Beatitudes

Under a trampling beast.

Isaac was very unsure about the words he just heard, but after a few more attacks landing on the beasts and producing the same effect, he ultimately paused his attacks and swiftly withdrew his control and dispersed the flames around the sword. His eyes on the beast, he had no time to look elsewhere so he wasn’t able to notice that the lines of c***k on his sword had grown, the integrity of its durability still seeming to hold though.

He heaved out a breath as he charged at the beast once again swerving away from the point of the beast’s charge, landing another successful s***h of his sword on the beast.

He watched intently as his sword landed on the black hide of the beast, he was obviously expecting a good result since he had changed his tactics now. If he was able to draw blood then he would have the tiniest bit of hope in winning this fight, otherwise this battle might not even be one of attrition.

But it very much looked like he was bound to be disappointed again as once his sword hit home on the beast, all it drew was a slight white that was superficial at best, it felt so hardened that Isaac could almost even be sure that he had heard a slight clanging sound, like when metal met metal…

“What is this…”, his eyes froze for a second before despair and frustration gushed out from within them, he had expected at least a slightly better result but all that just happened was literally just a tiny shower of sparks.

The others watching especially Harry were also surprised at the fact that despite the countless amount of obviously landing strikes, Isaac had yet to draw a single drop of blood…

Adam sighed faintly as he slowly shook his head, “This is only a tier one beast after all, how are things going to be when he takes on beasts of a higher tier, he hasn’t even used his class skills…”

Horace: There does seem to be something wrong…

“…”

Isaac leaped back with all his strength as he avoided another attempt to trample him, the ground trembling slightly forcing him to balance himself properly, he basically yelled in his mind his frustration to Astral,

Isaac: What the h*ck is going on!

Astral: … hmm, it seems the advice I gave you was already a little too late for you to heed to… the already tough hide of the beast was toughened even further after every s***h of your sword courtesy of the flames wrapped around it, and now even though your sword is no longer coated in flames, the beast’s hide has already hardened beyond what it can cut through. I should have noticed and warned you earlier, you literally landed a s***h with your sword at every point of the beast’s body, it’ll be even harder for you to make an impact now and although the hardening effect should only be temporary, it’ll be way too much time before that happens which is not a good thing for you…

Isaac wanted nothing more than to cry out at this moment and give up, he yelled again in his mind not aware of his increasingly panicked tone,

Isaac: Why didn’t you tell me all of this!

Astral: Calm down and stop whining will you, what do you mean why didn’t I? couldn’t you have also figured it out your self. This is basically the first true monster you battle against and yet you’re already having issues like this, what will those reading your story think…

Isaac realized his situation as he forced himself to calm down breathing out slightly as he evaded another strike, which was all he was doing now.

Isaac: *sigh*, I’m sorry I sounded like that

He apologized to Astral while the latter hummed back a reply,

Astral: It’s okay, I understand you panicked…

Isaac: Now what do you think I should do.

Astral: …Have you no understanding of your will manipulation?

Isaac: I don’t know… will manipulation, manipulating will, should be involving manipulating my will or something… h*ck I don’t even know if I fully understand what this will thing is, is it a part of mind or my mind power or something? Shouldn’t everything fall in place ever since I condensed the spiral within me… I’m already currently rotating the spiral as much and quickly as I can but nothing seems to be forthcoming, this all seems like hogwash to me at the moment… 

Astral: …hmm, in the end I feel you may need to figure it all out in order to find a way out of this, you don’t obviously intend to lose this battle, do you?

Isaac: Of course I don’t…

No other words were said as Isaac immediately rushed to the beast once again, this time giving it his all as he aimed every single s***h of his sword perfectly at places sure to hit and hurt, he was getting slightly better at wielding the sword but that was obviously not enough to make a difference in the current fight as the horse like beast charged forward with its sharp horn pointed ahead continuously, it thrust itself fearlessly every time, at this point Isaac was already close to tears as he felt every strike seemingly land on a metal hide.

The white energy spiral was spinning ceaselessly within him as he strained his mind and body looking for the so called moment of enlightment, the truth was actually that he had not a single idea of what he doing or what to expect from it, he just kept it spinning as he tried to bring out or in this case force out the energy within him.

He hadn’t thought much of it before but now that he was in the heat of a battle against such a godforsaken beast, he couldn’t help but regret not trying even harder before now.

It wasn’t like he had been slacking off exactly but he basically was like a blind man on a vast road with no end in sight in regards to figuring out how to use his ‘will manipulation’.

He had a casual conversation about it once with Adam, Adam that day had told him that due to the fact that every single person usually ended up with vastly different characteristics and behaviors compared to another beside him, there was a large amount of possibly existing classes that every class holder held different levels of affinities and talent towards. Hence the path of a class was usually personally explored with not much external guidance and even the amount the amount of guidance was limited to references or tips on the various intricacies of a class.

