The three F-rank Bloodhounds charged at Henry with a coordinated wave of teeth and matted fur.
Henry remained unfazed. He activated accelerated perception, time dilating as the world slowed to a crawl around him. His senses sharpened, every detail coming into focus… the motion of the beasts, their trajectory and their fully exposed bodies.
With purposeful precision, he raised the pistol in his left hand and pulled the trigger twice.
Pew. Pew.
Two bolts of blue plasma punched cleanly through the skulls of the two closest bloodhounds, killing them instantly and dropping them mid-run.
The third wolf surged forward, already mid-leap with its jaws poised dangerously close to Henry's throat.
However, with his accelerated perception still active, Henry perceived the attack in slow motion.
Without hesitation, he pivoted on his heel and sidestepped, causing the beast to sail past him. Then he seized that moment to regain his footing and drag his dagger across its underbelly, ripping out the beast's gut in a single slash. The bloodhound hit the ground in a spray of blood, dead before it stopped sliding.
[You have defeated 3 F-Rank Bloodhounds]
[Total Exp Gained: +60]
[Exp: 70/250]
Henry exhaled sharply, deactivating accelerated perception and dismissing the notifications. He had killed three beasts in a span of nine seconds. He lowered his weapons and looked at the treeline.
The two E-rank bloodhounds still hadn't moved.
They stood at the edge of the undergrowth with their eyes tracking him. They'd been watching his movements and combat style, processing it with the particular stillness of creatures that had survived long enough to understand that a miscalculation here was irreversible.
Then they moved, flanking him directly.
The first bloodhound blurred, moving with a speed that caught Henry off-guard. The beast appeared right in front of him and swiped a massive claw at his ribs.
Henry threw his torso backward at the last second, his mind having calculated the trajectory. The claws grazed his shirt, slicing the fabric and leaving a trio of shallow, parallel cuts across his side. He grunted, dropped his center of gravity and leapt backwards to put some distance between him and the beast.
The system chimed a second later, notifying him of the injury.
[-5 Hp]
[Health Regeneration Active]
[-1 Ep]
Just then, the wound at the side of his gut began to heal, the flesh knitting back together and closing up like nothing happened.
[Hp: 200/200]
[Host has been restored to full health]
[Ep: 31/40]
Henry stared at his already healed side in awe, but he didn't have time to be amazed. The bloodhounds were already charging towards him.
Henry stood upright. Then he activated accelerated perception again.
[-3 Ep]
As usual, his perception of the world slowed down.
The first bloodhound… the one that struck him earlier, moved through the slowed air like something pushing through water. It was still incredibly fast, even through Henry's advanced perception.
But it was readable.
Henry could see the beast's every joint's extension, every muscle group's firing sequence, and the precise angle of the head that told him where its jaws intended to close.
And instead of backing away, Henry stepped inside the line of attack. Moving into the space between the beast's fully extended forelegs, where the jaws couldn't reach and the body mass was committed to a trajectory it couldn't alter mid-stride.
Then he twisted his arm and drove his dagger into the exposed underside of the beast's jaw, angling upward.
The wolf's legs stopped working instantly. It collapsed to the ground, crashing through dirt and rocks.
Henry deactivated accelerated perception and quickly turned to face the second bloodhound. The beast had closed the distance during his engagement with the first wolf, and it was already upon him with its jaws coming for his left arm.
Henry threw himself backward at the last second, and the beast's jaws caught the sleeve of his tracksuit jacket, the fabric tearing as he pulled away. The beast sailed past him, lurched forward by its momentum.
Henry landed on his feet and activated accelerated Perception immediately. He saw the beast's right flank fully exposed in the moment of its overextension.
Now was his chance to attack.
But instead of charging forward, Henry hurled his dagger. The blade spun through the air swiftly and embedded itself deep into the beast's shoulder. The beast howled in pain, stumbling to the ground.
Henry shifted his focus back to the first bloodhound, which was already crawling towards him with its jaws aimed at his torso. He aimed at the beast's eyes and fired two rapid shots from the pistol, blinding the creature with plasma burns, then vaulted over its snapping jaws.
Mid-vault, he opened his left hand.
A pulse of dark energy sparked, and the dagger vanished from the second wolf's shoulder, instantly reappearing in his grip. And as he landed, Henry drove the recalled blade straight down, piercing the skull of the blinded bloodhound and pinning its lifeless body to the forest floor.
The second bloodhound saw its comrade dead beneath Henry and let out a piercing howl. Then, out of desperation and rage, it charged at Henry with a wounded shoulder.
Henry didn't even raise his head. He aimed the pistol over his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The plasma bolt flew out the gun with incredible precision and blew out the back of the beast's head, killing it mid-stride. It paused in its tracks, then collapsed to the ground. Dead.
