A hunting we'll continue

The creature writhed in pain and tossed the red haired young man to the frozen floor like a broken rag doll, only for its head to regenerate with the red energy like it had done before. But he light in Baek Daechul's eyes was unwavering. He would prove his strength and kill the creature! The failure of last time still stung him quite hard, but he would make up for it by killing this creature this time. He and the beast exchanged ferocious punches, each one strong enough to tear Seth in two. Only by standing before people like this did Seth realize how weak he really was. Black blood and crimson red blood flew about as the two were locked in a furious fist fight. The dull sound of flesh being hit rang about the night air. Slowly but surely, the red head was being worn out, and if Seth did not intervene, he just might lose his meat shield.

'Wait for it...'

The creature tossed Baek Daechul around, slamming him on the ground, and stepping on him like it wanted to crush him like a bug.

'A little bit more...'

Baek Daechul managed to evade the claws coming at his head by rolling out of the centre of impact, then he followed up with a powerful low blow to the creature's groin. It would have hurt, but only if the creature was human. It stabbed the red haired young man in the shoulders with its claws, and then opened it's mouth to consume him whole.

'Now...'

Seth himself had not been lying still all this while. He twisted his torso as fast as he humanly could before the creature's jaws could close in on the bloodied young man, and threw the dart he had been building since he first saw the creature. He could not put his hopes in anybody but himself, and was fully prepared just in case Baek Daechul failed to aggro the creature alone.

The dart sliced through the air with a silent whistle and violently landed in the middle of the creature's inner mouth head. Seth smiled widely, as he had finally figured out the angle to his aim. If he aimed for the heart, he got a foot, and if he was aiming for a stomach, he completely missed the target. But by aiming for a heart, he would get a mouth. Though useless in almost every other situation, it was very important against the humped demons.

The creature froze slightly, giving Baek Daechul time to free himself from it's claws, while Seth half heartedly threw a punch at the creature's midriff.

"You meant to do this."

As the lunch connected, the already dead beast fell to the floor. Only then did the red haired young man realize that the creature was dead. His eyes widened with pure shock, as he began to see Seth in a new light.

'He killed it in one punch... this guy really is the real deal.'

Meanwhile, Seth was happy with himself. His plan had worked seamlessly, even if at the cost of severely injuring his comrade.

***

_huff_ huff_

"Thirty..."

_huff_ huff_

"Thirty one..."

_huff_ huff_

"Thirty two..."

Baek Daechul watched with amusement as the black haired youth continued to do push ups, beginning from one and ending at a hundred. Then Seth began to do sit ups till he reached fifty.

"What are you doing?"

This was the strangest thing the red haired youth had seen in his life. Seth shrugged and sat on the floor, covered in sweat.

"Where I come from, its called exercises."

"Ecksasizes? That's odd."

Baek Daechul could not hep thinking that the person he had allied with was very strange. By morning, the immolating heat arrived once again. Like before, the Ice had melted back into sand, and the sand began to roast the flesh of the humped demon. However, this time Seth had made sure that the beach umbrella was situated very close to his kill. He still had a grudge against the other creature from yesterday. Baek Daechul wanted to ask how exactly the strange contraption was snuck into the Trial grounds, but held his tongue. He knew better than to offend a 'powerful' person by asking unnecessary questions. The sand was so hot, that by afternoon, the creature's flesh had begun to sizzle. It was just about done. However, Seth had a question.

"Hey, Daechul. How were you able to walk barefooted in the sand by day?"

Baek Daechul, who was busy drooling at the sight of the roasting meat, scratched the back of his head.

"Um, I guess its what anyone at the Qi reinforcement realm can do. We always have a layer of Qi protecting our body, and all I had to do was double the one in my feet."

Before, the red haired youth talked to Seth like an underling, then he began talking to Seth as an equal, but now, there was a tinge of respect in his voice.

Seth nodded, and determined within his heart to learn how to cultivate sooner rather than later. In this manner, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. The two of them continued the routine of being idle by day under the beach umbrella while Seth exercised, and hunting by night. They had become rather proficient in working together.

Baek Daechul narrowly avoided the claws of the humped creature by sliding in between it's legs, while Seth rushed forward with the greatsword he had formed and stabbed it in the head. The head inside it's mouth writhed and shrieked, only for the black haired youth to saintly burst it using a dart. Seth had not only been doing exercises the past month, he had also been working on increasing his proficiency in creating weapons.

"That's the third one, Hyung-nim."

"Mmn."

Indeed, hunting the humped demons was no easy task, but it only went to show how much they had both improved since when they had first met.