’I have to get close!’

Letting themselves being picked apart by the beasts was a road that led to certain death.

He wasn’t in peak form, and Angy was a Grade 5 awakened who mainly served as support, putting her in a more dire situation than him.

At least he had his means of attacking trained over the years for fights like this, but not her. She could defend all she wanted against the beast, but with no means of attack, the moment she slipped up was the moment she died.

They had to fight as one and couldn’t bear to get separated from each other.

Inspecting the beast, which was circling around him slowly, Josh felt somewhat grateful. The only threatening thing about it was the jaw, its speed, and those sharp claws that dig into the ground with each step it took, but he knew better than to underestimate these beasts.

He was still at a disadvantage after all.

Tilting his head back, he dodged the tip of the beasts claw, aiming at his eyes, and instantly activated his ability, pushing himself into max speed with his next step.

There was no room for conserving energy with his life on the line.

There was no escaping this fight, but he wasn’t going to do it like this.

Without hesitation, he closed in on the beast, his sword aiming at one of its four limbs. The jaw appeared more special than the rest of its body, and he wasn’t keen on finding out how.

His logic was simple, partially incapacitate the target, and move over to Angy before it healed.

Unfortunately, unlike its huge counterpart, this beast was able to read Josh’s attack and was fast enough to react to it. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Shifting its body ever so slightly to render his ain useless, it swiped its razor like claws, ready to disembowel Josh, but the instructor was ready for it.

Using his ability, he returned the friction he had taken away, directly impacting his speeds, and his body shivered for a moment as if being freed of its shackles before something odd happened.

The speed of the beast’s incoming claw slowed down dramatically, allowing him the chance to readjust and swipe his sword in an upward motion, severing the claw clean off the limb.

There was no joy on his face as his complexion paled, and he scurried away to Angy’s side with an angry beast chasing after him.

The aura of the beast approaching her from the side was like a burning flame being brought closer and closer to her face, alerting her of its approach even without looking.

Joshua figure flashed by, passing her barrier that had just been destroyed by the huge beast with a single stomp.

She struggled to understand how Josh had fought with the beast for so long. Despite its huge appearance, it was surprisingly fast, managing to get its feet over her head in an attempt to crush her several times

Her barriers were struggling to handle its attacks, most of them crumbling under single attacks.

Josh’s appearance was relieving to her as she could finally play her role as the support properly.

She turned her attention to the approach Grade 6 beast forming a barrier for it to block its path, but it just dodged it, showcasing its incredible agility while ignoring her as a whole. Its hated filled eyes were fixed on none other than Josh.

Feeling the burning auras and hate filled gazes to his front and back, a sense of stillness came over him as he waited for the perfect timing

The jaw of the lighter beast was behind him just like before, and the tusks of the heavy one were approaching at the same speed he had been worried of.

Angy’s eyes widened, seeing him stand still despite the incoming attacks, but at the last moment, when both attacks were close enough and almost impossible to escape, he jumped, placing both his hands on the jaw and tusks which crashed into each other and activated his ability in a split second.

Without looking back to check for the success of his plan, his body reached blinding speeds, targeting the neck of the elephant like beast, which was trying hard to shake its counterpart off its tusk.

The attack cut into the neck, but it was too shallow, barely drawing any blood. The hide wasn’t as tough as it was anymore.

Josh had figured it out in those last moments when he was pulled away by Angy.

How the creature managed to move despite such ridiculous hide wrapped even around its joints.

It was an ability— one that allowed it hardened its hide at will.

It was almost completely immobile when that ability was in effect, hence why it didn’t immediately go after Josh or move around much during his attacks.

A part of that was due to its own arrogance, but another part was just that— it couldn’t move.

When it realled that ability, it was able to reach that surprising speed it had used to attack Josh.

