Chapter 77- Beast Tattoo
‘Spider Carapace, Attack Mode’
While his opponent was still disoriented by the previous exchange of blows, Hei took the opportunity to use Spider Carapace.
Spider Carapace was a defensive technique that condensed one’s spirit power to form a sort of armor similar to an exoskeleton. However, what Hei was using now was a variation he had devised.
Instead of using it to protect delicate parts such as the heart or the head, he would condense his spirit power on his limbs so that he could freely attack if they came into contact with weapons.
Unfortunately, Hei was only able to cover his arms from the hand to the elbow. With more practice, he would be able to increase the affected area, even going to wrap his whole body and creating a combat armor to attack without worrying about the damage.
Immediately after covering his arms, Hei approached the enemy again.
Jin, who recovered from the initial confusion, tried again with a rapid lunge towards the boy's chest in front of him. Even if Hei dodged, he was ready to change the direction of his weapon at any time. But Hei didn't avoid contact using Snake Run this time.
Instead, he used his right arm to deflect the blade of the longsword laterally, and with his left fist, he hit the enemy in the face.
"Vibrating Fist"
Bam!
Jin made a few steps back while a trail of blood came out of his mouth. The impact hadn’t been so violent as to render him unconscious, but he could still feel the enemy’s spirit power flowing over his body.
"Bastard! I never imagined using it against a brat like you. But you asked for it, and now you really pissed me off. Beast Tattoo - Gorilla Mode."
Suddenly, Jin's body began to glow with a yellowish light as various black symbols emerged all over the body like a kind of tattoo. Then, slowly, his whole body began to swell as his upper clothes were torn to pieces by the increase in size.
Hei, incredulous at the scene before his eyes, was undecided whether to act or proceed with caution. But he wasn't the only one who was surprised. Bao Bei also was shocked.
'What is this? I feel the blood of a spirit beast on his body, and yet it isn’t a bloodline... What have humans invented in these one hundred thousand years? Or did the demons invent it?’
At the end of the transformation, Jin had doubled its size. In particular, it was the muscles of his arms that had swollen disproportionately. His hands gave the sensation of being able to crush anything under their grip.
"What’s wrong, brat? Have you finished playing the big man? Admire the true power of a beast tamer. This is another small family gift. You must know that one of my ancestors was a beast tamer from the continent. My spirit beast bag and this formation tattoo are his. However, you should consider yourself lucky. You're the first person I show this move, although you wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer."
When his speech ended, Jin snapped vigorously towards Hei. His speed was faster than before. The swelling of his muscles had given him an explosive increase in his muscles’ power, thereby increasing his speed and acceleration. But, those improvements weren’t comparable to the rise of his arms’ strength.
With a horizontal blow, he waved his longsword. The weapon took on an incredible speed, and Hei couldn’t avoid it in any way. So he decided to receive it, reducing the damage by countering the longsword his spear and wrapping himself with Snake Hair.
Despite the measures taken, the blow sent him flying several meters until he landed abruptly on the ground. Soon after, he coughed up a handful of blood.
But if this blow had a strong impact on him, it was even more so for his companions. Lian, Shui, Xing, and Ye were taken by the terror that Hei could be seriously injured. However, this did nothing but favor their enemies who took advantage of the moment to attack with ferocity, reducing Hei's companions in a passive situation.
Noticing their mood, Hei stood up quickly. Then, without wiping the blood from his mouth, he made a series of sounds using the language of spiders.
"We are spirit beasts! If you want to worry about me, then defeat your opponent first! Show them what we are capable of."
Toward the battle cry of Hei, Jin could only tilt his head. He couldn’t understand what Hei was saying. But the spirit beasts around, and Lian, thanks to the translation of Bao Bei, understood it. In particular, the spirit beasts of the two enemy beast tamers were impressed by that event, so much so that they lost the newly acquired advantage.
Xing, Ye, Lian, and Shui recovered thanks to Hei's words and fought with even more vigor than before, emerging from their passive situation.
"You said it's the first time you show someone your skill, right? Then I will also show you something I have never used against my enemies. Unfortunately, you won't be able to live long enough to tell it." Hei said aloud with a smile.
