SCRISSS

The big rat/cat Monster displayed its loud temper and its mighty stature, all while radiating great amounts of Fear-based Compulsion at Adam.

Only it could not be more prominent to Adam as he sensed, saw, and the pinkish Aura dense on the ten-meter-long tail as the rat/cat Monster's body had yet to enter the ten-meter radius of spherical perception around his body.

However, what came next somewhat surprised Adam, as he felt something hit his spherical perception from the outside as if desiring to break it and enter the area his spherical perception had overtaken.

What was even more surprising was how that ‘something’ began to cloak over the boundary defining the very edge of Adam’s spherical perception.

Still, even as time pressed on, that pressing feeling failed to penetrate. However, it was not without consequences, as Adam felt himself weakened somewhat.

Barely there, in fact, but the diminishing was there.

Not saying anything, Adam just stood there and took it all.

His thoughts, on the other hand, were going bonkers when he realized that the Monster was trying to impress upon him its presence, its Aura, its Aura of Fear.

The realization sparked a few thoughts inside Adam’s head. But they were set aside instantly when he felt the Aura of Fear battering his spherical perception cease its momentum and, in fact, retreat. Instead, Adam noticed the pinkish color around the rat/cat Monster’s tail to thicken and condense. As if what was taken away got infused or condensed on just that part of its body.

When it did, the tail began to move, to rise from the ground with impressive flexibility that rat tails never possessed, but a cat’s did.

A moment later, through the spherical perception, Adam recognized the tail sway backward as it rose into the air, with the sharp tip pointing straight at Adam, like a scorpion preparing to stab its prey.

In the same instant, Adamu felt a hunch manifested inside his Mind, causing him to urgently tilt his upper body vastly to the right before also twisting the spine such that the long tail tip pierced right where his chest would have been and penetrated the stone right behind him, right into the ground.

Thud

However, without giving Adam any chance to retaliate, the tail swooped back into the air before posing again and stabbing Adam once more. Nevertheless, the first time was enough of a surprise. He would not give the Monster the same easy-to-hit target by swiftly moving away from his current position.

In response, the tail swayed as well as it sought a target to pierce, and when it thought it had, it shot forward once again, only to miss and quickly return to its thrusting pose.

Not quite yet responding to the attacks, Adam just continued dodging the tail pierce attack because the more he observed the attack, the more he understood the signs of the physical motion required for the attack, but more importantly, the more Adam observed the Aural contraction and expansion of the pinkish Aura on the tail, the more he understood the difference between the timings for said tail pierce attacks.

As such, a few rounds passed as the tail kept making holes in the ground after missing Adam.

Then, the tail simply failed to attack once more.

However, instead of just hovering in the air, ready to strike once more, it swayed to the side. At the same time, Adam heard another SCRISSS of the rat/cat Monster as if his constant dodging had unnerved it.

In response, Adam recognized the tail motioning back and somewhat to the side.

Understanding the angle, the length of the tail, the height at which it would strike, and the timing of the attack, Adam suddenly crouched slightly before forcing his leg muscles to make him jump.

Whoosh.

The tail echoed as it passed right below Adam's feet.

However, just as Adam reached the max height with his legs tucked close to his stomach, his spherical perception told of the tail’s sudden reversal to rush back for another strike on him, who could not dodge.

Understanding the speed at which the tail with its whip-like motions, a gut-wrenching feeling manifested inside Adam. A feeling that made him feel as if his upper and lower body were already divided into two pieces, though it had yet to happen.

In the same instant, the gut-wrenching sensation manifested, two simultaneous actions occurred.

Both were based on the idea of protection and prevention of the idea of being divided in two.

The first action was caused by Adam consciously in order to try and block part of the attack by letting it land on Sun Bearer’s shaft before actually hitting the true target, which was his body.

Luckily, all it took was one motion of the right arm, and the spear shaft was where it needed to be. Adam even managed to position the spear shaft in such a way that it allowed the majority of the incoming force to be transferred onto his left shoulder instead of something softer like his ribs.

If the first was a conscious action, then the second was an unconscious one, and it showed when the spherical perception around Adam almost instantly shrunk to cover his body like a tightly woven skin suit.

