Chapter 268: Hunting the Animals
Jack faced down the three remaining inner disciples.
A turtler predictably focusing on defense. A bearfolk who looked like an all-around physical fighter. Finally, a sharken specializing in speed.
The Animal Kingdom traditionally focused on Physical cultivators. By taking care of the mage early on, Jack had assured that all remaining enemies were the Physical kind, which meant they needed to get up-close and personal. That way, not only did they fight him where he excelled, but he could also capture them more easily if they decided to run.
The sharken was upon him in a flash. Her fin-blades reflected the sunlight as she slashed out, first slow and then fast, her speed oscillating between the extremes. Jack had faced such blades before. He was unarmed; blocking was unwise. He made some distance, dodging as he inspected the sharkens moves, then was forced to fight back when she pressed on.
His hands moved faster than she could manage. He slapped both blades away, then looked to drive a punch into her gut, only to be forced back into defense as the bearfolk arrived. Claws rained down, slow but heavy. Jack could handle each fighter alone easily, but not together.
The claws and fin-blades formed a mighty combination. Each struck where the other did not, a net of death that sought to constrict and bury Jack. His hands became blurs, parrying and deflecting all strikes, but a couple went through. Narrow blood lines appeared on his arms and torso.
He saw his opponents frown as their strikes, which should have severed his limbs, only created shallow wounds. How could they know his defense was his strongest point?
Who are you? the bearfolk roared, not ceasing his attacks.
None of your fucking business!
The turtler, who had been lying in wait, finally attacked as well. He started spinning in mid-air and flew at Jack from behind like a hard-shelled cannonball. All three enemies were now in range.
Suddenly, Jack unleashed more of his power. A Dao Domain erupted violently from his body, pushing away the combined force of the three enemy domains. At the same time, frigid wind filled the inner disciples hearts. They saw their deaths. The person they were facing was no man, but a force of nature, a demon. He would destroy them methodically and mercilessly, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Jack hadnt used Brutalizing Aura in a long time, but the fear it carved on the enemys faces was always a refreshing feeling.
However, none of the three enemies buckled. They instantly saw through his skill and calmed themselves, retaining mostbut not allof their energy. Sensing the combined might of their three Dao Domains cave under Jacks, their resolve didnt waver; they simply realized the extent of his strength. Instantly, their gazes went dark and serious. They were out for blood.
There were some things that all cultivators understood. When facing an overwhelmingly stronger opponent, it was better to scatter and hope that at least some of you survived. However, when facing an opponent only slightly stronger than you, escaping would only give him an opening to pick you off one by one; the best choice was to stay and fight with everything you had.
Of course, Jack understood this as well. He saw the thoughts race behind their eyes as the three of them exchanged glances and resolute nods. He nodded, too. Despite everything he could say about the Animal Kingdom, they were not cowards.
In truth, he looked forward to this battle. He could probably win, but facing three elite opponents of the same level as him would be an uphill struggle. His spars in the Exploding Sun had proven that.
Come! he roared, smashing his fists together. They reverberated like gongs, sending flocks of birds into the air all the way to the horizon. Just one of his Meteor Punches could cause a craterthere was no telling how far and how deeply an all-out battle would impact the land.
The three enemies charged as one. The bearfolk and sharken spread to the sides, leaving the turtler alone at the front. It was a sensible choice; he specialized in defense, so he should be able to take a few hits.
Jack let them come. His Iron Fist Style, his signature fighting skill, filled his mind with ice and his heart with fire. He danced between the strikes. Claws and blades flew left and right, but he dodged by a hairs breadth, refusing to be hit. When he struck back, his fists were iron, like a tyrants. They were unstoppable.
Jacks fighting style also contained hints of mental warfare. As he blended into his Dao Domain, with everything around him becoming Fist, his opponents experienced the terror of the Iron Fist. Everything they did was countered. Their strikes were dodged, blocked, or ignored. Their defenses were pierced. The more they failed, the weaker they grew, Jacks Dao grinding against them.
