14

Step by step, Ray pushed through the wind and snow toward the peak of Red Bandit Mountain.

The temperature was well below freezing, and the strong gusts didn't help. Even with all these conditions, Ray ran naked through the snowstorm at optimal speeds: as long as he had ki flowing through his veins, he would never get cold.

With the final cliff in near sight, Ray quickened his pace.

The entire journey was smooth sailing so far; Ray hadn't stopped his run for anything. Whether it be stray monster attacks, which he could easily dodge, or massive freak avalanches, which he simply jumped over, none of them made Ray give so much as a glance.

This would all come to an end as Ray's streak of luck was halted in its tracks.

Ray's speed came to an abrupt stop— from the speed of a car to a statue in less than a second.

His face had a serious expression on it, which rarely occurred with his level of strength.

A mile away from, standing directly in between the top of the mountain and Ray, stood a massive white bear.

Its eyes had a frenzied look to them, and its paws were stained blood red; it was on a hunt very recently, and the hungry look in its eyes didn't show any sign of stopping.

Ray slowed his rapid breathing and stood as still as he could. He didn't know the cultivation levels of beasts, but he could tell the bear was at least equal to the skin refining stage, maybe a little higher.

Time seemed to come to a stop as Ray stared at the bear, and the bear stared back at Ray. There was no movement, not even a direct line of sight, but they were both aware of the other's presence. Ray just wanted to avoid confrontation, but the bear seemed to be out for blood: it was inspecting Ray's aura and debating whether it would be good prey or not.

Even though Ray didn't want to fight the bear, there wasn't a hint of nervousness visible on his body. His eyes were calm and his mind was prepared. The bear was a monstrous creature that even Ray couldn't properly judge its strength, yet he maintained his calm and rational mindset.

On paper, he was only a few weeks of age, but his mentality was that of an old monster who experienced everything there is to life; he couldn't be compared to any regular person.

The bear broke the silence and rushed toward Ray at a speed comparable to Ray's. It might have been a little faster than his own, so Ray knew he couldn't avoid confronting the bear.

Ray took his sword out and readied his hand. He put a foot forward in a stance that would make it difficult for the bear to attack him so easily.

Ray didn't have to wait long since the bear came bursting into his view, running full force directly toward him.

The bear was a massive creature, standing around 20 ft tall, which easily dwarfed Ray, putting his usual advantage to shame. Every single muscle could be seen carved out on the bear's body. There wasn't a hint of fat remaining, which made sense since organisms of Ray's power were almost fully dependent on ki; they no longer needed to store the inefficient energy in fat cells.

The bear struck its palm toward Ray, its razor-sharp paws a world-class weapon in its own right.

It was fast, but Ray was expecting it, so he easily pulled his body back to avoid the attack.

He swung his sword in retaliation, hoping to leave even a small wound in the beast's hide.

To Ray's dismay, the sword hit the bear's skin as if it was hitting a piece of iron: it made a loud dinging noise and bounced right off.

The bear let out a low growl after seeing its prey fight back.

It swung its paw again, which Ray easily dodged as well.

The bear didn't have much intelligence in its ant-sized brain, so it couldn't comprehend its prey dodging its attacks. It worked in the past, so why isn't it working now?

The anger in its eyes was apparent as it continued swiping its paws at Ray, even though it never ended up working.

Sometimes it tried charging with its whole body, but Ray could easily move to the side, or even jump over the bear. Ray wasn't a small person himself but compared to the 20ft bear, he was like a ninja.

This continued for another few rounds, the entire exchange took less than a minute.

Ray's sword was no longer to be seen since he realized it was useless for him. He thought it would at least be able to cut the bear, but the bear was stronger than he expected. Although in the end, it was still a stage 2 sword, so it didn't break under the pressure of Ray's power against the bear's skin.

The bear struck out one more time in frustration, this time his paw coming from the side instead of attacking forward.

Ray's eyes gleamed after seeing the bear do a different move. This is what he was waiting for, and why he was continuously dodging the attacks without retaliation.

When the bear attacked by swiping forward, almost like a punch, it was hard to counterattack since the arms kept their vital organs protected. Ray could try using Singularity on something non-vital like its arms, but he knew he could only use singularity once with his lack of practice and mental capabilities, so he had to use it wisely.

After the bear finally made the mistake and swiped sideways, Ray immediately darted forward with his hand pointing toward the bear. His pointer finger was driving straight to the bear's heart as the energy started accumulating in a small circle below his fingernail.

The bear tried moving out of the way, but it was too late— it reacted too slowly after getting used to the pace of the fight.

The finger touched the bear's skin, then exploded with energy directly onto the bear's skin.

When Ray used the technique on Bill, he didn't use its full power since he wanted Bill to survive; he canceled the channeling before it finished so Bill would simply be blasted backward instead of meeting the brunt of the attack.

This time, Ray didn't dare to do anything less than his full capabilities.

Once the finger came into contact with the bear's skin, the energy was released from Ray's finger into the bear's body.

Panic was apparent on the bear's face as his instincts were screaming at him to flee, but he couldn't do anything at that crucial point.

The energy violently pierced through the bear's skin and combusted the bear's heart.

Ray immediately jumped backward after making sure the attack worked well, and the beast wasn't in any condition to stop him from doing so.

The bear howled in agony, the pain clear in its voice.

It whimpered on the ground while trying to figure out what was wrong with its body, its previous majesty nowhere to be seen.

While the bear was a powerful stage 2 beast, it wasn't yet at the level where it could survive a crushed heart.

Its body soon gave out after the blood stopped circulating to its brain, and it collapsed onto the ground with a massive boom.

Ray stood a few yards from the bear's body, his figure still as he recuperated from the battle.

After feeling the ki energy fill back the empty space in his finger, he walked toward the bear's corpse. The rest of his minor injuries would heal by themselves promptly by continuously absorbing ki, which was as natural as breathing to someone of his power.

"Is this the power of the skin refining stage?" Ray muttered to himself while staring at the corpse.