Arpious of the Planes

She created a wall of gold that blocked the black flames but when they collided, the black flames stuck to the gold wall spreading downwards. Seeing this, the queen immediately cut off the gold wall and tossed it over the side of the mountain.

Making sure the flames don't spread to the forest I snap my fingers, dissipating the black flames instantly.

Both of our forbidden magic continued to clash as huge ravines formed from my magic. The ravines started to crack the mountain in half as we were on opposite sides of the mountain.

"M-MONSTER!" the queen cries out

"Oh, aren't we both monsters? We both want power… am I right?" I ask while flapping my wings.

As she wasn't able to refute my point all she did was continue to glare at me.

CRACK

We both deactivated our forbidden magic seeing that the entire mountain cracked in half, leaving one side gray with fissures all over it and the other made of pure gold. Both of these halves stood up side by side, like two sovereigns fighting over territory.

Jumping across the ravine that separated the mountain we both collided mid-air while I swung my scythe but she blocked it with her golden spear. In her other hand, she swung a gold sword that I blocked with the end of my scythe.

Using the block as momentum, I flew backward, landing back on my side of the mountain. The queen had nothing to use to stop herself from plummeting towards the inside of the ravine.

She never panicked and all she did was do a swiping motion that created a bridge of gold that sprouted from her half of the mountain. Landing on the bridge she bent her knees and sprung towards me making an X motion with her golden spear and sword.

Blocking the attack once again, her spear suddenly extended from the side striking towards my head which I barely dodged leaving me with a scratch on my cheek. As the cut quickly closed up I swung the handle of the scythe around my neck and used the momentum to strike the queen.

The strike had so much momentum behind it that when the queen blocked it, she got sent flying backward. To not fall off my side of the mountain, she created a wall of gold by placing her hand on the ground as she slid back, stopping her.

Running towards her I built up momentum in my scythe by spinning it around my neck, on my back, around my shoulders, and around my wrists. Soon after, the scythe turned into a blur as the queen had a slightly troubled face.

I felt my concentration increase as I felt the mastery of my scythe increase, but it didn't feel enough to get full mastery.

[Gained the following skill]

[Intense Focus]

[Intense Focus evolved into Concentration]

Going from running to full-on sprinting towards her, I reached out my scythe with my built-up momentum. She was able to block the inside of the blade but since the blade of a scythe is curved, it still scratched her arm.

Bouncing off her block, I spin around and roundhouse kick her gut, sending her flying back to her side of the mountain. Coughing a bit, she frowned as she held her gut in pain. Soon her [Enhanced Regeneration] activated and she was back to normal.

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Dark Siren]

[Status: Slightly Tired]

[Servants: 3]

[Subordinates: 7]

[Slaves: 1]

[Level: 50/50]

[HP: 86/100 MP: 18/80 SP: 7/30]

…

Flying up, I decided to end this quickly after seeing my status.

Readying a huge slice from my scythe, I pull it back and coat it with [Amaterasu] and magma using [Magma Secretion] and [Magma Control]. The cracked scythe started to boil as the magma flows through the cracks of the scythe. The black flames also helped boil the magma even further and just overall increase the scythes durability.

Using [Wind Control], I point my body towards the queen and create small whirlwinds under my feet. Releasing the whirlwinds, I rocket towards the queen while she placed her hands on the ground forming a smaller version of the liquid gold wave from before.

[Wind Control has leveled up]

Seems like she's running out of mana as well…

Activating [Forbidden Magic: Medusa], I focus all of it towards my left hand which wasn't holding the scythe and then I feel every last drop of mana drain. I felt like I was going to throw up and the world spun but I couldn't back out now.

Reaching out towards the golden wave I touch it with my left hand. The wave starts to turn to stone, surprising the queen. The top of the wave curled over my head so I tried to focus more and spread it farther and stop the wave in its tracks.

I feel my connection with the cracked stone deepen as the forbidden magic spread faster, quickly enveloping the entire wave. The queen tries to take it back but I already crumbled the wave to rubble as I swung my scythe towards her.