However, unlike every test before, the spherical perception, in fact, also enveloped Sun Bearer. Thus, when the long rat tail hit Sun Bearer, and most of the kinetic force transferred from the initial tail contact into the enveloped spear shaft and Adam’s felt shoulder, a lot of force seemed to simply vanish.

Still, because of the length of the tail and the whip-like usage the Monster employed, a large part of the tail simply swooped around Adam’s body to hit him in multiple arrears at once, with the tail end, in particular, managing to rotate an additional time before whipping Adam right on his chest.

WHIP

GUH

The force of the attack forced the air out of his lungs before the recoil of the attacks caused the tail to instantly uncoil from him and send him flying through a corkscrew-like maneuver a single moment before crashing and rolling on the uneven cavern floor.

Slightly disoriented, hurt, and without air, Adam coughed a few times when he realized that now was not the time to present himself so vulnerable.

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Urgently taking a breath and standing up, Adam suddenly realized that sometime during the flying and rolling, he'd let go of Sun Bearer. Quickly, he tried to scan the cavern floor for his spear, only the action of searching for the spear had caused him to look away from the Monster, causing another rat tail whip attack to slam into him, once more sending him flying, but not before the rat tail coiled around his body for another tail slam, only this time it was on his stomach.

WHIP

GUH

Within that brief moment of flying, landing, rolling, and feeling pain, Adamu ignored Sun Bearer and expanded his spherical perception.

Luckily, he did.

Another whip-like motion came his way.

Recognizing the fate before him if he did not do something, Adam stood up and rushed out of the range of the incoming whip attack by running for the cavern entrance that brought him inside, and therefore, away from the rat/cat Monster and its very long tail.

Still, standing up and trying to run took time, and the rat tail with cat-like flexibility proved much faster. However, just as the tail was about to take a swat at him again, Adam ducked, mid-motion, down all the way to the ground, thus allowing the tail to slash right above his head. And even then, having experienced the return, he pushed his legs as hard as he could before jumping into the air with a forward motion such that it would bring him out of the range of the tail.

Fortunately, the quick jumping action was barely enough for the tail to miss him by a few centimeters.

After landing back down, Adam urgently turned around and observed the tail return to its hovering potion right in the air with the tip pointed straight at him. Only there it stayed as if not wanting to move forward any further, or backward in this case, as the Monster's back was still facing Adam, with only its head turned to watch him with its cat-like irises.

For that tiny moment, Adam stared at the dark shape of the rat/cat Monster before him, and the Monster stared back at him.

It was Adam who broke the staring contest by relaxing his body before tensing it and rushing forward, toward Sun Bearer not far from him lying on the ground.

In response, the tail swooped back a bit before whipping right at Adam. Understanding the motions clearer and deciding against being hit, Adam dodged the low sweep by jumping forward and rolling on the hard and uneven stone right to where Sun Bearer lay.

Grabbing its hilt, he cried out. “Edge of Light!”

Instantly, the pitch-black spear blade made of Obsidian gained an internal lighting effect before said effect spread to the edge of the spear blade. However, Adam had no desire to attempt any cutting just yet. Instead, he dodged the tail sweep once again before shouting again.

“Sword of Light!”

Having made the Enchantment, Adamu knew that it was possible to supercharge the manifestation speed of the sword made of light by activating its precursor.

As such, the moment it was up and the tail returned for another sweep, Adam slashed at the incoming rat tail diagonally from below up into the air, such that if the spear failed to cut through the scaled tail, at least it should offset the tail enough to push it above his body instead of at his body.

Nonetheless, the moment the scaled rat tail met the Sword of Light, despite possessing scales made of secreted and hardened keratin on its outside and being infused by the pinkish effect of the Aura the Monster harnessed, the Sword of Light slashed right through the scales, the muscles powering the tail and the long bone centering the tail.

However, unlike how Adam thought it would go, the cut was too clean, such that the tail simply continued its motion straight for Adam’s chest only with his arms raised from the upward spear shaft motion it would be the right ribs that would take the brunt of the strike.

