Otherworld Adventure

Saravkibah flashed in front of Matheus and this caused him to widen his eyes in shock at the demon's speed.

He was huge and burly but his speed surely didn't match his build. Matheus quickly defended himself against the large axe that was descending on his head. He could feel the power and ferocity behind the blow so he jumped back to mitigate the impact but even then when his glaive clashed against Saravkibah's axe, his entire arm shook in pain and he felt his hand slowly turn numb.

"Kh... shit... I-I can't win against this guy..."

Saravkibah was surprised to see Matheus still standing and was even more surprised to see that the glaive in his hand hadn't been split in twine. He was planning on ending the battle quickly so he put in 80 percent of his power behind that blow.

He had also wanted to follow it up by attacking with his other axe but seeing as he had blown his opponent away, Saravkibah thought that Matheus had already perished under that initial strike but instead his opponent had used the impact behind his very own attack to purposefully open up the distance between them.

"Hoh, I'm surprised that you survived that!"

"..."

Matheus clenched his fist and slowly began regaining the feeling in it. He raised his glaive once more and concentrated his full attention on the monstrous fighter in front of him. Seeing him readying himself, Saravkibah smirked joyfully.

"That's the spirit, boy! Here I come!" The demon let loose a frightening battle cry and disappeared.

Matheus immediately began circulating his mana and felt his senses heighten. His breathing slowed and so did his vision. Now, he could see the demon rushing at him. Saravkibah wasn't moving along in a straight path but was instead moving irregularly in different directions as he made his way over to Matheus.

The people who were bearing witness to this fight only saw the large demon disappear before multiple clones of him appeared all around Matheus who was still frozen in place.

Celestina quickly raised a cry of alarm. She had wanted to rush in and help him but the demons that were watching the battle were also keeping a close eye on them. Matheus' earlier act of killing the demon leader's nephew had put a halt to all of the battles and everyone was now bearing witness to Matheus' fight against Saravkibah.

The demons were already raising victorious howls as they watched their leader's opponent frozen in place like a scared little lamb.

It wasn't that Matheus remained frozen in place due to fear but his mind had slowed down to the point where he was able to follow Saravkibah's quick movements and was only waiting for the demon to strike at him.

All of the afterimages were only feints. If Matheus hadn't fallen in this incredible state of mind where he was able to follow his opponent's incredible speed with his eyes, he would have been fl.u.s.tered by the many images of his opponent and have fallen prey to one of Saravkibah's true attack.

Matheus patiently waited and continued eyeing Saravkibah who was still moving around. The demon saw that his opponent wasn't frozen in place due to fear, he couldn't help but frown in question.

'What is this human up to?' Saravkibah thought to himself. He tried to move even closer to him to see how he would react. Seeing that nothing was happening, Saravkibah continued to try and probe his opponent.

Matheus noticed the odd movements that his opponent was making. He waited and waited until finally, Saravkibah was in range of his glaive's reach. He immediately made his move and tried to slash at him.

Saravkibah parried the slash with his axe but Matheus followed it up with a long and continuous flow of attacks. The demon was rather nonplussed at this. He had somehow fallen into his opponent's rhythm and was now subjected to the continuous flow of attacks that was rather hard for him to break out of.

The demon continued to parry all of Matheus' blows and tried to search for an opening in the young man's attacks. After 5 minutes of this, Saravkibah was rather surprised to see that he couldn't find any opening at all. He was also surprised that the young human before him was able to keep up this continuous wave of attacks for so long.

"You... human... you are strong!"

Even after receiving all of his attacks, the demon in front of him had the leisure to compliment him. Matheus gritted his teeth and roared out, "Krgh... take this!"

Saravkibah stopped retreating and empowered his arm and axe with mana. He then met Matheus' strike with a blow of his own. The demon's attack blew back Matheus far away.

"MATTY!" Celestina cried out in horror when she saw him being blown away.

Matheus spun around on the ground a few times before he finally came to a stop. Celestina immediately sent magic spells at Saravkibah to try and keep him at bay before rushing over to Matheus. Her actions immediately prompted the other demons to resume their attacks.

Thanks to her actions, Oscar was able to surprise the demon he was initially fighting with and heavily injure it. He immediately rushed over in Celestina's direction and blocked the demons who were trying to chase after her.

Matheus struggled to stand back up. His entire body was in pain. He felt like every bone in his body was broken or fractured. It was hard for him to breathe since even taking a shallow breath would cause a sharp pain to envelop his chest and lungs.

He coughed a few times and spat the warm liquid that had risen into his mouth. The red liquid immediately caused Celestina to cry out in horror. She quickly arrived next to him, took out a small vial from the pouch on her waist, popped it open, and stuffed the contents into Matheus' mouth.

"It's a healing potion from my nation! It'll heal your injuries and relieve the pain!" Celestina quickly explained.

Knowing that it was Celestina, Matheus started gulping down the liquid that was suddenly stuffed into his mouth. The liquid was cold and he felt the pain in his chest slowly fade as it made its way down his throat and into his stomach.

