Chapter 24

Fares grabbed a few more rocks, infused them with energy, and threw it randomly in the direction of the incoming Raptors.

The Raptors' skin didn't get cut or pierced, but it sure did hurt like to them, which made them shriek in pain.

Screeeeeeeech~

The leading alpha Raptor who was 4 meters in size shrieked loudly at the group. Immediately every Raptor in the group dispersed and took into different directions to surround Fares, and escape the randomly thrown rocks.

It was a smart move from the leader of a pack of hunters, who always hunted single slightly stronger prey. But they fell into Fares' trap.

Their plan was sure to work, that is if Fares was hunting on his own. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't.

Smooka jumped from a tree to another, completely out of sight. Then he dropped over one of the weaker Raptors running to surround Fares. Using its sharp claws, Smooka cut of the Raptor's head in one clean swift motion.

The squirrel then climbed a tree and ran around in circles from one branch to another, hunting the Raptors one after the other.

When the alpha Raptor finally reached 5 meters away from Fares, it felt something was wrong. Its underlings should already have surrounded him or at least close enough for it to hear.

But there was nothing, just utter and complete silence. It felt a chill running its spine, but shook it off and growled at Fares, wanting to take him out along with it.

Fares drew his sword and infused it with energy, placing it between himself and the alpha Raptor.

The Raptor ran even faster and jumped, throwing itself at Fares. He still didn't think he can contend with it in terms of speed or power, so he just braced himself for the collision by sidestepping to the left.

Contrary to his expectation, this alpha Raptor was not stupid. It was too smart. It immediately hit the ground with its tail changing its direction away from the sword. When it landed, it used its tail to hit Fares' chest, sending him flying through the air.

Fares hit a big tree behind him coughing out blood. He didn't expect the Raptor to be this smart, strong, or even fast. The difference between a three meters alpha and four meters one wasn't just sizes. It was on a whole another level of speed, power, and even brains.

Using the sword to help him up, he looked at the incoming Raptor with a hint of fear. He didn't want to die yet, he had to save Zena, he had to return home to his family they'd be devastated by now. More importantly, he wanted to solve the mystery of the universe and this fourth dimension.

He always used his brain to solve his problems, but this was a world of survival for the fittest. Brains could just get him so far. Against absolute power, it was useless.

As the Raptor was running, Fares was frozen with fear. A moment later the Raptor was right in front of Fares, it opened its mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth and a bit down towards Fares.

He couldn't even raise his sword to defend, he felt helpless.

Squeaaak~

A loud squeak woke him up from his daze. Smooka was running in his direction as quickly as he could but was still far away. Yes, he wasn't alone, he wouldn't give up yet. There was still much he to do.

But the Raptor's jaws were right in front of him, he closed his eyes and opened his mouth in a big O shape infusing energy through it.

However, this time the energy wasn't just random. It was hot extremely so that it ignited the air surrounding it forming a ball of fire.

Fares then infused even more energy into it, increasing its size and intensity. Then he blew it towards the Raptor's open jaws. The Raptor sensed the danger, but it was too late to react.

The intense fire burned the Raptor's soft insides to its throat.

Scree~ Scree~

The Raptor fell trying to catch its breath. It couldn't even breathe properly from the fire that burned its insides, let alone screech.

It looked at Fares with eyes more infuriated as ever. The Raptor knew it was going to die, but its pride held superior. It still wanted to kill this puny human whatever the cost.

This time, however, Fares had already used all of his energy. He knew that he couldn't take down the Raptor if he did a half-assed job, so he used his full energy.

And he was right, the Raptor didn't die, even if it had its insides burned to the throat, it was somehow still alive.

Fares grabbed his sword and dragged his feet towards the Raptor. When he reached it, he stabbed the Raptor's belly with it.

However, the Raptor's skin was too tough to be pierced from a rock blade with no energy infusion. It just made it angrier that, even if it couldn't raise its tail much, it still swings it at Fares' legs.

Fares fell roughly on his back, coughing even more blood.

They were at a stalemate, neither of them could move right now. They just lied there waiting for their deaths.

After a few moments, Smooka finally arrived. With one swing of its claws, it sliced the Raptor's head off giving it a quick death.

However, the Raptor finally saw why its pack didn't arrive, it was this creature. Their smell was all over it. The Raptor didn't die peacefully.

Smooka rummaged through the Raptor's corpse for a while before arriving next to Fares.

"T-Thanks Smooka." He barely said as he couldn't even raise his hands to pat him.

"Could you bring me the body of the two largest Raptors?" He said looking at Smooka.

The squirrel didn't understand why, but he still nodded and left.

A little while later he came back with two large headless Raptors, dragging their bodies on the ground behind him. Smooka placed them next to the alpha Raptor and sat beside Fares munching on what appears to be some type of nut.

After a little rest on his back, Fares could finally sit back down. He leaned on a tree trunk and started to cultivate.

Half an hour later, his energy-filled almost half of it, which was more than enough for him to move around normally.

He had a soul body, which meant he was purely made of energy. The more he loses, the more he couldn't move, he was afraid if he lost all of his energy he would just vanish.

Standing up, Fares grabbed his knife and walked towards the Raptors. He read somewhere how to skin animals. Of course, none was a Raptor, and the fact that he had never actually skinned any animal meant he couldn't do it.

But he understood the concept behind it, using this knowledge he proceeded to skin them. It was awkward at first, but the more cut, the more he could feel the essence of it.

That was one of the advantages of unlocking mind nodes, it gave him higher comprehension capacity.

With Smooka at the side looking at what Fares were doing with interest, Fares went on from one Raptor to the next.

After 3 more hours, he was finally done. He took a deep breath wiped sweat over his forehead, he didn't produce sweat as a soul, but it was just a habit.

"Smooka, where did their orbs go?" Fares said raising his eyebrow at the squirrel.

Smooka looked to the side and acted as if didn't understand.

"Give them to me." Fares said extending his hands.

Smooka reluctantly took five orbs out of his mouth and handed them to Fares.

Fares then rubbed the saliva-filled orbs clean with a random leaf. Then he gave 3 to Smooka.

"Here you go, that's your share." Fares said making Smooka squeak happily.

"Then, let us go back home. My home that is." He said. He used the skin of the Raptors as a pouch to carry the meat and tied them using a rope.

Furthermore, he then loaded it onto Smooka's back and tied the surrounding rope, securing it tightly.