He backed away rapidly, a barrier appearing between him and the claw of the smaller beast, but the bigger one bashed into it, shattering into pieces, it’s tusk still heading towards his chest, but Angy was in clutch, manifesting multiple barriers and layering them to block the attack while Josh circled around to the smaller beast.

His attack went towards the injured side, but it became evident that the creature’s mobility was barely affected by the injury, side stepping the attack while trying to reposition its massive jaw.

’Tch!’

Josh had clashed with the two beasts and had assessed their abilities, their strengths, and weaknesses, but the overwhelming gap in strength made that almost useless.

He needed to step up if he wanted to keep this fight going.

Facing the incoming attacks, his eyes widened. He had been caught off guard.

The creature wasn’t repositioning to bite him in half. It had given up on that and instead resorted to bashing him with its hard maw.

In a situation like this, he was left with no other choice.

His complexion paled again, and blood flows out his lips and nose as a change occurred to the area around them.

It felt like time had slowed down, but that wasn’t the case. The beast army in the distance was moving just fine.

Only the small beast in front of him had slowed, just enough for Josh to jump out of the way of the attack, his feet landing on the air like a solid platform.

<Friction Field — Air Walking>

Josh’s ability was Friction Manipulation

Although limited, he was able to manipulate the friction acting on his body and any other surface he was in contact with. The effects of the latter lasting far less.

After countless years of refining this ability, Josh had managed to extend the reaches of his ability, gaining the ability to manipulate the frictional properties and forces of all bodies within a 3-meter radius.

His control over his body’s friction was also boosted dramatically, allowing him extreme control and the ability to use multiple skills as a whole.

An example of that was his current state — flashing across the sky with the air as a platform.

He had combined his ability to increase the friction between any two surfaces like the bottom of his feet and the air and his ability to reduce the air resistance and boost his speed dramatically.

But even this pseudo domain came with extreme drawbacks.

Its toll on his energy reserves was massive, forcing a limit on how long he could maintain that state.

The backlash on his body was also considerable, especially with his current state.

He spat out a mouthful of blood, not wasting a single second that the field lasted as he charged towards the bigger beast, which was currently pressuring Angy.

Taking the beast within his field, he stripped it of all friction between its feet and the ground, rendering it immobile and causing it to slip to the ground.

His sword found its way into the creature’s narrow eyes, tearing it apart with a flick of his wrist.

He didn’t have the time or luxury to amass the required power through sheer speed to break through the hide of the creature, which had once again become rock like the moment it lost its footing.

The second beast had arrived, and his was barely able to switch targets, Angy’s barrier preventing him from getting sliced.

Retreating, he fell to a knee, a mouthful of blood splashing to the floor as he looked down on his torso

The barrier wasn’t enough to stop the claws entirely as he had gotten nicked.

A small nick was all it took to leave a deep gash across his torso.

The pain interfered with his ability to constantly keep adjusting the friction in the field.

Exploiting the flickers in concentration, the huge beast got back to its feet, blood dripping from its blind eye, and the two parties found themselves in another standoff.

"I have a plan."

Josh’s eyes flashed despite his labored breaths and continuous bleeding, but Angy chose to trust and follow his lead.

The standoff came to an end less than a second later, both Josh and the smaller beast blasting past each other headed for their counterparts.

Angy’s hair flared dramatically as she stuffed the maw of the creature with a purple barrier that cracked and shattered seconds after enduring the pressure of the maw.

Josh had taken a different approach, appearing instantly at the creature’s rear, but what happened next was outside his calculations.

The beast was unbothered, remaining in place as its weight shifted onto its thick front limbs while the back legs shot out like a whip, smashing into Josh, who had been caught off guard.

With no chance at processing what came next, the beast who had its maw after Angy abandoned its pursuit, appearing behind its counterpart, its wide maw positioned right around Josh

Without warning, it clamped down, severing the body of the instructor into two separate halves

All this happened in a split second. At speeds, Angy was simply unable to react to.

Josh was dead, and they had fallen closer to demise.

1 Day till Destruction.