The Tower of Emnu

Aaron settled into a routine while fighting and training on the fifth floor. Go through the stretches, train the katas, meditate and then wash up and have breakfast. It was what he should have stuck to the whole time since coming to the Tower. But often he had been too busy to actually do it. After doing everything by the book for three days he did feel some differences. He was making progress with all of his techniques and with the influx of beastcores his cultivation rose steadily as well. So he was in a good mood when he sped through the border of the foothills and the savanna towards the right side of the floor.

Today it was time to challenge the wildcats and see for himself why they were the preferred target of climbing groups. But this came with some added complications. The central and left of the fifth floor were basically empty except of the predators and antelopes that populated them, but on the right, all of the climbing groups came together. Which meant Aaron had to be careful not to stumble on some climbing group while he fought himself. But there were some benefits as well. Like free information.

He could smell the group before he heard them as he paused in his leaping bounds. There was a medium sized climbing group getting ready to head into the savanna as well and he listened to them while trying to avoid them.

"Alright, we are going into the fifth floor proper now. The Wildcats are boss level monsters that roam around in groups of 2 to 3. The male variants are giant walking tanks, they are rather slow, but can pounce and leap very far and are incredibly powerful. The female versions are smaller, more agile and much faster. They ambush pray usually while the males rely on their leap and strength to hunt. There are either mixed groups of male and female monsters or two males and two females. If its a group of three then its usually because they have their offspring with them. A juvenile Wildcat is almost as dangerous as their parents and the parents will go absolutely berserk to protect their kid. In short, do not engage groups of three. Avoid two females too unless we can properly pin point their position and focus on the males we encounter if its a mixed group."

Another voice cleared their throat and asked.

"We are supposed to fight two boss level monsters at the same time? How? And what if another group of wildcats joins the first we are currently fighting?"

"We do have the setup for it, two melee fighters for each beast so they can take the brunt of the damage before the rest of us can kill them. Its going to be fine. About your second question. Wildcats are incredibly territorial. They do not help each other at all. But if we kill a group and the surrounding wildcats hear that, they will encroach upon that position and try to establish a bigger territory. So we will be on a timer. We flee if another group comes too close."

Aaron considered the information the group had given him for a moment, before mostly discarding it. The only really useful information was that the cats were extremely territorial and would not help each other. That was probably why they were the favorite monsters to fight on this floor. It made sense. Two giant strong monsters could be fought, but more than that and a group would be overwhelmed, especially if they relied upon the classic setup he had observed so many times. Heavily armored front line warriors who used shields and a ranged core with a mage behind them. The setup worked great if they could protect the mages and ranged attackers, but fell apart if they were not able to do so.

He on the other hand had none of these restrictions. Since he worked alone he did not have to protect anyone but himself and he seriously doubted the multi ton cats would be fast enough to handle his particular blend of speed. So all that remained was to find out if he could do enough damage to actually kill them.

With a couple of leaps he was out of his own earshot away from the group of climbers, which meant nothing they could do would ever detect him, unless it was somehow magical and he doubted they would do that. But he would have to be aware of any climbers coming too close either way.

Aaron observed the wildcats in his range and made his own picture of their behavior although he did take the information he had gotten as a baseline. Most of the wildcats were either lying around dozing, but some were on the move to hunt. They reminded Aaron of giant lions because of the way they moved and lazed about. But it was a misleading laziness he observed. Most of the wildcats he could listen to and observe were on the hunt. Which was most likely because they needed a ton of food to sustain bodies like that and have energy to spare. The plentiful antelopes had adapted to the wildcats as well and often fled into a different territory of another pair of wildcats, which lead to posturing and roaring when the two groups clashed. It did not usually come to a fight, it was usually more of a shouting match.

The female wildcats were the real hunters of the savanna, their apex predators. Which meant that a mixed group ate extremely well. The sleeker versions of the cats ducked into the grass, their paws making very little noise compared to the stomping majesty of their male counterparts. They ambushed and leapt at pray to kill it within moments. But Aaron also realized that there was a system behind all of this. If evolutionary or created by Emnu, the hyenas who rushed out of their nest displaced the vast herds of antelopes and drove them right into the wildcat territory. At the border to the hyena territory the wildcats made sure to drive the antelopes deeper into their territory where they were hunted and killed by all the other wildcats. It also meant that the wildcats who had a claim on the territory close to the water could benefit more than once from this mechanic. Come night the antelopes would flee the wildcat territory and escape back into the central savanna.

