As Luis ran, five Sand Strikers launched attacks on him from behind him.
Luis had expected this, so he ran along a zigzag path. Narrowly avoiding the attacks.
Two attacks hit him in the arm and leg, but Luis endured the pain and kept running, just focusing on his balance.
There was one Sand Striker in the direction Luis was running in, but it hadn't launched an attack.
It waited and waited until Luis was close to it. As soon as he was only three meters away, it launched an attack on him.
Luis quickly raised one of his hands to block the sand attack.
This time, the pain rattled his bones.
Getting closer, Luis used his other arm to try to hit the Sand Striker, but it was too agile, dodged his fist, and retreated back.
It didn't matter to Luis, though he lunged for the stick and then hid behind the tree.
Luis waited a few seconds, catching his breath, and slowly peeked from behind the tree to see that all the Sand Strikers had moved forward now in groups of two.
As he peeked, he was instantly shot at by two of the Sand Strikers.
Luis barely moved back behind the tree, seeing the sand attacks pass by where his body just was.
Luis looked down, grabbing another two sticks from the ground. He took a deep breath to relax and then tossed the sticks to the left of where he was standing behind the tree.
And then he dashed to the right of the tree. Two of the sand attacks were launched on the sticks.
Another two were shot at Luis.
They hit him in his legs.
Both attacks were aimed at his legs, making him almost stumble. The attacks went through the golem blessing. There were tiny dots on his skin below the knee where small amounts of blood started pouring out from.
The pain was even more intense this time, but Luis still propelled himself forward, going to the two closest rats.
Luis hadn't seen the blood on his leg, but he noticed from the last attack that they were now aiming for the same spot, and if he didn't move his aura to strengthen his body where the attacks would land, he wouldn't be able to survive.
As he got within three meters again, the two Sand Strikers launched two more attacks at him. Both aimed at his head.
He made aura go to his head, and with the golem blessing, he was able to withstand the attack.
Then thinking to himself that he finally had some reach. He clenched the stick tighter in his hand and swung at the Sand Strikers.
Luis swung horizontally. Since they were lined up, he hit the first one, but the second one was able to dodge.
The first one was sent flying and crashed on the ground, not getting up.
Right after the attack, Luis was hit by another barrage of attacks four this time.
Two were aimed at his head and two at his left leg where he was bleeding from.
Luis focused his aura on his head because it was easier for him to move his aura to a place he had just moved it, but he was a second too late to move it to his leg. They hit the same spot he was bleeding from right below his knee.
Luis stumbled to the ground, groaning. He glanced at his foot, finally noticing the blood that ran to his ankle. Seeing the blood intensified the pain more.
Before he could get up to go on the offensive, five more attacks were launched at him three on his leg and two to the left side of his stomach.
He was able to block the attacks on his legs, but the open wounds were not strengthened enough, causing him more pain.
He also wasn't able to block the attack on his side, causing more tiny holes where he bled from.
Luis was in a lot of pain, but it wasn't as bad as when he fought the golems. He knew if he didn't get up, he would continuously be pummeled by attacks.
Luis expected more attacks as he was getting back to his feet, but they didn't fire any more.
One of the sand strikers just joined the group of two, making it a group of three, and the other group just distanced itself from the group of three.
After he didn't get attacked when standing up, Luis could only assume one thing. They can't continuously launch too many attacks.
He dashed forward to the group of three with his leg stinging with pain.
As he dashed at the group, another five attacks were launched at him. Two aimed at his leg and two at his head. And one at his right arm, the one holding the stick. Luis was able to move the aura to his head and leg to protect them. But not his arm.
The arm exploded with pain, even though it didn't pierce the golem's blessing.
Luis kept going, and as expected, more attacks were not instantly launched at him. Luis closed the distance to twenty meters before more attacks were launched at him. Two at his left leg and two at his right arm, and one at his injured leg.
Since there was a second for Luis to react before each attack hit, he first focused on moving his right leg slightly so the attack wouldn't hit the injured part, and then he moved aura to his arm and legs.
He blocked the attacks and was able to close the distance further, but fighting and moving at full speed while controlling his aura was taking a toll on him. Worst of all, even if he blocked the attack,s he would still feel pain from the force of the attack.
With the speed blessing from the Lynx doubling his speed, he was able to close the twenty-meter distance very fast. This time, he swung the stick vertically down on the middle sand striker. It wasn't able to dodge fast enough and got crushed into the ground.
The other two sand strikers moved to the sides of Luis and launched more attacks. Luis knew they launched attacks on his sides, but he was focused on the other group another twenty meters away because they had launched an attack at his injured leg.
Luis was struggling mentally because of how much he had to move his aura focused only on the injured leg.
Luis's aura flared. Luis had only focused on defending the leg. But instincts also wanted to block the attacks on the sides.
Luis hadn't noticed it, but instead of focusing intensely two block both of the sides of his stomach which was were the other two attacked. His aura moved there instinctively.
Luis didn't know why the attacks on the sides felt so much less painful because he hadn't noticed it, but he just focused on attacking.
Luis focused on the one too his right side. He knew he had a few seconds of pause before the next attacks, so Luis went on the offensive.
Throughout the fight, Luis hadn't been using aura to strengthen his legs, arms, or other body parts so he could run faster, but instead just focused on using his aura to defend since he couldn't do both.
But he had been thinking about it. Those instincts were helping him now. It felt like a weight had been lifted off him. Luis felt faster. He struck the sand striker on his right side more easily because his body moved faster because of the aura he was now instinctively moving through his body. Which he would have done before if he had perfect control over his aura in his body.
Luis's speed was very slightly increased in comparison to when he used his Lynx blessing. But the aura brought out power in his body, and it was currently travelling through every part of his body not just a few limbs.
After taking down the sand striker to his right easily because it didn't expect the increase in Luis's speed.
Luis turned back to target the other Sand Strikers. They launched three more shots at him, but because of the golem blessing and now his aura, he remained unharmed.
But to Luis's surprise, as he was about to attack, the Sand Strikers turned around and started fleeing.
Luis decided not to chase them as it seemed unnecessary.
They scurried back into the woods, and Luis was finally able to use aura throughout his entire body.