Wyvern flickered forward, disappearing as it became the air itself, it reappeared in front, swatting its hand full force towards Caelus, a direct hit which broke through the first barrier and cracked the second one, still it's force was felt because it had sent Caelus flyng to the left, crashing into a wall, debris fallng down, some of it hitting Caelus in the head but that didn't matter.
"Okay, I should've waited for a bit longer, maybe." Caelus tried to stay composed, yet the fact that he was in pain made sure the Wyvern knew he wasn't calm. Pointing is staff forward, and instead of summoning his cut right ahead of him to launch it... "What if I just make it appear next to them? That would be a lot more efficient."
Caelus formulated the slash, making it appear right next to the Wyvern's horns. He elongated it to ensure it could hit as much as it needed while staying as efficient in Mana usage as possible. He saw every resource he had as valuable, so he kept as much of it as he could.
[Pssst- Hint, If you name your Attacks out loud, it'll be stronger without much of a drawback, it just means people know your attack is coming~]
Caelus's eyelid twitched; he was annoyed Aphro didn't tell him earlier, but he shook it off as the slash connected with the scales, cutting through the already weak bone and junk, splitting it away from the Wyvern's head.
As it flew off, Caelus gave no time to react.
"Advanced Simple Cut," He spoke, it boomed across the walls, reflecting back like they were mirrors, The waffle shaped slash formed between them, forming right as the Wyvern moved closer, launching it ahead at full force, it pushed the Wyvern back, causing apparent damage as it's purple blood, a little darker spilled out of the wounds, and caused the ground to begin evaporating from just it's touch.
Caelus stared ahead, his vision noticing the temperature on the Wyvern being empty, nothing there, meaning he wouldn't see it if the Wyvern became invisible. A blink as he used Mana to limit it to Natural Light, of which he just now realized he could see more than the colors he could when he was human.
"Whoa, okay, holy shit." Caelus shifted the air around him to make himself look like a blur as he approached, and a beam of light shot out from the Wyvern's eyes. It still had Mana, so it was probably that it was concealing its heat signature.
As the light approached, Caelus shifted to the side, the Beam of Light barely grazing his skin. Causing it to be evicerated and destroying multiple scales across his cheek. Caelus tried to keep moving, only for the light to bounce off the wall and blast right through his left arm, precisely into the spherical structure it was, thin and not big enough to destroy his hand.
"SHIT-" Caelus began panicking, his body shook as his human brain was running on adrenaline, or at least releasing across his body, but since it was a human's adrenaline, and Dragons would be negligible because it would be something which was never used.
His strength spiked beyond what was natural. Caelus took a second, feeling the pain in his hand disappear, alongside across his body, but it was simply being suppressed, a flash as Caelus rushed towards the Wyvern, jumping up as it launched itself forward, expecting him to merely rush.
His leg reached out as he increased the force pushing him down, while trying to enhance his leg with Mana for more force. A surge of Mana covered his foot as he put in an amount he didn't actually want to, but he assumed it was because his body was in overdrive.
Caelus's leg connected with the Wyvern's back as it slammed down, causing the bones within it to practically crack, noticing a dark ball with tentacles connected right to the heart of the Wyvern, which was protected by a barrier.
Caelus was confused, launching himself to his feet. His Mana went back to circulating properly before spiking in certain areas. Still holding his staff, he faced it down at the black orb, which tried to get out of the way.
Right before it launched, a blast of poison flew towards Caelus, and a lighter color, almost resembling water, flew at him. Instinctively closing his eyes, it hit his body and caused his skin to burn, though his pain was being suppressed, his body was heating up, reaching over a hundred and thirty.
As Caelus fell, his staff was partially damaged while he tried to protect it. The Black orb just got out of the Wyvern's body, the barrier around the heart disappearing.
It began pulsating, as if it were about to burst. Caelus continued to try to regulate his Mana, looking to the side, launching a barrage of Slashes with the use of Mana, though it covered a giant space and was inefficient, along with him being sloppy. He didn't care.
"Just fucking work!" Caelus's barrage flew at the black orb, cutting right through its body, giving no room to dodge. Two of which combined to explode right in front of it, causing extensive damage, as evidenced by the giant gashes, which grew smaller but then reconnected.
The heart at that moment exploded, and Caelus's Mana spiked as a barrier formed to stop the explosion from hitting. A few seconds later, his barrier suddenly disappeared as the blast continued. Crashing into Caelus, his Mana was failing him, along with his body. His vision narrowed, focusing right at the presumed Parasite, which was heavily damaged.
Caelus, as he tried to move, felt his muscles tighten. His body wasn't meant to handle adrenaline; it didn't have a limit or a cap; it never regulated; it simply surged into him.
As the Parasite rushed over to Caelus to take over his body, probably because it couldn't survive with that much damage without a host. Caelus, despite this, still tried to move, using as much force as he could, because for him it didn't matter if he got severely hurt, as long as nothing controlled his body.
Caelus, on instinct, launched his leg upward, while all stretched out, as all the Mana in his body, except the very little in his Mana Pool, flooded to the entire leg as it made contact with the mid-air parasite, about to destroy it.
Flying up into the top of the mountain, it crashed through, creating a hole where lightning from the peak struck inside, almost hitting the Wyvern. Though he didn't expect the Parasite to be dead, he still expected it to be gone long enough that he could heal in time.