Chapter 16: First Seal

"Allen, take your team and leave. This is too hard for trainees to handle " said Michael.

"Retreat? Not an option sir. We are soldiers just like you. We will not abandon our mission." Kumar said.

"That's right. We will not leave you to fight the battle alone" said Abdul.

"Thank you for your help" replied Michael and continued the massacre of the giant ants.

The remaining 9 soldiers formed a larger circle and formed 1st layer of defence for the trainees. Allen joined the outer circle as he is better in close combat than his team.

Michael welcomed him and asked all their pets to get inside their human masters. The number of giant ants is getting too dangerous for pets.

Except for a lightning sparrow all the other pets went inside. This sparrow is a pet of Michael.

He let her stay outside as she is flying and can't be harmed by the ants.

Allen concentrated his attack as he is fighting 3 mid-level giant ants. One giant ant jumped at him and he was able to slice it into two.

The other ants got furious and attacked him with their jaws. Allen was able to block one using his sword. The second ant bit his left leg and he felt severe pain from there.

He swings his sword towards it and slices it's head. He pulled the jaws of the dead ant and threw it away while he stabbed the head of the last ant killing it.

Allen was stunned as he was just lucky to get that kill. He look at his body and saw it was covered with a lot of wounds.

He drank a healing potion to heal himself. The mana portion he took earlier will be sufficient for him to keep his sword infused for 3 hours.

He kept fighting and absorbed the mana surrounding him to increase his mana in the storage. He wanted to take a quick break, but he saw 5 more ants coming to him.

He started circulating mana exercise and went to the 20th move in a minute. He could sense his swinging speed increase and he is able to block the attack of the ants easily.

He slashed his sword and with the mana circulation and the mana infused on his sword, he was able to kill 2 ants with that slash.

He was unable to continue the 20th move as it was causing severe pain. He brought it down to 18th move. He was able to kill the remaining 3 ants in the next 10 minutes.

He drank another healing portion and started to relax.

"A little help here please" Allen turned to see Sam asking for his help. He was fighting 6 mid-level ants.

Allen rushed towards him and distracted 3 ants and relieved some pressure off him.

"Congratulations Sam" he said and Sam nodded. Allen can sense that he levelled up to the high-level private stage.

He checked his purity and found it to be 35% pure. He sensed Serina coming back and asked her to get inside him immediately.

It's been 30 minutes since she took the soldier back to camp. His leg was almost torn apart by the ants and he won't be able to continue in the fight.

Allen saw that most of the mid-level ants are handled and high-level ants are starting to come out of the ant hill. He was happy and sad.

He was happy because the high-level private monsters and above will have mana cores inside them which can be sold at the Hunters Guild.

He was sad because his strength is still low to handle multiple high-level ants at the same time.

He started to bite his teeth and started circulating 20th move of mana exercise. He felt a wall blocking him from completing the 20th move.

He will be able to create a mana seal in his mana space once he breaks through and complete the 20th move.

It will increase his strength permanently by a small percentage, but it will be useful. After he creates the seal, he will have to start the move again from the first and it will be more painful as it will be the first move of the second set.

3 high-level ants came towards him and started attacking him. He was only able to block them but unable to attack due to their coordination.

He continued circulating his mana trying to break the wall to create the mana seal, but he failed at every attempt. His body is fully covered with wounds now.

He was frustrated as he is unable to break the wall. He used it to push the 20th move forward and to his surprise, the wall broke and he started to feel his mana drain from the storage.

He looked into his mana space and can see that a seal is being formed and it is using a lot of his mana from his storage.

The mana seal is formed and he felt his strength and agility increase. He also felt a cooling sensation all over his body.

He looked down and could see all his wounds have been healed. It is one of the effects of creating the mana seal. It will also help him to heal quickly in the future.

Every time he creates a seal his healing will be quicker. He was happy to form his first seal.

He checked his mana storage and found it to be reduced to less than 20%. So he started to absorb the mana from the surroundings.