More Jakis, and a more direct approach

Ren's skill with the bow were nor proved, but he knew a few tricks with his sword too and he had to try out those too.
Therefore, the couple decided to try some close combat for their next encounter... Mei would still hold back, those opponents were too weak to be even considered sparring partners and joining would only mean wasting some energy. She'd still do it if Ren were to end up in a pinch, but otherwise there was no need to strain her damaged cultivation for just a few pests.

The south was demon territory contested among many tribes, and it was in such a enviroinment that Jakis thrived... therefore it was no surprise when soon after they met yet another bunch of them.

There were 9 of them this time, and maybe it would have been better to first shoot some down with his bow, but they were here to train and considering how much of a cannon fodder those little demons were, taking 9 of them on his own should prove to be a decent challenge. After all if things got bad, there was always Mei to back him up.

In order to not provoke the little demons too much with the presence of a female Mei hid herself and let Ren go forward, the man unsheating his sword and waiting for the best moment to rush forward and... slash!

A Jaki's head went flying, and all the others were alarmed.
They turned towards their now headless friend and shrieked in rage and fear... who was this guy? Was he strong? Was he weak?
Their main concern was about his strength. If he was strong they'd flee, if he wasn't they'd band together to **** him to **** in **** for their pal.

The result was... weak.
He still looked more than strong enough to deal with one or two of them, but overall his energy felt on the same level of a babooch... there were still 8 of them, so they had a chance!
Thinking so, the little demon's faces turned vicious as they rushed forward while shrieking, some crawling like spiders whereas some other just jumping at Ren in an attempt to claw his face off.

Ren had no ancient or top technique for close combat, but his master still taught him the Flowing Clouds footwork and Swift Thunder swordplay.
Both were low grade techniques, but they were a set and matched each other so by using them together the result would be more than 1+1=2. Adding to that his familiarity with the movements from all the years training in them when he couldn't use energy, and the 1+1 wouldn't even be a 3 but possibly even a 4!

Or at least it'd be so in theory, but this was a real fight and Ren found out how much harder it was to keep his head cool while besieged on all sides.
He still managed to hold the advantage over them, but things weren't going as well as they should.
The Jakis helped each other and hindered his techniques, teaching Ren that just because a technique could freely flow from one step to another in practice it'd be much harder to keep it flowing properly while having an opponent that wouldn't stay still and let him strike as he wished...

The fight that should have lasted a few minutes ended up being dragged for an hour, but it wasn't a fight without gains.
As the fight went on Ren learned more about how to pace himself better and properly use his techniques on a real enemy, and despite being as tired as hell by the time they were done... it still felt so satisfying!

The best part was that despite fighting for so long, the little energy he had still held up till the end and even now it was full and ready for more.
His constitution had made it almost impossible to cultivate even that little energy, but now that he had some it'd keep regenerating at crazy speeds and it was like he'd never run out!
Sure, he was still limited in what he could do, but whenever he felt like he was running dry it wouldn't take long for the energy to return and he'd never really reach the bottom of it.

That was also why none of the Jaki managed to escape, the fight dragged for too long and when they finally noticed they were no match for this newbie, they were too exhausted to run away!

However, despite killing 9 of them, only 4 of their cores were worth something wereas the other 5 demonic cores were just useless baubles.
Was it because he tired them out during the fight or were those 5 just useless weaklings?
Regardless, they were 4 coins riches. Plus the other 6 they gained earlier, now they had 10 coins which were worth just enough for a night at the Morning Sparrow inn. Maybe not, since they had to pay for the entrance fee once they went back to town...

Well, it was still early so they could always hunt some more.