31 Facing The Kanju

Yeon looked behind him to see the huge rumbling mass of hard muscle chasing after him. From its half-open underbite, gooey saliva splattered everywhere as its head shook from the impact of its own steps.

The feral gleam in its eyes shined with increasing intensity as it slowly managed to shorten the distance from its fleeing prey.

'Just a bit more…'

Yeon was literally bounding over the rocks and roots that made up the mountain terrain, his light stride was like an agile rabbit that was showing off its expertise in its home territory.

He navigated between the trees, purposefully hiding behind those tall walls to delay the chasing Kanju for even a fraction of a second.

The beast was faster than him, and if not for its large size that was getting hindered by all the surroundings, Yeon would have been caught a long time ago.

But unless the woody obstacle was wider than a meter and a half, the enormous beast wouldn't even bother to move around it.

*BOOM*

It whirled its huge arm and smashed the tree that was in its way and bits of wood sprayed everywhere.

Yeon had grown used to this pattern and was already looking back at the beast.

A few sizeable pieces of debris shot towards Yeon and his surroundings and using his meticulous visual acuity, he twisted his body mid-air to narrowly dodge them before landing again to continue his escape.

Some of the wooden projectiles manage to touch his flapping robe, ripping a hole through it, but his body itself was unharmed.

If a single piece had managed to hit his body, then his balance would be ruined causing him to slip or fall, giving the beast a chance to catch up.

Yeon was risking his life every single time he hid behind the trees, but he had no choice to if he wanted his plan to work. He had to reach a specific area in the mountains to have a winning chance and for that, he needed more time.

"WRAAAHHHH" The Kanju roared in frustration.

Its prey was supposed to by dying already, tortured and humiliated by its hand. But this slippery human seemed to pass through his hands. It was infuriating that it managed to escape by the skin of its teeth, somehow dodging everything it threw at him.

Whenever he emerged completely unscathed, it felt as if it were being mocked. It was as if it could feel the derision every time that filthy human looked back at him.

Every time, without fail, those cold red eyes would stare back at him before he launched an attack.

They were indifferent and arrogant.

It felt as if it wasn't even being taken seriously. How dare something so weak and fragile look down on its mighty strength!

It was different from last time. While searching for something to heal its eye, it had come across a soaring purple lily, a rare type of herb that contained huge amounts of qi beneficial for magical beasts.

It was something that countless other magical beasts would fight to the death for if found. Luckily it was alone, and it quickly used it to evolve from a Sub-Kanju to a fully-fledged Kanju.

The roles were reversed and now he was the hunter, yet he still hadn't managed to injure its prey.

The dancing figure of the human was too elegant, too controlled, for it to be desperate. It was running away but he couldn't feel the same fear from the human that he had experienced when he was forced to flee.

It roared in anger again while twirling its arm forward to launch a rock it had summoned with its qi, but the human was elusive and twirled its body to reduce its exposed surface and the stone passed him yet again.

But suddenly, the human finally stopped running away and turned to face the Kanju head-on.

Yeon sneered at the beast. His apathetic eyes now held a tiny ember of excitement as it awaited the violence that was about to ensue.

Their surroundings were different from before. The land was relatively flat with few roots and rocks. The Kanju's feet were too large for it to get tripped up on those types of obstacles and they were only a hindrance to Yeon.

It was densely populated with thin trees, but considering the heaven and earth density here, these trees were special. They were a type of birch tree named after its property, the everlasting stone birch trees.

They were mostly found in mountainous regions with high qi density and were more incredibly resilient and hard. The Kanju wouldn't be able to break through these trees so easily as it had done before, and its branches were also too high up for it to swing from during battle.

It was one of the many potential fighting zones that Yeon had singled out near his camp, and after analyzing the bodily composition of the Kanju, he had drawn it here where its movements would be greatly restricted.

He had thought of many potential areas while walking down the mountain while being stalked. He had known that there was a powerful magical beast that was following them, but he didn't know what type of magical beast it was.

He had run through all the potential magical beasts it could have been and had to think of all the different environments that suited him the most. He had guessed that it was most likely a Kanju, and so had led their pursuers near the river.

His guess had paid off and now he only had to defeat this beast.

But even with the advantage of the surroundings, the natural power difference that existed between realms couldn't be crossed so easily.

