Battling an E-ranked beast

The beast in front of him as he assumed truly blended in with this environment. A completely green mantis.

Well, this wasn't just any mantis as it was 3 feet tall with a masculine frame and numerous sharp teeth which had blood stains most likely from a recent meal.

It stared viciously at him with its yellow slit eyes. Its forelegs or arms as some people may refer to had sharp edges like a blade and just by looking at it, he could tell that if he wasn't careful, he would end up in at least two halves.

The grip on his dagger tightened as he took a fighting stance. He would've preferred to move back where there was less grass but he didn't think it was wise to move yet with a beast such as this which could attack at any time.

He planned on wheeling them backwards during the fight.

Just like with the wolves, he was observing it closely and could already tell that it would be more difficult to predict. After all, this was an E-ranked beast.

It normally took several mages of the same rank as a beast to defeat it but they were geniuses who could solo beasts of the same level but the rarity of this increased with the rank.

So the amount of A-rank mages capable of handling an A-rank beast on their own was about the same number as his fingers and toes much less an S-rank.

This meant that only a few people in the entire silver trainees for this year would dare fight an E-rank. What was worse was that this was an agility-based beast but Art didn't seem frightened, he was just wary despite standing against something like this.

'Here it comes,' he said internally as the mantis beast blasted forward at much more speed than he had expected and the moment it got close to him, he ducked evading the first slash.

He swiped the dagger towards its chest but seeing the second arm also headed at him, he changed the direction of his swing using the dagger to block instead.

By this clash, he could tell that he didn't lose out much in strength.

He pushed away its arm with the dagger bending slightly avoiding the other which was aimed at his neck before leaping and spinning around with a kick at its face, but its four legs weren't for nothing as even though the kick would have made it to at least take a few steps backwards if it had two, that was prevented by its hind legs, but they buckled slightly with its head tilting.

Art was expecting this, so mid-air, he sent another kick causing it to kneel and as he descended with a thrust, he had to redirect his dagger once more to block the attack headed at him.

He was sent flying backwards and the beast which wasn't planning on giving him a break followed him up.

Just as his legs made contact with the ground, another slash was headed his way.

'Come on, it's this guy actually trying to kill me?"

Seeing the frenzy look in its eyes and the blood on its mouth, he realized that it was a dumb question.

Using his dagger, he deflected the arm of the beast and it pierced into the ground leaving it open. Not wasting this opportunity, he sent out several slashes to the thorax of the beast. Some were very deep but this didn't go for free.

The beast swung its second hand at him and this time, he wasn't able to completely block it skidding backwards with a deep cut on his shoulder.

But rather than pain, he had a smile plastered on his face.

[-9 HP]

The 'him' after arriving in this world would've been severed by that attack but he only lost 9 HP.

He was glad at his growth during these 4 weeks but after noticing something, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

After being knocked around twice he had ended up a little deeper with high grasses and he didn't believe this was a coincidence which meant that the beast also had a similar goal to him.

While he was trying to bring it out, it was trying to push him in. So without a doubt, it had some intelligence.

"Not bad," he muttered watching the beast which pulled out its arm from the ground with green blood dripping from its chest.

He was slightly at a disadvantage as the beast had two of such arms which were its weapons and he only had a dagger. Although it helped in increasing his stats, he needed to get very close in order to deal damage.

The beast which was now infuriated blasted forward at him and he also did the same.

When they…., or better put, the beast got into striking range, it slashed towards Art who slid down evading the attack while sending out one of his own to the joints of the two legs on the right as they crossed each other.

He stopped himself, rushing as quickly as he could back to the beast to deal the same damage to the other two legs but the beast was very fast intercepting him by swiping its scythe arm diagonally and Art barely stopped himself with its arm grazing across his cheek and chest.

Well, that was how it seemed at first but after leaping backwards, he realized that it was much deeper, and half of his face was slowly getting covered with blood and also his torn shirt was getting soaked.

He held his shirt, ripping it off with a deep frown on his face right now looking like a true warrior but internally, he had a satisfied smile.

'I've always wanted to do that.'

Due to the injuries on its two legs, which now had blood leaking out, the beast didn't attack like before.

So Art decided to do the honors. He ran towards the beast carefully and not going too fast.

The beast lunged forward swinging both arms at once. Art scoffed while twisting his body in a not-so-normal way as both attacks missed.

He stabbed his dagger forward but his senses were screaming danger which was when he noticed the mana gathering at the mouth of the mantis beast which was opened causing his eyes to widen in horror.

It was more out of instinct that he quickly changed the aim of the dagger slashing it at the throat of the beast and along with a spurt of green blood, a sonic wave slammed into him, sending him flying before crashing into the ground and rolling before coming to a stop.

He was now much battered but was relieved. With what the beast had shown, it wasn't just an E-rank beast, it was a magical one.

He didn't expect this as his mana sensing was almost zero as he had none himself.

But slashing the throat of the beast had interrupted its ability so he only got hit by a fraction of it and this was the result.

He kept hearing some sort of shriek along with the ringing sound in his ears and slightly blurry vision, but everything got clearer in some seconds as he saw the beast trying to grab onto its throat which spilled blood.

Too bad it had no fingers.

The bleeding had gotten worse and he was now sure that some sort of internal organ including his lungs was affected. Even the blood trickling down from his nose was proof.

The beast stopped its pointless struggle bearing its state before focusing its attention on Art.

Both of them were covered in blood and injured. Surely, their next clash would decide who lives and who dies and to make matters worse, he had ended up deeper into the grasses with their height now being above his waist.