Oblivion: Rise of the Lost King

Chapter-10 Bad Day in Kyoto

One of the most feared creatures in the world of the adept. Fur so tough, almost impenetrable, a tail like that of a scorpion with poison strong enough to kill a Beginner adept in one strike. Claws sharper than most swords humanly made, and a biting force 2 times that of a normal crocodile. It is a creature almost impossible to kill, with its only weakness being the inside of its mouth, which too guarded by a set of deadly and sharp fangs.
THE MANTICORE

The manticore was one of the few creatures, I never wanted to encounter if possible. They were practically invincible, and for someone who is a beginner like me, even thinking of a painless death would be too much. Manticores are violent and sadist creatures, they would rip your limbs apart and watch you growl in pain before eating you alive.

The only way to survive? Run away. But it didn't seem like an option right now, I was currently the most delicious meal it could have and if I ran away, where would it go? To the next most delicious meal it could have, a whole banquet of human souls on a trip to a shrine in Kyoto.

The manticore returned, and I made sure to let it see me before running away to a more open location. Fighting a manticore who is naturally a predator in the forest would not have ended well for me, I ran for a few seconds, making sure the manticore was following me when he suddenly let a huge roar and sped up. I saw an open space in the middle of the forest and rolled right into it as the manticore went over me, missing me by a hair. The open area wasn't wasn't big, but enough for a battle. It was surrounded by forest on 3 sides and a cliff on the fourth.

I was in the middle of the open area when the manticore landed in front of me, and slowly walked towards me, I was getting pushed back towards the cliff. I was at my last step before falling down the cliff, when the manticore lunged at me. I dodged sideways, and though injured by its claw on my shoulders, I was at least alive. The manticore fell down the cliff after I dodged the attack.

I thought I was finally safe when I heard some wings flapping and remembered that Manticores had wings. The beast flew up and lunged down at me from the air. All I could do was barely dodge, with each attack leaving me with a scratch or two, and this was without the manticore using its full power.

I quickly ran and grabbed a branch of a tree, with as much resemblance to a sword as possible and broke it.

I held it like a sword and surrounded it with my QI, a skill I had learned in the past few days it wasn't even close to completion but if I wanted to survive, let alone defeat it I needed to at least do this.

I dashed towards the manticore and it swung its tail at me, I blocked it with the sword but was pushed back because of the force and crashed into a tree.

I immediately stood up for even a second's delay and hesitation could kill me. I jumped into the sky and dodged the manticore tail attack. And tried to slice him from the top but the moment I swung my sword at its body.

It broke.

The best I could do in my situation was to use the branches of the tree as swords covered with QI. But even that could not even scratch its skin. I jumped back and grabbed another one of the tree's branches and covered it in QI. If I can't even scratch his skin with my full power, the only thing I can do is aim for its one and only weak spot.

The insides of his mouth. The only question was how do I even do it. The only possible thing was to wait for him to open his mouth for a roar or something like that then stab him, but with the tail and his sharp claws protecting it I don't think I would be able to do it.

Just then, someone appeared, wearing an all-black suit, something a butler would wear, he had a sword in his hand and QI was flowing out of him like crazy. Even if I had turned off the QI perception, the QI flowing out of his body should have been more than enough to make me sense him from 100 meters away, but he had suddenly appeared from within the forest without even me being able to sense him.

The Manticore turned away from me and faced the man. The manticore dashed toward the man but the man didn't even move, he stood still as if he was waiting for the manticore to come closer.

And when the manticore was just within arm's reach, it got sliced in half.

The strike was so fast that I couldn't even see it. The killed manticore had now turned into dust leaving a beautiful gem, its core, behind. The man picked up the gem and turned towards me.

His gaze was so strong that I had froze in place.He put his hand forward for a handshake and said, "Nice to meet you, I will need you to come with me."