"R-Reptilian!"
Hal immediately recognized the monster.
Not because he had encountered it before or stumbled upon information about the creature, but because it was a common antagonist in his mother's horror stories used to make him sleep when he was young.
Now Hal was in the very same situation that had haunted him and kept him in line as a child.
'Damn it! I should've…'
He didn't even know what rank the darned thing was.
However, what could he do except fight?
Hal raised both arms to chest level—one of them formed into a claw while the other an open palm—prompting two magic circles to emerge.
A translucent-blue sphere then emerged from one of them and a lethal shard of ice from the other, shooting towards the charging humanoid lizard.
Frozen fragments flew everywhere as the Reptilian fearlessly brandished its spear, shattering the Glacial Shard, quickly followed by an explosion as the [Weak Mana Blast] detonated upon hitting the arcane monster's shoulder.
To his horror, the explosion didn't even put a dent in the Reptilian's tough scales.
It merely continued charging at him with its spear poised to thrust a hole in his heart.
"K-Kuh…"
Hal retained the claw and changed his palm to two fingers pointing forward, firing a [Fireball] and a [Weak Mana Blast] this time.
But the results were the same.
The Reptilian merely destroyed the [Fireball] with a casual wave of its spear and ignored the [Weak Mana Blast], further closing the distance between it and Hal.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the two, a white-haired young lady watched with narrowed eyes from the shadows of a Whispering Mangrove's roots.
Liora Whitemane, one of this year's diamonds in the rough, was trying to tail the reptilian to locate its nesting grounds and steal an egg or two, stumbling upon Hal Fennec by chance.
It was impossible not to recognize the famous young man, once labeled and perhaps still seen by others as 'trash,' who had defied the odds and defeated a three-star student in a wizardry duel.
Liora found it difficult to believe that she would meet the renowned wastrel here of all places.
The young lady clenched her fists, guilt slowly creeping into her heart.
She didn't know whether she should reveal herself and help Hal, as she, too, wasn't sure she could defeat the Reptilian.
Liora's feet remained firmly rooted in the muddy ground, unwilling to take a step forward.
Her mana-bound artifact granted her a whopping one-hundred-percent boost in light magic.
However, while she had morals, she had a brain too.
Her future was as bright as her lights, and lifting her parents out of poverty was only a matter of time.
Why should she put herself in danger to save someone she didn't even know?
It was then that the black-haired young man raised his arms, summoning a thick barrier that shielded him from the humanoid lizard's crude yet vicious spear. He stepped back to create distance while he still had the chance.
Liora was dumbfounded to realize that the so-called trash had already cast four different kinds of spells in just a few seconds, each on par with the level of a solid novice wizard.
They had only just begun studying wizardry.
Yet, the wastrel had already learned four spells and could cast them with decent, combat-ready effectiveness?
If Hal Fennec was trash, then what about her?!
Liora could only continue to watch.
Hal, on the other hand, gritted his teeth and mixed things up, firing a [Sparkblast] and a [Glacial Shard].
Ice and thunder hummed and crackled as they tore through the air, the latter subtly illuminating the surroundings.
The [Glacial Shard] once again shattered into dozens of frozen fragments upon colliding with the humanoid lizard's spear.
The [Sparkblast], on the other hand, landed cleanly on the Reptilian's chest, making it tremble momentarily as if electrocuted before it faced forward again with the same bloodthirsty look and resumed its monstrous rush.
'Damn it, this bastard is tough!' Hal cursed inwardly.
However, he was at least pleased that one of his spells could temporarily paralyze the creature, as nothing else he had fired so far had affected the humanoid lizard.
'Tch, I can't keep holding back and being stingy with my spell card charges!' Hal reprimanded himself, realizing he'd only waste more charges—and possibly even throw his life away—if he didn't go all out against his childhood nightmare.
The ferocious swamp monster lunged at him as soon as it closed the distance, thrusting its spear toward his heart.
But before the crude weapon could strike its target cleanly, a modest amount of water, summoned from an ocean-blue magic circle, suddenly splashed over the Reptilian, momentarily obscuring its vision and allowing Hal to narrowly dodge the piercing blow by leaning to the right.
He then quickly followed up with a crackling ball of thunder that hit the humanoid lizard squarely in the chest.
The Reptilian didn't bother to dodge, treating the [Sparkblast] as a mere momentary inconvenience not worth the effort or stamina to avoid.
A huge mistake.
Soaked from being [Squirt]ed on, the damage from the ball of thunder was amplified, paralyzing the fearsome swamp monster for over three seconds as its flesh spasmed.
Unfortunately for the humanoid lizard, Hal wasn't done yet.
He quickly circled behind it and aimed with both arms, his hands shifting through four different gestures as he mercilessly fired a [Weak Mana Blast], a [Fireball], a [Glacial Shard], a [Wind Cutter], and another [Weak Mana Blast], all hitting the same spot on the swamp monster's back.
Gray smoke veiled the Reptilian after the vicious barrage of spells.
Despite this, Hal smiled in triumph.
The result couldn't be clearer to him:
[Congratulations! You've earned 10 Chaos Points!]