Blast! Blast! Blast!
Alright, I should be a little more serious now as he does send quite the barrage of projectiles towards me. Nothing to fancy but I can easily see what he’s trying to do. With two heads at once, he’s shooting from them the spell Scorched Fireballs, one that is powered up at roughly the bottom of A+ rank. Imagine a magic circle the size of three heads (his heads of course) combined into one and from it, several small fireballs are formed, ones that individually are much weaker than a normal Fireball (relative to its S rank strength, they still are quite strong otherwise) but combined, they provide a much greater threat and a complete horror to those that are about to suffer from the rain. Though it seems to be a single volley of let’s say 10 Scorched Fireballs, one of the heads seem to be focusing on the magic circle, creating those fireballs while the other is giving continuous magic to it and even activating the magic circle itself. While I’m dodging this barrage of rather way too hot fireballs that are crashing down towards me just like a meteorite would, the head that has no involvement on this, it has yet another magic circle in front of it, pointing directly at me but once again, I have no clue what it is but from the magic present there, it does not seem to be dangerous at all… Seriously, what is he doing? I’m definitely missing something but for the love of my precious goddess, I simply don’t feel any threat from it whatsoever… How dangerous can a spell really be in this case?
“Martial Arts - Quick Punch!”
Woosh! Bam!
This time at S- rank, three times stronger than the previous one not only that, rather than aiming at his chest I instead decided to hit one of his legs, hoping that we would lose balance with it but I was not able to do so. He did feel the skill much more than before but using the same analogy as before, this time around I used a single hand to push him. You will definitely feel that but not enough to physically push you backwards. As he was sending scorched rain down my path, I dodged all of them without my trouble, quickly closing the distance between us at the same time and once I was close enough, with a simple and straight punch, I hit him on his front right leg but even though said punch was as strong as the previous skill, even at close distance it still isn’t strong enough to do anything it seems. Because of this, now I’m right in front of him and as anyone can expect, his early Scorched Fireballs are no longer present but instead, the sheer need and “want” to kill me is now fully visible on his faces as he growls at me, showing of all of his rather large and sharp teeth, ready to use all of them on me. In other words, a clash is about to happen, one where I will be slowly increasing my strength throughout it until he reaches his limit.
Bam! Pow!
My strategy is simple, dodge and counter. In case that it does not seem to be possible to counter as he might be going mental with his attacks then, parry him instead. Try to throw him off balance so that I can land a clean and good hit although, for this to happen I will need to at least match his strength first. His strategy on the other hand, seems to be nonexistent, just leave to good ol’ battle instincts I dare to say. He’s ruthlessly attacking me, left and right, up and down, by using his claws to cut me in three, by using his hundreds of teeth to bite me down, by using magic to burn me alive or to blast me away. He’s doing everything in his power to kill and yet, here I am carefully and easily dodging everything he throws at me, counter attacking him at the same time.
Martial Arts after Martial Arts, one more powerful than the previous one but still not there yet it seems. I’m still getting ready for it, as some would say, I’m setting the stage. It seems I will have to use much more strength than what I was initially expecting and even thought however, I do have a good tale to tell. Argh, who am I kidding? I’m not a storyteller or anything like that, I’m just enjoying the battle as it has been somewhat of a long time since I had to use my head to fight an enemy. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m quite grateful for that as if I, the Hero, have to use my full strength to fight a foe then… What type of monstrosity do you think we are talking about?
“Martial Arts - Tiger Paw!”
Swiish! Kapow!
Faster than he could react, stronger than he could withstand, I hit him with a powerful Martial Arts skill, one that completely threw him off the loop as I hit him directly on his belly. An aura surrounds my entire hand, one that has a soft white colour to it. Just like I did a little while back, with the palm of my hand I thrust it upwards towards the belly of Cerberus, hitting it as he’s not high enough that I can’t reach him. The initial impact is as violent as you can guess but, while this initial hit was not strong enough to do much damage to him, I can comfortably say that I did indeed do some damage however, this is not the end of it as more has yet to come. A fraction of a second later my Martial Arts - Tiger Punch does its job, transforming the aura into the shape of the paw of a tiger, one that in this case not only its strength is in the uppers S rank, the size is also several times bigger than my hand, close to covering half of his entire belly. He really is that large, isn’t he? This “paw” has quite the bad manners I would say, as it forcefully pushes Cerberus upwards a meter or so but more than enough to fully lift him up as all of his paws no longer touch the destroyed ground that they were standing on. Then, as the paw gently and filled with love floats him upwards another meter or so, thanks to all the love he’s giving Cerberus, it gets rather excited in the process, exploding a mere second later as it can no longer withstand such pressure. While it’s not a conventional explosion, a shock wave does follow said “explosion” and that one, oh boy, if the “paw” had bad manners than this one, it’s the embodiment of the true meaning of the word itself, forcefully throwing him up towards the air even more and it does so by quite a bit although...
That black smoke cloud is not normal at all. Where the hell did it come from?
Roosh! Fire noises!
