Chương 33: City of Ravens (19)

Another two weeks passed. I just reached the 15'th cycle and was now recharging the soul essence using an Orthrus's soul. I was ready. I will go after the Sky Panther and a Leshy, the peak existence's in this Hunting Ground!

But my preparations need to be perfect! If I'm not careful, I will end up dead. That's why I spent three more days training and preparing strategies that I could use against them!

---

Staring down at a Leshy leisurely walking through the forest my heart rate speed up. I was thinking of ambushing him, but in the end, I went against it and went down to confront him straight on.

My sudden appearance startled him for a split second, he saw that there was no fear in my eyes, only intent to fight! It had to be the first time he saw a human that didn't run or hide from him. At first, he didn't know how to react but seeing me rushing at him changed everything. He raised his fist and smashed down at me.

As if I was watching it in slow motion the first fell right in front of me. With instinct, I stopped right out of the range of his attack and watched as the fist that could dwarf most people slammed down. To test the waters, I threw a punch, but the result was a little bit of bark breaking from the surface.

The most significant advantage of a Leshy is his defense and feeling the surface of it crumble made him furious! Slamming his fist down, all filled with more rage then the last one destroyed the ground around him as every one of them was dodged.

With my current speed, he couldn't turn his body fast enough to catch up to me! Because of this, I kept attacking while he was trying to move his giant body. But my punches didn't do much, barely scratching the surface of his body. At this point, it would be a fight of who can last longer! His defense or my stamina!

No!

With determination, I created the Soul Sword and started slashing at his legs! The result was blood! For the first time in this fight, I saw the blood of a Leshy! The wound wasn't deep, but it broke through his defense!

The scream of a Leshy like thunder startled both me and everything that heard it. His eyes glowed green as the blood from the wound hardened and formed a scab that grew bigger and changed color until it repaired the injury as if it wasn't there, to begin with.

With his eyes glowing I knew he released all of his elemental essence, and with it, his speed increased to a degree where I could hardly match!

With all I had, I evaded his attacks while slashing at his fists that were landing centimeters away from my body. Slash after slash each of his wounds closed as I made the next one. Not being able to get any closer to him I needed to make an opening.

I summoned a black feather and got ready when a fist landed on the ground I made the feather move as fast as possible towards his neck! With the unexpected attack coming his way he used his other and to defend against it, but the feather with my control moved around his arm and struck his chest aiming for his heart.

In the end, the feather didn't go further enough to pierce his heart, but I created a distraction that allowed me to jump on his arm and run up it! Filled with adrenalin my body heated up as the symbols on my arm released what felt like fire into my body! With all I had, I stabbed the Leshy in the eye using my Soul Sword.

But it didn't end here! The vitality of a Leshy was terrifying, and as if he felt no pain he smashed at me sending me flying with the Soul Sword ravaging through his face as it exited the wound! Like a rock, I fell on the ground.

My body filled with energy jumped up and rushed as if on its own, my hands changed into Claws and with all the strength in my arms climbed up his back as his body spasmed from the pain and palms covering his face!

When I reached the head, I transformed my arm into a spike and stabbed it through the back of its head!

When it exited on the other side, I the spike and with my hand still in his head started to create blades destroying the brain!

The giant body fell to the ground sending tremors in all directions. Standing atop the Leshy's head covered in its blood, breathing heavily and with my muscles lightly convulsing from exhaustion. The heat coming from the symbols disappeared and with it bloodlust.

It was the second time I felt this kind of bloodlust, but it had to be from adrenalin. I looked at the body of the giant that I just killed with my own hands.

It was something I wanted to do ever since I saw it for the first time. And now it was done! Next target is the Sky Panther, but before I do that… I need to take care of this body. The bark that the body is surrounded with is worth an astronomically high price!

I found a larger monster, with luckily was an Orthrus, killed it and used its skin to put the bark on it. After three hours of removing bark with my Soul Sword, I was done. Securing the whole thing with ropes, I made my way out of the hunting ground!

Tugging what about half a ton was a hellish exercise, but before dawn, I was able to get back to the city.

"… Leshy…"

"He killed that thing?!"

"Who is…"

Some people whispered, some didn't bother and talked loudly, but everywhere I went their eyes were focused on me. This place was the central hub of the hunting ground, and everyone was familiar with the monsters that could be killed there.

But it's not every day that you can see someone dragging half a ton of Leshy's bark by himself while looking like he spent a month in the wilderness.

"I really need to buy a car," I said to myself. I was dead tired from dragging this thing up to this point. I found a place that bought all of the Leshy's bark for 200 thousand dollars! It sounded like a lot… but in reality, it was barely enough to buy a lowest grade enhanced item.

For now, at least I didn't have to worry about money. I had better things to do. One of which was taking all of the soul essence from the soul of the Leshy.

Using the same method, I extracted the soul essence and consumed it. Unlike before, just this one soul put me at the limit! To get to the 15'th cycle, I had to kill so many weaker monsters that it was mindboggling. But now I reached the limit so quickly.

For the next day, I only practiced control to the limit, but I didn't condense my soul. I knew I could kill a Sky Panther while I was on the 15'th cycle and this was what I wanted to accomplish!

After resting, I left for the hunting grounds again!