As the weapons embedded in the ceiling of the luminous cave, August smiled in satisfaction.
He had shot the weapons into the roof of the cave above the behemoth, the earlier roar it had let out had served to loosen some of the ceiling already. The charge headfirst into the wall had proceeded to further crack and damage the cave ceiling, and August fully intended to take total advantage of that.
He watched as a few dozen pieces of rubble collapsed on the hulking beast, then attempted to create some distance between himself and the falling rubble.
He knew the rubble would only serve to slow it, and not even for a full thirty seconds. Since he wasn't nearly as strong, if he were to get caught in it, it wouldn't just slow him down.
His strength was in his range, whilst the behemoth could only harm him in close combat. August no longer had the leeway to fight on the beast's terms.
Not like he had it from the beginning anyways.
August had already possessed quite the extraordinary pain tolerance, but even he had to acknowledge his current condition was almost too much to bear.
His body was begging him to give up, in fact, while he attempted to walk away, his muscles had seized up, preventing him from making any movement for a short period of time.
After coming to the dark forest, August had started to notice many physical changes he had no way to explain.
He could now tolerate a level of pain that would have sent any normal person into a state of total shock.
He learned this just now from sustaining enough damage to almost totally destroy the average person. August simply couldn't ignore the facts, his body was changing. This change was one of the more subtle, he had noticed others.
He could see farther, move a little faster and he was also a bit stronger, he knew this from being able to easily scale the black tree without fatigue, and even fall from it without much evident damage or pain. Though these changes were nothing large compared to the changes that occurred to both his physical and mental endurance.
He also couldn't fail to mention his newly built up immunity, August had not succumbed to any of the infections that plagued his body, that was something he was incredibly thankful for.
After pulling away, he once again turned to face the trembling rubble.
The beast burst free, sending large amounts of rubble flying all around. It was not all for naught though, as the rhinoceros staggered for another moment before attempting to regain its bearings.
August resummoned his weapons, by this point he could feel a substantial drop in what felt like an ocean filling his body.
The behemoth was in just as bad a state as him, its front left leg had been fully crushed under the strain of the rubble, and its previously closed wounds reopened, causing the creature to be standing flushed in a pool of its own blood.
August was not going to let the behemoth recover, and as such fired his weapons again.
By now, the glowing red lines that ran along the creature's body had finally disappeared, indicating the strange power it had was finally gone.
This time, every last weapon found its way through the behemoth's tough muscle, littering it with deep gashes and incisions.
August summoned his weapons back, treating himself to a large grin as he felt adrenaline rush through his body.
The beast turned to him, much slower than before, then charged once more. This time however, it dug its horn into the ground, before violently swinging it back up, sending a massive boulder sailing at him.
August fired his lances into the Boulder at the last moment. Having been caught off guard by the beast's course of action, even though he managed to destroy it, the resulting rubble managed to pelt him quite a bit, possibly bruising if not breaking a few of his ribs.
The rhinoceros however, was not as lucky.
The beast's body had been pierced by the lances August had sent at the boulder, and this time, it did not have the bride strength to follow through. August watched with glee as the monster made one final charge, only to fall, sliding to a stop only a few feet away from him.
It did not give up nor run away, just as beasts do.
August inadvertently found himself admiring the armored rhinoceros ever so slightly.
He summoned a single lance, sending it flying through the air, and embedding itself into the skull of the monster.
It roared in pain.
He looked down at the monster who had plagued his life for the past few weeks.
He held nothing but resentment in his heart for the beast, for his safety that was stripped away, for his friend who was battered by the unsavory beast.
And most importantly, he resented the beast for bringing to light exactly who he was.
August was a coward, through and through. In fact, the only reason he wasn't backing away from the defeated hulking beast was because he simply couldn't.
He was terrified of being this close to the monster, especially while it was still breathing, but he forced himself to put on a brave face and confident smirk. His facade was easily seen through however, as his entire body began to tremble as if it was going to fall down.
His knees were buckling and his heart was pounding from the fear, and the substantial injuries he sustained weren't helping.
August found a part of him trying to justify running away, though, strangely enough, somewhere inside there was also the opposite.
Somewhere beneath the hatred and the rage, the pain and the anger. Somewhere beneath the heavy layer of false confidence and the facade of normalcy, he found it.
A tiny spark of confidence, a small voice that managed to be heard even through the crushing weight of his terror.
'It can get up, it could possibly recover, it could even pull out a new ability to attack me with. So i need to kill it before that happens.'
August summoned his weapons once more, taking his time to aim them all individually at the beast before him, making sure to pinpoint every last vital spot that he knew of.
August smiled, thinking back to the white lion and thanking it silently for giving him the opportunity for revenge, in a way, it would be avenged as well with what he was about to do.
August looked down at the gray beast before him, then shook his head, spouting through the blood in his mouth from his bitten tongue.
"You, I hope the world forgets you."
Then he let the weapons fly.
Instantly, the beast let out one final, truly pathetic roar.
Then it was dead.