Okay, I knew one day I'd have to pay for my excessive reliance on mana and ignoring physical stats as much as possible.

I jump from the roof and barely absorb the energy of my fall, trying to use it to propel myself. The skill fails, and I continue to run on my two legs, hearing the monster crash on the ground behind me.

I grab hold of my mana and focus more, finally able to boost my body for half of a second before losing control over mana.

But even that is something, and I create some distance between me and the monster.

I feel another wave targeting me and roll to the side, collecting a few more bruises but partially dodging the skill. This propels me further ahead, again avoiding the monster.

The entire time I continue to try to enter [Focus] as deeply as I can. The skill at least partially ignores the monster's skill, and my [Mana Manipulation] keeps on running.

Thankfully, my Constructs are still up and running unaffected by the monster and keeping 30% of my mana used for Reinforcement and another 20% for the Kinetic Heart.

The problem is that my heart keeps generating kinetic energy that is currently hard to deal with. But even in the situation I'm in, I stay calm. I always expected something like this to happen, so it's not like I didn't practice.

Before the monster's mana reaches me again, I propel myself as far ahead as I can and then use all the energy my heart generated to propel myself even further, flying through the air and then crashing through the roof.

Here, far enough from the monster, I stop and force myself to calm down more.

Deep breath. Hold. Breathe out.

I reach out inside my body and towards my mana. I grab it, I force it to move, and stay inside my body. I flow it through my circuits and my pathways. My heart beats wildly, each thump sending mana through my body and kinetic energy too.

I deepen my connection with my mana thanks to my passive Cerebral Harmony and then [Focus] on it.

When the monster's skill reaches me again, it crashes against my natural protective barrier that usually doesn't allow others to mess with the mana inside other people's bodies. I strengthen it and push against the attack, decoding how the attack moves, what it does, how it disrupts my skills.

I pump even more of my mana outside of my body, even to the point of turning off the Reinforcement construct, and the entirety of it flares up, stopping the attack at the same moment the monster comes crashing down through the roof and swinging its sword at me.

At that moment, I release all the kinetic energy created by my heart and the house we are standing in explodes in a wave of energy with me in the center that even throws the Revenant far away and crashing against another house.

I quickly Regulate the mana going to my Kinetic Mana Heart and activate my Reinforcement again before dashing away from it while forcing myself to ignore the state my body is in.

I feel the monster start moving again and run to the side, barely avoiding another wave of its weirdly disruptive mana. The way it targets me works so differently than my [Disruption]. It's as if it's trying to pause the movement of my mana for a short moment, which also causes it to ruin my concentration and hold over it.

It's annoying, and I don't like it at all, and it's not only because I'm getting my ass beaten while trying to gain some distance and switch to a ranged attack.

This is another mistake in a massive pile of mistakes I made. Not the fact that I didn't invest stats into physical stats - I long since knew that it's dumb and decided to risk it for my future development.

No, it was a mistake thinking that I'm prepared and I could counter it. I experimented with [Disruption] a lot and even had Hadwin use his version against me, and I thought I knew what to expect. But the Templar Revenant is different. The best I can describe it is that the monster specialized at hunting mages, people overly relying on mana.

For a test, I shoot one mana orb towards the monster, and it just disappears before even reaching it. It untangles and disappears into fine particles even before reaching it as the monster targets it.

The thermal attack ends up the same, turning into hot air that just blasts close by the monster.

When I shoot my [Disruption] against it, it uses its weird skill, and our skills collide, and mine gets canceled out.

So I just continue to strengthen my body, but I'm unable to do it constantly. Its attacks are fast and nearly impossible to dodge, reaching me in a split second and pausing my hold over mana strengthening my body, so I can only run away, using it in short bursts to keep some distance between us.

I can't even strengthen my body to the point where I could fight it in melee combat as it would only cancel it out, and one hit would be enough to kill me.

Okay, let's take it back to the group, even if they will have their skills disrupted, they should be able to distract it, and I'll kill it before it hurts anyone important.

Sounds good. Let's do just that quickly before this second presence reaches me.

Ehm, why is it moving so quickly?

The presence reaches the two of us in what feels like a few seconds at most from the edge of my perception, and it turns towards me. Standing between me and where the group is. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it's on purpose.

[Rogue Revenant - lvl ?]

The monster wears remains of leather armor, and its body is much slimmer, with each of its limbs uncharacteristically long. It also holds two daggers, rusted and of crescent shape.

Another named jerk.

Sorry, Izzie, Biscuit, you are on your own for a while.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 29 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 31]

[Focus - lvl 29 > Focus - lvl 30]

[Mana Surge - lvl 14 > Mana Surge - lvl 16]

Who knew that bottlenecks are so easy to break through? Simple, isn't it? You just need two question mark monsters going after you, to push your body and brain to the point they nearly break.

Easy.

I continue to run and push towards where I think the middle of the city is located. Partially because of the hope that it's as natives said, and there is some sort of healing aura in the air the closer you are to the King and his Saint.

Another hope is that I'll meet someone else from Group 4.

I also don't lie to myself anymore as to why I didn't bring two monsters back to Isabella and Biscuit. One monster should be okay, I would be able to protect them, but two? I don't care too much about Cipher and others - I don't even know them and mostly used them for water, but Biscuit and Isabella? They kind of grew on me even in such a short time, I can't let them die because of these two jerks.

So yeah, it's up to me.

I dodge under another swing with the dagger and propel myself to the side, partially dodging the Templar Revenant's attack, but still, it disrupts my skill, and I barely use a short impulse of my mana through my body to strengthen myself and dodge another stab of the dagger.

The Rogue Revenant is quick, its reach is longer than expected - proof of that being a stab wound in my left arm that I turned towards it, rather wounding the still broken arm even further than injuring my right one.

My heart beats once, and I throw all kinetic energy against the revenant, throwing it against the side of the house, and as a few times before, the monsters slow down in the air and nearly elegantly land with its legs against the wall, immediately jumping towards me.

Another short burst of mana and I jump high in the air, grabbing the edge of the roof with my right arm and pulling myself up only to roll to the side, but the disruptive mana still hits me, and the pain washes through my body again, making me fall to my knees.

With my teeth clenched, I send another wave of mana inside my body and start running and jumping from roof to roof, already feeling both of the monsters following me.

A disruptive wave of mana reaches me, and I rouse my mana as much as I can in my current state and [Focus] on my control over it.

It's my goddamn mana! You won't take it away from me!

Not caring about it at all, my control over mana disappears once again, and all the mana I collected inside my body goes wild once again, hurting me even more before disruption disappears, then I grab control over it again, using it to put more distance between me and the revenants that continue to track me hungrily.