Opening my heavy eyelids, I was blinded by the bright light from outside the base. I rose slowly and lightly stretch before grimacing. The wound on my back was still aching, other than the wound on my back, I was fit as a fiddle. I heard a faint breathing sound from beside me, I turned my head and saw the beautiful fox lying on the ground. She was frowning in pain, soft whimpers escaped her mouth. Her body was jolting from time to time, her wound was still letting out blood a little.

I ignored the pain on my back, I took the bag from the adventurer and bolted out the base to search fruits and healing herbs for her. Damn it, if it weren't for her strong vitality, she would've died last night. I should've treated her yesterday before I collapsed. After an hour or so, I managed to find some Kousu herbs and apples. I also found some new herbs.

Braldi herb

Useful for coagulating blood on wound. Have a strong disinfectant property. Use it on the wound, can't be eaten raw.

Anisia herb

Numb the pain senses when eaten or applied on wounds. Long term use is not recommended.

I ran back to the base while holding the bag on my mouth. When I went in to the base, I found the beautiful fox was trying to stand up despite her wounds. I dropped the bag and stopped her.

"Hey, stop! Don't push yourself! Just stay down!" (MC)

The beautiful fox ignored me and kept trying to stand, when she finally stood up, she walked staggeringly toward the base exit. Her movement were taxing on her wounded body and more blood start pouring out from her wound. I couldn't bear to see it anymore and forced her to lie on the ground.

"Stay down! Can't you see how bad your condition is?!" (MC)

The beautiful fox glared and growled threateningly at me for a second before obediently lying on the ground. Looking at the obedient beautiful fox, I nodded. I dragged the bag closer to her and took out some Kousu and Anisia herbs and apples, I placed them near her mouth.

"Eat the herbs, it will help you recover and lessen the pain. It is bitter but bear with it, eat the apples if it become too bitter." (MC)

The beautiful fox tilted her head after she heard me, I thought she didn't quite get what I say. Wait a minute, she didn't get what I say? That's not possible. The cheat I got from God should have made it possible for me to talk with anything with any language. Now that I think about it, back then The goblin language wasn't translated either. Wait, language? Do goblin and fox have the concept of language in the first place?

While I was deep in thought, the beautiful fox was still looking at me. Released from my thoughts, I make some gestures to told her to ate the herbs and apples. Getting my message, the beautiful fox looked at the herbs and apples, after looking carefully at it, she sniffed them. She frowned after sniffing the herbs, I guessed she knew the herbs were bitter from the smell. The beautiful fox glanced at me and I told her one word. Maybe....

"Eat."

Hearing me, the fox reluctantly ate the herbs. I see, now I get it. I think that the fox understood and have a language of it's own, but the beautiful fox words were too limited like a child, that's why she didn't understand what I say. I think the cheat translate my words in sentences not in words, that's why although the beautiful fox understood some words, when said in a sentence it became confusing for her. Like someone that just learned english suddenly watch a western film with no subtitles.

As for the goblins, I think they didn't have the concept of language, they communicate with gestures and roar of their own. I didn't know about higher level goblins, but I think that low level goblin didn't use language to communicate. Maybe because of that, my cheat didn't translate it for me.

After the beautiful fox ate the herbs, her face was warped because of the bitterness. I put more apples in front of her and told her to eat it, the beautiful fox ate the apples with relish. While she was eating, I chewed a Kousu and Braldi herb and pasted the chewed herbs on her wound, I appraised her while doing that.

"[Appraise] level up!"

"New content has been added."

Name : unnamed

Species : Frost Fox (Rare)

Type : Beast

Sex : Female

Rank : 01

LV : 031/100

HP : 09/46

MP : 02/90

STM : 22/54

ATK : 10

DEF : 09

MGC : 29

MND : 25

DEX : 13

AGL : 15

Oh, I can see her status! I guess, this is the effect of the level up. Wow, a mage! A fox ice mage! I want to see her skills! I wonder if she had [Cocytus] or [Nefelheim], that would be so badass! Her Status..... is this high or not for her level? Now that I think of it, I didn't know the average status for rank 01 monster. Oh well, I'll find out eventually. Now, for her race.

