As Kyle charged forward, his Ether Sense picked up his opponent.
In the middle of the ocean was a swimming lobster that was around 100 meters long.
Yet, Kyle immediately noticed several strange things about the lobster.
First of all, while 100 meters was quite big, it was definitely on the smaller side of Transcending Beasts. Most of them started at a size of 500 meters and ended at a size of two kilometers.
Something like the Colossus was an absolute outlier with its tens of kilometers in length.
A Transcending Beast with a size of 100 meters was quite unusual.
Another thing that Kyle noticed was that the lobster was not typical.
It didn't have claws.
Instead of the two shears it should have, it just had… two more legs.
That was a strange choice for an evolution.
However, as Kyle looked at the lobster's legs, he took note of how they actually looked.
They were quite sharp.
They ended in thin and sharp points, and if there was enough force behind them, they could probably act like spears.
'Instead of cutting and crushing, it is stabbing,' Kyle thought.
As he saw the arm-legs, he took special note of their joints.
The arm-legs were pulled in and stacked, looking like a "z".
A lot of power was probably in those.
As Kyle approached, the lobster took note of him.
It angled its body so that the two arm-legs pointed at him.
The two of them came closer.
Kyle listened closely to his instincts.
After getting more familiar with them, Kyle had learned to listen to the instincts the Predator's Being gave him.
There was a definite difference in the intensity of danger the instincts warned him of during a battle.
By reading them closely, Kyle could somewhat anticipate his opponent's moves.
As he came closer, the intensity of danger increased.
Then, it suddenly reached a peak.
When that happened, Kyle suddenly changed his trajectory and moved a couple of meters to his left.
One of the lobster's spikes shot forward.
Kyle's eyes widened in shock.
CRACK!
The leg hit the blocking hammer, and Kyle was shot into the distance.
Kyle's insides churned under the immense stress, and some of his organs started to rupture.
Luckily, something like that would quickly heal.
After flying for a couple of kilometers, Kyle regained control over his movements and flew back.
'Another one?!' he thought with gritted teeth.
Usually, he could predict his opponent's moves pretty well, thanks to his Predator's Being.
In a way, that was also what happened.
He had perfectly predicted the lobster's attack…
If it hadn't changed it midway through.
Kyle's original plan was to slightly evade to the side and use his hammer to destroy the extended stinger.
However, the lobster had reacted to Kyle's evasion with unnatural speed.
'Another one that knows the Fragment of Nerves,' he thought.
If an enemy knew the Fragment of Nerves, Kyle's instincts stopped being useful.
After all, when the opponent saw Kyle react, they would just react to his reaction.
Planning became almost obsolete for Kyle.
No matter what kind of plan he had, the lobster could always adapt to his plan due to its vastly superior reaction speed.
As Kyle returned to the fight, he glanced at his hammer.
A small crack had formed on its side.
'At least I know it doesn't have the Fragment of Muscles or Power. Otherwise, my hammer would've been destroyed, and I would have been severely injured or killed.'
Since the lobster was a Level Two Transcending Beast, it had to know a second Fragment.
Kyle knew that it knew the Fragment of Nerves, but he didn't know what other Fragment it knew.
'Can't be the Fragment of Size, or it would be bigger. Probably also not the Fragment of Speed. It was fast, but not impossibly fast.'
'The Fragment of Metabolism would have also increased its power. So, it's probably also not that.'
'That leaves the Fragments of Efficiency, Organs, Bones, and Skin. It has to know one of these four.'
For animals with an exoskeleton, the Fragments of Bones and Skin improved the same thing twice over.
This had an advantage and a disadvantage.
Transcending Beasts with an exoskeleton that knew these two Fragments would have the greatest defenses out of all the Transcending Beasts. It would be like their entire body was a turtle shell. That was the advantage.
The disadvantage was that their power would be lower.
In Transcending Beasts with a normal skeleton, the bones acted as support for the muscles. They gave the muscles something to grab onto and to use as leverage. Because of that, the Fragment of Bones also increased a normal beast's power by quite a bit.
Kyle reached the lobster again.
Surprisingly, the lobster hadn't chased after Kyle when it had hit him.
Instead, it had just remained on its spot.
Once more, it readied itself for another attack.
Kyle readied his hammer.
This time, he didn't evade.
The stinger shot forward, and Kyle's hammer shook. His hammer moved forward at incredible speeds.
The stinger approached, and Kyle's hammer approached from the side.
Kyle's speed dropped to zero as he just waited for the attack.
The hammer reached the stinger.
And missed.
Kyle gritted his teeth as he saw his hammer pass just in front of the stinger.
The stinger had paused.
When Kyle's hammer passed, the stinger continued forward, bridging the last ten meters in an instant.
CRACK!
The stinger buried into Kyle's chest, but the armor kept it from hitting Kyle's Center.
The stinger only managed to crack some of Kyle's ribs.
The next moment, violent Ether came out of the stinger and filled Kyle's body.
BANG!
Kyle shot backward with all of his speed, getting rid of the foreign Ether by flooding it with his own.
Luckily, beasts didn't have a lot of Ether.
Once again, the lobster didn't charge after Kyle.
It waited for him to attack.
After recovering, Kyle just looked at the distant lobster.
'This doesn't work,' he thought. 'I've died nearly twice so far.'
'And the worst part is that I can't retreat.'
'I mean, technically, I can, but my Momentum will take a brutal hit.'
'Is that why it's just waiting?'
'It knows that I can't run away, which is why it's not overextending.'
'Smartass lobster.'
'Well, guess I'll have to change my way of fighting.'
Then, the water around Kyle shook violently.
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.