Ronan cursed as he punched away another of the boss’ tentacles. It was infuriating. Not only had it stopped charging him but the moment it realised the combination of its stormcloud, the metallic needles that it could spray from its spell focus which doubled as lightning rods, and the constant barrage of tentacle strikes was keeping him at bay it had begun to actively retreat.

  His speed meant that he was keeping up, but he was no longer closing the distance between them. Ronan was severely handicapped by the terrain. If they had been fighting on land he was certain he could have eradicated the boss much quicker, but there was nothing he could do about where the system decided to send him. The only thing he could do was take down the ugly fucker that it had spawned.

  His genius idea—throwing himself at the monster to directly apply his new spell, rather than firing it from afar—was quickly becoming a hassle rather than a help. With the way things were at that moment he briefly considered returning to the drawing board and figuring out a way to pack more mana into the spell. Then he shook his head while punching away another tentacle. He was a stubborn bastard. Once he decided on a course of action he would pursue it to its natural end. Rather than give up on his idea, he would simply find a way to brute force it to success.

  If the boss wanted to run away, all Ronan needed to do was find a way to move even faster so the slippery bastard couldn’t escape him.

  That was easier said than done. Most of his focus and mana was locked in the spell he held in his left hand and trying to do more sorcery on the fly would be exceedingly difficult. Unless he abandoned defence completely to focus on his mana. A reckless, suicidal idea.

  A grin split Ronan’s face as he realised it was a strategy that suited him perfectly.

  Ronan stopped deflecting the boss’ attacks. He simply started running in circles around the bastard. It noticed the change in his movements and adjusted its own so that they stayed the same distance apart at all times, but it didn’t let up with any of its barrages.

  Maintaining the spell structure in his left hand wasn’t easier than before, but now that he had completely stopped focusing on his surroundings—with the exception of where he was placing his feet—it became less of a drag. He activated Dual Mind, splitting his thoughtstream in two.

  There was a harrowing moment as he did that when he felt his mana splitting and the spell bending from its held structure, but it stabilised and he was able to keep moving. With a second stream of thought that was equal to 60% of his original capacity he now had more freedom to focus on his second task; Ronan wanted to develop his own movement technique through sorcery.

  At first every attempt to push mana out of his feet ended in failure. Almost as soon as it left his body and was separated from his mana flow it simply vanished into the atmosphere. Ronan soon realised that it wasn’t just his inexperience with that particular type of technique that was causing issues, but the fact that there was so much mana in his surroundings from the churning ocean and the storm raging above. Not to mention that each of the boss’ magical techniques was sending ripples through the ambient mana that Ronan could feel each time.

  However, he soon managed to separate each of the sources of interference in his senses. He could feel the mana that filled the ocean and how it ebbed and flowed. He could feel the dregs of mana left behind in the floating monster corpses as it was reclaimed by the system. He could feel the static in the air after each of the lightning bolts roared their fury, and the overwhelming surge that accompanied each instant they struck. The metallic needles fired by the boss were less of a nuisance, but he still noted how they felt to his senses, like a thousand tiny dots of sharpness littering the battlefield.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Unfortunately that alone wasn’t enough to help in his endeavour. Ronan continued to fail at what he was attempting, over and over again. A few of the needles struck him, followed by a lighting strike that failed to do more than leave a smattering of light burns across his skin. One of the boss’ tentacles smashed into his side, sending him bouncing across the surface of the ocean. The hit hurt, but he was able to heal the worst of the damage.

  After that he was too far away from the boss to carry out his initial plan with his spell so he needed to rush back in. It was a great opportunity to push himself and figure out what he was doing wrong with his attempts to push mana outside of his feet. Then he realised he was going about it backwards. For all of the spells he had learnt previously, there was structure and intent involved in them from the very beginning. Rather than randomly shoving out mana and then trying to manipulate it, there was a goal in mind that the mana seemed to adopt as it was drawn from his heart.

  That was why when he’d first tried to figure out how to best cast spells with sorcery, the attempt to simply throw his mana out of his arm had nearly caused him to blow his own arm off from the backlash. Mana liked structure. It needed to be told what to do if one wanted to develop and cast a successful spell. At least Ronan believed that to be the case, and his next attempt put that into effect.

  Once again his mana was expelled from his feet, just as he had done on two dozen prior leaps between monster corpses. Only this time, before he released his mana he held an image in his mind of forming a small platform below his foot as he was flying through the air. Halfway to the next corpse, he found himself suddenly landing on an invisible foothold. He pumped his right fist in the air, only to curse as his footing suddenly vanished and he began to plummet towards the ocean.

  He had figured out the trick, though, and was able to do it once more. The second time he made use of the platform before it broke and jumped the rest of the way to the next floating body.

  The moment he landed he was forced to leap again as one of the boss’ tentacles slapped into the dead monster and sent chunks of flesh and a spray of water flying everywhere. Ronan continued his movement, now advancing on Karadaxos once more. With every leap he tested his new spell, slowly growing more proficient in his timing and also his ability to stabilise the structure. After about a dozen attempts he could accurately create the platforms no matter his orientation. Another half dozen later and he was even able to create one that lasted for one and a half seconds before breaking down.

  For some reason it was far less stable overall than something like a mana bolt, rainbow bomb, or even his more recent spell that had yet to be named. Despite that, he wasn’t disappointed. If anything, Ronan was ecstatic. He had created two completely new spells in that iteration all from his own creativity, without relying on a pre-existing skill from the system. Besides, a movement skill like the one he’d designed didn’t need to last for a long time, it just needed to give him a brief platform so that he could move at full speed regardless of the terrain.

  Having managed it successfully his speed increased massively. Ronan was no longer limited to the floating bodies on the sea—most of which had either sunk, dissolved into mana, or simply been torn apart by the battle between him and the Orkrakstacean—but instead could leap wherever he wished. At one point he deflected an incoming tentacle and the platform he tried to form at the same time failed, his focus split in too many ways. He didn’t try to fight after that, returning to his suicide strategy of simply rushing at the boss.

  It noticed his return and started to retreat once more while continuing to barrage him, but unfortunately it couldn’t keep up with his new pace. Tentacles smashed into the waves as Ronan raced underneath them. Lightning bolts failed to strike because he was already gone by the time they tore through the air.

  Ronan ensured his spell was stable and still had as much mana pumped into it as possible. He was just fifty metres away from the boss at that point. It was time to deliver the payload.