The warm ray of the morning sun revitalized me in my wake as I open my eyes from deep sleep. I inhale the fresh air of the wilderness with vigor as I try to stretch my muscles a bit, immediately perishing the sluggish state of just waking up and stared at the bright and clear infinity.
“It has been two days since the battle…..”
I muttered to myself as I gathered my focus and analyze the surroundings as I advanced towards the first safe checkpoints, which is the place where Annie left me with since I need some water.
The six moles were indeed useful.
In these two days, consecutively eating their meats strengthened my body by many times compared to before.
After stabilizing the surge of energy from the first breakthrough, I continued to ravish the remaining of their remains, and made another two breakthroughs before finally stabilizing the energy surge.
Needless to say, I didn’t forget to absorb their prana, making my meridians and prana veins stronger as well. The sensation was just too great, absorbing their energy provided me with the extraordinary feeling of being alive more and more.
With this, according the scale Annie mentioned, my base strength should be around the altered body 4th layer.
She did say that in order to participate in that whatever martial academy exam, I would need to at least be in the altered body 6th layer, excluding whether you are actually able to pass the exam with that level of strength or not.
Well, I have no idea what they are trying to test, but if it is a martial arts academy, then the exam material can be predicted and actually, no surprises included in it.
In any cases, I predicted that by the time I consumed and refined the rest of the moles in that place, I should be able to barely reach the 7th layer of altered body, or even make a new breakthrough to the 8th layer.
I also comprehended the wind claw perfectly, I can fire it in the same manner like the moles. However I didn’t stop at that.
Indeed, using my fingers, I can make five wind claws and lacerated a tree trunks the size of a meter radius it left five deep laceration marks.
However, when I tried to conjure a single wind claw with a sweep of sword hand, the force was enough to cut the tree in half in one attack.
Feeling unsatisfied with just that, I then conjured a wind claw using a roundhouse kick. The wind claw cut through more than five trees and finally stopped after nearly lacerating the twelfth tree in half.
Of course, although the firepower was seemingly satisfying, I musn’t forget that the nature of this attack is a slash. Against trees which has no prana defense to begin with, it might look amazing but if I were to casually use it and unknowingly provoke a creature I cannot handle, I would be courting my own death.
Not to mention, using this attack to kill enemies in one attack would prove to be difficult.
Although I still have so many theories on how to improve the usage of wind claws in order to face the various situations in battle, I can no longer hold the craving feeling towards water as I have been away from the river for two days straight.
Thus explain my slightly sullen mood.
I immediately sunk myself in the river as I bathe, washing away the pungent smell of blood lingering on my clothes and body. In the process, I drank the fresh river water with my hands in glee.
After satisfying my primary needs with the river water and dried my clothes, I advanced to the tallest tree I wanted to go before.
My feet treaded on the ground as I steadily advanced to the tallest tree, and slowly but surely delivering me to the place where the rest of the moles were keeping their formations.
My prana perception was getting stronger and stronger than before, I can exactly distinct the respective aura emanating from each of their bodies from the riverbed.
However, I tried to conceal the improvement of my senses from these moles proficient in assassinations and stepped on to the 50 meters distance from their formation like before.
However, unlike last time they didn’t give me the chance to think and immediately burrowed out of the ground before advancing themselves towards me, aiming for my death.
I, however, didn’t let myself be killed by these guys.
In an instant, I conjured a wind claw with my roundhouse kick, suddenly cutting four moles at the forefront in half.
In utter panic and havoc, the moles behind tried to evade with their astounding bodily control before being heavily injured while profusely bleeding.
Twenty moles left to kill.
Even the moles who was the origin of this skill was instantly stunned, and the battlefield came to a standstill.
I, however, didn’t just stay silent in my position.
I kicked the ground and advanced towards the mole in my front, and conjured a stabbing wind claw with my spear hand, piercing the neck of the mole as it died in that instant. Massive amount of blood gushed out of the wound, staining the ground red as the pungent stench slowly but surely permeated the surrounding air.
As the mole’s neck was pierced, I swept my hand to the side and with that, its head rolled off the ground.
I see, so by maintaining the activation sequence of this wind claw, I can actually use it as an actual invisible sharp weapon than just firing it off like these moles.
Upon hearing the sound of their comrade’s head meeting the dirt, the moles began to frontally attack me with all they had. At that moment, they simultaneously brandished their wind claws, as I feel prana turbulence from their hands as it made sizzling sounds.
The situation had completely gone into a dog fight, one little me versus nineteen moles, two of them being the alpha and beta. Not that I would mind though, with the current performance I have now.
