For the next few days, Rex barely allowed himself to rest as he journeyed through the forest while giving his all to fight and develop himself.
More than once, during the few encounters where he met an advanced mystic beast or a group of intermediate mystic beasts, Rex was close to death but his great Vampire vitality and Grey helped him through it all.
His most harrowing encounter was when he flew into the territory of a mystic Owl Clan that lay deep in the forest.
Barging into unknown territory was a taboo in the Great Forest of Elias, Rex broke this unspoken rule because he was always strong enough. This time though, he met beasts that were stronger than him.
The Owls fought and pursued him for a long distance, leaving Grey heavily injured in the process as he barely escaped by the skin of his teeth.
After that encounter, Rex had to spend 2 full days recovering from his severe injuries but he came out of the encounter stronger. In the mystic world, with risks came opportunities, this rule was simply universal.
As he trained like a maniac, his mystic energy limits also increased.
In the intermediate mystic warrior realm, instead of the previous 50 mystic energy limit to increase through a tier, 200 mystic energy limits were now needed.
After his maniacal training for the past few days, Rex was able to develop even without getting any system missions as he leveled through 2 tiers.
After another tiring night where he hunted alongside his transformed beast like maniacs, the night slowly faded away and this was when Rex decided to go rest.
Like usual, Rex found a location that could not be easily seen under the thick roots of the towering trees to hide. He yawned as his eyelids grew heavy.
Once Rex slept, he lost all perception of his surroundings.
…
A few minutes after Rex slept, as the sun slowly started peaking out of the veil of the night, the leaves of the tree under which Rex and his transformed beast slept started waving more frequently than those of other trees.
No sound was made, everything happened silently like they were a professional group of assassins as the group of 6 Jaguars got extremely close to the human. Before they could attack, Grey's eyes snapped open.
Grey was not startled by sound as the Jaguars were completely silent, what woke him was the familiar energy that he felt.
"Dark Mist powers!"
Once the Dark Mist Spider transmitted to his master, Rex woke up with a startle only to see a massive jaw filled with a fearsome set of teeth already closing down with speed and force to crush his skull into meat paste.
For an instant, Rex froze as everything happened so fast. He was barely waking up after a tiring night and he was already so close to death.
Due to the exhaustion and the new suppression from the sun, Rex's reflexes dulled a bit but he was barely able to activate an ability in his mind.
Perhaps, if this was a few months ago in his greenhorn experience deficient state, he would have not been able to react but having been in a few dozen near-death situations, Rex was able to stimulate himself to give his all and react.
[You have activated Martial Technique: Touch of Death!]
Once Rex activated this martial technique, he felt his blood churning, and instantly, he directed almost all the blood in his body to his forehead.
The Jaguar's deadly rows of teeth finally dug into his head as Rex felt a sharp spike of pain but he retaliated as he head-butted the Jaguar's jaws.
Bam!
Once Rex head-butted the jaguar, blood burst from the point of collision as all the blood concentrated before dealing single-touch damage to the Jaguar.
The next moment, the Jaguar roared in pain as its jaws were literally fragmented into pieces by the lethal attack. It did not survive it.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: Dark Mist Jaguar!]
[You have gained 18 mystic energy points!]
[You have suffered a Concussion to the brain!]
Even as Rex's head bled, his vision grew dizzy due to the attack on his head as he could barely keep himself from falling unconscious.
This was when the remaining 5 Jaguars pounced on him to finish him off but Grey was a step ahead as he rushed to protect his master valiantly.
Hiss!!!
5 against 1 was too much for Grey, the Jaguars pummeled the Dark Mist Spider as they also used their Dark Mist powers to oppress him.
In just a bit, they proved that they had even better proficiency with the dark mist powers. They could create different mystic effects at will, obscuring Grey's vision as this enabled them to attack him unrestrained from blind spots.
Grey who was still recovering from his previous injuries got heavily injured again in the blink of an eye, he could only hiss in deviance and anger.
On hearing his transformed beast's hisses, Rex finally recovered a bit despite still feeling dizzy as he instantly accessed his storage ring.
Rex brought out 5 blood bags as he downed their contents instantly. With such extravagant consumption, he finally finished his stockpile of blood bags.
This left his future uncertain but Rex did not care at the moment. If he could not survive this ambush, then thinking of the future was of no use.
Even as his injuries started recovering, Rex grabbed Berserker again as he reentered the battle by starting with his strongest skill immediately.
[You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana Slash!]
Boom!
The attack landed with force, heavily injuring one of the Jaguars as the others separated, finally relieving Grey from the pincer attack.
Before the others could react, Rex pounced on the injured Jaguar as his Blood Tome appeared out of his storage ring and floated before him.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Blood Drain!]
Rex used a needle stab attack to drill his sword into the Jaguar's skull as its blood started being rapidly drained, the Jaguar twitched a bit before going limb.
[You have killed…]
Rex ignored his system notification as he continued his fast-paced attack.
[You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move- Splitting Slash!]
Whoosh!
This time, Rex was only able to barely injure the Jaguars as they all dodged on time. They retaliated as they covered Rex with the Dark Mist.
One of them disappeared before appearing the next moment from the dark mist beside Rex's face as its lethal claws dug in and inflicted a deep cut across his exposed cheek.
Grey hissed as its master was injured again as it rejoined the attack. This time, Grey made use of its intelligence and activated a really useful skill.
Once Grey activated the Dark Mist skill, a dark cloud covered Rex, and instantly, the suppression of the sun disappeared as Rex could fight at his peak again. Instantly, his eyes turned red as he grabbed his sword tighter.
With his free left hand, Rex gently poked the Jaguar that clawed at his cheek.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Life Drain- Killing Touch!]
The Jaguar whimpered in fear as its body rapidly shrank. The next moment, Rex unsheathed one of his Death Daggers and separated its head from its body.
[You have killed…]
While Rex dealt with that Jaguar, of the remaining 2, one already got him on his right leg as the long teeth of the Jaguar penetrated his skin.
"Ugh!" Rex groaned in pain as he gritted his teeth.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
Grey fired poison at the Jaguar as Rex turned before ruthlessly stabbing Berserker straight through the Jaguar's neck. Instead of letting go, the Jaguar instead added pressure to its bite as Rex's leg almost got separated from his body.
Rex roared as the pain from his leg became too much even as the last Jaguar pounced on him, biting him on the neck. Amid the extreme pain, Rex managed to activate another skill.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Phasing- Short-range Teleportation!]
Bzzz!
Rex briefly disappeared and reappeared behind the 2 Jaguars.
"Die!"
This time, a bloody-eyed Rex attacked with a vengeance as Berserker easily removed one of the unsuspecting Jaguar's heads, ending its life for good.
[You have killed…]
Rex ignored his system and went for the last kill but it did not connect.
The last Jaguar was startled by its opponent suddenly disappearing but it reacted before Rex could attack as, without hesitation, it turned and escaped deep inside the forest out of Rex's reach.
[Warning! You are in a critically damaged state!]
Even as his Vampire physique and vitality worked to heal his injuries, Rex groaned again as he tried to sit down and rest his injured right leg but he stopped the next moment as he heard the sound of thudding footsteps.
Rex turned only to see a group of humans running from a Lion pride.
"Oh, sh*t!"
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