El sprinted past the cluster of trees into the vast, snow-covered landscape.
Suddenly, a massive claw slammed down where he had just been, sending snow swirling wildly in every direction.
His blood ran cold, yet he never stopped running, leaving behind a trail of footprints that were quickly scattered by the creature's chaotic pursuit.
He felt the hybrid, a creature built like a bear, rapidly closing the distance between them.
Realizing that his frantic running would do nothing but get him killed Abit a little slower, his mind raced for a solution.
A flicker of memory brushed pass all others—a conversation with his sister during a spar: the intent of battle
With that thought, he steadied his nerves, dampening his anxiety.
And the creature, increasingly frustrated by its inability to catch it's prey, dragged its claws through the snow, launching a hunk of it toward El's back, causing him to stumble forward.
But El with a quick thinking, had already solidified his strategy.
Used the force of the snowball in getting forward faster,and dug he feets into the snow and halted his fall abruptly.
The hybrid, believing its speed and strength would secure a quick end, lunged it's claws towards it's annoying prey.
Just as the enormous claw descended toward him, El tensed, waiting for the perfect moment.
When the claw neared his neck, he infused his muscles with essence energy, increasing his base strength,which could carve through a boulder.
Summoning additional essence, he manifested razor-like claws on his fingers,and then slid beneath the beast, aiming at its vulnerable underbelly.
And with precision,he struck like blade, his claws digging into the creature's skin, but the attack barely except giving the creature a mild annoyance.
But El was not done as he immediately swiped his fingers in a line, managing to draw blood and elicit a pained grunt from the hybrid.
But the creature's thick hide thwarted any hope of serious harm.
The creature now enraged, attempted to crush him under its weight, but El had anticipated this move.
And be rolled aside just in time to avoid been crushed,and not a moment later sprang onto the creature's back, balancing himself as he repeatedly gashed its flesh with his essence-enhanced claws, drawing more blood and grunts of discomfort.
Even with all the pain, the creature was still confused,with all it's injuries it was sustaining,it was still far enough from being weakening it or dying from.
And yes that was correct,after all El was not fighting to kill it, because he knew it was impossible to do in this situation they were,he was merely biding time to escape.
After numerous strikes on it's back, El reached for the creature's horns, gritting his teeth as he exerted every ounce of essence control to bend its head back.
He prepared to unleash a final strike to aid his escape, but he underestimated the creature's raw power.
As with a sudden, forceful tug,the creature threw him off its back, crashing into the snow where he rolled and finally came to a halt.
But he did not get up,his breath was slightly becoming laboured,but he was still far from losing his Will,using the low visibility of the snow he secretly summoned [essence arrow] the signature golden lines manifested the bow and immediately he activated it's enchantment and binding seal.
With his advanced perception, he aimed for it's eye and released it.
The arrow soared, towards the creature who was still oblivious, unaware until it was too late.
The arrow struck it's eye, but it was deflected as if meeting an unseen shield.
This solidified his conclusion that the creature heritated both traits of the goat-like creatures and another, which made it an hybrid, making the name he called it more fitting.
After this failed attack, he dismissed his weapon, facing a creature whose defense was absolute, strength far above him,and a Will to kill him which was still burning hot and with that sneak attack the Will to kill him was now as hot as magma.
El's expression darkened as he pondered his predicament.
As the creature closed in, his chaotic thoughts crystallized into a stark conclusion:
There was no feasible escape from this situation.
Left with few options, he then did the only thing he could think of, that might buy he at least a second more.
He controlled some essence into his arm,twisting his hip back and drew his right hand back and clinged his fingers and seeing the hybrid as always raising it's claws to attack,he slid in and punched with everything.
Double Impact is a hand-to-hand martial arts technique back in Troy which works by first multiplying the full strength of an attack by two,using mana, then releasing that exact same punch twice—all within one single, continuous attack motion.
And with his insane and godlike control of mana back then, he could put more multiplier on the attack making him deadly in hand to hand combat.
But right now he was not leveraging mana this time, and his low control over essence tilted the odds against his favor—making a successful strike based on pure luck.
Seemingly his luck was high at the moment,as the technique activated, smashing into the hybrid's forehead.
Pain erupted on both sides; El's arm rattled painfully, muscles tearing from the sheer force of the punch.
Yet, the hybrid sustained a far worse fate: its skull cracked, it's organs in it's head jostled violently, and blood flowed from its ears, nose, and mouth as it howled in agony.
And though still wounded, the creature's claws continued their assault, but the force behind them had diminished.
One claw grazed El's arm, tearing through flesh and drawing blood, yet it was minor compared to the mortal wounds he could have suffered.
The reduced impact still shoved him back, leaving both him and the injured hybrid momentarily pause, assessing each other.
El had his robe torn on his right shoulder and arm where the claw attack from the hybrid had land, which was dripping blood on the arm to the ground.
He also had muscle torn on that same arm as repercussion of using the technique without a perfect control over the used energy.
Then the creature suffering from head internal injury,who was constantly bleeding from it.
They both kept looking at each other waiting.
This had become a deadly battle,and That was the first and obviously not near the last injury,El would inflict on the hybrid creature.