I conjured the wind claw and maintained the activation sequence in my hands as I made my move and charged forward deep into their formation. Although when I said formation, it was already in shambles.
The moles immediately engaged themselves in close combat with me, brandishing the wind claws at close range to ascertain my death in a single strike.
The Alpha and Beta, however, maintained a certain distance and observed from a nearby tree branch as both stood still, unmoving.
Upon reaching just 5 meters in front of me, the nearest 9 moles immediately dispersed using their supreme bodily control and encircled me from the front, left and right; three in each direction.
‘In this distance, they will not conjure a wind claw when their comrades are in line of fire.’
I thought as such as I spun my body and immediately to my front while clawing the mole with my wind claws, in attempt to break off the encirclement.
As I maintained my charging speed, I spun my body like a top while keeping the wind claw solidified at all times as I chopped off two moles into bloody shreds. Pieces of flesh flew all over the place, as my spin pressed their momentum and kept them from attacking.
I however, didn’t fall to this trick of theirs.
I used the angular momentum of my spin as I turned my face back towards the moles behind me as I conjured a sweeping wind claw kick towards them.
Since it was actually their plan from the beginning, they had also conjured their respective wind claws, two being conjured straightly vertically, one horizontally, while the rest were conjured diagonally.
My intuition told me that this full powered wind claw kick will not breach through their wind claws, and so I pierced the air with my arms as I conjured another three stabbing wind claws and shot them towards the moles.
Boom!
The shockwave of my wind claw kick clashed head on with the moles wind claws, as it lacerated the air and blasted into palpitating, wild sharp wind prana at the impact point.
The stabbing wind claws, on the other hand, traveled through the chaotic sharp wind prana and tore through three necks of the moles.
Sixteen moles left.
From the remaining six in front of me, three dispersed and gained a distance while the other three brandished their claws, as they clashed with me in close combat.
One charged at me head on while thrusting its claws in a low posture, attempting to stab my body and kill me in one hit. The other stepped slightly to the rear and clawed the air, creating an X pattern as it conjured a wind claw, aiming to lacerate my head while at the same time sealing off my escape route.
Sure enough, since the distance was too short, although I could still predict their actions due to being able to sense and read the prana flow inside their body, my speed and agility couldn’t help me get out of the situation.
Since that is so….
I will use brute force to retaliate!
I lowered my posture a bit and gathered significant amount of prana towards my legs, as I then kicked with both legs straightly upwards, directly slicing the thrusting mole in half while at the same time, as it went through, collided with the X-shaped wind claws before finally triumphing over as if meeting no resistance and continued on to arc far behind the moles.
In this upside down posture of mine, the two moles which retreated before immediately conjured three wind claws each, as they ripped the air towards me, ensuring my death.
I rotated my body midair with acrobatic motion as I conjured solidified wind claws in my hands as I received them and parried each strikes. My hand felt the throbbing sensation those wind claws gave as sparks of sharp wind prana rattled wildly around me, overbearing the air with its might.
I took advantage of the momentum contained within each of these wind claw and retreated slightly after fixing my posture as I felt cold intuition behind me, as if being stared by an extremely deadly snake.
In an instant, I immediately jumped upwards and stepped onto tree branch after tree branch, evading the attack from behind me. The moles immediately gave chase, hot on my tail as I began advancing to the alpha, brandishing my wind claw into one sturdy blade of wind.
Noticing me aiming at it, the alpha and beta immediately conjured their wind claws and fired it towards me in a rapid fire manner; a single half of a second could actually give them the time to fire 8 wind claws.
This is bad.
I gathered all the prana inside of me and sent it towards my legs as I kicked the branch in full power. The branch immediately fell off, unable to withstand the force from my legs as I flew far, leaving them behind.
Holy shit. Although the altitude I gained the same height as before, I depleted almost 30% of my total prana reserves….
I am indeed still a novice.
Time and time again, I underestimated my opponent.
This time, although I can still a bigger guarantee that I will be able to kill all of them including the alpha and beta, it looks like I will have to pay a certain price, or somehow I have a new insight to resolve this situation….
“…….”
Hm.
With this body that had digested flesh, blood and prana of the mole, I gained a significant amount of control towards wind through the interference of nature with my prana. Not only that, my muscles and bones were also tempered to match the battle style of the moles too.
Is that the limit of the gains I attained from this?
The rumbling sounds of air reverberated in my ears as I relaxed all my body and mind, only to feel the wind.
