Soon enough, the transformation ended, and the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear roared at Valkorion before he stomped on the ground and rushed at him after throwing the shield at him.
Valkorion swiftly dodged the flying shield, which was rather hard because the thing was massive; if he had to guess, then it was specifically made either for the needs of the Bugbears or any similar monster of the same size as the Bugbear.
Or it belonged to someone who had the same size as the Bugbear, most probably someone with Giant Lineage in their veins. However, that would be even more confusing because Valkorion was aware that there were some families with peculiar Bloodlines, like Giants, only in the North of Westeros.
Still, that would be a rather far-fetched theory for now, at least.
'Damm, he is also getting faster aside from getting much stronger.'
The sole thing that Valkorion could do right now was to keep dodging, one swing after another. The Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was holding the enormous metal cub with both of his hands and using his entire physical power.
It was rather fearsome, as the mutual cub collided with a nearby rock as the entire enormous rock, which was around four meters tall, shattered into hundreds of pieces, which made even Valkorion stare at the result with an almost dumbfounded expression.
Even before, the physical power of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was nothing to scoff at, but now, after the sudden transformation, its power was at entirely new heights, and Valkorion couldn't even attempt to have a single exchange with the goblinoids if he didn't wish to be turned into meat paste.
So, he still continued with the previous strategy as he kept dodging and searching for the opportunity to attack.
'Iron-clad rule of the Beoynders and Extraordinary Creatures, the more powerful active ability it is, the bigger backslash and short time of duration.'
That was something that Valkorion had learned, though there always existed some exceptions from this rule, that was mainly for the High Sequence Beyonders, not small fryes like him.
Aside from the fact, that he seriously doubted that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear would have some miraculous ability that could do something that even Demigods couldn't do easily, more often they couldn't than they could.
'Chance...'
Valkorion muttered as he dodged another swing of the monstrous metal cub, that almost took his head if he was hit by it. During this swing, he noticed that there was a small area where the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear wasn't protected, and fortunately for Valkorion, it was on his neck.
Once again, he dodged backward as the enraged Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear continued attempting to hit him, even more enraged than previously because he was using all of his power, but it couldn't kill the weak human in front of him.
For Sequence 7, Mutated Bugbear, it was absolutely infuriating, and Valkorion could see the saliva dripping from his mouth, as the Bugbear was roaring at him in anger and rage, as he once swung his cup in hopes of smashing him down.
Unforptuenly for the Bugbear, Valkorion performed a beautiful Juyo Flip, appeared several centers next to the Bugbear, and stabbed his sword into the neck of the hulking creature, though this time, he was using a lot of power to force the sword to pierce the throat of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear.
The skin of the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was very durable and thick, and because Valkorion was using an ordinary weapon that wasn't made from any Extraordinary Materials or whatever, the sole thing that Valkorion could depend on in this situation was just brute physical strength.
Just as he was pushing the sword deeper into the creature's threat, blood spluttering on his entire face, he found himself flying through the air, as he was kicked by the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear into his stomach, sending him crashing into rocks.
As he crashed into the nearby rocks, he felt pain stronger than anything he had felt before and even some of his bones breaking. It was rather hard to ignore when he could feel that several of his ribs were cracked due to the kick and subsequent impact, and his head was hurting like hell.
Though he was in rather rough shape, he could see that the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear was in a much worse state, with his sword still stabbed in his threat with a heavy wound as the creature could hardly move effectively.
Still, because the sword was stuck there, it was also one thing that prevented even worse consequences for the Bugbears, such as bleeding out entirely. Though the combat prowess of both of them got heavily lowered, the Bugbear had the upper hand because, overall, Valkorion was in a much worse state.
And he was without his weapon, too...
That wasn't a positive vision, for sure.
Valkorion stood up while he coughed out a good amount of blood from his injuries and put his left hand on the place where his cracked ribs were located as he looked down at his injuries for a bit.
Nevertheless, he needed to fight till the end because first, he wanted to best the Sequence 7 Mutated Bugbear and claim his prize, and another thing he just didn't want to depend on Ashe to save his ass.
Though he was sure that the Frost Archer was right now in some high place, observing everything that was happening down here. In fact, he only predicted that she would try to help him or... or not.
Nobody could really tell; most of the adventurers were not particularly dependent on people around, and most were rather untrustworthy when someone asked them. It was not like it was something schokcing, but in the end, adventurers were people who risked their lives or money.
Similarly to the mercenaries and sellswords or some hedge knights, and like they said, there was no honor among the thieves. As Valkorion stood up, he put his left leg behind and outstretched his right leg in a battle stance.
Since he was young, he also practiced Martial Arts so he could fight unarmed, even against much stronger and more powerful opponents. Like many in the Valyria, he was learning Hakuda, a Martial Art that was brought by the foreigners from the Golden Empire of Yi Ti to the Valyrian Freehold several centuries ago.
Because Valyrian Freehold was the Extraordinary Capital of the world, there was a lot of contact with different civilizations and nations, even from far, far away. There were a lot of Beyonders from the distant shores of Westeros, the Shadowlands of Asshai or from the prosperous Golden Empire of Yi Ti.
Hakuda was a very powerful combat style that revolved around using only one's physical body in direct combat and nothing else. There were several aspects to the Hakuda as well, like using the force of the opponent against him or focusing striking at the weak points on the body of a person.
Even with the Valyrian Freehold, the number of Valyrians that learned Hakuada wasn't really that big, aside from those in the Legions.
It was a rather hard and challenging Martial Art to master, so aside from Beyonders of particular Pathways or those with a lot of talent in this area, not many would bother with mastering Hakuda aside from basic self-defense.