Beams of sunlight wriggled through the canopy overhead, causing splotches of diffused sunlight to litter the forest floor.
Crouching quietly in the undergrowth of the forest, Hartley carefully made his way over the scattered dead leaves and twigs, emerging from the thick foliage that led to a relatively flat plateau surrounded by mighty trees.
He was looking straight at the back of the unaware black bear, Massive cords of bulging muscles coiled around its intimidating four meter tall and bulky frame.
Hartley stared at the massive creature, trying to gauge its current strength. It released a thunderous ground-shaking roar of victory, standing on its hind legs as if in celebration of its latest kill.
The broken body of the defeated Boar laid in a ten meter deep crater, decorated by splatters of blood, and a dozen trees laid in pieces beside its massive carcass.
Hartley couldn't help feeling a tinge of disappointment though, the bear standing in front of him, the one that had motivated him so much, was only at the 8th layer of the Houtian realm.
Little did he know that the Black Bear was one of the only Fierce Beast that could fight above its sub-realm.
The Giant Boar it just slaughtered was half step xiantian, meaning if it had understanding like humans it would have likely stepped in the xiantian realm time ago.
Hartley stood up and carelessly swaggered his way down towards the black bear, How could he lose? He was at the peak of the Houtian realm, a full sub-realm above the bear, this was bound to be a quick and easy revenge.
***
On this day he was about a to learn a lesson that would preserve his life in the future. "There are always people or beast that can fight above their realms or sub-realms"
Realms and sub-realms are not the be all and end all of a battle, skills and application of skills are more important.
He learnt this the hard way...
Bang!
Thirty seconds later Hartley was sent crashing through a sturdy tree, turning it to splinters. He puked a mouth-full of blood with eyes as wide as saucers, bead after bead of sweat raced from his forehead, down his face and dripped from his chin.
He could not believe what had happened, he had pushed off leaving several after images in his wake, appearing behind the Black Bear and nonchalantly attacked with his 3rd level Star fist technique.
His fist collided with what could only be described as a sheet of reinforced steel, his whole right arm went numb from the recoil. Terrified from shock, he tried to quickly retreat, but before he took the 4th step backwards, the bear had turned swiftly and skillfully closed in on him.
His mind froze with disbelief, before he could make his next move, he had already been sent flying, releasing a horrid scream like a virgin girl being molested.
The Black Bear sized up the puny intruder through squinted eyes, immediately giving chase to the tumbling opponent, sending shrubbery and stones flying from beneath its legs, thundering its way towards Hartley again.
Every time its legs stomped onto the ground, it made a thumping sound which produced small vibrations through the earth, shaking a variety of leaves loose from the surrounding trees.
Hartley embarrassingly stood up to face the enraged beast, his body was aching and bruised, but no serious injuries or internal injuries were inflicted upon him, if anything his pride had been ripped to shreds.
Based on cultivation levels, he hadn't put the bear in his eyes. Now, the only thing in his eys was the sight of the brutal bear's silhouette, gradually increasing in size as it got closer and closer, hefty legs powerfully ploughing into the earth, sending dirt and pebbles flying out as it steamed towards him.
Hartley reflexively applied 10x gravity around the rampaging bear, the invisible force slammed down onto its massive body like ten tonnes of concrete, violently pushing down on the bear and slowing its speed to a crawl.
In the meanwhile Hartley backed up 15 meters, this was the maximum distance from which his gravity field would still affect the bear.
The unseen force cracked the ground beneath their feet, the Bear roared and struggled as it came to a sudden stop.
It was scared out of its wits, one has to understand that the reason this bear could be so rampant in this area of the forest, was because it had absolute defense in the Houtian realm.
Only xantian level creatures could injure it, but now there was this tiny human using some abnormal technique from 15 meters away, making it actually feel excruciating pain.
The Bear wasn't the only one scared, Hartley was sweating bullets as well, he had used his Star fist 3rd level to turn boulders as big as 10 meters into dust and debris, he couldn't even leave a scratch on the bear using the same technique.
Hartley with gritted teeth, rushed forward again and started going blow for blow head on with the bear, it was slowly getting used to the extra gravity pushing down on it s huge body. Hartley was pushing his own body to the limit, if he couldn't kill the bear, he was going to use it as a practice partner to temper and improve his techniques.
The more they fought the more he improved, to the point where his punches could move the bear 2 steps back, sweat dripped off his body as he exerted his full power with 10x gravity pushing down on both their bodies. (he is not immune to his own gravity field)
Hartley had absolute speed advantage but the bear had absolute defense.
In this well balanced battle, Hartley was pushing his star-feet movement technique to its absolute limit, all while under the stress of 10x gravity, fighting what seems like an undefeatable entity.
His eyes started to glow brighter and wisps of blue began to outline his silhouette, somehow he had started to feel similar to his first encounter with the fragment of the Blue Star.