"Brat, are you out of your mind? There is no way you can defeat me, not now that I have activated this ability. It isn’t one of those trashy sects’ techniques. This technique comes from the Continent. It isn’t something that someone like you can defeat."
"So? The techniques I learned are even more incredible than those taught on the Continent."
Right. His techniques were the legacy that the divine beasts had left to him. There was no way he could lose against someone else technique, regardless of whether it came from the Continent.
Hearing Hei's words, Jin laughed mockingly and then assumed an expression of anger. He was already looking forward to the fear in the brat’s eyes who grew up in cotton wool. Yet Hei hadn’t at all diminished his fighting spirit; instead, it had even increased. Therefore, Jin decided to end it immediately. He would show him that you shouldn't be joking with him.
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Loading the force on his legs, he jerked forward with his longsword in his hands and then slashed with all his might.
Seeing him arrive, Hei prepared to receive him.
‘If I can't react in time to the speed of his blows, then I won't dodge at all. I'll block his shot.’
Grabbing his spear with both hands, he used his weapon to ward off the slash that came from above.
The impact was crazy. Every bone in Hei's arms trembled from the force of the impact between the two weapons. But Hei didn't give up. Despite being sunk deeper and deeper into the ground and his arms hurting, he didn’t let go of his weapon. If he did, nothing would stop the longsword from hitting him.
And in the end, Hei stopped sinking into the ground. He had made it. He had successfully blocked the shot.
Jin dazedly looked at the scene before his eyes. Even though he could accept that his blows had been blocked earlier, he absolutely couldn't believe that Hei could parry a slash of his with his maximum power.
Screaming, he tried to kick Hei in the stomach, but it was too late.
Hei had taken advantage of Jin's surprise moment to move the blade of his longsword over his head to the ground. Then he jumped up.
“Spider Thrust."
The spirit power on his spear concentrated on the tip and struck Jin's throat. Despite being unable to penetrate his defense, it still managed to reduce the thickness of spirit power in that area.
'Finally. Spider Lance + Beast Claw + Snake Coiling. Super Penetrating Kick.’
Super Penetrating Kick. A technique that was nothing more than the combination of Spider Lance, Beast Claw, and Snake Coiling techniques. It was designed by Hei in case he wasn't able to use his arms for Spider Lance or if he needed even more power. It was indeed known that the power generated by the legs was higher than the one emitted by the arms, although not everyone was able to kick in the right way.
But, there wasn’t only the greater strength of his leg muscles. Using Snake Coiling to twist the bones and muscles of the leg and then release them, it would generate more power. Furthermore, with his sharp toenails from Beast Claw, his penetrating power would increase even more.
Slash!
With part of his opponent's spirit power already reduced by the previous attack, Hei's kick broke the remaining layer of spirit power that separated his kick from the enemy's throat. Then, his sharp nails stuck into the flesh, causing bright red blood to flow outward.
Without a moment's hesitation or pity, Hei contracted his toes in the enemy's throat and then released them. He was trying to do more damage. After that, he let his foot out, and with a leap backward, he walked away from his enemy, who was standing motionless as he tried to plug the wound on his throat.
However, it was useless. Hei's kick was thrown to cut off his enemy's carotid artery. It hadn't been a random shot.
The martial artists were beings that surpassed the conception of a normal human being. Therefore it was possible to live even with more severe wounds than that. But this happened in the upper ranks; in the spirit apprentice rank, it was virtually impossible to survive such an injury without immediate medical support.
Jin tried to stutter some words but failed. Finally, he fell to the ground with a thud as the inflated muscles returned to their normal size.
Hei also fell to the ground. The clash had drained many of his energies. Spider Lance was already an expensive technique according to his spirit power reserve, yet he had added to it a combination of two other techniques. Not to mention the moves previously used before Jin's transformation.
‘It's over. How are the others going?’
As soon as Hei finished his fight, his attention turned to his companions.
Lian was crawling on the ground as she was dragging the corpse of her enemy. On her left thigh were the remains of a blade, and the wound was bleeding profusely. However, she didn't seem to mind much. Her attention was focused on reuniting with Hei.
Seeing her in that state, Hei rose despite his fatigue and joined her.
"Stop, Lian. Rest, you have been excellent."
While petting her head, Hei sat next to her as he removed the piece of sword and bandaged the wound using his mother's spider web. Meanwhile, Ye and Xing rushed over to him.
Ye had most of her scales destroyed; only a few remained attached to the skin. Xing instead had the right half of her legs cut off and moved awkwardly using only those of her left side.
Despite the conditions they were in, they didn't seem very worried. On the contrary, they were as excited as ever. They had beaten their adversary and were holding the spirit cores of the Redhead Centipede and Yellow Scorpion in their mouths.
Hei embraced them and took the spirit cores from them to give them to their mother. Now, only Shui was missing from the appeal.
Right. Shui was the one who had the most challenging fight. Although Jin was a beast tamer of the fifth stage, he possessed two spirit beasts comparable to a sixth stage. Although Shui was at the peak of the first level, it wasn’t an easy challenge.
While searching for Shui, he heard a mighty bellow resound. Turning his head, he could see Shui bellowing toward the sky as he slammed his hooves to the ground. He was bleeding from many places, and he lacked large pieces of flesh here and there. But despite his injuries, he had won. Not far from him, laid the bodies of the Barbarian Lion and the Mountain Gorilla, now devoid of life.
However, it wasn’t for his victory that Shui was bellowing like that. No, it was for another reason.
The spirit power on his body was in an uproar and was soaring as Shui kept bellowing.
"Mother, by chance...?"
‘Yes, it's going up a level. He is passing to the second level, comparable to the second rank of martial artists, spirit soldier.’
By correctly recognizing the signs of level advancement, Bao Bei replied to her son with certainty. There was no way she could be wrong.
While they waited for Shui to finish his advancement, Hei turned to his two little sisters.
"Good work, Ye, Xing. But for now, you will have to rest until your next molt. Only then, you can regrow the parts that have been cut off."
‘Don't worry, big brother. I don't think it’ll be long.’ (Xing)
'True. With the spirit core of yesterday, I felt the approach of the molt. Therefore, eating these two others, we should immediately molt.’ (Ye)
As the two of them returned to their small size, Mi flew down to rejoin them. Although she hadn’t fought, her contribution had been fundamental. Several times during the battle, the Yellow Scorpion and the Redhead Centipede had tried to rejoin. But she had always warned Ye and Xing if they had been too close so that they could direct their respective battles elsewhere. She had also been the second pair of eyes for Shui since the Barbarian Lion, and the Mountain Gorilla had tried to attack him at the same time by exploiting the numerical advantage.
"Good work, Mi. When we get home, I will tell the queen bee to give you a prize and vacation days, what do you say?"
He gave me a series of joyful sounds. Although she was a spirit beast and the queen bee was a normal bee, Mi respected the queen bee, and despite her strict teachings, she accepted her lessons without question.
Meanwhile, Shui had finally finished his advancement. With powerful steps, he approached Hei and bowed his head as if to thank him for bringing him with him.
"Shui, raise your head. It is I who should thank you. Without you, we won't have made it.” Hei hastened to say immediately.
It was true. Without Shui, it would have been another thing. Probably they would never have succeeded in winning except with the help of Bao Bei.
"Okay. I think we can return to Chestnut City. Shui, do you mind if I tie to you the spirit beasts and the two men’ bodies?"
Shui nodded his head. He didn't mind at all, and he would help Hei even in things like this.
As for the reason behind Hei's request, it was simple. To complete the mission, he needed proof. Since it was too complicated to bring so many corpses to the sect, he would show evidence to the city authorities, and they would then notify the Flower Sect about their success.
Of course, he would only deliver the bodies of the two men after stripping them of their belongings. As for those of the four spirit beasts, he wouldn’t give them up but kept them to himself. After all, those were his hunting booty, and it was enough for the authorities to show the bodies of the spirit beasts without needing to hand them over.