22 First battle. (2/2)
Li Yang put some force into his right arm and moved the sword, cleanly beheading the bandit leader and robbing his life. Li Yang did not look at the falling head, nor did he look at the collapsing body of the bandit leader, his eyes landing on the Metal Eater.
The mission required him to deliver both of their heads, so he would of course not forget about this Metal Eater. Seeing the body of the bandit leader collapse to the ground, the Metal Eater was already filled with fear, thoughts of escaping appearing in its mind.
It had only accepted following the bandit leader after the bandit leader beat it into submission. But now that very same person had been killed by this child in front of it, unable to withstand even a single blow, how could it not feel fear. It immediately chose to act on its instinct, turning around to flee.
But how could Li Yang possibly let it flee? Even if he were to let it run, it would not manage to get very far before he managed to catch up. Metal Eaters were known for being sturdy and tough, not for their speed.
The moment the Metal Eater turned around, Li Yang waved his hand. With a wave of his hand, the ground beneath the Metal Eater became coated with a layer of clear ice, causing the Metal Eater to completely lose its footing and slip. That was the moment Li Yang sprung into action.
”Sorry, but this might hurt.”
He dashed forward the moment it lost footing, placing both his hands on the back of the Metal Eater. His hands landed on the back of the Metal Eater and he activated all the energy his fire rune allowed him to. Intense heat quickly hit the Metal Eater, scorching it's metallic scales and causing it to let out loud screeches.
Li Yang did not give it a second to rest and recuperate, continuing to channel as much fire into its scales as he could. It's scales quickly turned a glowing red in color, showing just how hot they had gotten after being exposed to such intense heat.
With its scales becoming glowing hot, the Metal Eater was in unbearable pain. But its vitality was truly powerful, as it had yet to die. When the scales turned glowing hot, Li Yang stopped drawing upon the power of his fire rune.
Just when the Metal Eater thought that Li Yang would stop, intense cold washed over its body. Li Yang had stopped drawing upon the power from his fire rune, instead drawing on the power of his ice rune.
Li Yang had originally hoped that he would be able to rely on his fire rune to melt the metallic scales of the Metal Eater, but it quickly became apparent that he was not capable of creating high enough heat to melt its scales.
Since it was like that, he could only change his approach. The power of his ice rune washed over the body of the Metal Eater, rapidly cooling its heated body. Under the rapid cooling, it's red-hot scales quickly dimmed down and hardened, becoming even tougher than before.
But the Metal Eater could not rejoice because of this, as the cold was only getting worse and worse as time passed. This continued until the Metal Eater suddenly heard a loud cracking sound coming from its back.
Its metallic scales had turned extremely brittle under the extreme cold, brittle enough to let Li Yang shatter them with his fist. He punched a hole in the scales of the Metal Eater and raised his right arm, stabbing into the body of the Metal Eater with his sword.
With his sword entering into its body, fire and lightning were let loose directly into its flesh, rampaging through its body. The Metal Eater could not even scream out as it died, the fire and lightning shredding and cooking its organs until all life vanished from its body.
After the Metal Eater was dead, Li Yang took out a piece of cloth and cleaned his sword, before sheathing it once more. After he cleaned his sword, Jinwu landed on his shoulder, letting out a few self-satisfied caws.
”Yes, yes. You did very well. Once we get back to the city, I will get some good meat for you.”
He had managed to kill all hiss enemies before Li Yang managed to kill his, so he was feeling very smug at the moment. It's self satisfied caws only stopped when Li Yang scratched it beneath its beak and promised it some good food.
He also could not help but look at the bodies of the bandits. The two kills he had performed could be considered clean, but Jinwu's kills were much messier. The bandits had their eyes and throats torn open, their bodies caked in their own blood.
Li Yang did not immediately remove the head of the Metal Eater. He first wanted to take a look and see if there was anything else in this bandit camp that might catch his attention.