*Bam!*
The deer snapped the tree’s trunk with a single charge. Jay hurriedly leaped back, avoiding it.
Unfortunately for him, the deer continued onward, bulldozing all the trees in its path.
"…" Jay needed at least one second to gather his strength so that he could stop this charge, but the deer didn’t plan to give it to him. It planned to chase after Jay until the latter didn’t have the stamina to run away anymore.
In addition, if one of the beasts hindered Jay even just for a second, the antlers would hit Jay and smash him to the ground.
Clovis could help him by shooting the deer from behind, but this would just break the promise to Jay.
They both had to take down their respective enemies without getting any help.
Jay couldn’t help but recall what Hana’s butler said to him back then.
"Your current footwork emphasizes the surge of strength coming from the lower body. While it gives you good explosive strength, it takes too long to charge that energy. Instead of focusing on your legs to stomp the ground, why don’t you try moving your entire body down for one or two centimeters?"
After that advice, Jay had been doing it by shifting his center of gravity down. It was indeed faster, but his original footwork remained the foundation. In addition, after shifting the center of gravity, it would push the weight to his feet and give him a surge of strength.
However, the butler’s advice actually wanted him to break free from that footwork. No, it could be said that he wanted to make his footwork into something more refined.
Jay couldn’t help but glance at Ragna, remembering their sparring.
Back then, Ragna managed to stop him for a while. Normally, a smaller person would have less strength. In addition, Jay was also boosted by his Muscle affinity.
Normally, he should have blasted him away in a single swing. So why could Ragna manage to block him multiple times?
There was only one answer.
Jay turned around and extended his sword, trying to hit the antlers. The deer adjusted its head slightly to block it, but Jay skillfully moved the sword underneath the antlers.
After that, Jay leaped back to match the deer’s speed before swinging his blade up. Because he jumped, there was no strength supporting this swing, which resulted in him actually pushing himself down to the ground.
Yes, Jay actually used his opponent’s weight to push himself down. That butler said, ’moving your entire body down’ instead of lowering his center of gravity. So, it was his misinterpretation.
The only way to push his body down was by using the opponent’s attack. This was what Ragna did to block his attacks during sparring.
Now that he had pushed himself down, his feet ended up pressing against the ground and a surge of strength bounced back to his upper body.
Using his legs as a spring, Jay swung his blade up.
*Reee!* The deer was stunned when its body was knocked up. It hurriedly pushed its body down before Jay could stab his body, but that was never Jay’s intention.
The moment the deer landed back on the ground, Jay struck the antlers from above.
"Haaaa!" He shouted. There was one thing that the deer didn’t realize this whole time. Even in the midst of a fierce fight, Jay had been striking the same spot over and over again.
And with this newfound strength, Jay struck that spot once more.
*Crack!*
"!!!" The deer widened its eyes and hurriedly lowered its head so that the antlers didn’t snap.
However, the battle had shifted greatly as Jay could finally become more aggressive from this point on.
Unknown to him, there was another threat coming to their area.
Clovis, who had been cutting down the beasts to protect Jay, abruptly stopped as though he noticed something. Even Melody called his name out loud.
"Clovis!" Melody panicked while showing the radar.
Even without her saying it, Clovis was actually seeing the movement of the beasts with his own eyes. No, the ones making Melody panic weren’t the beasts around them. Instead, there was another wave of beasts approaching from the north.
And Clovis saw a three meter tall bird running at the front. The bird looked like an ostrich, but with a glaring red color. It was spreading its big wings while letting out a cry.
"Not good." Clovis bit his lips. Jay hadn’t killed the deer, and there was another opponent coming with at least a hundred beasts.
*Bang!*
*Bang!*
Several shots echoed from the side, killing the beasts around Clovis.
When he glanced, he saw that Kanaria and Melody were the ones killing these beasts. Both of them had a resolute expression on their faces, saying the same thing.
Clovis couldn’t help but smile. Back then, Jay had to fight two Tier 3 beasts by himself in order to give him time to kill the incoming beast wave.
However, they had grown a lot stronger than at that time. They had even fought against the true Tier 3 beasts.
Because it was his first time with the group, Ragna was the only one expressing his emotion as if asking Clovis to retreat.
But he soon got his answer when Clovis smiled.
"I’m going."
Both Kanaria and Melody smiled as they rushed to Jay’s position. They would be replacing Clovis’s role in protecting Jay from all these beasts.
"Leave it to us!" Kanaria raised her rifle, ready for mid or close range combat in order to kill all the beasts around Jay.
"Hey, new guy. Keep up with us!" Melody smirked, staring at Ragna with a confident expression.
"We should retreat. There are simply too many beasts. He is going to fight a Tier 3 beast along with a hundred beasts, you know!" Ragna shouted.
"You’re underestimating our captain too much." Kanaria snorted while Melody added, "We all have our specializations, like Jay’s strength, my shooting skill, or Melody’s guidance… But in this group, Clovis is known as the killing machine."
Clovis sped up even more and cut down the beasts, advancing much faster than when he carried Jay. In fact, all of them knew that Clovis slowed himself down to match their pace. Now that they didn’t have to worry about his team, Clovis could finally unleash his true power.
*Roar!*
*Ro—!*
*Arrr—!*
The beasts couldn’t even finish their roars as they had been cut down by Clovis.
In just five seconds, he cut down more than ten beasts and finally arrived in front of the terror bird.
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Ragna, who witnessed everything, couldn’t help but drop his jaw to the ground.