29 Becoming an aspirant Grimm slayer part 3

The 8 beasts swiftly surrounded me and prepared to launch an attack from all sides, meanwhile, I stood in the same position waiting for them to aproach to unleash my own offensive, in the meantime I started to think of a name for the new move.

As they all charged forward and prepared themselves to strike, I ceased the opportunity and unleashed the attack that I was holding on to.

*Slam*

I struck my feet into the ground in a stomp, that combined with my aura was able to generate a Shockwave that expanded around me and stunned all the enemies that were approaching, forcing them to try and regain their footing.

And as the secondary function, as soon as this wave of aura once again returned to me I gained accurate knowledge of the exact position of all my enemies, including the ones that were outside my field of vision.

'I'm not a fan of long and complicated names, so I will just refer to this move as 'Aura stomp', since it's very simple and intuitive.'

Seeing the opportunity, I didn't wait for my opponents to recover and immediately started to attack them.

I first sent my elbow backwards to strike at the enemy which was nearest to me, due to the difference in height, it hit the grimm's lower stomach and was able to make it bend down slightly and get its head in the perfect position for me to strike at it. Using 'Shatter bone' I hit its head with a strong downwards chop which slammed its head into the ground and brought the rest of the body with it, then I finished it with a stomp to its head which splattered it.

Having eliminated my first opponent easily, I once again focus on the remaining 7 enemies that were now recovered and charging towards me.

The closest one leapt towards me with both his arms raised trying to bring me down and pin me down on the ground. I swiftly dodged to the sude using 'flash-step' for a moment and made the grimm miss its target and pass me by, then the next one came moments after, performing a flurry of wild slashes.

Although the attacks were chaotic and fierce, they were highly telegraphed and simple so after facing a few beowolfs he was already very good at reading such attacks, I effortlessly dodged by stepping backwards and ducked under them.

Sensing some movement from behind and being unable to turn around due to the enemy in front of him, I once again stomp the ground and send a wave of aura that halts the attack in the front and informs him of the intentions of the one behind.

With this information, he takes advantage of the one that is in front of him being momentarily interrupted to grab onto its still extended arm from the attack that it was about to do and using all of his strength pulls the beowolf into his previous position while ducking to the side.

As a result, the enemy who was behind him and had already launched an attack towards him ended up instead hitting its own ally and decapitating it with its claws. The beowolf didn't show any reaction to having just killed a fellow grimm and once again tried to attack me.

But having already gotten satisfied with the results of the testing of my new move and no longer wanting to be passive in the fight or dragging on this confrontation for longer than necessary. This time I directly go to the offensive and prepare to meet its offensive head-on.

I briefly concentrate aura on my right fist before striking out towards the beowolf in front of me, my fist itself doesn't reach my opponent as it was still too far away for my arms to reach, but that wasn't my intention on the first place as the air pressure created by the punch was enough to knock the beast back a few steps.

So with this opportunity, I leap onto the air, closing the distance almost immediatly and following this pounce I start to pummel my opponent with my fists in a series of relentless punches that formed a barrage that the grimm was helpless to defend himself from.

This barrage of punches are also not randomly performed either, with this series of punches being part of an advanced technique of the crushing fist style called: 'Stampede'. This technique revolves around a series of strikes that overtime accumulate momentum with each hit, making the punches become faster, more powerful and more unpredictable as you keep the momentum going.

This can be said to be one of the core techniques of this fighting style and it perfectly encapsulates the core philosophy behind the 'crushing fist' as a whole, since this technique rewards uninterrupted aggression while completely forgoing your defence or evasion in the process.

And it's like the saying: 'The best defence is a overwhelming and unrelenting offence.' As most of the techniques I've learned are meant to force your opponent into a defensive state and the pressure enough from it preventing him from counter-attacking in any way.

But this combat philosophy along with the technique 'stampede' does have its flaws. The first being that before I'm able to build enough momentum and get into my rhythm, I'm susceptible to being interrupted. The next flaw being that to demonstrate its full potential it's necessary for me to have a power advantage over my opponent and lastly that if someone decides to just run away and keep attacking me at a range I have very little answers to it.

So my punches gradually became more ferocious and the grimm quickly became a helpless punching bag, until eventually it perished under the weight of my advance, but instead of stopping and taking a small breather I immediately kicked the ground and pounced onto the next enemy in order to not waste the momentum I had already built up.

The remaining five beowolfs were a litle bit farther away and hadn't interfered before to try and overwhelm him since they're were the ones keeping the encirclement to prevent their prey from escaping, now that their buddies are dead they would probably had advanced if he hadn't already done it first.