Silence descended on the clearing.
[Ep: 19/40]
Henry deactivated accelerated perception and pulled the dagger out of the bloodhound's head. He climbed off the beast's corpse and was met with a barrage of notifications.
[You have defeated an E-Rank Bloodhound]
[+50 Exp]
[You have defeated an E-Rank Bloodhound]
[+50 Exp]
Total Exp Gained: +100]
[Exp: 170/250]
[Auto-Loot Activated: 5 Mana Cores have been added to your inventory]
[Random Quest Complete; You have defeated the entire Bloodhound Pack]
[You have received +100 Exp]
[You have received one Giftbox]
[Giftbox has been added to the inventory]
[Exp: 270/250]
[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]
[Level 2 >> Level 3]
[+2 points have been added to all physical attributes]
[Hp: 200 >> 300]
[Stamina: 80 >> 90]
[Ep: 40 >> 60]
[You have received +5 Stat Points]
[Exp: 20/500]
Henry exhaled in satisfaction, having read through the contents of the screen. He had leveled up again, and he wasn't even close to feeling exhausted. His gaze snapped back to the part of the screen that said he'd received a giftbox. He was about to mentally command it open when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly rose, indicating the arrival of a presence in the area.
Henry eyes widened, his tactical senses instantly pinpointing the location of this presence.
It was behind him.
And at that very second, every survival instinct he possessed screamed at him to duck.
[-3 Ep]
Without hesitation, Henry activated accelerated perception and dropped to the ground on pure instinct, the motion beginning before the thought even completed.
As his knees hit the dirt, a massive arm swiped through the exact space where his head had been a millisecond ago.
Boom!
The sheer kinetic force of the swing generated a localized shockwave, snapping the branches of a nearby tree. If Henry had been just a second late to duck, his head would have been severed clean from his body.
With the world still in slow motion, he kicked off the ground, backflipping a full twenty feet away to put distance between himself and the assailant. He landed in a crouch, deactivating accelerated perception and raising both weapons. Then he raised his head to get a full view of the attacker, and what he saw made his jaw drop slightly.
Standing in the center of the clearing was a nightmare.
It was a towering, heavily muscled beast that resembled a gorilla, but its fur was pitch black and plated like armor. Two massive, jagged fangs jutted from its lower jaw. Its eyes burned with a furious, unnatural intelligence. And it looked really angry.
Henry let out a dark chuckle, adjusting his grip on the dagger. "I didn't know this world had a King Kong," he murmured in amusement.
[That is because it doesn't] Miley's voice suddenly rang out in his head, entirely stripped of her usual snark. [That is a Galactic Beast]
Henry's muscles tensed. The memories of his predecessor flooded his mind, unlocking the history he hadn't fully processed.
Ten years ago, multiple strange portals suddenly begun appearing in various cities across the globe. And from these rifts poured beasts that were far more dangerous and formidable than the magical beasts present on earth. The portals had closed behind the beasts the moment they emerged, offering no return path and no information about their origin. These creatures were larger, more powerful, and more violent. And instead of mana cores, they possessed Beast Crystals, a more advanced and more powerful energy source.
The initial invasion was quelled by the combined intervention of the World Leaders. They fought the beasts for days and were eventually able to defeat them.
But the threat wasn't over. Because the portals never truly stopped. They still appeared… at least five every month, spitting out one or two of these cosmic horrors before closing.
TRIAD had classified these new monsters alongside magical beasts in their threat framework, assigned them rank designations based on energy output and combat capability, and pursued the portals with the single-minded focus that an organization of their scope could apply to something they didn't understand.
They had tried to enter a portal, once, sending a team of elite scientists and explorers into one before it closed.
They never came back.
After that, TRIAD had stopped trying to enter the portals and started focusing strictly on containment and harvesting the highly volatile Beast Crystals to push their advanced technology further. And eventually, they were able to manage this new threat, by tracking the portals as soon as they appear and sending out a response team to eliminate the Galactic beast(s) that came out of the rift.
But occasionally, portals could appear in unmonitored zones, letting a Galactic Beast roam free without being apprehended.
An example was the flaming lion that had nearly incinerated Henry on his first day. That was a Galactic Beast known as the Saber-toothed Flare.
Another one was the Behemoth that attacked the city a few days ago. It was a Galactic beast too. And according to later investigations, it had emerged from a portal that appeared directly in an hunting ground… the one that was said to be under maintenance in Henry's research.
Apparently, the behemoth had broken through the fence and gone into the city before the response team could arrive. The steelwolves that were with it that day were simply magical beasts that saw a window of opportunity to escape through the broken fence.
