Chapter 7 Energy Mastery

Recognizing that it had been detected, the six-foot beast swiftly changed position, leaping from the ground to the trees. Colliding with the tree the beast began ricocheting from tree to tree around Damon quickly building momentum for the next strike.

'Right, Left, behind, front, Left.'

Tracking the beast with his eyes and ears, Damon prepared for the assault.

Sensing the beast finally making its move, Damon swung his blade to the left colliding with the beast's claws.

Bang!

Sparks flew from the collision as they were both pushed back from the impact.

Steadying his footing, Damon leapt towards the beast to strike before it could react

But as he closed the distance the beast countered using the claws of its feet with a backflip.
Landing on its hind legs and capitalizing on his surprise the beast leapt towards him for a piercing attack,
reversing his grip on the blade he managed to parrying the attack in time by reinforcing the blade using spiritual energy.

"Not so tough tuff now that I can see you huh Coward."

Infuriated by Damon's attempt at provocation the beast increased it speed, releasing a flurry of slash attacks, yet Damon's stance remained firm as he successfully parried each trike with precision.

Feeling the spiritual energy building, Damon could tell it was preparing for a heavy strive

Hope to bait the hare into wasting its energy, He threw out a Right straight jab with his blade.

Taking the bait the beast dodged further to his right and swung a reinforced right slash.

Whoosh!

Ducking his head to avoid the strike Damon's eyes widened in shock at the power behind the attack.

'That would have been bad news if it hit'

In quick succession he countered by slashing across the beast's torso.

SHIIING!

A splash of blood appeared on his Damon's face.

"RRAAGGHHH!"

Roaring the beast recoiled back from the pain.

Now even more enraged, its spiritual energy started rising again as it threw a left downward slash

Whoosh!

Instinctively Damon jumped back avoiding the slash but the next moment he realized that was a mistake.

'Shit that attack wasn't reinforced!'

He looked on in horror as the beast fired a blast from its mouth towards him.

BANG!

It was so fast he had no time to react.

Intense pain flooded his chest as the blast connected sending him flying into a tree

"Pftt."

Blood spilled from his mouth as he felt his head grow lighter for a second as his ears were ringing

"W-what was that!? Air?"

'To think it still had another trick, at least my wounds have started healing with the reinforcements.'

The pain was intense but slowly his vision began to steady as he saw the silhouette of the hare charging towards him.

Jumping to his feet Damon dodged the charge weaving to the right

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of the collisions rang throughout the forest as the beast torn through several trees as Damon consecutively weaved through, dodging each trike.

'With that wound this should be enough to wear it out, I'm running low on energy for reinforcement, I need to end this in the next attack, maybe I should try that.'

Assessing the beast's power output was dropping as its movements became sluggish, Damon made his move.

Using the dust clouds stirred up from the impacts as cover.

Damon began to pull the remainder of his usable spiritual energy into his Core node, leaving only a small portion to reinforce his eyes and legs.

Taking a dep breath, Damon leapt to the nearest intact tree launching himself to another building momentum, attempting to replicate what the beast did earlier in the battle.

Realizing its prey's energy signal vanished the beast's rage hit an all-time peak as its eyes wondered in all directions searching for its target.

Finally, building enough speed Damon launched himself.
Reinforcing his entire body once again, he twisted in the air, his body turning with the flow of his blade. Further reinforcing the blade with spiritual energy, the twelve-inch blade extended to nineteen inches as he flew forward.

Now running low on energy and sensing the looming spiritual energy, the beast was too stunned to react in time.

The world became a blur for few moments as reinforced steel swept outward in a clean arc slicing through the dust cloud.

SHIIING!

In the end the blade met its mark mid-spin, as flesh parted under the motion, painting the ground in scarlet

Huff, Huff, Huff

Landing to his feet, he dropped low breathing heavily, his boots striking bloody dirt with a thud
The cut was cleaner than expected but the landing not so great as he felt the shock travel through his legs.

But sure enough, behind him the body of the beast faltered and fell as its head lay at his feet.

"Hahahha! I pulled it off!."

'Luckily the beast didn't have the energy left for another mouth blast. I couldn't handle another direct hit like that.'

Noticing the smell of the beast blood spreading Damon realized he needed to find a source of water to wash off the blood.

'I could go back to Master Tomoe's home, but I'd rather not return to the house unless necessary. I don't have much usable energy left after that last attack, but it should be enough for enhancing my ears to find the sound of rushing water.'

Deep in thought Damon spin the blade in his hand before coming to a decision

Quietening his thoughts, he stirred the pulse of his core Node pushing his remaining energy to his ears. Activating the Mystic sense skill.

With the skill active he could now hear the faintest sounds that were undetectable in battle.

The rustling of the leaves.
The crawling of the insects below the ground under his feet.
The chirping of birds out of sight.
Lastly the sound of water flowing.

'It crazy to think Master Tomoe created all this.'

"I got a direction, time to get moving"

Sprinting off, Damon headed further west into the forest.
Following the sound it took him roughly ten minutes to find the stream and five more to find the connected river while avoiding smaller beast along the way

'Finally'

Throwing off his shirt to reveal a torso with more defines muscles, Damon started washing up be the river bank. Though he wished to dive right in he was apprehensive about the dangers that could be lurking nearby.

"Once I'm cleaned up I should get to higher ground before another beast shows up."

'I could go back to the top of a tree, but there might be flying beast around considering the birds I noticed around Master Tomoe's home. The other options would be finding a cave, but the cave would probably a beast's territory.'

As he was planning his next move, Damon hung his shirt on a low tree branch to dry.

"Okay! Tree top it is, it's better than the cave idea and I might be able to find a strong branch to perch on while I recover, I don't know how time works here but fighting near the river will make things mush easier next time."

'I should also do some meditation to restore my energy while I'm waiting for my shirt to dry, maybe with some spiritual energy I could dry my shirt quickly.'