Chronicles of the True Wizard

As Felix approached, getting closer than he had dared last time, he realized just how massive the Griffin was. It also didn't quite match what Felix remembered a Griffin to be. It was covered entirely in yellow feathers with bright orange on the ends. It had two front legs with eagle talons and two back legs with cat's claws. It's wings were large, but not overly impressive when Felix remembered the Roc near Bastion of Hope.

The Bastion of Hope? A Bastion of Hope? Ugh, it's such a bad name.

[E - Special] Griffin (Lvl 87)

Exactly the same, equally comforting and eerie.

In all of Felix's theorizing he had decided his best bet would be to start with tried and true Fire Bolts. He planned on using Pocket-Star Fire-Bolts as they were stronger, but in general feathered and furry creatures tended to fare poorly against fire. He stood a top a hill a few hundred meters away from where the Griffin was napping and began to create a Pocket Star.

He suspected he would need more power than usual so he had specifically tested a larger and stronger variant to provide more heat and more fuel when fighting the world bosses. He held it in front of him and began pulling fire from it into four different Fire Bolts spread out to the side.

Once he was ready, he let loose the Fire Bolts on the Griffin, managing to hit all of them on it's side. They didn't appear to do much damage visually, but they definitely angered the Griffin. The first attack it launched on Felix was an ear shattering screech that reverberated through the air as it rose to it's full height. It's back was about 5 meters off the ground with the top of it's head much higher than that. It's total wingspan was massive as it unfurled it's wings and leapt into the air.

It caused Felix to be buffeted by the strongest winds he had ever felt, but he had planned for that. He cast a quick mana shield to protect his star and braced himself, crouching to so he didn't fall over. He did slide backwards, his feet scraping the ground, but he was still standing, and ready to fight back.

He looked up and saw the Griffin circling above him, slowly flying further outwards as it lowered towards him. He quickly fired off a few Pocket-Star Fire-Bolts but only barely managed to hit a single one. He started to adjust his aim and managed to hit around half of the 20 or so projectiles he fired before the Griffin finally attacked.

As it swung around in it's loop in the air, it quickly dove downwards towards Felix. It was extraordinarily fast, but that didn't seem to translate perfectly to the air as Felix managed to dash off to the side. The griffin wasn't planning on physically attacking Felix this time though, instead it slammed it's wings downwards firing a blast of air, stronger than the liquid mana fueled gust, at it's prey.

Felix was shot off the ground but managed to shield the Pocket Star entirely in a sphere of mana to keep it going. It was the only hope he had of doing enough damage to the thing so it was second only to his life on the list of things to protect.

Luckily, Grim was floating just outside of the fight and seemed mostly unharmed by the strong winds. He was launched from side to side but Felix wasn't worried about him, he could handle himself.

The griffin had risen back into the air by the time Felix was standing again and began circling once more. This time, instead of standing still and waiting for the Griffin to attack, Felix began running around at his full speed zig-zagging and strafing, trying to make himself harder to hit and lock down. As he ran, he fired off a couple of Bolts but his accuracy had declined now that he was also a moving target.

Man this thing would be cool as a familiar, I really wish I didn't have this stupid tutorial screen that makes these things an objective to kill. It's basically an achievement screen so I pretty much have to kill it. Oh well. This one is probably going to take a while.

Felix continued to fire off Star Fueled Fire Bolts as he darted around trying to preempt and avoid any incoming attacks. The Griffin mostly just circled around in the sky. After another few loops the Griffin began attacking Felix with blasts of air from afar. It would dive to within a few dozen meters of Felix, use it's wings to generate wind then rise again and repeat. At first Felix though it was just being silly, not attacking him with the stronger attack from before, but soon he realized it was just creating a wind storm. The wind started to pull the grass and sand into it as well whipping them around and making it increasingly difficult to see.

With the winds picking up, Felix kept his star almost entirely encased in solid mana to prevent it from being blown out. The sand carried by the wind buffeted him and slowly ate away at his health pool. Felix continued to fire off bolts at the Griffin as it dove but they were mostly being blown out by the strong winds. A couple of them were landing here and there but largely they died out long before they found their mark.

Then came the real attacks. While some Griffins had magic, according to Grim, most of them were melee fighters relying on high strength and agility along with their beak and claws to rip their prey apart. Once Felix could only see a few meters in front of himself and was close to being knocked over at any minute, the Griffin began to dive within melee range to claw at Felix.

