Zeke knew it was still possible to escape, but his inner thoughts were filled with fighting spirit and determination. This time, Zeke didn't bring out any of his weapons. He knew that using it is pointless since the serpent's basically almost immune to physical attacks. He decided to fight it using spells not only because it's a suitable tactic against it but also to gain battle experience regarding fighting as a mage.

A faint white aura enveloped Zeke's whole figure as well as his bones in the inside. Zeke immediately cast [Bone Strengthening] as well as [Mana Skin] for protection while also casting [Wind Step] and [Feline Control] to boost his speed and control.

"Lil fellah, RUN! I got this!" Zeke shouted to the trembling cheetah while Zeke already started running. Hearing this, the cheetah burst out and outsped Zeke in just a moment. Instead of going with Zeke, the cheetah ran off while curving in another direction. It made it so the serpent would still run after Zeke and the cheetah while the cheetah slowly goes away, leaving the aggro to Zeke.

Seeing the serpent closing in on him, Zeke fired a couple of [Wind Blade] and [Dark Slash] at his back without him even looking. From his enhanced perception, he could roughly tell where the snake is based on the eerie sound it is emitting as well as the movement of the earth beneath him. He also didn't need to aim as he just needed to hit it as many times as possible regardless of where it hits.

The serpent swerved to the side to dodge the spells only to receive a fireball on its face. It didn't expect another attack as soon as it dodged so Zeke's fireball hit its defenseless head. It hissed in pain as it gradually increased its speed while angrily looking at Zeke.

Zeke expected the serpent to dodge, so he quickly fired two [Fireball]s on both sides, and the result satisfied Zeke. However, he didn't dare to fire off more [Fireball]s in fear of burning the forest. He only made sure to fire it when he knows its destination would be the ground or when it's guaranteed to hit.

Half a minute have pa.s.sed and the serpent was gradually creeping up to Zeke. Seeing its prey inside its attacking perimeter, the serpent rejoiced and suddenly launched its head to lunge at Zeke's back. Unfortunately, instead of biting off Zeke's body, the snake met a thick wall of earth, smas.h.i.+ng its face while it crumbled after the collision with the serpent's whole body. The collision slowed the serpent down significantly, giving Zeke a short rest while he ceaselessly absorbed mana while running. Due to the nature of his Perfect Mana Core, Zeke could pa.s.sively absorb mana even without meditating, making his mana regeneration higher than others who needed to sit down and meditate. Just when the serpent got near Zeke, he immediately cast [Spatial King's Domain] and blinked towards the serpent's back while he quickly cast [Chain of Ice] on its body.

To the serpent's surprise and confusion, two big chains made of ice suddenly appeared from the earth and wrapped around its body, making it feel very heavy and enc.u.mbered. It had a hard time turning its whole body due to the heavy ice chains while Zeke evidently took the advantage. He quickly bombarded a bunch of beginner spells towards the serpent's head who was slowly turning around. The serpent couldn't dodge so it took the brunt of Zeke's bombardment, denting the middle of its eyes with a light cut. Although it wasn't lethal and just a superficial wound, it angered the serpent and it immediately forced itself out of the chains of ice and once again lunged at Zeke.

Zeke immediately leapt backward seeing as the chains of ice were not going to last long anymore after the serpent's berserk state. Its immense strength carried the chains while the serpent was also lunging at it, trying to bite it off. Zeke took the chance to fire [Electric Discharge] on its face following up with [Wind Blade] and [Dark Slash].

After the brief encounter with the serpent earlier, Zeke noticed that out of all the spells he fired off earlier, 'slas.h.i.+ng' spells work the best. The serpent's first injury was from an earlier [Dark Slash] that got overlapped with a [Fireball], causing its effect to be sharper, thus cutting off the serpent's skin. Right now, Zeke was trying to overlap spells to maximize its power. He knew that one or two consecutive spells aren't as effective as two spells. .h.i.tting the same spot at the same time.

Sure enough, Zeke's conjecture was correct as when the serpent sensed the surge of mana, it raised its lower body, or 'tail', to block it, only for it to be sliced in many parts. The serpent was surprised about the sudden injury that it couldn't process how Zeke managed to do it to that extent. Zeke then ran off again while throwing spells behind him. The serpent was then further enraged seeing as its tail was bloodied and injured while the attacker ran off. It was furious to the point that it burned its vitality to get a boost in its overall power as it immediately followed Zeke's footsteps.

Zeke, who was currently running frantically, suddenly thought of something. He realized that although overlapping skills is good, it was hard to do in actual combat and also very situational. While bombarding it with a lot of skills is also good, it would take a long time to cast enough spells to actually damage it while also consuming a lot of mana. But Zeke suddenly thought of something. What if he could compress mana?