Everyone won, including the antelopes who could survive against the wildcats much easier than against the hyenas and their almost military campaign to hunt. Their speed and agility made them really good at running away and Aaron guessed they would lose the least amount of their vast herds like this. But considering how many of them must die every day, he was not certain if Emnu did not help out by summoning some more. So far Aaron guessed that the antelopes just were extremely numerous had water and an unlimited supply of food and slept almost undisturbed in the central savanna. So maybe they were just as well adjusted to the artificial environment as the predators.

While this was quite interesting to Aaron because he liked to understand how things actually worked, he decided it was time to hunt himself. He always had been thorough in gathering information, but once he had all he could feasibly find out he did not hesitate.

Aaron picked an "easy" target of two males lazing around for his first test. He needed to get a baseline for their strength and what best way to get that than to fight them? With a Wind Step empowered leap he jumped out of the tall grass, catching the predators entirely by surprise. He smashed into one of the giant wildcat's faces, his fist reinforced with Qi, his form perfect. His knuckles buried themselves into the wildcats temple and it still roared and swatted at him undaunted. These cats had some very durable skulls it looked like. Aaron evaded nimbly, shifted his weight as he guided a massive paw away from him, using its own momentum against it. Then he punched the beast in the eye and the roar turned into a pained howl. Still the eye did not burst, the cat just closed it momentarily in pain. Its maw opened and it was massive, stinking and full of razor sharp teeth. Aaron dove back and the maw snapped close like a steel trap right in front of him. He punched the cat in the nose and then jumped forwards on top of its head to evade the leap of the second wildcat.

It was true, that leap had been fast and accurate. Not to be underestimated. The wildcat was also tough, tougher than the hyenas by far. Only the behemoth had been tougher. The fight immediately reminded him of fighting the darkstalker, just that that beast had relied upon long arms and its inherent toughness to survive. The male wildcats were all brawn. They both moved forwards, physically pushing Aaron aside or forcing him into their claws. They took the damage Aaron dished out and just kept going. Their anger and frenzy rising by the minute until they turned into whirlwinds of claws, teeth and fur as big as a truck and probably heavier than one.

Aaron defended himself rather easily, their attacks were fast and ruthless, but not an issue for the Unceasing Palm kata. Their physicality was the worst problem, but Aaron found out quickly that once he was on their backs, they were almost entirely helpless against him. Aaron slammed his fists down on their spine, making the wildcat howl. Then the cat rolled, dropped to the floor and tried to crush Aaron under its enormous weight. But Aaron simply leapt off and slammed with full force into its belly, finding it much softer and less armored. He reaped a bloody harvest as he burst through fur and punched into organs. But the window of opportunity was short as the second wildcat snapped at Aaron with its big maw. But sadly it was careful enough not to injure its mate while doing so. Aaron punched the second wildcat in the eye and then returned to his original target while the wildcat roared and stumbled, swatting at him with too big claws.

Those paws landed on said belly and exacerbated the injury. But it was not realistic to turn the cats against each other this way. Aaron had to do most of the work himself. With their bellies being the obvious weakspot he had found, Aaron worked on doing as much damage as he could that way. While he was doing that he did a thorough analysis of their combat capabilities and where to hit for maximum effect.

The beasts throats were vulnerable as were their bellies and quite obviously their reproductive organs. The downside of those weakspots for Aaron was that normally all of those spots were covered by the wildcat standing and fighting. Then only the top side was available and the wild matted fur was like armor. It made it very difficult to do any real damage to the things. Aaron guessed this fur was either a real treasure and had a lot of muscle and fat to bolster its toughness, or it was magic once more. But in Aaron's magic senses he did not sense much from the wildcat. Only a faint signature marked them as having a core.

