The deer's skin cracked, splintered, and shattered into fragments.
The deer-man had no choice but to counterattack. Akaya, who had been preparing to strike, used his sixth sense of 'Explosive Power' to perform an emergency dodge. The deer-man, perhaps exhilarated by the sudden shift in the battle's momentum, launched an even more ferocious counterattack.
Akaya sidestepped the attack, moving to the deer-man's blind spot. The creature attempted to turn its body to face Akaya, but its movements suddenly ground to a halt, as if it had tried to pedal a bicycle and found the pedals locked. The deer-man's ankles had sunk into the ground.
It was Akaya who had activated 'Harden'. He timed it perfectly, solidifying not just his footing but also the ground around the deer-man's legs, trapping them.
Of course, with the deer-man's powerful physique, it could break free with ease. However, in the high-speed exchange of blows, exposing a weakness was a critical mistake.