Frost Fox

A race of fox that had the gift for ice magic. A social animals that live in place that cold and buried by snow all year around, their herd are lead by the strongest female frost fox, a matriarch. Protective of their young offsprings, they will tear apart anything that harm or threaten their offsprings. A smart creature. An omnivore but prefer meat over anything else. Their eternally cold fangs and nails can be forge into a good ice element weapon. Their fur are warm on cold days and cool on hot days. Meat and organs have anti-aging and beautifying effect. A highly sought monster.

...... I hope a herd of Frost Fox won't suddenly come and attack me. That aside, something strange. If these guys lives in cold places, then why was this beautiful fox here? I mean, this place is far from being cold, it's more like a tropical jungle here. And how could she be wounded? From her level, I think she was still a young fox, then wasn't her herd supposed to be very protective of her? Why was she alone and even being chased by the goblins? Was she separated from her herd? Why was she here in the first place?

My head was full with questions and speculation. When I snapped out, I found out that I had finished treating her and the beautiful fox was already sleeping. The edge of my mouth unconsciously rose when I saw her peaceful sleeping face. After observing her for a minute, I look at my status to check the result from the fight with the goblins.

Name : unnamed

Species : Fire Kitten (Common)

Type : Beast

Sex : Male

Rank : 01

LV : 073/100

HP : 20/50

MP : 05/05

STM : 015/150

ATK : 23

DEF : 25

MGC : 1

MND : 20

DEX : 5

AGL : 20

Points : 114

Active Skills :

Appraise LV04

Fire Breath LV02

Fire Clad LV03

Intimidation LV03

Fire Ball LV04

Fire Claw LV03

Fire Burst LV01

Stealth LV01

Dismantling LV01

Passive Skills :

Languages comprehension LVMAX

Pyrokinesis LV01

Dominate LV01

Resistance Skills :

Heat Nullification LVMAX

Poison resistance LV02

Paralyze resistance LV01

Tittle :

Otherworlder

Harem seeker

Damn! My active skills grew up a lot! Other than [Fire Breath], everything grew a level! [Fire Ball] even grew two levels! Very nice! And my level rose to 73! Hahahaha, I'm so close to max level! I wonder what will I evolve to. My excitement kept rising, it rose even more when I saw the over 100 stats point. Now how to distribute this....

First thing first, I need to upgrade my defense. The fight with the goblins taught me how valuable defense are, if my defense was high enough to ignore the slash and kick from that high goblin, then I could bully that damn goblin to death. So let's put 25 points to defense. After that, 7 points each for HP and STM for endurance. Next 20 points for ATK to hit harder. And 20 points for MND, you couldn't never go wrong with more defense. Another 20 points for DEX and the last 15 points for AGL for dodging.

Name : unnamed

Species : Fire Kitten (Common)

Type : Beast

Sex : Male

Rank : 01

LV : 073/100

HP : 20/85

MP : 05/05

STM : 015/185

ATK : 43

DEF : 50

MGC : 1

MND : 40

DEX : 25

AGL : 35

Umu! Looks very good! Feeling very satisfied with my stats, I went out the base to search for herbs and games to recover my HP and STM. I went to the river and saw myself reflected in the water, I got bigger. My height increased about 23cm and my length increased about 18cm. My muscle became more prominent. Also, my fur color was darkening and when I felt it, it was still soft and fluffy when touched but when I tried to cut it with my claw, it put quite the resistance before being cut. And when I tried ramming myself at a tree, most of the shock was absorbed by my fur, I only felt an itch and I was using quite a lot of power. Hahaha! I just can't stop my excitement! I ran with my full strength into the forest.

When I came back to the base, I brought back six rabbits. I skin and bleed the rabbits outside the base, didn't want my base to stink. I slowly roast them to perfection, oh the smell was just irresistible. Before I knew it, the beautiful fox already staring dagger at the roast rabbits while drooling rivers. I let out a small chuckle as I gave her a roast rabbit, when I saw how devoted she was at devouring the rabbit I let out another chuckle. I devoured my own rabbit while feeling amused.

