Evading the lemur's kicks, which produced sharp blades of wind, I quickly kicked the ground numerous times and appeared directly behind him while already in a slashing motion; by the time the lemur realized his predicament, it was too late for him to dodge, at least entirely.

Just as my nails dug into his back, slicing through his flesh as if it was butter, the lemur leaned forward, attempting to evade my attack, but all he managed to do was lessen the damage he would receive, which wasn't terrible as the full length of my nails is about an inch and a half.

Yet, I wasn't finished; while in the midst of slashing, I did something I hadn't tried before and used my finger technique on all five of my fingers, digging deeply into the back, causing the lemur to let out a screech of pain. Grabbing on what I think was his spine, or at least something solid, I slammed him to the ground, causing the entire area to tremble.

I wished to continue my onslaught, but since it was my first time ever using the finger technique on all of my fingers, they were pretty sore, and if my fingers were going to break, I didn't want to be the one to do it, especially not on purpose; however, I mainly just didn't want the battle to end so soon, we've only been fighting about five minutes.

'What is up with this lemur? He shouldn't be this weak.' Thought Diddy with a slight frown as he retracted his fingers and gained some distance from the lemur embedded into the ground.

While waiting for the lemur to get back up, I looked at the dim sky, realizing that even though I entered the center area in the evening, it took me quite some time before I managed to locate the lemur.

'At this rate, our battle will last through the night. I'd prefer not to still be here at night; I haven't explored the entire center area; there might still be other beasts here.' Thought Diddy as he looked in the sky and noticed the last rays of sunshine disappearing behind the horizon while the full moon began to take its place.

Focusing back on the lemur, who had just escaped from the hole he was embedded into, I took this time to observe the state of his body, and from what I could see, other than the bloody five holes on his back, he wasn't that injured. Excluding the injury, I had just inflicted on him, there were some scratches and bruise marks, and that's about it, which wasn't much, though the same could be said for me; I was also only slightly injured.

'Well, I was only injured at the start of the battle; once I learned his fighting style, I haven't been hit a single time yet. He may have mastered all six techniques, but being able to use them and being able to use them while seamlessly adopting them into your fighting style are two very different things, which is something he hasn't accomplished.' Pondered Diddy as he got into a fighting stance when he noticed the lemur's movements.

Looking at the lemur, who seemed to have just gotten a hold of his bearings, I smirked, and without any warning, I propelled myself toward him; when I was only a meter away from him, my expression suddenly hardened as out of nowhere my instincts warned me of great danger, with the origin being the lemur in front of me.

With how fast I was moving, attempting to stop myself would be foolish, as with how close I was to him, it would create an opening for the lemur to injure me. So instead of trying to avoid him, I instead increased my speed, intending to run right past him; yet while I did so, I looked at him, and when I did, I noticed his eyes had changed.

'They look more human-like.' Thought Diddy in confusion and surprise as their eyes met.

While running past him, I felt intense danger from above, and with how fast it was approaching, I wouldn't be able to evade it in time; moving my tail to the far left, which shifted me off balance, and allowed me to just narrowly miss the attack from above as I skipped across the ground like a rock.

Smashing into a large tree, I quickly exited the hole I was embedded in and eyed the distant lemur, which had undergone some kind of transformation; shock and confusion filled my mind at what I witnessed.

'Is he even a lemur? He resembles me, yet instead of being a human-monkey hybrid, he looks more like a human-lemur hybrid.' Thought Diddy while carefully eyeing the human-lemur hybrid.

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The lemur, having undergone some transformation, was still mostly covered in fur, similar to me, yet the most worrying thing about him was that his strength had massively increased; he was a good deal stronger than me.

'With his new strength, retreating won't be possible, especially not when he looks dead-set on killing me; in the end, it's not like that mattered much; I had never intended to cowardly run away, and now was no different. There will only be two outcomes: I emerge victorious and grow stronger from this, or I'm killed; isn't this exciting!?' Thought Diddy, with a dignified expression that slowly became deranged by the second.

