Before long, Yoru Chikao had eaten the entire body of the Chameleon Hollow, and even the mask, which had shattered into several pieces, was completely devoured by him.
This encounter with the Giant Hollow-level Chameleon Hollow was dangerous, but the rewards were quite pleasing; although Yoru Chikao's body size had not increased at all, still remaining over ten meters, his spiritual pressure had nearly doubled, effectively doubling his strength.
At this moment, Yoru Chikao was confident that even if the Chameleon Hollow were to revive and fight him again, he would still be able to defeat it, even if he didn't use Cero to blast its tongue beforehand.
Haruto, the Hollow beside him, had also finished eating the mass of flesh that was fatter than its entire body. Now, Haruto's physique was much stronger than before.
"Woof woof woof!"
Haruto barked a few times at Yoru Chikao, a hint of joy in its voice.
"You said you can help me heal my injuries?"
Although this canine Hollow was just barking like a normal puppy, for some reason, Yoru Chikao could accurately understand its meaning, so he gently picked up the puppy as it suggested and placed it on his shoulder.
Haruto then jumped from his shoulder onto Yoru Chikao's back and gently licked the two blood holes on Yoru Chikao's back that were about to scab over. A miraculous scene then occurred; the injuries, which would have originally taken a long time to heal, instantly shed their scars, and Yoru Chikao's back recovered to its original pristine state.
"I didn't expect you to have this skill; in that case, you can follow me!"
"Woof woof woof!"
Hearing Yoru Chikao's words, Haruto barked twice happily, seemingly in response to Yoru Chikao, and then obediently stood on Yoru Chikao's left shoulder.
Yoru Chikao, meanwhile, used his tail to coil around the two bone spurs that had severely injured him, and quickly left the area with Haruto.
...
In an underground cave formed by hardened sand, Haruto lay in a corner, sound asleep, seemingly still digesting the flesh it had eaten earlier.
Yoru Chikao, on the other hand, stared blankly at the two large bone spurs in his hand. He had been severely injured by these two bone spurs in the previous battle, and he originally wanted to eat them both, but he found that his current teeth simply couldn't digest them. He bit into one and almost broke his teeth, so he kept them.
Now, the more he looked, the more he felt that these two bone spurs resembled the spikes on a Gillian's neck. He wondered how that Chameleon Hollow had obtained them. Thinking back to the incident where he was poisoned by hitting the Chameleon with his bare hands, Yoru Chikao decided to keep these two bone spurs as weapons.
Every Blue Star man has a martial arts dream, and Yoru Chikao was no exception. In his previous life, he had even specifically studied swordsmanship with a renowned Kendo master for a period of time, for which he had paid a considerable amount of tuition.
He never dreamed that the swordsmanship he had learned for fun back then would actually come in handy one day.
Yoru Chikao carefully recalled the swordsmanship lessons he had learned.
'The eight basic movements of swordsmanship: thrust, chop, upward cut, guard, cloud, point, collapse, and intercept.'
It was clear that these two bone spurs were only suitable for Yoru Chikao to use for thrusting, but fortunately, skill is about quality, not quantity. Yoru Chikao only needed to master the thrust to deal with those Hollows with low intelligence.
Yoru Chikao raised a bone spur with both hands, holding it straight out, his arms and the bone spur forming a straight line, and then thrust it forward sharply. In an instant, the wind whistled, which was quite impressive.
Thus, Yoru Chikao repeatedly practiced thrusting in the underground cave, aiming at the air.
"Phew, being a Hollow is indeed much more convenient than being a human!"
In his previous life, due to long-term overtime and extremely low exercise frequency, he would get exhausted after just a couple of sword flourishes. Now, Yoru Chikao had continuously thrust thousands of times without any signs of fatigue.
At this moment, Haruto, the Hollow who had woken up nearby, stared at the large creature in front of him with a puzzled expression, not understanding why it kept attacking the air.
...
Hueco Mundo Desert, New Territory.
"Croak!"
A five-meter-tall, fiery-red, bloated frog Hollow was chasing a Haruto, a normal dog-sized Hollow, ahead. Seeing how fast this Haruto was moving, the frog Hollow was about to give up, but for some unknown reason, the Haruto's speed suddenly slowed down.
This made the frog Hollow, who had originally intended to give up, chase after it again. Suddenly, the canine Hollow being chased in front ran to a sand dune and abruptly stopped.
Seeing this, the frog Hollow let out a strange cry and pounced wildly towards its prey. However, as soon as it landed, it was pierced by a sharp bone spur that emerged from the sand.
"Sizzle!"
At the same time, a violent arc of lightning was conducted through the bone spur to its entire body, causing the frog Hollow excruciating pain.
"Croak!"
The frog Hollow cried out in pain, staring intently at the canine Hollow in front of it, wanting to tear it to shreds. Unexpectedly, Haruto did the opposite and jumped out from the Hollow hole under the frog Hollow's belly.
Yoru Chikao emerged from the sand at the opportune moment, and with a sharp slash of the bone spur in his hand, he cut the frog Hollow in half at the waist.
"Well done, Haruto!"
Beside the sand dune, Yoru Chikao began to divide the spoils, tearing off a frog Hollow's hind leg and handing it to Haruto, while Yoru Chikao also resumed eating.
During this time in the New Territory, Haruto would lure the enemies, and Yoru Chikao would be responsible for the ambush and killing. Through this method, the two had already hunted more than a dozen Hollows, including five powerful Hollows. This hunting efficiency was several times faster than Yoru Chikao's previous solo operations.
With these few days of actual combat, Yoru Chikao's thrusting technique became increasingly proficient, and he had already managed to attach his Gran Rey Cero to the bone spur for extended periods. It was precisely this move that allowed him to instantly kill the frog Hollow of the same rank as himself just now.
The only flaw was this bone spur. Originally, in the hands of that Giant Chameleon Hollow, its length was just right, but with Yoru Chikao's current body size, using it as a sword was actually a bit too long.
However, none of these were problems. Yoru Chikao felt that the spiritual pressure within his body had accumulated to a certain level, and it seemed that he could advance to a Giant Hollow by just consuming one more Freshman Hollow.
At that time, his body size would increase, and it should perfectly match these two bone spurs.
Therefore, Yoru Chikao did not intend to delay. He planned to strike while the iron was hot; he would advance to a Giant Hollow in one go today!
"Roar!"
However, he had not walked many steps before encountering a Freshman Hollow shaped like a crocodile, which was fearlessly charging towards Yoru Chikao.
"What a coincidence, isn't it!"
Looking at the crazed crocodile Hollow, Haruto, who was originally perched on Yoru Chikao's shoulder, obediently jumped down, blinking its large eyes and seeming somewhat puzzled as to why that crocodile Hollow would seek its own death.
Yoru Chikao did not hesitate. He thrust the bone spur in his hand, directly skewering the ignorant Freshman Hollow like a roasted skewer!
Yoru Chikao, who had instantly killed it, did not choose to devour it immediately. He directly brought the crocodile Hollow's corpse back to the underground cave, because Yoru Chikao, who was about to advance to a Giant Hollow, needed a relatively safe space for advancement to prevent sneak attacks from Hollows of the same rank.