If not for Rui's subconscious reflexive emergency activation of the Martial Heart, his ordinary reactions wouldn't have been able to perceive the lunge.

BADUMP!

Time slowed down to a crawl from his perspective as an invisibly fast motion was reduced to a normal attack.

BOOM!!!

The titanic momentum of the serpent crashed into empty grass. The sheer power of the attack was so high that it blasted past the surface, leaving behind a hole that could accommodate a large hill.

Yet its attention had already shifted, its body turned as it faced Rui who had managed to avoid it cleanly as he circled around the creature observing it with sharp eyes.

'Hm, an incredibly fast lunge. It would be dangerous to try and take that head-on. it's not just the speed but also the fact that it's venomous.' Rui noted as he studied the beast. He had not missed the two fangs that precisely aimed at him despite the small of a target he was.

Its body coiled in turns, gathering energy as its muscles tightened and tensed, ready to propel the snake forward at titanic velocities.

"Hiss!"

RUMBLE!

The very world around them shook with the sheer momentum of the serpent. It lashed out with a blazing velocity as its mouth opened unveiling ferocious fangs that threatened to sink the two menacing fangs into Rui's body.

And yet...

WHOOSH

Rui merely leaped into the air, avoiding the attack altogether. Yet he was no longer content with merely dodging.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

He launched a barrage of Mighty Roar Flash Blasts at the retreating serpent midair even as he put some distance between himself and his opponent. This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

"Hiss!" The snake shook as the powerful attacks crashed into its body, breaking and tearing its scales as they battered and cut the flesh. The angry creature coiled again, ready to strike.

Yet Rui had no intention of even allowing it to attack.

'You shouldn't attack prey that you can't reach,' Rui mused as he ensured that he was well outside the snake's range of attack. 'Shame you won't be alive to learn from your mistakes, oh well.'

The snake belatedly realized that Rui was actually a flight-capable creature, the type that the snake tended to avoid due to the maneuvering disadvantage. Yet it was too late for it to undo its choice.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

Rui rained down a maelstrom of attacks one after the other, mercilessly battering the poor creature as it began bleeding profusely from many orifices across the entirety of the snake's body.

Snakes weren't built with defense and toughness in mind, they were incredibly fast and agile in their attacks, allowing them to lash out and sink their fangs into the target in the tiniest fraction of a second. The attack happened so quickly that most prey would be entirely unable to react in time.

Martial Seniors didn't fall into that category, unfortunately, or at least Rui didn't. Not only could he fight the snake head-on with Primordial Instinct or predictions, but he had chosen the cleanest and the most suited fighting style to completely crush the snake with absolutely no possibility of victory.

'It's so easy to adapt to beasts and monsters that I could do it even without the VOID algorithm.' Rui mused.

Because their minds were not sophisticated enough, their combat styles were largely set in stone by their biology. That meant that there were very standard templates for defeating a species. They had pronounced strengths and weaknesses and it was boringly easy for Rui to see through them and instantly figure out the best counter to them.

It wasn't long before the snake perished under a hail of powerful attacks that it could neither defend nor avoid.

'Alright, time to eat you up to replenish my Martial Heart.' Rui mused as he returned to his normal state. The Martial Heart was a reservoir of immense accumulated energy. It demanded a lot of sustenance whenever it was used.

What followed was another long session eating session as he dissected and roasted snake meat.

'Oof,' Rui crinkled his nose as he glanced at the fangs up close as they leaked some of the snake's venom. 'That's a powerful anti-coagulant toxin. It's a good thing I didn't let that anywhere near me.'

He would start bleeding from all orifices if he let that enter his body, he would probably die very quickly if not for potions and Weaving Blood. yet as long as he could avoid the snake's most powerful weapon. Its offense was not a threat at all. Its blunt force was not that much of a problem even without the Metabody System.

'Humans are much more complex and tricky.' Rui mused. 'If not for the fact that the adaptive evolution model has not been adapted to beasts, they would be far too easy to adapt to him.'

It was easy for him to develop strategies and tactics for dealing with specific creatures, the problem was with countering every individual move that a beast made with the perfect individual counter. He had yet to overcome that problem, and that was probably something that he would need to fix before he became a Martial Master.

He was deeply concerned about breaking through with a flawed Martial Mind and then taking forever to fix that flaw.

'First let's find the Hypnomaster, one thing at a time.' Rui shook his head, before heading deeper into the forest after consuming his meal. The remaining corpse meat was bound to attract predators and scavengers, so he quickly moved on, heading deeper into the forest.

He had long entered the depths of the forest, making sure to avoid as many creatures as possible. If he used his Martial Heart, then he would have to go through the pain of hunting and eating whatever made him activate it, being bogged down once more. This was something that he would have liked to avoid.

Yet his eyes widened with shock as he came across something truly shocking.

"Is that... a giant human?" He murmured, shellshocked as he came across a giant corpse on the ground.