The large wolf like monster turned around after halting its failed dash, but it didn't immediately pounce on the younger man again; Instead, its sight finally fixed on to Seth's tall figure, its eyes giving off a glare full of bloodlust.
"And here I thought you were only a beast of instinct, seems I pissed you off" Seth said mockingly with as much of a smirk on his face as he could pull, he now felt the undivided attention of the monster before him locking him down, but he wasn't nervous at all.
He'd concluded that while the beast was in its ethereal cloak it can't touch any biological object, not only that it seems it works as an automatic defence system, this part he couldn't entirely confirm but it wouldn't make sense for it to forsake the target of its charge for a small arrow aiming for a non-vital part of the body, let alone one that can't even be seen in its vision.
As it glared at Seth it bore its large fangs that dripped with saliva, a low growl seemed to rise out of its stomach before an ear wrecking howl was let loose.
"HOOOOOOWWWWWL!" The howl seemed to be more than mere sound, as he was slammed with the soundwaves emitting from the monster, he felt his entire body gain a vague sense of weakness as his knees seemed to want to buckle under his own weight.
("It's a soul disturbing ability! Focus, image the energy flowing stable through your body or you'll suffer!") Words echoed from inside his soul, it was Silva who surprised him thinking he couldn't speak to him unless he was materialised, but he quickly took note of what he said and focused on the thin film of spirit energy flowing over his body.
The flow seemed like a river travelling through the rapids, as if it were hitting many rocks or obstacles and wanting to become pried apart, each time a piece of energy left his bodies flow he felt a slight bruise like pain and the weakening becoming stronger.
He focused, becoming one with the flow, he erased the image of rough rapids and focused on a calm river passing with no obstacle, while the soul shaking howl continued Seth quickly adapted, the flow of his spirit energy became calm once more resembling the sheathed blade like before, albeit it was slightly weaker.
[Current Status – Weakened (-20% Stats)]
He checked his status out of caution and sure enough he was hit pretty hard, and that was even after he resisted it, his sight quickly checked the younger man out of curiosity and saw he was collapsed on the floor without any sign of movement.
'Shit, he's not dead, is he?!' Seth cried in his mind but quickly focused on the wolf which was now glaring him down even harder than before.
'Was that its trump card or something? I'm guessing it didn't expect me to be standing still, tough shit!' He cursed quietly; he definitely wasn't expecting to be fighting such a beast before he even made proper contact with civilisation.
He backed away slightly and drew his sword in front of him once more, he had figured out the trick behind his opponents 'invisibility cloak' but even then, he hasn't got a solution for it.
Even if he tried to catch it off guard it would just turn ethereal automatically when it was about to be struck, he felt like he was in a deadlock with the beast, until he thought of a solution.
'Of course! 'That' should work!' The blue flame like lights in the eyes hidden behind the cloth lit with a bright blaze as he set his mind on the direction, he would take the fight.
'But after I used it that one time, I was tired, and that's before my flow evolved when I did… it's risky but it's the only thing I can do at least, I don't think I'll be able to run especially when I have no idea how to get out of this place'
[Level – 25 (18 points)]
'I should use these just in case' He thought as he looked at the points he had remaining to use after his evolution, in his mind there was only one option right now to shove them in to.
[Soul Strength – 32 > 50]
[Level – 25 (0 points)]
He felt his body regaining his strength slightly as the flow of spirit energy surrounding his body became stronger.
'So, I was right in thinking this stat would help my spirit energy, the question is how well will it support that skill'
[Current Status – Weakened (-15% Stats)]
His increase in soul strength rid him of the weakness slightly, he took stance with his sword in both hands, he had to make this one count since he didn't want the enemy to know about it before he hits.
The wolf became embraced by dark clouds once more and started prowling around Seth in a circular pattern, like a shark looking for an opening from its prey, rather that's exactly what it was.
'It's still using the cloaking even though it should be pointless, is it instinctual?' Seth thought but wiped the thought out of his mind, it wasn't an important piece of information right now.
After a couple minutes of a cold stand-off between the two, the wolf made a quick transition into an incredibly fast dash, the leg muscles supporting its bulky body seemed to swell half a size as the large paws smashed the ground they were standing on, kicking up large amounts of soft mud, it seemed to glide in the air as it approached Seth as breakneck speed.
He didn't panic, he held his sword pointing directly towards the forehead of the approaching wolf using both hands to support its position, to any spectator it looked like he was going for a mutually destructive attack, the wolf didn't stop its charge and soon the two clashed.
