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Chapter 5 - Chapter 4: A deep shadow

Twisting as fast as he could to face the beast again, he felt as a trickle of blood ran down from his nose. Not sparing time to wipe it he allowed for the blood to trickle onto his mouth, the tase of metallic liquid fueling him as he knew the next part would be the hardest.

The strike against the beast had gone extraordinarily well, but had also left him with a minor headache that was starting to build.

"Okay, I can't imbue anything with gravity mana for too long without causing myself damage." He had to keep constant watch on his opponent and was thankful for this moment of peace between strikes.

The fight so far had been just a trading of blows, but he felt now that the opponent felt cornered it would start frantically striking at him, he was right.

As he twisted his knife back into his best imitation of a defensive posture, he felt the gaze of the beast dig into him. The claws of the beast were now covered in both Clancy's and its own blood, raising its injured arm, it licked the blood off its claw while staring down Clancy. The blood was dripping of its fangs now, a constant reminder to him that this opponent could kill him if he made even a single mistake.

The strange blade seemed to have taken damage in the last strike, as he considered the blade, he saw a hairline crack running down its center. He understood what he needed to do, ending this as fast as he possibly could was the only way for him to survive. 

The beast across him had clearly been waiting to see who would make the first move, patiently circling him as it took time to adjust to its newly injured leg. His best time to strike would be while it was still reeling from the pain of its wound, he needed to move quickly if he wanted this opportunity to remain. He needed to move now.

The blade of his dagger was pointed directly at the beasts' eyes as he slowly approached it. Raising his dagger up with one hand as he advanced, the beast lowered its head ready. The time for killing was upon them, this needed to end, preferably in the first strike. Clancy knew that with his injuries he wouldn't last long in an extended conflict, feeling his other shoulder start to throb in pain as the shock started to ware out, a slight shake now presents down his arm running into his fingers.

With a push off his feet, he dashed forward ready to strike, the dagger tip singing through the air as he swung to where the beast had brought its head to, the first cut grazing the beasts forehead, in return the beast slashed out with a claw as he barely managed to move out of the way of the strike. His next strike was aimed at the beasts retreating leg as he aimed for the muscle underneath its calf, hoping to limit its movement more, the beast had expected this and was already lashing out with its tail, which Clancy totally didn't forget it had.

Raising his empty arm up in an attempt to block the strike, both his attack and the beasts struck true. Not having a moment to spare both he and the beast continued to attack. Being much smaller than the car sized mutt helped a lot with dodging through its strikes, but meant that every attack he didn't dodge did far more damage than he was capable of.

Clenching his teeth, he swung as swiftly as he could at the beasts unprotected side, the beast had apparently forgone defense in hopes to kill Clancy before he could fatally wound the beast. It thrust its head down in an attempt to bite Clancys head off. This time he didn't have room to dodge so he had to hope his strike would land first and move the beast. Imbuing his gravity mana into this strike in hopes of achieving just that, he swung his arm as hard as he could into the beast's mid-section.

The strike had thankfully moved the beast just slightly off course. Unfortunately, Clancy didn't possess enough strength on his own to move the mutt far enough to completely throw it off course as a cut was dug into his cheek, allowing the monster to sink one of its fangs into his shoulder.

Pain consumed Clancy a moment later. A rigid, spiteful pain wracked him while the beast fought against his tunic to remove the fang. Still running off of adrenaline, which was the only reason he was still conscious, he had the idea to grab onto the beast's head. The monster now found itself stuck in Clancy's shoulder. Clancy clung to the beast's head with his empty hand as he tried to hold the animal in place, struggling against the beast was yielding, and surprisingly positive results as he clung for life. 

Bringing his weapon hand back to position he started to strike down on the beast's skull. The first swing made a resounding clanging sound ring out as his dagger struck an incredibly solid skull, Clancy paid no attention to the continuous vibration being smashed through his body as he kept swinging. 

His vision started to go white as he kept swinging, clenching his teeth so hard that he managed to chip one of them he kept swinging. The pain was now overbearing, Clancy felt as if he would die, no, he knew this would kill him. He stopped caring about that, if he was guaranteed to die then he would at least take this overgrown mutt down with him.

Letting out a bestial roar of his own he kept swinging, eventually he swung so hard that the dagger just shattered anyway. Armed with nothing but the hilt of the dagger he had to try and change his strategy. Taking a moment to breathe, he tried to calm down as much as he could, his focus skill running overtime, he needed to figure out a better strategy. His thoughts were fleeting as he tried to scramble together a last-minute effort to kill this beast.

Trying to conjure another earth dagger, all he was met with was a slightly misshaped rock and a piercing pain throughout his whole head. Realizing he had run low enough on mana to not be able to form anything with his whispers of earth spell, he just started swinging his rock into his enemy. 

The rough edges of the imprompt weapon cut against his skin as he bashed the beasts head in. The beast meanwhile was thrashing, trying to get Clancy off as it felt its head slowly cave in. Its instincts told it that it would die here, its gaze looking even more furious at him, the beast had accepted this fate but was resolved to killing Clancy with it.

The two fighters having agreed to mutual destruction the battle continued raging on. 

Clancy had managed to form an iota of a plan he tried to act on it. Clutching even harder to both the beast and its weapon, he smashed down as hard as he could with the rock and imbued it with every last drop of his gravity mana, the feeling of his brain about to burst crushed into him, but he ignored it. He understood that any hesitation from now on would end in his certain death. 

The rock smashed into the divot made in the beast's skull as, with all his might, he finally managed to break into the beast's head. The gush of grey matter and brain chunks flying everywhere, not even noticing the beast's flee of death. In such a crazed state he hadn't even noticed the announcer calling his victory.

The newcomer has shown his resolve as he has slain his first opponent, and might I say this was an especially interesting fight. With a display of talent such as that we might just have ourselves an intriguing combatant. 

The cheers of the crowd hadn't even knocked him out of his stupor as he kept swinging the rock until he had crushed his way to its lower skull and the rock had shattered. He had barely even noticed that as his rampage had completely forgone any thought. All he knew was blood for several long seconds. 

Looking down at the dogs caved in skull and limp body, he felt a strange numbness in his heart. His vision was slowly fading to black as a smile formed on his face. He had done it, he killed it, he was alive. He won. With that thought his body slumped onto the ground in a strange position, beast's fang still halfway in his shoulder, ruby blood flowing out of the grievous wound.

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A toothy smile reflected the light of the screen, having just watched quite an interesting first fight the man had been quite happy. This child may actually be exactly what he was looking for. Rising from his seat and dismissing the screen, the light in the room faded to black as the man stretched his body out. A rough dark voice rung out into the empty room.

"Finally, a reason to act. How long I've waited." The echo of the voice was quiet, but sharp. If there were any other living being in the chamber, a dark chill would freeze their entire being at the sound of it.

 

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