Chapter 240 Volume IV - Chapter 85: Beginning of the Actual Training
I slowly emerged from the bushes where I was hiding. It didn't matter anyway. It had already spotted me.
Gripping my spear tightly, I thought as I approached the field, toward my target.
Dinosaurs... predators that lived on Lunerra millions of years ago.
When Lithoa told me about them, I didn't even know Lunerra had existed for millions of years, let alone have the slightest idea why a species that had gone extinct in the past was here.
Still, if Lithoa suggested that I hunt them, I figured that if they had become extinct once in the past, they wouldn't be too challenging...
"Rhooaaargh!"
My hands were shaking as a four-meter-tall 'dinosaur' with two big feet and two tiny hands for its size roared furiously in front of me, looking up toward the sky.
How many times is this?
It must have been the second day without a single mouthful... It's been two days since my first battle with this one dinosaur, hasn't it?
Hunger is hitting me in the head...
I've been fighting the same dinosaur for two days, I can wound it, but I can't kill it. My spear can cut through its body, but it can't go deep. When I try to make a surprise attack, it instantly knows where I am as if someone was whispering in its ear. Each time I have to fight for a bit and then run away.
What's worse, it's just a cub. Not a baby, but not yet an adult. At least according to Lithoa.
When the four-meter cub finished roaring, it lowered its head and looked at me as if the countless fresh cuts on its body were getting on its nerves. It tensed slightly, then ran at me, its big feet pounding the ground.
With each step the ground trembled and the trees around us shook.
I bent the tip of my spear slightly, took the basic stance of the first movement of the Qilsak Style and my mana spread throughout my body.
I planted my feet firmly on the ground, making sure I wouldn't be thrown anywhere no matter what, and let go of the breath I was holding when the dinosaur opened its huge mouth and lunged to tear me apart.
The tip of my spear rose quickly, the mana from my body glowing as it flowed into it, and a tremendous weight suddenly fell on it.
I withdrew the force of my feet pressing hard against the ground and quickly pushed myself to the left.
I spun around, supported by the weight on my spear, and when the dinosaur realized that it was in a position where it could not bite me, it tried to crush me with the side of its head, but I did not let it.
I quickly aimed my spinning spear at its weakest point, its eye, and pushed it away.
It was the first opportunity I'd had in days, and it must have gotten fed up with me because it was in more of a hurry than usual.
I was not one to miss this opportunity.
I glared at the dinosaur's pupils as my spear, propelled by the momentum its weight gave it, ended up right in front of its eyes. I watched the spear race past it, yet I felt it didn't go very deep.
The dinosaur roared in pain, but it didn't stop the head it was using to crush me. On the contrary, it tried to attack even more fiercely.
I pulled my spear out of its eye, quickly plunged it into the ground, shielded myself and put my weight behind it. Then I used the skill I still hadn't gotten used to using, the Wrath of the Vines.
The vines rose quickly from where I had stuck my spear and attacked the first living thing they saw: the dinosaur.
The dinosaur's head hit my spear, I felt a tremendous force, but I gritted my teeth.
Even though I had stuck my spear in the ground, it tried to drag and throw me along with the same ground, but the force was cut off as the vines began to wrap around its body.
I knew it wouldn't be enough though, it would soon tear the vines apart, just as it had done for two days.
I pulled my spear out of the ground and used the short time I had to attack his leg muscles one after the other.
Moving in accordance with the style I had learned, I put more weight into my attacks, attacking as hard as I could, while using the second movement of the style to neutralize my own weight and increase my speed.
In the space of just two seconds, I unleashed four different attacks, each one building on the wounds I had inflicted over the days, creating even deeper ones.
I couldn't help but be surprised when the dinosaur's blood splattered on my spear, my clothes, and my face as it struggled to break free from the vines.
It was the first time its blood had flowed so violently and clearly. Attacking the same spots over and over again was finally paying off.
The dinosaur finally got rid of the vines, tore them off like they were nothing, and roared again, trying to bite me. It staggered because of the wound on its foot, but it didn't lose its balance.
I jumped up, tried to get above its head, and succeeded. I quickly went for its remaining eye, which was still intact, but before I could move my spear, it shook violently.
I lost my balance, slipped, and found myself in mid-air. Before I could regain my composure, a blur descended over me and I found the dinosaur's huge foot on top of me.
I gritted my teeth, then used Guardian Radiance and Wrath of the Vines at the same time.
Countless vines burst out of the ground and attacked the foot that was about to crush me, and I tried to scramble to my feet as the glow that enveloped my body reduced my pain and healed me.
The vines wrapped around and around the dinosaur's foot, I had poured so much mana into it that they had managed to stop it, not just slow it down.
At the same time, they were not normal vines, they were angry and aggressive, as the name of the skill suggests.
The vines first unbalanced the dinosaur, then caused it to go over the edge.
The dinosaur roared and tried to struggle, to get rid of the vines wrapped around its body, but it couldn't. On the contrary, the vines became even more fierce and moved toward the dinosaur's head. They widened the countless wounds on its body.
A cry of agony echoed through the area. I drew one last mana from my almost depleted reserves and spread it throughout my body, finally standing up and lunging at the dinosaur's neck.
I gripped my spear tightly in both hands, clenched my teeth as hard as I could, and attacked.
It was a horizontal attack, it made a cut on the neck of the dinosaur as it tried to get up, but it didn't go very deep.
I didn't stop my spear, letting everything else go as my movements dragged it into a steady flow, adding weight to the weight of mana that was steadily accumulating on it. I put as much as I could into the first movement of Qilsak Style.
One after another, each attack heavier and more powerful than the last, steadily widening the cut in the dinosaur's neck.
Blood splattered on me, the dinosaur struggled more violently each time, but it was futile. The vines became even more aggressive with the blood splashing on them. Together with me, they attacked the wound on the dinosaur's neck.
Seconds passed, and painful roars turned to weak growls. The trembling that shook the ground slowly subsided, and finally my spear reached the jugular vein.
Liters of blood poured out of the wound in an instant and splashed into the air. It watered my clothes, the vines, and the soil.
Finally, I stopped swinging my spear, came to my senses, and looked at the dinosaur.
A few faint growls came out of its split neck, but that was it. Soon the growling stopped, its body no longer moved and the last gleam in its eye faded away.
The vines began to shrivel up as their target died, as if rotting, and finally, my eyes widened.
I won... I... I did it!
I put my hand on my chest, felt my heartbeat, my throat burning from breathing so fast, my lungs straining against my rib cage. I was also out of mana.
It hurt, my body was literally on fire. And yet I had done it, I had finally hunted a creature, even if it was just a cub, I had survived in the depths of the Neutral, and I had even obtained my own food.
'Well done, you fought well. Now... every day from now on I will show you a new creature and you will try to hunt it.'
Ah...
Of course, this is just the beginning.
'And from now on you won't fight the creatures straight. There are things I want you to learn from them. You will concentrate on them and only try to kill your target when I see fit.'
So, my training is just beginning, actually...
I leaned on my spear and looked down at the creature I had killed, then a gentle meow echoed across the field. Kari, in her snow-white fur, appeared above the dinosaur's lifeless body.
She looked at me with pride, as if I were a baby learning to walk for the first time.
I smiled when I saw her, finally feeling a weight lifted from me, and I stopped holding back, not caring what happened.
As my vision faded into darkness, as I fell to the ground, I had no worries because Kari was with me.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