A day later, on the dry land two figures ran quickly while gasping for breath, chasing them was a ten-meter strange looking beast, having the body shape of a lizard but its skin looked like a turkey's wattle, fleshy and bumpy

'Damm thing, mindless beasts are the worst bother'

While cursing in his mind he checked to see if they were taking the right path, fighting this mad but slightly stronger beast was not going to be easy for Ellis in the open

"Piiii!!"

The beast roared, or screamed, or whatever the darned sound it made was, demanding they stop and give it that delicious food they had

"Master, you said its because of the decay that we're are being chased?"

Ellis asked with huffs, even the tight clothes couldn't prevent her jugs from jiggling at this speed

"That is so, this thing must be similar to vultures in their feast over corpses, Anput's energy is a great delicacy in its eyes"

"...I can't help but notice this occurring a bit too frequently...."

He almost tripped at her words, a funny yet aggravated expression on his face, wanting to say it's a coincidence yet failing to refute the constant chases she had caused

'It's not like she has a skill or title that causes this, each time there is a bunch of reasons that happened to meet at the same time causing the various scenarios, but the fact that all of those stupid coincidences happened over and over proves there is something going on behind the scene'

As for the possibility of it's being dumb luck....well it was possible

'That would truly be some rotten luck right there'

A small dry laugh came out of him involuntarily making not only Ellis who never heard him actually laugh shocked, even he surprised himself

'How long has it been since I've laughed? Perhaps since the Ruined Isles raid'

The moment he recalled those dark times his suffused smile was wiped off his face and his eyes reverted to their cold and empty feeling

His quick change in expression made Ellis confused but now wasn't the time for curiosity as the jagged land of protruding earth was just in front of them

"I'll lure, you go around it and strike'

The quick was simple but easy to follow, leaving plenty of room for her to improvise on her own

Giving a nod she split off to the side while he continued in a straight line, the beast behind them noticed those and gave another loud sound before speeding up, the absence of the rather dangerous looking human gave him more motivation to snatch that tasty food

YuJu soon arrived before the forest of stones, jumping in between the rocks and swivelling his way through the cracks and holes, putting as many rocks between him and the beast

It didn't seem to matter too much though as it burst right through the blockade, running through stones like a drill with

This should cause the YuJu to slow down because of his zigzagging motion while the thing wouldn't be slowed too much resulting in it catching up, even it's small mind had thought of this but it was soon confused

"Kaaaa"

Giving out a screech of sorts the beast roared angrily at the now even further prey, whatever tricks it had been using might pull that meal away from it and that wasn't something the hungry beast would just watch happen, thus with heavy steps it gave it's all to crush through the rocks at a much faster speed alibi while causing its own body some injuries

"Persistent, good, makes it easier to deal with"

YuJu who's sped up said while glancing back a the breaking stones, the more it thrashed and expanded itself the easier this fight would end, he didn't want to have it cornered when it was at its peak lest it tries to escape forcing them to give up on it after the long detour it made them take

'I need to do something about Ellis's speed, she's too slow, if she was going at my current pace we would have lost the damned thing without any need to take a detour'

He had enough time to think about it while he spun the beast in a large circle, going all the way back near the area where they started, there he could tell using his normal sense and his bond with Ellis the approximate location she would be in and base of his route on that

Once he was in place he stopped in his tracks and waited for the crazy thing to get here which didn't take long as the rocks nearby soon burst apart exposing its hideous maw coming at him

"Ha!"

With her usual low shout Ellis popped out her hiding place and slashed at the beast's neck with her newly acquired fauchard only to have it skid on the skin relatively harmlessly, only a white gash left as its mark

Seeing as her attack didn't work he quickly tolled to the side she came from, even though she didn't harm the beast she pushed it aside enough for him to dodge its incoming mouth

"Try focusing on one point"

He yelled to her while waving Anput's cage at the beast, luring him for another run around before coming back to a close by area where Ellis was once again waiting

This time he didn't stop but rather slowed down enough for it to catch up then jumped over the crack where Ellis was hidden and the beast followed suit exposing its belly to her

Without waiting to see the outcome he threw Anput's cage to the front and fliped forward using his hands while his legs kicked against the beast's jaw with all the power he could muster

All that power only related in a muffled sound as his legs sunk into the flesh and made the beast tilt slight upward but there was no damage whatsoever

Now that he was upside down he saw Ellis's spear stabbing the beast but resulting in another gash only, her attack hadn't work either

He frowned and completed his flip, jumping toward the flying cage as soon as his toes touched the ground and running with it once again while Ellis went back into the crack to avoid the furious beast's damage, leaving it with the visible YuJu to chase once again

