The Reverse Mana System

Alex was feeling as if someone had forced him to swallow a bitter medicine. He was no fan of placing his life in the hands of others, especially a mage who was using spears and fighting close combat, but he had no other choice. This feeling of helplessness left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Alex could only watch from the sidelines as Sheri fought the mana beast. She immediately charged forward with the spear pointed at the six horned bison. The beast was also enraged seeing someone charge at it and it began charging in at her as well.

The result of the collision was exactly what Alex had expected. Although Sheri's strength stat was higher than the bison, it wasn't much far. She could not match the overwhelming momentum of the mana beast which was the size of an elephant and was quite agile for its stature.

Sheri was thrown back, but she used her level 4 water bullets and immediately spammed around a hundred water bullets on the bison while she was still flying backward.

Contrary to what Alex had thought, she landed very elegantly and didn't bump into a tree with her back..

Alex's gaze was focused on the spear that was thrown away a few meters behind Sheri.

He used appraisal on it.

[Mana spear : Xidryg's spear.]

[Level 5 mana weapon.]

[Special ability: Xidryg's blessing( magnifies the effect of any mana spell or skill that is channeled through it by three times.)]

Alex was very impressed by the 3× effect of the spear, but it was a pity that he didn't know if Sheri had any attack spell that could be channeled through it.

Sheri immediately went to the spear and grabbed it. The bison charged at her again, but she knew better than to face it head on after the previous collision. She pulled back and cast a series of water spells ranging from water bullets to other level three spells that she was familiar with.

This slowed down the bison which was charging at her. She immediately began incanting another level 4 fire spell this time.

Sensing the imminent danger from Sheri's spell, the bison let out a loud bellow and it's horns began to shine brightly.

Sheri immediately cast her spell at the bison and a solid rock of magma was launched at mana beast. Just when the rock was about to hit it, the bison also unleashed it's horn destroyer and directly plunged it's head into the magma rock.

Booooommmmm!

A deafening explosion ensued followed by a shockwave that nearly uprooted trees tens of meters away from the bison. And as for those which were closer, they had all already been obliterated by the explosion earlier.

A crater of radius of tens of meters was formed with the bison at the centre.

When the smoke cleared, the bison was still standing, it's body covered in a layer of blackish scales which were receding at a visible speed.

This was it's harden skill that caused protective scales to grow on its body to prevent from physical impacts.

Regardless, it still suffered some injuries.

Sheri used this time to build up another spell, but this time, the bison was more cautious and immediately charged in at her, completely disregarding the injuries it had suffered.

Sheri noticed the bison nearing her, but she didn't move. All the members of the hunting party were on their toes and were clenching their fists so tightly that their bones make cracking sounds, but they were too busy praying for a miracle to protect Sheri from the incoming mana wave to notice this.

The bison was moving with an incredible momentum and along with it, a layer of nearly solidified air was charging in at Sheri.

40 meters!

20 meters!

The bison covered a distance of tens of meters in a fraction of seconds. Even Alex who had been peacefully watching till now was a bit agitated when he saw the bison just 10 meters away from his companion.

Just as the bison was 5 meters away from Sheri, she opened her eyes and a whirlpool of water emerged from below the mana beast's hooves and it was immediately sucked in along with it's attack.

Sheri charged in with her spear. The bison was stabbed at its neck. It bellowed loudly and used its skill earth split and boulder fall frantically.

It didn't stop the whirlpool, but slowed down the speed of the whirlpool. The beast continued to repeatedly use its skills to break free.

Alex, who was looking from hundreds of meters away, could see that both the six horned bison and Sheri had exhausted their mana significantly.

It was especially true for the bison. His eyes shone brightly as he used speed enhancement and immediately charged towards Sheri who was busy stabbing the bison neck while spamming water bullets at it.

Sheri was getting ready to stab the thick neck of the mana beast once again, but suddenly she felt someone pull her spear from her hand.

She instinctively wanted to punch back at whoever was trying to snatch her spear, but she held back her urge and turned around.

She saw Alex holding the edge of her spear and wanted to scold him about not messing up and not sticking his head where it didn't belong.

