Alex and Zain were fairly disappointed at the outcome of their hunt but simply rescheduled to work together for another time. Alex left astera to head to the ancient forest since he was still itching for a fight. He started from the edge of the forest made his way inwards while following the foot pathways created by the local monsters in hopes of finding a good fight. His wish was granted as he found large foot prints with two large toes on the front and one large toe on the side. 'Anjanath will do nicely.' Alex thought with a toothy grin.
Finding the anjanath from it's tracks was easy since the big monster stomped it's way everywhere leaving clear and concise prints behind. When Alex caught up to it the pink t-rex monster was eating a great jagras it had hunted down. Alex like always crouched into the shadows and moved ever closer to the beast as it feasted on the corpse of it's prey. When he got within range Alex tensed his powerful hind leg muscles and launched himself into the monster from the side to knock it over.
The anjanath grunted in pain as Alex slammed into it's flank and sent it crashing onto it's side leaving it in a vulnerable position. No monster had such obvious design defects however as before Alex could attack it's throat or belly the anjanath planted it's foot right on Alex's face and pushed. Alex took a step back in pain as he felt like someone had just punched him in the nose as hard as they could. This was a pretty accurate way to see the situation as well since in exchange for their balance issues the anjanath species had extremely flexible and powerful legs and Alex had just got kicked by one square in the face.
Dark red blood flowed down Alex's faces from his nostrils from the damage he had taken inside his nose. Alex shook his head to remove his disorientation before using his tail to slash open the tough skin of the anjanaths arm after it reacted and blocked it's throat with it. Soon after that the beast managed to right itself and roar at Alex angrily with sparks of flame coming out of it's mouth. Alex didn't waste his time blustering at the monster before throwing a clawful of dirt into the beast eye blinding it temporarily.
The anjanath shook it's head fiercely to try and get the dirt out of its eyes while Alex took this opportunity to slip under it and slash it's throat with his right claw. Alex frowned as he retreated after that however as his claws had trouble digging into the tough muscle and thick skin. 'Looks like I need to upgrade my claws next' he thought seriously while looking at the deep but not lethal wounds he had just inflicted. The anjanath cleared it's eyes to an acceptable level after that and glared at Alex with them bloodshot.
Alex's bleeding had already stopped from his healing trait but the same could not be said of the Anjanath that was bleeding quite a lot. Alex may not have been able to reach the artery with his attack but the throats of creatures always contains a huge amount of blood vessels and he had opened a lot of them in his attack. This was the terrifying thing about slashing attacks , even when they are shallow the loss of blood is a big concern. Alex remembers that there were actually not many monsters who specialized in slashing attacks but rather most tended to use their claws defensively instead.
The odogaron and it's subspecies were the only one that came to his mind in this regards as they had special claws designed with causing blood loss in mind. Alex started to circle the anjanath that had apparently realized the danger he posed to it and had started acting cautious. Despite this however the anjanath coughed up black liquid as the toxin from Alex's claws showed it's ugly head. Poisoned , bleeding and outwitted , the anjanath was in a very bad position no matter how you looked at it and this made it desperate and reckless.
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