First Kill (2)

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Instead of running headfirst into a stronger and larger animal that could most likely kill him with its weight alone, Matthew wanted to enrage it and waste its energy before finishing it off.

Fortunately, he had already practiced using {Adrenaline Rush+} every day, so the strain was still somewhat bearable even with {Energy Burst+} on top of it.

Matthew noticed a small strand of green energy in front of him that had flown into his body. 'Since that fat panda can manifest its own aura... I can try to weaken it by absorbing its aura?'

Matthew was constantly learning as he fought, but the more he looked at how he performed, the more he cursed himself because of his lack of experience. For some reason, he wasn't able to completely use {Clear Mind+} to make complete use of everything around him.

'Haaaaah... I'll scold myself more after this is over... if I survive that is.'

Badump~ Badump~

Hearing his own heartbeat, he opened his eyes again, confused. Matthew stared at the enraged panda that was rolling towards him, however, it was... slower? No, that wasn't right, even if it lost two of its senses, its actual speed shouldn't have been affected.

He looked around, and the entire seemed to be slower than before. The lush green leaves on the tree, the waving grass being blown away in slow motion.

Matthew could his mind instantly clear up, his vision clearer than before. Although it was minuscule, he could sense that his energy was being sapped away.

'So this is {Clear Mind+}...' He thought.

Although the benefits were great, it seems like the system suppressed it since the pain was also amplified by several times since he 'sobered' up, making him wince in pain.

Plus, it seemed like the enhanced version of the skill allowed him to see things in slow motion for the cost of some internal energy.

'Well... guess I should've paid more attention to my enhanced skills...' Matthew regretted not checking them while coming here.

The amount of pain he was feeling right would definitely affect his battle, no wonder the system didn't let him use it even though he had it on constantly.

'Since it'll most likely play it off as a test for me, I'll just pass it... with flying colors!' He encouraged himself.

With the panda still rolling at him, Matthew stepped to the side at the last second, forcing it to crash into a few bamboo stalks. Luckily, his body was already enhanced by his external energy, otherwise, even if his eyes could keep up, his body wouldn't have been able to.

Crash~

Now that the panda was stunned again, it was a good time to take away another one of its senses, their hearing.

Now that Matthew had successfully analyzed the fight a bit more, he noticed that the panda's ear would twitch every time he was close or about to attack. It was as if that panda could hear his muscles contracting or something...

Well, not that it was going to hear for long now that Matthew considered it a weakness to take care of. "Sorry, but I guess you'll have to suffer a bit before things can finally end."

He rushed at the panda, jumping and landing on its shoulders.

The two wooden daggers in his hands suddenly plugged its ears. It looked especially painful when Matthew used his external energy to boost the power and range of the dagger even more, now completely taking the panda's sense of hearing now as well.

ROOOOOARR~

Matthew felt his body stiffen from the roar as his body starts slipping from the shoulder of the panda.

'Shit...!'

He planted his feet onto the panda's back, launching himself backward to create some distance between them.

As soon as he landed on the ground, he felt one of his legs cramped up, "Argh!" He howled in a weak voice. "I need to finish this as quickly as possible!"

Luckily, the panda was still rolling around in pain as the two wooden daggers were still stuck in its ears, probing around every time it moved, making it seem ambulatory.

Matthew started directing the burst of energy and adrenaline into his feet and arms, completely abandoning his defense for offense.

Dashing at the panda, he quickly appeared on the shoulder of the panda again, except this time, the blade was already on its neck, too late to dodge or block without taking serious damage.

Without warning, the panda sacrificed its arms to block the slash, causing it to start bleeding as its arms flopped onto the ground.

Matthew placed his hand on the energy-enhanced arm that he cut off. "Tsk. I'll just do it again, even if you dodge, you'll just lose more blood... just accept your fate."

Since it was just a part of the panda, he wouldn't let it go to waste. Using {Energy Absorbtion} to drain all the leftover energy from the arm, Matthew felt a rush of natural energy rush into him.

Crack~

The arm in his hands cracked as it disappeared in a burst of light shards.

"Huh? Interesting... I absorbed much more energy than I thought..." Matthew could already sense that his cultivation had already hit the requirement to breakthrough to the 2nd stage of {Energy Strengthening}.

Without hesitation, Matthew began to use his superior speed and offensive capabilities to slowly slice off parts of the panda, one by one. No matter how small, they would be added to Matthew's already near full cultivation energy. In fact, not even the smallest drop of blood was wasted as they were all being condensed into a ball of natural energy as the fight quickly went on.

First, it was the other arms, then the legs, then any other pieces of flesh, fur, and bone that had been cut off by him. It was an especially gory sight to behold, but for Matthew, he needed to do this to himself. He mustn't let a few disturbing scenes that would appear on the battlefield to distract him, so he'll get used to it now.

Each time a part was sliced off, Matthew bit his lips harder and harder until it bled. It was torture, he knew he needed to finish it, but it just won't give up! The sounds of roaring, whimpering, howling, each of them clawed at his heart as he continued.

Luckily, each time became easier and easier, so it barely took a minute for the entire battle to finally end. The corpse of the panda quickly disappeared into shards of light as the last of its energy was absorbed by Matthew.

Phew~

It was... finally over...

Thud~

"Ugh... I took way too long to finish the fight..." He sighed.

After a few minutes passed, Matthew seemed to have completely recovered as he jumped back onto his two feet, stretching.

Now, his entire aura changed. He was... much sharper? Now that he had his 'first' kill and had enough time to actually process it, his face turned green.

Holding himself back from puking, he clenched his shaking hands before opening them again. This time, he could see the world turn colorless again, as the only color he could see was... blood red, the color that painted his hand and body.

However, before he could even panic, the entire world had suddenly regained its color. The illusion of blood on his hands was now gone as if it was never there in the first place.

Huff... Huff...

"Thankfully I got {Clear Mind+} as one of my skills... I would've gone insane without it by now." Matthew glanced at the bloodied weapons by his side.

Now that he had finally calmed down from the fear of death, and murder, he felt, a sense of relief?

Shaking his head, he picked up the bloodied weapons. "Alright. I should've completed the {Mission}, so where you at, system?" Matthew focused on cleaning the blood off of his weapons as he spoke.

Before long, a familiar monotone male voice ring in his ear.

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[Congratulations for completing the {Mission: First Kill}!]

[Rewards will now be given...]

[Ding~]

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