Calming my excitement, I solemnly eyed the lemur, or whatever it was, in front of me, waiting for it to attack, and the moment I blinked, he vanished from his spot, moving at such fast speeds that even my acute senses found it challenging to keep track of him. While taking on a more defensive stance, I waited with unabated breaths for the moment we would attack, and it didn't take long, as I felt an intense danger coming from high above.

Looking up, I only saw several blurs as he speedily headed toward my location; seeing him swiftly near me, I crossed my arms and hardened my muscles, bracing myself for impact; I was only able to hold on for a few seconds before he broke through my defenses, his fist collided with my face as it flung me far into the forest, crashing through numerous trees before I finally stopped myself.

"Heh, this is quite bad." Muttered Diddy with excited eyes as he fixed his dislocated jaw.

Knowing that my hardening ability was practically useless against him now, I realized that I'd have to dodge or evade his attacks, yet that's easier said than down, especially when he's moving at a speed I'm barely able to track.

Looking down the destroyed line of trees, I saw the lemur rapidly approaching me while powerfully kicking off the air; once he neared me, he quickly moved behind me and attacked. I was hardly given any time to react as he started piercing me with his finger, though thanks to my senses, I was able to nimbly avoid them, well at least most of them; he managed to stab me a few times, none in vital areas, though.

When he finished the onslaught of attacks, I leaned forward, grabbing the ground with my hands; while in a handstand, I started quickly spinning, and in doing so, I fired numerous sharp blades of wind in all directions, yet his hardened body took no damage.

Clicking my tongue, I pushed myself off the ground and powerfully kicked the air, heading straight toward him, though while doing so, it seemed like he wished to return the favor as he fired a large sharp blade of wind at me and followed from behind. Furrowing my brows, I quickly propelled myself toward the left, avoiding getting sliced in half, yet when I did so, he swiftly appeared before me and kicked me, sending me crashing relatively deep into the ground.

Coughing some blood, I eyed the lemur, and with widened eyes, I saw how he launched several blades of wind at me from his legs; with my current position, I wasn't going to be able to dodge them, so I opted to harden my body to the absolute maximum I could while hoping the ground around me would weaken the attacks before they reached me.

Once I no longer felt my body being bombarded with sharp blades, I quickly exited the crater; long bloody gashes covered my body while eyeing the lemur; although I was in such a terrible condition, I couldn't help but smile.

"C'mon, it will take more than that to kill me!" Exclaimed Diddy with a body riddled with injuries, making his already deranged expression look even crazier.

Seeing the lemur frown before charging at me, I smiled and did the same, too; while the two of us fought on the land and in the air, our battle caused severe destruction across the forest, yet I couldn't care less, as I was simply to engrossed in this beautiful experience.

Fighting in a battle that could essentially be your last was beyond exhilarating, not to mention the benefits I was receiving the longer the battle waged on; every second that passed, I could feel myself improve in combat, though, in the end, even that wasn't enough to overcome this opponent.

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While standing opposite the lemur, my body was riddled with numerous deadly injuries, such as deep gashes, fist imprints, and several finger-sized holes; yet, although I was close to collapsing, this wasn't enough to take me down, I was pretty resilient after all.

"Heh, C'mon, is that all you've got!?" Exclaimed Diddy while panting as he eyed the slightly injured lemur standing before him.

Seeing him swiftly propel himself toward me, I backed away, intending to gain some distance, yet, I was suddenly stopped and hoisted in the air as I looked down, noticing the lemur's tail was wrapped around my waist. Though what happened next honestly pissed me off more than anything.

As I attempted to escape his grasp, I saw how he extended his arms toward me with one above the other, and when I noticed his stance, I subconsciously stopped as my eyes widened in disbelief.

'I-Impossible!!' Thought Diddy in shock as he quickly hardened his body in response.

"Rokuogan!" Exclaimed the lemur for the first time since the battle commenced as he attacked Diddy.

The instant the attack hit my body, my defense wasn't even able to slow it down, let alone stop it; feeling how the attack penetrated my body, severely damaging my bones and organs before exiting behind me, I spat out large quantities of blood while feeling my body slowly weaken.

"Fuck you." Said Diddy with blurry vision as he collapsed on the ground the moment the lemur released him.