"
Its lower jaw trembled as it strained to resist my Command Skill, before it quickly veered across to the left as I sent Devour zipping up towards it, evading the dark, shadowy jaws with ease, while breaking free of the effect of Command.
Guess it's too significantly more powerful than I am for that Skill to work on it...no matter, it looks even more wary of me now than it did before, and the bleeding in its back isn't slowing down.
Drops of blood were steadily raining down and splattering across the ground, the fur across its back matted down and stained red, soaked in blood. It's keeping its distance, and I don't really have any options for long-range combat.
Devour and Drain don't move fast enough to catch up to a target with as much speed as this thing has, especially from this distance.
Heck, it even managed to partially avoid Devour when I used it as a sneak attack, I guess my Gluttony Skills aren't all that useful as offensive weapons against Monsters of this level.
Still, with its injuries, it can't afford to drag this out for too long, it'll have to go on the attack soon. My best option is to stay alert and wait for it to make the first move.
As I kept my eye on it and waited, I could see that it was getting restless, and before long, it finally made a move, snapping open its jaws and unleashed a blast of sonic sound down towards me.
"
The white, smoky energy burst out of my left shoulder blade and expanded as it took shape, the jaws opening wide as I raised it above myself and consumed the sound.
I tested it out against the regular Sonic Bats, which confirmed that their sonic screeches aren't a product of physical abilities, they're Magical.
Which means, I can consume them with Drain.
The Hypersonic Bat let out a growl as I absorbed its attack, before swooping down with immense speed, suddenly swerving across to the left as it began to close in, before it charged in towards me from the side.
I quickly spun across as I raised my blade up defensively, a sharp clang ringing out as I narrowly blocked the slash of its claws, before tensing as it shot past me before zipping in from behind.
I manifested and extended out Devour as fast as I could and glanced back, the Monster shooting up and above me as I snapped the shadowy jaws at it, evading my attack before firing out a sonic blast at me, which I just barely absorbed with Drain.
Damn it, both these Skills cost 1 MP per second to maintain, my MP is plummeting fast. I can't maintain them indefinitely, my MP recovery rate is 1 MP per minute, not nearly fast enough to offset the cost of these Skills.
My stat screen shrinks down to a narrow, horizontal, rectangular screen in my peripheral that displays my HP and MP while I fight, so I'm keenly aware of how much MP I'm using up.
As my MP went down to 10, I deactivated both Skills and swung my blade across at the Monster, grimacing as it avoided my slash, before swinging its claws at my head.
A shallow cut appeared across my forehead as I sprang back right in the nick of time, my HP ticking down by 1, before raising my short-sword up defensively as the Monster shot towards me.
It drove the claws on its right foot towards my chest as it closed in on me, as I narrowly blocked its thrust with my blade before I grabbed it's right leg, tightening my grip before driving my blade towards its throat.
I grimaced as it swiftly lifted its left leg and caught the blade between its claws, before wrenching its right foot free of my grasp and striking my left shoulder.
I let out a stifled hiss of pain as it clamped its claws around my shoulder, digging them into my flesh agonizingly, before I quickly whipped my blade across as it slashed the claws on its left leg across at my throat, deflecting them away as my HP dropped by 5.
"
But it was quick to react, yanking its claws out of my shoulder and flying back to evade the attack, growling menacingly as I managed to tear off a bit of the skin over its chest, before it zipped forward as I deactivated the Skill.
It whipped its claws across as it closed in on me in the blink of an eye, inflicting a deep gash across my right side as I twisted my body across to try and dodge it.
I winced in pain before gritting my teeth and spinning around as it shot past me and flew up, struggling to catch my breath as it narrowed its eyes at me.
I can barely lift my left arm, the wound in my shoulder is pretty deep, and the gash across my right side is bleeding out pretty steadily too.
"You piece of...," I growled, while taking a glance at a small display from my System that had appeared in my peripheral, right below the display indicating my HP and MP.
Still at only five percent, huh? I need to build it up a bit more...Ai, let me know when it gets to ten percent.
I raced across the space as the Hypersonic Bat zipped down towards me, before coming to a swift stop and spinning around as it closed in on me, a sharp clang ringing out as I blocked the slash of its claws.
One of the claws nicked my right cheek and sliced across the middle of my ear, before it shot past me again as blood streamed down the side of my face, before charging in towards me, slashing its claws across as it closed in and inflicting a cut across my chest as I failed to fully block its strike.
It continued with the same tactics, zipping at me, striking, then getting some distance and repeating the process.
Despite the predictable pattern of attack, I was struggling to keep up with its speed. With each strike, the number of injuries across my body increased, and by the time barely a minute had passed, I'd sustained several cuts all over my arms, torso and face.
I kept activating Drain to consume its sonic attacks, and before long, it stopped using them entirely, attacking solely with close-range strikes from its claws.
It's a good thing it doesn't know that I can only use either Devour or Drain a couple more times, my MP is down to 2. And it's been steadily chipping away at my HP too, I'm down to about half. I need to end this quickly.
As it came charging in towards me from the front, I tightened my grip on the handle of my blade and drove it forward as the Monster closed in on me, before gasping in pain as it whipped its foot across, striking the side of my wrist with its claws and knocking my weapon out of my grasp.
The blade hit the ground with a clatter and skidded away, before I twisted my body across as it clawed at my chest, tearing the skin over the right side of my chest apart before it flew up as I tried to grab its leg, getting out of my reach.
I collapsed onto one knee as my vision blurred, the pain and blood loss starting to take their toll.
Damn it...!
"
It veered across, easily evading the shadowy jaws, before putting on a burst of speed with a powerful flap of its wings, letting out a deafening, gutteral screech as it shot down, its claws poised to strike my head as Devour faded, the last remaining reserves of my MP used up as it closed in on me...
"Now...