10 YEARS AGO, 10450, SUMMER MONTH 1, DAY 10, YEAR 10450 SAMURAI COUNTRY NAGASUKE
Skrylla Yokuta had just finished a bout at 50% some hours ago, and it felt like he was at a road block.
He and not been able to gain an advantage but one thing had change at least
Previously if he had a fierce smile on his face before while he battled, it was now a fierce grin.
They had walked on this day and Skrylla Yokuta’s mood was getting noticed.
His snappy replies and his foul temper, his practicing his stances and poses with deadly efficiency while keeping pin drop silence and his eating of food without any childish carelessness.
Drisnyl Hashna Tsuyo-sa was wondering why he was acting like this, but maybe it was maturity.
She had never been able to have children of her own – the memory of the fact always darkening her face – So, maybe this was something human beings went through.
Maybe she was also a victim of this.
Maybe he also just needed to talk and she wanted to ask Skrylla Yokuta what had been happening to him over time , but she was interrupted.
“ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!”
The sudden proclamation of imminent battle roused them back to full attention as it was usually either dominance for territory or hunger.
A Lion and 3 Lionesses, jumped out from the trees to deftly surrounded them in predatory ambush.
Skrylla Yokuta instantly reached into his wooden box and pulled out a wooden sword, immediately taking stance like Gejiro with his Short Sword, Karin with her Gladius, Jin with his Jian and Drisnyl Hashna Tsuyo-sa with her hooked blades.
Unconsciously, they narrowed their formation close to protect Skrylla Yokuta and that snapped him to what he had been waiting for.
Thus, he waited while engaging his Breathing Technique to his current possible limits for a Samurai Human his context, as he braced himself for a leap.
The Epic Beasts made predatory sounds and circled the 4 of them, making feints from time to time as if taunting and testing the group from Oniga.
And when the Lion roared again, the Lionesses each jumped at Karin, Jin and Gejiro as if their leader had sensed the Mistress’s power levels on a level such as instinct seeing as it left her for itself.
Hashna Drisnyl Tsuyo-ya watched the Lion’s action with the corner of her eyes, took one more step back towards Skrylla Yokuta and the Lion used that chance to jump on her, proving the higher intelligence that cultivation granted to it.
As its teeth landed on one hooked blade while a paw met the other, she had to wrench the expertly bitten blade to the side – as the feline sustained no mouth injuries – so that the other paw would not make any progress on her.
Then, at that moment, Skrylla Yokuta fled into the forest in full confidence that they could take care of their adversaries while he would find out what he, himself could.
“Come back, son!”
Skrylla Yokuta was too excited to listen and maybe his action made her reevaluate the amount of seriousness needed for them to concentrate on their battles, because he did not hear any other warnings as he ran through the copse of trees smiling in glee.
And he ran for quite a while, CavityBracelet dangling on his arm and wooden sword bobbing within his makeshift shin of a can in tandem of his body’s hurried rhythm.
When he ran until he was panting hard, he quickly used the aspect of his Breathing Technique for calming himself and even before he reached a clearing, he knew that he was successfully lost.
Heart beating in excitement and curiosity, he looked ahead to see the open area clearing.
The space looked as though the trees had naturally avoided a patch of this area of the forest in a crude circle and sunlight fully poured through atop patches of grass.
And eating that grass was a Rhino.
But this one was… at least halfway there, he approximated.
So, maybe on the level of the Kangaroo as he had gained experience since he left with the people of Oniga.
He stopped to bask in this opportunity as it saw him.
And he remembered when he had fought that Kangaroo.
So, how far had he grown since then?
Well, he would be able to tell now.
He saw how the plated scales on his body looked like large tiles and that was not the only thing that made him know it was close to becoming an Epic Beast.
The breath that escaped its nostrils was like the short burst of a clouded exhaust pipe from a faulty automobile, especially as it pointed its horn at him and the intent look in its eyes seemed like it wanted to charge at him.
“Bring it!”
As if answering him, it let out a snort and bounded to him like a gazelle.