And just like that, the beautiful fox stayed with me for two weeks.

**************************************************\\////******************************************************

A fat rabbit was eating weed, unaware of a pale blue fox hiding inside a shrub behind it. The pale blue fox locked on on her target, she steady her breathing and when the rabbit took another bite on the weed, like a released arrow, she pounced on the rabbit. Caught unaware, the rabbit could only struggled in vain before a strong bite land on it's neck and snapped it. The beautiful fox look pleased at her prey as she show her happy face at me.

"I....caught it." (Beautiful Fox)

I walked out of the shrub I was hiding in and went toward her, I lowered my head and lightly rubbed my face against her's. Even though she had grown bigger, the beautiful fox was still smaller than me.

"Yeah, good job." (MC)

The beautiful fox was happy from hearing my praise as she snuggles her head on my neck and happily wagging her tail. Her voice might be cold but she was actually a cute child that want to be spoiled. In these two weeks we spent together I patiently taught her words and engaged on a conversation with her to train her conversations skill. And with her being originally smart, she finally could converse normally, albeit her speech a little broken here and there. I also taught her how to hunt and fight but since my own experience was shallow, there was not much I could teach her.

I skinned and bleed the rabbit and roast them. The beautiful fox was looking at the process as drool slowly dripped out from her mouth. After roasting the rabbit, I tore out a leg for me to eat while I gave the rest to the beautiful fox. The beautiful fox ate the rabbit delightfully, I smiled as I watched her eat. I ate the rabbit's leg in one bite, bone and all. As I wait for the beautiful fox to finish, I checked her status.

Name : unnamed

Species : Frost Fox (Rare)

Type : Beast

Sex : Female

Rank : 01

LV : 054/100

HP : 57/57

MP : 143/144

STM : 60/60

ATK : 14

DEF : 11

MGC : 50

MND : 41

DEX : 18

AGL : 25

In these past two weeks, she had grown a lot, especially her magic. As for how she could level up so much... Well, it's thanks to.... Heh, speak of the devil. My nose twitches as a foul odor drifted toward us. The beautiful fox smile disappeared in the instant she smelled the odor, replacing the smile was her baring her fangs and growling threateningly. I rose slowly and stood infront of her, emerging out from the shrubs were goblins.

"Five, huh. Quite a lot came out today." (MC)

After the first battle with the goblins when I saved the beautiful fox, I didn't know why but the encounter rate with the goblin was raising like there was no other monster in these forest but goblin. Other monster encounter rate was dropping considerably. But although we met many goblins in these past two weeks, I only met a high goblin once other than the first one I fought and it was weaker than the first one. With these endless supply of goblins, me and the beautiful fox grew a lot.

The five goblins were wary of me, I guess they could tell the power difference between them and me. I appraised them and all of them were normal goblins. Their armaments were just a rusted sword, wooden clubs, and dirty rags. I perked my ears and nose to detect if there's any other goblins other than them. After confirming there were none, I turned back to the beautiful fox and rubbed my head with her.

"There's no high goblin. Wipe them out at your leisure." (MC)

"Un...... I understand." (Beautiful Fox)

After she rubbed me back, I went and stood behind her. Three spear-shaped icicles appeared above the beautiful fox the moment I stood behind her, followed by an ice cold voice.

"I'll kill..... All of you." (Beautiful Fox)

The icicles flew toward the goblins with great speed and impaled three goblins. The other two goblin wanted to run away after seeing the three impaled corpses, but would the beautiful fox let them run? Of course not. The beautiful fox fired an icicle at one of the goblin and the icicle hit and buried deep in the goblins leg. The goblin fell and roared in pain while holding it wounded leg. Hearing the goblin pained roar, the other goblin sped up.

