“Ah! I understand.”
Linley suddenly understood the special characteristics of the three forms of the Blackcloud Panther. The first form was a balanced one in terms of defense, speed, and offense. The second, giant form, prioritized offense at the expense of speed. As for this form, the third one, although it raised speed to an astonishing level, its defense dropped in turn.
Right now, the Blackcloud Panther and Bebe were staring at each other. The Blackcloud Panther could feel that it was bleeding, and it was beginning to worry…because this freak of a magical beast in front of it hadn’t been hurt at all.
“Blackcloud Panther.” Linley spoke.
The Blackcloud Panther looked up at Linley.
Linley didn’t speak to the Blackcloud Panther as though it were an inferior life form. Rather, Linley spoke to it as he would a creature of equal intelligence. “Blackcloud Panther, in your current form, you should possess great speed but low defense. In this form, you aren’t even able to overcome Bebe.”
“Growl.” The Blackcloud Panther snarled unhappily.
The Blackcloud Panther then stared at Bebe, and from its jaw came a series of strange growls. Bebe was startled for a moment, and then let out an enraged growl of his own.
“Boss. This Blackcloud Panther can speak the tongue of us rodent-type magical beasts.” Bebe said mentally to Linley.
Linley knew very well that Bebe was born understanding the rodent language. But the languages of other magical beasts were different; each different type of magical beast had their own language.
Some extremely long-lived magical beasts, however, were skilled at communicating using the languages of other types of magical beasts.
This Blackcloud Panther was a peak-stage magical beast of the ninth rank. Not only did it know many languages of other types of magical beasts, it also understood the human tongue. Only, it was unable to reproduce the human sounds due to physical reasons. Only upon reaching the Saint-level, when it could begin to alter its body, could it speak the human tongue.
“What did it say?” Linley asked.
Bebe and the Blackcloud Panther engaged in a discussion through growls and angry snarls. Suddenly, Bebe and the Blackcloud Panther seemed to get into an argument, as the fur on both magical beasts stood up straight.
“Growl!!”
“Shkreeech!”
The two magical beasts suddenly began to engage in a wild battle, as their shadows flashed against each other again and again. Fresh blood began to fly everywhere…
Their angry growls unabated, the two magical beasts exchanged blows at high speed, and the trees and boulders nearby suffered the brunt of their fury.
The trees toppled. The boulders shattered.
Every place these two magical beasts crossed through turned into a debris-strewn area.
Suddenly, the two beasts separated again. Bebe hunched down, growling as he stared at the Blackcloud Panther. The Blackcloud Panther stared at Bebe in the same manner, as though facing a fierce opponent.
But the Blackcloud Panther’s body was covered in blood.
With its defense lowered, it was unable to resist Bebe’s claw attacks. And in terms of speed, boosted by the Supersonic spell, Bebe was only slightly slower than it was.
Bebe growled angrily towards the Blackcloud Panther.
The Blackcloud Panther roared back towards Bebe.
“Boss, this Blackcloud Panther isn’t willing to submit. It says that you simply don’t have the ability to defeat it on your own.” Bebe said mentally to Linley. “Boss, let me kill it.”
Right now, the Blackcloud Panther was extremely frustrated.
If it used its first two forms, its speed was inferior to its opponent and it would be trampled. But after increasing its speed by entering its ‘wind-style form’, its defense was lowered.
The Blackcloud Panther knew that the human opponent was capable of flight.
The speed one could reach flying was definitely greater than the speed one could reach through running on all fours. In terms of short term bursts, it could exceed Linley in speed. But if it were to flee, Bebe and Linley would definitely be able to easily catch up to it.
“Blackcloud Panther, you think I can’t beat you?” Linley said loudly.
The Blackcloud Panther immediately raised its head arrogantly as it looked at Linley. In close quarters combat, the speed boost provided by the translucent wings couldn’t be put on full display. It didn’t fear Linley at all.
“Fine.” Linley nodded.
