The battle began right as I was pushing my luck in terms of getting caught staring at the saintess’ ass, saving from the trouble of being caught red... eyed?
’Normally it would be red-handed, but I feel like I would die before my hands could even reach to cop a feel,’ I thought, using this ridiculous scenario to distract myself from the lethal pressure I felt all around.
The saintess rushed forth, appearing to be half-floating above the terrain and half-skating through the air, sliding through the distance as if she knew not of the concept of air resistance.
Every step she took, every ter she conquered, all of it was filled with a sense of otherworldly grace...
Followed by a devastating wave of energy that crushed everything that the Saintess’ gentle approach spared, creating a literal crater in her wake - even if it was created with a slight delay to when the Saintess flew over.
Then, she landed. And the mont she did, the energy lagging behind her finally caught up, coiling once around her only for the Saintess to use her sword and direct it all at the massive chira ahead!
Just like that, one of its massive arms fell off, filling the air with a loud thud, soon superseded by the beast’s pained cry, almost loud enough to shatter the drums in my ears.
But that cry wasn’t enough to stop the saintess, even though she was much closer to its source, making her experience all the worse for it.
Still, as if the sound-based retaliation wasn’t enough, the monster’s severed shoulder covered up in dark-green blood only to then explode in a flurry of flas... leaving behind a perfect scab covering up the wound.
A wound that then started to bloat up in a way I was a bit too familiar with for my comfort.
Because it wasn’t the first ti I saw what was happening to the monster’s arm take place. Heck, I saw it so many tis before, I could hardly care...
If not for how all the other tis I saw it, it only happened on the screen, as a result of the long and hard work of the animators in either the gas or animated series I saw it in!
This ti, however, was different. This ti, I saw this sort of ungodly regeneration with my own two eyes, exhibited by the monster standing less than a hundred ters away from where I hid in the grass.
’That shouldn’t be possible.’
On the inside, my pragmatic mind struggled to accept the reality before my eyes.
The chief reason why I’ve only seen this sort of regeneration through a creative, faked-out dium was because sothing like that had no way to happen in real life!
Sure, regeneration was possible, just like there were so lizards who could discard their tails and then grow one anew, but...
Regeneration at this speed? With the cleanly-severed arm already done developing a stump and now trying to restore the monster’s arm all the way to its elbow?
I gulped my saliva down, a sense of dread sending a chill up my spine.
’If it can regenerate so fast, aren’t we fucked?’
For a mont, I felt like turning around and escaping back into the jungle.
Just the way I calculated it before, there was no point pushing my way towards certain death when there was so chance, regardless of how small, that I could survive by doing sothing else.
Then, the saintess picked up the pace.
Whoosh!
She rushed ahead, dodging the slam of the monster swinging its arm only to find her way behind the monster’s back. Then, for several tense seconds she continued to move around, keeping herself just beyond the edge of the monster’s field of view.
And then...
The monster stopped.
For but one, terrifyingly long second, it froze in place, its head perfectly still as its eyes glared straight at where I was hiding at.
My body froze.
Just the stare of that monster was enough to rob of my ability to move my body around, stopping from escaping before I could as much as move a single muscle towards that goal.
Then, the saintess—
She vanished from where she stood, only to reappear above the still-regenerating arm of the monster.
Given a few more seconds, the guardian beast of the jungle would fully restore itself to its full glory.
But those few seconds...?
The Saintess never planned to offer them.
Cling!
This ti, the sound was different, different from all the sounds I’ve witnessed the saintess produce as she warded off all the beasts stupid enough to even consider attacking us.
It wasn’t the sound of an overwhelming force crashing into its target, dismantling it in a series of a thousand invisible cuts before smashing it into a bloody puddle with its weight.
No, this was different.
If the Saintess’ earlier attacks were a showcase of might, then the single actual strike of her sword that connected to her target’s flesh was outright beautiful. It was as if her entire body beca one with the sword, bending and twisting in just the right ways to produce the most possible montum and, in a single flash, her sword moved from point A to point B.
That was it.
A single, horizontal slash that was as simple as it could get, while overflowing with near endless mastery hidden within.
"How beautiful..."
Sohow, my mouth moved, uttering a soft whisper of amazent as I stared at the saintess floating in the air with the sword in her hand and a somber expression on her cute if not damn adorable face.
The beast’s eyes continued to pressure into immobility, stopping from making even the slightest move.
A thin, dark-green line appeared along the width of the monster’s neck, tainting its thick, black fur.
Then, the monster’s eyes clouded, releasing from the chokehold of its suppression...
Only for the upper part of its neck to slide off to the side before its head fell off its neck, marking the end of the story for this iteration of the jungle’s guardian.
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