The Real Monster 58 Establishing a Village VIII

PAK! PAK! PAK!

Clay and the lion-haired beastman kept on exchanging shots and in the heat of their battle, they formed their own little domain where anyone who was situated even just a few meters to them would feel threatened for their lives. A single blow that is misfired could take their lives.

Clay was obviously not using his full power as a single hit would disintegrate the lion-haired beastman. He was trying to test the man's strength and character with this fight and so, he kept on fighting.

Clay made a big counter move by channeling or at least making it look like he was channeling strength and mana into his fists. It was a wide stance where his legs were parted and bent halfway and his fists tucked into his hips; a horse-stance so to say.

Lion-hair guy stopped in his tracks to prepare for the coming big attack. He also channeled mana into his arms and legs, in his arms to block if possible and to his legs to dodge if needed; a balanced stance.

Clay finished his preparation but unexpectedly for those spectating, someone other stronger contender stepped up and yelled..

[How dare you ignore us, over that weak beastman! We are the dragonkin! We cannot be insulted like this!] as if a jealous housewife, the dragonkin whined to Clay and the beastman.

"You would do well to not butt into my fun right now man." After mumbling so, Clay sent a sliver of his killing intent towards the dragonkin whiner which resulted in the dragonkin to halt his steps, trembling and unable to move for three seconds. When he recovered, he felt even more embarrassed and launched an attack towards Clay.

Clay already ignored the dragonkin and directed his attack towards Lion-hair guy right after sending that sliver of killing intent towards him, so he did not give him another look and focused on Lion-hair guy.

When he released his "Big" attack, he called out loudly, "Heavenly Fist: First Stance – Meteor Strike!" It was his own original move from all the knowledge he had and the strength to actually perform it. And just like names, this time, the name of his technique and the actual power was highly exaggerated. Having meteor in the name creates an illusion of having a meteor actually come at you. But the strength he put into the technique only had the power to level a small hill so it was not "Meteoric" in anyway.

Lion-hair guy felt oppressed by the force of the technique that Clay released and finally decided to dodge; however, he also made a counterattack while dodging and sent it to Clay. Clay, being himself, received the attack and let the force of the attack to push him away. It was a mana based mid-range attack that looked like a ball of concrete. Clay was pushed away from the momentum of the attack. Skid marks were left where his feet were.

And right after he was pushed away, the ignored dragonkin launched his own attack on Clay, the only human in the arena who used the demon's attack earlier to survive, as they thought.

[Hah!]

It was the dragonkin who attacked with a downward-wide slash that could potentially end his life and career if dodged and countered. However, he was already suffering from tunnel vision because his ego was touched by Clay's inattention to him and the others.

Clay noticed this attack but did not bother, again, to dodge or to block. He took it with his body while standing there. It was to make a statement. "You don't have the qualifications to fight me." If people got that message then it would have been good but some muscle heads just can't read the mood and end up killing themselves.

*Clang!*

*Splash*

A head rolled around the arena.

Blood spurted out of the neck of the dragonkin who attacked Clay in his anger. It was supposed to be Clay who would be injured but then, the head of the dragonkin warrior rolled before even being able to know what he did wrong.

Clay had an annoyed look on his face. It was as if saying, "If you're this weak then don't go swinging sticks towards people. It's annoying!" Those who were spectating had their mouths wide-open. It was not something that they could easily believe just anyone could do especially to a member of the dragonkin who boasted of superior fighting prowess without even mentioning their awful personalities.

This was also a dragonkin hosted event and so the participants are expected to at least hold themselves back from killing members of the dragonkin. However, they just witnessed Clay disconnect a dragonkin warrior's head from his body like disconnecting a mere piece of electronic machinery.

DON!

Gasps of air, sharply rose from within the audience sitting. They had to swallow what they saw properly or they really won't believe anything that they had just witnessed.

"Annoying prick. Those who disturb our fight or you'll be next. Mark my words." It was a threat; and a very well-timed one at that. While everyone was gasping for air to breathe, Clay had already recovered his footing and faced the lion-hair once again. Their eyes met and the fight already waged without even letting the rest of the audience know that they had already clashed. The rest of the spectators could only hear the clash a full thirty seconds after they actually moved. One can imagine just how fast they were moving.

Clay did not let up and continued to rain blows towards the lion-hair and in response, lion-hair also kept on raining blows towards Clay. The blows produced a lot of booming noise as the battle's momentum reached the peak.

PAK! PAK! PAK! PAK!

Each blow landed on their guards and so the reverberating sounds were duller than when blows are cleanly received, but even the dulled booming sounds of each collision could bring the listener to a world of awe and surprise. Each blow reflects its power through the gashes and the holes all over the arena when blows are parried or blocked.

In Clay and the Lion-hair's perspective they were moving normally but outside the two of them and some individuals whose kinetic vision are quite good, they were moving too fast to follow. And currently in their perspective, Clay threw a punch towards lion-head directly towards his face. This blow, if it hit, would take lion-hair's head clean off, which would be tragic, however, lion-hair displayed his brilliance in dodging the punch with a hair's breadth and threw his counter punch towards Clay's abdomen. Clay moved as if he had already predicted this and guarded his torso while also throwing the other hand to land a blow, but lion-hair was also cunning enough and actually was throwing a feint towards him aiming at the abdomen.

PAK!

Clay was unable to successfully guard against such a disorienting feint. It didn't hurt him but this time, lion-hair felt the realness of the punch that landed and the audience became able to see their figures clearly as they had slowed down and stopped moving after realizing that the deadlock has ended and that lion-hair came out victorious in that exchange.

[Woooo! That's good Beast! That's good!] One of the dragonkin shouted, who hated Clay to the bone because of the death of one of their kin.