Feeling intrigued by his sudden thought, Zeke split his mind and attention again and tried to project mana outside his body without releasing it. To his surprise, the mana was actually very hard to control that Zeke had to throw it out before it exploded. The explosion was very loud that Zeke realized the power of compressing mana. However, the only drawback of this is its long casting time. Right now, although it takes time to fully unload, Zeke was in a favorable situation seeing as there was still quite a distance between him and the serpent. He had a little bit of time enough for one casting of compressed mana so Zeke figured he had to make this work.

Meanwhile, the serpent, who was closing in fast on Zeke, rejoiced when he saw the human in front of it suddenly decrease in speed. In fact, it was also slowing down slightly since the power brought by burning its blood essence is decaying off so it had an urge to finish the fight quickly. As he neared, the boy in front of him looked back at it with face full of fear and despair. Seeing the light of victory in its clutches, the serpent didn't hesitate as it lunged with the remaining power it can muster towards Zeke. It opened his whole mouth to swallow Zeke whole as it was afraid that if it didn't, Zeke could escape and plot to attack again. Although its decision is good and sensible, it didn't consider the possibility of its prey faking its expression. After all, who would have the guts to fake a frightened expression like that in the face of such an enormous serpent?

However, the next actions proved his imagination wrong. Before the figure could enter its mouth, the serpent clearly saw the boy in front of it smile before waving his left hand in a throwing action towards its mouth. The serpent realized Zeke's plot but it was too late as the compressed mana suddenly exploded inside the serpent's mouth. The explosion was bigger this time because Zeke took a considerable amount of time and concentration to compress huge amounts of mana.

Zeke was also thrown off by the shockwave of the explosion as he crashed into a tree not far from the serpent. Zeke's eyes blurred as he had a very serious concussion, but he didn't dare let his guard down right now and rest. He stood up with difficulty as he readied a bunch of beginner spells with what's left of his mana as he waited for the smoke to dissipate.

When the smoke cleared, Zeke heaved a sigh of relief. The serpent's whole head and part of upper body got blown off so hard that there were organ matters scattered in front of it. Zeke guessed that it was brain matter but he didn't have time to get disgusted as he hurriedly sat down and meditated. He was currently concussed right now so he needed to focus a lot and try to clear his mind as soon as possible. Although the enemy is dead, Zeke didn't let his guard down and carefully observed the surroundings. He concluded that other beasts nearby might smell the serpent's blood and carca.s.s so he needed to get out of there fast.

After a minute of meditating, Zeke stood up and tried to leave. However, before he could even step, he heard the System's voice calling him out.

*Zeke! Are you going to leave its monster core behind? It's a Cla.s.s B Monster Core.*

'Cla.s.s B? That high? No wonder it's troublesome to deal with.'

Although Zeke knew the beast, he didn't know about its rankings since there wasn't anything like that from what he read. Thankfully, Zeke knew the rankings of beasts in Dragonsoar City and realized that the beast he killed was actually a rank B Monster.

Based on what Zeke read from his father's library, monsters in the Dragon Continent were usually ranked the same as adventurers are. The ranks of monsters ranged from D to lowest and S as the highest. The fact that Zeke defeated a rank B monster alone was enough to demonstrate how monstrous he is right now. Normally, it would take a group of five or more rank B adventurers or a single rank A adventurer to kill a rank B monster like the Kingly Serpent. Based from this, Zeke estimated that he should have the strength of an adventurer in the middle of rank B and A right now, which greatly pleased Zeke.

However, he didn't dare to boast about it since he knew he only killed it due to a sudden idea. If he hadn't thought of the all-in compressed mana grenade, he would've not killed the serpent and he might've been killed by it as well!

-------

After pondering for a bit, Zeke decided to get the monster core and bail out. Zeke approached the carca.s.s from the side as he covered his nose and slashed the middle of its body. The monster core he's looking is only as big as a fist and it's located in the monster's center of gravity, and right now, he was currently hacking his way towards the middle part of the serpent's upper body.

After fiddling for some seconds, Zeke felt something circular and solid as he pulled it out and looked at it closer. It was a small orb that had the same color as the serpent while it had small portions of white inside it. Zeke knew it was the monster core so he stashed it away along with some of the meat he hacked from the serpent's middle part of the body. After checking to see if nothing's forgotten, Zeke immediately cast [Wind Step] again and returned to the usual clearing.

When we rushed back, he saw the cheetah looking around frantically. He a.s.sumed the cheetah's looking for him and he was slightly touched by the cheetah's loyalty.

The cheetah's eyes, upon seeing Zeke safe and sound, lit up. It stood and ran towards Zeke as it rubbed its head to Zeke's legs over and over again, causing Zeke to laugh and be touched by the cheetah's actions. To Zeke, the cheetah was more like a dog friend to him than a wild beast since it really acted like dogs from Zeke's previous world.

After playing with the cheetah for a while, Zeke sat cross-legged and meditated. He slowly absorbed the gains he got as well as his newfound technique in magic. All these made Zeke feel satisfied. Besides all this, unbeknownst to Zeke, his Speed and Endurance actually went up by a bit after that fight. It was due to his dragon blood awakening currently at 50%!