But before it could run far, the beautiful fox already caught up with it. The beautiful fox swung her tail at the goblin, if it was her normal fluffy tail, it wouldn't do any damage. But her tail right now was covered with ice, the ice surface was covered with little and sharp thorns, being hit by it would be like being grated by thousands of little knifes. The ice also extend to double of her own length, adding a range advantage to her. She made his technique by copying my [Fire Clad], but since she couldn't cover her body with ice, she choose this form. She called it [Frost Whip].

The goblin hastily hold up it's wooden club to defend against the beautiful fox's tail. The tail struck the club from above and it didn't stop when it hit the club, the tail kept going down as the little thorns shaved the club down. The club broke shortly after and the beautiful fox's tail hit the goblin and hurled it backward. The goblin was twitching on the ground with a long bloody wound extending from it's head to it's stomach, it was dying.

The beautiful fox walked toward the dying goblin and gaze at it, her eyes was so cold it could freeze hell over and beneath that cold eyes was a burning hatred. The beautiful fox's rose and start bashing at the dying goblin, over and over again. Maybe because her past experience of being chased and hurt by goblins, the beautiful fox had a great hatred for goblins, every time she met one, she would definitely killed it as gruesomely as possible, just like this.

The beautiful fox stopped bashing at the goblin after it turned into a meat paste, she turned to the last living goblin. Consumed by fear after witnessing the gory scene, the goblin tried to run. It was scared to the point of forgetting the pain from it's leg. It desperately tried to run but it's impaled leg won't let it, so it crawled on the ground wet from it's own kin's blood.

The beautiful fox walked slowly toward it, her tail was now colored red from the blood. Her pale blue fur was stained red and there was still goblin's blood dripping from her fur. She was like a demon that just crawled out from hell. When she caught up with the goblin, her tail stabbed at it's back, the goblin scream in pain. The stab was like rain, it fell repeatedly on the goblin's body. Soon after the goblin's body was already like a beehive, full of holes. After stopping, the beautiful fox gaze at the goblins corpses for a moment before she walked toward me while smiling slightly.

"...... I'm back." ( Beautiful Fox)

"Un." (MC)

I licked her face to clean the goblin's blood on her face. The goblin's blood tastes bad.

"You're dirty again, let's go to the river so you can wash." (MC)

"Un ...... I love bath." (Beautiful Fox)

The red icicle tail crumbled away as she said that. We went to the river after I throughly burned the goblin's corpses.

At the river, I was lying in the shallow water, my submerged legs were clad in fire. I now could control to wether clad my whole body in fire or just part of my bodyusing [Fire Clad]. The water around me was boiling but thanks to my resistance skill, I only felt the water around me was a little warm. Not far from me, the beautiful fox was enjoying her bath as she lied in the warm water. The beautiful fox dipped her head under the water and rolled around from time to time to cleanse her fur that was dyed red from the goblins blood. Seeing her relaxing in the water, my mouth unconsciously lifted upward.

This was how we take our bath now. Before we just licked or let the dirty part dry by itself. Surprisingly, I didn't have any problem or felt disgusted with it, I guessed my body affected my mind more than I thought. I knew it was not exactly hygienic but we're not human anyway, we're monsters, so this was enough......... or so I thought. At first it was fine, but after some time I found a problem, a grave problem. The beautiful fox's pale blue fur was stained grey! I couldn't stand looking her beautiful fur stained grey like that, so I wracked my brain and came up with this. I used my power to heat up the water and make a pseudo large hot water bath.

For the beautiful fox, who used to live in cold places, I thought she won't like the warm water but my worry was unfounded. The moment she submerged her body in the warm water, her face grew loose as she let out a relaxed smile. Now, it became a habit. After every two or three fight, we always took a bath. This past few weeks, I also grew a lot.

