Chapter 25: Danger! (1)
After walking for several minutes, Alex came to a halt as he squinted his eyes.
One hundred feet before him, on top of a massive felled tree, slept a large lizard.
"An Ironskinned Gila!" Alex quietly muttered as he observed the beast. The lizard was eight feet from head to tail and stood about four feet tall. It had a dark brown hide with small spikes jutting out of its spine.
As their name might suggest, the Ironskinned Gila were known for their strong hides. Among all Body Refinement level beasts, Ironskinned Gila boasted one of the strongest defenses, while having powerful attacks comparable to those of a 7th stage Body Refinement realm.
They were a beast that almost all body refinement cultivators under the seventh stage avoided.
Alex took out his katana from his storage ring and observed the Ironskinned Gila for some time, before quietly moving closer to it.
When Alex was about fifteen feet away from the Ironskinned Gila, the beast slowly opened its eyes and spotted him.
"Hiss!"
The Ironskinned Gila screeched out as it saw Alex rapidly approaching it. Alex swung his katana out with all his might before the Ironskinned Gila could fully react, leaving a deep but non-fatal wound on its back.
'Wow, its skin is even stronger than I expected. No wonder most Body Refinement cultivators below the 7th stage avoid fighting this beast,' thought Alex as he quickly dashed backwards, narrowly avoiding the Ironskinned Gila tail as it whipped it towards him.
Alex dashed back towards the Ironskinned Gila, slashing out with his sword when he could find openings and blocking the fast tail attacks of the lizard.
"Hisssss!!!"
After seeing Alex evade its attack, the Ironskinned Gila hissed. The beast had clearly underestimated Alex's strength, as it showed no signs of retreating despite the wound on his back.
The speed of the lizard's tail surprised Alex. He made a mental note of the speed and trajectory of the tail before his next attack. The two faced each other for a brief moment before either of them moved.
Alex moved towards the beast with his sword in a low, ready position in front of him, prepared to block any tail or claw attacks.
He knew he couldn't be hit by the lizard's tail or he'd die in an instant; thankfully, the lizard was in the fifth stage of body refinement, or Alex would have been in even more trouble.
Knowing that he would need to create an opening to deal a fatal blow to the creature, Alex planned to evade or parry the next attack from the beast in order to find an opportunity to strike where the lizard's defenses were the weakest.
The lizard shifted to the left, away from the fallen tree, and slammed its tail on the ground, throwing up dirt and grass. Alex's visibility was cut in half; he could clearly see the lizard in front of him but could no longer see its tail. He knew this was when the creature would strike. Alex immediately swung his sword overhead towards the lizard's eyes.
The lizard reacted exactly as Alex intended; the beast raised its left claw in an attempt to block the overhead attack. At the same time, it whipped its tail around toward Alex.
Alex's attack was a feint, however. Once he saw the lizard react, he let the handle of the sword go for half a second so that the blade would continue its arc and be facing downwards with the handle upwards. He grasped the handle and quickly plunged his sword into the ground beneath him, with the edge facing the direction of the tail.
The tail came flying towards Alex from beyond his vision and struck the sword that Alex had placed in the ground, cutting off part of the tail. The lizard shrieked in pain, pulling its tail back behind its body, leaving a trail of thick blood behind it.
The fight kept going for a while before both Alex and the lizard separated. Alex was breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath, but other than fatigue, Alex was unscathed. The lizard, on the other hand, was covered with dozens of deep wounds, and blood dyed its brown scales red.
"Time to finish this," said Alex as he quickly dashed towards the Ironskinned Gila. Although wounded, the lizard turned around and whipped its tail towards Alex. However, the lizard had clearly forgotten that half its tail was missing. Its attack fell short of Alex, at which point he used his sword skill "Sword Slash" and dashed forward; his sword easily cut the eye of the lizard.
"Spurt!"
Alex plunged his katana deeply into the eye of the lizard after cutting the eye of the Ironskinned Gila, eventually coming to a halt when all but the hilt and handle of the sword were visible.
The lizard twitched for a few moments before lifelessly slumping to the ground.
[+50 Exp]
"Whew!" Alex exhaled as he struggled to catch his breath. "That was quite a fight. This beast definitely deserved its reputation. I can see why most Body Refinement cultivators would avoid fighting it. Without my weapon skills and my Mid-Tier 1 weapon, that would have been quite a hard fight."
Smiling happily at the scene of his victory, Alex placed the lizard carcass in his storage ring before muttering, "This lizard just barely fits in this ring's spatial dimension. I'll need to get a better ring if I'm to start doing this more often."
Alex looked up at the sky before noticing it was starting to get darker, at which point he turned around and walked back towards the main road. "I should head home since it's going to be dark soon. I don't want to be caught out in this forest at night."
After walking for a few minutes, an uneasy feeling assaulted Alex's senses. At first, he thought it was his imagination, but as he kept walking, the feeling of unease grew stronger and stronger.
Trusting his instincts, Alex stopped and quickly turned around, his face turning white as he stared ahead.
"Shit!!"
To Be Continued...
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