Looking at the moose beneath me, I jumped off his body while kicking towards his neck, launching two sharp blades of win that sliced right through his neck, decapitating him. Landing on the ground a few meters away from the dead moose, I look at the charging bear and narrowly avoid his body by merely a few inches, though while he runs past me, I stab his body with my fingers many times in quick succession; by the time he passed me, the side of his body was filled with tiny holes leaking blood.
Although I had stabbed the bear numerous times, I hardly did any damage because of the sheer difference in size; I mainly just annoyed him, though that was good enough for me. While looking at the bear, I heard a loud gust of wind coming from my left, and if it weren't for my flexibility, I probably wouldn't have been able to dodge the wolf.
While dodging the wolf, the stupid lizard launched a few more sharp blades of wind, which I must admit was an opportune moment to do so as I wasn't in the best position to dodge. Still, even so, my flexibility allowed me to just narrowly evade the two of them.
"That was close." Muttered Diddy as he saw pieces of his hair fall.
Standing back up, I glared at the lizard and launched myself toward him using the same technique as before; when I neared him, I swiftly maneuvered to his blind spot by propelling myself off the air. Now that I was behind him, I kicked at him, launching two blades of wind that sliced off his two hind legs, causing him to roar in agony as he fell to the ground.
Having cut off his legs at the mid-section of the thigh, I knew he'd die quickly from blood loss, so I left him be while shifting my focus to the remaining two beasts, the wolf and bear. While walking towards them with a smirk, the wolf, who had a broken jaw, charged at me first with great speed; seeing him quickly approaching me, I stopped moving and put my arms in front of my chest as if blocking. Right when the wolf was about to collide head-first with me, I hardened my body, and with how fast the wolf was moving, his head turned into meat paste when he crashed into my body.
'Ugh, disgusting.' Thought Diddy with a frown as he kicked the dead wolf away while wiping chunks of brain off his body.
With the stupid wolf having practically killed himself, I decided to clean myself after I'd dealt with the bear, which seemed to have already accepted its death from the resolute look on its face. Propelling myself toward the bear after kicking the ground, I reeled my hand back and punched the bear's side, yet when I did, it felt like I had hit a brick wall.
"You're much better at this technique than any other bear I've fought against, yet how long will it take until I break through your defense?" Questioned Diddy with a feral smirk as he clenched his fists and began raining down numerous attacks on the bear.
Every time I attacked the bear, I pushed him back a bit, but I couldn't break through his defense; seeing how my regular attacks weren't strong enough to break his defense, I stopped attacking him momentarily as I prepared my strongest move.
Reeling my arm back, I tightly clenched my right fist and flexed all the muscles to their maxim, increasing their durability and strength while my arm took on a more vascular look, though I didn't use the hardening technique as I can't use it while moving, yet anyways. Gathering all the strength in my body into my fist, I punched the bear, breaking straight through its defense while causing a ripple effect to spread through the bear's body with my fist at the center.
'Hyper Fist!'
As I retracted my fist, which had left a deep imprint on the bear's side, I watched how his unresponsive body collapsed on the ground with only the white of his eyes visible while his mouth leaked large quantities of blood.
'Wonder how many organs I destroyed with that attack?' Thought Diddy as he eyed the soon-to-be-dead bear.
Sighing, I observed my surroundings while wondering what to do now; with this battle ending, I had officially dominated the outer and inner areas of the forest and became the apex predator; there wasn't anything left for me to do.
"Except for the beasts living in the center area, I haven't hunted them yet." Muttered Diddy with a feral smile as he clenched his fist.
'Alright, calm down, Diddy; I'll visit the center area soon, but before that, I should take a few days off, even if I'm not exhausted or injured after fighting all those beasts; it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, I wish to be at my peak when I enter the forest.' Thought Diddy as he calmed down and approached the now-dead bear.