SHING

The scythe cuts half of her arm clean off as she doesn't even flinch and she reaches a golden finger towards me once again.

tsk

Using [Contortion], I bent my body backward but fell for her trap. She suddenly pulls out a golden spear with her other hand that stabs straight into my right thigh. Gold extended from the tip of the spear that left a golden stick in my thigh. Crying out in pain she creates another spear that penetrates my right arm and does the same thing with my thigh, leaving a gold stick in it as well.

Losing focus, I fall to the ground while getting one more swing in, which cuts her left foot off. Not dropping too far down, I was able to see her in pain while seeing her panicked face. The [Amaterasu] that was attached to my scythe spread to her arm as it was eating at the rest of it. She took quick action to cut off the rest of her arm causing her to flinch slightly.

『Status』

[Name: Queen]

[Race: Golden Mountain Bear Queen]

[Status: Calm]

[Level: 14/100]

[HP: 130/750 MP: 48/300 SP: 730/900]

…

I painfully stood up with [Amaterasu] supporting me trying not to show any weakness. I suddenly heard roars from behind me causing me to snap my head in that direction. Climbing up the mountain were 100s of bears starving and growling.

Looking back to where the queen was I saw her trying to escape, limping away where a bear was ready to carry her. Trying to run after her I feel my leg and arm stiffen up, causing me to take a knee.

ROOOOAR

The bears were approaching me fast and now I was pissed off. Not only is she not trying to finish the fight but these bastards are interfering with it.

"FUCK OFF!" I yell while controlling the last of my [Amaterasu].

Before this fight, when I was killing monsters in the [Forest of Poison] I noticed that creating [Amaterasu] took mana but controlling some that already existed, took nothing.

The remaining [Amaterasu] created a black blade made of pitch-black flames cutting all of the bears in half.

*sigh*

ROOOOAR

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

Right in front of me, the number of bears I just massacred was instantly recovered. The bloodthirsty bears roared and charged towards me, drool lathering the ground.

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Dark Siren]

[Status: Near Death]

[Servants: 3]

[Subordinates: 7]

[Slaves: 1]

[Level: 50/50]

[HP: 6/100 MP: 0/80 SP: 7/30]

[Strength: 15 (+5) (+25) (+15)]

[Defense: 10 (+5) (+10)]

[Magic: 25 (+25) (+25)]

[Speed: 15 (+5) (+25) (+15)]

[Luck: 1 (+1)]

[Charisma: 10]

[Skills: [******] [Forbidden Magic: Zeus's Nimbus] [Boost (2/5)] [Scratch (3/10)] [Mind Magic] [Shadow Magic (4/10)] [Berserk] [Swipe (2/10)] [Poison Immunity] [Disease Immunity] [Virus] [Commanders Presence] [Army Control] [Forbidden Magic: Medusa] [Fire Immunity] [Lightning Resistance] [Water Control] [Flying Sense] [Enhanced Senses] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Horse Beetles Extreme Senses] [Liquid Fire Secretion (2/10)] [Domain of the Night (Locked)] [Demonic Berserker] [Amaterasu] [Ichimei] [Guardians Presence] [Phoenixes Dominating Presence] [Fires Will] [Inspect] [Magma Control (3/5)] [Kingfishers Flexible Wings] [Magma Secretion (2/10)] [Gluttons Stomach] [Pickpocket] [Body Enhancement] [Seduction] [Strong Libido] [Contortion] [Wind Control]

…

How am I near death, when only my arm and leg are hurt… wait I'm probably bleeding out. I'm too dizzy to see if I am. This mana exhaustion thing is nothing to scoff at.

I tried to find a skill that would help me but nothing would help at this very instant since I have no mana and if I use one of the skills that use stamina, then I will probably pass out from exhaustion. I don't know if there are any more bears so that is too risky.

tsk

Swallowing my pride I attempt to limp away which I found useless since the bears were way faster than me at this moment. Looking for the queen, I saw her long gone in the distance using gold to stop the bleeding. She had to amputate part of her hip and her leg since the black flames engulfed it as well.

The bears were now inches away as they pounced on me. The side effects from having my mana drained were starting to get worse as I could barely see straight. When the images of bears flashed in my head I almost threw up at how distorted they were.

"Damn it,"