'Resistant to blunt and crushing force, the slashing and stabbing of our calibre isn't going to cut it either, this beast must be specialised in defence and is at a pretty moderate level, around seventy to eighty I would guess, the level gap isn't that large but it must have a skill related to strengthening its skin after going through the hundred vitality mark, combined with our lack of lethal attacks, well Ellis's lack, we can't beat it in a frontal attack'

Knowing your enemy is half the battle won, now only countermeasures remained to be thought up

'This type of thick-skinned beast isn't my first, let's go with the usual approach'

Taking out a paper from the spatial storage and quickly noting down on it with some ink he attached it to a small knife before throwing it butt-forward toward the back, not at the beast but right near the crack where Ellis hid, bounding off the ground and falling into it

Done with that he started to look around the area for a few rather tall rocks which he found pretty quickly

"I didn't think I would be making use of my combat prowess this early"

He laminated but wasn't too sad, he wasn't going to lose anything because of it this time, hopefully

Heading toward the tall rock he calculated its length, the wind's strength, the beast's velocity and pouncing speed along with his own speed before finally retrieving several small knives from his storage, four to be exact, one between every two fingers of his left hand

With one swift motion, he threw all four at the rock before jumping straight p into the air while retrieving another set of knives

Seeing it's prey airborne the beast happily jumped as well, there was no way this pesky thing could fly and would defiantly fall into its mouth after the long chase, then it would seek out the other pesky bug to eat as well

Looking at the happy expression on the beast's face YuJu shook his head and threw a knife once again toward the rock this time butt-forward, waited a bit, then threw another followed by another and then the final one

The beast had no idea what this small thing was doing but it couldn't care less and crunched at it

Pish!

Rather than the feeling of food in its mouth it felt a sharp pain in the roof of its maw, as for the air-born prey? Well, it was still in the air, just even further up

"Piiii!!!"

'Good, open wide'

Happy that the beast roared when he expected he quickly kicked against the incoming knife, it was the same one he threw at the already lodged knives causing them to rebound and fly under his feet, this gave the illusion of him stepping on air

These knives weren't just a stepping stone though as they flew right into the open maw, the first hit the already lodged one made it dig deeper into flesh and then lodged itself into the lower cavity of the mouth, the other two acted as hammers that further nailed these two knives inside

'Never gets too old'

Marvelling at the technique he himself created back in the day YuJu smiled, no matter how many times he did it he felt proud of himself every time, this accuracy and precise predictions was rarely seen even among those who took throwing knives as their main class

He wasn't done with the beast though as he plunged down while throwing Anput's cage up and into the side, he himself went straight toward the glaring beast

Off course it welcomed him with an open warm mouth, happily biting at him

At least it tried to bite though, two small but sturdy legs kept that bloody cave wide open though as they used the two lodged knives for support in the slipper walls of is cavity

In its confusion he used his downward momentum to force it sideways, pointing its head right to the back where two spears flew inside followed by a purple figure with two large battle axes in hand

Grabbing her by the feat he allowed Ellis to wreck the insides of this thick-skinned beast before hastily pulling her out, dragging himself out with her and swinging ing in the air until they both landed gracefully on the ground, Anput's cage falling into his hands just at the right moment

"Piiii!"

Thrashing with blood dripping down the beast finally felt fear from these prey who had turned to hunt it instead, hastily abandoning the food and running for its life, looking for a softer spot to dig into the ground and away from the two-legged surface walkers

Ellis switched to her spears and was ready to give chase and kill the beast that caused them much trouble but YuJu put his hand in front of her, shaking his head

"It's not worth it, that thing probably won't fall for the same trick again and it s too hardy to kill quickly, furthermore I interfered in the fight too much, if we kill it now it would cause me much trouble"

Not understanding why his interference was troublesome Ellis looked confused but stowed her weapons nonetheless, her eyes looking at him with a ting of worship

'That was marvellous, the sequence of attacks, the follow-up, and the precise instructions, it was like he was carving the fight himself, goading his opponent to make every move he wanted it to, it was simply inhuman'

This way of fighting was unheard of before, it wasn't like those hot-blooded battles she saw nor those graceful jousts or anything she could even think up, it was unique, his way of handling the knives, using every bit of momentum and every movement of both tools, himself, and the enemy, like they were a weapon themselves, truly a wondrous technique

Feeling the hot eyes of Ellis on him he gave her a quick glance before scouting the place with his eyes for directions, his feet were slightly hurt but not too injured to stop moving, this journey wasn't going to end if they kept taking rests and getting sidetracked

"Let's go"

He said after giving his legs a small shake and then resuming the quick walk

Ellis gave a nod, shooting a quick glance at the direction the beast ran before following her amazing master