The Iron Fist was a fighting style meant to overwhelm the opponent and defeat them without giving them a single inch. It served perfectly a superior fighter. However, if they did force Jack to become defensive again, it would be hard for him to recover.
A fist relied on momentum. The moment it was stopped, most of its power dissipated.
Jack danced and punched. He kept looking for opportunities to unleash a Meteor Punch, but it needed time to charge, if ever so little. Using it mid-battle was difficult; he needed an opening. In the meantime, he tried his hardest to fight off his opponents, but it was proving challenging.
The more they grew accustomed to his moves, the more they were able to use their own.
A claw flew at Jacks face. He leaned back to avoid it, but with a furious growl, the bearfolk turned his claw strike in mid-air without wasting its momentum. It was the desperate power that came from a cornered animal, demonstrated and amplified to the extreme by the bearfolks Dao. The claw raked down Jacks chest, drawing a line as deep as a fingernail.
Jack displayed no weakness. Compared to the torturous pain hed felt before in his life, this was nothing. Most importantly, his Iron Fist Style relied on dominating his opponentshe couldnt let them see that theyd harmed him.
He took the strike and returned his own. An uppercut flew into the bearfolks jaw as Jack leaned backward, flinging his head back and throwing him a hundred feet into the sky. The turtlers punch smashed into Jacks back, bent as he was, but he simply ignored the hit. The turtler focused hard on defense. In offense, he was weak.
It still made Jacks back creak and ruined his balance, letting the sharken take the upper hand. Her fin-blades came down with extreme speed. A pre-System human wouldnt even register their movement at all. Jack, despite being unbalanced, reached out for them. The blades met his palms, cutting deep but not through. They came to a stop. His fingers wrapped around the blades, holding them in place, and his gaze hardened. With the bearfolk flung away and the turtler having just struck, he had a window to attack.
Grabbing both fin-blades, he pulled them aside, revealing the sharkens wide-open chest. He then flung out one blade and clenched his fist, shooting it forward. Hed once used this maneuver on Shard Presht with great success.
Unfortunately, this womans mastery over the Dao of Momentum was worlds apart from Preshts. She didnt have time to bring her hand back to defend, but the moment Jacks punch impacted her chest, she stole part of its momentum to throw herself backward at a similar speed, nullifying most of the impact.
She still went flying and spat out blood, but she was fine. Almost immediately, she willed her momentum to reverse, shooting herself back at Jack.
He gritted his teeth; she was skilled. As expected of a cultivator from the five noble families.
In the instant before she returned, Jack caught the turtler from the collar of his shell and flung him out at her. She caught him and pushed him aside, continuing her charge with only a moments delay.
In that moment, Jack charged at the bearfolk, who was only now returning from where hed been sent flying. His jaw was dislocated, but his eyes were filled with fire. Seeing Jack charge at him, he unleashed his strongest attack.
CORNERED DESPAIR! he somehow shouted through his broken jaw, slashing out before him. The claws kept going. They formed a spectral outline that carried the power of a cornered animals desperate final strike. Jack felt its weight; its life-or-death significance.
Unfortunately for the bearfolk, hed been through a lot. He was accustomed to this life-or-death despair. Hell, hed even felt it himself several times. The mental component of the bearfolks attack left him unaffected, and as for the physical one
Jack clenched his fist. Suddenly, sound and light were sucked inside. The world went mute. Even the bears claws shivered, their cornered despair countered by the helplessness of a natural disaster.
METEOR PUNCH! Jack shouted, his voice echoing through the sky like a gods decree, and a purple, fist-shaped meteor shot out. The claws were eradicated like they werent even there. The bearfolk barely had time to widen his eyes and cross his arms, but it was useless. The meteor exploded in his face, striking him with both intense momentum and a violent shockwave. His arms were flung backward and ripped from the shoulder. His fur evaporated. His ribcage shattered, and his entire body shot upward with enough speed that it might just reach orbit and never land again.
The shockwave spread through the sky, an exploding star that blinded the birds and deafened the forest animals. A ring of wind spread outward, upsetting the Dao in a multiple-mile radius. It was apocalypse in a fist.
It was also very risky.