So Aaron's tactic for now was quite simplistic, get past their heads, focus on their sides or throats or belly if possible. Evade on top of them to get them to roll to throw him off and then hurt their exposed weakspots. The two giant wildcats were bad at coordinating, they did try, but it was awkward and Aaron was too fast, slippery and small. Most of the time the bulky mass of the two giant cats hindered each other more than helped them, once Aaron had gotten used to them and had stopped being pushed around by their bulk. The best way to fight them was to slip to their sides and make them turn, which was awkward and cumbersome due to their weight and size. That gave Aaron ample opportunity to deal damage. Although the sides were still armored, it was still rather easy to get to the wound on the belly.

After what felt like days one of the wildcats was bleeding profusely and its breath came harshly. Aaron had broken a rib and punctured its lung, which had taken three wind steps enforced punches to the same damn spot. These things were horrifically tough, different than the darkstalker or the behemoths, but they could just take injuries and keep going. Aaron was ready to fight for that long, had not grown tired even once and found the situation to be rather fun and good training, when the cats suddenly decided to flee. Aaron paused for a moment, but he had almost expected it at this point. These monsters were more like real animals and no real animal fought to the death unless cornered. So he stuck to them, unwilling to let his prize go. He harried them, shot out of the grass and punched into their sides, which was very efficient on the already injured Wildcat. He was much faster than them so he was like an annoying gnat that would not go away and kept stinging the wildcats.

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Eventually the injured wildcat collapsed and before its partner could do anything about it, Aaron delivered the finishing blow to its throat, ripping through the delicate veins and airways with sheer percussive force. A gruesome spray of blood and the sound of a faucet running with blood was the result. Aaron was showered in blood. He should have expected this. He cursed to himself, but kept punching until the damned wildcat was finally dead. The second wildcat halted in its steps, but fled when it smelled the overwhelming scent of blood.

Aaron looked after it and was curious to see what would happen to it. It was an interesting case study to him, if any of the groups of wildcats would take him on or what a lone wildcat did. But he could already hear other groups of wildcats coming closer, drawn in by the sound of violence and the scent of blood and death. Quickly before he had to flee the scene himself, he searched for the creatures beastcore. It was not behind its head as it turned out and that mistake cost Aaron precious minutes of digging through flesh with his enchanted dagger. Luckily he had some experience with core extraction from his forays into the other two territories and he found the core close to its heart, which was the second spot he looked at.

The core was as big as his fist or bigger, solid like steel and felt metallic to his senses. It felt far more potent than the hyena cores, a few steps beyond their alphas even, but less magical and more physical in nature. Nothing like the behemoths of course, but considering the difficulty in fighting these wildcats, it was barely worth mentioning the increase in potency.

Aaron leapt away from the dead wildcat, pursuing the second one he had injured already in the fight. The core being that good made it obvious why people hunted these things. They were still far too tough. In the time it would take him to bring down 10 of these he could easily get 30 hyena cores. Because it literally took hours to fight these things. They were decent to train with though, because there was little danger. Sure if they managed to bite him he would be hurt badly, but the chance of that happening was low. Still they were too tough to be easy targets, even if the fight had not been that dangerous. It was still probably more efficient to hunt these wildcats rather than hyenas. Or maybe a mix of both would be the best compromise.

The problem was that Aaron did not have the offensive potential to deal with these wildcats efficiently. His fists were simply not strong enough to easily defeat beasts that tough. If this floor was any indication of beasts going forward he was in trouble. If he wanted to be efficient he would have to use his enchanted dagger. Which he did not really want to do because he saw the wisdom in relying on his techniques alone. They would grow with usage, while the enchanted dagger would eventually grow dull or lose its enchantment. He might lose it in combat and then be in a terrible spot if he was unable to kill the monsters around him. No, he needed to be strong enough himself to kill any monster easily, just like he had on the fourth floor.

So he probably did need to learn the Piercing Finger sooner rather than later. He longed for the power it represented, but at the same time this might slow his progress down by a lot as well. He would have to see how efficient the new kata would be and if it would help at all. But for now he would probably use his dagger to ensure he would not take hours to fight a single one of the wildcats. If he could murder a whole bunch of the wildcats every day and their cores gave as much Qi as he guessed they would give him, he would be fine if he used some Qi on learning a new technique.

