Geon was as helpful as ever, it seemed. Roy sighed, his muscles tensing in preparation for the fight of his life.
17
The Beast slowly emerged from the water, its scaled snout being the first visible sign of its arrival. Wickedly sharp teeth jutted up from its bottom jaw, curving up in backward arcs. Its scaled head soon followed, a pair of slitted green eyes surveying him with just a bit too much intelligence.
It hissed at him, as though angry that he was making it leave the ocean, but finally, it did. Its body was long and sinuous, with a powerful looking tail extending more than two feet behind it. The hide along its back was thick and leathery, and ridged with small white spines. Its body was low to the ground, though that did nothing to diminish from its overall size.
Measuring about twenty feet from nose to tail, and looking to weigh close to a thousand pounds, it was not a Beast that Roy was eager to fight. Not to mention that his senses told him that this was a Beast of the 1st Dan. This was an opponent that outclassed him in every way.
Still, he had no choice. His hands were trembling again, reminding him about his limited time until his body gave out on him. If this fight would help push him over the edge, then it was worth it.
“Geon. If I advance, will my injuries be healed?” Roy asked as the Beast began slinking up the beach towards him.
“Yes. Advancement will heal all of your injuries and reinforce your body. You will be a bit stronger and faster, and your senses a bit sharper, too. It’s nothing like advancing to Yellow, but it’ll be an improvement.”
Roy nodded. That was all he’d needed to hear. If advancement would heal him, then he could go into this fight without being afraid, or so he tried to convince himself.
Blue Essence flared around the Beast, and it began flowing forward at an accelerated rate. Roy had no more time, and it was now or never. Taking one last deep breath to calm himself, he began cycling his Essence to his hands and feet. The Exploding Fist wasn’t quite completed yet, but it was close enough to a Physical technique- not to mention that he had nothing else to rely on.
Sprinting forward, Roy ran right at the oversized lizard. He broke to the right as he approached and turned to attack from the side. The Beast was too low to the ground to punch, so he instead threw a kick, his right foot glowing gold for an instant as it neared the Beast.
The lizard’s brown-green hide flashed blue before he made contact, and his foot only swept through empty air as it gracefully avoided his attack. Roy only had an instant to cross his arms to protect himself, before the heavy tail whipped around, slamming into him and hurling him backward.
Roy grimaced as he felt the impact jarring down to the bone. He landed hard on his back, but used the momentum to roll over his shoulder and ended up back on his feet, just in time to see a pair of toothy jaws opening right before his face.
Letting out a shout of alarm, Roy fell backward, cycling Essence to his feet and lashing out with both of them, much as he had done to the crab in his first fight. The lizard tried to twist out of the way but, seeing as it was airborne, it only partially succeeded.
Roy’s left foot slammed into its underbelly, and an explosion of force spread out in a bubble from the impact, throwing the lizard to the side. He was on his feet in an instant, sprinting towards the still downed Beast, and hammered a series of punches into its vulnerable side. He cycled Essence to his hands with each blow, rapidly draining his core and hammering one Exploding Fist after the next.
He could almost see the small bubble of force that spread outward with each strike. The loud boom of displaced air sounded with each punch as well, and had he not been expecting it, he might have hesitated. But he knew the sound was only a byproduct of his attack, so he kept going.
A tail, as thick around as his torso, slammed into his chest, cracking two of his ribs and sending him staggering back. This attack was followed up by a trio of claws, tearing bloody furrows across his chest.
Roy gasped, throwing both hands before him and expelling a burst of Essence into the air. It exploded immediately, as expected, but didn’t cause any actual damage. It did, however, have the intended effect of making the lizard flinch back, giving Roy a moment to catch his breath.
From what he could see, the lizard was almost completely unhurt. With the exception of a slight indentation where his attacks had landed earlier, it appeared to be fine. That wasn’t good, as he was nearly out of Essence and it appeared that he was way out of his depth. He noticed that the amount of Power Essence in his surroundings had grown exponentially.
“Hate to interrupt you, but you should probably do something before that crocodile kills you.”
Roy dove to the side just as the Beast that Geon had identified as a crocodile, suddenly shot towards him with astonishing speed. It had to be some sort of Movement technique, as he wasn’t completely able to dodge and felt sharp teeth tear a chunk out of his leg.
He cried out in pain and felt hot blood running down the back of his calf, but forced himself back to his feet. Any hesitation here would mean death. His chest throbbed and stung from both the bloody scratches and broken bones, and his leg felt like it would give out, but Roy had to keep going.
There had to be something he could do to kill this Beast. The crocodile turned, hissing at him, its massive tail whipping back and forth. The air was thick with Essence, and Roy reached out to it, pulling it towards himself. With this much in the air around him, it wouldn’t be difficult to gather it while fighting, though he still didn’t know how he could win.
His technique apparently wasn’t strong enough to do much damage, as the Beast had seemed to shrug it off. He was surprised that he’d managed to even so much as scratch its tough hide.
“You know,” Geon piped up as the crocodile began to circle to the right slowly. “You landed six punches in a row on that crocodile earlier, but only the last one managed to do any damage.”
Roy started, then dove to the side again, narrowly avoiding begin hit. He didn’t care, though, as he could feel a wide smile growing on his face.
“Geon, you’re a genius!” he exclaimed, feeling his confidence returning.
“Why, thank you…Um, how exactly am I a genius?”
“What you told me just now,” Roy responded, simultaneously pulling Essence into his core and cycling it through the pattern in his chest to refine as best he could, in his given situation.
He darted forward, already building Essence up in his fists. This would be a do-or-die assault. Either his theory would be correct, and he would win, or he’d be wrong, and the crocodile would eat him. He leaped into the air as he approached the Beast and threw a wild hook punch, catching it in the jaw. The explosion of force rocked its head to the side, but not before it managed to open another gash on Roy’s body, this time, on his left cheek.
He winced as blood began pouring down his face, but when he landed back on his feet, he began throwing punches, much in the same manner as his earlier exercise. He made sure to aim for the same spot every time, driving his Exploding Fist as deep into the scaly hide as he could.
“What I said earlier was merely an observation. I was commenting on the crocodile’s formidable strength, but if I managed to help, all the better for you, I guess. How did I help, by the way?”
The crocodile’s head turned suddenly, and its massive jaws snapped down on his ribs. Roy grunted as he felt another three ribs crack under the sheer force of the creature’s bite, then he felt the hooked teeth sinking into his skin. He gasped but kept hammering away at the same spot, the area right over its core.
He no longer had the strength to talk out loud, and his Essence was running dangerously close to empty. He couldn’t concentrate on pulling any more in, as the pain had grown to excruciating levels.