Arcane Innovator

'There you are...' I smiled mischievously, carefully observing a tiny black speck in the far distance.

I stood at the narrow edge of a protruding rocky outcrop overlooking the valley below.

By now, the midday sun had burned away most of the annoying fog, giving me a clear view over the site of the recent massacre and, more importantly, of the Tainted monster that stood motionlessly in the middle of it.

'After all the bullshit you made me go through, I will definitely kill you, and I will enjoy every moment of it.' I thought excitedly.

The abomination still hasn't returned to its lair, busily devouring all those beast hunters it managed to slaughter before.

At first, I only wanted to make sure it wouldn't bother us when we made our escape back to town, but seeing it now, I immediately realized this would be my best and probably the only chance to take it down without having to risk my life facing it head-on in case it caught our scent and decided to pursue us.

I had zero qualms about sniping it from a distance. Contrary to our late, Blessed warrior, whose cold, dead body now lay somewhere down there in the valley, I didn't care about honor or such.

I wasn't shy of using every trick in the book to bring my opponent down, and now that no one was left to order me around, it was finally time to do things my way.

I kept observing it for a little longer, trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Luckily, being almost a kilometer away, the monster didn't seem to notice me, and I was fine with that, as what I was about to do would take some time.

I smiled before turning away, and then I hid behind a sizeable boulder a short distance behind me, hoping it would shield any leaking essence from making its way toward the monster as I got busy gathering my power. I knew very well that I would soon need every last drop of it.

I drew upon my essence, compressing it before drawing more. Before long, a small ball of essence began forming at the tip of my outstretched hands. At first, it was just a tiny speck, but it slowly grew larger and larger still.

Soon, it became a sphere around half a meter in diameter, and from the strain it took to control it, I knew I was quickly coming to my limits.

Thus, I quickly came to a stop, and while employing every bit of my concentration to keep from losing control, I slowly made my way back toward the ledge.

'Huff, huff, almost there...' Panting heavily, I carefully stepped onto the ledge and emerged into the open.

I peered into the distance, trying to locate the abominable octopus on the grassy plain below, but to my dismay, I noticed it was no longer there where I last saw it.

Alerted by the amount of essence I managed to gather, the tiny mass of decaying flesh began slithering toward my position at a frightening speed.

I lingered for a moment, watching the tiny black dot growing larger each second that passed, its terrifying tentacles destroying everything that lay in its path.

Yet, despite watching such an unnerving scene taking place, I couldn't help but don a broad grin as it was already too late for it to stop what would come next.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my wildly beating heart as I focused all my concentration on the task at hand.

Suddenly, the large sphere of pure essence in my hands ignited, forming a ball of bright, crimson flame, which I then promptly released right at the abomination speeding toward me.

It flew off with the speed of a bullet, leaving only afterimages in its wake. The monster tensed, coming to an abrupt stop.

Even in all its horrifying glory, it must have realized that it couldn't take a direct hit of such a spell without suffering some dire consequences, so it made a sharp turn, elegantly avoiding it in the process before resuming its mad dash toward me.

The massive fireball then continued on its merry way another thirty meters before hitting a nearby lake's surface.

After that, several things happened very quickly.

I wasn't actually aiming at the monster itself, as I knew it would be akin to a miracle to hit it over such a distance without any way to aim accurately.

My ability to control essence spanned only about fifty meters or so around me, which simply meant I couldn't manipulate any spell that flew out of my zone of control after I released it.

However, hitting the surface of a quite sizeable lake that sat smack in the middle between where I currently stood and the monster's position was quite easy, even from all the way here.

Someone might ask what the point of hitting a body of water would be, but the thing was, it was no ordinary lake.

No, this was a putrid pool of disgusting, yellowish liquid that only loosely resembled water. Yet the most interesting feature of the swampy lake was its smell.

As I previously noticed during the ill-fated battle, the whole area was enveloped by a strong scent of sulfur, and all along its surface, I could see tiny streams of bubbles permeating from its depths.

'What are the odds there is a gas reservoir in there?' I previously thought with a mischievous smile.

Of course, I had no way of knowing if it would work or not, as I couldn't exactly test it out beforehand without alerting the monster of my presence, so I had to risk it.

Worst case, I would have to make a quick run to the other side of the mountain before the monster managed to catch up with me, but to my delight, it seemed that fortune was with me on this foggy day.

Right as the fireball hit the lake's murky surface with the power of a falling meteorite, it exploded.

As I have had the opportunity to witness several times before, a spell backed by my full power was nothing to scoff at, and today, I was counting on this exact fact.

The insane pressure of the impact, followed shortly after by an enormous shockwave, instantly vaporized a large portion of the water, turning it into steam, which then, with no way to go, was compressed until it, too, exploded.

This left a massive crater where the lake used to stand, but the best part was yet to come.

At first, a low rumble came from the depths before a much larger explosion followed a mere second later.

It was a sound like none I had ever heard before; just the shockwave was enough to throw me off my feet.

A literal mushroom cloud quickly formed over the valley as flames a dozen meters high continued to soar from the gigantic hole that had formed where the lake stood just a moment before.

The site of the recent battle, the trees, and everything else were simply erased, leaving nothing but a large circle of upturned earth.

After it was done, I laboriously stood back up and tried to locate the monster. It took me a while to find it, but then I spotted a conspicuous black mass lying in a small pool of what I later identified as inky black blood.

I found it a significant distance away from its original location, meaning it must have flown quite a bit.

It didn't look great. Actually, to my delight, it looked like the monster that so effortlessly slaughtered all those hunters was on its last legs.

But then, to my horror, the pool of blood stopped growing, and the massive hole in its putrid flesh began to close up.

'Is it healing? ...This is beyond ridiculous; you aren't supposed to survive a wound like this!' I thought with wide eyes. But tainted monsters apparently didn't need to follow common sense.

Without wasting a breath, I jumped from the ledge, plummeting into the valley below. Hurriedly manipulating the surrounding air to slow down my descent, I came to a stop before dashing in the monster's direction.

I was determined to finish it off before it could heal itself up, as I knew very well that if I let it recover, there was just no way I would be able to kill it in my current state without essence.

In the time it took me to close the distance, it had already healed most of its most severe injuries and was beginning to lift itself up.

'Not happening, bastard...'

With the remaining essence, I quickly summoned a pair of wind blades, which I then began mercilessly slashing against the monster.

Despite not holding anything back and using my full power, I left only shallow gashes, which was a testament to this monster's resilience. It reminded me once again that I was done for if I let it fully recover.

It turned into a battle of attrition; the monster desperately tried to heal its wounds while I constantly slashed them open one by one.

Finally, I noticed that the speed at which it was healing began to drop. I smiled, doubling my effort while I expanded every last drop of essence at my disposal.

Then, at last, the abomination twitched one last time before becoming still.

Its remains then began quickly dissolving before all that was left was a disgusting, putrid pool of black goo.

"I won!" I exclaimed as I began eagerly examining what was left of it.

'Hmm, no essence gem? What a waste of effort...' I sighed.

But it didn't matter. I smiled, thinking, 'If I play my cards right, I'm in for quite a hefty reward from the Neufeld officials...'

The only question left was how to frame it. I thought about it for a bit while I was recovering my depleted stamina. I pondered about it for a while, remembering the young fool who so eagerly threw himself on the monster at the beginning.

'Let's just say that the young champion fought bravely, but the monster was simply too strong. Yet he persisted, and against all odds, he managed to slay it in his dying breath. I'm sure it will make for a wonderful story...'