Realizing said fact, through an unconscious need to protect himself, the spherical perception almost instantly shrunk once again to being skintight when the tail hit him and broke apart on his right ribs, but not before the later part of the tail managed to make another round around his body such that the tail end once more smacked him, right into the gut on the left side of his stomach, all while making him do another screw-shaped maneuver, before landing, rolling and coughing to the ground.

Luckily, having experienced it already two times, Adam found his bearings quickly and managed to stand up. That was when Adam realized he had managed to hold on to Sun Bearer with his right hand while its spearhead glowed with a longer and wider Sword of Light instead of the smaller spearhead it usually possessed.

Noticing where said sword had passed through beside him, Adam shivered at the thought of being bisected by it.

Quickly thanking, internally, whoever invented the Spell first by making it non-harmful to the user employing it even in its Enchanted version, Adam centered his gaze on the big Monster. Still, that same instant, the rat/cat began to SCRISSS extremely loudly when it realized the pain and separation of its number one tool.

Hearing the distracted Monster before him, Adam once again expanded the spherical perception to rush for the distracted Monster, only it was not as distracted as it seemed because the moment Adam’s spherical perception touched its big body, its rat-shaped head snapped into his incoming direction, only for its cat-like body settle on all four limbs before crouching and arching its back instantly as it jumped backward and right into the origin of the reddish hue saturating the cavern.

Right as Adam thought the creature would get away, Adam watched it pass through the densely saturated color red and arrive on the other side, thus vanishing from his immediate view.

Stopping urgently, Adam tried to glance where it was, but his eyes simply failed to find it. That was when he remembered to contract and collapse his petals to regain Aural Vision through his golden eyes.

When he did, he found the Monster, and when he discovered the bastard, Adam called out, and Sun Bearer listened.

“Radiant Bolt!”

Almost instantly, the sword made of light atop the spearhead vanished, and instead, right at the tip of the pitch-black spear tip, a small spherical sphere seemed to manifest.

Additionally, the longer the manifestation continued, the stronger and brighter it became.

Not liking the thought of the base Radiant Bold not doing enough damage, Adamu stayed still and let it charge and charge as he observed the rat/cat Monster SCRISSS in his direction.

Then, when about thirty seconds of the charging ensued, Adam pointed the spear tip right at the Monster and fired the Radiant Bolt right through the origin of the red hue saturating the cavern, hoping that since the Monster passed through it, so would his charged Radiant Bolt.

Fortunately, it did, and unfortunately for the Monster, the Radiant Bolt was fast enough to hit it straight in the head. However, which part exactly, Adam did not know. Instead, he simply began another charge and observed the Aural fluctuations alongside the hissing of the Monster.

When the second charge was ready, it was much harder to aim since the head of the Monster fidgeted around quite a lot, but having practiced with aiming and shooting from time to time ever since Sun Bearer got completed, the second charged Radiant Bolt hit as well.

However, the second one seemed to hit something vulnerable on its rat face because the SCRISSS that echoed was the loudest since the battle started.

Ceasing there, Adam observed the Monsters Aural fluctuations for a moment.

It had to be an eye since it's the most vulnerable organ there. Wait, that should have stunned it for a moment.

Seizing the moment and taking the offered advantage, Adam dismissed a third Radiant Bolt and instead made his way toward the creature.

Along the way, he once more expanded his Petal Combo; Form of Resolution - Through Function, Change, and Purpose, to not stumble and be suddenly surprised by a cornered Monster retaliating without notice.

Additionally, another Sword of Light Manifested on and around Sun Bearer’s spear blade, thus further extending the range of its reach and deadliness.

Avoiding the origin of the reddish hue right in the center of the cavern, Adamu carefully rushed around it for the Monster when his spherical perception touched its body, causing it to twitch instantly.

Recognizing the problem, Adam rushed forth at full speed right where the head should be, and when it came within his perception, he instantly calculated the needed angle.

Three steps later and one jump, the glowing Sword of Light pierced through the right side of the Monster’s head and right where its brain should be.

Just like with the tail, the Sword of Light simply pierced without any obstructions, but just in case, Adam began to swirl Sun Bearer’s shaft to cut up the monster's head even more, thus further reducing the chance that it would retaliate.

That done, Adam retreated before repeating the same on the Monster’s chest.