98 Traveling (2/2)
That lion stared at it's fallen comrade with shock and fear in its eyes.
Even for a mid perennial, it should've been extremely difficult to kill the low perennial Frost-mane Lion in a single blow. It proved that they had underestimated Rathe and that the information they had gathered from the previous Frost-mane Lions was inaccurate.
”It's too late for you now, you scaredy-cat!” Rathe continued his charge, only releasing more spiritual energy.
”You're asking for it!” shouted the lion, releasing his strongest aura and meeting Rathe's charge.
”That's more like it! At least die honorably after sneak attacking like cowards!”
Suddenly, a pair of gauntlets appeared around Rathe's fists. Now, there were two intense layers of energy surrounding his fists, merging both his soul arts and his battle arts.
”Bone Breaker!” shouted Rathe as his fist made contact with a swiping claw.
The lion, who before planned to strike with the second claw since Rathe was wide open after the attack, groaned in pain. Rathe then striking a second time, the lion was now being propelled backward.
He tumbled across the rocky terrain, crashing into the mountainside and leaving an imprint in the rock.
Rathe didn't let up at all, only increasing the energy he was releasing and charging again.
Groaning in pain, the lion pulled itself out of the rubble and tried its best to retreat. But when he put his left paw onto the ground, the lion collapsed into the ground. Unbearable pain shot through his system as he realized how much damage Rather had actually done.
His bones were broken, they were pulverized. And his muscles were torn and swollen. From that moment on, even if the lion could somehow escape, he would forever be crippled.
”You--”
”Shut up and die!”
Not caring what his opponent had to say, Rathe reached the grounded lion. The furious gorilla brought both of his hands together and smashed them down over the lion's head.
The lion tried his best to defend, swiping his claw and using all of his essence to defend.
He reduced the physical damage quite a lot, but he couldn't match the momentum from both of Rathe's arms. The other arm crumbled under Rathe's attack, and the soul attack reached the lion's skull.
There was no hope for survival as the brain was thrashed by the spiritual attack.
Not satisfied after killing his enemies, Rathe dashed back to the others. A look of pain and sorrow filled his eyes.
Again, he had lost a peak elder gorilla due to a surprise attack and Fontu almost lost his life as well.
”Are you alright, Fontu?”
”Yeah, I'll be fine after some rest. But we need to hurry back, otherwise, everyone else will be in trouble.”
”Right…” Rathe grumbled as he took a deep breath and released his essence and spirit.
Exhaustion finally set in as he slowly gathered the belongings of his fallen enemies. ”We'll have to rest before we leave. You need time to start healing and I've used too much energy…”
Fontu chuckled, ”That's what happens when you kill two mid perennials and two low perennials after getting ambushed. If you follow normal logic, we should've died.”
”But we didn't, we're not that weak,” grumbled Rathe. ”But we still lost another one… RAAHHH!!! What's up with all these Frost-mane Lions?!”
”If we can't figure it out, then so be it. We'll just have to hurry back. They should be fine back home with Vloz.”
”You forget… The school trip should be starting right about now…”
Upon realizing what Rathe meant, a look of terror and anger flashed over Fontu's face. ”That… makes things a lot worse…”
”Yeah… and here we are, unable to hurry back because I'm too tired to do anything,” stated Rathe angrily. ”I'm still too weak… If only I were as strong as Dioro, that would change everything.”
”In time, maybe. But for now, you'll just have to make do with your current strength.” Shaking, Fontu stood up and launched an essence covered punch to the ground.
He easily made a small crater, but he repeated this two more times. Once it was big enough, Fontu placed the fallen gorilla inside and started covering it back up with the loose dirt.
”Hey, Rathe, got any idea who planned all of this?” asked Fontu.
”No clue…”