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Huh, can’t say that I was expecting this! Even though he got hit by quite the powerful attack, he still was able to use not one but two magic spells or in other words, he preserved through the pain while doing his best to prepare said spells so that he can unleash them against me, hoping to take me by surprise with it. I do have to give him credit as he did succeed in some way, he was able to take me by surprise however, even though two Great Fireballs are crashing down towards me in an intimidating view and with immense speed, they still do not present a threat to me. Yes, these Great Fireballs did come or are coming from within the black smoke cloud but before they are fully visible to yours truly, mere moments before such you could literally see a bright orange light with a few strong red hues to it, illuminating the black smoke cloud. A beautiful display of how the world and magic interact with each other not only that, the Great Fireballs do have a “physical body” (more so a magical one with physical properties) and as they are leaving the smoke cloud, you can physically see said phenomenon as it seems the cloud do not want them to leave, embracing them as best as it can but it’s unable to do so, leaving traces of such “crossing”.
Then a second or so later they hit the area where I should be standing, yes should be. Way before they came raining down towards me, I dashed forward towards the free-falling Cerberus as he did go backwards a little bit thanks to the recoil of the spells, ready to hit him with another powerful and devastating Martial Arts skill although, this thing is a little more resilient that I gave it credit for. What I’m trying to say is that, this thing is ready to intercept me even though he still is mid-air, somehow, he has gained its balance (his paws are facing the ground ready to land), he’s also preparing another attack against me but this one seems to be a mix between magical and physical as I can see his two front paws filled with magic. A spell that is akin to what Shadows use or in other terms, Shadow Claw. Well, this one will be a tad bit more powerful than normal since he still is a little up in the air meaning that he will use gravity and its working on the world to his advantage, increasing the strength of that attack by maybe twice than what normally would be. This is well beyond what a normal monster can do let alone one that has Shadow elements to it but, when you are S rank, what should we, humans, expect from such monstrosity? These beasts are well beyond our simple comprehension, we would’ve to dive into the inner workings of the world itself to understand how such individuals work. How they think, how they see the world, their motives and so on. Can we really guess their way of thinking and acting? Should we be surprised if we witness human traces on them?
And I’m rambling again, aren’t I?
Bam! Ground crumbling noises!
It went exactly how anyone seeing this battle would expect to happen. Although, there was a simple difference, while he was mid-air, he was able to face himself downwards towards me then and somehow, he was able to project himself towards me, gaining even more speed than what gravity would allow him to have, covering the distance between us rather quickly and thanks to this simple, effective and well thought out sequence of movements, the power behind his Shadow Claws have been increased by a few percent, but enough to notice the difference. Though, nothing that I can’t deal with by simply side stepping, I just have to wait a few moments and once he’s close enough, dodge his rather well-crafted and thought-out attack. Because of what I did he hit the ground dead on and quite violently at that, destroying the floor tiles into several pieces, ones that make me and anyone that stare at them unable to know where they are from as their shape has lost any logic behind it and thanks to the force behind such impact, a dust cloud emerges, covering half of his body in an instant, leaving the rest of it to be covered a few seconds later as the air currents present in this large room, slowly cover the rest of it. These ones seem to be coming from the set of stairs but they still don’t make much sense as I don’t remember seeing an open window… Anyway, even though he’s covered by said clouds, I can comfortably know where he is and what he’s doing. He seems to be preparing a magic spell and yet again, one that I still have no clue what it is… Is it the same one as before? The magic present there is the same so… Maybe?
“Does that even matter?”
Yeah me, you are right, while I have no clue what it is, it does not present a threat at all and with this in mind, it’s time to execute the second part of my plan. I’m a few meters from him, nothing too dramatic as I’m not far enough to miss him dearly but, neither of us can’t physically touch each other meaning that, I will have to get closer to him or use one of my previous Martial Arts skills. I will actually be doing these two, explaining why I’m currently running up to him as I can see that he’s a little disorientated from his earlier attack. It seems he put a little too much force behind his deadly attack as he’s struggling to even stand up or it’s more correct to say that his front paws are the ones doing the struggling. Did he break something? If that’s the case, that sure was reckless; however, when your regeneration abilities allow you to recover from a broken neck then, these types of reckless attacks might actually be quite effective. Either way, with quite the speed behind my running, I close the distance between us in a few short seconds, jumping upwards once I felt that I was close enough. I do gain quite the altitude, close to 20 meters of height, more than enough to be above him, allowing me to attack him from above.
“Here’s another one as it seems to miss you dearly! Martial Arts - Tiger Paw!”
Swiish! Pow! Ground crumbling!
With quite the smirk on my face and loud tone of voice, I shout this towards the air, getting his attention in that very moment although it won’t serve him for nothing as I’m right above his spine per say. Once I stopped gaining altitude and the opposite started to happen, it was the moment that I shouted this but at the same time, I also used a simple but effective Anemo spell (Platform) to form a platform mid-air so that I can use it to dash downwards towards him, closing the distance in a blink of an eye and preventing him from reacting to me, let alone do something against me. Then just like I did to his belly, with the same Martial Arts skill this time around I hit him right in the middle of his back, forcefully crushing him down towards the ground, shattering the ground his body collapses on top with such violence and force behind that, it was inevitable to cause such an event. There’s not much that I can say about the Martial Arts skill that I haven’t said before, it was as fast as before, as powerful as before and even the results were the same, the only difference is that, rather than creating a black smoke cloud (I still have no clue how he did it) it was instead a normal and simple dust cloud as the ground underneath him causes such phenomenon. Ah before I start the end of my master plan, I was propelled upwards, and by quite a lot thanks to the recoil from the “explosion” that the skill caused after the initial impact.
It was planned of course as this will allow me to use another powerful skill. This time in hopes that I will actually end this once and for all.