" What are you tryin....."

" Release the grip on the spear." Sheri was cut short by Alex and before she could even process what he had said, she had already loosened her grip on the spear.

Immediately, Alex grabbed the spear and charged at the bison which was still struggling to get out of the whirlpool.

The spear was immediately covered in black flames and stabbed in the beast's neck. Fire stream was cast and the entire body of the six horned bison was covered in those black flames.

Alex could see a series of debuffs appear on the mana beast through the system appraisal.

Although the attack damage and burn damage was magnified three times, it was still only a drop in the bucket when compared to the HP of the bison.

Alex sighed and handed the spear back to Sheri.

"Use an attack that channels your mana from the spear before hitting it." Alex said.

Sheri took the spear and channeled a water stream through it.

Alex knew that all the mana beasts had some level of physical enhancements by the consumption of the mana cores of other beasts and also their own mana was also used to reinforce their physical strength, so the reverse mana that he had used against the goblins would be effective against all mana beasts. And his theory was proven correct.

Sheri's attack hit the six horned bison at one of it's horns and the horn broke due to the impact of the attack. The mana beast was already feeling weakened after Alex's attack and now, the magnified effect of Sheri's attack coupled with the debuffs caused it to feel highly threatened.

It frantically tried to break free, ignoring everyone present.

Sheri wanted to continue attacking it, but Alex caught her hand and held her back.

"You should never attack a desperate beast. Even harmless animals can be dangerous when threatened." Alex said.

Sheri nodded and Alex let her go. All the other members of the hunting party immediately arrived near them.

" Amazing!!! Miss Sheri. You really are very powerful. As expected of the chief's daughter.

You fight just like your brother." Someone said,

"And I didn't expect you to be so brave and also your movement was unexpectedly fast." Bradly said to Alex.

The group had just surrounded Sheri and were showering her in praises when suddenly they heard the same bison bellowing.

Alex who was standing at one side was the first to react and immediately moved towards where the sound came from while repeatedly casting area scans. Sheri and the others followed.

Alex reached the site and was stunned when he saw a large number of tier two beasts attacking the six horned bison. The bison was overwhelmed by the large number of attackers and was forced to use its last resort.

It bellowed and charged through them. This was it's ability, stampede anything that came to stop it, be it mana beasts or boulders in it's way were destroyed just by coming in contact with it.

The bison continued without caring about anything in it's way. But it had barely gotten a few hundred meters away when it suddenly collapsed.

One of the remaining mana beasts immediately charged at it's corpse and dug out it's mana core before taking it away in the forest. As soon as the core was gone, all the mana beasts scattered away.

All of them were shocked, but they decided to leave first. Their only job was to hunt mana beasts and bring them back to the village.

"Hey outsi.... Alex how did you know that channeling mana through the spear would be effective?" Sheri whispered in Alex's ear while they were returning back to the village.

Alex who was in deep thought was startled by her whispering in his ears.

"Huh.... wha.... I wasn't paying attention. Could you repeat what you said just now?" Alex said.

" Nothing!" Sheri replied with a pout.

Alex felt that it was very cute, but he wasn't someone who would express his opinion without any purpose.

Alex was very confused by the behavior of the mana beasts of the forest.

Usually, beast waves were formed by the rank six or above mana beasts.

When the lower level mana beasts came in contact with the beast domains of tier seven or above beasts, they were pulled under the control of the beast commanding this domain.

Whereas, tier six beasts had incomplete domains which affected the lower level mana beasts forcefully to create a beast wave.

Most of these beast waves were random mobs which were under the influence of domains complete or incomplete and organized beast waves were only possible if the commanding beast was tier 9 or above, but such beasts would usually be under constant surveillance, especially here in the territories ruled by minor gods.

Alex had a feeling that this was not a simple beast wave and the signs were too coincidental.

The apostles of God were to arrive in the village tomorrow, so could it be that this beast wave had something to do with their arrival or the arrival of apostles was due to the beast wave?

Alex racked his brain, but was unable to reach a conclusion, so he decided to leave the matter as it was and concentrate on what he was doing.