Sanctuary: Safe Haven

Canna and the beast eyed each other down. The wolf's speed was a problem; if that wasn't enough, it had an extra head. Both heads snarling in unison, their eyes glowing with a vicious hunger.

Canna's heart pounded in his chest, remembering the pain from his last fight, but fear was not an option. He remembered her father's stories back on Earth about wolves' incredible speed and ferocity. He knew he had to rely on his agility and quick thinking.

The battle began in a whirlwind of movement. Canna darted and weaved, his tiny frame evading the wolf's snapping jaws. He struck with precision, his daggers connecting with the beast's thick hide, but it seemed impervious to his blows. The wolf lunged, one head aiming for his legs while the other snapped at his upper body.

Canna leaped into the air, flipping over the wolf and landing behind it, striking again before the beast could turn.

Despite his speed, the fight was grueling. The wolf's dual heads meant she had to be constantly aware of attacks from multiple angles. Fatigue began to set in, and Canna remembered a trick Mortem had taught him. Determined, he shifted his strategy, aiming his strikes at the beast's eyes. With a swift and powerful blow, he temporarily blinded one head, causing the wolf to howl in pain and confusion.

Seizing the moment, Canna launched a multitude of water arrows aimed at the wolf's vital parts, sharper and fiercer than ever. He quickly closed the distance and spun around, using the momentum to deliver a crushing strike to the second head. The wolf staggered, its ferocity slowly waning as it succumbed to the injuries.

With one last effort, Canna struck the wolf's neck with his daggers; he left the daggers inside the beast's neck, conjured a sword made out of water, and quickly swung it down the other head, lopping it off with one great swing.

The battle was brutal and bloody; the massive body fell into the ground lifeless, followed by a silhouette of a child jumping from its back with blood smeared all over his face and body.

The sight of an eight-year-old kid with blood all over his body holding a water sword looked ominous to anyone who would look at him. To anyone that is except Mortem, he had the same eyes as a father who looks proudly at his son for achieving an incredible feat.

Tonitrum was impressed; Canna used less than half of his mana reserves in that fight. So, as an impromptu gift, he opens the portal again and summons tens of goblins and kobolds for Canna to fight again.

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Later that day, Canna sat before a fire, roasting some random monster meat to fill his mana reserves faster and satiate his gnawing hunger. At first, Mortem offered to do such mundane tasks, but the meat would either be charred or burned to ashes. Not wanting to waste more meat, he commanded Mortem to leave all the cooking to him.

Canna looked to the side and saw at least 50 small mana cores from low-rating monsters and three medium-rating mana cores from the two trolls and the two-headed wolf. He wasn't in a rush to absorb the cores, so he only stored them at his side.

After a hearty meal, he went straight to Mortem to continue with his spell training. Canna had mastered all the water basic and medium spells, slowly reaching advanced and complicated spells. Still, Mortem told him that their lesson for today would be for wind spells.

They started with basic wind spells such as Wind Cutter, Wind Arrow, Wind Purify, and so forth. Canna was enthusiastic about learning wind spells; there were two distinct skills he wanted to know based on Mortem's teachings.

First was the "Fly" spell, and the second was the "Purify Wind," the reason he wanted to learn these two the most was not for any offensive reason; he remembers his life back on Earth walking through the large sanctuary was too time-consuming and energy-draining, there was also a particular memory where he had to clean foul and rancid enclosures.

He thanked his lucky stars for having a great affinity with wind and water since that would help him a lot when the time came to build his sanctuary.

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Canna had a strict schedule, after waking up in the morning (he assumes it's morning since his sense of time is already messed up) he would go straight with practicing spells with Mortem and a little combat practice after, at lunch he eats a full meal then goes to Tonitrum.

Tonitrum made it a point that Canna would have to fight different powerful creatures every day and apply everything he has learned from Mortem's teachings, after that, he would get healed to continue with his spell training, and to end the day he would have to face ten goblin warriors, ten kobold mages and sometimes Tonitrum would put one or two goblins with a medium rating to join the fray.

Canna was pushed to his limits and beyond. Mortem taught him the ancient arts of combat and magic. Each day was a test of endurance, strength, and willpower.

That daily schedule of his was nothing but suicide; speaking about suicide he was at death's door nine times in one week, Tonitrum made him face a monster called the "Stone Devil" which would instantly petrify his whole body if he made eye contact with the creature.

The only saving grace was even though the creature was of a higher ranking than him it only lasted three hits from a clean shot with the combination of wind and water arrows.

Seeing Canna's monstrous progress with every battle, Tonitrum was slightly impressed, he wanted to test his limits once again and what other perfect timing could there be when the object of his entertainment was fast asleep, recovering from an exhausted day.

While Canna was in dreamland the black portal was summoned again above Tonitrum, Mortem saw this and wanted to warn Canna but a strong barrier kept him in place, not even telepathy would work, he tried casting a spell but even that didn't work, the only thing he can do was look at his master's sleeping figure while a huge monster jumps out from the portal.