5 Keep your damn fire!

Huo sighed exhaustedly. He had finally shaken that damn rooster off. But unexpectedly, the rooster was sitting near the cave's entrance in which Huo Ling had dumped his bag with provisions. Unable to do anything, Huo Ling began absorbing the rest of the mana in his bloodstone. This took Huo Ling significantly shorter than his very first try, taking only two minutes. When he put the bloodstone away, it still showed small orange coloured '12'.

As his mana restored, he began to think about how to kill that damned rooster. He was extremely annoyed with this rooster, not only had it chased him twice for a really long time but not it had even prevented him from accessing his own supplies. He wanted to kill it for sure.

He thought of different strategies but eventually decided to push the decision to the next morning.

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The next morning he was moody, he hadn't eaten for almost an entire day. However, he knew that attacking the rooster before daybreak would be a lot better. The chickens would have yet to wake up so he only had to worry about making sure had wasn't hit with one fireball.

Soon he was only a dozen meters away from the rooster. He slowly crept forward trying to make no sound. Of course, that was impossible and only four and a half meters away from the rooster, it woke up. As soon as Huo Ling saw this, he jumped up and sprinted towards it holding his knife and Mana Gun. Last night he found out he needed 0.8 mana to dissolve a fireball. Thus, he basically had six bullets and if the fight was longer than a dozen minutes Huo Ling had one more bullet. Of course, if he used the Mana Gun every time the rooster threw a fireball he had to be really stupid. Huo Ling dodged as much as possible.

The rooster would fire a fireball every eight to twelve seconds. As he wasn't really agile and couldn't dodge a lot, Huo decided the fight shouldn't last more than two minutes.

As Huo Ling was only two and a half meters away, the rooster opened its beak and spit its first fireball. Huo wasted no time in shooting it down. He could've dodged it, but that would impact his speed and the element of surprise. Huo's dagger and the rooster's beak clashed. Huo tried to stab the dagger into -what he presumed was - the rooster's heart immediately, but a problem Huo couldn't have seen coming arose. The dagger was completely unable to penetrate deep enough! Even worse due to the feathers his dagger was also stuck. The rooster's beak was incoming and Huo had to let go of the dagger. A little blood was seeping out of the wound which did practically nothing, except making the rooster angrier. It fired another fireball, and due to the close range, Huo had to use his Mana Gun again.

Not only did it have to chase this human for twice for an entire day, he even got away both times! Now, this damned human had sneaked upon it and even injured it! In fact, it had also caused those chickens to disappear! Moreover, it also caused it to feel like it was weak by disintegrating those fireballs! The rooster was now angry beyond words if it had any at the start.

The rooster was so angry, it even started to make an unexpected move.

The rooster stood still both kept its beak open. Huo was confused by this, would it let him go? Huo saw another fireball being made so he quickly shot once. To his surprise, however, the fire didn't disappear. Half a second later it resumed the process.

'It's not a fireball, it's a fireblast!'

Huo recognized it fairly quick and shot once more with only 0.6 Mana. In that short span of less than a second Huo Ling had already thought up his next course of actions. Huo Ling had enhanced his quick thinking ability to an incredible level while playing games. After all, he had been playing solo for the largest amount. He had fought a few battles in which opponents used zerg tactics, in which quick thinking and responses was a blessing.

The fireblast was delayed once again. In this short timeframe, Huo Ling quickly rushed up to the rooster and pulled out his dagger with all his might. The fireblast had now little more than 0.1 seconds left until it would fire. 'Now!' Huo Ling had incredible timing as just before it shot, Huo shot with all his leftover mana, completely dissolving the foundation. He then hit the rooster's beak with his dagger with all the power in his body and jumped back.

"Keep your damn fire!"

According to what Huo Ling had learned in school, as long as a spell would have finished, but the foundation was missing, it would result in a backlash. Usually, this was used for much higher spells. Some needed over ten minutes to complete and if one countered it the caster would receive a serious backlash. Now the backlash would be negligible, but due to the fact that this spell was above this Knight ranked rooster's level, the spell would still explode, it would just not travel anywhere. In other words, the rooster would be baked from the inside due to his own spell.

That was exactly what happened. Although it had it's outside was completely immune to normal fire, whether its insides were fire resistant was another question.

"Ding... Congratulations, you have slain your first Knight rank beast in the First Layer! Awarded: 10 Knight Slaughter Points!"

Then a series of dings sounded with a 'Requirements have been met, unlocked... Blueprint."

Huo first absorbed the rooster's blood with the bloodstone. After doing so he noticed that his dagger was getting dull from use. He didn't really care as he had already decided to use the claws of the rooster to make a new weapon. He dragged the corpse into the cave. He first washed his hands and then started eating like a hungry beast.

He grinned "Hehe... If I told people I have slain my first Knight rank beast completely alone on the fourth day, how many would believe me?" It made him happy to know he could keep going solo. That day he went to sleep early. Tomorrow he had a lot to do, such as checking out those new blueprints, making a new weapon and checking out that hill for valuables. For now, though, he felt tired as hell, he hadn't slept well last night.