Instantly, thoughts flashed in his mind at unimaginable speed, 'I was expecting something like that with the earlier stumble, but it seems that my body truly can't take the Blood Ignition with my injuries together, or else I won't make it…'
He inwardly sighed before a ruthless glint passed through his eyes, 'Seems there're no choices left. If I want to make it out alive—and stronger than ever—I need to go all in. Undoubtedly, there'll be hell to pay later, but…it's an all-or-nothing moment!'
This thought flashed in his mind in a fraction of a fraction of a second, just enough time to think before the Alpha Zephyr Wolf's razor-sharp claws reached him.
Swish.
Its claw sliced through the air, but just as it seemed poised to tear open his throat, Mikael leaned back—not by much, but just enough.
Just enough so that instead of tearing through his throat, the claw merely grazed him—leaving behind a thin red line, but ultimately inflicting no real damage.
A flash of pain bloomed across his neck, but Mikael didn't even flinch. His eyes swept his surroundings, locking onto the approaching wind-based attacks from the three Early-stage Zephyr Wolves.
'I can tank those ones, but…'
His gaze snapped back to the Alpha Zephyr Wolf, 'If I do, I'll be slowed—just enough for the Alpha to land its attacks. And those strikes? I can't tank them…'
This thought flashed in his mind in an instant before he made a decision. With an exertion of strength in his legs, he propelled himself backward. The ground under his feet cracked under the immense strength; in a moment, it became a five-meter-wide crater.
Mikael's sudden retreat granted him a fleeting moment of reprieve—not much, as the pack of demonic beasts rushed after him without pause, but just enough.
In the fraction of a second where he was free, he extended his Divine Sense into his storage ring, bringing out red-colored herbs from which emanated an extremely potent aura of vitality.
Without wasting an instant, Mikael tossed the herbs into his mouth, his throat working in a single gulp. The change was immediate, a wave of warmth surged through his body, lightening it, reviving it. A moment ago he'd been on the brink of collapse, but now it felt as if he were fully healed.
Of course, Mikael knew that this was only an illusion caused by the immense quantity of vitality spreading through his body. It was like the wave of heat that someone experiencing severe hypothermia would feel before dying of cold.
It was only an illusion—the kind that surfaces just before the body shuts down for good. Whether it would truly be the end depended on what happened next. Mikael knew this, but… 'Right now, this illusion—false as it is—is what's keeping me going. These herbs bought me maybe a minute of "juice," and if I haven't won by then… I'm fucked.'
Knowing he was burning through the final embers of his strength and that his time was running out, Mikael didn't hesitate, he hurled himself toward the demonic beasts.
And then—
Everything blurred in a mix of chaos, pain, and blood. It was similar to what initially happened when Mikael was fighting against the Titanhide Rhino and the pack of the Zephyr Wolves, but with a small, tiny, almost minuscule difference: this time, he wasn't getting beaten up, he wasn't a punching bag that could only passively get hit without being able to give back much.
No, this time he was retaliating, and not only was he retaliating while able to stand on equal footing, he wasn't even simply winning.
No. He was dominating! He wasn't using Sangrelia to fight, no, he was using himself to fight—he was the weapon!
He moved with an unparalleled ferocity, his every movement brutal and violent. He knew that he was running on his last fumes and that each second that passed brought him one step closer to the end. Because of that, he held nothing back and fought with a ferocity that would have made the small wolf from which he drew inspiration during his Partial Enlightenment blush.
SHRRIIP!
Mikael was able to get a hold on an Early-stage Zephyr Wolf, and then, using his bare hands, he tore it apart. With a horrifying sound, the wolf was torn in two, its insides spilling on the ground as it let out a howl that spoke of unimaginable suffering—one that echoed across the devastated battlefield, only to fall silent seconds later as the last ember of life faded from the demonic beast.
Ba-Dum
His heart, working in overtime, resounded in Mikael's ears as he continued to battle. With each confrontation with the Titanhide Rhino and the pack of Zephyr Wolves—now at half size—he continued to accumulate more and more injuries, but contrary to weakening, the aura he emanated only grew and grew, becoming more feral by the moment.
Mikael felt the vitality given by the medicinal herbs he took begin to be partially used. In this state, he had only 30 seconds, afterward, forget fighting, he wouldn't even be able to move. That he was sure of.
His vision, partially obscured by blood, caught the scene of his surroundings. The pack of Zephyr Wolves was now down to only two members: the Alpha, already seriously injured, and the last Early-stage Zephyr Wolf. From them, he caught the faint scent of fear. 'A little more and I can send them running,' he thought, certain of himself before turning his vision to the Titanhide Rhino.
It had also joined the fray a while ago, and even with its 'impenetrable' defense, he had accumulated injuries. In a lot of places, its hide was cracked, with blood even seeping through. These injuries were relatively severe, but considering its size, 'It won't be enough to bring it down in the 30 seconds that I have left, if things continue like how they are currently going, in 30 seconds I am going down…'
Ba-Dum
'Which means…that I need to take a gamble.' A resolute glint flashed in his eyes before he launched himself toward the Titanhide Rhino. The 'pack' of Zephyr Wolves observed him warily, not daring to make a move.
