Chapter 21: Confrontation of Nature

Beasts twice my size confroted me...

Cornered from front to back,

I had no way out of this.

The beasts didn't notice each other and only had eyes for me... their cries echoed throughout the area. Freezing me in place as I flinched because of it...

*Screeech*

Knowing there was nothing I could do I curled up and cowered in fear. As I did... I hit my head hard on the surface. And at that moment both salamanders crashed into each other, unable to grab me... This was the moment to get away,

but, I couldn't...

The collision of the beasts was so heavy one of them fell of the floating surface, the other growled in annoyance as the crash had hurt them both.

Although I couldn't move, my fear quickly went away.

That must have been because of the fact that the pain of hitting my head towered over everything.

As I was finally able to calm down and look at the situation with focus, there wasn't a better time to fight back the remaining salamander.

Wanting to grab the opportunity I quickly initiated my <stealth> ability hoping to hide away in plain sight.

The system noticed what I wanted to do and gave me a notice.

[The skill <Camouflage> has been used without the user knowing it 10/100% until unlock.]

Knowing it was probably one of the better things which could happen during the fight between life and death I grabbed the new skills with open, claws?

As I jsed the skill without having it unlocked it wasn't fully developed yet... while I did blend with the surrounding elements, I was still visible.

The beast growled infuriating towards where he had seen me last, only to launch itself at the spot where I lay on the floor.

Unable to think about a way to counter I had to dodge, as I did it looked like the salamander had lost sight of me. Frustrated it began to flail and slam its tail onto the surface of the platform. Roaring out in frustration, only to unleash a massive stream of flames from its mouth.

Seeing how the beast reacted as it lost sight of me, it sparked an idea inside of me. An idea...

Which could bring a lot of risk with it.

I had to be sure, which is why I had to make the beast even more frustrated, and what better way than to taunt the fucker, right?

So when I finally created a bigger window of disrance between us... quickly I let go of my <Camouflage> and <Stealth>. Standing there in sight of the beast it got surprised that I was able to get away from it, not one or twice... but even a third time!

I taunted the beast by hissing, growling and turning my back to it.

Enraged the beast hissed.

*Hissss*

And stomped towards me. As it reached the halfway mark of the platform it raised its head and opened its mouth. Revealing flames comkng from the back of its throught. This was the moment, it was now... or, never!

I knew my abilities had just started to develop but I had to try, if I didn't grab the opportunity the beast would burn me to a crisp!

As the beast prepared a stance to shoot out its flames I conjured a ball of acid and hurled it towards the salamander.

At that moment the other salamander arose from the depths of the river only to resurface into the platform.

But it was to late, the other salamander was struck by acid.

As it shot out its flames, quickly it came into contact with my bubble of acid. This triggered a small explosion inside its move. Seeing that it inflicted substatial damage my theory had proven its worth.

The situation I had found myself in before arribing in this shit hole of an area had thought me that acid had a chemical reaction with fire as it is highly explosive.

The salamander that got struck collapsed to the ground, and lay there motionless. But the other one took this as an opportunity to attack my blindspot.

Lucky for me <Aura Body> was still in effect which was why I was able to react in time and dodge the incoming swipe of its razor sharp claws.

I didn't think about what I had done as I had jumped to dodge the beast. For some reason... I must have imagined it, right? No... it couldn't be...

I thought I saw the beast smile, just before is shot its flames towards me.

Unable to react I got my soft and unprotected skin hit and scorged full on, flames burned away at my flesh slowly penetrating my scales as the pain almost became unbearable...

I was right... it was smiling.

Was this its plan all along? To wait out of sight and get weakened by the other while attacking me when I was most vulnerable?

At this moment I couldn't thank the system enough as my <heat resistance> leveled up by one. At the same time a new skill unlocked.

[Due to certain circumstances you have unlocked <Burning Resistance>.]

Right when I unlocked the skill, the pain got lessened by a tuny bit. This allowed me to think rationally and slam myself into tje surface of the platform slowly subdueing the flames.

I hated to admit it, but the remaining salamander was smart, it utilized its abilities to the fullest, something I could learn from it...

Frustrated I cried out, knowing it was all...

or nothing in this fight to the death.

Magma began to boil around the platform only to shot up streams of molten lava.

This signaled for the both of us to lauch at each other. I wasn't sure yet, but it felt like the beast didn't have much energy left, let alone the opportunity to launch another stream of flames at me.

This struck me as odd as the beast had more MP than me and it didn't use that much flames yet...

Could it be, it uses massive amounts of energy only to spit out flames like that?

Taking this as a clear sign that the beast was getting tired, I did my best to exhaust it even further.

As I was smaller I had more opportunities to dodged while it lauched its claws at me.

But what I didn't realize was the fact that we both had a tail. This had proven to be a fatal flaw when dodging the beasts claws. 

First one claw, then the other... but when I thought I had a window to attack its massive tail slammed me onto the ground! Slamming me onto mu back I was unable to react.

"Shit... has it really come to this?"

Quickly the beast locked me in place with its razor-sharp claw and glared at me non-chalantly,

before warming-up its throught.

At that moment I thought I was done for...

Nothing could be done to make me survive this...

Or so it seemed...

The beast should have ripped me to pieces when it had the chance... instead, something which I wouldn't think could happen with animals...

Got in its way, presenting me with one final chance of survival.

"Pride".

The beast opened its mouth readying its flames to scorch me were I lay, he could have easily killed me any other way, but... instead, it's own "pride" got in his way.

I clinged onto life with every viber of my being using all my remaining mana to conjure what could only be describe as a stream of endless acid. 

At that moment my attack was so quick and potent that it reached the insides of the beast.

As I knew what was about to happen I braced myself.

And just before impact the beast finally realized its own mistake, its joyfull expression quicky turned to anguish as grief, sorrow and fear flooded its mind.

It was too late...

At that moment the beast exploded leaving nothing but a huge pile of blood, covered with its intestines I was disgusted... I barfed of the idea what had happened when the sound of a notice popped up.

That was when I realized... I... had... won...