Chapter 77: The Best State to Train!

After that leap of faith, Jay landed on the block of ice surrounding the mage before breaking the ice with a kick and grabbing him by the arm, again jumping on what little was left of the ice towards the opposite direction from where he had come from.

"Freeze some of the lake to jump!" Shouted Jay, seeing that they would soon lose momentum and fall into the lake.

As for making another wind platform, Jay wasn't confident that he would be able to do it again, at least not without having practiced a bit more and certainly not when he had another much safer option.

Taking heed, the mage quickly conjured a magic circle that landed on the lake, creating a small ice platform, just enough for Jay to step on .

Of course, the Aqugas Serpent did not stay still, but quickly broke through the ice the mage had created to free himself and began to make a large number of tentacles come out of the lake to catch the two of them.

Seeing this, Jay just gritted his teeth and grabbed the mage by the collar of his shirt before flinging him into the air in the direction of the forest, causing thay he fell even faster, right towards the ice platform.

Thanks to his radar, he could sense all the tentacles no matter where they came from so he could react in time to avoid some of them.

Unfortunately, even though he activated the wind control to surround the areas of his body that were going to come in contact with the tentacles, he didn't think he would make it to the small ice platform first.

*Woosh!*

Several magic circles suddenly fell around him, freezing the tentacles closest to him and giving him enough time to step onto the platform and jump.

This had obviously been the effect of the spells of the young wizard, who had been preparing his spells from the moment Jay launched him into the air, spells which had been much more powerful than normal, something that surprised even him.

'Haa... thank goodness it worked...!' Jay thought as he quickly approached the mage, who was just beginning to descend.

In the brief moment he held him, Jay immediately took the opportunity to infect the mage with a good amount of parasites, which began to share their energy with him to make his spells stronger.

Because he hadn't tried it on a mage before, he wasn't sure if it would work, but fortunately for both of them, it went well.

*Bam!*

"Argh!"

"Sorry about that!"

Just as they were about to collide, Jay kicked the young mage to get him to shore even faster. Though he took a bit of damage from that, he managed to land faster and quickly recompose himself, starting to cast spells as he began to run.

As for his anger, while he was showing it on his face, he knew this was not the time for this.

The Aqugas Serpent also started to move, even more aggressive than before, after seeing that both prey had moved out of its reach, it was obviously quite angry.

At the same time, a large number of tentacles came out of the lake to accompany it on its way, several of them even combining and forming what appeared to be small anacondas of gelatinous mass.

In the face of this, even though the young mage was giving it his all and his spells were currently being strengthened thanks to the parasites, he could only manage to temporarily stop the thinner tentacles.

Still, he took the time to create another small ice platform for Jay to land on.

As for why he wasn't running away and using Jay as a decoy for the Aqugas Serpent, it was because he knew that that plan had extremely low odds of success.

Originally his physical condition was not sufficient to be able to escape from the snake on his own, and this had been worsened by using so many spells simultaneously, in fact, he could already even feel a slight tiredness weighing on his body.

Although he still had a long way to go before running out of mana, that he was beginning to get tired was not a good sign at all.

Lastly, he alsto felt an incredibly unpleasant feeling whenever he thought about it.

'Apparently I'm a nicer person than I thought eh...' Thought the young mage without stopping casting spells even for a second.

After a few anxious moments, Jay landed on the platform before jumping off one last time, finally reaching the edge of the lake.

But instead of stopping, he simply started running as fast as he could in the direction of the mage, even leaving deep tracks all over his path.

Seeing this, the young wizard had a sudden bad feeling, but he continued his work anyway to keep casting spells to slow down the thin tentacles that were getting closer and closer to them, even going so far as to create a small wall of ice where the land and the lake connected, as if it were a small barrier.

Then, just when Jay arrived where he was, he suddenly stopped and grabbed the young man by the back of his shirt collar with his right hand and with his left hand grabbing the back of his pants, getting a strong grip.

"...Sh*t." Said the wizard, realizing what Jay wanted to do.

Thereupon, Jay spun around twice charging the mage to increase the power of his throw, the muscles in his arms bulging immediately due to the force he was using.

"Cover...your face!!!" Jay shouted before throwing the mage into the forest.

"W-WAAAAAAAIT!!!!!"

With that shout, even though he was reluctant, the mage quickly went into the forest, not encountering any trees only by sheer luck and thanks to Jay having chosen the best route to throw him.