Every matter in the universe have force. Be it moving or, standing by in position, force is contained within.
This is what I learned from feeling the wind.
However, the wind is never staying silent, because it is the most subtle existence among all matter that one can find in this world. Thus, every single action will affect the wind.
And with just a sweep of their hand, these moles can actually conjure a killing move capable of instantly lacerating the victim without leaving a single evidence that can lead the others that it did the deed.
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The question is…..
How will I use the wind with my current specs to kill all of them smoothly?
I conjured my prana as thin as possible like the wind, allowing them to permeate and collect information on the concept of wind.
However, the time I had was simply not enough to completely grasp the concept of wind. And at the same time, the moles had not ceased chasing me on my tail. At the same time, if I were to make rash movements just to evade, then I will surely be the one who gets tired first. But if I were to keep attacking, with the blunder I did just before, I won’t last till all of them died either.
“Eh…?”
Wait.
In the instance I permeated my prana to comprehend the concept of wind, I could somehow perceive the movements of wind in my surrounding. And as I willed, the wind propelled me upwards, slowing my descending speed as if I was a light feather blown by the gentle breeze.
“!!!”
Calm down, Haru.
With the range I have now, it will only serve to give me sharper detection of my surroundings, I am still incapable of using the wind to kill them.
However, this feeling of having my prana influencing the wind…. Was one big breakthrough I can’t just ignore.
I keep pouring my prana towards the surrounding air around me at the same time as I tried to feel the wind as I probed, trying to comprehend the concept of wind itself.
“…..”
The sizzling sounds of air brushing my body in my fall kept ringing in my ear as my fall increased in speed again, losing the propulsion the wind gave me before.
With a thought, I repeated what I did with the wind using my prana in my mind, and tried to initiate the same phenomenon using the same step I accidentally made.
Sure enough, the descending speed once again decreased, as I felt my body being slightly propelled by the wind, allowing me to fly for longer time.
Although when I said fly, it was only floating left and right with approximately a meter per second falling speed.
“Amazing….. I stumbled upon something functioning nearly similar to [Soar]….”
With this unintentional invention, it will bolster my mobility in battles by far, since jumping from tree to tree just with my legs consumed stamina very much while using the concept of wind to tread lightly like this, although there are still urgency and room for improvements, cost far less energy than just jumping.
Even if I were to go full speed, I can save more stamina to cover more distance if I were to move while using this concept of the wind.
However, this discovery doesn’t give me additional top speed. At least, not yet.
This concept of wind give a tremendous to my acceleration and efficiency in energy consumption in every movement.
In other words, not suitable for shaking off tails, but matches the needs of a close combat expert.
My lips grinned from ear to ear as I felt the exciting sensation creeping in my chest. I channeled prana towards my legs as I stomped the air while using the concept of wind, sending me back towards the alpha and beta behind me.
The wind surrounding my arms coalesced as I solidified it, shaping it to wind claws as I descend full speed towards the alpha and beta.
Sure enough, being the alpha and beta of the moles they are keen enough to sense my sudden counterattack in a moment’s notice as they slightly moved their body sideways using their supreme bodily control, avoiding my charge just like that.
I, however, had already predicted such an outcome.
In that split moment as I passed through the alpha and beta, I slashed the empty air in their direction without looking back as the wind flickered with sharp lacerations, slicing off bits of flesh from their bodies.
Crud.
Although my aim was still precisely directed towards their vitals, their reflex was still commendable enough to allow them to parry this unexpected attack of mine. Blood profusely gushed out from their arms, signifying the fact that my wind claws just now cut through their arteries.
Not to mention, some of them also lacerated their abdomen, making the alpha and beta writhe in pain as they fell back, trying to gain some distance.
I kept my advance forward, leaving the alpha and beta behind me as I propelled myself with the concept of wind to the moles behind the two. With a thought, I fiercely slashed the empty air before me in my charge as a streak of wind claw streaked the space, slicing a mole 12 meters away in half.
Fifteen moles remaining.
The alpha and beta, realizing that not only they had been injured but also had their lackeys killed under their nose were angry, as the chilling sensation I got from my back began to frighteningly intensify, as if my body was being thrown into a frozen lake naked, devoid of any heat.
Shockwaves of wind claws was rapidly fired towards my back, sounds of air being ripped clearly rung in the surroundings as they not only aimed for my body, but also the possible escape routes I will take should I take the option to evade.
With this much strength put inside this wave of wind claws, even I will not have the necessary might to clash with it head on, which leaves me with evading as the only option.