Of the two remaining opponents, the sharken was too hardened to be stunned. Taking advantage of Jacks big attack, which required some time to prepare and recover from, she appeared beside him and slashed out. Her blades danced over his bare upper body. Red lines were carved under his ribs, and his chest became mangled.
Finally, Jack revealed an expression of pain, but it was too late.
He crossed gazes with the sharken. He was ready to keep fighting. His wounds were visibly regenerating already, and he could see the realization settling into his opponents eyes. They could barely match him when they were three. Now, they were two, and though he was hurt, he wasnt weakened.
She turned and ran. So did the turtler, but Jack ignored him, for he was too slow. It was the sharken he kept his eyes on.
In her retreat, she dashed with incredible speed. Her entire mastery of momentum was poured into her body, accelerating her almost instantly to her maximum speed. She crossed a mile in the blink of an eye. Multiple booms indicated her breaking the sound barrier.
Suddenly, space parted before her, and Jack appeared. He hadnt used teleportation before in this fight, except to assassinate the root wizard, and even then, they hadnt seen it clearly and assumed it was invisibility. The sharkens eyes widened. She was stunned, but only for a moment. Almost instantly, she redirected her entire momentum to the side, falling away in a most unnatural way. She dodged the meteor.
However, instantly and almost instantly were two different things. In the fraction of a second it took her to adapt, Jack had already shot out another meteor, aiming at her new location.
She reacted in time, if barely. She didnt try to defend, only evade. Her momentum reverse. She managed to dodge Jacks meteor, but not the explosion. A new shockwave appeared, a new sun was born, and the sharken was sent tumbling head-over-heels through the sky, even her control over momentum slipping momentarily.
Jack was there again. Space parted, and his fist came down. It struck her cleanly. A meteor sprang to life as the entire world was sucked into his fist, then exploded violently.
The sharken had speed, not durability. Taking a Meteor Punch head-on, she exploded, raining burnt blood and flesh in a wide radius. Jack did not wait a single moment. Turning around, he teleported again, and again, then dashed the rest of the way to the escaping turtler.
This cultivator was the slowest of the bunch. He couldnt even break the sound barrier. Jack reached him instantly and smashed a Meteor Punch against his shell, cracking it in a large explosion and nailing the turtler into the ground below, collapsing a small section of the forest in the process. Thanks to the turtlers durability, it was like a true meteor had fallen.
Surprisingly, he survived. The turtler got up and could clearly keep running, but he realized there was no point. He raised both hands and said, Mercy, please! I beg you!
Jack appeared before him, an avatar of violence and cold death. Im sorry, he replied, but I cannot.
His fist met the turtlers face, then smashed him into the ground. The earth rumbled for miles in every direction. When everything ceased moving, the turtler lay dead, his skull shattered.
Jack only shook his head once to shake away the darkness. It felt wrong to execute someone who surrendered and pleaded for mercy, but what choice did he have? He couldnt imprison the turtler. If he showed mercy, not only would this enemy eventually reach civilization and report Jacks presence, but in the future, he might even find his way to Earth and kill everyone to get revenge for his friends.
In the cultivator world, showing mercy to the enemy was often the same as being cruel to yourself.
Level up! You have reached Level 148.
Level up! You have reached Level 149.
Jack quickly split all attributes points evenly between the Physical substats, then sighed and shook his head. His entire body was still in pain from the many injuries hed sustained, but his regeneration could handle them. For now, he was just tiredand hungry.
But food could wait a moment.
Without giving himself time to rest, Jack quickly buried what remained of the swordswoman that the inner disciples had killed before, leaving her a simple, empty tombstone as a token of dignity. He then darted away through the forest, trying to open as much distance as possible between himself and the four dead cultivators.
Battles between immortals were earth-shaking events. It must have been detectable hundreds of miles away. Others might run over to investigate, and no matter how thinly spread they were on this place, Jack didnt want to take any chances.
Although, he realized, when Im strong enough to move to the next tier of hunting zones, I could use this as a final move. Kill a team of cultivators here, then wait until more people arrive to investigate and kill them too. Its riskybut it could work. Hmm.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om