I was even stronger than it in terms of Agility, Spirit, and Intelligence. Thus, I was faster, sharper, and had deadlier attacks. So, it was not something that would make me fearful, even though I was stunned the moment I laid my eyes on it!

I was watching it from the top of a tree.

*Whoosh* *Whoosh*

The moment the drake was 200 meters away from me, I launched two wind blades. One from the right and the other from the left, soaring in an arch-like movement towards both sides of its head.

It was a new technique I thought of, it had a higher chance of hitting the target because of the difficulty of predicting its landing point. It'd work even better if the target cannot make a big move and has to only dodge by shifting its body by a small margin which would make its ability to dodge all the more difficult.

*Clang* *Clang*

The two wind blades landed hitting both of its shoulders. I then flew out of my hiding spot and made sure for the drake to focus on me.

The drake was pushed back by the strength of my wind blades and retreated a couple of steps, which made it lose focus on the rabbit, because as the rabbit ran away towards some shrubs at the side and continued running the drake did not seem to care nor notice.

I was also shocked to discover that my wind blades only left a slight dent on its scales after pushing it back and that was it!

This was the least amount of damage I had ever dealt with them so far.

*Huuuffff*

A long, slow, and scary exhale sounded, those terrifying golden eyes with red slits locked into me. I could tell that the drake was taking this very seriously even though I only appeared to be a High Body Refinement because I was. My damage was nothing but that.

I was hovering in the same position I appeared in earlier while giving it my undivided attention.

It moved its body very slowly as if afraid of startling me then it stabilized its footing and kept looking at me.

There was a pin drop silence, with both monsters looking at each other's eyes.

I was waiting for it to make the first move so that I could react accordingly.

Then! Thanks to my sharp senses, I discovered terrifying amounts of mana forming in the ground beneath me, and I immediately knew what they were!

I quickly moved back!

*BANG!*

I managed to dodge the four eight meters long and pointy spears, due to my fast reaction speed only to smash head-on with a thick wall made of rocks.

I felt slightly dizzy because of the huge force I used in turning back which in turn made me collide head-on with the wall.

Seeing that the wall managed to endure the full force of my physical strength without even moving, I quickly moved back to run away in another direction.

*Rooaar*

The moment I turned back, the previously distant scary face was now humongous and completely filling my vision.

Because our eyes were locked, I instinctively used Piercing Gaze unleashing its maximum spiritual output which made the drake with the already poor spiritual resistance look shocked and a bit muddle-headed.

Its previous fatal charge crumbled just as fast as it was formed.

Whilst the drake was still mid-air with its jaw fully open in an unsuccessful attempt to break my neck off, I dove down and created three wind blades aimed directly at its throat.

*BOMM!*

All of my wind blades landed, unfortunately not at the same place because the drake was technically still moving. Although its inner scales were not as tough nor durable as its outer ones, they were still a force to be reckoned with.

My wind blades only managed to leave shallow wounds in which blood was continuously spilling out.

*THUDD*

The drake landed on the ground face first and was still in a nonreactive state, I hurriedly moved towards it to take advantage of this temporary opportunity.

*Whoosh* *Whoosh*

I launched two wind blades aiming directly at the side of its neck, close to where one of my previous attacks landed leaving an open wound with no scales left to protect it.

Thankfully both of them landed exactly at the same spot, the previous wound was at the bottom so I was not able to reach there because of the ground.

My first wind blade managed to completely remove its scales while the second left a gruesome deep wound through which blood was crazily gushing out!

The moment my attacks landed, the drake's eyes regained their previous tenacity. It seemed like the pain played a big part in helping it recover from its confused mental state.

I ran away west, I had higher agility and greater range.

I did not have to risk staying close to it at all, I was just swept away by its stealthy earth wall and fell into the trap it set for me when I thought we were having some epic serious battle moment.

It hurriedly moved to chase me.

Seeing that its earth spears were not able to hit me, it stopped after trying it for the third time.

I was also throwing out my arch-style wind blades, only managing to land one out of three, with it only landing on its exterior scales thus not making any significant damage.

I needed to get close and aim at the open wound that was in the process of closing in at a fast speed as I was thinking that.

Suddenly! I felt the mana behind me gathering and compressing to fit on a single point, turning back I was shocked to find that the drake had stopped and had its mouth open in which a giant dark brown ball of energy was forming.

My heart missed a beat, just as I was about to run away from its range, I felt the spell locking on to me and coming in my direction with terrifying agility.