For a master of a class to be able to take in a disciple of the same class to train such a person was undoubtedly not easy and rare among the masses, only those with extreme talent and some acquaintances could gain such opportunities.

Besides all that, he had also mentioned vague words with regards to his class. His class was most likely an extremely rare one or even newly born altogether hence the intricacies of such a class was not one easily explained in that case.

All these ended up forcing him down an unknown path possibly all by himself as even Adam admitted to not being able to explain or give any guidance in his case.

The scene of striking and failing to damage the beast’s skin continued on for a while at which the others had seemingly already grown numb to the matter, the battle was now akin to a play in their eyes as they watched neither side get an advantage over the other. While Isaac was already soaking in his tears within, another issue suddenly popped up that changed the course of the whole situation,

His sword broke…

After landing a hit for the umpteenth time on the beast, Isaac was concentrating on figuring out how to use his ‘will manipulation’ and was about to move away from the line of the beast’s charge rather skillfully as he seemingly gotten into a rhythm when he heard an odd sound.

He froze in confusion when he also then realized that he didn’t get the same feeling of metal striking metal this time,

‘Have I somehow been able to land a critical?’

His gaze focused on the beast in front of him where the sword hit home and his pupils shrunk in growing terror.

The sword in his hand had already cracked beyond repair as a large piece of it had forcefully chipped of at that moment, leaving the sword looking awkward and nothing like a sword.

Due to his pause, he failed to evade the charge as the beast’s frustrated shriek broke him out of his stupor, he was only able to swing the sword in his hand at the beast with no other option, forcing his whole self to move slightly.

Ching!

The sword unable to withstand any more force finally broke into pieces while he was narrowly able to evade the charge but failed to guide against the beast’s whip like tail.

An odd light flickered through Adam ’s eye as he watched the sword break, the thoughts running through his head at this moment unknown as he thrust an arm sideways to stop the panicked Harry about to dash up to the beast with a swing of his axe.

Confusion bloomed in the latter’s eye as he looked at Adam almost yelling out his thoughts, ‘Why the h*ck are you holding me back’… ignoring the question obvious from the berserker’s eyes, he waved his other arm slightly as a black film of light came into existence barricading any attempts at charging forward.

At this point even Hiya looked to Adam with surprise in her eye at his actions as the latter looked on with an expressionless face.

Two seconds later, a voice boomed in both of their heads,

“You should know I will never allow harm to him… what this is is a hurdle for him. He’ll be safe even if he fails to jump over it, so you both should just stay calm…”

An odd look emerged in her eyes as she looked at the still expressionless Adam who she had never been able to understand, but in the end she made no move as Harry also reluctantly stopped any attempts of running to help.

Meanwhile Isaac had slipped into full panic mode as he immediately called out to Astral in his head,

Isaac: How is this happening?!

Astral: …Concentrate Isaac, if you could just focus your mind and concentrate… that’s all you need to do.

Isaac: You know I’ve been concentrating! I just can’t get a grip on it

But he got no response this time as it felt like the voice in his head had never actually existed.

Isaac: Astral? ...Astral?!

A malicious grin seemingly appeared on the beast’s visage as it took advantage of the now panic stricken Isaac, it run on full throttle with unerring accuracy as it reached Isaac in a moment.

Wide eyed, the latter forcefully dodged out of his way as he lost his footing. Hitting the ground hard, he had no time to grimace as he turned his head back to look and witnessed the beast looming over him as it raised its front two legs again in an attempt to trample him. He managed another forceful evasive tumble as the hooves landed hard against the ground, a tremor spreading from it.

The beast then continued its relentless trampling assault as it brought its two front hooves to the ground constantly seeking to squash the person beneath its feet.

Isaac couldn’t have been anymore flustered as he also constantly pushed himself away from beneath the hooves that promised a painful death if he ever happened to embrace it. As he once again somewhat managed to dodge the descending hooves for the umpteenth time, he had unknowingly backed up to a large sized rock as wide as ten feet. His back came against the rock hard as he realized to his horror and despair that he wouldn’t be able to maneuver his way effectively out of this one, the beast realizing the situation as well, let out a beastial neigh as it raised its hooves again with renewed fervor and brought it down,

“This is f****d up…”

Isaac looked on as he felt reluctance well up within him, was this really happening to him… he didn’t want such an ending. In his extremely flustered state, he took no note of the fact that his surroundings and everything happening around him had seemingly slowed down like someone pushed a slow button.

A voice or perhaps a motion welled up from his heart as it spoke to him,

‘Calm down, focus, stir and imagine…’

The words made almost no sense to him as he felt it ring in his head but he also felt something click in understanding as his state of mind abruptly calmed down, bringing him to a new, unprecedented level of focus… he watched the hooves still coming down but yet to reach as he thrust his right arm horizontally above him in a guarding position. A single thought crossing his mind as he closed his eyes,

‘Guard, shield, barricade, something, anything!!’