Chương 46: Badger Badger... Badger?

The beast that was scavenging around the dead wolves was a… Well, Jonny didn't actually know what it was. It looked kind of similar to the dire badger he had fought a few weeks back, but the colors were completely different, and there was something about the way it was shaped that made him know they were different types of animals. Whatever it was, though, it was clearly related to badgers somehow, so he mentally dubbed it 'badger thing.'

The badger thing had a mixture of dark and light brown fur, walked on all fours, and its shoulder was the same height as Jonny's. It probably outweighed him by at least double, but compared to many of the magic beasts that Jonny had encountered in the mountains, that wasn't much. It's punchable, he thought happily. It didn't notice him immediately. It was too busy digging into one of the wolf corpses, and Jonny was able to get within 50 feet before he decided it was better to stop and observe.

Igrette had spent quite a while lecturing him on how to size up opponents, and right now, her life depended on him not screwing this up. The badger thing didn't have any obvious magical properties. For something weaker than fourth layer, that usually meant it didn't have any magical properties at all. Beasts with magical abilities were usually more like the glass deer, where their magical traits were obvious at a glance, and this badger thing did not have anything like that.

It's mouth was not overly large, but as he watched, its jaws could open wide enough to easily wrap around his limbs, and when it bit down on the wolf's flank, Jonny winced at the crunch of ribs breaking. As the wolverine tossed the ribs aside and dug its nose deeper into the body, Jonny made a mental note to avoid its jaws at all costs. Its claws were long, but not especially worrying. Not any more worrying than anything else's claws, at least.

He couldn't see them well through the snow, but it occasionally put a paw on the dead wolf to help pry the ribs open further, or give it leverage as it pulled out an organ or two. Jonny observed for a minute more, but with the badger thing just chowing down and not doing anything else, that was about all he could get.

Still, Igrette said it was second layer, and he didn't see anything obviously magical, except maybe its jaw strength, so he was reasonably confident that this was just a typical physically-focused magic beast. The fact that it was a carnivore was concerning, since that means it would be much more able to kill him than something like a deer, but it also looked like a scavenger, rather than a hunter, so it might not have been as dangerous as something like a wolf.

Either way, it was relatively small, didn't seem to have any magical abilities, and while it was physically stronger than Jonny, he was confident he could make up that gap with his skill. And since he couldn't get any more information of it until it stopped eating, there was nothing left to do but make it stop eating. He was getting excited for the fight, but he didn't let that excitement cause tunnel vision. Winning safely was more important than a good fight.

He slowly circled around until he was behind the badger thing, trying his best to sneak up on it. He doubted it would work, since the snow crunched under his feet, no matter how softly he stepped, but if he failed at this, he didn't want it to be for lack of trying. I bet Igrette could do it with that weird stealth thing, he thought. How does she even do that? I should ask her. He shook the distracting thought from his head and continued forward.

Just as he predicted, once he got too close—about thirty feet away—the badger thing suddenly lifted its head out of its meal and perked its ears up. Jonny held still for a second, but then it turned its head, and saw him. As soon as it did, Jonny charged. The badger thing gave a low, guttural growl and reared up on its hind legs as it turned to face him. Jonny came to a stop, and stepped sideways as it fell forward, lunging to catch him with its claws.

It landed heavily on all fours, and still low to the ground, lunged again, trying to slash at his legs. Jonny danced back from slash after slash, careful to avoid the fallen corpses all around until finally he saw an opening. Since its normal attacks were failing, the badger thing had decided to gather itself and do a much longer lunge, trying to catch up to him before he could finish retreating.

Jonny had enough experience with magic beasts at this point to see what it was doing, and when it lunged, he leapt to the side. It reacted quickly, stopping just past where Jonny had been and twisting its body around, but momentum was not in its favor and Jonny was prepared. He stepped in, exhaling and sending mana coursing through his body as he delivered a hook directly to its snout.

Because of what Igrette had taught him about how his mass was a disadvantage, and because of that, he had been leaning more toward powerful, single blows with his entire body weight behind them, instead of prodding jabs like he usually would. His hook on the badger thing was one of the strongest he had ever thrown, and although it was a full-fledged second layer beast, and Jonny was only first, it didn't seem to matter. Its head snapped to the side, and blood and saliva flew from its mouth, sprinkling the snow.

It staggered a step back, and Jonny responded by stepping forward and switching his stance to land an identical shot with his right hand. He was ready to do it a third time, but after this punch, instead of stepping back, the badger stepped forward and dove at him, screaming in rage. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Jonny was not expecting that, but he was not entirely unprepared either.

He didn't have time to dodge to either side, and he didn't want the things claws or teeth anywhere near his body, so he tensed his legs and pushed upward, watching as the badger thing flew by beneath him. He smiled as he reached the apex of his jump, then his smile vanished as he realized he had overdone it slightly. Jumping in a fight was not something he normally did. On Earth, it was generally a bad idea to jump in a fight, unless you were attempting a flying knee, and even that was usually not a good idea.