I did not even have the time to think about what to do before my vision was completely filled with hundreds of sharp rocky shards.

I instinctively used my only defensive skill.

[Dark Shield]

Ear-piercing sounds kept resounding with every shard that managed to hit the shield as if thousands of swords hitting a solid object at the same time.

*BOMM!*

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the skill and the little time I had before I was assaulted by the shards, I was only able to form an average shield that was not able to hold off against the dreadful attack of the drake.

*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*

Even though my shield was able to fend off the majority of the shards, I still had to bear the brunt of dozens of them.

Due to the damage I was receiving from behind, I could not hold my balance in the air and immediately fell.

I was terrified, I was not expecting this at all!

Just as I was about to land on the ground a spear sprouted out from the ground rushing directly toward the middle of my stomach, if I got hit by it I'd undoubtedly be pierced and die a horrible death.

Thankfully, I managed to shift my body a tiny bit to avoid damaging any vital organ, but the spear managed to pierce right through my wing obliterating every feather on the way and breaking the bones.

I felt an unimaginable amount of pain that made me unable to think of anything else.

Just as I was about to use everything I had to run away, I sensed a dreadful force rushing at an astounding speed in our direction. The drake did not even seem to sense it at all, it only had a gloating expression on its face as it was coming toward me step by step.

*BOMM!*

Due to the speed with which it was coming, it did not take the figure a long while to finally show its appearance by splitting a giant tree into two the moment it smashed against it!

A giant dark ball.

I could easily tell that it was only a Mid rank Foundation Establishment, yet the pressure it emitted and the way it made us feel suggested otherwise.

[Appraised Target: Black Surret Northern Pangolin

Cultivation Realm: Foundation Establishment(Mid)

Health Points(HP): 377/377

Magic Power(MP/Mana): 361/361

Spiritual Power(SP): 265/265

Magical Resistance: 70

Physical Resistance: 77

Spiritual Resistance: 54

Vitality: 175

Strength: 177

Stamina: 156

Intelligence: 205

Agility: 196

Spirit: 155

Description: Black Surret Northern Pangolin is a demon beast unique to the northern continent. It's a literal machine of death thanks to its body and its high control of the wind and darkness elements.

Weakness: Low defense in its stomach area.

]

The ball was a pangolin? I could not even tell just by looking at it, it was so smooth and the scales were perfectly harmonious with each other that the thought of it being a monster seemed rather far even though it was the only rational conclusion.

The drake was petrified when it noticed the pangolin and it immediately turned tail and ran away!

Of course, I was not going to let this chance go by, from the pangolin's point of view I was a helpless prey who was about to be devoured by the drake, in other words, unworthy of its attention.

Using that to my advantage, I forced myself to flap my broken wing even though the pain was like nothing I had ever felt before and caught up to the drake in less than a second.

[Shadow Dive]

The moment I was a couple of meters near it, I dove down to its shadow barely dodging a tail that was about to hit me accidentally.

The pangolin was not planning on giving the drake any time just on account of its serious neck injury and immediately followed.

Because I was hidden in the shadow of the drake, I finally had the time to rest and take the full glory of this monstrosity before me.

The pangolin was not just running at a fast speed but it'd also hop like a bunny every couple of seconds, which made the visual shock I was going through all the more scarier.

When It was just 200 meters from the drake, a strong wind current started moving all around it pushing its previous astounding speed to an even greater height.

Soon, thick black smoke visible to the naked eye started forming as if appearing out of nowhere and enveloped the dark pangolin. The moment it was completely covered by the dark smoke its scales transformed, losing their previous smooth exterior and becoming curved, prickled, and looked especially sharp.

This was no longer a trowel that smoothens things, but a grinder that would shred everything it came in contact with to pieces.

Not only that, thanks to its new transformation it became barely noticeable in my spiritual sense, which meant that the drake who had more than 40% Spirit less than me would not even be able to sense it unless it directly sees or hears it.

Thanks to the pangolin's usage of skills, it caught up to us fairly quickly.

The moment it was less than fifty meters from us, it hopped again this time clearly smaller than the previous ones. However, in mid-air, it launched what appeared to be a new skill that made it very light because it landed on a relatively small leaf, yet the small leaf was able to send the pangolin flying!

I had no idea what the heck just happened!

All of this was too strange for me, the laws of physics seemed to bow down and turn a blind eye to the pangolin's antics.

The drake became restless, I could sense its heartbeat accelerating and its mental state on the brink of total collapse due to fear. It was not able to sense the pangolin at all, but it knew that it would not let it go away just like that.