Except that it was only its launching step alone that carried over to his front.
He was not going to jump away, as he wanted to test his growth.
So, without his Breathing Technique at all, he set his wooden blade in proper stance and airborne horn met it in a loud thud.
The air slightly rippled like leaves to wind that shook in response, just as his muscles.
But he stood his ground even though he eventually hit his back against the tree, happy that the Cauldron Bathes, his Meditation Technique, the Epic Beast Meals, his visualizations and meditations that he had been given over the months made him only feel light shock in his body.
And his stand had reduced the Rhino’s velocity, although it was slowly gaining the advantage as the blunt side of the wooden sword shook while the horn inevitably drawing closer to his body.
Thus, before it was too late, he rolled on the ground after pushing the Unawakened away with all his might so that the horn cut at least half of the trunk off the tree from until it was sheared true, clean and off to one end.
The armor was tough – cutting stone was not too hard for him with his practiced Sword Wind – the Sword Wind might not be able to make smooth work of it.
But if he hacked it like a saw, he might have progress… no, that would take too much time.
This was not like sparring against Gejiro, Karin or Jin where some might not consider to finish him off, and give him time on occasion to deliver his best strikes when they were not using verbal or physical pain to train him past his limits.
He watched it turn to face him before drawing its feet on the ground again.
And this time, he fell back while keeping low, so that it passed over him even though his body had to smack the floor for him to completely avoid its charge, which he did.
Next time, he would rather test out his blade before making concrete plans.
So – after a few more glancing cut, evasions and redirections – the young boy let it charge at him again.
A line drew on its skin, that told to him one more strike in the same spot would finish it.
But he was still shocked as his blade could now cleanly cut through its armor when he had added completely charged Sword Wind to it.
He had forced its head to one side and the Rhino snorted at him as if it were laughing.
An idea then struck him and he implemented it as soon as it came.
Skrylla Yokuta struck it with many slashes, approaching it for the first time.
But it was not seemingly worried as it even let him for the first 5 seconds before it turned to face him.
And once it did, he jumped back.
The Rhino then struck him and he felt like his entire body rattled in a single pulse – effective but ignorable – as he used the calculated direction he had been thrown towards even though he had blocked the attack.
He then flicked out his wooden blade to complete the cut the Rhino had made on the tree in its first charge to him, before springing off a few trees with scarce leaves by his feet and finally kicking on the tree that had now been completely sheared at its trunk.
The log of tree fell at the Rhino and Skrylla Yokuta jumped off it in a front flip so that the wooden swords in his wooden box all fell out.
The boy then further struck at all of them at their butts so that they all fired off to land in between the Rhino’s various armored plates, wedging themselves comfortably there before the log of tree fell unto its back.
CRASH!!!
The leaves made most of the noise, but the trunks impact on the wooden blades lodged into its plates forced some blood leak out of its body and it staggered, a perfect target for his landing strike into the hilt of one of the wooden blades with Full Sword Wind he had been building.
SHLICK!
The wooden blade he had timely struck passed through the creature and left it impaled into the ground.
Not dead yet, he watched it struggle until it barely twitched and breathed, and he was left brimming in excitement.
Finally proving to himself that he was not as useless as he had first set out, he smugly began collecting the Wooden Swords and placing them into him the case, dispersing the Sword Wind on the one in his hands.
The boy was unhappy how each time, to gather Sword Wind was like the cotton candy from a machine, but dispersing it was painfully easy.
When he was done, the Rhino had stopped struggling and was wheezing for breath.
With one last look, he turned to depart, and if he had not been hunting for Epic Beasts a few months prior, he would have missed the one beneath him, not far away.
“Buddy, we have one more to deal with.”
The Marsupial had beady eyes and it looked harmless – if not for the instincts that screamed at him just from its stare.
And as it rolled into a ball, he braced himself.
He tried to ignore the fact that this felt even more dangerous than what he encountered just before.
Night Rank Epic Beast!
The next second, he heard something inside him crack before his head snapped back because his forehead endured a smack which had him falling to the ground.