And then, Linley began to mutter the words to another spell as well, causing the Blackcloud Panther to be suspicious. But as a wind-type magical beast as well, the Blackcloud Panther wasn’t afraid of Linley having access to any particularly powerful wind-type spells. In addition, it knew that if it were to now flee, Linley would be able to catch up to it.
“Thruuumm.”
Centered around the body of the Blackcloud Panther, a circular area a hundred meters in circumference suddenly began to glow with a layer of earth elemental essence. These earth elemental essences were throbbing with a certain frequency.
The Blackcloud Panther suddenly felt a terrifyingly powerful gravitational force tug at it, causing it to hunch over. Even the blood inside its body as well as its heart were affected, causing it to feel rather dizzy.
Earth-style magic – Supergravity Field!
The Supergravity Field created by a magus of the eighth rank was able to increase the local gravity by a factor of eight. This increased gravitational field’s effect wasn’t as simple as say adding 1000 pounds of weight to a man who already weighed 200 pounds. The eight-fold gravity also impacted the heart, the spleen, and the other internal organs.
An ordinary person might be able to carry 100-200 pounds of weight.
But under a double-strength gravitational field, his heart might not be able to stand the pressure and might break down.
After all, although the external muscles were easily trained, it was very hard to train internal organs such as the heart. At the very least, the rate of training the internal organs was much slower than the external muscles.
Suddenly ambushed by a field of eight-fold gravity, the Blackcloud Panther couldn’t help but feel dizzy.
Not giving it a chance to recover, Linley, his entire body covered with earth elemental essence, charged in, and began to wildly unleash upon the Blackcloud Panther…vicious punches and kicks!
Yes, he didn’t use the adamantine heavy sword!
Only his fists and his feet!
“Growl!” The body of a magical beast of the ninth rank was extremely sturdy, and very soon, it became used to the greater gravity. But under the influence of an eight-fold gravity, it didn’t even have half the speed it previously had.
“Swish!” “Swish!”
“Bam!”
A kick landed hard against the Blackcloud Panther’s waist, and then Linley rushed to the opposite side, landing a vicious punch on the Blackcloud Panther’s body and sending it flying back in the other direction.
In ten short seconds, the Blackcloud Panther had been thoroughly ravaged by Linley’s punches and kicks. Its current speed was totally insufficient for escaping the confines of the Supergravity Field. And what’s more, Bebe was watching intently from the side as well.
“Do you submit?”
“Do you submit?”
…..
While shouting loudly, Linley wildly continued to whale away at it with his fists and feet. Linley was beating this peak-stage magical beast of the ninth rank, the Blackcloud Panther, into a state where it couldn’t resist at all. One mouthful after another of blood was leaking from its mouth.
“Grooooowl!” The Blackcloud Panther suddenly let out a howl of grief and anger.
“Boss. He submits.”
“Bam!” Linley’s fists were moving too fast, and he landed one final punch on the Blackcloud Panther’s skull, smashing it to the ground.
Laughing, Linley looked at the Blackcloud Panther, which was on all fours, pressed against the ground. Under the influence of the eight-fold gravity, the blood flowing through the veins of the Blackcloud Panther had grown sluggish as well. And now, after having been beaten wildly by Linley in such a manner, the Blackcloud Panther had become quite dizzy.
“Do you submit?” Linley laughed as he looked at the Blackcloud Panther.
Although Linley was laughing, under the total Dragonform transformation, Linley’s eyes were still that calm, emotionless dark gold color. And how could one tell that Linley was smiling beneath all of those scales on his face?
The Blackcloud Panther raised his head to look at Linley, paying particular attention to the translucent wings on Linley’s back. His heart trembled. He was afraid of being brutalized by Linley yet again. Immediately, it nodded. And in fact, he really had mentally submitted to Linley’s display of prowess. For a combatant to be so powerful as a warrior and as a magus was more than enough to force it to submit.
Smiling, Linley immediately began to set up a soul-binding magical array!