*Swoosh*
The wind between the two seemed to kick up a storm as their figures intersected before parting without touching for a single instance, the wolf never left its ethereal form the entire time and Seth was expecting this, in the end this battle will be all about who makes a mistake first, at least that's how it looked.
The wolf quickly dug its paws in to the earth and changed its direction with an almost drift like motion and darted in a triangular formation, quickly charging at Seth from the side, Seth quickly reacted also and returned the charge with a slash from the side heading for it's neck.
*Swoosh*
Once more their bodies intersected, wind stirring up even more, however even then it didn't end, the wolf seemed insistent on this endurance test and continued to pounce at Seth disregarding the basic limitations of its wolf-like body, it even gained speed and quickly resembled a small black comet dashing about the forest constantly crossing a singularity, a whirlwind seemed to be whipping up causing even the tallest of trees to sway in the vicinity.
'This thing is monstrous! Does it not have a limit to its stamina?!' Seth wanted to cry out loud, but he was too busy running his body at full force to react to the wolf's charges.
[Stamina – 54% (29)]
After a couple minutes of intense non-contact duelling Seth's stamina had already taken a massive hit, he definitely found it useful to now have a quantification of his stamina but having a solid number also didn't help weigh less on his mind.
'It's about time' He decided to strike finally, even after all this time he wasn't using [Reinforcement], he didn't want to use up his mana in the run-up but that wasn't the only reason.
With his stamina decreasing he could feel his strength slowly depleting, his reaction speed was slowly but surely getting worse, and his swings were becoming less accurate, he wasn't the only one that knew this; The glint in the wolf's eyes clearly showed it had picked up on this as well.
After a few more seconds, in a clash Seth seemed to make a mistake, his sword barely contacted the wolf and this elicited a reaction from his enemy, the next charge contained much more power and right as the wolf was before Seth, about collide with him, its body materialised, the jaws of death quickly approached Seth's figure.
Seth's reaction speed seemed slow; the blade hadn't quite made the counterattack but that was until-
[Reinforcement]
The power of reinforcement flickered and filled his body with power, the swords speed picked up immediately and quickly headed horizontally for the wolf.
In the short instance this happened, the wolf saw this and before they made contact its body once more quickly became enshrouded with black clouds, even if it missed this opportunity there would always be a next time for it, the wolf's instincts told it.
However just as the sword intersected with the wolf's body passing its fangs-
[Spirit Sword]! Seth called out in his mind, he didn't doubt this skill would affect this enemy, at the very least it should damage its soul.
His sword turned a transparent silver as it dissected the side of the wolf at high speed, black liquid gushed out and quickly evaporated when exposed to the air, along with that-
"Yelp-woooooooooooooooooooooo!" A pained cry sounded out from the monster that crashed behind him, he moved his stiff body to face the creature once more without hesitating.
The wolf made no attempt of another attack, instead it was writhing around on the ground, thrashing the mud and crashing into trees causing them to shake heavily, as it did the large gash made by Seth's sword leaked black blood which sizzled and hissed turning in to nothing.
Seth watched every movement carefully, he didn't understand what this creature was as it definitely never existed back when he was alive, but it seemed to be linked to what he found in the Ravine so he wanted to learn as much as he could, unfortunately he couldn't watch it for long.
The wolf stood up shaking in pain, its body seemed to be shivering as its eyes contained a profound feeling entirely different from before, it was deep fear, it hadn't ever been wounded and the pain caused its instincts to kick in hard, without waiting another second it dashed off with all its might to someplace far away, not even giving Seth a chance to deal a second blow.
"It… ran away?" Seth was slightly dumbfounded at its reaction, he could only remain in his fighting stance staying vigilant for another 10 minutes before he concluded it was long gone, he collapsed to his knees and supported himself with his sword like a walking stick.
[Mana – 43%]
[Stamina – 17%]
Both his mana and stamina were in the low, but it wasn't just that, his entire body felt lethargic from the use of [Spirit Sword], this surpassed the lack of strength from the first time he used it as he could barely move right now.
'I guess it's a good thing I invested those stat points, if I didn't, I'd probably be on the floor right now half dead' He thought to himself as he shifted to a sitting position, sheathing his sword as he began to rest, he didn't want to remain here for too long just in case that monster decided round two sounded good.
As he was resting he glanced over to the young man laying over in the distance, as he could take the time to observe him closer he saw his chest slowly rising up and down showing he was still breathing which caused Seth slight relief, at least he had kept one of the two alive.