Chapter 14: First Battle
A month quickly passed.
The path in the mountain where Rayden and his father lived was steep and rugged, full of sharp rocks and large boulders making the path very hard to transverse. With a shaking sweaty body, Rayden had just run more than ten miles carrying a huge rock around the hills before he stopped in front of a wide river.
Boom!
He threw the rock on the ground, and then he took off his outer clothes and jumped in the deep, river. All of sudden you could see a figure under the water throwing out punches one after another in a quick manner that disturbed the river's flow. Practicing under the water was hundred times harder than on the ground, the extreme pressure from the depth and speed of the rushing water would squeeze one's body from each direction and caused many people to be frightened for their lives.
Running his body cultivation skill, Rayden firmly stood at the bottom of the river which was full of little rocks and mud as he casually threw a punch. With all the running water around him, the power of his punch could only reach about thirty percent from usual. However, this was exactly what Rayden wanted; otherwise there was no point in training under the water anymore.
The river suddenly became cloudy, and the flow of the river began to change and spin like a hurricane. It was almost like as if there was a large monster hiding in the deep, shifting its weight in preparation for the right moment to snake its head out. In this extreme condition, Rayden could feel every bone and every muscles in his body shaking and fighting against the sudden turbulence as he finally managed as he dig his feet into the river bed to find his balance in the high pressure and turbulence.
Losing track of time, Rayden ran out of his breath and finally came out of the water.
Gasp! Gasp!
Rayden breathed in heavily, he laughed: "Training under the river is so efficient! I wonder how many people know about this method."
After resting for about ten minutes, he took a deep breath and jumped back in the river.
After repeating this for the fourth time, while practicing his basic boxing skill, he heard a pop in his muscles and felt his strength suddenly increase.
Feeling this, he immediately came out of the river and brought up his attribute panel. He noticed that his basic boxing skill had finally broken through to the final stage; the Unity Stage.
It had taken him over a year to break through from the second stage to the third stage even with his talent. This showed how difficult it is to cultivate this skill.
He was very excited now. He could feel and combine the power coming from every inch of his body. This will help him exert a higher form of explosive power whether he is using either fist arts or sword arts.
After familiarising himself with his new breakthrough he immediately began to run back to their log cabin. As he excitedly went down from the mountain, suddenly, a fishy smell caught his attention.
The month he spent training in his responses and reflex speed wasn't wasted: instantly, Rayden stopped his steps and jumped to the side, at the same time taking out the steel sword that was strapped to his waist.
With a 'wizz' sound, a silver shadow happened to pass over from the path he was about to cross. At this time, although it was almost dusk, Rayden easily saw the surprise attack coming.
A massive creature slowly made its way in front of him. Its entire body was covered with beautiful dark fur. It was over two meters tall, and its steps were graceful. It stared at the tiny little pipsqueak standing in the distance; a human male. As one of the special types of ferocious beasts, the creature's intelligence wasn't much lower than that of humans.
"A ferocious beast?" Rayden couldn't help letting out a cry, his heart was at this moment extremely nervous.
Richard taught him every day every kind of subjects, and among them included the presentation of the different kinds of ferocious beasts on this Island. Luckily, he studied the kind of ferocious beasts like the one that was currently before his eyes a few days ago.
This was a Dark Shadow Beast.
But he was very surprised that such a strong ferocious beast had appeared here. Richard had assured him that he had cleared this area of the forest and during his month here, he truly hadn't seen any beast here. So for this beast it must be Richard who specially allowed it to appear here. And to think about it, it really wasn't a coincidence that his father just happened to show him the description of this beast just a few days ago.
"He picked a ferocious beast for me the first time here." Rayden was holding his steel sword tightly in his hand, gleaming with cold light. "Then let's kill it."
He used the [Detect] skill and a popup appeared in front of him.
...
Name : Dark Shadow Beast
Race : Ferocious Beast
Strength Level : D
Status : Healthy
...
His heart began to beat faster when he saw the strength level of this beast. Facing a ferocious beast for the first time, Rayden felt chills on his back, his hand was gripping tightly on the sword but he didn't act rashly, much less did he turn around to run away. To keep calm in such a situation was already quite hard for a five year old child, but he was behaving like this because he still remembered that Richard told him that Dark Shadow Beast's' sprint speed was quite fast. At the same time, he taught him never to show his back to the enemy.
The Dark Shadow Beast's massive body weighed over a hundred pounds, but its four legs moved with great agility as it closed the distance. Its long, narrow eyes inspected this human youth.