He managed to dodge out of the way at the last second, usually because he could just hear the whistle from it diving as well as feel a particularly strong wind. He dodged a few phantoms, him expecting there to be an enemy that wasn't there at all, but he was ok with that if it meant avoiding the real griffin when it did attack.

The Griffin finally managed to snag Felix's forearm on one of it's dives and ripped right through to the bone, only stopping due to Felix engaging his arm wraps just after it hit. His health plummeted by a quarter, which was lucky as he was expecting to lose much more. The arm wraps kept the wound shut as long as he infused them with mana meaning he could keep on going. Felix gritted his teeth through the pain and continued running. He quickly consumed the entirely of the meager 500 health heal on his ring to help staunch the bleeding.

Why didn't I just have those permanently infused? I have more than enough energy to do so. Such a stupid mistake, ugh.

Now that Felix was expecting the dives, he began to react to them and fight back. The next time he felt a dive coming, he blasted towards it with the fire from his Pocket Star creating the biggest flame thrower he could without destabilizing the spell. Luckily, he wasn't reacting to a phantom and managed to hit the Griffin, who was likely getting cocky after landing a single blow. The superhot flames poured over it's head causing it to screech as it flew by. Felix knew it had crash landed as he heard and felt the impact. He quickly ran over to keep it in his sights and saw it had already risen to meet him head on.

Felix kited back as he fired off bolts of fire fueled from his Pocket Star with a little extra push to help combat the winds. The Griffin leapt forwards, knocking Felix over with it's wing but missing with it's beak as he jumped to the side. The casing managed to protect the Pocket Star, but it needed some minor maintenance.

Felix scrambled to stand and the Griffin pivoted towards him. Felix was now running as fast as he could while throwing Fire Bolt's over his shoulder. The Griffin was faster than Felix though and whenever it got in range, it swiped with it's talons or tried to catch him with it's beak. It had already torn his cloak and cut his right leg causing it to bleed profusely as he ran. The cut slowed him down further bringing the Griffin closer to catching him with every attempted strike.

Felix began flooding as much mana as he could into his Pocket Star in a last ditch attempt. Once the Griffin got close enough for it's next strike, he threw the star at it. He knew he had hit it based purely on the screech of pain that erupted from behind him, he only hoped it was enough to slow it down a little bit. He quickly cast a jump spell with the time he had bought himself and bounded forwards. Just as he left the ground, the Griffin's talon pierced his left calf right through the leg causing Felix to slam into the ground in front of him. Before he had a chance to recover from his head smacking the ground, the griffin's beak pierced his torso reducing his health to 0.

The winds had died down allowing the grass and sand to settle across the field. The Griffin had returned to the hill top it favored to lick it's minor wounds and go back to sleep. There was no sign of the battle that had just taken place except for Felix's broken and battered corpse lying on the ground. His face was in the dirt and the winds had covered him in a light layer of sand. The gaping hole in his chest was closed but the gashes on his arm and leg remained, slowly bleeding.

Felix was conscious but he knew that if he didn't get up, he would die. Not from being buried alive, he could survive a while without breath, he would die from the blood loss he could easily stop. The cut on his leg was minor but the gash on his arm was the one that would kill him. All he had to do to stop it, to start healing back up, was to infuse his arm bands to hold the wound shut. He even had way more than enough energy to do so.

Felix lay on the ground in immense pain from the cut on his arm, the throbbing headache and the shards of solid mana in his gut. At some point, either when he smashed into the ground, or when the Griffin's beak had pierced through his chest, his cores were shattered. The casing was reduced to sharp shards of mana that were tearing through his stomach whenever he breathed. The mana and energy that were inside of them flooded his body when they broke, most of it wasted but some of it going towards filling his pools.

At first Felix didn't dare move so he didn't risk injuring himself. Then he didn't dare move because the Griffin might be looking to feast upon it's fallen prey. Now, he didn't move because he didn't want to move. In all the fights before this one, Felix had the upper hand, and a plan B. He had ways of getting away but he didn't ever feel the need to use them. He had torn through enemies up to 13 levels higher than himself and some that were much bigger than any that had ever existed on earth.

Felix had felt like a god, an unstoppable machine of destruction. The fact that he knew he was better than all the other humans in the tutorial, seeing Lucas casting, seeing parties of people struggle to fight things their own level. It all reinforced his belief that he was better than all of them.

