Kyle swung his hammer upward.
The velociraptor thing immediately jumped back.
Kyle’s eyes shone, and he charged after it.
He hadn’t gone all in with the swing.
He had only swung his hammer to intimidate the enemy, and it worked.
Kyle kept charging towards the enemy, keeping his hammer low.
The enemy jumped to Kyle’s left.
At that moment, his instincts screamed at him.
But he had already expected that.
Kyle swung his hammer upward, forcing the enemy back.
Yet, his swing didn’t stop there.
The hammer went over Kyle’s head, and he turned to look at the second enemy behind him.
The other enemy was jumping right at Kyle.
’Too fast! Not enough time!’ he thought.
The swing wouldn’t connect in time.
Instead of continuing the swing, Kyle pulled his hammer down and positioned its head between him and the enemy.
CRK!
The long claws of the velociraptor thing opened two big gashes on Kyle’s upper arms.
CLINK!
Kyle’s heart raced when he heard a sound he really didn’t like.
While the velociraptor thing had injured him, it also jumped chest first into the pick of Kyle’s hammer.
Yet, the sound Kyle heard wasn’t one of armor being broken but the sound of two hard things bouncing off of each other!
’Its scales are hard, and its own bodyweight isn’t enough to drive my hammer into its chest!’
Nevertheless, the second enemy was intimidated and jumped back.
’Fast, agile, hard, lightweight. Fuck! I hate these kinds of enemies the most!’ Kyle thought.
“They have a Metal Affinity!” Theodor shouted. “Their scales are made of metal!”
While Theodor was shouting, Kyle was jumping to the side, avoiding the first enemy.
The second one was running around Kyle.
These two velociraptor things were used to hunt in a team, and they tried to use pincer attacks on Kyle.
If he attacked one of them, the other one would strike his back.
Kyle evaded to the wall and turned his back to it.
This forced the two enemies to attack him from the sides.
BANG!
He pushed the right one away with his hammer.
But then, the left one dug its teeth into Kyle’s shoulders as it kept clawing on his back with its claws.
The wounds were deep, and for a normal human, these wounds would prove fatal.
As he felt the pain coming from his back, Kyle’s eyes narrowed.
He moved the head of his hammer to the enemy’s neck and lightly tapped it.
Immediately, Kyle lost a bunch of Ether.
However, the attacks had stopped.
Right now, the velociraptor thing was ready to continue clawing and biting Kyle.
And yet, it didn’t.
Its posture was arched backward like it was preparing to lunge forward.
But instead of attacking, it fell to its side, its posture still arched back.
It wiggled its little arms but barely managed to move them.
Just now, when Kyle had tapped the enemy’s neck, he had used his Liquifier.
Since his enemies had a Metal Affinity and since their scales were hard like ore, chances were that they actually were made of metal.
By using the Liquifier, Kyle had compressed the hide around the neck, making it harder.
But to make matter harder with a Liquifier, other matter had to be consumed.
So, the hide around the beast’s neck and shoulders was pulled inward.
The hard hide had lost all its elasticity, trapping the velociraptor thing in its own skin.
The other enemy jumped back.
It didn’t know what had happened.
Its comrade had fallen over and could barely move.
Was it afflicted with a paralytic poison?
Kyle took this chance, turned around, and lifted his hammer.
BOOOOOOOM!
Tears and cracks appeared over the first velociraptor thing.
Its hide was cracked into several pieces, and blood oozed out from all of them.
’That felt amazing!’ Kyle thought.
The feeling of breaking metal, bones, and organs with a well-placed hammer smash was so satisfying!
“Keep at it! Use your momentum!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle was planning on doing that anyway.
He turned to the other enemy, who watched Kyle from a safe distance.
“RAAAAAH!” Kyle shouted as he charged towards the other enemy.
Now, this guy was alone!
When the velociraptor saw Kyle charging at it, it turned around and ran to its compatriots, which were still busy consuming the corpse.
The velociraptor thing let out a shrill screech, and the other two looked over.
The other two jumped off the corpse and stood between it and Kyle.
The one running away stopped in front of its two compatriots and also stared at Kyle.
All three of them bared their fangs and claws as they let out several screeches.
“Stop!” Theodor shouted.
Kyle stopped charging and looked at the three velociraptor things.
He had already suffered a heavy injury when battling two of them.
If he fought three at once, he would most likely die.
The three of them kept screeching at Kyle, clawing the air and acting like they were about to charge him.
“Show your hammer to them and slowly walk backward,” Theodor commanded.
Kyle held his hammer forward and took some steps backward.
The three enemies slowly approached him, constantly threatening him.
“Threaten them!”
Kyle made a huge swing, and all three jumped back.
“Continue walking backward.”
Kyle kept walking backward, and while the velociraptor things followed him a little, they were not closing the distance.
In fact, the distance between them was widening.
“Keep going,” Theodor ordered.
After about a minute, there were over 70 meters between the two parties.
At that point, the velociraptor things became quiet, and they slowly walked back to the corpse.
“Walk over to the other corpse and do it slowly!”
Kyle did as ordered and approached the now-dead velociraptor thing.
“Lift it and eat while walking.”
Kyle did just that.
As he took some bites from the corpse, he kept looking at the velociraptor things, which kept looking at him from the other corpse.
“You intimidated them. Killing you is not worth the risk, but they don’t want to give up their own prey.”
“You are not fighting for dominance. You are fighting for survival.”
“You do not need to win. You just need to stop the enemy from attacking you.”