Rayden walked forward, one step at a time, with his sword in hand. The distance between the two quickly drew near.
"Shua!"
The Dark Shadow Beast's movements suddenly changed from being graceful to being savage, and it suddenly transformed into a blur as it pounced at Rayden, and its previously soft paws suddenly had sharp claws emerge from it as well.
Sou!
At the critical moment, Rayden suddenly moved, as graceful as the wind as he dodged the Dark Shadow Beast's pounce, and then stabbed out with the sharp sword in his hand! The stab was extremely forceful and straight, and it was also fast as lightning. If it managed to land on the Dark Shadow Beast's body, it would be able to borrow the charging force of the Dark Shadow Beast and tear its body open!
"Huh?" As he stabbed, Rayden's face suddenly changed. The sword tip had met with a powerful blocking force. The Dark Shadow Beast's fur had blocked the tip of the sword, preventing it from penetrating through.
At the same time, the Dark Shadow Beast suddenly sent its tail whisking towards Rayden. Unable to dodge in time, Rayden quickly used his sword to block.
"Peng!" The Dark Shadow Beast's tail landed against the blade like a heavy iron whip, and the powerful force knocked Rayden flying away, his body slamming against the distant tree with a boom.
"Peng!" The thick tree trembled violently.
"Roar!" The Dark Shadow Beast immediately followed up with another pounce as it slashed at Rayden with its claws.
"Illusionary Sword Steps"
Quickly displaying his recently learned movement skill, he stepped out and disappeared from the view of the Dark Shadow Beast.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Several deep claw marks appeared on the tree. The Dark Shadow Beast landed on the ground, and then stared at the distant human youth. Its tail attack was its killing weapon. Its tail had sent the human youth slamming into the wall, but the human youth had actually been able to quickly dodge far away. It understood that this human youth truly was very powerful, powerful enough to give him a good fight.
"An ordinary 'D' ranked combatant, upon meeting with that tail, would probably have their organs split open." Rayden frowned as he stared at the Dark Shadow Beast. "It seems I'll have to rely on the power of the Illusionary Sword Tactics."
This month, apart from his limit training, he had also been taught a set of sword skills that was a combination of a very ingenious movement skill and sword techniques.
At first he didn't take it seriously since he had better skills from the system but upon learning this technique, the system A.I. notified him that this was a Heaven Ranked Sword Skill.
He was very surprised when he heard this. How could a Heaven ranked Sword Skill appear here? He was very surprised so he asked Richard about this techniques origin and he was told that it was discovered together with the Limit Body Training Technique on this very island in an ancient ruin. As he got more curious about it, Richard told him that this ruins was too dangerous for the present him.
He had now practiced the first level of the sword technique which also included its corresponding movement skill – Illusionary Sword Steps. This had further increased his attack and agility. He had now decided to end this fight quickly with this technique because his normal techniques couldn't even break through the fur. How could he use it to fight?
At this moment, a slight movement of the sword in his hands, shattered the tree before him and carved a huge ditch into the thick earth.
The distant Dark Shadow Beast let out a low growl, staring fixedly at this youth.
Spinning the sword in his hand, Rayden slowly walked towards the Dark Shadow Beast, circling around it. The Dark Shadow Beast stared at Rayden as well, choosing not to rashly attack. This was because once it attacked…it would expose its own flaws as well. That would the moment which determined life or death.
"Illusionary Sword Steps"
"Humph!" Not hesitating at all, Rayden suddenly charged forward after the Dark Shadow Beast, his body becoming a blur.
With a howl, the Dark Shadow Beast immediately pounced over as well, opening its massive maw and revealing its sharp fangs. Its sharp claws tore at Rayden as well.
"Shua!"
A flash of the sword!
The shadow of a sword slashed through the air, striking in a short range while changing trajectories five times. Its speed was terrifyingly fast, so fast that it was as though even the void was being chopped apart with it. The flashing sword chopped at the Dark Shadow Beast's chest, carving out a massive wound, and fresh blood instantly spurted out.
"Block." Just after Rayden chopped out with one sword, he immediately turned his sword back and blocked the Dark Shadow Beast's claw, while simultaneously borrowing the clashing force to fly backwards and retreat.
The Dark Shadow Beast stared furiously at Rayden. The massive wound on its chest was shrinking, and the flow of blood began to slow, but it still continued to drip blood. Clearly, that wound had simply been too massive. The Dark Shadow Beast was now truly sensing the impending arrival of death!
"The [Illusionary Sword Tactic's] technique, 'Illusionary Flash Sword', really is extraordinary." Rayden sighed softly.