Battle(7)

The wolf stepped out of the portal, but I felt more prepared this time.

As it charged towards me, I knew that it would dodge backwards.

So I stepped on the ground a little harder for my attack to land.

The sword hit the wolf, making a small wound on its body.

'F*ck, it didn't connect properly'

And it continued to dash backwards to increase the space between us.

The wound was closing up at a visible pace.

'Shit, it has a regenrative ability'

It charged towards me again, and I tried to make my left side open on purpose.

It took the bait again, and this time I aimed a little further up.

But somehow it still dodged again, and I only made a small injury.

It ran back, and as I thought it would charge again, it vanished from my view.

But this time, I was ready for it to vanish.

So I leaped to the side as fast as I could.

And I could feel a strong wind blowing against me.

At the same time, a black outline ran past me.

I looked behind me to see that the wolf had landed on the same spot behind me.

The only difference was that I still had my left arm.

But as soon as the wolf landed, it dashed again towards me.

I didn't have time to dodge, so I had to block its attack.

Its sharp fangs and my sword clashed to a standstill.

While we were at a standstill, it slowly pushed me back.

And its sharp fangs were getting closer and closer to me. This couldn't continue, or else it would end badly for me.

So I imbued all my mana towards my sword and redirected it to the side.

The wolf, who was still pushing, didn't expect me to suddenly change direction.

So it rolled forward a few meters and quickly stabilized itself.

I was looking at the wolf, waiting for its next move.

And it vanished from its spot.

Again, I dodged to the side, barely avoiding it.

This time, I finally saw what it did.

It was imbuing its feet with mana to propel itself with amazing speed.

Just like how I use mana, the wolf was doing the exact same thing.

It had some limitations, like that it could only dash that fast in a straight line.

Because if it could have that speed throughout the whole battle,

There was nothing I could do but just die every time.

Since it can only dash in a straight line, it was very predicatable where it would attack.

As soon as the wolf landed, it dashed toward me again.

But this time it was faster than before, and even though I knew that it would attack, I couldn't block it in time.

It ended up biting my left shoulder, and I quickly tried to attack it with my sword.

But it dashed backwards before I could hit it.

I looked at my left shoulder, and it was bleeding, but it was still intact.

'At least it's not gone this time'.

The wolf didn't stop here, as it rushed again.

This time it ran like a zigzag, making its movement very unpredictable.

I thought it would aim at my left side because of the injury.

But it completely avoided that, and it clawed my right leg instead.

And it dashed away before I could attack again.

I felt a stinging pain on my right thigh where it attacked me.

I tried to move my right leg, but it was slower than before.

The wolf knew that, so it ran in a circle around me.

'Oh no'

By moving in a circle, it was very hard for me to know when it would attack.

'This is definitely a loss'

I tried to follow it with my eyes, and that's when I felt a faint energy around its legs.

'F*ck'

As I had thought, it vanished from its spot.

I couldn't dodge in time as I felt a pain on my right side.

As the wolf landed, I saw my foot stick out of its mouth.

[Skill activation]

Perfect Clear [X]

[Returning to the moment you first entered this floor]

*****

The same blue sky appeared again.

"F*ck, it's so annoying".

It was annoying for so many reasons.

First, it can somehow get faster and stronger the more we battle.

This was evident by it suddenly getting faster, and I was not talking about it vanishing.

Which ends up with me getting more and more injured throughout the battle.

Second, it can attack with its claws; I didn't even know a wolf could do that. But I guess it just looks like a wolf and really cannot be categorized as one.

Third, it has the ability to suddenly vanish and dash with a speed so fast that it's hard to follow with your eyes.

But this ability was counterable, as it could only dash in a straight line.

So all I had to do was dodge as fast as possible to the side, and it wouldn't be able to hit me. But if it somehow injures me, like my leg,

That skill becomes impossible to dodge in time.

However, I could feel a faint energy around its legs before it vanished. Which indicated when it would vanish.

Fourth, it fights in a really annoying way. Even though it has the upper hand, it really doesn't want to lose it.

And after it makes a successful attack, it dashes away immediately. So I can never hit it after it attacks me.

But at the same time, it's also never committed an attack. If it knows I can cause a deep injury, it will try to dodge no matter what.

'I could try to use that to my advantage'.

I stood up and went to my usual spot, ignoring Lee Min-ho and Goham Nam.

I tried to process all this information.

I realized that after it vanished, I could try to attack while I was dodging.

That was the only time it seemed like it was fully committed.

Since it's that fast, it probably can't dodge my attack in time. Which can make me injure it every time it uses that ability.

I have also noticed that in these two tries, it has always aimed at my left shoulder first.

I don't know why it specifically targets that bodypart, but if I utilize this knowledge, I can injure it when it tries to attack me.

With that in mind, I took the weapon and went into the forest.

After killing enough goblins, I went to the field again. And I repeated the same method to get the people out of the field.

I was waiting near where the portal would spawn.

Ripple! 

The wolf stepped out of the portal before it could even observe the field.

I imbued all my mana into my feet and dashed towards it.

The wolf quickly felt something and vanished from its spot, appearing 20 meters away.

'F*ck'

I thought that making a surprise attack would work, but it was like it had eyes in its back.

We fought again, but after a few exchanges I lost in the end. 

[Skill activation]

Perfect Clear [X]

[Returning to the moment you first entered this floor]

*****

Ripple! 

The wolf stepped out of the portal, but this time I didn't use mana at all.

I attacked, trying to be as silent as possible.

But somehow it still noticed, and it vanished again.

"If sneak attacks don't work, time to move to step 2".

My second step was to practice getting the timing right to counterattack after it vanished.

As I felt a faint energy, I knew that it would soon vanish.

Just when it vanished, I tried to attack.

And...

[Skill activation]

Perfect Clear [X]

[Returning to the moment you first entered this floor]

*****

After around 5 regressions, I can finally injure the wolf when it vanishes, and quite consistently too.

I just had to dodge to the side and swing my sword in the direction it would jump.

It's not a severe injury, but it must hurt nonetheless.

I also realized that the wolf was around twice as fast and strong as me.

Fighting someone stronger than me, was something that I was not used to. As I always had higher stats than the monsters I have fought until now.

Therefore, it was necessary to fight it, and I could see it as training.

And trying to do a sneak attack was impossible; the only way to injure it was to wait for it to attack me.

The injury is not that big, but it is something. If I keep stacking these injuries, it has to die at some point, right?

Ripple!

The wolf stepped out of the portal.

Again, after a few clashes, I got severely injured and regressed again.

[Skill activation]

Perfect Clear [X]

[Returning to the moment you first entered this floor]