"Growl!"
Bram!
A strong body of a young man was seen to hit a tree.
'Arrggg!' "That hurts!"
The branches of the tree shook, but after only a few seconds, the boy immediately got up.
As he got up, a large animal was seen running towards him with hind legs resembling a dog, but its front legs were like an eagle's with long, sharp claws.
Its head resembles a bald dog with fangs protruding from the lower part of its jaw, piercing the upper part of its mouth.
It is called Angab in the local dialect of the people who live in the countryside.
When Angab saw the young man who had thrown himself, he thought he was going to kill the young man with that strike, but when he reached the tree where he had thrown the body of the young man, he saw that he was already standing and the hint of joy in the young man's eyes was evident.
'Ahhh...!'
"Ha,ha,ha,ha..."
'This is fun. Finally, I can last half an hour with you now.' The young man said. While shaking the dust off his clothes.
The fight between these two were so intense... a young man who was around thirteen years old, but with his muscular physique, anyone who saw him would think he was already in his late teens.
While his opponent, this Angab, is a creature raised by dark fairies or enchanted beings in these remote areas of this forests. It is believed that this Angab is a type of ancient animal that evolves and becomes a lower-class beast that was closely relatives to a werewolves, with their innate and high affinity to the darkness, so it is often raised by fairies and enchanted beings in the forests.
At this time, this young man, named James, is almost in the final stage of his training designed by Daniel - his father, this training is to hone his body physical defenses and to further improve his Martial Arts technique.
Two days ago, the father and son climbed into the heart of this forest to find James' actual sparring partner.
The father and son duo has been doing this for almost two years, Daniel and James have been into many places because of this training regimen to boost James's prowess.
And on this occasion, Daniel received news of a phenomenon that seemed to be happening out of nowhere, someone was killing the pets and farm animals of the households in this area, and according to a witness, a large black animal was seen roaming around at night as the suspect and escapes to the nearby forest before the dawn breaks.
Realizing that this was the right opponent for James to train against, Daniel immediately decided to go to the said place.
On the first day of their visit to this forest, Daniel immediately saw traces of the Angab, so when they continued following the trail, they saw a herd of this Angab living in a deep cave with the entrance that is almost submerged in the muddy ground.
Because it was already dusk when they saw the Angab's lair on the first day, the father and son still decided to rush into the den anyway. Since this was James's training, his father stationed not far away and was ready to help in case his son could not handle the fight.
The other weaker and young Angabs were easily destroyed and killed by James. However, because the surroundings were getting darker, James experienced some difficulty in fighting the last one, the Angab leader...
This Angab leader, after it changed form, its red eyes glow and its body grows until it reached almost one and a half meters in height, James had a bit of a hard time fighting this creature, especially during night time, these types of beasts, as they were element of darkness and evil in nature, it is very adept fighting at night aside from its extra boost in fighting strength compare to day time.
During the more than two-hour battle of James and the Angab leader, Daniel as he were a look out to support his son, noticed the disadvantage of James in fighting his opponent at night time… so he decided to rescue his son from the Angab leader and retreated for a time being.
They spend the night high up in a tree after they had gotten far away from the Angab territory.
On the following day, and when the father and son arrived back in the territory of the Angab leader, the Angab leader immediately saw James, because of his anger at the young man who killed his herd, he immediately rushed at James.
In their almost half-hour fight, both of them were almost covered in blood... however James's face showed signs of satisfaction as he already contended with his enemy while the Angab leader's face was filled with rage and anger.
So, when the Angab leader saw James standing and still smiling, it immediately rushed forward again, jumping up and attacking James with its sharp claws widely open and intent to kill...
Because they had been fighting for two days, it was clear that the Angab leader's strength had weakened somewhat, but there was still this smoke-like substance wrapped around its hands down to its claws that if it hits anyone, would cause them to experience a poison that was even more deadly than the Cobra's poison.
When the Angab leader's sharp claws approached James, the trajectory of the claws aimed at James' neck. But after approaching about half a meter, James ducked and the sharp claws only hit the top of the tree behind him.
Because his claws didn't hit, the Angab leader's hands immediately pushed against the tree trunk and it flipped over to grab and bite James with its fangs.
But since this was their second fight, James knew the Angab leader's next move when his sharp claws missed, so he was ready to block the Angab leader's bite with his half-meter curved dagger. When his curved dagger blocked, James immediately jumped out with his left foot and kicked his right foot downwards on the top of Angab's head.
Pak!
Bang!
The Angab leader dodged and moved his head back a little... unfortunately his snout was still hit by James's kick.
Guarrk!
Kwwarrkk!
One of Angab's fangs was broken and its snout was almost destroyed by the force of James' kick.
The Angab leader temporarily retreated, because of its rich experience in fight as a predator in the forests, and as an elemental of darkness, it possessed the intelligence of a human already.
But even if it was in injured state, its animal instinct and its bloodlust could still be seen in its eyes, it is determined to kill James.
However, after another clash with James, the Angab leader realized that he was at a disadvantage in the fight due to the injury he had sustained, so he decided to look for a chance to run away from this fight and get his revenge later…
Then a chance he was waiting came when he was trown deep into the woods, so he suddenly turned around and was about to run away.
But because James could already feel what the Angab leader was going to do, he had already thought a counter attack in his mind, so when the Angab leader suddenly turned around, James immediately spun around and threw his curve dagger at the Angab leader's back... when the Angab leader felt the danger behind him, he immediately dodged in a zigzag move, however he was very wrong this time because James's right foot was already there and this time it hits directly at the Angab leader's head.
Bang!
Blammm!
Crackkk!
Due to the momentum of its escape and the force of James' kick, the Angab leader was thrown almost ten meters away... when the trajectory stopped and when the dust settled, the Angab leader's body was seen lying face down sprawling with its blood all around… a line could be seen on the ground, almost torn apart by the force of its impact.
" Very good son!" Daniel's praise James from the top of a large tree not far away.
And a little while later, Daniel was next to James and was inspecting the Angab leader's body.
'Tssk, tsk, tsk.'
'Hmmnn... Looks like, you need a little improvement in your strength control, son.'
'You broke the Angab leader 's skull. I said we need this one alive… it looks like it won't last long enough if we take this thing to Bicol.' Daniel said while shaking his head.
"Sorry, dad, I couldn't control the force of that kick properly, I thought that thing could still able to dodge it." James's defensive response to his father's words.
'Let it go, son. Besides I got a video of your fight earlier. We'll just take all of these to your ninong. He'll take care of them and no matter what, there's still a fee for this, just lesser compared if we bring to him a live Angab.' Daniel just said to his son.
James just sat quietly on the ground while resting and regaining his strength.
'After you rest, son... we need to go back and your mother is probably looking for us. We've been here for two days and I'm sure she's worried sick now and I'll be beaten to death by her if she didn't see you within today.' Daniel laughed when he said that.
"Okay, dad!" James said as he finishes cleaning his curve dagger.
'But before that, take this pill first so that the wounds on your body heals.' Daniel told his son.
Then James took the pill that his father was handing him.
While James was resting, Daniel secretly cast a 'Healing Spell' on his son. He didn't reveal everything about Magic to his son yet, because he thought he wasn't ready for that kind of knowledge.
All James knows is that his father is a martial arts expert and former soldier.
His wife, Ruth, knew a little about his magic powers...but she never questioned him because she knew the responsibility of her husband to this "government secret" that came with his husband's job. That's why in their family, Magic was never discussed, especially in front of their son.
A little while later, it was noticeable that James' wounds on his body were gradually healing. Even his strength was returning little by little.
"Time to go now, Hurry up son." Daniel cajoled James.
*******