Chapter 4

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! This is just ridiculous now isn't it?" Kaz laughed as he was running at incredible speed through the forest. Behind him, there was an abnormally massive animal running almost as fast as him. The beast was a huge grizzly bear, about the size of four normal ones. It was incredibly fast for its size, running at 130 kph (a little over 2x a normal Grizzly's speed), and it was extremely strong, as whatever tree he ran into was instantly knocked down and crushed, without making the bear even flinch a little.

But despite this, Kaz was outrunning it. Well, he wasn't really out "running" it and was more so out jumping it. He would jump meters into the air every time he landed, launching him both upward and forward. The beast was just barely keeping up to Kaz's speed, but it was apparently extremely determined to kill him.

At that moment, Kaz turned around while jumping. "Come on, with my speed you aren't going to catch me, so is it really worth it chasing me? I wasn't even near your kid, I was just passing through and saw the two of you, it's not my fault, so leave me alone."

While Kaz said this, he was trying his best not to smile. Truth be told, he had hunted the bear down, hoping to see if he could test his new strength against it, however when he noticed the baby, he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to get away from the bear without killing it, as if he just left it the damn thing would definitely track him down.

Even if he knew that he might die right now, Kaz was enjoying this immensely. He had been training by himself in this forest for over four months now, and the results were ridiculous. When Kaz started to sense that he was at the limit of his phase 2 training, he had tested his abilities and found that he could now jump dozens of meters into the air effortlessly, run at speeds so fast that he could run on water with ease, and he could even push around the ten-ton boulder near his house.

However, these basic tests could only let him know so much about his strength. He needed to know how his new strength compared to nature. However, since all the predators in his area were either extremely weak or avoided him entirely, and he didn't want to have to kill the fish in the lake, as over the last three months he had come to like it, even if the feelings weren't mutual, so he decided to go out and hunt for something to fight. After a few days, he came across the tracks of a massive bear and followed them. And so, he ended up where he is now.

Kaz and the bear reached a wasteland of sorts with grass fields and strange plateau/mountain things everywhere. If Kaz had seen this place while he wasn't under attack, he would have immediately recognized it, however at the moment, he was far too distracted to pay any attention to their battlefield.

Kaz jumped on top of one of the plateau things to catch his breath, however, the bear followed. Kaz continued to be surprised by the bear's agility as it jumped, making it about halfway up the mountain with just a single jump. It then started to climb, quickly.

'Damn it, I guess I'll have to kill it. But, am I strong enough to kill it? I know I could damage it, but I also know that it will probably kill me in a single swing of its paw if I am careless.' While Kaz was faster and only a little weaker in strength compared to the bear, his defense was many times worse than that of the bear.

Before Kaz could finish thinking of a plan, the bear reached the top of the plateau, roaring and swinging its paw. Kaz jumped up, avoiding it, however, that left him open as the bear's other arm swung up, sending him flying upwards.

A few of his bones cracked as blood sprayed out of his mouth and his vision went blurry. Kaz felt a massive wave of unbearable pain wash over his entire body as he was flung dozens of meters into the sky. He hadn't ever felt this much pain in his life, even when that wolf had bitten his leg. At that moment, Kaz stopped thinking entirely as the pain was too much and his brain just shut itself off, making him fall unconscious.

As he reached the peak height of 600 meters from the ground and started to lose momentum, falling back down to earth, a grey aura once again erupted around Kaz. However, this time all of the damage on his body was healing many times faster than normal, which made the aura thin. Just as Kaz was about to reach the bear once again, he finished healing and woke up.

The bear swung its paw at him again, but as he was in the air he couldn't dodge. However, this time he reacted quickly, twisting his body and minimizing the impact by making his arm take all the damage. Every bone in his arm shattered as he fell down to the plateau again, however, he did his best to suppress the pain as he landed and immediately jumped to another nearby plateau. He didn't stop either, as he continued to jump from plateau to plateau, getting as much distance as possible.

*ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR!*

The bear's angry roar echoed through the entire battlefield, and even the nearby forest as it lunged forward, jumping onto the ground and following Kaz as fast as it could. Kaz, who had just landed on a plateau that was twice as large as the other one, and finally came up with a plan. Kaz then jumped halfway down and started punching the mountain.

The bear roared again, thinking that Kaz had ran to another plateau, and chased after him. A few seconds later, the bear realized that it had been tricked as it couldn't find Kaz anywhere. It then turned around and ran back to the massive plateau. Upon arriving there, it got confused as it still couldn't find Kaz.

"Hey asshole!" Kaz yelled. The bear immediately looked down to see Kaz standing underneath the mountain in a huge dugout, snickering with an exhausted expression on his face. Before the bear could attack him again, Kaz jumped forward, kicking an arch that was holding up the plateau.