Picking up the giant bear, I lifted it above my head and hauled with back home while running through the forest, and in doing so, I smiled as I remembered when I first entered this secret part of the Inner-area. Yes, the inner-area of the forest was much larger than I initially thought, and the only reason I had never explored this deep into the inner-area is that it was quite a distance away from my home; however, the beasts here, while not much physically stronger than the other beasts in the inner-area, can use fighting techniques, something I'd never thought I'd see a beast do.
"Ugh, now that I think about it, it will take a while to return home." Muttered Diddy with a sigh while running through the forest.
Anyway, it's been about four years since I first began exploring this area, and the first time I did, I nearly died; actually, I nearly died on several occasions, but in the end, I always managed to pull through. Though I will say the most frightening enemy I faced early on in this area was the lizard; their ability to launch sharp blades of compressed wind by just kicking almost caused me to lose my limbs many times, not to mention nearly decapitating me.
During these four years, my strength has improved quite a lot, but in the past year and a half, I haven't seen much development; even when handicapping myself during battles, there still wasn't much improvement. Though it was very frustrating, I could deal with it as my fighting capabilities had evolved from what they used to be; thanks to this area filled with unique beasts, I learned six techniques that completely changed how I fought.
I've spent most of my free time perfecting these techniques, which weren't easy to learn by just watching, and I made many mistakes, but I've managed to master them to the best of my ability, not to mention I have this crazy idea of combining all six techniques into an ultimate move; however, although I have claimed to master them, I don't believe the techniques themselves are at their true potential, I'm confident that in the future I'll be able to improve them somehow.
'But that's for later; let's first see how my idea to combine all six techniques will do.' Thought Diddy with a shake of his head.
___
___
Once I arrived home, which hasn't changed, except for getting bigger since I, myself, have grown in stature now that I'm eight years old. Dropping the massive bear on the sand, I leaped into the air and launched several sharp blades of wind toward the dead bear, slicing it up into smaller and more manageable pieces instead of dealing with this mountain of a bear.
Once I skinned the entire bear, which took nearly an hour, I placed a few of the smaller pieces the size of my head near the already-lit bonfire and began cooking them. While that was happening, I entered my house and drank water before approaching a tree in the distance.
Standing before the tree, I placed both of my hands on it, and with the inspiration I gained from fighting those six beasts, I attempted to combine all six techniques into one attack while focusing all of the power onto my arms, specifically my hands. Yet, for the next hour, nothing happened, making me wonder if my idea wouldn't work out; however, I decided to take a break and think about it while eating as I could smell the delicious aroma from the bonfire.
Nearing the bonfire, I grabbed the piece of meat and made sure to blow on it a few times before taking a bite of it; I didn't wish to burn my mouth.
'Why isn't my idea working? I couldn't feel anything happening within my body.' Thought Diddy in confusion while taking another bite.
'Maybe, I'm just being too impatient; unlike before, I'm creating a new technique, not just copying one, so it should be much harder by that logic.' Thought Diddy as he finished his first chunk of meat and grabbed the second.
"Yeah, I'm probably just being too impatient; let me give it a few days, and if I don't notice anything, then I can declare it as wasted effort." Said Diddy as he finished his second chunk of meat and stood up.
So, that's what I did; for the next week, I practiced my idea against a tree, and In doing so, I acquired no progress in creating it.
___
___
'Alright, the seventh day, and you know what they say, seven is a lucky number.' Thought Diddy calmly, not even knowing if seven was lucky or not.
Placing my fists in front of me with one above the other, which I've found to be a more optimal stance, I took a depth breath and attempted to channel the power of all six techniques into my hands. I don't know if I managed to succeed, but unlike all the previous times, I felt an incredible amount of power travel from the base of my feet up through my body. The more it traveled, the stronger it got, yet just when it reached my abdomen, I suddenly lost control of it, causing an enormous amount of power to be released inside my body.
"Heh, so it's possible." Said Diddy with a smirk as he fell to the ground while coughing blood.
____
____
Elven Legacy (Chapter 128: Let The Banquet Commence!) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 9: Jinx!) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 13: Martial City, Meet Diddy) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]