He didn't specifically think he was a match for 250 level 50s, but he clearly thought he was, somewhere deep down. Otherwise why would he have tried to fight something like that. He thought it was a similar level to himself, it couldn't be too much stronger. Evidently though, he was wrong. Whatever stats the other creatures he had faced had, the Griffin had many times more. However much health they had, however much damage they took, the Griffin was just more, and by no small margin.

It was rare that any enemy had ever gotten close enough to land a blow on Felix, and when they did he usually managed to get away shortly afterwards, effectively cutting the attack short. The Griffin, was faster and stronger. It chased him down and tore him apart, like it was nothing.

Fighting the Griffin, after it had landed, was the first time Felix had felt real fear in a fight since he was chased by a fox into the first Puzzle Dungeon. The Griffin landed and it closed in on him, he never had time to cast anything to get away, it was constantly right behind him. He barely managed to dodge some of it's attacks, and the ones he didn't, were his undoing.

He knew he had the ring and the rod of escape, but he was certain he was going to die as soon as it had cut his leg. Even if the ring would bring him back, he didn't want to die. He didn't want to be struck down. Instinctually he wanted to live, and he also didn't want to believe it was possible for him to lose.

Felix lay in the dirt, buried in sand, not wanting to accept the reality that he had lost. Not wanting to ever see the Griffin again. Not wanting to ever feel the despair of the inevitable ever again. Felix lay in the dirt, mouth full of sand and watched as his health points dwindled. He felt the blood pouring out of his arm.

Ding Your cores have been damaged. Until they are repaired manually, their effects will be inactive.

Oh well.

250/23520 health.

What's the point?

225/23520 health.

I could become an enchanter, start up a business, I'd have lots of customers…

200/23520 health.

I'd rather die.

175/23520 health.

It was all so boring before, then it was fun.

150/23520 health.

I could find a party, people I can trust to protect me. We could fight together, have each-other's back?

125/23520 health.

I hate people though. We would have to share experience, deal with each-others feelings. Plus having a tank stand in front of you, a healer keep you alive makes fights boring. Where's the excitement in that.

100/23520 health.

The idea of giving up is just… disturbing. It feels wrong.

75/23520 health.

I'd rather die.

55/23520 health.

…

42/23520 health.

_I want to fight though, I want to feel the excitement.

37/23520 health.

I want to practice and train to get better, to be better. I want to come up with interesting solutions to hard problems.

24/23520 health.

I just don't… I don't ever want to lose again. I want to win.

17/23520 health.

I can't give up. No more losing. If I fight, I give it everything I have. Fight to the last breath. I prepare as best I can for every fight and I will never give up.

Felix felt the last statement resonate with himself, it felt inspiring, it felt right and he felt it in his soul. No System screen appeared, but he knew he was bound by that statement. He wouldn't give up, couldn't, not ever. If it was possible to win, he would. If it wasn't, that would be the end, but he was never going to let himself get into that situation. He had gotten cocky, he had almost died. From now on, he would be better. He would train harder. He would be smarter. He would win.

Felix infused his arm bands to staunch the bleeding and watched as his health dropped to just 8 points before it began to rise again. He lay perfectly still and watched as it rose. He entered a meditation and watched his health rise almost a percent every two minutes. Once his health was at around 10%, he turned his attention to his shattered cores.

He was once proud of his cores, now he looked at them in disgust. They were fragile, they were sloppy. He could do better, and he knew it. He reabsorbed all of the solid mana from the casing so it stopped tearing through his body and he collected what remained of their contents.

His mana was full, his energy was high but depleting rapidly as his body consumed it to heal and his health was low. He didn't know if the Griffin was nearby or watching, but he stood anyways. He rose from the ground as if rising from a grave. He looked over his shoulder and saw the Griffin staring at him. He stared back. He wasn't going to fight, not now, that was not a fight he could win.

Before the Griffin attempted to engage, Felix pulled out the rod of escape and faced north, into the forest. He looked once more over his shoulder, then broke the rod. He was launched into the air faster than he had ever moved before. He couldn't even see what was happening, but he felt his gut shoot backwards from the force. He couldn't open his eyes with the wind battering him. He just hoped the rod knew what it was doing and thanked The System that it kept him upright as he flew. . . . . .