Before long, Ronan had eaten the entire body of the Chameleon Hollow, and even the mask, which had shattered into several pieces, was completely devoured by him.
This encounter with the Giant Hollow-level Chameleon Hollow was dangerous, but the rewards were quite pleasing; although Ronan's body size had not increased at all, still remaining over ten meters, his spiritual pressure had nearly doubled, effectively doubling his strength.
At this moment, Ronan was confident that even if the Chameleon Hollow were to revive and fight him again, he would still be able to defeat it, even if he didn't use Cero to blast its tongue beforehand.
Little Yellow Dog, the Hollow beside him, had also finished eating the mass of flesh that was fatter than its entire body. Now, Little Yellow Dog's physique was much stronger than before.
"Woof woof woof!"
Little Yellow Dog barked a few times at Ronan, a hint of joy in its voice.
"You said you can help me heal my injuries?"
Although this canine Hollow was just barking like a normal puppy, for some reason, Ronan could accurately understand its meaning, so he gently picked up the puppy as it suggested and placed it on his shoulder.
Little Yellow Dog then jumped from his shoulder onto Ronan's back and gently licked the two blood holes on Ronan's back that were about to scab over. A miraculous scene then occurred; the injuries, which would have originally taken a long time to heal, instantly shed their scars, and Ronan's back recovered to its original pristine state.
"I didn't expect you to have this skill; in that case, you can follow me!"
"Woof woof woof!"
Hearing Ronan's words, Little Yellow Dog barked twice happily, seemingly in response to Ronan, and then obediently stood on Ronan's left shoulder.
Ronan, meanwhile, used his tail to coil around the two bone spurs that had severely injured him, and quickly left the area with Little Yellow Dog.
...
In an underground cave formed by hardened sand, Little Yellow Dog lay in a corner, sound asleep, seemingly still digesting the flesh it had eaten earlier.
Ronan, on the other hand, stared blankly at the two large bone spurs in his hand. He had been severely injured by these two bone spurs in the previous battle, and he originally wanted to eat them both, but he found that his current teeth simply couldn't digest them. He bit into one and almost broke his teeth, so he kept them.
Now, the more he looked, the more he felt that these two bone spurs resembled the spikes on a Gillian's neck. He wondered how that Chameleon Hollow had obtained them. Thinking back to the incident where he was poisoned by hitting the Chameleon with his bare hands, Ronan decided to keep these two bone spurs as weapons.
Every Blue Star man has a martial arts dream, and Ronan was no exception. In his previous life, he had even specifically studied swordsmanship with a renowned Kendo master for a period of time, for which he had paid a considerable amount of tuition.
He never dreamed that the swordsmanship he had learned for fun back then would actually come in handy one day.
Ronan carefully recalled the swordsmanship lessons he had learned.
'The eight basic movements of swordsmanship: thrust, chop, upward cut, guard, cloud, point, collapse, and intercept.'
It was clear that these two bone spurs were only suitable for Ronan to use for thrusting, but fortunately, skill is about quality, not quantity. Ronan only needed to master the thrust to deal with those Hollows with low intelligence.
Ronan raised a bone spur with both hands, holding it straight out, his arms and the bone spur forming a straight line, and then thrust it forward sharply. In an instant, the wind whistled, which was quite impressive.
Thus, Ronan repeatedly practiced thrusting in the underground cave, aiming at the air.
"Phew, being a Hollow is indeed much more convenient than being a human!"
In his previous life, due to long-term overtime and extremely low exercise frequency, he would get exhausted after just a couple of sword flourishes. Now, Ronan had continuously thrust thousands of times without any signs of fatigue.
At this moment, Little Yellow Dog, the Hollow who had woken up nearby, stared at the large creature in front of him with a puzzled expression, not understanding why it kept attacking the air.
...
Hueco Mundo Desert, New Territory.
"Croak!"
A five-meter-tall, fiery-red, bloated frog Hollow was chasing a Little Yellow Dog, a normal dog-sized Hollow, ahead. Seeing how fast this Little Yellow Dog was moving, the frog Hollow was about to give up, but for some unknown reason, the Little Yellow Dog's speed suddenly slowed down.
This made the frog Hollow, who had originally intended to give up, chase after it again. Suddenly, the canine Hollow being chased in front ran to a sand dune and abruptly stopped.
Seeing this, the frog Hollow let out a strange cry and pounced wildly towards its prey. However, as soon as it landed, it was pierced by a sharp bone spur that emerged from the sand.
"Sizzle!"
At the same time, a violent arc of lightning was conducted through the bone spur to its entire body, causing the frog Hollow excruciating pain.
"Croak!"
The frog Hollow cried out in pain, staring intently at the canine Hollow in front of it, wanting to tear it to shreds. Unexpectedly, Little Yellow Dog did the opposite and jumped out from the Hollow hole under the frog Hollow's belly.
Ronan emerged from the sand at the opportune moment, and with a sharp slash of the bone spur in his hand, he cut the frog Hollow in half at the waist.
"Well done, Little Yellow Dog!"
Beside the sand dune, Ronan began to divide the spoils, tearing off a frog Hollow's hind leg and handing it to Little Yellow Dog, while Ronan also resumed eating.
During this time in the New Territory, Little Yellow Dog would lure the enemies, and Ronan would be responsible for the ambush and killing. Through this method, the two had already hunted more than a dozen Hollows, including five powerful Hollows. This hunting efficiency was several times faster than Ronan's previous solo operations.
With these few days of actual combat, Ronan's thrusting technique became increasingly proficient, and he had already managed to attach his Flash Lightning to the bone spur for extended periods. It was precisely this move that allowed him to instantly kill the frog Hollow of the same rank as himself just now.
The only flaw was this bone spur. Originally, in the hands of that Giant Chameleon Hollow, its length was just right, but with Ronan's current body size, using it as a sword was actually a bit too long.
However, none of these were problems. Ronan felt that the spiritual pressure within his body had accumulated to a certain level, and it seemed that he could advance to a Giant Hollow by just consuming one more Freshman Hollow.
At that time, his body size would increase, and it should perfectly match these two bone spurs.
Therefore, Ronan did not intend to delay. He planned to strike while the iron was hot; he would advance to a Giant Hollow in one go today!
"Roar!"
However, he had not walked many steps before encountering a Freshman Hollow shaped like a crocodile, which was fearlessly charging towards Ronan.
"What a coincidence, isn't it!"
Looking at the crazed crocodile Hollow, Little Yellow Dog, who was originally perched on Ronan's shoulder, obediently jumped down, blinking its large eyes and seeming somewhat puzzled as to why that crocodile Hollow would seek its own death.
Ronan did not hesitate. He thrust the bone spur in his hand, directly skewering the ignorant Freshman Hollow like a roasted skewer!
Ronan, who had instantly killed it, did not choose to devour it immediately. He directly brought the crocodile Hollow's corpse back to the underground cave, because Ronan, who was about to advance to a Giant Hollow, needed a relatively safe space for advancement to prevent sneak attacks from Hollows of the same rank.