Standing in front of the large wolves, I took a deep breath in and then exhaled slowly.
The sound of various creatures inhabiting the forest kept me on my toes as I looked at the wolves circling around me.
"I'm not tasty, so could you please leave me?" I spoke humorously as I eyed the wolves.
*Grr*
"I guess not."
With those words, the wolves pounced over to attack me, but to their downfall, I could observe their trajectories with the help of my innate ability.
Not even a second passed as I ducked a little by bending my knees before cocking my arm and letting out a powerful punch right into the windpipe of the wolf.
I expected the wolf to at least flinch out of shock from pain, but it did not. Instead, it took advantage of my body being in contact with its throat to bare its claws and scratch my chest.
Blood freely flowed and I found myself taking a few steps back due to the pain. My brain wanted to explode into a flurry of thoughts, but the pain kept me grounded.
'I can think about what I did wrong later.'
'I need to finish this fight and heal myself right now.'
With a simple push, I rocketed towards the wolf whose neck I had just punched and locked it in a choke hold before tightening my grip around its neck and snapping it with a muffled *crunch*.
Seeing the body of their comrade going limp all the other wolves became furious. They *growled* in anger and jumped at me simultaneously while I did my best to dodge their attacks by weaving around the extended claws.
I got scratched a couple of times as I did so, but it wasn't anything major.
Grabbing the nearest wolf around me, I kicked it in the face with enough strength to cause its jaw to dislocate. The wolf scampered back with a *whimper* before I changed my attention to the other wolves.
Three more wolves remained and I wanted to get them all before I'd attempt to make more enemies in this bountiful forest.
"What happened?" I taunted, "Scared now?"
The wolves *growled* before they circled around me to my blind spot and tried launching an attack once more.
I was better prepared than before and as soon as they jumped, I used the time they were in the air to slide towards one of them as I punched it right in its neck. I used a lot more force than before and this caused the wolf to be unstable in its landing as it slipped and rolled along the forest floor full of pain.
Before it could get up, I quickly walked over to it and simply kicked it like a football causing its skull to cave in.
The last two were a little harder to take down because once they learnt they couldn't take me down so easily, they wanted to fight me to the death.
This seemed to have made them much more furious as they rushed to snap at my feet before I had to use quick footwork to step around their advances while using my speed to my advantage and grabbing their fur before smashing their heads together.
*Whimper* *Whimper*
The dogs were in pain, but I showed them no mercy and with a quick blow to their heads, I killed them.
I then looked at my hands and found them a little strange.
'I didn't realise this when I was sparring with Shizune but this body feels stronger.'
I quickly called my status page in my mind and what I saw left me giddy.
[3. Physical Level]
Strength: Intermediate – Low
Endurance: Intermediate – Intermediate
Agility: Intermediate – Intermediate
Stamina: Intermediate – Intermediate
Magic: High – Intermediate
Luck: Low – Low
'I've improved through my training with Shizune.'
"OoOOOooo~! AaAHahaahAHAha~!"
I looked up through the trees and to my surprise watching me was the Orangutan I'd run away from the last time.
But this time I didn't plan on running away, instead in a show of dominance I threw my hands into the air and made similar noises in hopes of taunting or scaring it.
"OOOOooOOO~! AHAehaHaheAhha~!"
The Orangutan seemed to understand my taunt as it used one of the loose branches to swing down and land a few feet away from me.
"What up big boy? There can only be one king of the jungle! Ready for deciding who's who!?" I asked the orangutan happily and took a stance that Shizune had beaten into me.
Except nothing prepared me for what was to come next.
Even before I could realise what had happened, I found the Orangutan headbutting my stomach, causing me to heave out whatever I'd just eaten.
I barely managed to not pass out since Shizune had trained me to keep myself awake through the pain. In her words, "If you pass out even for a second the enemy could've already sliced your head and you wouldn't even be awake to notice your own death."
Not one to be trifled with, I kneed the orangutan in the face. I could feel some of its teeth breaking but I didn't stop there. I grabbed the orangutan's arms and with a quick spin while it was distracted from the pain of its teeth breaking, I tossed it at a tree with all the force I could muster.
The orangutan's head smashed into the tree and before it could wake up from the momentary loss of consciousness, I was already on it, my leg primed with all the tension my calf and thigh muscles could provide before I smashed it right into its head, snapping its neck and taking its life.
I collapsed right beside the Orangutan after that.
*Panting* deeply as I waited for my breathing to stabilise and my heart to stop beating like it was sprinting away from a bear.
The excess adrenaline started to wear off and I finally started to feel the pain from the orangutan headbutting me in the chest.
I performed a few hand seals and just as Shizune had taught me, I began to apply the bruise healing jutsu I had learnt to heal the purple bruise on my chest a little before leaving it to be cured naturally.
"That wasn't even a few minutes…do I have to spend two hours doing nothing now?"
With nothing but the silence of the forest speaking to me, I gave up.
"I guess I can look around for other creatures in the forest to fight and train myself."
And so for the remaining two hours, I began hunting various animals to fight and grow stronger.
At the end of the two hours, the most notable animals I fought with were a Moose, a Python, a bear and a Pterodactyl of all things. I won all the fights and learnt new things from each of them.
From the Moose, I learnt to aim at weak points like the backside and eyes, the Snake taught me to avoid getting entangled with the enemy, and the bear taught me to use my surroundings to my advantage since I killed it by blinding it with dirt, while the Pterodactyl taught me how to fight with by using traps.
Fighting the Pterodactyl was a little challenging since as soon as I moved to harm its wings it would attempt to try and snap its razor-sharp beak around my head. I eventually used this to my advantage by baiting it to attack my head when I caught its neck and snapped it.
Overall, I felt better about my innate skills since it allowed me to notice all their weaknesses and patterns and use them to my advantage.
And the most crucial of all was Shizune's advice about taking the initiative and not getting stuck in planning my moves and responding to what was actually happening.