'I'm stronger and tougher than it, but my experience in these kinds of battles is lacking.'
Noah thought as black smoke surrounded his figure.
The rank 5 Hairy ox precisely knew how strong it was and how to express the maximum potential of its body.
Instead, that was Noah's first real battle with his new body.
'I'm able to hurt it, and my flames can inflict some damage. I should be able to win in an extended battle, but I can't waste this chance.'
Noah's species was superior, but he was much more than a simple magical beast.
The energy stored inside the Liquid dantian fused with large amounts of mental energy to activate the complete Demonic form.
Noah suddenly noticed that the fiendish figure created by the spell had changed after the breakthrough of his body.
His claws had shortened, but his horns and tail had stretched.
Even the part of the black armor that covered his face had changed: What was supposed to be his helmet had now assumed a shape that faintly resembled a dragon's head.
'It has affected something after all.'
Noah thought when he realized that his Demonic form had changed.
He didn't activate that spell in the period following his breakthrough because he was too busy tuning his other abilities.
Still, it was now evident that his mental energy didn't change only in color.
However, he couldn't overthink at that moment, his reserves of energies would rapidly deplete when he used the Liquid dantian.
The ox under him didn't seem to care about his transformation and launched another multitude of hair toward him.
The hair covered the few kilometers that separated the two rank 5 beings in a few instants, but that time was enough for Noah to act.
Noah kicked the air under his feet again, and another large amount of the "Breath" inside his dantian vanished to fuel the Shadow sprint.
The ox noticed that the dark draconic figure had reappeared next to it only when it was too late to do anything about it.
Noah had wielded his sabers during the sprint and used the Dragon's claw martial art to deliver two horizontal slashes at the huge beast.
A large share of the energy inside the Liquid dantian was depleted to fuel the offensive martial art, but the slashes produced in that way had a power that could match a rank 4 cultivator in the solid stage!
The ox couldn't block the attack, and two long wounds appeared on its body.
Blood began to fall from the wounds, Noah had been able to pierce its skin and even part of its muscles!
'It's still too slight. I guess these are the limits of a rank 4 cultivator.'
Noah thought as he stored his sabers and launched a wave of white flames.
The advantage of using human attacks was clear, his incredible power would be more precise and threatening in that way.
However, Noah couldn't use attacks on that level repeatedly, and those slight injuries didn't seem worth the effort.
He could obtain a similar result by using his bare hands, which didn't have the same limitations.
Of course, it would take many attacks to inflict the same damage, and the battle would become more dangerous because of that.
'My limited martial art is wasted if I can't inflict deadly wounds with it, I should just use it in specific situations.'
Noah quickly decided as he pounced toward the beast covered in white flames.
The ox was doing its best to use its natural capabilities, but Noah had too many and different offensive approaches, he could just adapt his combat style to his opponent.
Noah dived through the flames and delivered a powerful punch on the head of the beast before arching the fingers of his other hand and stabbing them in its open wounds.
The beast struggled to impale Noah with its horns, but he promptly grabbed one of them and put strength on both his arms.
The ox felt its body being lifted from the ground before being violently slammed back on it.
The terrain shattered at that point, its stability had been already affected by the previous attack of the creature and couldn't endure that last mighty clash.
Noah and the ox began to fall as the ground opened, and Noah exploited that chance to bite the creature on its neck.
The ox roared in pain when it felt that another part of its body had been taken away, and hundreds of thousands of sharp hair came out from its skin at that point.
Noah felt forced to retreat once again, he simply couldn't defend from that attack.
A trail of dust and debris formed as Noah escaped from the cracks where the rank 5 creature was falling.
Black smoke filled that gap in the terrain and further destabilized its underground area since Noah had kept the Demonic form active for the entirety of the clash.
Yet, the smoke seemed to have the same effect as his flames, it could only damage the skin of the beast.
'It's not coming out.'
Noah thought when he saw that the Hairy ox wasn't climbing back on the surface, but a sudden dangerous sensation forced him to sprint away once again.
Strands of hair pierced the terrain under him and began to follow his escaping figure, it seemed that the beast wanted to use the natural protection of the ground for hunting Noah down.
Nevertheless, the fact that he couldn't see the creature didn't mean that he couldn't attack it.
Noah activated the Dark blast spell and wielded his sabers again.
Black flames appeared in the trajectory of his Demonic sword as he slashed the air seemingly toward random directions.
Rumbles filled the underground area, and black smoke began to come out from the cracks on the terrain as Noah warped his attacks in the ox's position.
His mind could sense it, so he could target it.
The hair stopped chasing him at some point, but Noah wasn't done yet.
The Dark blast spell had reached a considerable size in those short moments, and Noah didn't hesitate to teleport that unstable sphere in the beast's position.
Also, he launched another series of slashes across the black flames and even added a wave of his flames.
Earthquakes spread in the area as explosions resounded from under the ground.
The trees of the Woodland were either shattered or flung away by the shockwaves released by the blasts happening underground.
Even the surface couldn't hold any more at some point.
A hole a few hundreds of meters large appeared as the terrain completely crumbled, and the sunlight once again illuminated the bloody figure of the rank 5 ox.
Its body was burned and full of wounds, and many of those cuts had even pierced its sturdy layer of muscles.
A large piece of its neck had been bitten off, and its remaining hair had lost its shine.
The creature couldn't do anything when black flames appeared next to it, and a black reptilian figure pounced at its neck with its maws open.