Chapter 94

Rebecca and Ash were both taking time to look at the creature they had never seen before and it looked like the creature too was taking it's time to look at Rebecca, only in its case it was the curiosity of what this new prey was and where was the best place to sink it's fangs in.

Rebecca was an experience warrior and Ash found out about that as the creature attacked, Ash was caught offguard but Rebecca had expected this and dodged it's attack.

It turned around on the spot and took another swipe at her with its long reaching claws, Ash would have blocked it with his blade hoping to sink it in his forearm, but Rebecca didn't make that mistake and stayed on the offensive because just as the first arm went above her head the second arm came straight at her torso, which she blocked with her sword.

The creature's movements had an animalistic way to them, but they also didn't had the defensive hesitation that Rebecca had. It was obviously much more confident in its natural armour to take Rebecca's sword, then she was with its claws.

A struggle ensued, Ash knew what Rebecca was doing, she was trying to get a feel of her opponent, whether it had a particular way of fighting, but it had none, it was just pure bloodthrust to kill her. This increased Rebecca's confidence, because as she blcoked amd dodged it's attacks with her sword, she let her other weapon work through the back of her mind. The creature couldn't see it, but Ash could see the ground moving below them. Ash wondered when it was the best time to attack of it had been him, but Rebecca found the right moment, just as the creature had tried the take her head off, with its right arm extending it several feets ahead of him, a pillar of rocks and hardened soil, sprang out of the earth with great speed, it hit the creature right under it's chin. Ash had expected a lot of things, the best was it's whole head crushing, which wouldn't have been surprising at all considering the speed and hardness of the pillar, but the creature took the hit like it was a normal punch, it staggered back a little but stayed up.

There was not a drop of blood on its face.

Ash wondered whether this thing even had blood to bleed.

It growled a deep roar and lunged at Rebecca once again. The struggle again continued but this time Rebecca was on the offensive too, as she now had a third arm which was very long and could appear out of anywhere. The creature tried to keep an eye at the ground but it was of no use, Rebecca had too much experience she attack the creature in a different way every time. Although the damage was low but Ash was much more confident now that they were going to win this fight. If it was Ash in Rebecca's place he wasy sure he would have been able to take full advantage of the situation, because although Rebecca had the advantage but the fight still needed to be fought very delicately.

And Rebecca knew it and fought perfectly, she never grew too confident and let her guard down, the creature too desperate and annoyed tried a couple of new things but Rebecca didn't fall for any of them.

Soo the creature had a bent arm in the other direction and half of it's teeth gone. It was moving much slowly now and Rebecca saw her opportunity, and for the first time used her sword to attack and sank it deep in its chest coming out of the other end. The creature must have a heart because it finally bled as the blade came out covered with blackenes blood on the other side.

The creature held the blade wondering what was happening, Rebecca took out her blade slowly and the creature fell down immediately.

Rebecca smiled at Ash proud of her victory.

"Well that was fun, " said Rebecca coming towards him.

Ash very well knew the feeling of defeating a strong enemy. He stepped into the clearing too. He had just seen them won but something didn't feel right, it took him a couple of seconds to figure out what was happening and he realises even though the creature was dead the sickening feeling hadn't gone away and he was sure that it had been the source of it. Just like they emitted normal mana, the creature had been emitting the black mana.

Ash tried to look past Rebecca at the creature's body but she was blocking his vision.

"What are you looking at?" Rebecca asked turning around. It all happened really fast, Ash's eyes couldn't follow what had happened but he soon found himself flying through the air and hit a tree very hard.

He looked up to see what had happened biting down on the pain in his back. The creature was back on its feet, Rebecca was on her knees between them, she was bleeding from her arms and back. Ash could only imagine what had happened, he had been able to save her life, because if she hadn't turned her head to look back, she wouldn't have been able to react and save her vital organs, the creature had attacked Rebecca, slamming into her with great force, Rebecca had been thrown away and Ash was in her path who must have taken the momentum from her and flew away smashing into the trees beyond.

There was still the wide gash from Rebecca's sword on the creature's chest. Rebecca stood up slowly, she was bleeding but changed back to her fighting mode. Calm and careful. How was the creature still alive? Thought Ash.

If the mana let them use magic and do unnatural things then the black-mana might do something similar for the creature too.

Ash felt like they were back to the beginning, only this time ther was the big question on how to kill the thing and Rebecca was much more tired and injured then before. Ash had to step in to help her. So he stood up and walked to the side to get a clear angel.

The creature noticed him and turned one of it's eyes to look at him, it's eye moved independent of the other one. Ash pulled out his sword it was already crackling with lightning, he was confident with enough mana the sword would be too fast for it to dodge. Ash aimed the blade at its head, he pulled his arm back ready to throw.

"Ash!" Rebecca shouted making him look at her confused, but just them something sharp and hard sank in his side and he was once again flying through the air. He rotated mid air to land on his legs, but his knees still gave up as the intense pain in his side took over. He looked and saw a wide gaping hole. He looked up to see what had attacked him and an even greater shock shook him. The mud-rhino that had been killed earlier was standing on its four legs now, it's stomach was still open with its organs spilling out, but it was moving like nothing had happened. The only difference in its appearance were the black line that were spreading through it's body now through the blood veins. Ash could sense the normal mana turning into the black mana inside it's body and as the blackness spread through its body, it started to transform too, it grew in size, but the growth was not proportional and the mud-rhino was looking more and more like an ugly monster now. The sounds of Rebecca and the creature fighting again came from the other end. Ash now had an enemy of his own. The rhino charged at him much faster then he had imagine, must be due to the black mana he was sure. Ash had to take this thing away from Rebecca because he wasn't sure he could kill it in one attack and he couldn't risk it charging at Rebecca because any distraction could be fatal to her.

So Ash turned and ran away from the clearing and the rhino followed, Ash ran through the trees but the rhino simply pushed through them, ripping the giant trees easily.