Chapter 8: First Kill
The earlier few clashes against the serpent gave Gin a rough estimate of its strength and power.
Even though the serpent has a tough defense, fierce tail attacks, and strong biting force, it's not as intelligent as humans.
If the intelligence of wild beast reaches the level of humans, then no humans in the same rank can defeat them.
Gin even began to wonder, 'whether the serpent is truly a rank-3 wild beast or is it just rank-2?' As the serpent is not as terrifying as he imagined.
It's not the serpent that is powerful, it's Gin's strength which has improved a lot and enhanced to another level.
The fiery serpent once again charged at Gin with its full speed. It raised its tail high in the air, ready to strike in any direction if he tries to dodge.
Time slowed down.
Noticing the fiery serpent's actions, Gin's not at all nervous. He waited patiently, and observed the movement of the serpent, trying to spot its weakness and deal a fatal blow.
When the serpent is just a few centimeters away from Gin, he skillfully leaped straight up in the air by kicking off from the ground, using it as a springboard and landed on the serpent's back.
The fiery serpent 'hissed' in fury, noticing the ant-like creature jumped on its back.
The serpent waggled and spun in circles, trying to shake Gin off from its back.
At the same time, Gin took the form of martial skill 'Burning fist' from his hybrid martial art and ready to strike its head.
'Burning fist' is his strongest attack and also, he practiced and perfected the skill just yesterday night to 'Resonance' level.
A fiery red glow veiled his whole hand, like a burning fire. The red glow is nothing but the essence energy of his skill, known as burning energy.
It's a miracle that Gin was able to bring out the essence energy of the skill with his weak 3-star strength.
It's an iron rule, that only advanced rankers can utilize the essence energy of heaven and earth.
But there's always an exception like if one was lucky enough to practice a martial skill to the level of 'Resonance', they will be able to bring out the essence of the skill.
'Burning fist'
Gin roared and the blazing fist smacked against the fiery serpent's head. His fist contained a great power and burning energy, enough to destroy a large rock to pieces.
As soon as his fist struck the serpent's head, a 'crack' sound came from its head, followed by a 'roar' or more like a scream of agony.
Gin jumped from the serpents back and landed on the ground, watching the serpent twitching and screaming in pain.
Only after full five seconds, the serpent overcame the pain and glared at Gin with its fierce and tense eyes.
Unlike before, its eyes contained a bit of horror and fear. Most likely, the last strike dealt heavy damage to it since one could see drops of blood oozing from its eyes and mouth.
Gin took out his silver dagger from the backpack and waited for the serpent to attack.
The serpent warily glanced at him and cautiously moved, circling Gin, slowly.
Gin calmly watched the serpent, but there's a hint of alertness in his eyes. He knows the wild beasts are dangerous in the last minutes when they struggle for their life.
The serpent finally charged.
Gin firmly waited on the spot, so that the serpent can approach him. When the serpent brandished its mighty and powerful tail, Gin dodged and rolled to one side.
Noticing the tail fail to strike its opponent, the serpent tried to use its mighty head to bite Gin and failed again.
Gin who already rolled to a side escaped the hidden charge without himself knowing.
As the serpent's head barreled past him, Gin drove his silver dagger straight up under its head.
Since the serpent was so fast, the dagger slit the serpent, a straight red line could be seen from its head to stomach.
Soon, a mountain of blood gushed from the long, narrow cut. The fiery serpent 'hissed' in pain and lifelessly collapsed in its own blood.
Gin finally breathed a sigh of relief, even though he looked calm throughout the battle, his heart was pounding since its a battle of life and death.
When he neared the serpent to make sure it's truly dead, an unexpected situation happened.
The symbol in his chest began to swirl, then a huge suction force emerged and from inside the dead serpent, a red mass of energy rose and absorbed into his body.
'What's happening?' Gin was puzzled by the sudden turn of events.
As soon as the red energy was absorbed into his body, Gin felt cool and warm sensation spreading throughout his entire body.
He could sense the warm energy is coursing through every corner of his physique, strengthening his flesh and bones.
Shortly, Gin felt completely refreshed and the fatigue from his last battle completely disappeared.
He clenched his fist and discovered his strength has increased by a large margin, possibly, his strength even reached the level of 4-star ranker.
Even though he was bewildered by 'what happened?', he didn't take it to heart, considering the situation only increased his strength.
'Oooh! I successfully completed my task!'
After making sure the surrounding is clear, Gin sprinted towards the direction of the battle between Team Jose and Rank-7 serpent.
When approached the spot, he noticed both Cotton and Karin defeated the Rank-5 serpents and battling the Rank-7 fiery serpent alongside Shog and captain Jose.
The battle was intense, he could see a long bloody wound on Jose's shoulder while shog had a dozen small cuts on all over his body.
The serpent was also in bad shape, which had deep cuts in many parts of its body from head to tail.
Karina stood some distance away from the battle, aiming her bow to get a clear shot; An arrow hurled from her bow but there's only 'clank' sound.
Undoubtedly, the defense of the advanced class serpent is no joke since her arrow wasn't even able to pierce its defense.
Cotton was agilely sneaking in and out of the battle, dealing a blow to the serpent, while Jose and shog distracted it.
Captain Jose noticed Gin, amazed, that he ended the battle in a short time.
He shouted at Gin by pointing his finger toward a specific direction, "Go and assist Astro."
Gin nodded his head and dashed towards the direction Jose pointed. After racing for 500 meters, he saw Astro who's fighting the Rank-3 fiery serpent with his life on the line.
He shrank into the shadows of a large rock and quietly watched the battle between Astro and the serpent. He planned to lend a helping hand if Astro was truly in danger.
The serpent looked enraged as it kept on swinging its tail at Astro in a wild manner.
Astro was able to dodge most of the strikes, but a single attack scraped his left shoulder and threw him off the ground.
The impact was not life-threatening, so he easily recovered from the attack and retreated, maintaining some distance between them.
Like Gin, Astro too held a long dagger in his hands. There are some bloodstains in it, apparently, he got it by wounding the serpent.
'Come, I am not afraid of you' Astro roared.
Even though he seemed exhausted and injured in some places, he fearlessly charged toward the serpent.
Gin ascertained that Astro is not a match for the serpent; if it goes on like this, the serpent will undoubtedly kill him.
He quickly took out his silver dagger and hurled it, aiming at the serpent's right eye.
The dagger was extremely fast as one could even hear the 'swoosh' sound of it cleaving the wind.
Even Gin was astonished by the speed of the dagger. 'Looks like, my strength has really progressed to 4-star rank.'
In a blinking speed, the dagger pierced the serpent eyes. The serpent roared in agony and pain, while half of the dagger remained inside its eyes.
Astro was stunned by the sudden turn of events and noticed Gin, by following the direction of the attack.
"Brother Gin!"
"Astro, strike the other eye." Gin shouted. He wants Astro to finish off the serpent by himself so that he can clear the ranker exam.
If he helped him anymore, he will fail the exam and won't be able to handle similar situations in the future.
Astro also knows this, that's why he didn't ask Gin's help when he saw him.
Astro sprinted towards the serpent which is screaming in pain and drove his dagger straight into its other eye.
Even before the serpent could blindly attack its assaulter, Astro extracted his dagger from the serpent eye and pierced its neck.
The long dagger penetrated from one side and came out of its head. Finally, the serpent slumped to the ground, twitching.
Astro yelled towards the sky, and weakly, unsteadily walked towards the Gin.
Gin caught Astro by his shoulder and supported him since he suffered some injuries.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone