Chapter 33: Chapter 33 - The Right String
The Squall Class beasts spread instinctively, forming a crescent around me, four in front, the alpha observing from behind.
If you’re going to watch from all the way back there...
I grinned unwittingly, shifting the axe to my right hand and lowering the blade until its weight hung idle at my side.
The message was clear: Come at me.
The one on my left lunged, faster than its awkward gait suggested, jaws snapping close on my forearm.
The crack of bone pierced the silence.
But it wasn’t my bone.
The beast staggered, eyes wide as it fell back, jaw bones and teeth alike all shattered to smithereens. My axe swung down before it could even know confusion.
A clean vertical chop, sharper than anything I’d managed just a day ago. The axe split its skull clean in two, collapsing like a half-sliced loaf of bread at my feet.
[You have killed a Lv.2 Squall-Class Razorfang Hyena.]
My grin widened, and I felt it this time. I reveled in it.
Immunity.
A Squall-Class beast couldn’t harm so much as a hair on my head through any form of physical damage. And these hyena’s were about to learn first hand what it would be like to face off against a Crash Tester that was starting to realize their potential.
The second beast lunged from the right, going straight for my shoulder. My axe pulled free from its brethren’s corpse as I pivoted, hips twisting as the blade swept back to the right in a perfect horizontal arc. The edge cleaved through from jaw to tail, and the halves carried past me, spraying dark blood across the tumbling roots and grey grass.
[You have killed a Lv.7 Squall-Class Razorfang Hyena.]
The third tried something surprisingly cunning, circling wide to slip into my blind spot.
But it was futile. I leaned forward deliberately, exposing my flank, letting it believe I hadn’t noticed. And like clockwork it committed, springing towards me jaws open wide.
Both hands went on the Axe this time, and I spun in place, reversing the axe as I drove the tail end straight back.
Blunt though it may have been, it crushed bone and mushed flesh as brain matter sprayed out of its orifices. The beast’s body fell in a heap, twitching.
[You have killed a Lv.6 Squall-Class Razorfang Hyena.]
The fourth hesitated, and that was the last breath it ever took.
My axe swung diagonal from right shoulder to hip as I burst forth.
The swing carved clean through, and its bisected body folded clean.
[You have killed a Lv.3 Squall-Class Razorfang Hyena]
Silence returned in the space of heartbeats. Four bodies lay sprawled across the slope, dark blood mixing in with the soil and grime.
My breathing was steady.
I wasn’t any stronger. I wasn’t any faster. I was immune to the damage yes, but my movements were...more efficient. Smaller. Cleaner. Nothing wasted.
Every strike landed true, intent carved in stone.
Just one day of training...one day of failed training...and the difference was night and day.
Yesterday’s version of me felt like a brute in comparison, wasting strength in broad arcs and swinging about like...like...
I smiled yet again...Like a drunk at the forge.
But today...each swing had been attempting to trace perfection. I knew they weren’t yet perfect, but they were closer.
I lifted my gaze, standing among the corpses.
The Tremor-Class Beast growled low, eyes fixed on me, wary. The toughness of my body had not gone unnoticed. It began to circle, each step deliberate, claws carving grooves into the earth.
I tightened my grip on the axe, and took up a proper stance this time.
Warm-up was over.
The beast’s tail lashed, muscles rippling beneath its grey fur.
It pounced.
The impact hit like a bus. Its bulk crashed into my chest and the world blurred as I flew back, slamming into a tree trunk. Bark cracked, ribs splintered.
[Five ribs have been broken by a Razor-Boned Hyena]
[Your torso has been impaled by a Razor-Boned Hyena]
I hadn’t realized, but evidently, there was already a hole gaped open through the middle of my chest, likely from one of the spikes on its shoulders.
But the flesh stitched back in in moments, bones snapping back into place as my gift took over.
[Host’s [Impact Resistance] has increased significantly]
[Host’s [Pierce Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Pierce Resistance] has increased greatly.]
Fighting against a pack of Squalls had given me a taste of my end-goal, but this new fight brought me right back to reality.
The illusion of invincibility dissipated right then and there. I believed I had taken the necessary cautions, but I hadn’t.
I had forgotten what the Centipedes had been like. They had been many times larger, yes, and wreathed in elements, but this wary Hyena before me wasn’t any weaker.
On the contrary, it might even be stronger. But what was far more dangerous than any meager increase to its physical attributes...was its intelligence.
The centipedes had charged recklessly, their attacks predictable, their minds easy to fool.
But this fight...wouldn’t be anywhere near easy.
Even now, as I laid there in a pile of splintered wood, it didn’t pursue. It watched. Waiting for the dust to clear. Inching forward, then inching back, testing the waters like a dance.
I stood up slow as the dust cleared, my grip tightening around the axe as I took up my stance again, this time with full concentration.
The beast’s nostrils flared, and huffed, as if noticing I was somehow unharmed.
It circled wider now, cutting across the slight slope bordering the path, and forcing me to back towards the opposite slope lined with trees.
Its smart. Very smart.
I risked a glance back to the corpses of its brethren.
Were they fodder? Sacrifices to judge my strength? Is that why it stood back while they were killed..? It makes more sense than not acting at all...
But that simple glance was all the opportunity the beast needed.
It pounced again, but at an angle, using its weight and momentum to drag its claws across my face.
I flew back yet again, a spinning missile of blood and exposed bone.
But again I stood up, and stared it dead in the eye as hanging flesh of my disfigured face knit itself back together.
[Host’s [Impact Resistance] has increased significantly.]
[Host’s [Slash Resistance] has increased greatly: x2]
Its yellow eyes squinted. It had seen.
Good.
I took a step forward, axe dragging behind.
The beast was hesitating.
Another step.
Still hesitant.
I hefted the dragging axe onto my shoulder, then gripped it with both hands as my feet planted into the ground with a stomp.
Come.
I saw it---the change in its eyes. The moment caution shifted to anger. I knew I’d pulled the right string.