"What?! Kirito, you're saying this is a summoning beast's den?" Tenten cried out in alarm. Her face paled. Though she couldn't see clearly, the skittering sounds echoing from deeper within the tunnel made it clear, something was charging toward them fast.
"Skreeee!"
From the other end of the cavern, the mysterious creature ripped through the tunnel with a shrill screech. Its emerald-glowing eyes pierced the darkness as shards of jagged stone erupted from the ground, fired like bullets directly at Kirito and Tenten.
Kirito remained calm. Twin blades flickered into his hands, small throwing knives summoned in a blur.
Clang! clang! clang! clang!
The barrage of stone spikes clattered to the ground midair, each one parried by Kirito's deft strikes, not a single one getting through.
He stood firmly in front of Tenten. "Stay behind me," he said evenly. "Leave this to me."
"Ah, o-okay…" Tenten wanted to help, but in this darkness, she couldn't even see the enemy, how could she possibly fight? Kirito's composed voice carried a weight that reassured her despite herself.
Seeing its prey easily block the assault, the beast shrieked in rage. Its massive twin tails whipped out in fury, smashing against the tunnel walls, sending shards raining down.
Each chunk of broken rock, upon contact with its tail, was launched like a cannonball toward Kirito with terrifying force.
The sound of air splitting rang out sharp and fast. Kirito instantly tensed. Even with the briefest moment of respite, he snapped back into full combat focus. His [Night Vision] made every trajectory visible. His body began twisting and dodging in uncanny ways.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Shards scraped past his skin, narrowly missing. Thanks to his abnormally high Agility stat, Kirito dodged every lethal shot. Those he couldn't evade, he knocked out of the air with precise throws.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several stones struck the tunnel walls behind him, leaving long, splintered cracks. The sheer impact force alone was enough to tear through solid stone. A single mistake and Kirito would've been badly wounded, or worse.
He narrowed his eyes. If not for his agility, this would've ended very differently.
At last, he got a clear view of the beast.
It resembled a monstrous mole, a massive burrowing summoning beast. Easily over two stories tall. Its entire body glowed like molten jade, coated in crimson-red scales the size of a human palm.
Most bizarre of all, it had two grotesque heads, their necks splitting at the base of a single thick trunk. The beast's eyes gleamed like daggers, filled with bloodlust and madness.
"What a bizarre creature… It's radiating both earth and fire chakra. What kind of summoning beast is this…?" Kirito muttered, brows furrowed. He noticed something else, the creature's necks were swelling, as if preparing to expel something.
A bad feeling crept up his spine.
Without hesitation, Kirito spun around and grabbed Tenten's hand. "Run!"
Just as they turned to flee, both heads reared back and spat, one launched a massive rock, the other a blast of flame. The flames wrapped around the rock, superheating it into molten lava midair.
Like a volcanic eruption, a wave of magma exploded from its mouth, roaring toward them!
"Hold on to me!" Kirito shouted.
With one arm, he scooped Tenten up around the waist. In the other, he hurled his hooked chain toward the ceiling and pulled hard. They shot upward just as the lava surged beneath them.
Fwoosh!
The heat grazed them. A mere two meters below, lava roared past. The hem of Kirito's pants burned to ash, and the scalding heat licked at his skin.
He winced.
The suffocating temperature made his head spin. Still holding Tenten close, Kirito gripped the chain, now anchored to the ceiling. Behind him, the twin-headed mole reared back, preparing another blast.
"Not this time."
He quickly looped the chain around Tenten's arm, securing her in midair, there was no safe place to land now that lava filled the floor.
Then, pressing both feet to the ceiling and using chakra adhesion, he flipped upside down. Hanging from above, his fingers flicked. Dozens of thin blades appeared between his knuckles, glinting with a cold light.
He threw.
Clinkclinkclink!
A flurry of razor-sharp projectiles streaked toward the beast, each carrying a killing intent honed to perfection.
The twin-headed mole reacted swiftly, spitting out a wall of stone that blocked most of the blades.
But Kirito wasn't finished.
Two of the thrown blades, one fast, one slow, collided midair and split off at sharp angles. They curved around the stone wall in a tight arc and struck.
Thud! Thud!
Each blade buried deep into one of the beast's heads.
"Graaaaugh!" it howled. Blood spurted from its wounds. But its shriek was still strong, it wasn't fatally wounded.
"As I thought… the damage just isn't enough," Kirito muttered.
He recalled the blades. In their place, a black weapon appeared in his hands, a meter-long, matte sniper rifle.
His first true modern weapon: the [M700 Light Sniper Rifle].
Kirito held it steady, one hand beneath the barrel, the other resting on the trigger. He raised the scope to eye level.
Precision: less than 0.01mm deviation.
Through the scope, the beast's left head came into focus. The crosshair locked dead center on its forehead.
BOOM!
The crack of the rifle shattered the silence like a thunderclap in the abyss.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapters