The silence in the ruined clearing didn’t last. The cold, suffocating weight of mutual killing intent reached a terminal breaking point.
Neither the blood-drenched teenager nor the crippled predator could sustain this standstill while their life force steadily leaked into the dirt.
The Vorpal Bunny made the first move. It tapped its powerful hind legs against a blood-stained root, exploding forward with a desperate, high-velocity burst of white light.
Even with its right paw dragging uselessly through the mud, its movement signature remained terrifyingly fast, a straight horizontal blur charging down the center line.
Jet didn’t try to run or maneuver away.
He stepped his right boot forward, digging his heel firmly into a small ditch to anchor his stance. He raised his remaining functional weapon, the shorter, splintered bottom half of his ironwood stake and held it loosely in his right hand.
His chest wound flared with a sharp, blinding heat as his deep breaths stretched the torn flesh across his ribs, but his Asura Physique locked his trembling muscles into place.
CLANG!
The bunny’s remaining sixty-centimeter left paw blade clashed violently against Jet’s ironwood segment.
The impact frames were massive; the sheer force distribution behind the small creature’s kinetic momentum drove a visible ripple through Jet’s tattered sleeves, forcing his right arm back by several inches.
The bunny utilized its signature speedster footwork, instantly pivoting on its left paw to execute a low, sweeping reverse strike aimed at Jet’s knees.
Jet shifted his weight down, driving the flat of his wooden stake downward to parry the cold steel edge into the dirt.
BANG!
The blades hit the wet soil, kicking up a thick spray of black mud. The bunny didn’t break its chain. It bounced off the ground, using its light skeletal frame to launch an immediate vertical upward slash targeting Jet’s exposed throat.
Jet violently tilted his head backward, the wind of the trajectory grazing past his jawline and opening a tiny, fresh scratch that bled instantly. He ignored the stinging sensation, bringing his right foot forward in a brutal, short-range front kick aimed straight at the monster’s fractured chest.His heavy combat boot caught the bunny squarely on its ribs.
The raw force distribution of the blunt blow sent a sharp sound of cracking bone echoing through the trees, blasting the creature three meters backward.
But the bunny’s predatory reflexes were unhinged. Even while flying through the air, it swung its left paw blade horizontally, casting a crescent-shaped wave of compressed air that sliced clean through a dense cluster of ferns beside Jet’s hip.
Jet stumbled forward, his breath rattling wetly through his throat. The massive cut across his chest was bleeding heavily, the dark red staining his cargo trousers down to his boots. His stamina was hitting a critical bottleneck, his vision occasionally swimming with dark spots from the massive blood loss.
He knew he couldn’t keep exchanging high-density blows on equal terms for another ten minutes. His human body would collapse from structural failure long before the monster’s ferocity gave out.He needed to end it now, and he had to use the creature’s own specialty against it.
The Vorpal Bunny landed heavily on its hind paws, its ruby eyes bloodshot and wild with an unhinged frenzy. It realized its human prey was running on empty fuel. The single functional blade on its left arm hummed with a cold, desperate energy as it prepared its ultimate, high-frequency execution chain.
The creature tapped its hind foot twice against the earth, its white silhouette instantly disappearing from Jet’s line of sight.
It was the exact same spatial displacement ambush it had used previously. It was going for Jet’s absolute blind spot, the space directly behind the back of his neck.
But Jet was anticipating it. The moment the bunny vanished, he didn’t try to turn his head or raise his weapon in a standard block. Instead, he deliberately left his entire back exposed, keeping his shoulders loose and his posture relaxed.
He intentionally projected a image of complete physical exhaustion and delayed reaction time. He was baiting the predator into believing its ambush was flawless.
POP!
The silver glint materialized abruptly out of thin air directly behind Jet’s left shoulder, the single-edged bone blade already descending in a swift horizontal arc designed to cleanly sever his head from his shoulders.
The exact second the cold air pressure touched the fine hairs on his neck, Jet didn’t drop down. He violently threw his entire upper body forward, letting the blade slice through the empty air above his spine, while simultaneously driving his left heel backward in a powerful, non-linear horse kick.
He wasn’t aiming for the creature’s chest or limbs. His heel targeted the specific spatial position where the bunny had to land to balance its high-speed trajectory after an aerial swing.
BOOM!
Jet’s heavy combat boot connected solidly with the bunny’s remaining functional hind leg right as its paw touched the dirt. The raw force distribution behind the Asura-enhanced kick slammed directly into the creature’s knee joint, completely shattering the bone structure.
The bunny’s high-speed footwork instantly locked up. Its balance evaporated entirely, and its one-meter frame stumbled violently forward, its head dropping low as it tilted off-balance into the mud, completely exposed.
Jet spun his entire body around in a fluid, circular motion. He didn’t waste a single fraction of a second. He gripped the jagged ironwood stake with both hands, stepping inside the creature’s guard, and put every remaining ounce of his strength, and his unyielding resolve behind a single, final downward plunge.
CRUNCH!
The jagged splintered tip of the ironwood stake driven straight through the back of the Vorpal Bunny’s neck, fracturing the spine, and punctured directly through the base of the skull into the brain cavity.
The creature’s body went completely rigid for a brief millisecond, its ruby eyes dilating before the red light faded from them entirely. It let out a final, muffled grunt, its muscular limbs going completely limp as it crashed heavily into the black mud, dead.
Jet let go of the wood, his knees instantly buckling beneath him. He collapsed heavily onto his back right next to the dead monster, his chest heaving violently as he stared up at the dim rays of light filtering through the ancient canopy.
His hands were covered in dark blood, his body was maps of burning pain, and his face was entirely translucent white from the extreme blood loss.
But he was alive. He had cleared the trial.The red system interface dropped down smoothly in front of his fading eyes, clearing away the darkness of the forest.
[ You have killed the Vorpal Bunny. ]
[ You have received one Lesser Monster Core. ]
[ You have obtained a Relic. ]
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