Chapter 424: The next tier

Using his sword to face off against the beast was a lot harder than Ray had initially thought. He had defeated many king tier beasts in the past, including the Minotaurs and the flaming lion. But with both of those, he relied on his Dragon skills rather than his own. 

It was a bit of a wakeup call for Ray. If he had never been blessed with his old skills of the past, where would he be right now. Would he have been able to achieve as much as he did just as a regular human, like everyone else.

Thinking of these things just made Ray more determined in trying to defeat the beast in front of him. He needed to improve himself. The large tail swung towards him, and once again Ray tried to get the timing down and attempted to deflect the attack. 

He managed, but it was only thanks to his strength that the blow hadn't hit him full on. 

"Come on! Again!" Ray shouted at the beast. 

Although his swordsmanship wasn't the best he knew enough to know that his timing and technique was off. Something he was doing wasn't right. So what better time than to practice right now. 

The large beast no longer struck once while he was taking a break. It was now swinging its tail from side to side continuously. Doing everything it could to get rid of the little pest. However, Ray thought this was perfect, as he was able to practice his parrying again and again. 

Still, once in a while Ray would mess up, and the large sword tail would completely hit him. Ray was able to cover most of the blow using the sword, but it was still a powerful strike that would fling his body from side to side. 

"You damn, giant beast, if I was my past self I would have defeated you with a single swipe of my own tail!" It was clear that the situation was starting to annoy him. 

Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down, however, the beast wouldn't let up. This one seemed to have a true hatred for Ray and was more agile than the one that had gone up against Roki. For one second, it was in front of Ray and then the next; it was in the air. 

With its large body it had jumped and head down with a forward flip, the momentum carried its speed greatly and its tail was now about to hammer down on Ray himself. 

Looking at his sword, Ray felt that if he was to block the blow with just that, then it would surely break. This left him with no choice. With hardly any time to spare, Ray placed the sword in his mouth as a place-holder, something he hadn't done in a long time since he was younger.

"You said these were pretty much unbreakable right, then let's put it to the test." Ray said, as he lifted both his hands, and reinforced his legs with Ki as well. The whole weight of the tail now slammed into Ray. 

The audience all gasped, as they thought the new hopeful contestant was done for. Yet, for some reason, it looked as if the giant beast had remained in the air for a second. 

The attack had landed, but Ray's gauntlets managed to withstand the power of the beast. His two feet were sunken in the ground a little, but it didn't matter.

Eventually, the beasts could no longer remain in its position, and fell back down onto the ground. 

"This doesn't count as me not using my sword, right?"

Although the beast wasn't hurt, it had fallen down and was on its back due to the hit being off balance when making the attack. Quickly, Ray took the sword out from his mouth. Using all the Ki he could possibly gather, he jumped in the air, doing a spin of his own adding momentum, and finally a strike was made towards the neck. 

The sword at first seemed to struggle but Ray wouldn't let the fight continue, he couldn't he needed it to end then and there. Using all the Ki he could gather in his body, without relying on the mana steal. He was eventually able to cut through the beast's neck. 

Its legs and arms soon stopped moving around as the beast was defeated. But it wasn't the only thing that was completely beat. As for Ray, who was now on the floor gasping for air, it had indeed been a long time. 

He had used far too much Ki in his last attack, and his body needed to recover. The crowd cheered at the new contestant that was able to defeat a king tier beast. They hadn't seen many over the years, and now they knew of two people. 

Although Ray seemed more troubled when going up against the beast, people knew that style made fights. There would often be some beasts that another would be able to deal with easily. Just because one person could beat a type of beast yet another couldn't, didn't mean they would win a one-on-one duel. 

As for Ray though, he was upset about the results. In the end he felt like he had cheated himself, for he had used his gauntlets when fighting and not the sword. 

[King tier crystal obtained 1]

At least there seemed to be some rewards that he had received for the whole thing. The reason why he had come to the arena in the first place was to gather king tier crystals for his evolution, and it seemed like it was working. 

[Would you like to absorb the king tier crystal]

[Yes]

[8/100 king tier points received]

Absorbing the crystal, allowed for Ray to gain his lost stamina, his body started to almost instantly feel better. He knew this was the effect of absorbing the crystals and now if he wanted to, he was ready to fight again.

A few seconds had passed and now the crowd was chanting something else. They continued to shout out the next tier beast. 

"Emperor, Emperor, Emperor." 

"Let's see, will you try to go past me? Roki said in excitement!"

*****

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