When Edge looked up and got ready to dodge, there wasn’t just one fist headed his way, there were two.

What’s going on? Did it somehow manage to heal its hand? But it wasn’t the beast’s wounded paw that was streaking toward his face like a bolt of pink lightning. Its good fist had multiplied instead. Each set of knuckles was slightly blurry, like he was seeing double.

He was so surprised that he didn’t have time to do anything besides continue with his evasive maneuver and hope for the best. Edge was able to lean out of the way of the first punch. The second caught him square in the face.

Crunch. The beast’s knuckles broke his nose and then slammed into his skull. He saw a bright flash of light, followed by a searing jolt of pain. The impact knocked him off his feet, and he went flying back to go sprawling in the dirt. Dazed, and confused as to what had happened.

As he fought to regain his senses, the answer came to him. That jobo is mid stage-one. It just learned its third skill. An attack that it can use with only one hand.

Regeneration was helping to clear his head, but he didn’t have time to recover. After watching him shrug off the last heavy blow, his opponent was going to make sure that Edge stayed down for good. While he was unable to move out of the way, the jobo was planning to hit him as hard as it could and not let up until he breathed his last.

With a triumphant roar, the beast leapt high, launching itself over twenty feet in the air. It completed its arc and descended like a meteor falling from the heavens, both sets of talons poised to rend him asunder.

This time, he didn’t have a choice. Edge shadow stepped without a second thought. Energy went streaming out of his core and the world shifted into smoke and mist, just as the creature’s feet hit the ground.

He didn’t have enough mana to keep it going for long, so he flowed behind the jobo and deactivated the skill. Knowing that this was his last chance to take control of the fight, he used slash and elemental blade in combination.

The glowing glacial sword burst out of his palm and went streaking for his enemy in the blink of an eye, his reactor roaring to life as it burned through his reserves.

The jobo knew that something was wrong and tried to leap out of the way. But it was already too late.

The impact reverberated throughout his arms as Edge’s iceblade scored a solid hit. The magical manifestation cut deep, drawing a long line of frost down the beast’s back and across one leg, freezing the tissue below.

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The jobo couldn’t abort its skill in time. It went soaring up in an uncontrolled jump, then landed a heartbeat later. It hit the ground hard, unable to brace itself with a frozen knee. There was a sharp crack and its limb twisted at an unnatural angle. The beast screamed in agony, then it turned to face him with murderous intent.

It seemed enraged by its injury and came limping back in, planning to take Edge out before he could take advantage of the wound.

He raised his knife but didn’t have a chance to attack. It was all he could do to stay out of the way as tail, fist, and teeth came at him in a blurring barrage, some of the strikes doubled as the jobo used its new skill.

But without being able to leap or kick, it was easy to anticipate the creature’s moves. This is everything that it has left. Wait for an opening, and you can put it down for good.

Edge took several glancing blows along the way, encouraged that the beast was growing weaker by the second. But he couldn’t afford to be careless. He was exhausted too and was running low on mana. One good hit could eliminate the advantage he’d won.

By now, he had developed a good sense of his opponent. On top of being worn out, dazed from blood loss, and in serious pain, the creature still had one frost-numbed limb. It couldn’t focus as well as before, and all its concentration was devoted to landing another big hit.

It’s coming. Any second now. That was when the jobo’s leg gave out from under it. It almost fell before it recovered its balance, looking away for a second. Edge knew that his moment had arrived. It was time to make his move and take the beast out of the fight. He gathered his will and cast entangle.

After dodging a doubled tail lash that almost caught him by surprise, four vines burst out from the ground, nearly trapping the beast before it hobbled out of the way. But it had failed to notice the second spell he’d cast right after the first, the moment that he knew where the jobo was going to move.

It looked down at a second patch of writhing tendrils, an expression of dawning realization appearing on its hairless face. But the creature couldn’t do anything about it and stepped straight into the vines with a terrified shriek. It tried to fight its way free, but the skill was already closing around it.

This time, entangle was able to catch its prey. The serpentine vines wrapped around the beast’s legs and then pulled themselves tight, tethering it to the ground. The next set of tendrils went for its arms, binding them to its body so it couldn’t punch.

The jobo was in a perfect position to land a finishing blow, but Edge had another goal in mind. He wasn’t planning to kill the beast yet. Not until he claimed its skills for his own.

He felt a surge of hunger emanating from his core as Skill-Eater sensed that its next meal had arrived. He had to fight the impulse to activate [Extraction] right away, wrestling down the urge to feed for another few seconds.

He had learned the hard way that creatures could resist his chains unless they were completely vulnerable. He needed to weaken his quarry further before he ran out of mana. Since time was of the essence, he decided to take the direct approach.

Edge walked over, picked up a rock, and smashed it into the beast’s head until it stopped struggling, careful not to kill it or get bit in the process.

See, he told his grumbling core. That wasn’t so bad. Now we can dine at our leisure.