6 New Stage
Koray asked whispering, "What kind of beast is that?"
Twenty meters away from them was a 10 meters tall breastfeeding on a corpse.
"I don't know, but I can tell you straight that it is a Spirit Beast." Answered Max with a low voice.
The four focused on the Spirit Beast. It had a bear like form with brown scales all over its body. A brutal Aura was swirling around it.
Max signaled them that he would attack first. He started to walk slowly in the direction of the Spirit Beast. The heat around Max started to build up with every step he took.
The tall Spirit Beast stood up staring directly to Max. It roared out and the scales on its body started shaking threatening. Max ignored it and started to move faster building up momentum.
Jonas watched him intensely, not missing any move, "I know that move, it's from Brad Pitt in Troja."
The other two saw the similarities and gulped excited.
Max's pace reached an incredible speed and the hot air around him blasted out. The Spirit Beast roared out again before pouncing at Max . It was slower than Max but it was like a moving tank.
Max jumped up, dogging the with sharp teeths filled jaw. The Spirit Beast was surprised for a moment and lifted it head up. It was greeted by Max's massive fist. The Spirit Beast felt a heavy pressure descending on it.
*BOOM*
The Spirit Beast got punched into the ground creating many cracks, it howled out in pain. Max had a mad smile on his face and his clear blue eyes seemed to shine.
Max shouted,"NOW!!!"
The three took action at the same time rushing towards the Spirit Beast. Max landed on the ground and sended a vicious kick at the head from the Spirit Beast. The beast felt irritated, just as it tried to stand up, another powerful hit landed on its head sending it spinning backwards. Before it could find its balance the trio showed up punching out with everything they had.
It was a clean hit on its stomach, the only part on its body which didn't have scales grown on it.
The Spirit Beast was sended flying, crashing through some trees.
The four of them stood beside each other looking at the beaten Spirit Beast.
Max praised them, "That was a good hit."
They nodded with solemn faces, they knew that the difficult part would start from now on.
*ROOAARR*
That mighty roar made even the ground tremble and the Spirit Beast entered its berserk state.
The earth around it started to shake and earth spikes started to rise from the ground. Its eyes turned scarlet red and it waved its big paws. More than forty earth spike came flying towards them.
"It's an earth powered Spirit Beast, they have an abnormal defence but are slow as f*ck!" Shouted Max while dogging the incoming spikes.
They splitted and rushed to the Spirit Beast, assaulting it from four different sides.
Max was the first to punch it but was blocked by its front arms. That gave Dino and Koray the opportunity to land two hits on its stomach. It howled out in pain and tried to rip them apart just to get kicked on its jaw by Max, sending it flying over 4 meters. Before it could hit the ground Jonas smashed right into it with a drop kick right into the stomach.
*BOOM*
It flew another 5 meters, landing heavily on the ground. It was really slow.
The Spirit Beast roared again forming an earth armor all over its body, even the once defenceless stomach was protected.
The pressure around the trio manifested even more, one could see that this fight pushed them to the limit. One mistake meant death.
They fought the Spirit Beast for another 17 minutes.
Both sides were panting heavily, staring at each other with murderous intentions.
Max looked up to the sky with two blazing suns shining down. He felt the heat from within himself transforming. His blue pupils constricted before he shouted out, "HAAAAAAA!!!"
Blazing flames came out of his body. He reached the Third Stage. He could feel that the fire was a part of him, like an arm or leg. He held full control over it.
The heavily panting trio stared surprised at Max, even the Spirit Beast was surprised. It started to move backwards intending to flee.
Max looked at it, "Where do you think you are going?"
The Spirit Beast couldn't understand what Max said, but it could imagine what it meant. It's pride as a predator was hurt, through its scarlet red eyes, flashed a mad glint, before rushing with wide open jaws at Max.
Max signaled them to not interfere. The Spirit Beast sended many spikes flying in Max direction while running at him. Max dodged them easily.
He was really thankful at the Spirit Beast, without it pushing him through his limits, who knows how much time it would take him to reach the Third Stage. He told the trio earlier that they wouldn't become strong if they didn't fight with their lives on line, but it was for himself the first fight against a Spirit Beast.
The blazing red fire around Max body gathered into his right fist, he punched out with everything he got.
It looked like Max shot a flame pillar in form of a fist at the Spirit Beast. It destroyed the earth armor and went through the body, leaving a deadly burned hole behind. The fire fist didn't stop and blasted everything in its path away.
Jonas who stood in the middle of the trio jumped up in excitement shouting, "What the hell? That looked just like the fire fist from Ace!"
Dino and Koray stood there dazed, it was so damn cool.
The Spirit Beast fell on the ground, twitching a few times before dying.
Max sat down on the ground panting and sweating heavily.
The forest in front of them was set ablaze, giving them a scare. With their lives on line the four of them lifted the corpse of the Spirit Beast and started to run back to the base.
******************************************
Back at the forge the four of them recovered for two hours, before starting to cook the Spirit Beast. It was too big to fit into the small forge, so they let it lie outside.
Dino asked Max, "When you ignited the fire around your body, why didn't your clothes get burned?"
"I have complete control over my flames hehe. They won't burn something I don't want to burn."
Jonas spoke excited, "That is so cool bro, I can't wait to reach the Third Stage. It's so bad*ss."
Max laughed, "Haha you will now enter the Second Stage, eat the meat and come outside."
They happily ate the Spirit Meat. A strange force flowed through their bodies after eating the meat. They moaned in bliss. They felt like their bodies reached a new height.
The moment they stepped outside of the forge they felt their bodies starting to absorb the Solar Energy around them. A heat started to spread through their bodies. At first it was painful but after some time they got used to it. If they could watch into their bodies they would see the Solar Energy refining their bones, organs and skin making them slowly stronger.
Max patted them happily on their shoulders, "It will take you some time to reach the Third Stage, but you know how to improve faster. I will take some meat for myself and leave. I need to tell Apo and Claudia how I advanced to the Third Stage. Here take this map, you can find me in this region if you need something."
They gave Max a bear hug before sending him on his way, thanking him for all his help.
