53 Might of the claws

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Sieg wandered aimlessly once more inside the Gray Crags, he didn't had a clear targe5 of destination and just want to merely hunt for some Wandering Souls.

There is a few reasons why he chose to do so. One is because even though absorbing a Wandering Souls does not aid him on becoming stronger that he currently is, he still wanted to find out if they would offer different informations from before. Another one is because wanted to get used in using this new weapon that he made and there no better target than the Wandering Souls.

He walked towards the east side of the plane, the landmass is still covered a thick blanket of gloominess and darkness which made him think that he was just going in circles. The only thing that made him certain that he wasn't lost was the eerie vegetations appearing here and there and different rusting metal reserves that which did not looked like his previous shelter.

He kept moving forward for hours until he faintly felt a fluctuation towards the west. Seemingly attracted towards this fluctuations, Sieg walked slowly towards yet another land cavity.

At the center of this cavity is a huge pale panther that is about 7 meters in height and 5 meters long. Two long and sharp canines protruding out of it's mouth and ash color fur covered it's whole body, the back of the panthers legs are overgrown furs that resembled a small wing.

As the panther took notice of Sieg's presence it charged at him without any hesitation, light and quick footsteps echoed throughout the cavity as it did. Sieg manipulated his two claws and prepared for battle.

The panther swiped it's sharp claws at Sieg wanting to slice him in multiple pieces but he jumped at the right moment to evade and sent the claws to meet the paws. There was a sound of piercing flesh as his claws and the panther's claws met. Sieg's claws managed to pierce the paw of the panther, gray blood gushed through the wound and a few whimpering sounds could be heard from the panther.

This made the panther shocked as he now knew that this human in front of him is a troublesome opponent. That didn't made it retreat however and just shook Sieg's weapon out of it's claws and retreated a few steps to regain it's balance.

Sieg's claws automatically reeled back to him, him and the panther are now staring at each other, seemingly wanting to know what each of them is thinking, after a bit more time, the panther charged again with even more speed this time around despite of the gaping wound in it's right front paw.

As Sieg saw this the panther's speed his countenance sharpened a bit, the previous attack was just a test for the both of them, now the real battle begins.

The rusting claws around Sieg issued a loud clanging sound as they unwrapped themselves, right now it was screeching and guarding Sieg while also waiting for a signal to attack. He watched the movements of the panther carefully as is zigzagged and circled around him with a blinding speed, he was trying to learn the patterns of the beasts movements while also preparing on how to react when it makes an attack.

It didn't took long before the panther charged at him again wanting to pierce him with it's sharp canines, Sieg already saw this coming so he jumped and sent the claws to meet the body of the panther. As a result the panther missed biting him and his claws descended on it's body, then as Sieg landed onto the ground he pulled the claws fiercely resulting in a huge gaping wound to appear on the panther's body. The beast cried in agony as it felt the wound, gray blood gushed out and the panther staggered couple of times before regaining it's balance.

But how could Sieg allow such an opportunity to pass?

He ran towards the beast with cold gaze, the claws on each of his hands emitted screeches along with the wind, he threw one claw towards the beast and the panther tried to prevent it from landing on it's body by sending a meeting it with it's own claw as well.

But it didn't expected that Sieg could manipulate the claws, so before the claw hit's the panther's claw, it made a sudden turn and wrapped around the legs of the panther. Sieg smiled coldly as he saw this happened, now he could at least restrain the panther. The beasts panicked a bit, speed it one of the things it was absolutely proud about, even if it faced a Vengeful Soul,the panther could always use it's speed to run away. Now however, that it's leg is restrained thus it's speed was negated by it's opponent. The panther could sense an impeding doom about to happen.

Sieg tugged the chains so hard using his 'physical' strength paired with his overwhelming spiritual energies, the panther almost flew directly towards him out of it's own accord, and because of his overwhelming pull, the body of the panther rose up in the air so now, even if it wanted to run, it couldn't.

Sieg sent the second claw in a swiping motion, because the chain was about 5 meters in length it had no trouble creating another gaping wound at the opposite side where the previous one was. The panther landed onto the ground with a loud thud and the new wound gushed out gray blood. A sad and painful cry escaped the mouth of the panther, however Sieg's onslaught hadn't stopped yet.

While the other claw still wrapped around the leg of the panther, he held the other claw by it's base and rushed forward to the panther. His footsteps were quick but on the panther's ears, it sounded like earthquake each time his foot landed, the sound came closer and closer, the panther tried to get up and run but it lost majority of it's strength due to blood loss, it could only whimper in sadness and fear as it saw Sieg's frame standing near.

There was only cold indifference on Sieg's face, he raised the claw and with a muffled grunt, he drove inside the brain of the panther. The beast's body shook fiercely as it struggles to hold on to it's life, but Sieg only wedged the claw deeper, ending the beast's life once and for all.

He manipulated the chains and the instantly wrapped themselves around him again. Sieg sighed in relief, what a battle! This sent his blood boiling after a long time of being idle. He shook his body and got rid of the gray blood that splashed to him when he drove his claws to the beast's brain. After doing so, his anticipated moment happened.

The soul of the panther emerged from it's dead body and hovered above it. Sieg sent both of his claws towards the soul and as he felt that they're connected, he started reeling the chains back to him. As the soul got nearer and nearer to him, it swirled into a funnel and was absorbed by him. Then Sieg sat onto the ground and processed the new informations he got.

After sometime of searching through the memories, he didn't find anything that useful at all. What he got however, was a replenishment of his spiritual energies so everything that he spent on that battle was totally negated.

"I guess I should wander around for a bit or even try to find a Vengeful Soul. I wonder how much time passed since we got here." Sieg pondered as walked around.

Sieg's time bearings are off right now, in fact it doesn't only apply to him but for everyone as well. And just like that, Sieg's aimless wandering continued but this time, he was planning in aiming for a stronger target.

Not far from where he fought the panther, he felt another fluctuation once again, and just like a moth drawn towards the flames he started walking towards the source of that fluctuations.

"Go! Aim for the hind leg to cripple it's movements!"

This time however, he found out that he wasn't the only one who's attracted to it.

The Wandering Soul was located at yet another land cavity, it was a tall and ash gray bear that's currently fighting three blurred bodies of water.

From their appearance, Sieg realized that this is his fellow disciples from a different branch. One soul was holding a rather crooked looking sword, one was holding two daggers while moving nimbly and one is holding a staff. Sieg saw that the three actually had the upper hand so he decided to stay away and just observe the battle.

It didn't took them very long before they finally slew the beast. The soul of the beast was automatically divided into three and was throughly absorbed by the three cultivators.

Sieg was about to walk away since he was only curious if they could take it down themselves but before he could go very far, he heard a voice.

"Martial Brother! Please wait!"

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[A/N: I'm very sorry for the late upload! Zeus threw a fucking lightning bolt at one of the electricity post in my village and the motherfucker exploded. I kid you not when I say that about 150 households, including mine, relied on that piece of shit for electricity and we have to wait at least a day for the providers to fix it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not angry at the providers for the their slow response. My anger is targeted towards the typhoon because this is the first time this happened to me, and it's goddamn irritating.

Anyways sorry for the rant and thanks for those who wished for my safety, I love you all and enjoy the chapter. :) ]