The mood turned grim, as the scene within the forest had changed entirely, Marius's eyes narrowed as he glanced at the newly arrived entity, one that caused even himself to feel a slight notion of danger just from its appearance.
It was a giant version of the Three Horned Rhinol, a beast that was nearly ten meters large with a scar on its forehead. It's three horns more than triple the size of its other kin as they each gleamed in a sharp ray.
Roooaaar! With a loud growl, its body erupted with its earthen colored energies that sent ripples across the area as if declaring its presence.
Marius looked at the beast before him with sharp eyes as he had to cross his arms to resist the force behind its fierce breath. His body had even slid back by a few meters as his feet crushed apart the stones that were in his path.
'Such a fierce guy, I wonder how strong it is?' As Marius thought to here, his eyes flickered in strange lights as he commanded inwardly, 'Inspect."
____
Ding!
[Elite Three Horned Rhinol]
[Race: Mystic Beast]
[Level: 14]
[Stamina: F★]
[Strength: F★]
[Agility: G★]
[Dexterity: G☆]
[Mystic Power: G★]
[Abilities:]
...
[Earth Spire - Lvl Max]
[Class: Rank 1 Skill]
[Description: The ability to cause a sharp rock protrusion to launch itself from the earth towards its foe.]
...
[Earth Armor - Lvl Max]
[Class: Rank 1 Skill]
[Description: The ability to cause an armor of rock to form around its body, increasing its strength by (★) One Stars.]
____
'It's strong... I might need to take this more seriously after all,' Marius thought as he firmly clenched his fist before he focused his attention on the Elite Three Horned Rhinol with sharp eyes.
As if it sensed his battle intent, it furiously glared at him before stomping its huffs onto the ground.
Rumble! Moments after, the ground trembled as its earthen colored energies sunk below the earth, causing a feeling of danger to arise within Marius.
"It's using that Earth Spire; I cannot take this one head-on!" Marius said before he lowered his posture, send his Mystic Power into his legs as he waited for the right chance.
As if the moment had arrived, the ground burst open with a loud bang as a large Earth Spire that was twice the speed of the others rose. It struck at Marius's underbelly and was only one step from turning him into a skewered corpse.
Marius, who had readied himself, tapped the ground with his feet causing it to ripple oddly before his figure vanished.
In that instant, his body moved so quickly that it seemed as if he was sliding on the ground as he twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the Earth Spire, which swept past his body.
However, after dodging, Marius didn't stop for one second, as he continued to charge with the unusual watery ripples appearing below his feet with each step.
Unlike its weaker kin, the Elite Three Horned Rhinol had much sharper senses and could easily pick up Marius's movements.
"Roar!" The Elite Three Horned Rhinol roared as if it decided to end everything in one attack, stomping the ground as it invoked its Earth Armor skill.
Rumble! In moments, a sturdy armor of earth formed over its body, even its horns were enhanced and gleamed even sharper. With a heavy stomp, it charged at Marius with his horns facing forward, moving at a pace once notch below him.
Swoosh! Both man and beast instantly arrived within each other's domain, a white energy gathered around Marius's palms that were now clenched into a fist, but as for the Elite Three Horned Rhinol, its body was emitting a dense amount of earthen colored lights.
Roar! The Elite Three Horned Rhinol growled as it made one big lunge forward now that it got in range, ensuring to angle its head towards Marius's small frame.
"Seven God Fist!" Marius shouted as he punched forward, the wind made screeching noises due to the speed and force behind his attack. In this moment, a ripple had formed before him as a two-meter giant white fist had appeared, striking in synchrony with his arm.
Crash! The two attacks smashed into each other, sending a shockwave across the woods, but oddly enough, neither of them was critically injured as they were only forced back by a meter's distance.
Marius who was the first to recover as he slid backward, looked at his fists that had white smoke coming off it in surprise as he spoke, "Tsk! So we're even, it seems like I'll have to rely on that weapon after all,"
As Marius said this, he firmly gripped the handle of the battle-ax, knowing that it should provide enough killing power to make up for their equal strength.
"Prepare yourself... for it's your time to die," Marius said with a cold glint in his eyes as he stared at the Elite Three Horned Rhinol while changing his posture.
He leaned forward with both of his legs crouched as his hands held the long handle of the battle-ax at his side with its dual-edged blade behind his head.
Bang! A terrifying killing intent oozed from his body, sending a chilling feeling to an even superior predator that was now staring at him in fear.
It all its years, never had the Elite Three Horned Rhinol encountered a smaller creature that could force it back with brute strength. It took a step backward as if trying to reassess the situation and maybe retreat, but sadly that chance would never come.
Swoosh! As if like the wind, Marius vanished once again as he used his strange [Pulsing Earth Steps], leaving behind a pulsing ripple on the earth which each of his speedy steps.
It took only a few seconds to arrive directly at the side of the hesitant Elite Three Horned Rhinol that struck out its horn to counter in fear. Yet sadly, as someone who pretty much learned of all of his opponent's tricks, Marius easily rendered its attempts useless with his actions.
He kicked the ground with his leg, jumping into the air as he did a flip over the horns arriving directly before the Elite Three Horned Rhinol's eyes, he then spun his body like revolving top while airborne as he chopped towards its head.
"Twisting Gale Swing!" Marius invoked his ax arts, causing a cyclone to scatter from his swing, it swept towards the pale-faced Elite Three Horned Rhinol and instantly broke apart from its Earth Armor due to the augmented power from the battle-ax.
The Elite Three Horned Rhinol felt helpless as its last lines of protection were gone, Marius mercilessly swung once more with all his might as yelled, "Cleaving Earth Smasher!"
Whoosh! The battle-ax cut through the air before smashing onto the unguarded head of the Elite Three Horned Rhinol, chopping through it like a knife through butter before it cut into the ground.
Bang! At that moment, the remaining force behind the strike was even enough to leave a spiderweb-like crack for a two meters distance on the ground.
Marius, who now landed on the ground, looked at the battle-ax held before him with a pleased expression as it was lodged into the ground through the massive creature's head.
'I never thought using a battle-ax could be this fun, it truly is a wonderful thing...' Marius thought with a smirk on his face.
____
Ding!
[You have defeated an Elite Three Horned Rhinol, converting creature's life force into EXP.]
Ding!
[You have leveled up!]
Ding!
[You have leveled up!]
Ding!
[Congratulations! As you have reached level six, your innate talent has allowed for all stats to be increased by ★ One Star.]
Ding!
[Congratulations! As one or more core offensive attributes have advanced to G★★, your Battle Rank has achieved 2 Star G Rank.]
____
'Ho? Did I rank up? Heh, I'll look at it later,' Marius thought with a happy look.
Not long after, though, he cleared his thoughts and lifted the ax giving it a hard swing to splash the blood off its edge.
Marius then hoisted it over one shoulder as he held it with one arm and looked at the sky, as he saw the sun's position, he estimated the time to be nearing 8 or 9 AM.
"Looks like I caught it right on time... time to head back, they must all be hungry by now," As Marius said this, he put away his battle-ax in his inventory. He then used his other arm to grasp the Elite Three Horned Rhinol's body, pulling it towards a sizeable earthen gate that was a fair distance away before he vanished from the outskirts.