But he had not tangled with the female wildcats yet and maybe they were easier to kill. But to follow anything without the wildcats noticing him, Aaron needed to wash away the scent of blood from himself. So Aaron made a detour to the nearby river and washed himself clean by jumping in and scrubbing the blood off his face, out of his hair, from his clothes. It was no help at all and so Aaron had to strip in the middle of the damned savanna and douse his clothes with a healthy dose of the alchemical solution to get the stains and smell out. He washed himself wearily, his senses on alert as he scrubbed himself clean as quickly as humanly possible.

When his nose was finally satisfied with the result he got back into his wet clothes shook himself like a dog and cursed himself for not anticipating how much blood would be in one of these giant wildcats. Then he went back into the savanna and looked for the wildcat he had hunted, simply out of curiosity and because if he could get it alone it would be an easy kill. He found it rather quickly, following his own trace and then the wildcats. The carcass of the dead wildcat was already serving as meal for another group that was threatening a third. Cannibalism was apparently not uncommon. Yuck. But Aaron did not want to tangle with more than two wildcats for now so he followed the lone trail leading deeper into the savanna.

As Aaron followed the injured wildcats trail, he observed signs of it invading other groups territory or vice versa. The scents were not entirely clear. There was some roaring and posturing in the distance and when Aaron got there he knew he had caught up with the lone wildcat. The injured cat hissed in a deep roar, telling a group of two males to back off, but when they did not the single wildcat quickly gave up and retreated. The other males were more than happy to take more territory from their rivals without a fight and did not pursue. Aaron kept on its trail though. The more interesting encounter came soon after, when the injured wildcat met one of the all female teams.

It was at first posturing and hissing again, but unlike with the male wildcats, the injured wildcat rolled on its belly intentionally after a while and its low growling sound was quite pitiful. The female wildcats came closer scented him and then seemed to accept him into their group. Which was surprising to Aaron. He would not have expected this to happen. More likely was that young males who were alone roamed the savanna until they found another lone male or female. Aaron did not want to fight three wildcats at once even with one injured cat, so he sneaked away with the cats none the wiser.

He had no idea how the social dynamics worked for these beasts and besides a casual curiosity he had better things to do. He needed to test how well fighting the female wildcats would go. So he scouted out the nearby teams and eventually found one with two females who were roaming their territory.

Aaron studied the sleek less hairy and smaller wildcats. They looked more like actual cats and not giant mountains of fur. They had a truly cat like agility and grace on their paws even though they must weigh a ton as well. Their paws were light and they could be very stealthy. Which was their preferred hunting strategy. Instead of explosive leaps they were overall more agile and graceful. They were covered in the same shaggy looking fur as the males but it was shorter and so looked better.

After making sure no group of climbers or wildcats was nearby Aaron leapt out of the grass with a Wind Steps empowered leap and smashed into the closest wildcat. His fists focused on its side, smashing into ribs, since that had been very effective before and the yowl of the wildcat was almost cat like, probably closer to a lion. Their bodies were just as tough as their males sadly and even though Aaron had put a lot of force into his attack he was quickly put on the defense. The wildcats both reacted rather quickly, the one he had attacked, turned with an agile hop backwards, its giant maw opening to bite. Aaron evaded to the side, moving past another paw and then smashed his fist into the wildcats side again. But unlike the two males the female wildcats were much better at coordinating. Be it because they were more agile and quicker as well as less cumbersome, or because these cats hunted together, he did not know. But he was given very little time to capitalize on his advantages because the second wildcat was right there just moments later.

The Unceasing Palm kata slowed down the fight to Aaron's senses and he moved between paws and past teeth over and over. His window of opportunity to hit back was limited, but it was there and Aaron punched hard. His precise strikes at the same spot soon showed some promise as the wildcat slowed and breathed harder. Next Aaron tried to jump on top of them to get them to throw him off, but the female wildcats were less tall and entirely capable of having their partner jump over them to get to Aaron on their backs. So it was a slog with them protecting their weak spots properly. Still Aaron made progress. With one of the wildcats slowed down he had more opportunities to punch and he slowly got used to the female wildcats speed and way of attack. Their motto was basically hit and away, hit and move out of engagement range. But Aaron kept up with them, taking advantage of their away part of their strategy as they stopped attacking to move out of his range.

