Transcendent Gene
Chapter 97: On The Hunt [5]

Chapter 97: On The Hunt [5]

A week passed while Amaya and Gio did nothing but hunt.

They didn’t go far from the clearing where Amaya killed the Crimson Ash Bear. Their area of influence was limited the moment they decided to set up a base camp instead of using temporary campsites as they traveled.

It was unfortunate only because this vast wilderness could not be properly explored. Really, they did it on purpose so they’d be near the rendezvous location when the zephyr returned.

The only real problem with it was the variety of beasts they encountered. Naturally, if they remained in a single position, they’d only be able to hunt the beasts that also either lived around or frequented that position.

Gio was still satisfied.

Unless they were cubs and adolescents, the beasts in the area ranged from Tier 3 to Tier 6. That made none of them targets Gio could touch, but that was if he was alone.

It was a different story when Amaya fought until the beast was near Gio’s level before giving it to him.

She tried not to cripple the beasts as much as she could. Most of the time, she exhausted their energy and created small openings in their flesh so Gio could actually have a chance of piercing them.

Even if they were dead, he couldn’t cut their skin. Such methods were necessary.

’I questioned if it would help at all since this kind of hunting is nothing like real combat, but I was wrong.’

Powerful beasts who had been weakened were far more capable than weak beasts who stood at the same level using their full power. Their movements were smarter, faster, and stronger. Their defenses were like fortresses to him, and though they weren’t sentient, they’d lived long lives of brutally fighting, surviving, and climbing up the food chain.

The amount of work it took to kill the prey here was far greater than what it took to kill ordinary beasts.

Bang!

A Crimson Ash Bear. It was a target they’d reached a week and a half into hunting and the second one they’d seen thus far.

Amaya certainly wasn’t lying about the taste. It might’ve just been because she knew how to cook it, but the meat was definitely better than anything Gio had tasted so far in this second lifetime.

So, even knowing that its defenses were so tough that cutting it would be impossible, Gio still felt a desire to challenge it.

Amaya did her job first. It was somewhat similar to how she fought the first bear. She took its form, sent a crescent of flame into its stomach, and cut a gash into its flesh. Rather than taking the time to transform again, she merely sent another arc into the same position.

Her feet moved one after another, bringing her in front of the bear and propelling her into the air. She threw a punch as it opened its mouth to roar, sending the massive paw of her beast manifestation into its throat.

Crunch!

A gruesome sound rang out, somewhere between a crunch and a squelch. It was a wet sound that was soon followed by the sight of Amaya ripping something out of the bear’s mouth.

It was hardly able to register the fact that the second flame arc had also cut into its stomach, deepening the wound and leaving its inner flesh visible.

Landing on the ground, Amaya backed away and threw a gooey red mass of tissue and flesh on the ground in front of Gio.

"It won’t shoot fire from its mouth anymore when it doesn’t have that. Everything else is still fair game, though."

Gio nodded and stepped forward.

10 days of five or six fights like these a day led to great improvements in Gio’s form.

When he pushed his feet into the ground and shot himself forward, he truly felt like he became a breeze.

Aether went into his legs and increased his speed. As the Crimson Ash Bear recovered from the dizziness in its head and the blood flowing from the back of its throat, he arrived in front of it.

The size difference was hard to get used to. Gio wasn’t even tall enough to see the gash he was aiming for unless he angled his gaze upward. It was a completely different perspective than the one he was used to fighting from, and that was maybe the hardest thing to get used to.

He needed to move more to reach openings he could easily touch when he was an adult. No, it was more than that. The fighting style he was chasing, the one he was trying to adapt into his movements, was not built to be practiced in such a small body.

Gio knew how to adapt. There was a reason he’d been fighting faster and more methodically. However, perhaps...

The thought vanished entirely the moment he swung his sword for the first time.

He pushed into the air and grabbed it off his hip, sending it in a wide horizontal arch. He hit the bottom of the gash that Amaya made, tearing a smaller yet deeper cut into its surface.

Bang!

The bear was aware of his presence. Just as its paw came down to crush him into its stomach, he pushed his feet off its skin and threw himself backward.

He reached a hand into his utility belt and pulled out a group of rocks that were a mix of crystalline blue and ordinary stone.

The bear’s paw moved through the end of its arc. It righted its body to chase him, giving him the perfect opportunity.

Whoosh!

With Aether infused in his arm, he threw those stones forward. They scattered through the air, flying straight on their paths.

Two of them strayed near the bear’s arms. Two of them went low to the bottom of its stomach. One was headed slightly above the gash, and only the last was actually on route.

But it was fine.

The bear was moving towards Gio, pushing itself into the stones. As long as they struck true...

Gio’s body hit the ground only a second later and as he rolled to face the beast again, he reached his arm out and clenched his fist.

The signature white hue of Hekat’s power appeared around his arm, but the ground around him was not affected.

He concentrated his power into small threads and focused until he could see them with his eyes. Each thread was connected to a stone he’d thrown, and as he clenched his fist, Hekat’s ability of change flowed through the threads and took control of them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Six small bursts rang out. The stones morphed into spiked balls and stuck into the bear’s body. The ones that missed the gash were left to explode completely to act as a distraction if nothing else.

All that mattered was that a single one succeeded. It turned into a spiked ball and stuck into the flesh inside the gash. As the remaining rocks exploded, their pieces flew towards the only remaining ball. They merged with its form, and in another burst, it rapidly transformed into a spike that impaled itself into the gash.

Voom!

Gio outstretched his fingers, willing the spike to push deeper.

That was the end of the time he had to do as he pleased. The bear never stopped running. Gio’s attacks were still meager to it. Its concern was focused on the one who stood in the shadows behind him.

Gio was just a stepping stone standing in its path. It charged with that thought, not even bothering to attack. It knew that its body alone was enough to squash the bug-like human.

However, to put all of its momentum forward without a second thought was a terrible move. It was the kind of move Gio was the most confident in countering.

He lowered his body and prepared for its arrival.

For a weak person forced to face the strong, the enemy’s own force was the greatest possible weapon.

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