He hadn't done it much since coming to this world either, except when he needed to do something like jumping onto the glass deer. His idea to jump over the badger's attack was the correct one, his execution of the jump was not. He would have been fine three feet in the air, but he had gone a full six feet up, and when the badger stopped and turned around to face him, he was still on the way back down. Shit, shit, shit! He thought. Gravity magic, go!

Sadly, his internal gravity magic did not activate, and when he hit the ground, the badger thing was back up on its hind legs, claws poised to eviscerate him. He did not have time dodge, and barely got his hands up in time to catch its front legs when it came down. The force knocked him to the ground, and it was all he could do just to keep his hold on the badger thing's legs.

It extended its head forward, jaws wide, trying to tear his face off, but Jonny managed to hold it back just enough that its jaws snapped a few inches in front of his nose instead. He felt warm blood and spit spray across his face, and had to close his eyes to keep it out, but he kept his wits about him. While the badger thing struggled to tear his face off, Jonny raised his legs and rotated his body until he could get both of them wrapped around one of the badger thing's front legs.

As he did, he jerked that leg down and to the side, into the snow while simultaneously pushing the other one straight up, knocking the whole beast off balance. The badger thing continued to bite at its face, and pulling it down like that brought it close enough that he could feel its wet snout brush his cheek, but he carried on.

Once his legs fully wrapped around the badger thing's legs and started pulling as well, the already off-balance beast couldn't hold its position anymore, and in one smooth motion, Jonny rolled it over to the side, flipping it on its back while maintaining his grip on the close leg, putting it in an armbar. Jonny's first attempt at armbarring a beast had gone poorly.

He had never fought anything other than a human before, and was not prepared for the difference in anatomy, and trying to do it to the primaboar had nearly gotten him killed. This time was different. Jonny had spent a long time thinking about how to apply his old techniques to fights against non-humans, and while he did so, he realized something very important about armbars. It wasn't that they didn't work against beasts. It was that they didn't work against the elbow joints of the beasts.

But while their differing anatomy protected their elbows from his technique, it actually made their shoulders incredibly vulnerable. Merely being in the armbar position usually meant that something had gone wrong for them. So, when the badger flipped over, and Jonny let go of the far front leg, he immediately switched his grips so that both arms were tight on the close leg like a vice.

When the badger rolled onto its back, he positioned that leg across his chest, and used his legs to make sure the badger thing kept rolling. He empowered his body as much as it could handle, and perhaps a bit more, straining his muscles to their maximum and grunting with effort. For a moment, there was immense resistance. The badger's shoulder joint had stretched as far as it could normally go, and the badger flailed wildly against his attempt.

Then, there was a pop, and the resistance vanished and the badger thing rolled all the way over, its leg now limp in Jonny's hands. The badger thing was furious, and started biting wildly at Jonny's legs. Jonny quickly moved them out of the way and scrambled back to his feet as the badger thing tried to do the same. With its leg injured, though, it was slower, and by the time it got up, Jonny was already on top of it again.

He landed another pair of hooks as the badger thing limped backward, and when it tried jumping at him again, it was slower than before, and he was much more prepared. It jumped to its bad side, and just as he hoped, when it jumped forward, it slipped on its now-useless leg, and Jonny used the opportunity to jump on its back. It was not happy about that, but it failed to resist Jonny wrapping his arm around its neck, and getting it in a headlock, pressing his arm hard against its carotid arteries.

It bucked, and jumped, and even rolled over in the snow, but it did not weigh enough to crush Jonny, and Jonny's grip was too strong to be broken. After half a minute, it was unconscious. Jonny held another minute, just to make sure it would not be waking up any time soon, then stood up and stomped its throat and head until he sensed its natural barrier pop, indicating it was dead. Breathing heavily, he looked down at his hands, noticing for the first time that his knuckles were throbbing.

Punching the badger thing right in the teeth had been effective, but it also scraped up his fingers. His bones felt fine, fortunately, but the lost skin didn't feel great. He looked back at the dead beast, and felt a mixture of both pride, and disappointment. He was proud he had defeated it, and had done it largely unscathed, but he was also disappointed with how difficult it had been. His hooks had been strong, but didn't daze the badger thing as much as he thought they would.

It was clearly much better than the dire badger he had fought, and as strong as Jonny was, his punches just weren't enough to seriously damage it. The reason it staggered was probably more surprise than the fact that it had actually taken damage. It's not enough. If he had internal gravity magic, his punches would have been stronger, and he would never have ended up on the ground. If he could use proper internal mana techniques, his punches would have been stronger.

If he had reinforced his skin during the fight, he wouldn't have gotten scraped up. On top of that, from the time the fight started to the time the badger thing finally died, multiple minutes had passed. What if there was a second one? Or what if they came across a pack of similarly strong beasts? His only option would be to run. And could he run from something like that with Igrette in tow? He doubted it. Just a few more days, he thought. I just need a few more days…