"That geezer dragon hates me."

That was the only conclusion Darius could come to whilst sitting at the highest branch of a tree, looking at the enemies gathered below.

Fortunately none could climb, else he’d be royally f*cked.

Well, he was still royally f*cked anyway, since those things had noticed him and were just waiting for him to either climb down or fall off.

And they wouldn’t hesitate to tear him into two.

Now, you might be wondering why he was stuck in a tree rather than fighting those things as he preferred.

And he did try that when he first appeared here, but turns out, he couldn’t use the slightest bit of mana.

Or more accurately, his flames refused to respond to him.

"Yeah," Darius muttered, scratching the back of his head as he looked down at the creatures circling the base of the tree, "that geezer definitely hates me."

Below him were dozens of beasts.

They were neither particularly large, nor particularly strong, at least, not compared to what he had faced before, but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he couldn’t use anything.

And for someone so used to his brute forcing his way through everything, this situation was definitely not ideal.

With their numbers and no flames to fight them with, he’d quickly be overwhelmed.

"Yeah, no thanks," Darius muttered, pulling his legs up slightly as he leaned back against the trunk.

He had already tried jumping down once.

That ended with him barely making it back up the tree with a torn sleeve and a bleeding side.

So he couldn’t just carelessly try that again.

He leaned forward slightly, resting his chin on his hand as he thought, for someone like him, this kind of thinking wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

But,

"I guess I don’t have a choice," he muttered as he started looking at the other trees around him, "if I can’t burn through them then I just won’t fight them head-on."

Again, this was another situation that he would very much prefer doing the opposite of what logic called for, but he had no choice.

A grin slowly formed on his face.

"Let’s see how long you idiots can keep up."

Without warning, Darius suddenly stood up on the branch.

The movement immediately drew the attention of the beasts below, and they immediately started growling, expecting him to jump down again.

"Yeah, I’m not going to do that again," he waved a hand lazily before bending his knees slightly and then the next second,

He jumped.

CRACK!

The branch snapped behind him as he landed on another tree, barely managing to grab onto it before pulling himself up.

The moment he did, the beasts followed, so he also didn’t try stopping.

Somehow, he managed to get off every branch moments before they snapped, quickly landing on another, in a different tree.

And soon enough, his barely formed plan started showing results.

The beasts below quickly noticed that they were just chasing a prey that had no intention of stopping and they were just needlessly wasting energy.

So they gave up on a prey that seemed impossible to catch after a while.

"Haha," Darius laughed as he watched the beasts retreat, leaving behind only a few, but the next second,

SNAP!

"Damn it!" He cursed as the branch he stepped on suddenly gave way, and he immediately dropped downwards.

He fell through multiple branches and although most slowed him down, it wasn’t enough to allow him to grab unto a branch.

His body hit the ground hard.

BANG!

Pain shot through his back as the air was knocked out of his lungs.

"—GH!" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He rolled instinctively, barely avoiding the jaws of the first beast that lunged at him, giving him no time to recover.

He pushed himself up with his good arm, ignoring the burning pain in his muscles as another beast swiped at him.

Darius barely managed to avoid a set of claws that barely grazed his side, tearing through his already damaged clothing.

"Tch!"

Darius stumbled back, his breathing uneven as he scanned the few beasts that remained.

There were only five beasts remaining, but without mana?

That might as well have been fifty.

"Alright," he muttered, as he face them, "I guess I can’t run anymore, so let’s do this."

In response to his words, the beasts suddenly lunged at him, all at once.

"....."

That was definitely not what he expected, but still, he wouldn’t back down.

The first beast reached him in an instant, its jaws wide open, aiming straight for his neck.

He twisted his body just enough to dodge their attacks, his hand quickly moved to grab its fur mid-lunge.

"Got you."

Using its own momentum, he slammed it straight into the second beast.

BANG!

The two crashed together, tumbling across the ground and temporarily getting them out of the fight.

But that didn’t deter the other three, as it only worked to make them more coordinated, one came from the left.

Another came from his right and the last circled behind him.

"Damn, you’re coordinated," Darius muttered, lowering his stance slightly.

The beast on his left attacked first, moving too fast for one to normally be able to track, but Darius was able to raise his arm just to block,

SLASH!

Its claws tore through his forearm, drawing blood instantly.

"—gh!"

Pain shot through him, but he couldn’t risk being distracted right now as he quickly jumped to the side, avoiding another attack aimed at him.

Before he could let out a breath, the third soon came from behind him, its maw wide open and aimed at his head.

Darius dropped low, rolling forward as he barely avoided losing his head

Getting to a temporary safe spot, he noticed that the first two beasts had recovered already and had grouped up with the other two again.

"Damn it!" He muttered as he looked at the five snarling enemies, "how the hell does that geezer dragon expect me to pass this test."

He quickly shook his head as he recalled the Dragon’s words about his ancestors and a grin immediately appeared on his lips as he muttered,

"Alright then," he started, putting up his bleeding arms, "come at me."