So the next beowolf didn't fare much better than the last, as I completely negated its offence with one my own and due to the 'stampede' having already had the time to set-up, this one had to face even stronger and fiercer attacks than the last one and as a result it took even less time to kill it.

But with 4 beowolfs already dead and 4 more left standing, I had already consumed a good amount of my stamina in my last move and was forced to stop the 'stampede' before I exhausted myself further. That is another limitation of this technique, as I gain momentum I also have to spend more energy to keep the move going so the amount of time I can keep it up is limited by my endurance, so as a 9 year old and having already fought in this forest for a few hours, I can't use this technique leisurely.

But as I take a breather and recover my fatigue, I use the 'breathing technique: second wind' in order to speed up the process and stabilize my breathing to make me ready to continue fighting quickly in order to not be attacked when I'm vulnerable and out of breath.

Realizing that a battle of attrition with grimm, creatures that feel no fatigue both physical and mental, would be very disadvantageous for me, I decide to end this battle as soon as possible.

The beowolves seem to come to a similar conclusion as they run out of patience and abandon their previous encirclement before the four of them charge at me simultaneously in order to quickly end this fight.

After catching my breath and steadying myself for a few seconds, I jump back into the fight in order to quickly deal with the remaining enemies, this time using a less stamina intensive form of attack.

I'm initially aproached by two beowolfs that try to attack me in tandem, the attacks despite being ferocious and fairly well coordinated for grimm standards are in the end of the day still obviously telegraphed and too slow to hit me, I this time don't even use flash-step and just jump backwards in order to dodge both attacks.

Seeing that the remaining two didn't stand idle and were already approaching me from behind, I elected to use my newest aura technique once more and with a heavy stomp on the ground I manage to flinch the beowolfs and pinpoint the location of the ones behind me. Due to having repeatedly used this technique in order to test it against the same group, the enemies this time were prepared and were much less affected by it then the last time.

But even if they were distracted for just half a second, it was already enough for me to make my move and get the upper hand. I struck towards one of the beowolfs in front of me using the 'Dragon's claw' after having further enhanced it with aura and empowered my body with a breathing technique, the aim of the attack was to finish it of quickly by hitting its head.

The beowolf didn't stand still and tried to dodge, but it was too late as it was already within strike range when I started the attack and I had the absolute advantage when it came to raw speed. The attack hit it squarely on the head and its mask was pierced by my fingers.

At the same time with my other arm, I released an air pressure punch towards the other Grimm in front of me, it was dodged by my opponent but it was enough to force it back and allow me to reduce their numbers even further.

Following that, I returned my attention to the other Grimm and noticed that although immobile it hadn't started disintegrating yet, so I violently ripped my fingers from the grimm's skull, shattering its mask and now definitively killing it.

But I got no time to think as I had to hurriedly duck my head in order to avoid a claw swipe that was coming from behind me, this one I was able to detect even without 'Aura sonar' since there was now much fewer enemies left making distinguishing sounds much easier, so I could just use aura to reinforce my hearing to do it.

The other two grimm that were coming from behind then commenced a brutal simultaneous assault and I followed suit by shifting my aggression towards them while keeping my ear on the third and last beowolf that was still standing.

Even when I'm outnumbered 2 to 1 in the following confrontation, the advantage still remains firmly with myself. Them acting together did make things a bit harder for me but with only two, it is still a number that I can deal with simultaneously without much issues, it's when this number reaches 4 that I start to need to thinn them out.

So I just aim for their gaps and make sure that the two beowolfs regret dearly each attack that they miss as a swift counter-attack is sure to follow. Seeing that both of them attacking me head on wasn't very effective, they decided to instead separate so that they would both attack me from opposite sides.

But this proved to be a grave mistake from their part as I took this opportunity to separate them, waiting for both of them to prepare an attack to minimize the chance of them dodging, turning so that the two beowolfs are on my left and right and concentrating aura on both my fists, I struck them to my sides sending two air pressure projectiles towards them and pushing both of them back and away from each other.

So I quickly rushed towards the one on my left and swiftly dealt with it using the same method as the first beowolf that I killed: a 'Shatter bone' to slam its head onto the ground followed by a stomp to finish it off. Then I turned to the one on the right and pounced on it with a leaping punch that the creature barely blocked followed by a uppercut that slipped beneath its defence and stunned it long enough for me to Pierce its head with a 'dragon claw', putting an end to it.

Now I turn towards the last one standing, the beast was on all fours in a position of a predator ready to pounce on its prey. Releasing a deep breath, I also stare straight towards it while remaining in a combat ready stance.

The beowolf then shot forward like an arrow, showing no regard to its own survival and just looking to inflict all the damage it could in hopes of allowing the next group to have a better fighting chance.

