Chapter 44: Training Buddy Inside of a wide and circular arena, a man and a minotaur were fighting in a battle of life and death. To put it in simple words, Kahn was getting his ass handed to him by the minotaur dungeon floor boss. Arghh! He groaned in pain as his wrist had nearly broken from the impact as he tried to defend against the attacking boss. The minotaur checked his surroundings and was fearful of Kahn's soldiers attacking him if he put Kahn in a corner. All of his brethren were already dead. He no longer could use the skills that'd help him command them to wipe out the enemy side. And none were coming out from the city either because Kahn had already killed them all one by one and very covertly. And because of this.. It wasn't certain that it could survive. So running away was the only reasonable choice for it. "Don't worry. They won't attack you.. If you kill me, they'll die as well." revealed Kahn as he stood up and changed from his defensive stance to an attacking one. "Windcutter!" exclaimed Kahn and surrounding air started coalesced onto his sword and extremely tense air pressure was excluding from the blade. Kahn slashed his sword towards the minotaur's body. CRINGGKKK The sound of metal and the highly compressed wind blade clashing filled the entire space as the giant body of the minotaur boss was shoved by 5 meters after using his shield to defend himself from this attack. [System, show me the progress.] he ordered the system to reveal the current progress of his combat skills and techniques. [Combat Mastery for Weapons : Sword : 79% Daggers/Knives : 68% Bow : 63% Axe : 54% Shield : 35% Spear : 51% All at Master Rank. Combat Techniques progress as follows : Windcutter : 23% Deflect/Parry : 37% Sword blade : 29% Lacerate : 13% Pincer : 21% Mastery progress for Skills as follows : Shadow Walk : 93% Firestorm : 53% Defense Fortitude : 89%] Author : Kahn already used and practiced the last three weapons during his training period of one week in earlier chapters. "Ugh.. Not enough." spoke Kahn and charged at the floor boss and taunted it to attack again. To be correct, it was more like he was intentionally getting attacked and defending against the minotaur boss as he wanted to improve his mastery in his defensive skills first. As the battle went on and Kahn used many of his defensive skills including the Knight & Templar defensive skills to block the attacks from the enemy. With more time being spent being on the defending side, his mastery of these skills was rising at a fast pace. Because the enemy was stronger and secondly because it was fighting for his life. If Kahn died, the floor boss will live so it didn't hold back in its attacks. This was an experience Kahn couldn't possibly get from any of the battles he had so far because his enemies didn't want to kill him. His instructors that trained Kahn a week before didn't fight him at their best. Even the sparring test with Arkham was inadequate as he was only trying to test Kahn and not kill him. The main reason why he was choosing this floor boss to practice them was because it had sentience and was well versed in the art of war. It used every skill it had to completely decimate Kahn in the ground and knew when to land a killing blow and when to defend. So it was the best choice for him to build an actual combat experience and foundation because even if he trained and improved his Weapon Mastery and Combat Techniques mastery, it would never be comparable to the benefits and experience he was getting from this real and overwhelming fight. Because a Lord Rank monster was no weaker than a Beginner Grandmaster Rank enemy. [Are we done?] asked Kahn to the system. [Yes, all the defensive skills the host currently possesses have reached 100% proficiency and their Rank can be evolved. Some Skills have met conditions to be merged using Synthesis.] [Good.] "Now my turn!" shouted Kahn and extremely light and incredibly sturdy black hexagonal scales started appearing on his body and covered all the parts including his injured legs, shoulders and the exposed area like the forearms. Except for his face, his entire body was covered in these lustrous and dark scales. Somir Scales! Kahn finally used the innate defensive skill he got after absorbing the body of the legendary Somir. The magically reinforced clothes and gear he was wearing had many defensive skills such as barrier shield and even mana eruption to throw off the attacker. It would certainly be useful to anyone and save their lives at critical moments.. But in front of this dungeon boss, who had the attacking prowess to cleave 10 people in half with a single swing of his battleaxe; it was like blocking a bullet with a paper. So Kahn used his best and most effective defensive skill he had. Even a Grandmaster Rank Swordsman won't be able to cut him in half when he was using this ability. The scales were no different than Carbon fiber armor. So now, he had no reason to worry about getting injured. What happened next left even Omega, who was worried about his master's safety and ready to jump in the battle if Kahn was near death; let out a surprised expression. Because the Kahn who was getting beaten to death, thrown around and nearly stampeded upon till now suddenly started swinging his sword at the giant minotaur floor boss with newfound strength and expression on his face turned to that of a Predator. Similar to the one when they were hunting monsters in the forest nearly four weeks ago. "Come at me you weak cow!" scorned Kahn at the minotaur in disdain. "Cow? What did you just call me, you vermin?!" spoke the floor boss in an enraged voice and attacked the human next to him furiously. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 CLANG! CLANG! BANG! SHRKKK! Unlike before, Kahn was now both attacking and parrying the attacks from the enemy than just defending and blocking against them. His movements becoming extremely fast and sometimes, his image nearly flickered as he continuously attacked the yellow minotaur again and again from different angles and directions. Pincer! Stab! Sword Blade! Windcutter! Kahn started using his different sword skills and aimed for vital points of the enemy. And whenever the boss tried to use the AoE skills like shattering the nearby ground to disorient Kahn or use the battleaxe to split the ground, he'd quickly retreat using Side Hopper. After some time, Kahn put his sword and started shooting mage spells like Firestorm, Water Blade, Wind Blade, Frost Spikes at the giant body of the minotaur. Almost burning it to death but then freezing it to death the next second. No matter what the Lord rank dungeon floor boss did, it could never reach Kahn as he was simply too fast and agile. After half an hour as Kahn was finally satisfied with the skill progress. He stopped shooting his magic spells and took out a high-grade bow which was extremely well designed and looked like a rare weapon. It was one of the weapons Kahn found inside the space ring of the Scarlet Lion team commander who was killed by the silver kobold. He took a quiver full of arrows and tied it to his back. Before the boss reached near to him, he dashed away in another direction and started shooting arrows at the boss and used various archer skills. Yes.. The almighty dungeon floor boss that had killed and wiped out hundreds of adventurers team with his brethren and could easily take out a group of 15 by itself.. The one who put Kahn near to death and threw him around on the arena ground many times as if toying with his opponent.. Was now nothing but Kahn's practice dummy. A dummy whose only part was to move and let the attacker try out various attacking skills and spells on it. Its biggest advantage in numbers was gone.. Its army was wiped out and now, the weak enemy it was treating as a joke had turned the tables on it. The minotaur boss was now reduced to punching bag. After another hour as soon as Kahn had completely raised his mastery in various weapons except daggers to 100%, he let out a content sigh. "Time's up!" declared Kahn and the next second.. He was standing on the giant minotaur's shoulder who was 11 meters tall. But before it could even react, Kahn used his Ripper Claws that were coated in his venom acid and plunged them inside the eyes of the floor boss. "BAARRGHH!!" wailed the minotaur in pain before his huge body dropped on the ground. The venom acid instantly melting its brain in seconds, living up to the reputation of a legendary monster's innate skill. "How many?" asked Kahn to Omega. "14, my master. 3 of them were the minotaurs you created." replied Omega. Kahn nodded in response. Omega's speech was getting more coherent very quickly and he was gaining proper intelligence. Now the Lycan possessed 25% Bloodline purity of Godbeast Fenrir. So Kahn was sure one day, it would turn into an intellectual subordinate in the future if he managed to acquire more bloodline of this Godbeast. He put his hands on the dead body and started absorbing the abilities of the Minotaur dungeon floor boss. "Now don't disappoint me."