With no attacks coming for him, Aaron used wind steps to propel himself forward and continue the assault. It still took way too long to actually kill one of the wildcats. It was faster than the males because the female wildcats were less tough, less tall, had less weight. But they were constantly moving too, so he had to follow every time, making it a long drawn out fight either way. When he finally brought down one of the female wildcats The other one fled and Aaron pursued immediately. Cornered and caught the second wildcat fought ferociously. It sped up its strikes, it lashed out wildly, but Aaron was used to things like that, his kata did not mind the added challenge because he was much faster than the wildcat to begin with.

In the end he killed both of them and removed their cores, both close to their heart. There was no difference in size or quality to Aaron's delight,. It was already late afternoon when he was done and Aaron had only fought two groups of the damned wildcats. It took just too long to whittle down their defenses. Even with heavy blood loss and gruesome injuries these wildcats could keep going and kept fighting. It was impressive and annoying for him. So Aaron did what he had planned as a contingency and brought out his good old trusty enchanted dagger not only to dig out cores.

For the rest of the day Aaron hunted wildcat groups indiscriminately with his dagger.

The time it took to kill one of the wildcats with this was only a fraction of before. Aaron was able to do some real damage, cut into their fur deeply and even though that was a bad use of the dagger, if used at a weakspot it showed very good results. Eyes were burst, blinding the wildcats, throats were cut and bellies sliced open. Aaron did his bloody work with a quiet proficiency. He still used his katas, mostly defensively and then moved in to do the damage. It was much less efficient for training, but the results spoke for themselves. In the last four hours of the day until twilight took over the savanna, Aaron hunted 3 groups and got six kills, bringing his total beastcore count up to 9.

That was a really good harvest and while Aaron could keep going he knew this kind of hunting would slow down his progress with his techniques considerably. If he did not use his katas to the best of his ability, then what was the point? He would still do it to cultivate properly, but it felt bad.

Aaron returned to his camp site after hunting himself three antelopes, one after another. He butchered his dinner and prepared it for later, cutting out huge chunks of meat for his meal. He had used his katas basically the entire day, had run, had jumped and he did not feel tired at all. He did feel ravenously hungry though. He was tempted to try one of the hunger pills, but he had abundant food supply here, so he decided against it.

In the end he had the stew he had prepared and that had simmered for a long time over the stove, a whole array of steaks and meat on the bone grilled over the magical fire. He added a liberal amount of spices to the meat and then began to ate after he had taken a long thorough bath to get all the blood and grime off himself. In fresh clothes and eating delicious meat Aaron was quite happy with himself. The stew was utterly delicious, the flavor deep and intense and Aaron looked at his dwindling amount of flour and still made some breads to dunk into the broth of the stew.

After Aaron had gone back twice to get more meat to devour it, he was finally sated and sat back with a sigh. He decided to cultivate first tonight, because he did not feel like getting up. So he focused and let his senses collapse in on themselves.

The wildcat beastcores were full of Qi, fueling his cultivation much better than the hyena alphas had. Each core lasted a while and he absorbed one after another, getting even more Qi in total out of the 9 cores than he had from the behemoth. His dantian was at around 60% full when he was done with it all. Which was incredibly good. The wildcat cores were by far the most efficient source of Qi on the floor unless he had a way to just kill alpha hyenas and get away with it or he found a safer way to kill behemoths. Both prospects unlikely to actually happen.

Aaron went through his streches and the two katas slowly and calmly, before he went to bed. It was deep at night already, his feast and his cultivation took a lot of time of the day in the end. But the progress he was making was significant as well. Still it was not enough.

Tomorrow, Aaron decided, he would be facing the trial of the Piercing Finger and unlock his third kata. He hoped with it he would get the offensive firepower he needed to farm even more efficiently.