Chapter 14. First Loss

"Damn, it. This is why physical types are such a pain in the ass to deal with. They heal pretty well. It must have used [Essence Sacrifice], sacrificing some blood essence in exchange for healing. Me using [flash point] took all the qi I had and damaged the muscles in my right arm. The damage of the last attack wasn't completely healed but it's still rearing to go.

Ash decided to press the beast before the elk could gain momentum with its charge. Suddenly the beast used [Dash], instead of targeting him, it targeted Grim. Grim was hit by the sharp antlers and blood flowed out of the wound on his wing. Ash moved quickly and held his saber with his left, nondominant hand.

The elk was still injured as it was not able to completely heal the wounds to it's knees and eye. He cut into one of the knees with all his might as the beast cried out. He moved back to avoid getting punctured by it's horns but was rammed in the chest, hard. His vision went blurry for a moment as he looked at the elk one more time to see it in a completely different position than before. The nostrils were exhaling steam.

Ash hit the ground and swore internally; blood flowed out of the wound on his ribs. He drew on his connection with Grim to use the blood affinity to stop the bleeding. The beast must have used a combo of [dash] and [violent charge]. [+Violent Impact] was the enhanced version of a regular charge but with compacted force. Several ribs were fractured. Grim was back in action as his bleeding had stopped due to his blood affinity. Grim watched his partner hit the ground and hurried to attack the elk despite his heavily injured wing.

At this point, the elk was losing both blood and energy; the gash caused by Grim at it's knees restricted it's movements. The earlier move had damaged it's opponent but worsened the state it was currently in. Grim's eyes flashed an even paler white as the bird's speed picked up. The elk was put into a passive situation, owing to Grim's superior speed. Grim steadily charged up a combo of [claw swipe] and [blood let].

Aiming for the side which it was putting most of it's weight on, the bird struck deep into the beast. Again, blood rained as the beast could not utter anything more due to the weight of it's body caused the heavily injured knee to give out. The beast fell as more blood pooled out of it. Grim shakily flew to Ash to make sure his partner was ok. Ash got up but was sour at the entire experience.