There was no forewarning.

Nick spun the first series of [Jet Streams] and released them even as he was already moving, taking control of the rising adrenaline and battlelust and twisting it upon itself.

Two alphas died instantly, their bodies too weakened by the spiritual storm to withstand the drilling force.

The matriarchs reacted as expected, roaring in anger and unleashing fighting thunderbolts toward the origin of the spells.

If that had hit, I would be dead. No doubt about it.

The problem with being a mage was that his body was quite fragile, at least compared to warriors of the same level. Still, Nick had trained with people who were physically much stronger than him for a year. He knew how to handle the thunderhoofs' superiority.

More and more mana surged within his coils, responding to his call and taking on a purple hue as he continued feeding it his emotions.

The moment he reached the other side of the hill he'd been resting on, he thrust his hand forward, releasing the new spell that had been waiting to be cast since that day in the training yard.

[Spirit Crunch], he had decided to call it, and there was a very good reason for that.

Where [Spiritual Hurricane] tore apart anything it touched, much like the storm shrouding his form in the ether did, [Spirit Crunch] was more focused, honed on a single target, but no less powerful.

The largest matriarch was still releasing her lightning when she was struck, lifting her off the ground and slamming her into her sisters.

Nick could feel his spell burrowing deep inside her, punching through her body, and slamming into the next in line.

That bit of magic alone was enough to make him a match in raw output with any of the matriarchs, but he didn't stop there.

It was nowhere near enough to kill such a mighty monster anyway.

The wind started to roar again, eerily similar to the storm that had decimated the herd, and instinctively, the thunderhoofs gathered their mana around themselves, eager to protect their spirits.

With the ghost of a smile on his lips, Nick seized the moment, creating and releasing a [Vacuum Sphere] among them and gleefully watching as the explosion hit their unprotected bodies.

Just because he had to attack head-on didn't mean he couldn't use tactics. His eyes gleamed with delight as he watched the alphas break apart as the terrible gales inside his spell erupted, crushing their bodies into the ground and scattering the matriarchs away from each other.

Even then, the fight wasn't over yet. A spell that had been enough to kill mighty monsters was only good enough for chip damage and repositioning against the mighty herd leaders.

Still, it had fulfilled its purpose, and so Nick again thrust his hand forward, launching another barrage of [Jet Streams], but this time, only after wrapping them around several ofudas.

His goal wasn't to kill the matriarchs immediately. He simply lacked the firepower necessary to do so without taking time to manually boost his spells, which would put him at risk, as even now, the grassland roared with the sound of lightning bolts striking where he had just been.

They are damn tenacious. I'm gonna have to work for it, aren't I?

Another [Spirit Crunch] was already coming together out of his bloodlust before that thought was fully formed. Without the active protective spells he so often used, he was much quicker, and all the practice he'd gained over the past few days was starting to pay off, as he sensed the magic of [Telekinetic Field] and his wind manipulation merging together.

He didn't have time to focus on it right now, but he knew that with just a little push, he'd have a very useful spell at his disposal.

Another punching motion, and the mana left him, leaving him winded. So many powerful spells all at once were starting to wear him down, but luckily, he had a secret ace in the hole to deal with that problem.

A matriarch turned at the last moment, sensing danger, but unfortunately for her, that only turned what would have been a debilitating injury into a fatal one, as [Spirit Crunch] slammed between her horns.

Blood and bone exploded behind her as a portion of her skull was crushed, and a keening sound left her as she collapsed.

That should have pulverized her head! These things are so tough.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

More electricity struck just a few feet from where he stood, making Nick seriously reconsider his approach for a moment. Charging at so many powerful monsters without any protective magic was more than reckless.

Still, he had committed, and he was already seeing results. The alphas were out of commission. They had been too weak from the spirit storm in the first place, and the wind attacks that followed had been enough to break them.

Of the six matriarchs, three were deceased, two of whom were still alive but unable to move.

That was in line with his projections, and so Nick decided to trust himself.

His breathing grew heavy as he felt the side effects of using such spells, but he had known that would happen. So, he did the unthinkable and hurled himself with all his might toward the three remaining matriarchs, landing right in the middle.

The move clearly caught them off guard, as they instinctively attacked when they saw him, only to fall into his trap.

From the very beginning, Nick had been observing the matriarchs' abilities and had come to understand their range intimately. Although they possessed great power, their control—though superior to almost any other monster— wasn't quite on the same level.

Three massive lightning bolts shot above his head and struck the ground in front of each thunderhoof, causing the earth to explode and debris to fly into the air.

