Chapter 4 - Chapter 3: The Desert

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Great Horn Lizard tried to stab Shoto with it's sword like horn.

Shoto evaded it by combining his Flower Petal Dance with the new skill he gained from the Light Footed Mouse.

Shoto infused his hand with ki and chopped the Great Horn Lizard's horn.

Slash!

The lizard tried to stab Shoto with the horn on it's tail but that was chopped of too.

Slash!

Shoto then plunged his hand between the scales guarding it's soft neck.

-Graakakaka

It made it's final cry before dying.

""

The Great Horn Lizard's corpse turned into magical energy before being absorbed by Shoto.

[Congratulations you have gained a new skill ]

"Nice."

This was Shoto's fifth kill after the Light Footed Mouse. He now he fifteen monsters left to go.

"Alright let's test this out."

Shoto use on his right hand and created a horn that extended from his backhand like a sword.

"This could work," Shoto now had a weapon.

He removed the mimicry and got a move on using Flower Petal Dance with made it easier to traverse the desert without tiring himself out but on thing that would make traversing the desert even easier would be…

"Water… I… need water." Shoto swallowed his saliva.

"Sniff sniff," the sent of water cought Shoto's nose.

It was coming from a near by cluster of rocks. Shoto approached it to find a puddle clear water.

"Hmmm," Shoto was now suspicious.

Shoto bent down and dipped his fingers into the puddle.

'Hey Guide can you analyze this?'

[Affirmative]

Shoto's two fingers absorbed the water through his skin.

[Notice: Analysis complete this is a poisonous liquid disgusted as water]

'Poison water?" Shoto pondered.

'Guide expand the range of my '

[Affirmative]

Shoto's expanded by thirty meters now anything within thirty meters was within his detection.

"Gotcha." Shoto sense a suspicious character hiding behind the gain cluster of stone.

The suspicious character took a pick to see if Shoto had drunken is poisonous water but Shoto wasn't there.

It's eyes began to blinking rapidly as poisonous drool the looked like clean water flowed from it's mouth.

"So that's how it comes out of you perverted looking fuck," Shoto cursed.

Shoto loomed over the creature known as the Black Breath Lizard.  He already had a horn blade ready with mimicry.

The Black Breath Lizard looked up and released a black smoke from it's mouth casting a cloud of poison over it. Of course this didn't hide it from Shoto's

"That thing looks thick enough to cut through luckily I have the perfect technique." Shoto jumped down from the stone cluster into the poison cloud with a horn blade imbued with ki.

[Kuzakabe Sword Technique, First Form-First-half of the Start Of Spring]

Shoto's blade flashed slashing the thick cloud of poison.

Whoosh!

The thick cloud of poison was vanquished by a fury of slashes. Shoto landed near the Lord of Bad Breath with a blade still imbued with ki.

[Second-half of the Start Of Spring]

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!

Shoto unveiled the second half of the first formation of the Kuzakabe Sword Technique onto the Black Breath Lizard slicing it into chunks and munks across the desert sands.

""

The rains off the Black Breath Lizard were absorbed by it's slayer Shoto Kuzakabe.

[Congratulations you have gained a new skill and ]

Shoto mimicked using his hand, he created a small cloud of poison in his palm.

"This ain't so bad— Haa," Shoto thrusted his palm mimicking wuxia martial artist.

"Hmmm nothing happened maybe I'm not at that stage yet." Shoto decided to leave his tomfoolery for later and went his way.

After crossing the desert with his movement art for nearly an hour the winds began to change from being at Shoto back to blowing from his front.

Shoto shielded his eyes from the harmful grains of sand that tried to enter his eyes.

Tremble! Tremble! Tremble!

The desert began to shake changing the dunes with each tremor.

'Something is coming," Shoto concluded.

The hard sand beneath Shoto's feet began to feel like quicksand the longer the desert trembled.

"Shit!"

Shoto thought quick and jumped. With the skill he was able to jump as high as twenty meters in the air.

A long creature with an open mouth burst forth from the golden sand of the desert.

Chump!

It missed Shoto with it's mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

'What—'

[Answer: Sand Worm]

'Thanks"

Two more sand worm burst from the sand the third one seemed longer and aimed for Shoto who was still in the air.

[Activating ]

The incoming worm had slowed down in his perception.

'Guess it's time to use that skill'

Shoto hardened the grains of sand being kicked up by the strong wind and shaped them into a small platform beneath his foot.

He stepped on it and boosted himself higher with . He increased his weight with ki to make his decent faster.

[Kuzakabe Sword Technique, Second Form- Rushing Spring]

Shoto's blade dug into the sand worm and with the help of a giant hole opened on the sand worms body.

Shoto use the sand worm's body as a platform to leap from. He created another blade on his left hand and began to spin towards one of the sand worms that had emerged.

SLAAAAAASH!!!

Shoto gave the sand worm a large nasty cut with his poison tipped blades.

Hardening the sand particles into a platform Shoto remained airborne and changed his trajectory for the sand worm that had first emerged.

Using the sandbeetle skill Shoto hardened the sand in the air and used it too elevate himself higher before divining straight down.

It looked like he was diving straight into the sand worm's mouth but he used a sand platform to maneuver upwards landing him on the sand worm.

He used to shape the blades into hooks then dug them into the sand worm before running them down it's body.

The sound of tearing flesh mixed itself with the painful screams of sand worm. Shoto jumped off the sand worm before he reached the ground.

Shoto breathed in the desert air. "Hey Guide art they ready?"

[Affirmative]

"!"

All three sand worms turned into magic particles and ascended to be absorbed by Shoto.

[Congratulations you have gained a new skill ]

THUD!!

Shoto landed on ground loudly, the sensation he felt when his feet connected with desert sand was as it if he saw miles ahead without his eyes.

"Woah"

Shoto felt the earth,the terrain had a three hundred and sixty view of of everything around him with his feet.

[Sir permission to upload to thy self]

"Sure," he agreed.

He knew that he it would take the load off him if he allowed manage the sensory skills. All he needed to care about was the output of the skill.

[Notice: Something is charging towards you from the west]

Shoto was annoyed. "Can't I catch my breath?"