Shang looked at the wheel after the announcement.
Today, he would break his old record!
Eventually, the wheel stopped at an image of a female lion wearing a fur coat over her… fur coat.
SHING!
Shang's enemy appeared, and he studied it.
It was an icy blue lioness with thick fur. There were additional lines of even thicker fur going across its sides and back, giving it a sort of artic feel.
It wasn't very difficult for Shang to guess what its Affinity was.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The lioness opened its eyes and looked at Shang with hungry eyes.
Without hesitation, it immediately charged forward.
Shang readied his sword. The lioness was very fast, and Shang would only be able to rival its speed with his different Blasts.
Its claws and teeth were obviously also extremely dangerous.
'Good Speed, strong attack, and probably an adequate defense. This will definitely be harder than the ant, but it should still be doable.'
BANG!
Shang also charged forward at his full speed, and the two of them very quickly reached each other.
Shang released a slash as the lioness tried to bite him. The lioness quickly realized that it would be hit by the attack, but instead of retreating, rage appeared in its eyes.
CRACK!
It angled its mouth and opened it. The sword broke through the top of some teeth, but the lioness quickly bit down, taking hold of the sword.
Shang knew that his body couldn't be compared to the lioness's, which meant that his sword was stuck.
As it kept hold of the sword, it quickly lifted one of its paws.
SHING!
Terrifyingly deadly and long icy claws came out of its paw, and it struck towards Shang.
At that moment, Shang narrowed his right eye.
WHOOOM!
The icy claws turned back into Mana when they reached Shang.
Domain of Entropy!
The attack missed, giving Shang an opening.
Shang quickly grabbed the blade of his sword with his left hand. His arm quickly froze over and broke into icy splinters.
However, the sword in the lioness's maw began to burn fiercely.
The lioness opened her mouth in pain, letting go of the sword.
Instead of grabbing his sword, Shang jumped.
At the same time, Sword moved by itself, changing its position so that it pointed straight into the lioness's throat.
BANG!
Shang kicked the back of his sword's handle, shooting it straight into the lioness's throat.
CRKSH!
Sword broke through the back of the lioness's throat, but it got stuck in the bone.
However, the fiery heat immediately unleashed, and the lioness jumped away as it tried to get rid of the sword with its paws.
Shang heard some painful screeching come from the lioness, but he didn't let up.
BANG!
He immediately charged after her.
The lioness hit Sword with one of its paws, throwing it to the side.
Shang reached the lioness without his sword and lowered his stance as he remained standing in front of it.
Rage filled the lioness's eyes, and it quickly pounced at Shang.
Shang remained standing, and for just a moment, time seemingly stopped.
The lioness was in the middle of a jump towards Shang as he stood before it, weaponless.
But at that moment, Sword's grip entered Shang's hand.
Sword had become quite a lot more powerful over the last three months, and the more powerful it became, the faster and more agile it could move.
Even though the lioness had thrown it away, it quickly changed its trajectory and reached Shang.
Then, from Shang's lowered position, he struck upward with all of his power.
The lioness was in the middle of its jump, and there wasn't much it could do now. The best thing it could do was protect its head with its legs.
Shang struck.
BANG!
A paw fell to the side!
However, the attack of the lioness hadn't been stopped.
It was still flying towards Shang, and it would do its best to bite Shang into pieces!
Shang quickly noticed that his opponent's legs were not ready for an attack, meaning that only the bite posed a danger to him.
Defending from something like that wasn't difficult.
BANG!
Shang punched the lioness's snout. It didn't receive any major injuries from that attack, but the force slowed the lioness down while shooting Shang back.
BANG!
The dangerous maw closed right in front of Shang, barely missing him.
The lioness landed on its three remaining paws. It had adapted to its missing limb very quickly.
Shang didn't let up and immediately charged forward again.
Surprisingly, the lioness also charged at Shang, even though it was missing a leg.
Its speed had slowed by quite a bit, but Shang didn't become reckless.
Shang readied another strike, but then, something surprising happened.
The lioness turned its head away from Shang, turned its body, and performed a shoulder check!
Shang's mind quickly analyzed the situation, but there wasn't much time.
Even though such an attack had an obvious opening and wasn't really dangerous, Shang's instincts told him that he should block.
Shang interrupted his attack and put Sword in front of him to block whatever was coming.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
At that moment, the furry lines on the lioness's side and back turned into terrifying icicles!
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The lioness's body hit Sword's side, and the icicles broke as soon as they hit it.
However, Sword was not wide enough to block off Shang's entire body, and two icicles went past it, hitting Shang in the shoulder and outer thigh.
Shang's body quickly began to freeze over, but he counteracted the freezing force by releasing several Ice Blasts to gain some distance.
The lioness immediately charged after Shang, not letting up.
Just when Shang landed, it performed the same attack again.
'Don't use the same attack twice!' Shang thought as a light appeared in his eye.
Shang's sword struck forward.
WHOOOM!
The icicles turned into Mana as Shang activated his Domain of Entropy once again.
CRAAACK!
With the added power of the lioness's charge, Shang's strike managed to cut deep into the lioness's body.
The lioness roared and fell to the side, its body flailing around in pain.
Shang pulled his sword out and unleashed another attack.
CRACK!
Another leg was destroyed during the attack, and it became impossible for his opponent to stand up.
With one of the two opponents being unable to stand, the fight was already over.
Shang took care not to get hit by the icicles again as he methodically inflicted more injuries on the lioness. Activating his Domain of Entropy cost a lot of Mana, and he didn't want to waste it.
When the lioness was close to death, Shang touched its body and performed Darkness Absorb.
In an instant, Shang had fully recovered, but the lioness was still alive.
Since there was no more life energy Shang could use, he simply ended the fight.
A second later, the cheering returned, and Shang took a deep breath.
'I received a couple of injuries, and I used a bit of Mana. However, I didn't reach my limit yet.'
Shang looked at the vanishing corpse for a bit.
'I might have a shot at beating level nine.'