Using the improved reflex I gained from eating their brethren’s flesh, I evaded to the side while stepped the concept of wind to the maximum limit I can reach as I flickered midair and conjured a sword hand sweep of wind claw to divert the trajectory slightly towards the opposite direction I evaded.
I still have slightly more than 60% of my total prana reserves.
After having analyzed my condition, I spinned while gaining additional angular momentum with the concept of wind as I rapidly conjured tens of wind claws, scattering towards every direction.
It was as if a blade tornado had just appeared out of nowhere as my spin became faster as seconds by seconds passed.
I can feel the diminishing prana of eleven moles gradually faded into nothingness in the middle of my spin as I finally decided to stop this move, and flew upwards to gain some safety.
With that, 4 moles remaining excluding the Alpha and Beta.
My head however, was in a tandem mess.
Ugh, using high speed spins to conjure storms of wind claws was a great idea in itself, but I should have realized the shortcoming that would follow which was the dizziness currently rampaging inside my head…..
The moles, however, didn’t let me take a breather.
In their anguish, all of them clawed the atmosphere as a wave of myriad wind claws arced towards me from below.
There is nothing like attacking while sealing escape routes, just pure killing blades of wind towards me!
At that brief moment where I have no footing, while taking advantage of the wind using the concept I comprehended I threw myself to my behind as fierce as possible to evade the raging wave of wind claws in my panic.
The wind claws arced through upwards as if trying to lacerate the azure sky, as it passed through the empty space I was at before.
I let the wind blow my body in my retreat as I wait for the dizziness in my head to calm down.
Of course, I didn’t forget to keep using the concept of wind to maintain the retreating and falling speed at an optimal degree to maintain my safety in this cooldown period.
From the prana I perceived using my detection, I can feel the moles are not moving uniformly and fierce as before.
It seems to me that the moles were in a state of hesitation, whether to continue their pursuit or retreat and keep their little life.
However, the alpha and beta faltered for a moment before sprinting full speed ahead towards me.
They had offended me dearly, and they knew that the next time we cross path, it will be their doom.
Their actions gave me that kind of impression.
Well, it’s not actually wrong.
After all, their flesh and prana hold so much benefits I can enjoy.
After a brief moment of floating midair, my head immediately calmed down and I engaged myself again in battle with these moles.
One last rounds before I devour all of you!
I manipulated the vector of my advance as I charged towards them from above. My being was like the peregrine falcon, descending with peerless speed to hunt the prey in one fell
swoop!
In my descend, my eyes became increasingly solemn as a wind claw grew out of my wrist, and with the most optimal movements, stabbed through the silhouette of the alpha in my
front.
The alpha dodged to the side while at the same time clawing its with wind claw towards me as I passed through.
I have already sensed that attack with my senses, so I was able to conjure a wind claw in my wrist and parried. However, bits of its sharp wind wounded my arm, and lacerated a portion of my flesh.
Upon comprehending the threshold of the concept, my movements became smoother and consume less energy even when I make erratic movements that seems sharp. However, that is
not the only thing I gained.
Because due to that same reason, I have less openings between changing movements and direction!
My right hand swept the space between me and the alpha as a sword wind conjured and lacerated its way towards its abdomen, finally killing the apha in half. Blood splattered all around it, as I fiercely kicked the ground and charged my way towards the beta before me.
Seeing the dead body of the alpha, the beta finally became scared ad turned tail as it fled from my advance.
I fired wind stakes using the same concept of wind claws and tore its ankle, rendering it immobile for good. With a kick I jumped into the air and my hand swept empty air as a wind claw slashed the mole’s skull in half, directly killing it.
Two remaining.
However, upon noticing that the two leaders the followed had been killed easily they immediately turned tail and run for their life.
Hm, I think I should let them be.
Not to mention they were far behind the alpha and beta to begin with, they are no longer worth the effort to kill.
This way, they would be able to procreate, and give me more prey to hunt later on.
Although that might be unrealistic since my life is so trifle and I would always be dancing around with death due to my grudge and grievance with Shiori.
I turned my gaze towards the sky.
It was still bright.
However, my gut said that it will rain soon enough.
I am fine in the rain, but if that is the case the corpse will enter a faster state of decay.
With that thought in mind, I picked up the mutilated corpses of the alpha and beta and hurriedly ran to the shack Annie gave me.
After briefly securing the spot for the corpse by making a new shack just like the one Annie made, I put them down, and gather more of the moles corpse.
An hour later, all the dead bodies of the moles had been gathered.
It is time to feast.