Shortly after Abel landed his attack, the lion's attack exploded, creating shock waves in the air sending Abel flying all the way to the river, destroying several trees in the process.
Abel's whole body burned, the pain was getting stronger, his ears were buzzing, his vision was blurry, his arms felt heavy, his legs could barely move, when he tried to get up, he couldn't help but throw up a mouthful blood.
"That attack didn't even hit me, but only the shock wave left me in this state, the power of that technique undeniably reached the power of a late martial soldier stage cultivator."
When thinking about this, Abel wanted to cry, but no tears came out, his body was badly injured, the pain did not allow him to concentrate, not to mention that he did not want to examine the state of his body, he was terrified of knowing his current situation.
"At least I hope that attack of mine has finished the job, I put every last drop of accumulated heavenly qi in my body."
As Abel prayed that his efforts had paid off, a tree-shaking roar came from the direction that he flew out.
Hearing this, Abel smiled wryly, the fear that had invaded him disappeared, instead, he wanted to laugh at the injustice of life.
"Hahahaha, damn, as expected of a third rank mutated beast, it's tougher than its normal counterparts, cough, cough"
Abel only coughed up more blood, but that did not distract him, in front of the doors of death, his head cleared, the pain disappeared little by little, allowing him to get up, looking in the direction of the roar.
"Had I had another dagger, my final attack would definitely have killed him once and for all, cough, cough, forget it, even if she's not dead, she must be seriously injured."
It was just as Abel expected, little by little, approaching his direction, the lion of blue fire and thunder walked, who, unlike before, his appearance was a complete 180 degree turn, his fur was very battered, his aura very weakened, and large amounts of blood oozed from Abel's cut.
If before with his imposing and majestic aura he gave the appearance of an unreachable mountain, now he looked more like a sick cat, a cat over 3 meters high and 5 meters long, which was on the brink of death.
But Abel noticed that even in spite of this, his gaze was focused on him, looking at him with eyes full of hatred, hatred towards the ant that brought him to that state.
"Hahahaha, it seems that my attack was not the one that brought him to that state, it was his own blow that hit him, which, along with my cut with the dagger, ended up creating this result."
You did not have to be geniuses to deduce this, only the appearance of the lion gave proof of it, his jaw was burned, as well as the rest of his body, also it did not seem only burned by fire, but also by lightning, not to mention as Abel noticed that the lion was not walking as agile as before, his speed was definitely reduced.
"But even if that's the case, in my current state, I can't do much, although the pain has subsided, that's only temporary, as soon as the adrenaline rushing through my body decreases, I'll be dead."
These thoughts ran through his mind, but unlike before, he did not despair, on the contrary, he began to smile seeing the lion.
"I had forgotten, wasn't this the reason why I decided to cultivate in the first place? Facing threats, putting my life at risk, discovering and exploring new places, that was my wish."
Remembering this, the blood in Abel's body began to boil, he clenched tightly on the dagger that still remained in his hand as he looked directly into the lion's eyes.
When the lion felt his gaze, he did not attack, on the contrary, his gaze full of hatred also contained a hint of respect, apparently, this beast recognized Abel as an equal at this last moment, and with his injured paws, he placed himself in position to attack at any time.
Seeing this, Abel also braced himself, but just before attacking, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a bright object, which, along with the moonlight, seemed to stand out on that dark night.
At this, Abel was surprised, he quickly ran towards him and took it, to his surprise, it was a dagger, although it was quite worn and in a rather deplorable state, the area of the tip was in good condition, it was thanks to this that Abel noticed its glow in the middle of this dark place.
But Abel did not have time to reflect further on it, the moment he ran towards the dagger, the lion also lunged in his direction, although it could be noticed that his speed was much slower than before.
Abel did not have time to think, his body was also quite worn, a single blow from the lion would mark the end of his life, so he quickly distanced himself.
The lion did not attack anymore, he was perhaps in a worse state than Abel, or perhaps it was because Abel's previous move was not to attack him, but he stopped and inspected the human in front of him.
Abel didn't care about any of that, his mind was in ecstasy, apparently the heavens gave him a chance to survive.
"A dagger eh, look to find one of these in this place, I don't know if it's good or bad luck, hahahaha."