A layer of Earth Qi appeared, covering the Titanhide Rhino's body and enhancing its defense to an even higher level. Its horn in particular received special attention, receiving a higher amount of Earth Qi than the rest of its body, becoming durable and sharp enough to seemingly cut through anything—which seemed doubly true when you considered the multiple-meters-long size of the horn.
"AHHH!"
Mikael let out a low shout before jumping upward. In an instant, he crossed the distance separating him from the behemoth, arriving face to face with the 40-meters-tall behemoth. At this moment, the power of his jump seemed to have been entirely used; for a moment, Mikael was immobile in midair without being able to move, becoming a perfect target.
Mikael understood this and instantly paled, an expression of unwillingness flashed on his visage. The Titanhide Rhino, seeing this hateful prey—it was able to injure it, after all—be vulnerable midair without being able to move, a glint of joy passed in its eyes as it thrust its Earth Qi-powered horn toward the small human.
What it didn't see, though, was the mocking glint that appeared in Mikael's eyes for an instant before quickly disappearing, being replaced by fear.
"NOOO!!!!"
Mikael let out an unwilling roar as he saw the approaching horn that seemed moments from piercing him, which would instantly kill him considering that the horn was larger than his entire body. But then, just as everything seemed lost—
Mikael's body shifted imperceptibly, not enough to evade the horn but enough to transform a lethal injury into something less severe.
Crack-Sprunch.
The horn continued on its path, and on its path was Mikael's left arm. Instantly, his left arm was torn off in a shower of blood and shredded flesh, but Mikael seemed to not care, as by sacrificing his left arm he evaded the attack and, in an instant, placed his legs on the horn before pushing himself with all the power his broken and unbroken legs could gather.
He was propelled at unimaginable speed toward the immense eye of the Titanhide Rhino, who could only look in horror at the approaching human, not understanding how the hateful prey moved midair when it shouldn't have been able to.
What it didn't know is that humans in the Spiritual Foundation Realm can fly. If its intelligence were better, its memory would have remembered Mikael 'flying' down from the sky when he escaped from the tempest—but sadly for it, demonic beasts have low intelligence and short-term memory, so it wasn't able to remember it.
This disparity in intelligence was one that Mikael exploited by not flying, misleading the demonic beasts into believing he couldn't fly, which wasn't far from the truth considering that storm still looming above his head, but that was only above the 50 meters limit.
Quickly, Mikael crossed space and arrived before the eye of the Titanhide Rhino. Clenching his right fist and twisting his hip, he threw a punch, one that contained 100% of the strength he could gather, combined with the power of 'turning injuries into power' and 'Blood Ignition'. It wouldn't be a lie to call it the strongest punch he had ever thrown.
The behemoth closed its eyelid while hastily gathering Earth Qi over it, trying to protect the vulnerable area against the approaching blow.
The next moment, Mikael's full-power punch collided with the now brown—from the Earth Qi—eyelid. For a moment, the two seemed to be at a stalemate as the world held its breath to see which force would come out on top in this confrontation.
Crack!
A sharp cracking sound resounded as the brown-colored Qi protecting the eyelid began to fracture, but contrary to what could be expected, Mikael's expression wasn't joyful—on the contrary, it was grim.
'It will take a full second to break, more than enough for this behemoth to move out of the attack way!' he realized grimly. At this moment, it seemed that his gamble would fail, which would mean defeat—and maybe death, depending on how the situation developed.
He had, after all, sacrificed an arm for this opening, so if it gave him nothing, it could very well be his end. Of course, if he used his talismans, it would be a different story, but that was something he only wanted to do as an absolute last recourse.
The reason?
He could feel his ferocity growing in this fight, which was feedbacking into the Ferocity-based Cultivation Technique he created, making it stronger and more refined by the seconds, and he was reluctant to abandon this 'amazing' 'training opportunity' like that.
Mikael gritted his teeth through the pain as a mad glint passed through his eyes. 'If the strength of this blow isn't enough, I simply need to go past my limits!'
With that thought, he forced his arm to exert more strength. Instantly, the bones and muscles in his arm made cracking and tearing sounds respectively as intense pain assaulted him—but he didn't care.
He wasn't deterred. On the contrary, he pushed himself further, and with his right arm breaking down, the Titanhide Rhino's Earth Qi defense was rapidly eroded. It tried to move out of Mikael's attack way, but sadly for it, Mikael's determination was greater, and at the price of destroying his right arm, he was able to break its defense just in time.
'Too slow.' he inwardly smirked.
Just before it could shift its head away from Mikael's path, the Earth Qi was finally annihilated, and without it, no matter how strong its defense was, the closer eyelid was like paper before Mikael's more than 100% punch.
Its massive eye exploded as Mikael's currently insanely high physical strength collided with it. The moment he saw the now empty eye socket, he didn't wait before flying through it, directly entering the massive behemoth's body.
It let out a pained bellow, feeling the overwhelming agony in its now destroyed eye—but what it didn't know was that this was only the beginning of the end.
Its end.
Author Note:
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In this chapter we followed Mikael activated in a 'berseker mode' who decided to beat everything on a single move and weither it will work is to be seen in the next chapter that's for sure.
Still I would like to have your opinion on Mikael somewhat relentless fighting style because this time he was truly not holding any punch when he sacrified his left arm…yeah this had to hurt.
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Want to read ahead? Unlock advanced chapters on Patreon—just search SDASLUMMY.
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— End of Chapter —