He felt relieved that the pain he was feeling had somewhat subsided. He turned his head and was just about to thank Celestina but before he was able to, a large wave of mana struck the area next to him.

"KYAAAAAHHH!!!"

Matheus widened his eyes in horror. The girl who was just beside him had disappeared in a flash of black mana. He heard her pained cry but it felt so distant. He turned his head around and saw Celestina's body lay still some meters away.

"C-Celes?"

"..."

Celestina didn't respond and continued laying there without any sort of movement. Matheus' face paled and his breathing became heavy. He heard a large thud just beside him and a familiar voice called out to him, "You were a strong opponent. It's a pity that your woman tried to interfere. This is the consequence of someone interfering in our battle."

Matheus jumped back and pointed his glaive at the large demon that had suddenly arrived next to him. His right arm was broken and the healing potion couldn't possibly heal that. He could only rely on his left arm to continue fighting the monster in front of him.

"You... I'll kill you!"

"You've already lost, human. You killed my nephew, I killed your woman. It is an equivalent exchange. Now, I will kill you..." Saravkibah plainly said.

"M-Matty..."

Hearing the pained voice, Matheus immediately eyed the fallen Celestina. Seeing her still alive, Matheus was relieved and he immediately turned his attention back to Saravkibah.

Saravkibah eyed the fallen human woman and scoffed, "A tenacious one, huh? You killed my nephew before my eyes so I will do the same to your woman. Now watch—"

"You'll have to go through me you bastard!" Matheus angrily yelled.

The demon only sneered at him before he disappeared from his spot. Matheus pushed his mana circulation to the limits and saw his opponent rushing towards Celestina who was helplessly sprawled on the ground.

'MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!!!'

His body couldn't keep up with his vision but this time, Matheus remembered that one technique from his family's cultivation manual, the technique that Cecil used to enhance his power to fight across cultivation stages.

He immediately remembered the activation process but since he couldn't find any mana inside his muscles, Matheus instead started injecting as much mana as he could into them and slowly, a golden aura began exuding out of his body. He felt the muscles on his legs strengthen and he immediately kicked off of the ground shooting his body forward in Saravkibah's direction.

Just as the demon was about to cleave down onto Celestina's body with his axes, Matheus quickly arrived next to Saravkibah and he slashed his glaive at the demon's body.

"WHAT?!" Saravkibah let out a surprised cry but was too late to do anything.

Matheus' glaive cut right into the demon's side. He stomped his foot on the ground to stop his forward momentum before twisting his body and slamming his glaive right into the demon.

Now it was Saravkibah's turn to experience what it was like to be blown away. Matheus' attack had sent him flying a distance away before he slammed down hard onto the ground.

"Urgh..." Saravkibah stood up with a groan and rubbed his side. He felt his warm blood coat his hand and he couldn't help but chuckle at the human.

"You're good, warrior Matheus!" He roared out in amus.e.m.e.nt. "Let's continue our fight!"

"Urk..." Matheus let out a pained groaned. He had injected mana directly into his muscles and he did feel them strengthen but after making his previous series of movements he could feel his muscles tearing apart.

"A-at least I got the golden aura correctly..." Matheus jokingly said in a strained voice.

His current use of mana had the same principle as Cecil's Mana Burst. Feeling the strain and pressure his body was going through, Matheus now understood why no one in the family besides his little brother could even use the technique properly.

The method to use Mana Burst, as described in their family's cultivation manual, stated that one only needed to activate the mana inside their muscles and ligaments or more precisely, their cells. It should have been the easiest technique to master in Cecil's entire skill arsenal however, Matheus, Fatima, and everyone else in the family who tried to learn it wasn't able to precisely because they didn't have any mana outside of their mana pathways and mana points.

Unlike his little brother who had mana distributed all around his body for some reason, Matheus' body, as well as every other earthling, had their mana confined in their mana points and mana pathways. The pathways were spread throughout his entire body so he and his little brother didn't notice it at first but once Matheus had injected his mana directly into his muscles, he instantly felt that there weren't any mana inside of them.

It wasn't the same activation method, but it did strengthen his body. The problem was that as his muscles were being enhanced by his mana, he could feel them begin to tear and break apart due to the excessive amount of mana he had injected. The slightest bit of movement was enough for him to feel the destructive feedback.

Matheus had no idea how to pull back the mana in his muscles and grew worried that if he continued fighting Saravkibah in his current state, his body might not last. The only saving grace was that the mana he had recklessly injected was slowly being used up but it would take quite a while before it was all gone.

"Shit... no wonder all of the others who tried using Mana Burst had to be hospitalized for a few weeks...this is what happened to them!"

"Stop your mumbling, human! We're continuing our fight! Here I come!" Saravkibah excitedly roared out before he once more rushed towards Matheus.

Matheus could only grit his teeth and rush at his opponent. He had to lead Saravkibah away from Celestina at all costs.

'Don't worry, Celes, I won't let you die!'