[That's it! Put that human in his place! He dares to spill blood in this sacred battle!] Another one shouted as if it was an established rule.

[Death to the human!] another one shouted out loud.

Clay landed on the floor on his back and just stared at the sky for a few seconds. His face was riddled with a grin as if a child that found a new toy, enjoying it to the fullest.

[Are you okay? You seem to have been hit badly right there.] Jacquellin asked as Clay landed close to where she was, she sounded as if a worried house-wife, not worried for Clay, but for the finances.

"Oh I'm alright. I am just exhilarated at the thought of having someone to fight me on a level I can at least sweat a little." Clay answered. Then Jacquellin took a closer look at Clay and found out that he was showing some sweat on his face, then looked towards lion-hair and found out that he was actually drenched in sweat and was breathing unevenly. This was indication that their strength were far away from each other.

[How strong are you really?] Jacquellin could not fathom Clay's strength and could not help but ask audibly.

"Oh, even I don't have a concrete answer to that." Then,"Hup!" Clay stood up abruptly, and started to walk towards lion-hair with a smile on his face. With his arms outstretched and hands firmly placed in front, he said, "You have proven to be of considerable strength and I like what I have experienced with you, now, Regulus, I have a proposition for you. I noticed that you're worried about something. I will help you, in return you will make an alliance with my domain. You will hear from me when the time comes. What say you?" Clay spoke with certainty towards Regulus, the lion-hair.

[How did you know my name… Sir?] Regulus reluctantly asked in caution as he has never introduced himself here.

"Let's talk about that later, I need to fight the most notable people here for now and try to build a relationship. We're still in battle, so watch out for now. Here drink this and recover a bit. We'll talk later. I've already determined who the stronger people are in here, so see you later."

After saying so, Clay disappeared from Regulus' sight and then appeared in front of a woman who looked like a real beauty. Seeing his, Jacquellin, showed a reaction as if she felt threatened. Who Clay approached was the Elf lady who stayed idle the whole time.

The elf was easily identified by Clay as an elf because of but just looking at them physically one might be able to tell exactly what race she was from, by her ears and her beautiful countenance.

"Hello, I noticed you're very strong yourself, are you perhaps an elf? I would like to see to what extent your strength will take you against me; if you please." Clay politely asked for a battle, but he sounded rather arrogant and the elf took that quite on the negative way and, *Slash*

Tok!

Clay took a step back as the dagger that the elf woman easily unsheathed and attacked him with flashed before his eyes. It turned into a still object when he used his perception and so only took a step back to avoid being hit. Afraid that the dagger may break from contact with his body, as he is sure that Regulus would have suffered the backlash of hitting his body directly with enough force to actually blow him away.

The elf woman took a stance and said in elven language, [(I have seen your strength. You are worthy to be used as a seed tank for our race; I shall take you with me!)] Clay's ears adjusted immediately and a familiar pinging in it resounded in his head. A message appeared as well that said he learned the Elven language – Basic.

"[(Oh! I couldn't quite get that; if you would please repeat what you just said.)]" Clay spoke to her in her language which made her lose her focus for but a moment but Clay took that as an opening and rushed inside her melee range. As Clay primarily learned Pugilism and just the basics of weapons he uses his fists to fight at all times unless he needs to make things flashy. So him getting inside your melee range means that he was not closing the gap between you, but him, taking you towards his realm.

Clay threw a punch and dull sound resounded as the arm guards of the elf woman received that blow. Both arms were used to block Clay's attack and she was blown up into the sky. Her face showed a very surprised expression but more than that was anger. Anger for being careless and not going all out from the start against a potential mate; it was their directive to go all out to drag a man into their territory to procreate. Now, she embarrassed herself and felt angry about that.

[(You are good for a human, that's why your value just went up to the skies. I will have you as husband!)] The elf woman turned her hands towards her lower back as if unsheathing two blades there, the problem was, there was nothing there but her pouch.

Suddenly, she accelerated towards the ground with daggers on her hand, only now did Clay notice that the dagger she used in their initial encounter had disappeared and now has reappeared in her hands along another one. Clay squinted his eyes to use on what she did and found out traces of Space Magic being used.

"Ah, beautiful! She's using to the fullest of its abilities in fighting; how admirable!" Clay thought to himself as he continued to admire her accelerating figure coming for him in the ground.

Clay could move and escape her attack, but realized that if he moved, surely there's an attack that coming for him to chase when one dodges this attack. This should not be a technique on a whim, but a polished one practiced and made into something unique to them. Clay prepared his guard and used space magic to equip arm guards to receive the elf woman. This again surprised the elf woman momentarily but she learned of her lesson and ignored it for now as she was doing her counterattack. One mistake and she could very well be dead.

[(Hah!)]

She arrived just above Clay and slashed with her weapon, her right hand thrust towards Clay's head while the other made a sweeping motion. This attack was a combination of a feint and a real attack, however the real attack can be switched with each other and so one should prepare on how to receive it with foreknowledge. As if one blocks both attacks, just as what Clay did just then…

[(Take this!)] The elf woman shouted and a grin appeared on her face. Her blade attacks were blocked but the momentum of her fall was still undiminished which gave her momentum and that momentum was used for attacking with her whole lower body. She used her knees to aim at Clay's head and knock him out; thereby successfully subjugating the target while also preserving its usefulness, to be a seed tank.

"[(Wow, that was quite a technique! A double feint and then attack with the whole weight of the body; just awesome. I admire your techniques.. but surely you're not such a light puncher?)]" Clay asked gently as he held the arms of the elf woman then throwing her away a distance from him so they could restart the fight.

Chapter end