The difference in size could be used to his advantage. The beast was a walking target, and he was more like a mosquito, incredibly hard to hit, and he was faster.

The creature had only achieved its previous speed after several seconds of acceleration. He wasn’t going to give it that chance.

Looking beyond, at the second beast, which was still in place, Josh began his assault, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

Each step he took after the first felt like he was sliding on a frictionless surface, allowing him to accelerate to speeds even speed related Grade 6 humans would struggle to reach.

His figure blinked and appeared next to the elephant sized creature, slashing at its skin, yet his sword bounced off the rock like hide, leaving it undamaged.

Unfazed, he proceeded with his attacks, targeting areas like the joints where its hide appeared thinner, yet he failed to cause any damage there.

With quick steps, he switched his target to the beast’s head, the tip of his sword aiming at the narrow crack where the creature’s eye was nestled.

But the creature wasn’t planning to take the flurry of attacks indefinitely, even with its startling defense.

It shifted its head ever so slightly, causing Josh who had leaped into the air to miss the narrow target, his sword landing on the hard hide instead.

Taking the small window where Josh was in the air, unable to maneuver, the beast shifted its footing, and its head whipped to the side, the white tusks smashing into Josh who had no option but to raise his sword in defense, bearing the crushing weight of the beast’s head.

<Deflection>

He applied an aspect of his ability, using his sword as a medium and negating part of the impact as he used the momentum to create some distance from the creature.

Still, he couldn’t hold back the blood he was forced to spit out as he struggled to stabilize himself.

To a certain degree, he realized that leaving Angy behind was a dumb decision he made, blinded by anger.

But he could feel her close by. It was only a matter of time before she caught up, and the fight became less burdensome for him.

Resetting his posture into a low one, he pushed hard off the ground, crossing their distance, leaving nothing but a small skid mark despite the force he launched with.

The beast that only took a step when he reached. A hardened look on his face as he swiped his sword across the joints of the beast. A method he had tried before, but this time with differing intentions.

’How did it move that fast?’

He thought back to the last second after he missed the attack on the beast’s eyes before it counter attacked.

It made no sense for it to be able to move that fast with a rock solid hide surrounding its neck.

He had checked. It was just as hard as the rest of its body.

The hide was a great piece of defense that he had no idea how to breach right now. But even that came with its downsides — lack of flexibility.

The reality that the beast was able to move with a hide that solid covering even its joints was an odd one. It was supposed to be immobile, and yet in that last second, its head had whipped at him at insane speeds.

<Reduction>

Keeping an eye out for any odd movement, Josh pushed his ability even further, reducing the friction generated between his body and the air as much as he could, and his body stopped accelerating, falling into a constant maximum speed.

At his top speed, his body vanished from one’s sight, but he was done, going even further to reduce the friction between his feet and the ground, increasing his max speed even further, fine tuning it with an insane level of precision to control his turns and maneuvers.

He had surpassed the speed at which the beast could see, forcing it to stand still. Its pride in its defense was still unchanged, feeling the blows Josh made on its joints without incurring any damage.

’Let’s see how long you last!’

The beast’s loose aura flared as it suddenly felt pain for the first time in the battle.

A reaction that put a smile to Josh’s face. He had finally cracked the rock-hard hide on one of its joints, and immediately, his directions changed, channeling all his strikes towards the affected knee, widening the crack with each strike, giving the beast no time to react as his strikes finally shattered the hide, slicing into the flesh underneath.

The sword was about to get to the bone, hitting it with enough force to shatter the knee and impeding its mobility, but that never happened.

The beast let out a roar in pain, and once again, it moved with the same staggering speed it had used to counter Josh earlier into the fight.

This time, though, Josh was fast enough to react, backing away and closing the distance in a flash the moment the beast reappeared, ready to continue his onslaught, but just before his sword shattered the knee with a light of understanding reflecting in his eyes, he felt it. Even before his body could react.

The hot air, almost burning, that had appeared behind him, along with the putrid smell of rotted flesh.

It was the call of death.

His eyes narrowed, and his body abandoned its attack, turning to react to the new threat. Alas, he was too slow. Even at his blinding max speed.

Too slow to escape, but enough to see the literal jaws of death about to clamp down on him, severing him in half with no regard to his unfulfilled wishes and lingering regrets.

But, no!

Someone had decided that it wasn’t his time yet. And that someone was Angy.

His eyes, devoid of hope, caught a flash of surprise as a shimmering barrier shielded him from the jaws of the second beast.

With renewed hope returned his fear of death as the barrier cracked the moment the beast’s teeth clamped down on it, but Angy wasn’t the best support the camp could offer for no reason.

The shape of the barrier morphed, turning into two hands, which pulled the mouth of the beast apart before Josh felt a tug pulling his body away from the jaws of the creature.

Landing roughly beside the instructor who appeared pristine like she hadn’t taken a step away from home, he couldn’t help the sigh of relief that escaped his lips.

"It’s not over yet!"

She reminded him to be on guard as they both inspected the scene in front of them.

The second beast had finally joined the fray after seeing how its counterpart had almost fallen to Josh’s blade.

’I should have broken the bone!’

The tall beast was back on its feet, the injury about to be healed completely. It wasn’t severe since the bone wasn’t shattered, and now it was back on its feet, staring at Josh with fiery eyes filled with hate, while the smaller beast remained beneath it, almost invisible in its shadow.

The two sides stood opposite each other, Josh’s side forced to bear the weight of two Grade 6 creatures out for their blood right in front them.

He did look at her, but he could tell what was going through her mind.

He was insane to have charged against a Grade 6 beast alone. It was basically courting death, and he had only managed to survive and almost defeat the beast due to its arrogance, barely taking any steps against him.

Despite his similar grade, it was impossible for him or any other human to take on and defeat any beast the same Grade as them alone.

They had stronger base features, which were only amplified as they grew stronger through Grades.

Their abilities as humans barely allowed them to breach that gap and gave them a chance at escaping, but even worse than that was that in some special cases, beasts were also known to possess an ability tied to different causes.

Some were as a result of evolution to adapt to their climate, and some from the sheer strength of their bloodline.

And now, Josh was sure of it. The bigger one had an ability, although simple, it made it so much harder to deal with than should have been the case.

"You take the head, I’ll keep you from attacks as best as I can."

"I’m afraid I can’t do that."

Josh sighed, coughing up another mouthful of blood as his complexion paled.

"I’m down to half my reserves, and my body is nearly spent from dealing with that big guy."

Josh explained, seeing her ashen expression, but the beasts gave them no more time as the smaller one launched an attack, appearing right before Josh, but Angy’s barrier was there to give enough time to react and get out of the way.

His expression had grown extremely dark, though. He could see it.

That beast was almost as fast as him at max speed. Fast enough to react to attacks in that state.

Angy, on the other hand, was having her own troubles, as the big beast had deemed her a necessary objective to defeat before dealing with Josh.

It was finally showing its intelligence.

Both instructors didn’t have time to talk, but they understood one thing.

They had to put everything. Absolutely everything they had on the line to ensure their survival

And they had to somehow go beyond that to carry out the impossible plan of slaying these two beasts, even at the cost of their lives.

For the sake of their soldiers and recruits that had sacrificed their lives. For the sake of those that were going to die if they didn’t.