I knew where it was, and the drake would soon learn too.

The drake kept running and running, yet it could not feel any security at all. Just the opposite it was getting more afraid with every passing second.

It stopped because it was blocked by an especially thick tree, it turned right and looked scared, turned left and looked even more scared.

Just as it was about to choose right and continue.

*BOOMMMM!*

A thunderous collision sounded in the whole forest. The giant black ball of death fell from the sky and landed on the lower part of the drake's body just above its tail.

*Roaar*

The drake roared with a voice dripping with pain and unwillingness.

*Thudd*

The drake fell down, its hind legs, spine, and tail completely broken with bones protruding. It was a very gruesome sight!

The pangolin did not give it any time and finally stopped using its round form and showed its face to the world.

Its head was also filled with dark scales and had dark eyes. However, what caught my attention was the fact that its underbelly looked very weak. Or rather just not as thick and strong as its outer scales were.

The monster of course could not sense my presence, whereas the drake was too afraid to even care about me previously.

The moment the monster showed its face, it opened its mouth and launched a giant energy ball made of densely compressed wind elements aiming at the drake's neck.

*Whoooooooosh*

I had to move now! The moment the drake dies, I'd be a sitting duck for this walking grinder.

Just as it was about to roll up, I used Predator's Warcry at maximum output, directly draining more than 60% of my spiritual energy.

*Screeeeeech!*

I did not give it any time and used my remaining 86 spiritual energy and attacked it using Piercing Gaze.

[Fiery Charge]

I activated my strongest offensive skill to date and rushed towards it. The drake was already pretty messed up, so it posed no risk only the pangolin did.

The moment it entered my 8-meter range, it started twitching as if on the verge of waking up from the tremendous damage it was currently receiving.

I had a staggering 187 Intelligence with Fiery charge dealing quadruple the damage, it was a staggering theoretical 748 HP a second of pure damage.

Not wanting to give it any chance and taking advantage of its temporary inability to fight back, I used the remaining of my mana to create three wind blades aiming them directly at its most vulnerable spot.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Fortunately, all three of them hit, the first one managed to completely remove the small scales protecting that area while leaving a shallow wound, only for the two others to finish the job thus completely opening a big wound through which blood was crazily spilling out and even its innards seemed to be on the verge of falling down.

*Thudd!*

The pangolin fell to the side unable to move, and after two seconds in my Fiery Charge, it finally died.

[You have Killed a Foundation Establishment(Mid) Monster |Experience Points +16000|]

[Congratulations Host for Leveling up from 31 to 32. +5 Stat Points, +2 Skill Points.]

Ignoring the notifications, I put the body of the pangolin in my inventory and ran towards the drake.

The drake was in an even more severe state than the pangolin so after bearing the damage of 3 seconds of fiery charge it also died.

[You have Killed a Foundation Establishment(Mid) Monster |Experience Points +16000|]

[Quest Achieved Successfully. Rewards: 200 Karma Points, 15.000 Experience Points, 5 Stats Points, 2 Skill Points]

Finally!

I also put its body in my inventory, and ran away south with my fastest speed, on legs. I did not want to move my broken wing because it gave me a lot of pain without actually helping.

I quickly found a relatively safe space to hide and climbed a tree using two umbra hands before draining my mana pool whole.

My body was filled with wounds all over, due to the storm of shards I received earlier, my wing had a giant hole in the middle of it and my bones were broken.

It was definitely a new experience for me, the fight was too stimulating and felt so long, but only a couple of moments have passed since I first got the quest.

I opened my Status Window to check my new gains.

[~Status Window~

Host: Zed - Umbra Storm Eagle.

Titles: {Blazing Heart}, {Truth Seeker}, {Dauntless Spirit}

Level: 32

Experience Points(Exp): 44250/68400

Rank: Body Refinement(High)

Health Points(HP): 192/351

Magic Power(MP/Mana): 1/381

Spiritual Power(SP): 8/391

Magical Resistance: 41(28)

Physical Resistance: 42(29)

Spiritual Resistance: 31(37)

Vitality: 68(102)

Strength: 71(106)

Stamina: 54(81)

Intelligence: 75(112)

Agility: 64(96), Dark: +19, Nearby Enemy: +16, Sky Dash: +19.

Spirit: 71(142)

Available Stat Points: 10

Available Skill Points: 6

Karma Points: 250

[Skills]

[Quests]

[Shop]

[Map]

[Inventory]

[Party(Locked)]

]