Yeon readied his sword as the Kanju rushed towards him. His body was tense, the toned muscles of his body ready to react optimally to any situation.

But his expression contrasted with his body as he looked impossibly relaxed considering that a several ton magical beast was stampeding towards him.

"That's right you little shitling, come at me…"

"WRAAAHHHH!"

Yeon's taunt was met with a fierce battle cry that was the loudest one yet. The beast roused its oppressive pressure to the max to frighten Yeon and began its frenzy of attacks.

The beast swung its mighty arms at Yeon, its meaty limb whistling through the air faster than Yeon could move. But Yeon seemed to slip through these attacks pre-emptively, his slower speed was accounted for by his superior instincts.

He efficiently ducked and twisted, leaving only a margin of a few centimetres between claws of the Kanju and his body.

The exchange continued at a frightening pace with neither side letting up. Sweat began to accumulate and its salty drops dripped from Yeon's spinning limbs as he moved like a ghost. His physical body was present but was always out-of-reach to the Kanju.

Yeon's battle now was reminiscent to Adil's sword dance as he used his sword to guide the lethal momentum of the Kanju's fist to pass beside him.

He never directly contested in a battle of strength because not only would he lose out to the monstrous power of the level 1 magical beast but because he wasn't sure how much longer his damaged sword could last.

He flipped through the air like he was performing a high-jump, his back curving around the extended arm of the Kanju.

'Now!'

He lurched his body forwards and cut downwards to where he was landing. His dull blade sliced through the unprotected foot that was stabilizing the powerful swing of the beast.

First blood was finally spilt in this battle and it belonged to the stronger magical beast.

It screamed at the pain and looked down to see its dismembered toes rolling on the floor.

Monopolizing this short instance where the beast was distracted, Yeon stabbed at the functional right eye of the Kanju.

But the beast feeling the incoming danger hurriedly directed its qi towards its forehead, summoning a thin protective layer of extremely sturdy stone there.

Then without looking up, it jerked its head forward as hard and fast as it could.

*CLANG*

The sound of clashing metal was heard despite the Kanju's impromptu helmet being made of stone. The beast had headbutted the oncoming sword!

It had prevented a fatal wound, but Yeon pushed through with his attack sensing that this was his chance.

His sword continued to travel towards the beast and the long metal stabbed into the right jaw of the beast, cutting the connective tissue and muscle holding it together before passing through to dig into its shoulder.

But the sword had accumulated too much damage and the headbutt had been the final straw, it snapped as the blade dug into the thick muscles of the beast and remained lodged inside.

The beast flailed its arm in pain and slammed down on the ground where Yeon was.

He quickly retreated outside the range of its arm and was preparing to jump back in and monopolize on this situation where the Kanju was panicked.

But the moment the Kanju's fists met the floor, hard rock erupted from the soil near its fist and this slab continued to grow towards Yeon.

This sudden attack caught him off-guard and the jagged ends dug into Yeon's right shoulder, completely shredding his muscle.

Despite the pain, Yeon grinned madly and his body shivered in perverse euphoria as he looked at the dangling jaw of the resentful and slightly fearful magical beast.

His mind kept replaying the sensation of metal cutting through flesh and his creepy smile widened.

He looked down at his now stump sword before glancing at the bleeding beast where the remainder of Adil's sword was.

He was originally meant to treasure this sword as a memento but now it was broken.

'… Don't worry, I'll retrieve it later.'

"Hey," His voice was cold but filled with sadistic passion.

He pointed his metal stump at the beast's shoulder and-

"We're matching now…"

He then slowly raised his left arm under the watchful eyes of the beast and began to gently rub against his left eye. After a few good seconds, he moved towards his jaw before repeating the same actions.

"But not quite…" He jeered.

The eyes of the beast looked like they were about to pop out of its sockets as he stared at Yeon. If looks could kill, then Yeon would have died hundreds if not thousands of times tonight.

'It's working… It's just a beast at the end of the day.'

The magical beast lost its composure as it understood Yeon's actions and began its wild charge once more. But the beast's movements were more predictable and less controlled than before as it had become tunnel-visioned, solely moving to hurt Yeon as much as possible.

'I'll never lose… at least not to this braindead monkey'

The Kanju swiped at Yeon and he flit between the trees to sidestep the attack.

Their tango had resumed, but now Yeon was beginning to lead portions of their dance, the tempo slowly moving to his favour.