But its wishes would never be fulfilled as such an obvious and straightforward attack would never have a chance to hit me. Instead of just dodging to the side I decided to instead completely intercept the attack using a technique that I haven't used a lot so far.

So I bent my knees and got a firmer footing in preparation to receive the attack, and got both my arms in the position to intercept the attack from where it will come from.

'Water flow destroys rock: whirlpool'

With my lower body acting as a support like a sturdy tree root and my arms fluidly moving in a circular motion, as soon as the beast reaches me I position one of my hands beneath its jaw that was quickly advancing for a bite and the other on the wrist of the hand it was swinging towards me.

And with a very fluid motion I managed to redirect all of its attacks without receiving as much as a scratch and additionally the forward momentum that the beast still had caused it to tumble into the ground with a very high force.

This was possible due to the fact that despite the beast being stronger and much heavier than myself, I still had a much better support on the ground and used the leverage from my lower center of gravity to my advantage. This is one of the reasons that I chose a more punch favored combat style instead of a kick based one, since kicking would force me to stand on one leg during the attacks so It would become much easier to brake my stance and be thrown around by my opponents in exchange for a longer range of attack.

But focusing back on the fight, I quickly aproach the beowolf that was starting to get up from the ground and moved to retrain it.

I firstly step on one of the beast's arms, more specifically on its wrist to pin it to the ground, with one of my hands I then hold the second arm at its wrist and keep it above the grimm's head. In response the beast lashes out and goes for a bite, but its resistance was swiftly interrupted as I grab the beowolf's neck with my remaining arm, leaving it incapable of retaliating.

Normally, doing such a thing should be impossible for me since the grimm had a greater strength than me and should be capable of easily escaping my grasp, the reason it doesn't is due to the places I'm holding it from.

In various martial arts it's taught that there are many locations in the opponent's body, especially its wrist and joints, that if properly held can limit the strength that one can use, and in this 3 years this is one of the many things that master has taught me. So despite me having a lower strength, this grimm is still at my mercy.

So as the beowolf continued to struggle fruitlessly, I stared it straight in its red, glowing eyes and said:

"I want to make something very clear, since your kind don't seem to understand it. I am the hunter and you are my prey, not the other way around."

The beowolf obviously didn't understand any of it and didn't show any reaction after hearing it and just continued struggling as before. This words were more to myself than the mindless beast within my grasp.

So after saying it, I started to channel aura into the hand that was holding the beast's neck until it had reacted the limit, then I immediately detonated all of the aura that was cowering my hand causing the grimm's head to explode with a loud poping sound.

With all the enemies defeated defeated and finally having some time to catch my breath, I sit on the ground and start rubbing my sore fists after having performed so many punches, a small smile on my face showing satisfaction for now having delt with an even bigger group of enemies than last time.

So curious about my aura usage in the last battle, I pick my Scroll and see for myself my current remaining aura.

[Aura level: 38%]

'Before the fight I was at 65%, meaning that my aura level decreased by 27% during the course of this fight and all of this without having been hit once, meaning that all of this was just the aura that I used on my offence.'

Seeing the result I can't help but release a sigh and come to understand the reason so few people choose to become aura experts. Aura is a very limited resource that one already has to balance its use defensively to protect himself, keep some to accelerate the healing of any wounds from the battle and aura is also consumed to fuel one's semblance.

So except for someone like Jaune that has a lot of aura innately and has a semblance that boosts it, it is impossible for others to make such reckless use of it.

And it's worth to remember that my aura pool is approximately 5 times larger than average, meaning that 27% to me is actually 135% for a normal person. So this puts into perspective how much aura is necessary for someone to fight like me, afterall, I was constantly using aura techniques as I kept sending large waves of aura with my stomps and imbued every single one of my attacks with a lot of aura to increase the damage they caused. So this aura spenditure is to be expected.

But, as I grow up and my aura control increases while my dependence on enhancing my moves decreases, my aura consumption should decrease greatly in prolonged fights.

Shaking my head I just focus on stabilizing my breathing while recovering as much aura as I can before the next group of enemies arrive.

So after remaining seated for almost 30 minutes, I manage to reduce considerably my fatigue and my aura level increases by 10% without taking into consideration my semblance.

As I remained still in a lotus position while constantly surveying my surroundings for any sound, I suddenly heard something from beyond the clearing so I immediately stood up and turned towards the direction it came from.

I then started to listen to a loud roar along with heavy footsteps that couldn't possibly belong to a beowolf. Was was approaching was definitely bigger than it.

Realizing this I just smile and start loosening up my body after remaining seated for so long.

"Finally! It seems that I have defeated enough mobs and master has decided that now it's finally time for the boss battle. Now it's time for a real test of skill!"