Bang!!!

Saquin crashed through a ton of rocks before he breached into the surface.

The lioness beast right at his tail.

Just as his ascent slowed, another claw attack hit him, sending him into the ground again.

Bang!

Saquin did not wait to catch his breath as he rolled to his side.

The beast violently crashed into his former spot. It had literally wanted to bury him with its body.

Saquin was not going to let the two hits he had received slide.

His feet dug into the ground as he shot forward.

The beast was quick to a recovery as it reacted as soon as Saquin closed in. It lunged forward, trying to maul him with its terrifying jaws.

Saquin did not falter, he deftly avoided the attack by dodging to the right side. After his successful dodge, his fist met with the beast skull, consecutively.

By now he knew the beats were incredibly tolerant to physical damage and was even capable of healing, so he decided to supplement that by increasing the tempo.

To an incredible degree.

Before the beast could properly adjust itself, Saquin had delivered over ten punches to its head.

And as soon as it got its orientation, Saquin had moved under the beast with a single fluid motion.

A wind up punch to its guts sent the beats into the air where Saquin quickly met it and delivered it another one.

Bang!

The beast crashed into the ground and Saquin followed right after with a little push of his wings.

His wings appeared but for a few seconds, all just so he would succeed in where the beats failed.

His body crashed into the beast, burying it further into the ground.

He promptly blinked away.

Standing a few meters away from the crash site, Saquin had a frown on his face.

The beast was fine.

Not a scratch.

In fact Saquin felt it had grown even a little bigger, plus, its new purple aura was definitely thicker.

I hope it isn't what I am thinking.

Saquin had a thought but quickly dismissed it. It was super unlikely. A beast with such an ability would be too broken.

He did not have much time to think again as the beast came right back at him with more fervor than before.

Saquin as always easily avoided each of its attacks.

In the course of the bout, he decided to utilize his other unused active skills.

First, { Cold Fist }.

As soon as he activated the skill, he felt both his hands grow sturdier. Stealing a glance at them between dodges, he noticed that they were covered with a layer of ice-fog.

He decided to put them to the test immediately.

An uppercut to the beast was his first instance of his use.

The beast staggered back.

Saquin was sure he had seen the spot he had hit frozen over for just an instant. Cold fog was even drifting out of the beast's maul.

He did not relent on his attack though.

Fist after fist shot out. Hit after gist connected.

After over twenty plus fists. Saquin shot back, deciding to reevaluate his opponent.

The { Cold Fist } was not bad.

It creates Ice energy around his hands and also makes them way sturdier so they take less damage when hitting things.

Also, just like when he used Dead Cold, it corrupts its target by spreading Ice energy inside them.

It would be even stronger if he decides to implore the Ability when using the skill.

It was just... His opponent was really strong.

This thing is practically immune to blunt force trauma.

The { Cold Fist } would not cut it as it is.

Except...

Saquin flexed his hands as he unfurled them from the shape of fists.

Then.

Shinnn!!!

The sound of blades being drawn.

Claws extended from his hands. White in color with feathers delicately embroidered on each of them.

{ Core: Clawed Grasp (Armour-Weapon) }

As soon as the claws appeared, his { Cold Fist } energy permeated it and it soon became filled with Ice energy. It was sturdier and also possessed the Ice poison attribute now.

Evidence:

[ Your Core { Clawed Grasp } has gained the Ice Poison Attribute temporarily. ]

"Let's go again, oversized cat."

Rawwwrrrr!!!

The beast was not pleased with the name, it exerted even more strength and shot towards Saquin with greater speed than it had shown so far.

But it was still futile, Saquin was extremely fast.

But a second after evading the beast attack, he had left two claw marks on its body.

The claws backed up by his Senar and his skill, it was more than strong and sharp enough to hurt the beast.

The wound was not really deep, but it still managed to draw blood.

But the blood did not flow down as the spot gradually went blue in color, it was frozen.

Saquin admired his work for a second before he went on the offensive again.

But the beast was not having it this time.

It opened its mouth and roared.

Saquin had a bad feeling and so, he blinked.

Twenty meters up in the air, Saquin looked down as he saw the purple stream of energy shot out of the beast mouth.

Boom!

A resounding explosion reached his ears as the attack levelled up a sizable amount of land.

"Oh, it seems it isn't playing any longer." Saquin commented as he blinked.

He appeared by the beast side, his claws cut a large gash into the side.

At that brief moment, he noticed that the earlier inflicted wounds were almost healed up by the beast in that short amount of time.

But he did not bother with this.

As soon as the beast reacted, sending its massive claw on him, his form disappeared.

He tapped into an Ability for the first time in the fight.

[ Assassin Rune ]

Of his Abilities, this was now the most vague and least understood. The one that held the position before was [ Unliving ], but now he had a little understanding of what that Ability did.

For his [ Assassin Rune ], he utilized his one and only Rune, yet.

{ Conceal }.

He felt the Rune heat up in his hand as Senar flowed into it.

And from that moment on, the beast could no longer track him.

The Rune may not make him invisible to the naked eyes, but it did so for all other senses.

Without outright seeing or touching him, one cannot discover Saquin's presence or even his traces.

Pairing the Rune with his Martial Skill, he delivered hell into the beast.

For the next few minutes, the beast was tormented by attacks it could not track.

From behind, then above, then below, to the sideways.

It was soon left bloodied, but contrary to what would be expected from the extent of its wound, the ground below it was not a pool of blood.

This was of course due the fact that all the attacks had that tinge of Ice poison in it. Each wound showed signs of frostbite as the veins in their immediate surroundings were blacked up.

Bang!

The beast hit the ground in both pain and cold.

The Ice Poison effect was way worse internally. Blood slowed down to a crawl, heart barely beating, organs nearly frozen shut, brain in a constant state of brain-freeze.

It was really not a pleasant feeling.

Saquin could see that as he squatted down in front of the beast.

Grrr. Grrr.

There were growls of protest from the beast as it saw his face, but he ignored it.

It was practically done for. Right now it could barely defend itself, talk less of attacking him.

"I should put you out of your misery."

He flipped his hands over as his sword appeared in it.

"It is nothing personal, you attacked me first." Saquin stated.

The beast was no longer protesting, it just laid there staring at him with pure malice in its eyes.

"You really should work on your attitude." Saquin, looking at those eyes, chuckled to himself.

He brought his sword up to stab through the beast's eyes into its brain.

But

He stopped abruptly as for the second time in the month, he felt a heart pounding dread.

The last time it was from Greader's arrow, this time...

It was from the beast he had written off as defenceless.

His sword dispersed as he quickly brought both his arms to his chest as it was instantly eroded into black by his Soul-Bound, Black-Ink.

A life saving decision as it bore the brunt of the beast's purple aura filled claw attack.

But even at that.

[ Core(s): { Clawed Grasp }, {Grolly Armour}; are heavily damaged. ]

[ Do you wish to repair them. { 0/20 }

{ Yes } / { No } ]

Saquin staggered back as he stared in awe at the now completely healed beast before him.

Now close to four meters in height, it looked down at Saquin with its malice filled eyes.

Saquin noticed the purple aura, it was now close to twice its initial size.

"Fuck, it really has that sort of ability."

The ability to absorb damage and transform it into power.

Saquin was stunned with awe. An emotion that was heightened even further the next second.

{ Observe }.

He utilized the skill for the very first time and what he saw shocked him.

[ Viva ( Pinnacle-Class Grade One ) -- {Earth-Born} Purple Lion Senarbeast]

"Is that a?" Saquin muttered absentmindedly.

[ Yes... That was the captain's most valuable item, just after you and Shalis, a Divine Beast. ]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.