Kurushimi snapped back, almost falling. Luckily, she managed to barely plant her heels on the ground and rooted herself steadily. The pullumskāl flew over her head as the audible snap of its jaws locking together could be heard.

[Kurushimi: Shit, I would have never been able to do that before. Perhaps I should apply for a limbo contest sometime…?]

Kurushimi joked to herself after witnessing her incredible body reflexes that had surprised even her. But the pullumskāl didn’t seem to care for jokes as it immediately spun around and charged at Kurushimi again.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 1』!》

Multiple tendrils of shadow appeared at once and targeted the pullumskāl. Unluckily for Kurushimi, the pullumskāl was a nimble bastard. Just as it had effortlessly dodged the long ranged tendril before, it skillfully dodged the multiple tendrils coming from all directions.

The pullumskāl was either really smart or had really good reflexes. Kurushimi was caught off guard and couldn’t block or dodge the next attack. The pullumskāl jumped up and swiped with one of its legs, using a sharp and recurved claw on its toe to scrape across Kurushimi’s torso.

Blood flew out of the deep wound in a fairly large volume, which worried Kurushimi as it couldn’t be good for her to lose so much at once. But with an opportunity presented to her, Kurushimi could now go on the counter offensive.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 2』!》

All the blood that should have been flying through the air at this moment suddenly came to a stop, as if disobeying the very laws of gravity and common sense that had been built up over thousands of years of scientific advancement.

Kurushimi laughed at it.

[Kurushimi: This is magic! The ability to go against common sense!]

Raising her hands, she synchronously whipped them down as if she were conductor of an orchestra. In response, her orchestra of blood crashed down towards the pullumskāl. The pullumskāl was able to dodge some but this time, there was a lot more blood than there was with her shadow tendrils.

The pullumskāl was covered in lacerations by the blood rain, but Kurushimi still wasn’t in any better of a state than the pullumskāl.

-I’m still losing lots of blood here… Is it possible to use Blood magic to stop the bleeding?

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 2』!》

《Skill failed!》

《Skill proficiency is too low!》

The blood had only been delayed a little before it went right back to how it was before. Kurushimi quickly looked up to the top-right of her peripherals to check on her HP, MP and SP.

《HP: 17/28》

《MP: 10/18》

《SP: 7/12》

(Currently under bleeding status effect. Will lose 1 HP every 30 seconds until the bleeding status effect is cleansed.)

Almost at half HP and losing HP over time, Only enough mana to cast magic skills 3 more times and about half SP, Kurushimi needed to win soon otherwise she could end up losing through a battle of attrition.

As Kurushimi went on the offensive again, she prepared the blood lining her torso. She would kill the pullumskāl now and end it! But…

“Ha?!” Kurushimi exclaimed in confusion.

[Kurushimi: It’s gone!]

The pullumskāl had disappeared from where it once stood. Kurushimi had no idea where the pullumskāl had gone and stood still as she looked around herself, trying to identify its position. The thought that it could have simply escaped after receiving the strong counter attack from Kurushimi was present but Kurushimi couldn’t help but feel that wasn’t the case!

-Where did it go?!

Suddenly, the pullumskāl jumped at her from a tree, its claw on its arm slashing as it glided by. Kurushimi gritted her teeth as she just moved out of the way, only taking a scratch on her neck where she could have easily lost her life.

If not for the bonus stats of her unique skill, giving her more points in the AGI stat, then she should at her level, she may not have lived that. But more importantly, the pullumskāl had seemed to have come out of nowhere when it attacked her. Almost like it came out of the tree it had jumped off of…

[Kurushimi: Camouflage?!]

It was the first thing Kurushimi could think of, but it made the most sense. The pullumskāl had seemingly come out of the tree and she couldn’t see it until it revealed itself. Kurushimi was puzzled as to why it initially ran away if it had this many tricks!

After launching its attack, the pullumskāl immediately disappeared into the foliage again. Kurushimi got to witness its scales blend perfectly into the colours of the forest. Now, with no way to know when it and where it would attack from, Kurushimi could only hope to use her high AGI stat to evade the pullumskāl’s attacks and try to counter.

Once again she stood still, attempting to concentrate. Her eyes bounced about as she tried to watch carefully for the pullumskāl. And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it coming out of its camouflage. Wasting no time, the pullumskāl leaped again towards Kurushimi.

-Evade!

Kurushimi had seen it sooner than the first time and was quicker too. She swung her right leg behind her left and stepped back to dodge the pullumskāl’s attack once again. Then she tried to counter as planned.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 2』!》

Blood flew towards the back of the pullumskāl. The blade almost connected but barely fell short. Kurushimi really thought she had gotten it, but the pullumskāl was still too fast for her. She needed to somehow see it sooner and attack even sooner.

As Kurushimi was trying to come up with a way to manage this feat, the pullumskāl went back into hiding as it had done previously.

[Kurushimi: Don’t skills cost mana! Why can you spam it so much?!]

In the midst of Kurushimi’s complaints, a system message appeared.

《Confirmed AGI stat is high enough.》

《Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill 『Evasion Lvl. 1』》

-Evasion? A new skill? But I never learnt that skill, or spent any skill points?

Kurushimi checked her skill points and confirmed she currently had 400 skill points at the moment. She had 700 but had spent 300 to learn Appraisal, Farsight, and Shadow magic. So she definitely hadn’t bought this new skill and no points were used to gain it. Therefore, the only conclusion is that she had gained it naturally.

[Kurushimi: I didn’t know you could gain skills like that… Ah, well it doesn’t matter, I’ll take what I can get right now! What does it do?!]

《『Evasion Lvl. 1』: Whenever an enemy attack is close to connecting, perception time and brain processing time is sped up.》

-Ok! I think I understand. That should be perfect for this!

Kurushimi stood still and carefully watched for the pullumskāl. After a few tense seconds, the rustling of leaves could be heard from behind her.

-Shit. From behind!

《Used skill: 『Evasion Lvl. 1』!》

Kurushimi turned and looked behind her. The turn felt like it had taken abnormally long in her accelerated perception but when she had finally turned, she saw the claw of the pullumskāl’s toe just over 15 centimetres from her face.

The razor-sharp claw was slowly approaching. The difference from before was noticeable but it wasn’t enough to dilly-dally around. Instantaneously she prepared the blood on her torso.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 2』!》

The blood shot out in a single, long blade and penetrated through the centre of the pullumskāl’s body. The menacing-looking claw was only stopped a centimetre from Kurushimi’s eye.

“Gah!”

Kurushimi jumped back at how close the claw was to hitting her eye, trying to catch her breath. The effect of evasion had worn off and she felt a little nauseous. Though she wasn’t sure if that was a side-effect of Evasion’s rapid acceleration of her senses or just because of the blood she had lost.

Kurushimi flopped to the ground and the spike of blood similarly retracted. The pullumskāl flopped to the ground lifelessly. Its vigorous eyes had lost all their tempo.

The exhausted Kurushimi hurriedly scooted over towards the body of the pullumskāl and sunk her fangs into it.

《Used skill: 『Fangs Lvl. 2』!》

She was so thirsty she felt like she had been stranded in the Sahara desert for multiple days. Kurushimi sucked up its blood like draining a juice box.

And finally, she gasped for air after getting enough. Looking down at the pullumskāl, she sighed. A sigh of relief and a sigh meant for her past self.

[Kurushimi: Fuck…

I was too arrogant.]

Kurushimi lightly laughed.