Jain was close to running out of breath as he breathed with dread. He was barely managing to defend himself against the swarm of attacks from the insect , and now he was running out of stamina. In a physical battle like the one he was in, stamina was everything. To make matters worse , the insect didn't even give him much of a chance to attack back and if Jain got one , it would just easily dodge the attack.

𝑨𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 , 𝑴𝒚 𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒕 !

Regrettably, Jain couldn't stop now ; the insect was on his tail and any sloppy movements could get him beheaded. Jain also regretted neglecting his physical training , in the past he had explored E and D rank dungeons and used his platinum sword as a way to defend himself. Since he couldn't use magic which was odd back then ,he had no choice but to resort to raw fighting with no expertise because he didn't know even know where he could get martial arts tutoring, and even if he did - it would cost him an arm and a leg just to hire a martial art teacher.

This was one of the reasons Jain was fighting a battle he was losing ,he had the power he was sure of it but his slightly sloppy movements in the battlefield put him at the brink of death every time. His power was somehow growing during the battle , Jain was more than sure a single punch or three would send that thing flying to its death but the thing was fast and flexible managing to dodge his punches as if reading his mind.

The creature had just given him a strong kick to his head and Jain had blocked it by raising his left arm to block its path, the impact hurt like hell, Jain had been blocking its attacks for quite a while now and the damage was now building up. Jain strengthened his right fist as if crushing something beneath it , pouring a bit of anger to give him power , and it worked ; Jain had noticed that the angrier he got ,the more the power accelerated its growth. His first was aimed at the chest of the insect ,his speed had somehow increased too , Jain judged his speed to being close to that of the insect's so if the punch hit home , the Insect would suffer a considerable amount of damage.

Instead of dodging in a wide gap by jumping back like it usually does , the insect swayed to the side , Jain's fist missed.

He was ready to quickly attack again by moving clockwise towards the insect to punch it with his left arm , to attempt to catch it off guard , but the insect had something already planned ; Jain's instincts alarmed him and he quickly crossed his arms close to his face only to receive an attack on his chest - a solid rough kick which literally sent him flying , this time he didn't have the time or power to resist inertia.

He hit the dungeon wall painfully with his back as large cracks began to form on the dungeon's wall behind him.

" Ack... "

After, he coughed up a large amount of blood which spilled on the surface of the dungeon.

Jain breathed heavily , trying to pay his oxygen debt during the battle he just had a few seconds ago. Jain felt the familiar sensation of rising power inside him , he didn't even know why it had risen bit by bit , but whenever it did he noticed that it reached a certain point and then stopped. Jain returned his attention towards the Insect , It didn't have much of wounds in it except a bent leg which was oozing with a strange purple liquid. This was definitely new.

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It must have hurt itself when kicking Jain. Jain smiled just slightly , its speed was the most thing the insect relied on which had allowed it to overpower Jain through-out the fight , and now that one of its legs was severed - the problem had been taken care of... however -

" What the.... "

Jain rapidly blinked twice paying attention to the thing's leg which was broken - the broken part of the leg seemed to be moving , shifting into a pulp mass like pounded meat, Jain realized in horror what was happening in front of him.

𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 !!

It was definitely regenerating because after , the leg went back to its undamaged state as if it had never been broken to begin with. Jain was able to notice that it was regeneration because he had went against a similar creature in the past.

The moon bat ;

it was a strongly black bat with red eyes , it was nicknamed the 'Vampire Bat' due to it's blood-thirstiness and unfair regeneration. Back then ,Jain had thought it was just a normal bat and slashed at its wings as it lay upside down in a D rank dungeon. The monster itself was C rank , it was not unusual to see a monster higher than the dungeon's ranking during a raid. but times where that happened were rare.

The bat was the dungeon boss , and immediately after Jain had cut the bat's wing with a surprise slash, another one grew out quickly after some pulp substance began to form on the Bat's partially remaining wing, taking the shape of the missing wing.

That had been the least of Jain's worries because on the floor - the wing which had been cut from the body began to regenerate bad well , regenerating into an 'other' body. Jain had stormed off running out of the dungeon - fighting such a thing back then as simply suicide.

𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒘 , 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓..𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒏 , 𝑰𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝑰'𝒎 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒆𝒉-

After the leg regenerated the creature no longer kept the distance but instead dashed quickly towards Jain with it's sharp fingers leading the path - ready to slice him into bits. The fingers seemed to be covered by a purple aura , this was certainly one of its finishing moves because the purple aura hadn't been there before when they fought.

𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒕.. 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝑰 𝒅𝒐?

Jain had just suffered a kick to his chest , it somehow caused a chain reaction of damage and his body was currently in a locked state where it hurt a lot to move just a finger. Jain watched in horror , he really didn't know what to do.

compared to the speed it had used to kick him - the attack approaching Jain was rather slow. This was a taunt , as if saying 'even if I move slow , you will still die the same'

𝑻𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆? 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚.

Now that he thought about it , the monster hadn't been fighting Jain at full power and only launched small attacks , its last attack was the first deadly attack which Jain didn't see coming.

𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒉 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑰 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 , 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 ? 𝑶𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔.. 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 ?

If it was launching the small attacks to deal effective damage over time while also gauging Jain's power and fighting ability during the fight - then it's intelligence was far greater and deadlier than the average monster , if not close to that of a human.

𝑰𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 , 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕..𝒏𝒐 - 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒔..𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕... 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 ?!