CHAPTER 36: Fighting The Nightmarish Beast

*BOOM, BOOM, BOOM*

Alex and the beast moved at great speeds across the sandy battlefield, to Alex's surprise despite the beast's size, it was still able to keep up with Alex's speed when he was moving at 42m/s.

Alex was currently using two stances to be able to fight the monstrous beast; Dalic stance to block normal attacks of the beast. And Hani shift stance to protect his body from the beast's stronger attacks, and also to launch powerful attacks of his own.

They soon crossed the full length of the battlefield and their battle settled around the middle of the space.

'I was right,' thought Alex as he turned to the left to avoid his shoulder being mutilated by the beast's razor sharp teeth. 'The way this is going I'm going to either run out of Hani or the drug will take effect again before I manage to defeat it.'

Alex bent almost double to avoid the wildly swinging tail of the beast.

'I don't know how much longer I can keep up both the Dalic and Hani shift stance.' Alex activated the Dalic stance on his right fist once more and swung it at the knee joint of the beast.

The beast looked at Alex almost mockingly, then its joint suddenly snapped to the side which caused Alex's attack to pass by harmlessly.

'Shit, it baited me.' Swore Alex.

Alex immediately deactivated the Dalic stance on his fist and redirected it to his side of his body, however before it could fully form, the beast's spiky tail lashed out and it collided heavily with Alex.

"Gaaa!" Exclaimed Alex as he was sent flying in the air.

He felt a burning sensation on his ribs and knew that although he had defused the blow, at least one of his ribs was definitely broken.

'I was careless,' thought Alex as he hurdled through the air. 'I underestimated the beast, and overcommitted in my attack.'

It had only been a couple of seconds since Alex had been launched in the air, and from the fact that he hadn't hit the ground, it was easy to tell that the beast's tail carried a lot of power in it, probably almost as much as its claws and paw had.

*WHISTLE*

Suddenly, Alex heard the sound of something cutting through the air. 'What is that?'

Alex turned his head, and his heart went cold as soon as he heard what was making the sound.

'The spikes are projectiles?' thought Alex in shock.

Alex saw tens of the sharp finger sized spikes that had been on the beast's tail coming at him with devastating speed.

Through the storm of spikes, Alex saw the beast's tail raised and pointing at him, the small spikes were then launched at him periodically.

'Can I dodge it? No, I don't have time.' Alex gritted his teeth and crossed his arms in front of his body.

*BOOM*

The sound of an explosion echoed around the space, and a body flew from the origin point.

*BANG, BANG, BANG*

Alex's body hit the sandy ground and bounced away multiple times before it eventually skidded to a stop.

'Everything's spinning.' thought Alex as he stared up dazedly. 'How is it possible for me to see the sand, beast and the black void at the same time?'

Alex grabbed a handful of the grainy black sand and rubbed it between his fingers.

He stayed like that for a few seconds before he dropped the sand and slowly staggered to his feet.

Alex looked truly wretched now, with both the sleeves of his shirt gone, one by Alex's own, while the other was blown off.

There was also a huge tear in his trousers that extended from the bottom up, and if that wasn't enough, his clothes were dust covered, so no hint of their original color could be seen.

Alex gripped the side of this body where he had a broken rib and winced in pain. 'I won't have a hope of killing that monster with the way things are going.'

Alex looked forward and saw that the beast was stalking toward him in a calm, almost arrogant way.

He then noticed that the spikes had reappeared on its tail. 'Shit! As if it wasn't bad enough that those spikes were explosive, but of course they can regrow almost immediately.'

Alex sighed and began slowly limping forward. 'Will I survive this? I know I have that trump card, but will it be enough?'

Alex shook his head to clear away those distracting thoughts, and focused on the beast in front of him.

'I won't know until I try if it will be enough or not, so there is no use worrying about it.'

Alex swung his arm in a circle. 'The only way I can think of to kill the beast is to destroy its core.'

Like Ranked, every beast, and most monsters in general possess a core that is the source of their power, if a person can't straight up kill the creatures, then the only other way is to destroy their core.

However, that solution is usually saved for the final resort since the cores are worth a good amount of money, and if they are damaged then the price they will be sold for will be a lot lower.

Alex then frowned. 'All my attacks so far have been to find out the location it won't let me hit no matter what, but I still can't locate where exactly it is.'

Alex stopped swinging his arms and let them drop to his side. 'I've crossed out all four of its legs and most of its torso except for its stomach, so that leaves its head and stomach.'

Alex saw the beast crouch down and knew it was about to come for him. 'I'll have to see the part it tries to protect the most, and then I'll use my trump card to destroy its core.'

*GROWL*

The beast growled, then it suddenly sprung forward.

'Here we go.' Alex then ignored the pained protests of his body and ran at the beast.

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*BOOM*

*GROWL*

*BOOM*

"Wait," Alex exclaimed. In one swift motion, he vaulted over the beast's leg.

"Wait," he continued, executing a backflip and promptly crouching to evade a potential beheading.

"Wait," Alex weaved and dodged as the whip-like tail lunged at him, churning up a cloud of dust with each missed strike.

The dust irritated both Alex's eyes and nose, but for the sake of survival he ignored it.

Suddenly, Alex's eyes widened, and he bellowed, "NOW!"

He parried the beast's outstretched paw with an upraised arm, then, with a resounding cry, he delivered a powerful strike to the creature's leg.

*CRACK*

*HOWL*

The beast emitted a mournful howl and lifted a limp, useless leg from the ground.

Alex seized this golden opportunity, swiftly sliding between the beast's legs and using the Hani shift stance, delivered a punch to its exposed stomach.

Alex jumped out of the way as the beast collapsed, then quickly rolled away as the spikes shot out of its tail.

After Alex got a sufficient distance away he jumped up and caught the last spike that had been about to hit him.

"What's wrong beastie, are you finished already?" Alex said with a mocking grin as he taunted the injured beast.

The beast got off the ground and looked at Alex hatefully.

It then tentatively put its foot toward the ground, but as soon as it touched the ground it hurriedly raised it back up.

'With that I've both reduced its mobility and at the same time confirmed that the core wasn't in its abdomen.' Alex thought this as he fought back against the exhaustion that he was feeling. 'If its core was in its abdomen, then it wouldn't have let me hit it no matter what. Sadly beastie is smarter than that, and it wasn't hurt enough to not have a choice.'

Alex yawned and shook his head to clear the fog that was taking root. 'Since it's not anywhere else in its body, then that means that the core is in its head, which means that is where I will attack next.'

'Either way, this next attack will be my last one.' Alex rubbed his face and stretched out his fingers as he looked at the beast. 'I only have enough Hani for two more uses of the Hani shift stance and my trump card, sadly I will have no defense on, since I don't have the Hani to spare to activate the Dalic stance.'

Alex's eyes drooped and he had to fight to open them, it was this that made him realize that something was wrong.

'This is strange,' Alex thought in confusion. 'I suddenly feel super tired, like I'm about to drop to the ground and sleep.'

'In fact this feeling reminds me of...' That's when Alex realized what was going on.

Instead of the euphoric and happy feeling coming back like he had expected, Alex skipped straight to the final stage of the effects of taking diom, a sudden feeling of exhaustion.

"Just my luck." Alex said with a deep, aggrieved sigh.