Abel decided not to think about this anymore, he took the other dagger with his left hand, and his body was placed in the position that he had not practiced for months.
Suddenly, Abel began to fill his body again with heavenly qi, this only caused his already injured body to get even worse, but he did not care, in his mind, there was only one thought:
"I must kill that beast."
Meanwhile, the lion seemed to identify the heavenly qi, since the moment Abel began to extract it from the seal, the lion roared with more fury, in his eyes there was only longing and desire.
Noticing this, Abel finally understood why the lion was chasing him when he completed his advance, or why the direction the lion was originally coming from was the waterfall where he practiced.
"The lion can sense the celestial qi, that's why he targeted me and was able to track me."
But Abel did not have time to think anymore, the moment the lion felt the celestial qi, he completely lost any trace of sanity he had entering berserk mode, Abel could see how the appearance of the lion changed completely, his aura weakened began to increase even more, even surpassing her initial state, purple rays ran through her entire body, while a light layer of fire rippled over her skin, giving her a majestic appearance, were it not for her eyes that only radiated thirst for blood.
"So you had that trump card huh, maybe if you had saved it for a vital moment, I could be the one to die today, but since you decided to show it now, I'm sorry, but your existence ended up here."
At that moment, Abel used the same trick as the last time, he began to fill the 2 daggers with celestial qi, to which both of them lengthened again, resembling two shiny golden swords that dispersed the darkness of the place.
The lion didn't seem to mind that at all, and he lunged at a faster speed than at the start, attacking directly at Abel's head with his claws.
But at that moment, an incredible scene occurred, Abel calmly dodged the attack, as if he could capture the movements of the lion.
Without Abel noticing, his eyesight began to sharpen, along with his reflexes, his dynamic vision seemed to be at its best, which allowed him to enter a rather special state, in his eyes, the lion, although he was moving quite fast, he could still see and even anticipate his next attack.
"Could this be thanks to my bloodline?"
This thought flashed through his mind before quickly dismissing it, as the lion attacked more fiercely, exchanging blows with every part of his body, from his legs infusing them with fire to his tail that looked like lightning every time he attacked, not to mention the fireballs. fire every time Abel took distance from him.
Abel knew that he was in a hurry, his body was reaching its limits, his wounds were beginning to hurt again, blood was coming out of them, but Abel did not care, in his special state of mind, he discarded any other thoughts and sensations. to distract him from finding his chance to fight back, after all, it was only enough for the lion to make a single attack to kill him permanently.
Furthermore, he also noticed that the lion's attacks were desperate and faster and faster, it seemed that he was not the only one running out of time.
Soon, the lion noticed that his normal attacks would not hurt Abel, so he began to run in circles around him, while in turn, charging an attack that Abel was quite familiar with.
"Hahahaha, don't think that running in circles with your speed won't make me distinguish you, and I don't know if you know this saying, but for a knight, the same attack won't be effective twice."
While he was laughing madly, Abel focused his gaze on the lion to the fullest, seeing him like that in slow motion, capturing all his movements, soon, once again, his opportunity came.
"This is where you came, but I have to thank you, you made me remember why I started cultivating in the first place."
Saying this, Abel placed both "golden swords" in front of the lion, and lunged straight for him, increasing his momentum and the heavenly qi imbued in them to the maximum.
Soon Abel arrived in front of the lion, and with a downward slash from his right sword, Abel slashed the lion's throat once more, but he didn't stop there, he quickly spun in the air and chained another blow with his left sword, before turning back. to attack with his right sword.
These chained attacks represented the barrier that Abel had reached at the time, half a step from the late achievement, but this time, he managed to do it perfectly, thus, the barrier that bothered him at that time disappeared, striking the lion with the power of a Kunlun martial technique at 80% of its power.
This made the lion lose control of his attack again, which again created shock waves in the air, but unlike before, Abel was prepared and protected himself at the last moment, it was also at that moment that his body gave way and he fell unconscious on the ground, not knowing if this time he finally managed to defeat the beast.
"Well, even if I didn't make it, my trip so far was fun in itself, I don't regret anything."
And with this last thought, Abel's consciousness faded.