Chapter 24: Second Exam — Domino! (3)
"You."
As Hunter declared the beast woman's death, the temperature of the safe zone plummeted further.
While these two exchanged short but informative glances, the rest of the participants, bar Aimee, came up to the brawny woman whose name was Oona, her lineage known to them.
It wasn't just because she was now their leader: Hunter's cold blood streaming in his veins with killing intent had already threatened to freeze the hearts of the weakest humans at the scene.
They simply ran away from him.
Women did… run away from a cute boy.
Not paying them any attention, Oona invited Hunter for a battle. Time… was mainly against Hunter and Aimee, for the latter couldn't even breathe, maintaining her consciousness up with stubborn persistence, waiting for that one valuable moment.
However, the second exam's time limit was also only thirty minutes.
They hadn't made a lot of progress here… and the sacrificial pawn had already returned to the safe zone. Well, at least one of the e flowers monsters was dead… which was the only positive for everyone at the scene.
"You think I'm as strong and tough as a mere low-grade flower monster you had just killed?" Oona questioned with a carefree mood swirling around her, knowing that time was still on her side.
Hunter, aware of her plot, didn't reply to her.
Instead, he rushed at her, beginning the battle that seemed one-sided from the very start… for Oona kept battering him with her spiky mace, her weapon opening more wounds every time it met Hunter's face or torso.
Still… Oona was far from triumphing.
The man… never moved back… anchored to the ground like a heavy ship. No matter how she shaped her attacks, either bashing him with fast and consecutive strikes loaded with skills or one heavy blow heightened by her mass and another skill, Hunter was never thrown off the ground and kept threatening to slither his own skill through the gaps in her patterns.
Only more blood dripped from him!
'Beast woman… you have more skills… but I'll take them head-on… draw more blood… get more strength… and use one skill that outclasses all you have been given in your life. Go… keep attacking me! I'm used to pain more than you can imagine!'
Limited by lack of experience and skills, Hunter gladly accepted his fate of a punching bag. Of course, he wasn't a normal punching bag and would strike at the first better occasion.
From his experience in the village, Hunter understood that there was always an interval between stances, attack patterns, and even skill usages.
There was always a gap…
In Oona's case, as she grew disgusted by Hunter's persistence and endurance and time was slipping away from favoring her, her mind raced with various attacks and schemes to throw him off the ground and once again send him to the green vines.
Which meant that her stance had an important change…
A change Hunter would never miss… for he orchestrated it.
'There you are… it's my turn.'
Coolly saying this inside his mind, Hunter's body reacted alongside his thoughts, thrusting his right hand toward Oona's right forearm, striking it decisively.
As her hand froze from the impact and the bestial face twisted from the unforeseen pain, Hunter drew himself closer to her, using his right elbow to drive himself into her weak point.
Once again, Hunter startled Oona and the audience, for the hulking and brawny body of the beast woman… bent like a bow. She nearly lost her mace from the impact… and her eyes surely couldn't stay the same as they were forced to bulge out and tremble while reflecting Hunter's side profile.
And that man… was far from over.
Following the momentum, Hunter used his left hand to lightly push Oona away. At the same time, his dripping blood froze, and the entire scene became blanketed in the absolute zero winters.
White steam unfurled and billowed from the pools of cold blood… which all streamed toward Hunter's right hand.
He stood still, gathering all his strength toward that one… Death Blow.
Which was a gap in Hunter's pattern of attacks that he couldn't really avoid… everyone had them, after all.
Thus, as he stood with his right hand close to his chest, Oona's instincts shocked and zapped her, alerting her of the impending decisive blow.
Her hands grasped her mace tightly, and she unconsciously loaded herself with all strength and stamina passive skills she had learned in her life — all that could have been used in a split second.
Lifting her mace over her head, Oona descended her weapon at Hunter's face!
Coincidently, Hunter was done activating his new skill, his right hand entering the lane of Oona's last strike!
-
'It doesn't hurt at all!' Hunter shouted while gazing into the sight of his right gloved punch tearing through Oona's spiky mace, splintering it into thousands of pieces.
Pushed forward by the force of his blow and inertia, he was getting closer to the beast woman's bestial face, whose eyes had now unconcealable fear brimming inside.
Which only Hunter could see, for the white steam and its coldness veiled them inside their embrace, strapping everyone and the audience from peeking into the last moments of their battle.
At last, Hunter's Death Blow connected to her face, breaking her nose and cracking the front of her skull. He felt himself sinking inside that woman's flesh… making her lose consciousness and the battle.
'Tough bitch! I can't kill and make her headless like I had done others! She's really on another level!'
As the last strike finished, with the hulking frame of the beast woman toppling backward, hitting the ground with a loud thud that dispersed the white steam in all directions, exposing her defeated self, the entire scene drowned in silence.
Hunter stood with kneeling Aimee in the vista of his victory, his eyes reflecting the shocked and terrified faces of other female participants.
"You c-can't kill her!"
"Do you not know her?!"
"She's a direct descendant of the Beast Domination Guild Leader, Master Savannah!"
Hunter chuckled, "If I let her live, would I ever be able to call myself a man? Would I be myself?"
In cold and decisive steps, Hunter approached the fallen woman… and stepped on her flat, muscular chest, pressing his entire weight on her flesh and bones.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
As the bones beneath him broke, drawing a cacophony of death, Hunter gazed at the fallen participants before him whose curvaceous bodies encased in leather armors were shivering with unease and horror.
"I'm not a flower… you can add to your bouquet," Hunter said, obviously carried by the victorious mood, "I'm a man who will make all of you his puppies and kitties."
Crack! Crack! Crack!
"I don't think you're fated to become mine, though."
As Hunter's boot had sank inside Oona's chest and burst her heart, Hunter pointed at the corpse below him.
"You'll share her fate."