Chapter 2- A fight to the death.

"Holy fu$#!" I exclaim in sheer terror as I take in the enormous beast that is growling dangerously at me.

It is a crouching huge, black and deep orange striped beast that I can only describe as a giant panther; One that has lived on steroids for years; it's easily 2 and a half meters tall and about half of that across.

Its limbs must be as thick as small logs, which would make its paws about the size of my head; which would mean that the claws must be the size of machetes. And to make or worse, the setting sun makes in harder to make out its shape and form as it smoothly moves towards me.

"Holy shit; Holy fuck…" I mumble in panic as I try to keep myself from full on hysterical panic where I just start running; because I know somewhere deep inside, that if I try to run from this thing, then it will pounce on me within the blink of an eye. With that in mind, I can only try to calm my breathing and observe the giant beast as it slowly sneaks towards me all the while rumbling dangerously.

*Ping!

[Passive ability:《Fear resistance》 acquired!]

… *Ping!

[Passive skill:《Fearless》 acquired!]

Moments after the prompts flashes before my eyes and I promptly dismiss them, I can feel the fear and panic that was almost overwhelming me just a moment ago, abruptly fades away; Left in its place is only a discomfort that I am being stalked by this huge and powerful beast.

"How the hell am I supposed to fight a beast like this unarmed?" I grumble to myself as I take a stance and focus all my mind on doging its deadly pounce as I wearily watch the beast as it starts circling me clockwise, looking for its opportunity to pounce me.

'If I can just dodge the first pounce, then I may have a small chance of getting out of this alive…' I think absently as I watch the beast, ever so closely.

With a snarl, the beast pounces and launches itself the 5 meters or so towards me so fast that I barely have time to throw myself aside. The beast nicks the left side of my torso, which starts burning painfully, but otherwise I managed to dodge the pounce just barely.

*Ping!

[Passive ability:《Elusive target》 acquired!]

Glancing over the prompt, I just as quickly dismiss it and return my focus onto the deadly beast that is attacking me. After it's pounce, it landed quite awkwardly on its front legs, couldn't correct its momentum and therefore toppled over itself. Now however, it is getting back up again while rumbling even louder than before.

Snarling at me, it shows its large fangs to me as it roars loudly at me before rushing at me with a furious snarl on its face.

This time however, it is significantly easier to dodge the charging beast as the world seems to slow down slightly, and the world becomes just a little clearer just as the beast gets within striking range of me.

Taking a step backwards, quickly followed by a step to the left, I dodge its fangs with just a hand-span of space and smack my left fist into the side of its head as it passed me harmlessly by. The beast loses its balance and rolls a bit before getting its feet back under itself. Shaking it's head irritatedly, it slowly gets back up while its eyes are firmly locked unto me.

The hit doesn't seem to have had much of an affect, but then again, it was more of a push than an actual attack; mostly to see it I could pull it off at all.

'Ok… Ok! I can do this! I just need to make sure I don't get hit…' I think absently as I carefully watch the now quiet beast as it rises and starts circling me once again.

A branch snaps just as the beast lounges itself at me with its right paw and its long claws poised to slice me to ribbons.

As the beast reaches within striking range the world once again slows, ever so slightly and my body that is already moving out of the way of the swipe suddenly feels just a bit lighter and more responsive.

As the beast reaches within striking range, I step in half a meter before sliding to the right and out of its right paws path before throwing a left low kick to its hindlegs. My left leg impacts the beats limbs with a deep thunk sound, before I quickly back away and take distance from the now whining and snarling beast that's limping slightly..

While my leg is hurting quite a bit, at least I didn't break any of my bones; Because if that happened I would be dead before long.

*Ping!

[Passive skill:《Unarmed warrior》 acquired!]

per lvl while fighting unarmed.. Lvl 1: +20%>

*Ping!

[Passive skill:《Resonating blow》 acquired!]

[Additional hits have an accumulating effect.]

Suddenly, my body feels just a little more robust, faster and more flexible; as if it just got upgraded to be just a bit better in every possible way.

Skimming through the prompts quickly before I dismiss these prompts too as the beast has once again stood up and is glaring at me, Its mouth half open in a snarl.

Glaring back at the beast, I sneer back at it. "Let's end this then." I say solemnly as the beast advances towards me once again. This time however, it neither charges, pounces or lounges at me but instead carefully approaches and starts making quick swipes in succession at me which forces me to push my focus and body to the limit as I do my out-most to dodge this new and unrelenting assault.

Seconds crawl pass as I do everything I can to dodge, parry and block its unrelenting assault, but however hard I may try, I am simply unable to completely escape harm from the unending assault; A nick there and a scratch there and then a narrow dodge that grazes my chest and opens up shallow wounds from where blood starts flowing. Seconds turn into minutes and I am slowly being turned into a bloody ragdoll as the assault continues uninterrupted.

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Some time after, I am brought out of my evasion trance as the assault stops. Blinking, I look over at the beast, who is now panting weakly on the ground, trying to stand, but being unable to.

As it dawned on me that its stamina is spent, I hurriedly stumble my way over to the side of the beast and punch it as hard as I can in the stomach.

As my fist hits the beast, I feel a resonating wave of energy feeding into the beast and it's tissues through my fist. So I start punching as fast as I can. Even as my limbs start burning from the exertion, I keep swinging, pushing my body to go faster and faster until a fanfare suddenly starts playing.

*Ding*Ding*Ding*Ding*Ding*Ding!!

*You have gained multiple skills/abilities; Please access the backlog for more information.

*You have defeated a 'Black razor tiger' (lvl 5).

*Ding! You have reached level 3. You currently have 12 unassigned stat points.

Staring with bloodshot eyes at the prompt for a few long moments, all strength then leaves my body and I slump down onto the now mangled and dead beast. "Hah… I actually did it…" I whisper to myself as I stare up at the night sky and the twinkling stars high above me.

I just lay there as I work through the fight between me and the Black razor tiger in my mind.

...

… ….

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End of chapter 2