Farmer or Cultivator? Why not both?-Chapter 43: Man vs Chicken part 2

"Are you ready?"

"I am ready." Ren responded swiftly. The gods’ entertainment aside, Ren had wondered about how much he would fare against the spirit animal. In terms of talent, the spirit animal seemed to have an edge over him, but he did have experience, as little as it was. The thought had hung on his mind since he saw Rokku’s ridiculous starting mana pool.

The Tome of Mahābodhivān made it clear, that like most humans, animals had ridiculously low internal mana, just enough to maintain regular body functions, barely anything beyond, but over the course of time, there came to be anomalies— anomalies like human cultivators, and cultivators of other races— animals who had stepped beyond the precipice of what it was that bound animals, evolving and transcending into what was known as a spirit animal. Their weak and almost inexisting mana cores siphoned massive mana from a source, and in turn forces the core to pull this excess mana into itself so as to survive, and then forcibly maturing into a dense and mature core.

In most cases, animals that even got the opportunity to evolve ended up getting consumed by the very energy their bodies sought to contain, and to absorb. Rokku was an exception, he survived, he was chosen by the threads of fate to become what most could not; a spirit animal.

The intelligent creature had gotten a hang of mana reinforcement as soon as it awoke as a spirit animal, its structure serving as an anchor to refine the energy efficiently. Rokku understood what it was that was happening, at least some parts of it. He needed to fight his benefactor, and win.

"Battle!" Enoa cried out, and the two young cultivators lunged at each other, Rokku with a loud and wild cluck, and Ren with a stern silence. Rokku made the first attack, the spirit animal was betting on being aggressive, and not letting Ren any room to attack.

Rokku threw up his right wing, and with just an act of the motion, feathers burst from the rooster’s wing, coated and reinforced with energy. The feathers came at such a speed, and with such precision. They had traveled over a short distance so that Ren had less than a second to react and evade the attack. He could not move that fast, and he decided to focus some more of his mana enveloping him at his torso where the six arrows targeted.

The feathers struck, and Ren felt the blunt force against his skin. Mana reinforcement saved him from getting skewered but not against getting thrown backwards. The feathers pushed him as they flew, obstinate on piercing through his barrier of energy. They soon lost their momentum, and Ren was back on his feet again, but again, Rokku closed in and struck, lunging two deadly swipes at Ren, his left wing aiming for Ren’s throat, and his right wing aiming for Ren’s abdomen.

"Oh oh!" Enoa exclaimed, the battle seemed over at that point.

This was the attack that cut the angel apart and spilled its guts. Ren could not allow them to hit him. He stopped the approaching blade-like wings, catching them with his palms, and holding them inches away from his neck and his abdomen. Teeth gritted in struggle, Ren wore a countenance that told of both shock and resilience.

The spirit animal Rokku was strong, very much so. Ren redirected the wings, pulling them past his flanks, and then he threw up both his feet to land a wicked blow on the rooster’s head. The kick struck cleanly, the spirit animal had not seen it coming. Rokku may be stronger than expected, but he was not all too fast. The kick caused him to stagger backwards, stunned, when Ren delivered another wicked kick to the large bird’s side forcing it to let out a loud cluck of pain, and jolting it off to the side.

"Hmmm..." Ren eyed his shin, it steamed. His energy crashed strongly against Rokku’s causing the reaction. That had not been a clean hit after all, the rooster had defended itself quite solidly, focusing so much of its mana at its flank to numb the blow.

"Very nice." Ren smirked while Rokku collected himself and stood up. He was enjoying the spar more than he expected.

’I expected this to come easy, but it really does seem that Rokku wants to really put up a fight. He is impressive, a true force to reckon. He would make a great asset.’

"That could have ended the bout were you any faster." Rokku said with his clucks, he beat off dirt from his body and repositioned himself for combat.

’I hope you gods are getting entertained.’

It was Ren’s turn now, he lunged his right arm sending a blast of energy, and immediately reinforced his legs even further, running to the spirit animal. Rokku decided to take the forces head on, with a graceful swerve from both wings, he dissipated the energy attack. Then came Ren’s blows. Swift and seemingly unending, the violent barrage came at Rokku—fists coated with dense and destructive energy. Rokku accepted them with broad arms, or more accurately broad wings, slapping every punch and kick away to the sides.

It quickly turned to a battle of attrition as Ren was relentless with his blows, and Rokku could do nothing but strike. Ren let out a grunt, packing more power to his fist to land a decisive attack, and the miniscule time it took to charge the attack was just enough for Rokku to move outside the area of attack. The rooster took to the skies, hovering above Ren in a massive leap.

’Oh bull...’ A bar of energy fell from above at Ren, but he was quick to evade it, rolling off from his position.

"Projection?! When did you learn it?"

Rokku still hung above, he could not fly like how other birds fly, but with his internal energy, he could remain above for a longer period of time than the rest of his unevolved kind.

The spirit animal did not answer, but that little window was what Ren needed to see that they had cause damages to his compound.

The cows and pigs were frantic, mooing and oinking in fear inside their pen. It was almost a miracle that the pen still held them and they had not simply burst through, and made a run for it.

One of his trees had been caught in the blast he had projected earlier, and it had been incinerated, its leaves and fruits turned to ashes. His lawn had sustained various dents and burns, and the projection attack from the spirit animal had deeply scorched a huge part of his lawn.

"By the gods, my house is fine. Let us move this friendly spar elsewhere. Anymore and we would make a hell of this place. Hold Rokku."

’I have got to calm the animals.’

Ren hurried to the pens, and began snapping his fingers and calling out the names of those he had named,

"Molly, Don, it’s safe now, it’s safe." He brought some hay and lured one of the cows to him, feeding it. This calmed some of them. For the pigs, he threw in some splitted watermelons and as soon as they saw them, they focused their energies into eating the fruits, curbing their panicking.

"A farmer true and true." Enoa commented with a chuckle.

"I take it that the gods are entertained by all this?"

"Oh yes they are." Replied Enoa.

"I don’t suppose they’ll mind if we take a break and relocate to a much safer place, I’ll destroy my home at the rate we are going."

Enoa raised its index finger up its mouth, with his eyes looking above as it ruminated. It called up Ren’s system.

[Time remaining: 1 hour, and 49 minutes]

"There is still time."