For the first time since the beginning of the fight, the thirio felt something it hadn't expected, danger. As the thirio noticed the change in the situation, it stopped playing around and instinctively slashed at Jake with the intent to kill.

The difference was obvious, the speed of the slash was twice as before. However, Jake leaned back, dodging the claws of the thirio, which passed whistling over him, as the air was cut in half due to the speed.

The time seemingly stopped as the thirio watched how its attack missed, and Jake's heat concentrated in one of his legs.

Bang!

The thirio wasn't able to dodge the kick. The force of the impact stopped him from reacting for a moment, leaving him wide open.

Bang! Splash!

Without losing time Jake followed his attack with a punch that spilled some of the thirio's blood over the floor. However, the thirio quickly responded with a slash that Jake was barely able to dodge, leaving a cut on his left cheek.

After dodging Jake counter-attacked with another punch, however, now the thirio was able to block it

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

They started exchanging blows. Both of them block every attack from the other.

Jake's attacks had not only become way faster and stronger but each one of them was also enhanced by using his ability. Each punch he threw was wrapped in a coat of fire and was also accelerated with an explosion of fire. Even though the thirio was blocking all of Jake's attacks, it was still taking damage from them.

BANG!

With another powerful kick, the thirio was sent flying out of the building, landing in the building that was crossing the street. After landing, it quickly got up again but before he could even begin to worry about the injuries caused by the last kick, he saw a ball of fire heading toward him.

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The thirio instinctively touched the floor with both hands and a wall rose from the ground.

BOOM!

The force of the explosion destroyed some parts of the wall and covered the surroundings in smoke, leaving almost no visibility to the thirio.

From the corner of its eye, the thirio saw an orange glow appear through the smoke and instinctively slid its hand across the floor toward the glow, making a spike shot from the ground in its direction. However, the only thing the spike hit was a little ball of fire.

The thirio's instincts screamed at that moment. Jake was behind it.

As Jake was about to stab the thirio with his bladed knuckles, the thirio slid his claws backward and a spike shot from the ground toward Jake. However, since the thirio couldn't see Jake, it was only able to make a guess of his location, and even though the spike was going in the direction of hitting Jake, it wouldn't hit him in any vital points.

'I don't have much energy left in this form. I have to end this now!' Jake thought as he decided to trade injuries, and so, he didn't stop his attack.

The spike impaled Jake's right shoulder, at the same time as he stabbed the thirio in the back, which let out a yowl. But, since the blade was not long enough and Jake didn't aim for a vital point, the injury wasn't lethal.

That was when the coat of fire around Jake's arm and knuckle suddenly retracted and headed for the blade.

BOOM!

The blade inside the thirio exploded in a mighty fire that even came out from his chest. The thirio was only able to let out a short yowl before its lungs burned and it wasn't able to produce any other sound before dying in agony a couple of seconds later.

Thud!

The thirio's body dropped lifelessly to the ground while Jake also fell to the ground, exhausted.

The form Jake had just used was an application of his ability that he had been trying to improve for a year. No one knew about this, not even Seth. It was supposed to be his trump card however he ended up using it in the first hour of the first phase in order to survive.

The form Jake had achieved after one year of training allowed him to force a pseudo-state. While in that form Jake's reaction time, physical and ability strength, and speed increased greatly.

Jake reached for one of his pockets to take out a bandage from the medkit he always carried with him. He then used it to bandage his right shoulder, which had a deep and bleeding hole made by the thirio's spike.

After his shoulder was bandaged he took out his ID card and the interaction menu instantly popped up with a notification.

[Thirio's corpse detected]

[Analyzing corpse…]

[Corpse identified]

[Thrio class: A

Ability: Shape modification-related ability

Reward: 2500 points]

[Adding points…]

[Points added]

'2500 points for a class A? So I should kill 3 more of these to get to 10 000 points,' Jake thought, then he sighed. 'Man, I was barely able to kill him, and that's by taking into account that I even got a chance because it underestimated me at first.'

'Anyway, let's not worry about that now, I should drink some water,' he thought as he remembered the duffle bag filled with supplies he had brought. After being hit by the first spike from the thirio, he had left in the room of the building where he had first landed.

Jake got up and walked to the window and looked at the building where the thirio and him had been previously fighting. However, all the surrounding floors were currently on fire, due to Jake activating his pseudo-state. He wasn't even able to see his duffle bag through the flames.

'F*ck my luck,' he thought as he looked expressionless at the burning building.