Name : unnamed

Species : Fire Kitten (Common)

Type : Beast

Sex : Male

Rank : 01

LV : 091/100

HP : 160/160

MP : 05/05

STM : 205/205

ATK : 50

DEF : 80

MGC : 1

MND : 40

DEX : 25

AGL : 43

Points : 0

Active Skills :

Appraise LV04

Intimidation LV04

Fire Breath LV03

Fire Clad LV05

Fire Ball LV05

Fire Claw LV04

Fire Burst LV02

Stealth LV05

Dismantling LV06

Passive Skills :

Languages comprehension LVMAX

Pyrokinesis LV01

Dominate LV01

Resistance Skills :

Heat Nullification LVMAX

Poison resistance LV03

Paralyze resistance LV03

Tittle :

Otherworlder

Harem seeker

Guardian

My stats and skills grew a lot, almost all my skills grew a level or two and I even get a new title, [Guardian]. Better yet, the title even gave my def an extra 10 points. At this point, any rank 1 monsters couldn't hurt me in the slightest. I got the [Gurdian] title after I started protecting the beautiful fox. I really wanted to appraised my title but unfortunately my [Appraise] skill level was too low to appraise it. I tried leveling the skill up, but after it reached level 4, leveling it was tough. I couldn't level it up by appraising the same stuff over and over again.

Hmm, guess it's about time we went deeper to the forest. As I thought that, a loud explosion sound rang from the forest. The beautiful fox and I instantly put our guard up and went to hide inside the bushes near the river and looked at the sound source. After we focused our senses toward the sound source, we could hear the fighting sound. This sound.... sword sound? Another loud explosion sound rang. Smoke float up to the sky. Fire magic? A bomb?

As I wondered that, two man ran out of the bushes toward the river erratically. One man was a warrior wearing leather armor with one of his shoulder exposed and one of them covered with shoulder armor. He also wearing legs armor and a gauntlet as weapon. One man was wearing a black colored cloak with gold lining and a hoodie. He was running while carrying a long staff with small red gem in it's point. Their faces was warped with fear and despair, they were running as if their life depended on it. No, from the shouting I heard, their life really depended on it. Why? Because they were chased by a monster, a rank 2 monster.

"F**k! Didn't you said you could kill it in one shot!? You need two shots before you even made a crack on it's scythe! Because of you, it's pissed now! It even killed captain and Roma! Now it wants to kill us too! You bastard, it's all your fault!" (????)

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! It's not my fault! My fire magic can burn anything! It can even burn a rank 2 trash monster like that! It's you guys fault for not protecting me and stalling that monster! It's not my fault! It's not my fault!" (????)

"You bogus mage! I swear if I live after this, I'll kill you!" (????)

A rank 2 monster..... One with good defense.... With my level, if I kill the rank 2 monster, I would definitely level up and evolve. Not to mention, killing monster above one's own rank, ain't that a ticket to the plane of OPness? Was this god's plan to help me? Bringing such a good monster for my evolution trial? But can I kill a rank 2 monster? F**k it, this was not the time to hesitate. Such a good chance, I couldn't let it go to waste!

"Stay here." (MC)

I said to the beautiful fox as I wait for the two man to get closer. The moment they drew close enough, I fired a small but fast fireball at the mage's head, I also rushed out of the bushes the moment I shot the fireball. The fireball flew and hit the mage head without error, as if it sucked toward the head. The small fireball maybe weak and couldn't blow the mage's head off, it still strong enough to blow his face off. And that was enough to kill a human. The mage's body fell to the back with fire burning it's face, the already panicked warrior was scared stiff when he saw what happened to the mage. Using those chance, I quickly decapitated the warrior without giving him a chance to retaliate using [Fire Claw].

The headless body of the warrior fell to the ground and the fear filled head of the warrior fell and rolled on the ground before stopping near my feet. There was no blood spurting out from the body because the wound was burned by my fire, there was only smell of burnt meat on the air. I tried appraising the two man since I forgot to do it before.

[Appraisal content has been upgraded.]

Wut?

Name : William

Race : Human

Age : 21

Sex : Male

Job : Brawler LV43

HP : 0/80

MP : 0/0

STM : 3/90

ATK : 30

DEF : 30

MGC : 1

MND : 1

DEX : 10

AGL : 15

Name : Ashara Jack

Race : Human

Age : 23

Sex : Male

Job : Mage LV50

HP : 0/56

MP : 4/95

STM : 1/40

ATK : 9

DEF : 10

MGC : 41

MND : 34

DEX : 7

AGL : 8

Weak! These guys were weak! Hell, I didn't even need to ambush them. Even if they attacked me, they wouldn't even be able to graze me. Their stats aside, I guess it was that obvious the content of human and monster's appraisal would be different. But, I wonder what that little pop-up warning about.

