One Last System

"Let's go!" I shouted, hoping to use my voice to encourage myself.

Sure, I was eager to test out the potency of my old skill, especially after I had grown so much.

My mana circulated through my arcane spear. The arura that formed around the blade of the spear seemed eager to cut through something.

And I was more than happy to oblige.

'Die,' I thought, holding myself back from uttering it out loud.

I already served a sufficient dose of cringe for the fight.

My spear flew forward, pushed by a well-trained thrust.

All in all, discounting the efforts around it or not directly related, spear fighting was the second of my abilities that I trained the most.

Sure, I spent a lot of effort to raise my cultivation and, later on, deepen the pool of my mana. But still, the movement I learned from Lucius and the spear arts I polished since meeting pathfinders remained my true forte.

'And now I'm going to put them to test,' I thought, swinging my spear down.

I extended my weapon as far as I could in my hands, creating the biggest leverage that wouldn't mean risking losing the grip of the weapon.

And with a wide arc, my spear cut right through the monster, splitting its massive body in half all the way up to its middle.

'Woah,' I couldn't help but freeze in awe for but a second.

'That went better than I expected,' I thought, not too shy to acknowledge my own power.

'Well, I continued to strive to be stronger and stronger for a long while already,' I thought, bringing my spear down.

I then made half of a pirouette, keeping the swinging momentum of the spear and readjusting its angle to a horizontal hit.

"Woah!" My instincts got better of me, forcing me to jump away.

Right in the nick of time.

Instead of trying to heal its injury by simply merging the two blocks of mana back together, the monster changed the shape of the cut parts.

It stretched its newfound arms out, slamming them right down on the ground.

'Close one,' I thought.

A single jump was enough to reposition myself. I then shook my awe off before stalling the spear and fixing my grip over it.

"Do you want some help?" Mia asked, standing several feet to the back.

She was long done with her part of the small horde. And from the look on her face that I caught a glimpse of, she was starting to get bored.

"Sure thing," I replied.

I then pushed my hand out as if I wanted to use its palm to push my spear away.

I couldn't break the contact with the spear. Otherwise, the flow of the mana between my cultivation and the weapon would cease. That's why, while grabbing it firmly with my mana, I spun around while using my palm as support.

"Woah," Mia stopped herself from jumping in from the front.

I underestimated the strength of my mana yet again.

The spear on my palm turned into a fan-like blade, cutting the tentacles of the violet mana so thinly it nearly turned into a mist.

The wind that my attack kicked in blew right into the girl's face, alerting her about the strength of the attack.

"I guess I will take the back instead," Mia commented with a small smirk before leaping forward to circle around the monster.

"I want to see how long it will last," I shouted after the girl before focusing back on the fight.

Sure, my spinning spear continued to disintegrate the thick mana body of the monster... But the monster didn't leave its body lying down for my convenience.

At first, it pulled its tentacles out, ready to reform them into something else...

'It's coming!' I thought when the remaining mana of the monster converged into a single, thick tentacle in the middle with an array of smaller ones around.

SLAM!

I knew the attack was coming. Yet, I failed to figure out what it would be.

The thick tentacle slammed right into the middle of my spinning spear as if it wanted to high-five my palm.

'Fuck,' I thought, feeling as if my arm would break in its elbow. Only with a desperate swing of my body did I manage to change the angle of my joint to absorb the attack with my entire body rather than an arm alone.

SIZZZ...

I could feel my feet getting hot after the attack dragged them through the ground.

Lowering my eyes, I could see two roughly four meters-long rifts in the ground, both blackened as if someone burned them down.

'Ugh,' I let out the air from my lungs before gasping for a fresh breath. 'That was a heavy one,' I admitted before bringing my focus back to the monster.

Its thick tentacle had already changed to an array of medium-sized ones, clearly indicating another attack was coming.

"I need to get up," I spat out, only to realize some blood mixed in with my saliva.

The attack turned out even heavier than I expected. But it wasn't anything much either.

"Let's go," I shook my head and leaped forward, dragging my spear along.

I could feel its structural integrity deteriorating, unable to handle the stress of both mana and its physical use.

Still, I jumped forward. Using the skills I learned from Lucius, I then turned the surging tentacles into footholds.

'Thanks for the steps,' I thought, looping around the monster only to push my spear down.

But that was where my momentum ended.

Normally, a position right above an enemy's back would be optimal. But not in the case of this fight.

My spear struck down at what would normally be the spine of the monster... But I lacked the strength and reach to split the monster in half like before.

The most I could do was a deep but simple stab.

"That's enough!" Mia shouted, right as the back of the monster boiled, giving birth to an array of hundreds thing tentacles right below me.

And then Mia struck her fist into the monster's back, sending it flying forward... All the while, my spear continued to cut at where it was.