Kai's claws, which were coated with his flames and empowered by Aura of the Chaos Beast, collided with the first of the crystal panthers. A loud crack reverberated throughout the near empty arena, only the beast did not shatter like he had hope it would.
Luckily, there was enough force behind his blow to send the creature reeling, knocking it into another one of the approaching panthers.
At the same time, Esurient aimed for the other eye of the panther he had partially blinded, only the beast managed to avoid the invisible blade this time.
The sound of icy feet hitting the floor was annoying, considering that his senses were boosted, meaning it sounded louder than it should have been, but Kai put up with the annoying noise in favour of trying to do any sort of meaningful damage.
Using Mana Surge, Kai lunged forward and aimed to kill the nearest of the panthers before it could get the chance to react.
However, it moved much faster than he had expected it to.
To his horror, the panther rushed forward and manages to avoid the attack entirely. Then, it got even closer to him and swiped at his chest.
Kai groaned in pain as the Chrome Skin wrapped around his body creaked, managing to absorb most of the damage.
However, there was four deep gashes in it, each one drawing a little bit of blood.
Not good...
Quickly activating Minor Restoration so it could begin closing the wound, Kai got back to fighting.
He slashed at one of the panthers, managing to just catch its side with the end of his claws. They dug into its side with the help of the flames coating them, but the beast managed to free itself and retreated.
At the same time, another one of the panthers got behind him and aimed its claws at his heel, one of the weak points of his armour.
Unable to do anything himself, Kai simply did not react to the panther about to glaw his heel and instead chose to focus on the panther lunging at him from the front.
Why?
Because he trusted his assistant, of course.
Before Kai's heel could be attacked, Esurient pierced the body of the sly panther, cutting it a little and making it howl in pain.
And yet, even though the two of them had injured some of the panthers, it was like they hadn't been inured at all.
The beasts obviously had a different anatomy when compared to normal panthers, that was abundantly clear considering they were made of out some strange crystal ice hybrid, but they had to have some sort of weakness.
Piercing was practically useless, and fire could be useful but the panthers had some sort of resistance to that. Any sort of blunt damage would obviously be the best, but Kai had no way of doing that...
Unless...
Maybe it wasn't necessarily blunt damage that was needed, but the force behind the blunt damage.
And Kai had another way to get some force.
Gritting his teeth, he slowed down with his efforts to hold back the panthers in favour of letting them get a little closer. At the same time, the flames that had been surrounding him vanished, all of them getting sucked into his chest.
The six panthers all crowded onto him, getting very close to ripping his armour to shreds.
Kai hadn't wanted to waste this so early, but he still had to buy time, so he made use of the 50% damage reduction Chrome Skin offered.
However, that reduction only worked for one singular attack, meaning the rest of them hurt, a lot.
And a second later, just before his armour was utterly destroyed, Kai was engulfed by a beautiful supernova of flames.
The explosion spread out from his chest and shot outwards, consuming the panthers that had just been clawing at him. Esurient had long gotten away, knowing just how powerful this attack could be.
Sadly, this explosion couldn't even begin to compare to the last one. The previous soul explosion had been charged for close to ten seconds, while this one had been charged for less than two due to how overbearing and strong the panthers were.
The ground beneath their feet shook, the ice below them cracking ever so slightly as a result of the potent explosion.
And in the center of it all, Kai bit his lip to ignore the pain.
The shockwave crashed into the panthers, sending them flying backwards. The entire area was shrouded in mist and flames, nothing was able to be seen.
Seconds passed, and slowly, everything came back into sight.
Kai was hunched over, bleeding profusely. Sections of his armour were shredded, revealing his bloody and hairy body. His black fur was matted in red blood, a stark contrast.
All around him stood the panthers. None of them had died from the explosion, much to Kai's disappointment, but each of them were severely injured.
Chunks of their icy bodies were missing, a strange blue dust trickling down from the empty craters, acting like how blood would normally.
Some of them even had their heads blown off, those were the ones that had been the most aggressive in their attempts to end his life, and yet they were somehow still alive.
Kai cursed.
Was this what fighting every damn beast for the rest of the ascent was going to be like?
No, it wouldn't be this bad, it's just that Frosty was an extremely old and powerful spirit. Who knows how long they had been collecting all of these beasts for?
Especially the so called special collection the spirit said they had for when they reached question eighty, Kai didn't even want to imagine what sort of horrors would be present.
Groaning to himself, Kai pulled out two HP potions from his spatial storage ring that he had borrowed from Cecilia in advance and chugged them. At the same time, he gave Esurient the mental command to resume their attack.
Feeling the pain assaulting his body lessen ever so slightly, Kai cracked the bones in his body and growled. The combined efforts of Minor Restoration and the HP potions were working somewhat, but it wasn't like all of the pain and all of the injuries were just going to disappear.
Still, at least the pain wasn't that bad, at least, compared to what he had gone through.
Kai boosted his feet and calves using Mana Surge. Then, with newfound speed, he threw himself at the closest of the panthers. This one had one of its legs blown clean off in the explosion, slowing it down massively.
Meaning, it was unable to dodge as Kai crashed into it.
Kai grabbed the body of the panther, picking it up and throwing it into the ground. The crystal beast hit the ground with a loud bang and managed to actually bounce off the surface with how hard it had been slammed down.
It reacted quickly through, adjusting its body mid air and sinking its crystal fangs into Kai's injured shoulder.
Crying out in pain, Kai done what any sane person would do.
He whipped his head forward and sank his own fangs into the body of the ice beast.
At first, his fangs failed to penetrate the tough crystaline body, but when he infused them with Soul Inferno they managed to sink in.
The two of them engaged in a fierce biting competition, neither of them wanting to let their opponent win. Neither of them was going to give up.
But while neither would mentally give up, the same couldn't be said about their bodies.
Kai roared and ripped a chunk of ice out of the beast with his fangs, revealing a strange blue heart inside the monsters body.
Finally, he had figured out how to kill the damned things.
Without hesitation, he lifted up his hand and gripped the heart with his claws, crushing it mercilessly and killing the panther.
You have slain...
Now that he knew how to actually kill the beasts, Kai fought with renewed determination. Working in tandem with Esurient, they managed to bring down the opposing panthers one by one, either crushing or stabbing their hearts.
After another few minutes, their was only one singular panther left. Even though this one was the healthiest of the lot, it was still incredibly injured, being weakened by Aura of the Chaos Beast and being attacked by both Kai and Esurient.
So, unable to do anything, the panther fought to its last breath until its heart was eventually crushed by Kai's claws.
Kai groaned and leaned forward, spitting up some blood as he undone his fusion. Umbra slowly appeared beside him, looking at him worriedly and pressing her head against his side.
Softly petting her head, Kai wiped his bloody lips with the back of his ruined armour and coughed.
It was only then did he realised that Frosty had actually stopped speaking for practically all of the speak.
And yet, surprisingly, Kai didn't care to ask why.
Instead, all he said when he looked back up at the feline spirit was:
"What are you waiting for, ask the next question."