*CRACK*

Again the sound of ice being broken reached Jay's ears, indicating that the tentacles had already reached the shore.

This time Jay didn't even turn around, he could already feel each and every one of them closing in fast behind him, looking to catch him and return him to the lake he had escaped from.

Of course, Jay wasn't going to let that happen, so again he gathered all the strength in his body and concentrated it in his legs before leaping towards the nearest tree he had.

The tentacles immediately changed direction to chase him, the situation was similar to the one only moments ago, only that this time the difficulty was much greater as not only two tentacles were chasing him, but at least a dozen of them.

However, using the advantage he had since he didn't have to turn around to know where the tentacles were coming from, he could focus entirely on moving forward.

Although several times he came close to being caught, he was free thanks to the fact that he could use his wind control to interrupt the movements of the tentacles, creating thin platforms of air that only lasted for a second or even less, but were strong enough to impede their passage.

Seeing this, the main body of the Aqugas Serpent moved even closer to the shore, being only a few meters away from it, while it wasn't possible to see what kind of expression it had due to the fact that it didn't have a face, the pressure it was emitting indicated that it was definitely angry.

The tentacles became faster and stronger, even becoming capable of snapping branches at high speed. This was an effect of the snake's body being close, as the closer it was, the more strength and control the snake would have over these.

Still, Jay persevered, changing the way he jumped from tree to tree, even risking running away in a zig zag fashion, but never going too deep into the forest.

As for the reason of this, that was because right now, the mage had already landed and was completing his elemental zone, so for the moment, there was only one thing Jay could do.

'JUST 15 MINUTES, WE CAN DO IT!!' He shouted in his mind, all his senses rising to the limit due to the dangerousness of the situation, generating him to be in his best state.

This was something that he had realized he could only achieve in high pressure situations, where he was forced to stay alert at all times.

The first time he achieved it was in the South Zone, specifically when he was running away from the boss of Wolf's Fang and also when he fought against said person.

It was in this state in which he had been able to do things he couldn't when training on his own, Jay could feel it right now.

Slowly, whether it was the control he had over his body, the parasite energy, his radar or his wind control, Jay was perfecting everything at the same time.

***

After some time, in the same lake, a quite remarkable change had occurred in the surroundings, specifically in a certain part of the dense forest.

While the lake used to be quite circular in shape, now, because the Aqugas Snake had made a path into the forest, a small expanse of the lake had been created that entered the forest, giving the snake more mobility.

However, while this was striking, what was more surprising was that the wooded area in front of the snake currently had dozens of fallen trees, something that had been caused by the snake itself in an attempt to catch its prey.

As for that prey, as the snake kept moving forward, it also kept moving constantly among the trees.

His appearance had changed, with some blood stains on his sides and several bruises all over its body, however, his expression was one of total concentration, as if his body was not hurt or tired at all, simply focusing on continuing to jump.

Behind him came several tentacles that had changed their shape to look more like spears than anything else, making it clear that the snake was no longer looking to catch him, but simply to finish him off.

Their speed had also increased, only being within a meter of reaching Jay, though they seemed unable to close that distance, so it could be said that he was safe for the time being.

*Woosh!*

Suddenly, a much thinner and sharper tentacle appeared from underneath, aimed directly at his neck.

But before it could make contact, a strong but brief wind interrupted it's path, causing it's speed to slow down for a short time, of which Jay took advantage to dodge it and quickly jump to another tree.

Throughout this process, Jay didn't turn his gaze for a second, this was no longer just being in his best state, but something that went beyond, it was almost as if he was breaking his limits.

Regardless of whether his muscles were begging him to stop or his bones were making weird sounds, he continued to move forward. As this was not the first time he had felt something like this, this time it was easier to endure.

However, his body was truly reaching its limit, even his energy was running out by leaps and bounds, making it clear that he couldn't take much more.

Fortunately for him, at that moment, he could hear the mage's voice.

"It's... ready!"

Jay's eyes quickly refocused on the surroundings, immediately snapping out of the trance he was in and returning to reality.

*BAM!*

"Argh!"

Unfortunately, waking up so suddenly had its consequences, which came in the form of a momentary incoordination that caused Jay to be struck by one of the spear-like tentacles, creating a deep cut in one of his sides.

'Sh*t!' Jay thought, trying to resume his previous march in order to escape, though failing instantly due to all the tentacles that followed the first one, finally trapping him.