A cloud of dirt and dust billowed up, blocking their view, aided by Nick's wind magic blowing it upward to keep it from settling.

He quickly repositioned himself, knowing that the matriarchs wouldn't need much time to reorient themselves, and his instincts were confirmed when more bolts slammed into the cloud, this time more accurately.

Still, he'd gotten where he wanted to be.

"[Vitality Drain]," he murmured, feeling that deep, yawning void open up inside him.

The skill greedily began absorbing everything within his range, surprising even him with how quickly it flooded him with energy. Around him, the grass withered as every ounce of mana was pulled away, and the three thunderhoofs weren't beyond its reach either, their bellows of pain echoing.

More and more mana began flooding into him, but the matriarchs' natural resistance to foreign mana prevented him from digging too deep.

That was fine; they weren't his target anyway.

The two matriarchs that were still alive—if bleeding sluggishly— had no such defense. Their very souls had been pierced by [Spirit Crunch], creating a hole in their defenses that allowed [Vitality Drain] to access all that sweet power.

Nick groaned as he felt enough mana flood back into his coils to fill them to capacity.

He didn't let himself enjoy it. Instead, he quickly directed that same power toward a destructive purpose, and [Jet Streams] soon sliced through the debris cloud, crashing into the matriarch and provoking sounds of anger and even some pain.

Their hides were thick enough to resist being carved by his spell, at least without him spending more than a moment's effort on them, but the attack had given him enough time to escape the cloud.

Nick soared over the nearest matriarch and slammed back down where the alphas' broken bodies lay.

With a cruel grin, he seized all the fresh mana still flowing into his system and forged another [Spirit Crunch], adding more than a little sadistic glee to it.

As expected, it punched straight through the matriarch's skull. Her defenses had been too battered to offer much resistance, and he realized that the more emotion he invested, the better the outcome.

Perhaps that made him a bad person. Nick knew it wasn't exactly normal to get so much satisfaction from hunting down a herd of monsters. But then again, there was a reason he was growing faster than his peers.

The new hole in her soul allowed [Vitality Drain] to keep feeding him more, even as the previous batteries died out.

Nick had to use a significant amount of the new mana to finally raise a shield, as he sensed the mana buildup of the furthest matriarch nearing completion and knew she had a lock on him.

Interlocking shields of air formed in front of him, free of any debris and therefore much harder for electricity to pass through.

It still felt like someone had punched him in the head when the attack hit.

The world briefly lit up as the most powerful lightning bolt yet cut through multiple layers with overwhelming force. Nick only avoided becoming a corpse because he still had [Vitality Drain] active. When the electricity reached him, it had weakened enough for his skill-granted regeneration to counter the damage.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. Nick screamed, his throat not a bloody mess, only thanks to that same healing.

Fortunately, his mind was still sharp even as his body trembled from the aftereffects, and he took all that pain, all the hatred from being hurt so badly, and channeled it into another [Spirit Crunch], which shot out of his hand like a cannonball, knocking him back several feet and carving a path through the cloud of debris.

It slammed into the surprised matriarch head-first, resulting in a shower of gore as her very body and soul were torn apart.

Nick turned toward the last remaining monster, feeling strength return to his limbs as [Vitality Drain] seized the lifeblood he'd spilled and converted it into more fuel.

"I'd like to say it's not personal, but I'd be lying," he grunted, grabbing hold of the entire cloud and commanding the howling winds to push down, summoning a [Downburst] strong enough to shake the earth.

The thunderhoof didn't let that challenge go unanswered, wrapping herself in a corona of lightning and trying to break through the magic.

It might have worked if Nick had bothered to play fair. But since no one was around to see him, he carelessly tossed the body of an alpha in her path, watching as she couldn't stop in time and crushed it, getting covered in its blood.

He'd observed more than once that matriarchs were smart enough to feel complex emotions, and the sheer horror the last one showed then was enough to almost give him pause.

Almost.

The next [Spirit Crunch] he released contained everything he had left. Every ounce of mana, every bit of power from what he'd absorbed, and all his emotions.

Death was unavoidable. The matriarch collapsed, just like all the others before her.

He had won, yet he couldn't relax because he felt the magic of the ritual respond to his success, and the spirit shroud surrounding him came alive, unfurling into the material world like a dense cloud ready to release its rain.

It took just a minute for it to completely absorb everything on the battlefield, and Nick's soul trembled as he felt it hone back in on him.

Still, he didn't fight it. As he was now, he couldn't hope to contest it, and it wasn't the right time yet.