Chapter 87: Difficult situation.

The cat pounced and slammed directly onto Crule’s chest. If he didn’t concentrate his aura to his front side, the slam would have directly penetrated his chest and eviscerated him. Crule was knocked back several meters and skid on the floor a few times before he finally came to a stop.

He coughed up some blood and felt winded. It checked around and it seemed even with his aura cushioning a majority of the pounce’s force, he still manage to break a rib. Crule smiled and wiped the blood flowing down his chin. This beast will definitely satisfy his need.

The beast circled Crule with a careful approach. It could feel just how strong his prey’s defense was but it was confident in its victory. It just didn’t want any surprises as it had learned from previous mistakes.

The cat use to rule a large territory but one day it felt a powerful energy surge. His rival challenged him to another fight for alpha male as they always had. The lynx was confident in its victory but it got careless and was utterly defeated. He was shunned and driven out of his territory and he entered the mountains to lick his wounds.

Crule and the lynx circled each other. Crule was trying to heal his wound with his energy. They were both cautious of each other’s attacks. Crule realize he can’t use range attacks against this lynx because it is just too fast. It could easy dodge a majority of his bullets and beams.

Wracking his mind trying to find an easy solution to this fight, Crule figure this was not going to be the easy fight he assumed. He manipulated his aura into a spiked shell to try to deter the lynx from directly pouncing on him.

The cat’s reflective eye stare directly at him as it circles him. As Crule started to change his aura shield, the cat became agitated as tried to attack him. Another pounce but this time paired with a powerful scratch. Crule barely ducks in time and the wall behind him was left with a deep scar. While Crule was under the cat, he kicked upwards and it hit the cat on the abdomen. It flinched but its strong muscles mitigated the blow. Crule barely manage to put some of his aura into his kick and it dug deeper. The cat was blown upwards. It did a flip and landed back on its paws a few meters away.

Quickly getting back up, Crule once again stared at the cat. He realize he was still fast enough to dodge the cat as long as it doesn’t have the time to wind up a pounce similar to its first one.

Suddenly, the cat started to disappear. It was using its innate ability that gave it its name of gestalt. Crule quickly spread his aura across the room. Using it, he could sense where the cat was although he couldn’t see it.

But it was a little too late. The cat had enough time to wind up a pounce. It lunged at Crule at blinding speeds.

Crule tried to dodge the attack but it looked like it was not going to be possible with the sheer pouncing speed the lynx had. Knowing the only part on him that could withstand such a powerful claw was his metal hand, he prepared to grab the lynx.

The cat knew something was wrong and tried to twist its body mid jump to alter its course but Crule still manage to get his hand on one of the lynx’s limbs.

Crule’s arm muscles tighten as large amounts of energy pulsed through it. With a powerful swing, Crule toss the lynx toward the wall. The lynx slammed into it with a loud crash leaving a sizable hole. It made a sort of a whimper and slowly crawled back up. It seemed to be under shock by the collision.

Sensing where it is within his aura domain, he quickly rushed to it with spawned a famine blade on his metal hand and slashed it toward the lynx. It was under shock but its instincts still allow it to barely avoid the attack. Crule quickly extended the blade mid attack and it nicked the lynx. It was now bleeding from its side.

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The lynx glared at Crule menacingly with anger. Crule just laughed at its futile struggle. It seems the blades manage to puncture the lynx’s lung. It was having slight difficulty breathing.

[Crule]: Consider it revenge for breaking my rib.

Crule spoke in a low voice. The lynx snarled as if it understood what Crule said. Once again the two circled each other hoping for an opening. Normally the lynx would run away against such opponent but this time its pride forced it to stay. It was not about to lose a second time.

It became enraged. It pounced and started to blindly attack Crule. It seem to have lost its previous intelligence in fury.

Crule took this chance to get in some cuts and punctures on the lynx. It slowly became one-sided but suddenly, the lynx changed. It started to emit a powerful aura as its shallow cuts began to heal.

[Crule]: Shit, it has a vitality attribute.

The lynx still was attacking in a berserk frenzy but now with its minor wounds healing, it could afford to do so. Meanwhile, Crule was on the losing side as he started to get cuts and scratches left and right. Even if Crule could sense where the beast is, the lack of visual of it still allow perfect dodging to be impossible. Crule’s grin slowly turned into a frown. The situation does not look good. He would either need to flee or to finish this battle fast.

But how?

He wracked his brain on thinking of a method he could use to win while constantly dodging the berserk lynx.

Remembering back to what he put in his spatial storage, he tried to find an item he could use. Then he remembered an item that could help with this situation.

[Crule]: Why have I not thought of it earlier?

Crule was now bleeding quite a lot through many small cuts. His breathing is ragged and his entire body was screaming with fatigue. He reached into his spatial storage and took out a gem. This kind of gem was highly reactive. The gem had mysterious properties that could absorb and store energy. But once the energy exceed its storage capacity, it explodes. It acts as sort of a propulsion grenade. The main damage isn’t from shrapnel but rather the shockwave emitting from the explosion.

He started to store large amounts of energy into the gem. If not for his ungodly large energy capacity, he would have already lose consciousness by now due to energy depletion. The gem emitted a powerful light covering the entire cave room in its brilliance.

The gem blinded the beast and for a split second, it stopped its berserk onslaught. Crule quickly dashed toward the beast and slammed his metal hand with the gem into the lynx’s mouth. With a muffled explosion, smoke seeped out of the lynx’s mouth and nose. It looked like the shockwave have caused brain trauma and the beast was now completely subdued.

The shockwave however still manage to hurt Crule and knocked the air out of him. While in great pain, Crule stored the beast into his spatial storage. It puts the beast in stasis so it would not struggle when it recovers. After finally winning that difficult fight, Crule dragged his battered body to a safe area in the cave. He didn’t want one of the legion eyes to attack him in the state he is in right now. Breathing roughly, Crule passes out in a small hole in the side of the cave walls. He fell asleep with a grin on his face.

Right before he passed out, he thought to himself.

[Crule]: Two down…