The dog-like creature had been observing from the shadows for quite a long time. Its sensitive nose was able to detect the enemy’s weapon and tell from the smell of a person whether they were strong or not.

The bizarre dog had smelled Roy for about a minute and came to the conclusion that this was a free dinner. It moved forward step by step in a domineering manner. When it was just a few steps away from its prey, it abruptly bent it's hind legs and pounced forth savagely.

"Who?!" startled by the sudden noise, Roy jumped to his feet.

GRRRrowl..

"What the hell is that? a dog?" he secretly readied his sword, prepared for the incoming attack.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The moment it noticed him taking out his weapon, it abruptly shot forward devastatingly.

BANG!!!

Roy’s sword exploded forward but the body of the blade was smashed aside by the creature's huge claw.

..

One man and one beast had already exchanged quite a few blows in the dark of the night. It was as though the both of them had come to an agreement of sorts, as their strength continued to rise with no end in sight… both man and dog kept pushing each other and testing the limits of each other’s power.

SWOOOSH!!

SLASH!!

Roy’s blade sliced through the air as he lost his balance, but he swiftly gathered himself. Grasping an ordinary sword which weighed about a few kilogram easily in his hand, he immediately counterattacked, fiercely smashing the strange dog’s devilish claws aside.

After more than dozen of exchanges, it was remarkable that the man and the beast were still evenly matched. From the start to now, neither party was able to gain even the slightest advantage over the other.

BOOMM!!

Roy's expression was extremely gloomy, because this was no simple exchange of skills, this was a fight to the death. Between him and the strange doggy, one of them had to die… Yet his eyes were gradually shining with an excitement which only seemed to grow fiercer still with each passing moment.

'I can't believe that a real fight was this exciting..'

'This is my first real fight but somehow I already knew my thing.'

'All of the effective strategies to use, and how to handle possible ambush from surroundings, were already reverberated in my mind the second the beast attacked!'

Glancing at his now-opened system windows, he muttered softly, "It looks like there wasn't any mistake with my statistics."

Looking at his trembling hands, he couldn't help but smirked while showed a complacent look. Though, the winner of the battle had not been determined yet, Roy was confident that the strange dog wouldn't be able to fatally injure him for his meticulous planning.

"Huft .. Huft... but really this doggy is so smart, not only could it fight, it also knows when to strike and dodge. " astounded, he commended the dog. "Are all wild beasts as clever as this?" Roy was gradually feeling less tense, and unconsciously lowered his guard.

On the other hand, the devilish dog was growing more and more alarmed.

It was a wild beast, which always thought humans as mere foods. Moreover, it was tacitly understood by all beasts that humans were merely an inferior lifeform that was not much different from a scurrying ant. But, the supposedly weak ant it previously thought had suddenly become able to match it's strength.

The strange energy that radiated from that ordinary sword alarmed it greatly. Given such display of power, every swing of that sword should expend a great amount of the strange human's stamina, as he merely had the body of a mortal.

Shockingly, even after a hundred sword strokes, not only had his blows not become softer, they were actually growing stronger and stronger with each swing…

This was a lowly creature with an inferior body and aura. Yet he seemed to hold a power that was not inferior at all to the power of its tough body!

This damnable human being, he was definitely desperately holding on just by the skin of his teeth! Given his pathetic aura and his pathetic body, how can he continue to display such a level of power!?

It’s expression warped fiercely as black light suddenly exploded out of its fiendish pupils. The beast finally showed its true strength, crazy amounts of spiritual qi was instantly channeled and surged up from within it's entire body without reservation.

Roy’s brows knit together as he let out a great roar. All of the muscles in his arms swelled, veins twisting and joints popping explosively as he shot forward using both feet as a spring. Unknown profound energy flowed from his entire body into his arms before surging into his sword. It's speed grew faster and more volatile, like stormy waves, inducing pain as it crashed against his meridians. But to Roy, this level of pain was not too unbearable thanks to his predecessor's body hax. Without holding back, he fiercely swept the sword forward.

BOOOOOM!!!

The dark earth beneath Roy’s feet had completely fractured and stone fragments were billowing in the air like leaves in his wake. He heavily smashed into a boulder behind him with a loud crash…

The overly strong stone caused the enormous power that he had endured to completely rebound back into him, rendering his entire body numb. His consciousness instantly blanked as he nearly spat a large amount of blood out of his mouth.

"AArgh.. D-damn.. what was that! As I thought this beast is a cultivator! It was hiding it's power the entire time." he bellowed in agony.

The dog was not in a much better state than he was. It had been sent flying overhead by Roy’s sword smash.

It's huge body had smashed into a stone before violently rebounding off of it. After that, It had rolled for tens of meters before it finally smashed into another stone all the way to the back.

When it had been wounded by Roy’s sword at first, it was because the beast had been in a total state of shock and so it did not react fast enough to defend nor dodge. But this time around, It had clearly used all of it's powers in an all-out clash, and there were no cheap tricks involved either, yet the beast was still sent flying in the end!!

'This great me was sent flying by a human being? a f*cking mortal human being!'

What kind of a humiliation was that!?

It also clearly proved that… the human who stood in front of the wild beast, the one that it had thought to be no more significant than an ant, a mortal ant, actually had power that rivalled it!

Roy had gotten to his feet before the half-dead strange doggy, and even though he had endured an attack from his opponent at full strength, the sword had not budged from his grip.

Though some of his bones had sustained hairline fractures and more than ten of his veins had snapped, to him, these were merely superficial injuries.

While the system's notification rang, he stabilized himself before slowly sauntering towards the wild beast, “You shitty beast.”

“Grrr… You..still are.. too.. weak... human..” the dog let out a growl, and surprisingly it spoke.

Roy was startled by the dog's strange conduct.

"You can actually speak human language?"

It was the first time he witnessed something this amusing.

'So even wild beasts can speak human language huh? I wonder if other intelligent races also speak the same.'

" My .. task.. done.." it seemed to be on it's last breath. While lying in a pool of blood, the beast's eyes were slowly closed itself. Gritted it's teeth.

"Human.. don't .. disappoint.. Lord" after uttering its last words, the beast's body started to dissipate into thin air.

!??

Roy was dumbfounded.