"Fuck!" Ran shouted as he ran for his life. Currently, a rhino, twice the size of a normal one, was chasing after him like he had stolen its babies. Obviously he didn't, but he had accidentally come across its territory. Worse yet, it was actually a rank 7 spiritual beast! Even running away from it with pure speed was impossible, so he made like a monkey, and moved through trees.
This continued on for another hour before he managed to lose the rhino. He took a breath, sat down under a tree, and contemplated life. His parents, his friends and especially his mentor. To be sent on this perilous journey on his first day really set the bar for him. It wasn't enough to just follow his lessons blindly. But to, instead, carve out your path with your own hands.
He summoned his blade and looked at it. Like really looked at. He looked at it for so long without blinking that his eyes were turning red. But he still continued looking! He looked at its finely angled teeth, its unbendable and rigidly stiff nature. Its unusually long two-handed oval handle and its even more unusual chisel edge-meaning it is only sharpened on one side while the other is flat. He looked at the fact that it has practically no guard or pommel.
Fine, I can make do without a pommel, but really, no guard? I literally cannot fight anyone with a blade at this rate. Ran was flabbergasted at its underdeveloped guard and the small hole at the end of the handle, but he moved on.
Finally, he gazed upon his own name, sparkling in a red-pink hue. He touched its grooves on the blade, when he noticed something. His sword was sucking his own energy! At a visible rate as well. A pale-pink light shone at the bottom of his handle, but he couldn't care less right now as he clearly thought of something.
"Eureka!" Ran shouted as his eyes glowed a gentle light. He had found the way. His own way.
He held onto its unusually long handle and its vibrant red wrap, seemingly in deep thoughts, when out of nowhere, his sigil shone an intense red-pink light and he suddenly swung his blade behind himself; with one hand, allowing maximum leverage and power.
"ROAR!" An anguished roar came from behind Ran. Looking behind him, Ran suddenly broke out into a cold. A 3 meter long black Cheetah was latching onto its head with its paws, seemingly hurting over a splitting headache. In fact, Ran had used his whole body and smashed his blade onto the head of the Cheetah, but it was somehow still alive! Probably due its rank-8. While he hit a weak spot, he just didn't have enough power behind that attack.
The Cheetah, with its head profusely bleeding through a crack in its head, looked at Ran in displeasure, like it was frustrated that its food was still fighting despite being unable to escape. It was still latching onto its head, but in the next moment, it pounced at Ran again. Ran was dumbfounded as he hurriedly tried to dodge to the side. "Fuck! How are you even moving right now?! Can't you see all that blood flowing from your head?" He tried to dodge but in the end, it was too fast and it hit squarely on his shoulder, breaking it. "Fuck."
He gritted his teeth and activated his sigil once more, intending to transfer the damage to his opponent, but to his surprise, it sapped half of his energy just to do so. If he was hit once more like that, he wouldn't have the energy to run away.
"Roar." The Cheetah let out another roar as it found its shoulder had fractured. What kind of sorcery is this?! The Cheetah thought. He didn't even hit me. It was still recovering when it found its food suddenly turned tail and ran. I'll let you off this time, but the next time I see you… the Cheetah thought once more as it turned away and limped to its hideout.
Ran, meanwhile, just kept running for his life. He couldn't care less about that monster as he ran away as fast as possible. After some time, he stopped and looked at the sun that's setting. It'll be night soon and if he doesn't find shelter, it will be the end of him. He found a small cave nearby and chose to seek shelter there. If only he had seen the tracks that also coincidentally led into the cave. Sigh… this the end now, for sure.
Ran entered the cave, looked around but just found darkness. Deeming it safe enough, he continued moving inward. He walked while recounting the Cheetah. He seemed to have thought of something.
"Cheetahs, despite having superior speed, is not their main advantage. It's the fact that they can leverage this speed by choosing when to accelerate and stay as close to its prey as possible that makes them an apex predator."
Although his sigil allows him to transfer any attack within its radius back to his enemy, as long as the injury was severe enough, he would die! He would be essentially killing himself if he chose to rely on his ability without having the necessary capital to pay the price. This was only one fatal weakness to his ability. The law of equivalent exchange bends to no one!
"With the ability of my sword, as long as I'm close to the opponent and it is in constant contact with the opponent, I can sap them dry sooner or later. Ran quietly contemplated how he would go about doing something as absurd as that when he noticed something. Two circular balls of dim light were looking at him, coldly.
Ran freezed up. He was caught off guard again!
Seeing its food stop, the creature became angry and a horrific snarl broke the silence in the cave. A giant wolf had walked out of the darkness of the cave and stared at Ran in indignation, thinking, why'd you stop midway? Don't you see that I'm hungry? Come on, hurry up! I'm too lazy to move from my spot.
"Fuck! Are all the beasts here so pretentious?!" Ran, having no choice, brandished his blade again. He held it with both hands and yelled to the wolf. "It's just you and me! Heed my words, wolf! I will use you to have a good night's sleep, whether you like or not!"
With a roar, Ran lunged towards the wolf, intending to chop it in half. And the wolf, of course, would not stay still. It also lunged forward, trying to claw Ran into 3 asymmetrical pieces. Soon, both sides clashed, sword and claw, and Ran was thrown to the wall. Some rubble chipped itself out of the wall as cracks spread out from the epicenter, the spot where Rans ass struck the wall! Coughing some blood, Ran got himself out of the wall. Filled with scratches, he got ready again, excitement on his face. It's TRUE! When he clashed with the wolf, some of its energy was stolen. While the amount was miniscule, they were in contact for about half a second before the recoil hit Ran.
The wolf had noticed, however, and was a little startled before it grew angry again. Hmph, don't get cocky yet, bastard! The wolf ran towards Ran with even more power than before. Ran, on the other hand, held out the blade in front of him, like he was thinking the wolf would impail itself onto his blade. The wolf moved to the side, thinking such a move would never work when it saw the blade in front of it again.
"Growl!" The wolf's eyes reddened in agitation. He's clearly trying to make fun of me! Thought the wolf. It extended its paw, trying to smack it out of the way. As it did so, Ran suddenly flipped his blade and locked his blade and its claw with his sword's teeth. Immediately, a noticeable change in expression was shown on the wolf's face. It warped in terror as it realized a whirlpool in his consciousness was sucking all of his energy. It frantically tried to pull its claw away, but would Ran let it? No! He used all the muscles in his body just to counteract a single leg. They were bulging and were so tense they could snap at any time.
By now, half a minute had passed and the wolf realized it was futile. Over half of its energy was sapped and it was currently panting. However, this made it more terrifying as it willingly tore off it's own nail from its paw. A small whimper could be heard at that moment. Seeing this chance, Ran leveraged both hands and flipped his blade, swung upwards, intending to chop its head from the bottom up.
The wolf, being a beast with superior senses, reacted quickly but was unable to come out unscathed. Looking at it, one would find a bleeding paw with a nail missing, and a bloodied line across its throat. It wasn't enough to immediately kill it but that was the moment its fate was sealed. The wolf was breathing heavily and panicking now and wanted nothing more than to escape. It instantly rushed toward the exit.
"Oh no you didn't!"
Ran, seeing his first kill run away, was angered beyond measure. A flicker of an intense red-pink light shone in his eyes as he did something. He picked up the bloody claw and threw it towards the wolf and OMG! One has to know that Ran never practiced throwing anything in his life, but this guy's accuracy was just…
Out of anywhere he could have hit the wolf, he hit the… bumhole! Haha… what kind of luck does this fellow have?!