While the plateau was very tall, it wasn't that wide, so it only took Kaz a single minute to destroy most of the stone at the foundation, leaving an arch that was holding the entire thing up. When he destroyed one side of the arch, it made the entire thing fall as the other side wasn't strong enough to hold the entire thing up. And luckily for Kaz, his plan worked. The plateau fell directly on top of the bear, crushing it and almost killing it instantly.

Unfortunately for Kaz, he hadn't gotten far enough away and was also heavily injured by the falling rocks. At least none of the rocks hit his head or heart, however, one extra sharp rock had impaled Kaz's uninjured arm.

Kaz struggled to stand back up, gritting his teeth to the best of his ability and repeatedly telling himself "It's just pain, you aren't so weak that you would fall to mere pain right?" to keep himself going. He had to go and finish the job, as he could see that the bear had also survived, and was also struggling to get up.

"Come on Kaz, stand up! Kill it now, or it'll kill you later!" He yelled at himself as he finally stood up, limping weakly forward as he walked up to the bear slowly. The bear was in even worse shape than him, with blood coming out of every surface of its body. Even if it managed to escape right now, it would not survive.

"AAAH!" Kaz yelled in pain as he bent over, using all of the remaining strength in his working arm to pick up a 200 kg rock. He then raised it above his head and screamed as he threw it.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAA" He screamed, stepping forward and throwing the rock. As the bear was completely immobile, it couldn't dodge and ended up taking the attack to the skull. The side of the bear's skull collapsed as the rock penetrated it, reaching the brain and killing the beast instantly.

Kaz just stared at the corpse in front of him for a second. "I won? I actually won against that? I defeated a fucking bear! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! I actually won! I... won." He would have celebrated his victory longer, but the exhaustion of his mind and body finally overpowered the adrenalin and he fell asleep.

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The next morning, much to his surprise, Kaz woke up with a sore body. He wasn't hungry, nor had any of his bones still been broken, but his entire body was sore.

"What the hell? Did my healing power run out? Or maybe healing all of that at once, and healing me during that fight had left it drained. I just hope that it can recover, otherwise I'll be stuck at this strength forever." Kaz was a little scared, however he also knew that being scared wouldn't help him.

"Well, if my body isn't fully recovered already, then I shouldn't try traveling back home yet, I'm not in the right shape to fight anything. I should do the Wim Hof Method, that should help speed up my recovery." He said as he sat down and started the breathing technique.

Kaz hadn't done the Wim Hof Method at all over the past three months as it made it impossible to profit from his training, however now that he was in a state where he couldn't train anyway, he thought that he might as well, especially if it'll help him recover faster. He had also been meditating for as long as he could everyday for the past three months, so he got a lot better at it, even if he still hated it with a passion.

When he started the Wim Hof Method he did it normally, however toward the final three rounds he switched it up and started meditating at the same time, clearing his mind completely and focusing only on controlling his breathing. Normally he could only meditate for five minutes at most even after training, however for some reason, meditation became incredibly easy now, and he was able to last almost fifty minutes.

He got a little excited, as he wanted to know what effect all of this would have on the breathing technique, maybe he could finally break through his limit! However, as he approached the final few seconds of the ten minute breath hold on round nineteen, he felt that familiar feeling of suffocation, but he also felt something else. He didnt know what it was, and the only way he could think to describe it was as some sort of... pull.

It was like being in a completely black void, and all of the sudden a small white light appeared, it was difficult to look away from, like some sort of attracting effect. That was the best way to describe the strange feeling around his stomach. For some reason, this reminded him of something, but he couldn't remember what.

Kaz didnt know what to do with it, but he some sort of gut instinct telling him to pull it out. It was like his subconscious had recognized it but he hadn't. So Kaz, not knowing what else he could do, followed his instinct.

All of the sudden, Kaz's closed eyes were filled with a gentle light, which was weird since he was pretty sure he woke up around four or five in the morning, so the sun shouldn't be up yet. He opened his eyes, and his expression.

He sharply inhaled as he stared at his hands, a huge grin taking form on his face. "Ha! Hahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaha!" He started laughing hysterically as tears started to form in his eyes.

"I'm such an idiot! How could I have not recognized where I was up until now! The extreme growth speed, the fact that I could gain this much strength even as a child, my appearance, hell, I was in a martial arts Gi when I was reborn! Even now, looking around, how did I not recognize this place the second I saw it? But now that I've seen this, Its confirmed!" Kaz started to cry upon realizing his situation. He had been a huge fan since he was a kid and had always dreamed of coming here, but never believed it was possible.

Looking as the ball of glowing yellow Qi that was floating in his hand, Kaz had never felt such a level of happiness in his entire life.

"I guess I know what training Ill be doing for phase three!"