Deer

"Stay out of the way!"

Kai angled his sword toward the deer as he stepped forward, his eyes following the movement of its head.

[Watch out for the antlers.]

"Obviously!"

Instead of taking its charge directly, Kai waved his sword to keep its attention on him, then dashed to the side. The deer's eyes locked onto him, and it pivoted to follow him without missing a step.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kai noticed Brewan scurrying off into the brush by the side of the temple.

Good, I don't need to worry about this thing turning on him.

Kai stopped running and side-stepped as the deer charged into range, hoping to slash its side just as he'd done with the boar. Before his sword could cut into its pelt, the deer twisted its neck toward Kai.

Shit!

An unnaturally sharp antler scraped past just a hair's breadth from Kai's neck, and the ruby sword flailed uselessly through the air as Kai scrambled to get away from the deer's followup strike.

The beast didn't give Kai even a second to regain his footing, charging at him with its antlers ready to spear holes in his chest.

Kai rolled forward to meet its attack, sliding beneath its antlers and sweeping his sword toward the deer's spindly front legs. Something snagged at the hood of his robes, and the deer jumped before the sword could cleave its forelegs off.

This bastard is fast, but not fast enough!

The ruby sword glittered in the sun as it twisted, catching the deer's rear hip before it could back away from Kai. A small line of blood slowly started leaking down its rear leg, and it didn't immediately charge back in.

[Defensively, it's a lot weaker than the boar. Even if you hit bone, you can probably kill it with a good swing.]

Kai raised his sword again, then started advancing back toward his enemy. A small patch of cloth was hanging from the corner of its bloodied maw.

Again. Why are all these damned beasts focusing on ripping my robes?!

Kai stabbed his sword toward the deer's head, but it backed away nimbly. The beast's eyes warily watched Kai's figure, ready to react to even the smallest movement.

[The temple is only a few meters to your right, you might be able to use it to your advantage.]

Kai nodded, but he didn't shift his vision to look at it. He knew that the moment he took his attention off of the deer, it might charge him. It seemed a lot angrier now that he'd landed the light cut on its hip.

With his eyes still locked in a staring contest with the deer, Kai slowly shuffled toward the temple. Just as he was within a meter of it, the deer jumped into action. Kai moved at the same time, charging into the temple.

There was a large patch where the floor was missing bricks, making it considerably lower than the rest of the space. There were a few statues further in, but everything directly in front of Kai looked like it had been swept aside or destroyed years in the past.

If the floor is lowered… hmph, this beast will regret tearing my robes.

Kai's eyes lit up, and his fingers clenched around the hilt of his sword.

[There's a rock on the left, and two missing bricks another step in!]

Halia called out potential obstacles as Kai dodged into the temple and ran to the higher portion of the temple. He didn't waste any more time examining his surroundings, instead whirling around to face the deer that was already charging into the temple.

"Come after me, you bloodthirsty slab of venison!"

Kai waved his sword, and the deer accepted his taunt, angling its head down as it charged.

Perfect.

Kai dodged around another pillar, slipping past the deer.

[Haha, we have the high groun- OI! Why are you running to the lower section?!]

Kai ran down to the section of the temple with no flooring, nimbly avoiding the broken chunks of rubble scattered across the ground. He and the deer turned to face each other simultaneously, then both went back in to attack.

Crouching down, Kai was able to easily slip under the deer's sharp antlers.

His sword slashed across the beast's throat as he rolled out of its path, a small grin rising on his face as he finally felt the blade cutting through something.

[Wait, you actually got it! I thought you were going to mess up and die. Here, have a level.]

[You reached Level 2!]

[Mana +5!]

[Mana -3, Strength +3.]

Kai suppressed a grin as he turned back to face his enemy once again, but he could instantly see that it wasn't much of a threat anymore. The ruby sword lived up to Halia's bragging- Kai had hardly felt any resistance when he slashed at the deer's neck, and he'd damn near cleaved the beast's entire head off.

The deer now lay in a heap on the floor, the life vanishing from its body in a matter of seconds.

[So much blood…]

Kai could hear a tone of uneasiness in Halia's voice.

How is a cultivator feeling uneasy around blood? Even if she did spend almost all of her time in the sect researching stuff, she did go out sometimes. Hmph.

Kai strode over to the deer's corpse, giving it a couple pokes to make sure it was completely dead. When it didn't respond, Kai moved to start field dressing the beast. One of the primary reasons he and Brewan had ventured out of the safety of the classrooms was to find food, and it wouldn't do to let it all spoil.

Halia averted her attention and started examining the rest of the room. Instead of pumping all of the mana into Kai's body to strengthen him, she'd kept a chunk of it free again. Making blue text boxes in Kai's vision was an invaluable part of his survival, after all.

It also let her slightly buff her senses, letting her examine more of the temple- specifically the parts that Kai wasn't currently splattering with deer blood.

[Hmm? That statue looks familiar.]