Luckily his instincts were on point, he mostly dodged the blow, but his armor and a chunk of his leg was still ripped through.
Their exchanges of whits and instincts continued for much longer than Horo's expected. This was because the beast just kept adapting to every attack method he came up with.
He landed many blows that still damaged it significantly even with that space layer protection it was using, but it also landed a lot of devastating blows on him caused him to looked worse than the beast since its claws was specifically made for tearing things apart.
He was really going all out, well as much as he could without using lethal force, because he truly didn't want to kill this beast, it's suppose to be his golden ticket to a dream of his.
After the beast landed so many blows Horo began to truly be in true danger, if he continued holding back he would die because he had to many injuries and he wasn't healing fast enough. On top of that his negative energy was nearly depleted and his regeneration only worked using that energy as he discovered during this journey.
Soon the beast adapted to the point where he couldn't even land blows any more and he was just surviving.
Horo decided to risk it, he had to land a double impact blow in order to end the battle, but he hoped it wouldn't kill the beast.
After a few more narrow escapes he finally took the opportunity, as the beast was going for the kill, appearing behind him to strike his back, he performed a strange backflip faster than he ever moved this entire fight.
The swipe of its paw missed but Horo knew it would still hit him most likely if he didn't jump to a safe distance its ability couldn't reach. He found that it had a range for that specific displacement ability it used that made its blow land somewhere after it missed.
He didn't even its range this time though he just hoped it wouldn't land anywhere lethal, and his blow landed slight sooner than the beasts' so it took away some of the power behind its blow.
His backflip kick landed on the middle of its spine, and it winced so loudly he thought killed it for certain.
The beast fell to the ground, unmoving as it stared up at him, its eyes now showing real fear for the first time.
Horo wasn't unscathed, as he suspected, his back was mangled. His spine was visible as a bunch of his flesh was hanging from its proper position.
He sat down next to the beast and stared in its eyes for a little while. After breathing heavy for a minute he spoke to the beast which surprised it.
"Do you want to live little guy?"
The beast didn't really understand what he said but it felt his intention, it understood that he didn't want to kill it since he hadn't already done it.
It made a funny sound while slightly bobbing its head up and down.
He smiled and nodded before saying "You really are very smart, you remind me of my cunning little sister."
He frowned slightly after saying that, remembering the predicament his sister is currently in as he gazed at the sky.
Alma had told him about her message a few days back which made him more zealous on his journey, as she suspected it would.
The beast thought it had did something wrong after seeing his face and started making weird sounds with a pleading look.
Horo said "Oh, I'm sorry little fella, how about you stick with me, I'll help you grow stronger. I can show you how to better utilize your talents and you'll even become smarter."
It made its unique sounds in excitement as it tried to draw closer to Horo, but it couldn't, it seemed to be paralyzed.
Horo patted its head and rubbed it, but as he did he saw a prompt pop out on his module screen, a broad smile showed on his face as he read what it said.
"Do you want to initiate mutual companion contract with the hybrid beast, Void Child?"
Yes/No
Horo immediately selected Yes.
....
"You have contracted the hybrid beast "Void Child"! "
"You have gained affinity with [Space]"
"Your companion beast has received many benefits"
"Void Child has gained affinity with [Negative Energy]"
"Void Child has received an abundance of negative energy"
"Void Child's core has mutated into Spirit Mana Core"
"Void Child is evolving"
"ERROR, ERROR"
"Void Child is severely injured please heal it in order to continue evolution"
....
Horo was beginning to feel as if he would pass out any second.
He immediately fetched a potion Valen had given him out of his storage ring. He put it in the beasts' mouth.
Then he said "I wonder if you're a male or female."
The beast used all of the strength it could muster, to point its front paw at Horo.
He was stunned but he knew the beast must've understood him and was trying to tell him it is what he is.
He said as he activated spirit naming "Well your name will be Kusho."
After naming the beast he dragged it into his lightless eye for it to evolve.
He was going to take a potion himself after naming Kusho, but he hadn't recognized how much blood he was losing , on top of that when he named the beast, a lot of his essence was dragged out of him without him knowing.
He passed out as soon as he stowed away the beast, he just lied there flat on his stomach, unmoving as his consciousness faded.