This monster fell from the sky, its tail was in the shape of a scorpion, and its body was exactly the same as that of a lion, but it had a pair of bat wings.
Just when Todd was sighing at the endless wonders of biological forms, the manticore took the lead in launching an attack.
The bat's wings fanned a strong wind on the ground. The monster took advantage of the wind, kicked off the ground with its four claws, turned from static, and reached its maximum forward speed in an instant.
Todd was taken aback by this rapid attack. Without sufficient mental preparation, he put his right hand on the ground and rolled over, awkwardly dodging the attack.
"Concentrate your attention on your opponent." Meredith kicked her feet on the ground, and her body was like a light bird, flying to the top of the tall stone pillar to look at the battle below.
Todd adjusted the balance of his body, put away his academic distractions, and looked at the manticore in front of him. Metal scales slowly appeared on the skin of his right hand.
The manticore looked at the rising black flames on the opponent's right arm, and remembered something. He stopped where he was, his body close to the ground, and he assumed a posture ready to attack.
Seeing that the opponent had no intention of attacking first, Todd gritted his teeth, rushed forward with a lunge, charged up his right claw and then swung it out fiercely.
Seeing this unfamiliar action that was comparable to a street fight, Meredith covered her face with her hands and sighed helplessly.
As expected, Todd's blow was too hard, and the movement before using it was too obvious. The manticore easily jumped sideways, dodged the attack, and then stood up again, taking advantage of the opponent's lack of time to retreat.
While in neutral, he used the lion's claws to leave three deep scars on his body.
Meredith sat on the pillar, swaying her white calves, and spared no effort in mocking: "New guy, have you never fought before? I bet that those drunkards in the fishing village are better at fighting than you.
"
Todd touched the scar next to his ribs and smiled bitterly. Although the regeneration ability allowed the skin and muscle tissue to heal quickly, his inner self-esteem was greatly affected.
When he was in the Muxi Kingdom, he was sitting on the throne. Apart from symbolically holding a sword and going out to fight, he never had to participate in real battles. Even the martial arts training that Cumberland required of him every day was only perfunctory.
But now is not the time to lament this.
The manticore succeeded with one move, and then launched another charge, but this time the target was Todd's head.
Dodging this attack with a short body, Todd took a few steps back in panic.
Meredith shouted anxiously: "Watch your steps and keep your balance."
The fight lasted for two minutes, and the manticore left no fewer than ten large and small wounds on Todd's body. If it weren't for the increase in physical strength, as well as the help of metal skin and regeneration abilities, Todd would have been dead by now.
Been on it ten times.
Scathach's training with Cu Chulainn came to an end, and the two turned their attention to the battle with the new entrants.
Cu Chulainn, who was covered with bruises, walked to the bottom of the stone pillar, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth carelessly, smiled and raised his head and shouted: "This guy really passed the test of strength, are you sure?"
Meredith used a crow feather as a dagger and threw it at Cu Chulainn's head, yelling angrily: "If you meet the opponent in his strength test, even you will lose.
The fate of."
"What?" Cu Chulainn caught Crow Feather, folded it into two pieces, raised his head and shouted proudly: "There must be a limit to lies, but I am"
Scathach snapped his fingers, and a round pebble flew into the air and hit Cu Chulainn on the back of his head, breaking into two pieces: "Shut up and watch carefully."
Cu Chulainn grinned, rubbed his head desperately, looked at his master, and asked in confusion: "What are you looking at?"
"Look how he learns to fight." After saying this, Scathach remained silent and watched Todd's movements attentively.
After being beaten one-sidedly at first, Todd was hit less and less often, and he was even able to launch a counterattack once or twice.
The mutated and transformed body has far exceeded ordinary people in terms of attack power, endurance, agility and reaction speed. This gave him unlimited possibilities for trial and error in battle. The only thing he lacked was combat.
Experience and opponent information.
As the battle progressed, Todd gradually recalled the experience of playing games in his previous life.
Whenever you play hardcore action games such as Bloodborne and Dark Souls, when facing a boss, you often start with infinite death and zombies. After adapting to the enemy's attack patterns, the battle becomes like drinking water.
Generally simple.
