I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1320: The Uncanny Beast

Rughsbourgh had certainly not expected an ordinary beast to be so damn strong. A groove was carved into the ground in the wake of their terrible clash—stone split, debris scattered. Not just that, the heinous creature had nearly torn his limb off before he sliced it with a spatial strike. Amusingly, the monster sensed the space fracturing and vanished off him with that astounding speed.

Rughsbourgh stood, looking down at his best clothes, which were now no different from rags. One sleeve had been ripped apart from the shoulder, and several torn pieces of his upper garment hung loose, ruined.

He grabbed the torn sleeve and ripped it off completely, then did the same to the ensemble covering his upper body. Everything gave way easily within his grip, releasing an addictive tearing sound.

His upper body was revealed as the last scraps fell away—impeccable muscle alignment that made him look more like sculpted stone than flesh.

He stood like something that belonged to heaven but walked amongst men, showering them with his otherworldly grace.

He turned to the monster, rage suppressed. His hair now fell around his face, reaching his shoulders.

He was silent for a moment, staring at the monster. The monster stared back, snarling.

The beast was wary. Incredibly wary. Its blue eyes gleamed with hatred—something Rughsbourgh didn’t really understand.

But it was a beast rank, albeit an Apex level one.

’A beast’s still a beast nonetheless...’

Rughsbourgh looked at the monster with apparent disdain and shot his hand forward. Instantly, the beast vanished—more like leaped away with a speed faster than the space ripping apart could follow.

”What?”

A cocktail of surprise and shock flickered across Rughsbourgh’s features, with a little sprinkle of confusion.

”How?”

The beast was fast.

’A beast shouldn’t be that fast.’

He squinted a second later.

’Perhaps it’s a speed-based creature?’

But when had he ever seen a beast with a speed-based nature?

Rughsbourgh was one of the top 2% of the world population that could boast of entering at least a hundred rifts and killing millions of monsters. He had a very deep understanding of the ecology of monsters.

Each rank had how their nature worked in tandem with their capabilities. A beast rank creature was suited to hunt. All monsters hunted, but Beast rank ones were specially natured for it.

If a hundred beast rank monsters gained an Apex, it was possible to out-hunt almost any hunter—except those that were just unfairly devastating.

Sure, they could be fast... but not this fast. He shook his head as he traced the ripped space that had already repaired itself, then tracked the beast—now standing hundreds of meters to the left. That cocktail of emotions was still on his face.

’I’ll be damned.’

He knew immediately that there was something he was missing. This creature was not an ordinary beast.

He hissed a moment later.

”To what does it matter anyway? I’ll just kill it.”

Rughsbourgh turned to the beast and swung his hand forward as if throwing something toward it.

The beast vanished again. But this time it was not just once—the tears followed the monster in quick succession such that it could not dare to land for a fraction of a second. It kept hopping around, space ripping after it like something from the other side was clawing its way through in pursuit.

And yet the creature kept evading. It leaped onto the wall and ran up, defying gravity. The tear chased nonetheless, chunks of stone ripped free and crashing down, the fortification itself groaning beneath the catastrophic onslaught.

The beast moved with blistering speed, climbed to the top of the structure, and flew into the air—back toward Rughsbourgh.

A small frown folded his brows as he saw the beast already leaping at him.

He straightened his fingers like he was about to slice through the enormous creature as it descended. And indeed, as the beast plummeted toward him, he lunged his hand forward—but the beast suddenly shrank, dodging by a hair’s breadth. Many hairs’ breadths, actually. A colossal tear ripped through the space where it had been, revealing nothing but darkness within for just a fraction of a second before merging together.

The tear itself had sliced a torrent of the beast’s white fur loose, flying around and falling down like snow.

He missed the creature the moment it shrank, and suppressed a curse, clicking his tongue in irritation instead.

The beast lunged at him from the side, but he merely glared at it and rewound—

—and now it was already launching toward him from the side. But this time Rughsbourgh anticipated it, had enough time to intercept. His hand shot out like a blurry blade.

The beast shoved itself aside. Rughsbourgh’s hand sliced through a torrent of long furs again, spilling white into the air. The beast let out a small yelp as it rolled away.

Rughsbourgh’s irritation mounted. The damned creature was somehow evading each of his deadly strikes.

’Why is it so damn difficult to kill a wolf!’

He turned to the beast—and the beast was slowly rising from the ground. When Rughsbourgh laid his eyes on this strange rising, his eyes widened.

The beast wasn’t just growing larger this time. It was shapeshifting. Its legs elongated and changed; so did its body. It grew taller, stood upright. Its face restructured along with the rest of its form until it now stood as a tailless, two-meter bipedal creature with terrible claws and fangs. Its blue eyes glowed with deadly intensity, and it was far more imposing now.

It had given Rughsbourgh enough trouble as a four-legged thing. But now it gleamed with an unsettling intelligence as well as unsettling hatred.

Rughsbourgh stared at the beast with comical shock.

’Where in the world did a shapeshifter come from? In all my life I have never met a shapeshifter! Goodness, this is a trophy! All my efforts! Finally a reward!!’

A bright smile split his face and he fixed Mr Fluffy with very very greedy eyes.