[That is an Earth Smasher] Miley analyzed rapidly. [Its energy signature designates it as an E-Rank. But do not be fooled by the rank standards. An E-Rank Galactic Beast possesses almost the same strength as a C-Rank Magical Beast]
Henry's lips curled into a smirk. "Good. That means I'll get more Exp from killing it," he said, gripping the hilt of his dagger so tightly his knuckles turned white.
[What?! No! You need to get out of here] Miley said with urgency. [You cannot engage this thing in a direct fight. Its too powerful]
Henry stepped forward, his smirk turning into a cold, dark grin. "Watch me."
[You seriously have to reconsider what you're about to do] Miley tried to talk some sense into him. [This beast will kill you]
But Henry had already made up his mind. He let out a sharp exhale. "Possibly," he said. "But I doubt it."
He rolled his shoulders once, feeling the joint settle. His Ep was considerably low… having used it frequently in the previous battles. But his stamina was still substantially high, and his Hp was full.
Having finally lost its patience, the Earth Smasher roared, beating its plated chest, and launched itself forward. It bounded off the ground, clearing thirty feet in a single leap.
Henry raised his pistol and fired three plasma bolts directly at its face. The beast simply raised a massive forearm, the bolts splashing harmlessly against its dense hide. Then it continued its charge rapidly, covering the distance with a speed that surprised even Henry.
Before Henry could adjust his aim or activate accelerated perception, the beast backhanded him.
Whack!
The impact was like being hit by a freight train. Henry was launched through the air, crashing through a thick shrub and slamming into the trunk of a tree… his ribs cracking, before crumbling to the ground.
[-50 Hp]
He coughed blood, his vision swimming.
[Health Regeneration Active]
[-10 Ep]
Henry forced himself to his feet just as the beast charged again. He activated AP, slipping under a devastating overhead smash that cratered the earth. He used that opportunity to slash his dagger across the beast's hamstring, but the blade barely scored the surface.
The Earth Smasher spun, catching Henry with a glancing blow from its knuckles. Henry was sent skipping across the dirt, tumbling violently before skidding to a halt.
[-30 Hp]
Henry groaned. His body screamed in agony. But his body began to heal immediately.
[Health Regeneration Active]
[-6 Ep]
[Ep: 12/60]
Henry quickly deactivated AP. His EP was now dangerously low from the constant healing.
[What are you doing?] Miley's voice rang out in his head. [You can't beat this thing. You have to leave!]
Henry shook his head. "Not yet," he murmured. Then he slowly pushed himself up on one knee. He spat a wad of bloody saliva onto the grass. And even with the wounds and depleting energy, he wasn't panicking. He was calculating.
As the beast reared up for another crushing blow, Henry smiled. "Gotcha."
During the frantic blows earlier, his accelerated perception had caught a minor detail: a small, unarmored patch of leathery skin just behind the beast's right ear, right where the base of its skull connected to its massive spine.
"Let's end this," he whispered.
The beast brought both fists down to crush him.
Whoosh!
Henry exploded upward. He burned nearly the last of his Stamina to achieve maximum velocity, blurring straight toward the descending fists. At the last possible microsecond, he slid between the beast's legs, firing his pistol blindly upward into the creature's groin.
The Earth Smasher roared in pain, its momentum faltering.
Henry stood up quickly and vaulted off the tree trunk behind the beast, launching himself high into the air, directly over the monster's broad back. As he reached the apex of his jump, he reached into his inventory and pulled out the dull-red sphere he had stolen from Felicity's armory. The Boom Ball.
He cracked it slightly and quickly threw it directly at the side of the beast's face.
CRACK-BOOM!
The explosive detonated with a concussive shockwave that shattered the air. The Earth Smasher was thrown violently off balance, its head snapping to the left, completely disoriented, the armored plating on its jaw cracked and smoking.
Henry, still mid-air and descending rapidly, capitalized on the stun. He grabbed the beast's thick fur, swinging himself around its massive shoulders like a gymnast and positioned himself on its shoulder.
Then he locked his legs around its neck, raised the dagger, and drove it with every ounce of his remaining strength into the unarmored soft spot behind the beast right ear.
The blade sank to the hilt, severing the brain stem.
The Earth Smasher froze. Its fiery eyes rolled back into its head. It convulsed once, a massive shudder that shook the ground, and then collapsed entirely, a lifeless mountain of black fur.
Henry rolled off the carcass, falling to the ground. He lay there, his chest heaving, his body completely spent. That strike had been a calculated gamble. If his blade had missed the soft spot and failed to sever the beast's brain stem, he would have probably been dead by now.
The system chimed a second later, notifying him of his victory.
[You have defeated an E-Rank Earth Smasher]
[+100 Exp]
[1x E-Rank Beast Crystal has been added to your inventory]
[Exp: 120/500]