...... Guess it was not time for that, the main guest has arrived. The sounds of trees falling and something slashing the air getting louder, sounds of footsteps kept getting louder as it drew near me. Then it came out of the woods. A scythe-like claw came slashing down at me, I quickly dodge to the side and counterattack with a full power slash of [Fire Claw]. My blow landed on the creature's body, I also used the chance to shot a fireball at it. The creature was knocked back for a few steps by the explosion, I stand on the ground while growling as I glared intimidatingly at the creature.

As the smoke cleared up, the creature's body was revealed. Light green body, an armor-like exoskeleton protecting it's upper body, long abdomen, scythe-like claw, and purple eyes. The preying mantis-like monster stood up, it's height was almost at least 175cm. It stared at me while the mandible letting out sounds of metal bashing metal. The claw and abdomen tip was colored purple like it's eyes, it's body was wounded and letting out green blood and some part of it was blackened. The was a shallow long wound on it chest, four shallow claw wound on it's side and there was also a small crack on one of it's claw.

Name : unnamed

Species : Purple Eyes Mantis

Type : Insect

Sex : Female

Rank : 02

LV : 009/075

HP : 142/198

MP : 0/0

STM : 172/203

ATK : 85

DEF : 101

MGC : 0

MND : 57

DEX : 31

AGL : 63

Hot damn, I lost at every stats beside STM and MGC and that only won by 2 and 1 point respectively. I already expected that I would lose stats wise but to think I would lose this much. But comparing my stats with the mantis, having stats close to a rank 2 monster's stats at rank 1, did this mean I'm actually pretty strong? I hesitated a little when I saw the mantis's stats, but when I thought about the power I would get from killing the mantis, my hesitation disappeared in an instant. To live in this world you need to be strong or you're only gonna end up as prey. The scene when the beautiful fox was chased by the goblins, the fear I felt when I saw the demon spider or when I confronted the high goblin flashed in my mind, my determination and desire to kill the mantis in front of me strengthen. All for more power!

I unleashed a roar infuse with intimidation and so did the mantis, our roars served as the bells for the start of our battle. I clad myself in fire and rushed toward the mantis, the mantis swung it's scythe overhead at me. I didn't change my course or slowed down, I ran straight at it at full speed. Right before the mantis's scythe touched me, I used [Fire Burst]. I instantly dodged the scythe and zeroed in to the mantis and slam my body straight to the mantis's chest. The mantis was pushed back a little because of my body slam. Still in the air, I hit the mantis with [Fire Claw], I hit it repeatedly but all of it was but shallow wounds. The mantis once again swung it's scythe at me, I used [Fire Burst] again to dodged it's scythe.

I landed a few meters beside the mantis, but before I could stabilize myself, the mantis's scythe was already upon me. My body moved before my thought, Using [Fire Burst], I dodged the scythe with paper-thin margin. I tried to distance myself from the mantis but just like before, it's scythe was already near me right after I landed. I was baffled but my body didn't stop moving and dodging the scythe. After several use of [Fire Burst], I was getting dizzy and disoriented from all the high-speed movement. And using several [Fire Burst] in succession was quite taxing. It really puzzled me as to how the mantis could possess such speed, even though it's speed didn't differ that much from me.

It would be dangerous if this keep up, my stamina won't hold. I gritted my teeth and tried to dodged the upcoming scythe without using [Fire Burst]. The first scythe came from above, I jumped to the side but I was late, the scythe grazed my right forepaw from the shoulder. But it didn't pierce my skin, it only cause bruise. The second strike was a sweeping slash, I jumped as fast as I could and managed to barely dodged the attack. In midair, I caught sight of the mantis's wing and suddenly it hit me. That's it! It's the wing! The source of the mantis's almost instantaneous movement was it's wing!