The same is true for the opponent Manticore. The attack methods of this monster are nothing more than scorpion tail, claw attack, collision and bite. The expansion and contraction range of the opponent's tail and the extension length of the limbs are all different.
A certain upper limit. Taking into account the opponent's speed, attack habits, battlefield terrain and other factors, the opponent's attack range and sequence can be roughly calculated, thereby predicting the safe zone, a concept often used in action games.
Twenty minutes after the battle, everyone present noticed a strange situation.
Although Todd was never hit by the manticore again, he had no intention of killing him. During the battle, he was always able to dodge every attack of the enemy without missing a beat, and imitated the opponent's attack method bit by bit.
.
From the perspective of outsiders, it is more like an alternative pas de deux than a life and death fight.
One person and one animal, advancing and retreating, turning and sliding in circles.
However, compared to Todd, the calm lead dancer, his dance partner seemed a little impatient.
After a series of actions of anger, roaring, biting, rolling, and escaping to no avail, the manticore collapsed completely.
It knelt on the ground on all fours, sticking out its tongue and panting continuously. There was no fighting spirit in its eyes anymore, only despair and sadness were filled in its eyes.
Meredith jumped off the stone pillar and looked at Todd with a different look than usual. She said with a joyful tone: "You win."
Cu Chulainn glanced at the half-dead manticore on the ground and muttered: "Of course such an opponent will win."
Todd sat cross-legged in front of the manticore, looked at the no longer crazy monster, and laughed.
Meredith came behind Todd and said, "Give it a good time. This is the right of the winner."
Cu Chulainn, who was standing not far away, also started to scream at this time: "Yes, tearing its throat, tearing off its head, and crying with blood is the meaning of fighting."
The manticore laid its chin on the soil and closed its eyes quietly, like a traveler who saw the end of his life and accepted his fate with peace of mind.
After patting the dust off his butt, Todd looked at the monster at his feet, with a smile still on his face: "Let's go, get out of here."
The decision to give up the execution of the loser made the other three people present stunned.
Meredith stammered, "Are you kidding me if you let it go?"
Compared to her questioning, Cu Chulainn showed anger: "The execution of the loser by the winner is a tradition in the north for thousands of years. If a battle does not involve the blood and life of the loser as a sacrifice, then
, will the sacred duel turn into a group of children playing house?"
Ignoring other people's attitudes, Todd lowered his body, pointed at the sky in the distance, and said to the manticore kneeling on the ground again: "Let's go back to the sky. The battle between us is over.
.”
The monster slowly opened his eyes, watching Todd's movements and listening to his words, an inexplicable emotion slowly emerged in his eyes.
Seeing that the manticore still didn't move, Todd stepped forward, intending to pat the manticore on the head to make it leave as soon as possible.
The moment his palm touched the lion's head, Todd's consciousness suddenly automatically entered the soul space.
Looking at the blue water around his body, Todd said in surprise, "What's going on? I didn't activate the soul space."
A small mountain-like figure swam slowly from the dark sea bottom below Todd, with a huge eye open and closed.
From the perspective of ordinary people, the whole process was just Todd being stunned for a second. But only he knew what had just happened.
Todd returned to reality, watching the manticore flying farther and farther in the air, sweat dripping from his back. His consciousness had just been pulled into the soul space of other creatures.
Cu Chulainn ignored Meredith's obstruction, walked up to Todd, and shouted angrily, "Do you know what you just did?"
The latter shrugged, "I'm not used to wielding a butcher's knife against enemies who have given up resistance."
After a moment of pause, Todd added lightly, "Doing that makes me feel unfulfilled."
"What did you say?" Cu Chulainn's face turned red, he rolled up his sleeves, and he was about to fight Todd.
A twisted vine, like a living snake, climbed onto Cu Chulainn's body and bound his hands and feet tightly.
Scathach threw away the branch in her hand, leaving the three of them to walk towards the temple. When leaving, she left behind this sentence: "The winner has his reasons."
Seeing Todd and Meredith also planning to leave, Cu Chulainn, who was tied tightly and unable to move on the ground, shouted anxiously, "The person who broke the tradition is the new guy. I didn't make any mistakes."