Infinite Mana In The Oasis

(The scene takes off from where chapter 217 ends.)

Roar!

Eren's ears were filled with the noise of Wyvern's roar once again when the near-stagnant world was shattered around him. Lightning struck and he disappeared from his place before the beast could attack him using his long-range wing slashes.

Stampede!

Eren appeared over the head of his summoned elephant that was leading the herd. There was a stampede of elephants approaching the beast without fear.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The firebirds infected with foreign mana also attacked the red-scaled wyvern. They kept him busy while Eren was surrounding the beast with his summoned elephant.

'An intent to kill!'

Eren clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes. He looked at the beast with murderous intentions, wanting to see him getting butchered by him. Aleph's advice kept replaying in his head like a broken record as he did that.

The beast was overwhelmed by the wrathful firebirds he was being bombarded with. They had increased their destruction potential by leaps and bounds, making the beast feel pain and burn even with his top-tier fire resistance.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Eren upped his offense by letting the elephants attack the wyvern with their compressed air balls. It seemed they were more effective than the fire-element spells. Thus, Eren raised his hands and cast elemental fusion from the residual mana surrounding the beast.

Elemental Fusion: Wind-Fire Spears

Many spears of wind and fire element mana were formed around the beast. They had a different visual appearance than usual. They had distinct runic engravings on their blades and rods that represented the elemental fusion of the two elements.

Eren also summoned normal Venti spears and mixed them along with his levitating arsenal of weapons. He also added Wind Shards, Blitz Shards, and Igni Shards to the mix.

Some of the elemental shards coated the summoned weapons. Others merged using elemental fusion. Others remained independent and made the swarm of weapons surrounding the beast look denser at the moment.

The beast tried to get away from his position using various means. But by then, Eren had summoned a lot more summoned creatures. They attacked the Wyvern one after another and kept him pinned to his position.

The more the beast destroyed the summoned creatures, the more they would be waiting for him to deal with. Eren ignored the pain he was feeling due to his mana circuits getting strained severely and cranked up his offensive once again.

"Grrrrrrrrrrow!"

The beast cried in pain and agony when he was bombarded by Eren's numerous spells. The firebird attacked him from the air. The wrathful lightning hounds tried to attack his limbs and tails by biting them and exploding. They created clusters of lightning when they did that, affecting the beast's nervous system and compromising his response.

Then came the compressed air balls and wind-element shrapnels shot by the summoned elephants. They were targeted at peculiar locations, inflicting internal injuries on the beast with their persistent attacks.

Lastly, the summoned spears were launched at the beast from every angle and the surroundings were washed over with brilliant light. It was so bright that it would blind the eyes. It was so powerful that it created a booming effect that was felt and heard with a delayed effect from a distance.

The blast radius kept expanding and started destroying everything in its wake. The clouds of fire and wind mana were lifted off the ground in the shape of a mushroom because of the suddenly expanding air in the surroundings.

'An intent to kill. An intent to destroy.'

Eren appeared at a safe distance away from the explosion and mumbled to himself. He then started coughing severely. He sat on the ground with a thud and coughed out blood mixed in a wad of saliva.

The internal bleeding was the result of Eren consciously turning his normal spells into deviant spells at the very last moment. This is why he cast his normal spells along with his Hex spells and elemental fusion spells.

Eren's mana circuits were already strained because of the long and arduous battle with the Wyvern. He had changed the schools of his spells at the last minute, letting them use the surrounding mana instead of his infinite mana core. The abrupt change made normal spells more destructive. Some of their destructive potentials even exceeded the Hex spells' effects.

Eren had done almost everything right and made effective use of the memories he had gained instantly, thanks to Aleph. But he still couldn't prevent the conscious casting of deviant spells from affecting his mana circuits.

However, Eren was not discouraged. He looked at his bloody hands that he had used to cover his mouth with and wiped them off on his clothes. He smiled with bloody red lips as he looked at the result of his actions.

Even after his all-out attacks, Eren knew the beast might survive. He had crazy regenerative powers to pull off something like that. But that was fine. He knew it wouldn't take long for him to achieve victory. He wouldn't let himself get defeated after coming this far.

Roar!

With his half-burned and impaled wings, the wyvern soared into the air. He flew straight up before approaching Eren at breakneck speed. His body was covered in various burn marks. His scales were chipped away and his blood was coming out of the impaled wounds.

Eren got up from his position as he saw the beast approaching him. He spat in anger before gripping his axes tightly. In a flash, he stood up. His gaze locked on the beast as he was about to attack him.

'Come. I'll fucking butcher you.'

Eren's intent to kill overflowed and manifested around him. His aura turned dark red and his axes hummed. His Hex gear also started creaking because it was about to get destroyed as well.

However, Eren noticed something different about the beast. The beast was not controlling his descent. And his eyes were closed as if he had passed out. His mouth was open and his tongue was stuck out. He also had stopped casting any of his mid-range or long-range spells.

'This damn overhyped lizard.'

Eren felt angry at himself for getting riled up over nothing. His job was already done. Aleph's suggestion to cast deviant spells and pump them with a shit-ton of mana had worked like a charm. It managed to overwhelm the beast so much that he lost consciousness mid-battle.

Eren cast Blitz Steps and jumped right after the knocked-out beast touched the ground. His momentum was so strong that his body was dragged on the ground well past Eren's previous position.

Swoosh!

Eren landed a few steps from the beast and stayed alert. He didn't want to be ruined by the beast's sudden attacks. Dragonkind doesn't usually choose to use sneak attacks. But one could never be too sure about someone who is about to wake up.

'He passed out cold.'

Eren took a long breath after checking the beast's presence with his mana sense. Before speaking up, he put his two weapons back in their storage.

"I hope you consider this a win. Wouldn't want to butcher this lizard when it is just trying to sleep."

Eren said while casting a healing spell on himself. His condition wasn't exactly what one would call fine. He still had some open wounds. And fatigue had set in his body too. It was just his willpower that kept him from following the beast's footsteps.

Kino appeared in front of Eren and kept looking at him intently. She didn't speak or gesture. Trying to make sense of him, she just kept flying with her delicate wings.

"I might charge you pay-per-view rates if you keep looking at me like that."

Eren made cracking noises from his neck as he moved it from side to side. He rotated his wrists and felt his muscles relax.

"how did… no… why… no… not that either.

Eren… um… who are you?

Or rather, what are you?"

Eren was too stunned to speak for a moment after listening to Kino's question. He looked her in the eyes as he tried to find the answer to her question from within.

Eren closed his eyes and exhaled. He had a quick recap of his life in his mind and recalled all the crucial moments of his life in a fraction of a second. When he did that, the answer came naturally to him.

"I am what I need to be."

Eren chuckled and let his body fall to the ground once again. This was not exhaustion. He just wanted to rest while lying flat on the ground.

Kino landed on the ground and her wings disappeared. She sighed before declaring something he had wanted to hear for so long.

"You have cleared the bonus stage as well. And with it, you have cleared the testing grounds of the School of Bear."

Kino said in a plain voice that he was close to defeat. The battlemage closed his eyes when he confirmed that the fight was over. In the next moment, Kino heard two types of snoring sounds that complemented each other in a weird way.