I found my target. The mantis swung it's scythes at me from both sides while I'm still in midair, I waited until the last minute before using [Fire Burst]. While the mantis's scythes slashed empty air, I appeared behind it and slashed at it's wing with full power using [Fire Claw]. My claw only cracked the wing's exoskeleton and frayed the wing's web but that was enough. The mantis scream in pain but before it turn around, I shot a fireball at it's back and then distance myself from the mantis with [Fire Burst].

After the smoke clears up, the mantis growled at me with rage before letting out a roar. Of the pair wings, one was obliterated with only half remaining, the other was broken but the broken part was still hanging on like a loose kite caught at a tree. With it's wings gone, it lose it's instantaneous movement. Although it's normal speed was still faster than me, but I had [Fire Burst]. But to preserve my already low stamina, I decided not to use [Fire Burst] again. Facing the enraged mantis, I ran straight at it and so did the mantis.

The mantis and I traded blows after blows. I dodged and parried any attacks that I could, but some still managed to land on my body. Thankfully my defense had increase and provided me with enough toughness to endured the attacks. Some caused deep wounds but not deep enough to reached the bones. Just like the mantis carved many wounds onto my body, I also left it many wounds of my own. It's chest was cracked with a dent on it, the cracked scythe was already broken off, the other scythe and it's body was covered with many claw marks, some was shallow and some was deep, some of it's body also had burnt wound from [Fire Ball].

"Haaa..... haaaa... gulp, haaa.... You tough bastard, why won't you just keel over?" (MC)

The mantis growled at me as if saying " why don't you keel over first? ". Our fight had gone for a long time already. The beautiful fox was so worried and anxious for me, she almost ran out of the bush for so many times already if I didn't shot her a reassuring glance from time to time. If the beautiful fox was discovered by the mantis, it would definitely went for her. It would be dangerous if it happen, I better finish this fight soon, but how? I observed the mantis as I thought how to end this fight quickly. As I stared at it, I spotted that it's chest was covered with the most wounds than any of it's body part.

Deducing that it would be the most brittle part of it's body, I decided to attack it's chest. But the last problem was the attack, I didn't have a strong enough attack to bust the mantis's chest open in one attack. Fuck it, if I didn't have it, I just have to make one. Of all my attacks, the [Fire Burst] powered body slam worked the best against the mantis, it only lack power to pierce through the mantis's exoskeleton.

Wait a sec, if once was not enough, then why not use it continuously? With an idea for new attack, I fired up my body for one last attack. As I prep myself for an attack, the mantis did the same. As soon as my body ready, I broke to a run, aiming straight toward the mantis, the mantis raised it's only scythe left, ready to be swung.

But before the mantis swung the scythe at me, I shot a [Fire Ball] right to it's face. The mantis moved it's scythe to protect it's head. Even though the scythe was hit by my [Fire Ball], it only cracked and blackened a little. But with this, I had achieved my goal. While the mantis was still blinded, I used [Fire Burst] and dove straight to the mantis's chest. If it was a normal [Fire Burst] powered body slam, I would only drove the mantis back a little but what I did was not a body slam. It was my new skill, [Fire Drive].

The fire cladding my body suddenly change and grew sharp and fierce. At first, the fire was covering my body like a robe, but now it was enveloping me like a capsule and it drove me forward with great force. Like a meteor, I struck the chest of the mantis. With a loud dull sound, a spiderweb-like crack spread on the mantis's chest, but even cracked, the mantis's exoskeleton still hold. I didn't stop and just used more stamina to strengthen my skill, the driving force kept rising and drove me deeper into the mantis's chest.

"PIERCE THROUGH!!!!" (MC)

With a shrill scream from the mantis, it's chest caved in. Still clad in fire, I pierced through it's chest. Just as I landed, the mantis plummeted to the ground as it's blood made a pool around it's body. Before I could look back at the mantis's body, I lost any and all power and collapsed. My eyes were heavy and my mind hazy. Before I fell to the darkness, I saw the beautiful fox running toward me anxiously and cold voice.

"Skill [Dominate] level up!"