Chapter 63: Serpenthis
Seeing its pack members dead, the Alpha howled in fury, a sound that shook the trees. Then, it charged at Scar with terrifying speed.
Scar sidestepped the initial pounce, letting the beast crash into a boulder, shattering the stone into dust. The beast recovered immediately and charged again.
But Scar simply evaded yet again, dancing around the beast’s frenzied slashes. His accelerated perception—bolstered by the visor’s clarity—easily read the Alpha’s telegraphed muscle twitches. He dodged a sweeping claw, ducked under a snapping bite, and backflipped away to create distance, landing in a low crouch.
Then, he calculated the space between him and the Alpha. It was roughly eighteen meters.
Perfect.
He could try out his new skill.
Scar adjusted his grip on his dagger, holding the blade out to his side. He planted his back foot firmly into the earth, anchoring himself. Then he whispered:
"Activate Dash."
[Skill Activated: Dash]
[-50 Ep]
The system responded instantly, compressing kinetic energy into his legs, and applying an instantaneous 200% multiplier to his maximum velocity. The Talaria X was already pushing his body to 1600 km/hr, so with a 200% boost, he would be practically unstoppable.
Just then, the skill took full effect and he was launched forward in a straight line towards the beast.
For a single, terrifying microsecond, Scar broke the sound barrier, rocketing forward at nearly Mach 4.
The sheer concussive force of his acceleration shattered the ground beneath his feet, kicking up a shockwave of dirt and displaced air. To the Alpha, he simply ceased to exist in one location and appeared directly in front of it.
As Scar reached the Alpha, time seemed to slow down completely. He simply outstretched his arms towards the beast’s neck and executed a single, super speed slash, before continuing forward. He landed a few meters behind the beast and stood frozen in his follow-through stance, his dagger dripping with blood.
A second later, a thick red line appeared across the Alpha’s neck. The beast’s massive head slowly slid off its shoulders, hitting the ground with a wet thud before its body collapsed in a pool of blood.
Scar let out a long breath, flicking the blood from his blade. The system chimed immediately.
[You have defeated a D-Rank beast]
[+70 Exp]
[Exp: 1,050]
[x11 Mana cores have been added to your inventory]
Scar read through the system notifications before dismissing the screen. The two-minute cooldown timer for Dash immediately began ticking in the corner of his vision. He could also feel the brutal toll of the acceleration—a deep, burning ache in his tibia and fibula, his stamina taking a massive hit after his body absorbed the supersonic shock of the attack.
But Scar was far from tired. In fact, he was just getting started.
In a swift movement, he left the area, looking for more beasts to hunt. Scar pushed deeper into the hunting grounds, initiating a super-speed massacre. He became a ghost in the woods. His advanced perception and thermal skill allowed him to navigate the dense, obstacle-ridden terrain without losing a fraction of his speed. He killed lower-ranked beasts without even fully engaging them. A swift slit of the throat on the run, a point-blank pistol shot as he blurred past, a tactical strike in passing. It was a rhythmic, uninterrupted sequence of surprise attacks. He was unstoppable.
Around midnight, he stumbled upon a clearing occupied by a small herd of F-Rank Iron-bristle Boars. Within five seconds, they were all dead, their heavy armor completely useless against his velocity and precision strikes.
[You have gained +160 Exp in total]
[Exp: 1,940/1800]
[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]
[Level 6 >> Level 7]
[+2 points have been added to all physical attributes]
[Hp: 600 >> 700]
[Stamina: 156 >> 166]
[Ep: 120 >> 140]
[You have received +5 Stat Points]
[Exp: 140/2400]
[x8 Mana cores have been added to your inventory]
Scar let out a low chuckle, wiping a stray drop of sweat from his forehead. So far, he’d killed more than forty beasts in total, their mama cores sitting in his inventory. Because of this, he concluded that hunting at night was incredibly fun, and way easier than during the day. It also made him wonder why people always say it was more dangerous.
He dismissed the system screen with a flick of his eyes, letting out a breath as he deactivated the thermal imaging through the system. The world returned to the dark, natural hues of the night. The adrenaline from an endless killing spree was finally beginning to ebb, leaving a dull ache in his legs from the prolonged velocity use. He needed a brief break to let his stamina and EP passively regenerate.
Scar glanced up at the thick canopies of the towering trees. And for the first time, he was skeptical about sleeping on a branch. Who knew what creatures could be lurking in the trees, just waiting patiently for a prey to walk into their domain. However, sleeping on the exposed ground was equally foolish.
"I already got enough sleep anyway," he muttered to himself, finally deciding to cross the idea of napping in the woods off his options.
Instead, he found a massive tree with roots thick enough to form a natural chair, and sat down beneath it, leaning his head back against the rough bark. He looked up through the gaps in the leaves, watching the distant stars twinkle against the dark canvas of the sky.
He exhaled a long, heavy breath. His mind wandered, reflecting on the absolute absurdity of his existence.
How had his life led to this?
Once a pragmatic survivor in the normal world, now reincarnated into a futuristic, magical world, hunting beasts in the middle of the night.
It was ridiculous.
As he stared up into the canopy, thinking about his life—a shadow suddenly shifted against the starlight. Directly above him, suspended in the thick branches, a pair of green, reptilian slit-eyes slowly opened, staring directly at him.
Scar’s eyes widened. His instincts flared instantly. And without thinking, he immediately threw his weight to the side, rolling violently away from the roots.
A split second later, a heavy shower of transparent liquid rained down from the canopy, washing over the exact spot where his head had just rested. The moment the liquid made contact with the earth, the grass instantly sizzled, turning black and rotting away into a smoking, acidic crater.
Scar’s battle instincts seized total control. He sprang to his feet and leapt a few meters back, abandoning his moment of reflection, and instantly drew his weapons.
Just then, from the dense, dark canopy above, a massive serpent slithered down. Its thick body remained tightly coiled around the upper trunk of the tree, but its head descended into the moonlight, revealing a nightmare of biological engineering.
It was a massive snake. Its head was the size of a small car, covered in thick, iridescent emerald scales that seemed to swallow the light. A jagged ridge of bone protruded along its jawline, and its fangs dripped with a translucent, highly corrosive venom that sizzled audibly as it hit the dirt. But it was the eyes that sent a genuine chill down Scar’s spine; two vertical, glowing green slits that burned with a cold, ancient malice.
Upon seeing the beast’s clearly, Scar’s expression immediately turned serious, with a slight edge of hesitation.
This was a Galactic beast.
But that wasn’t even the worse part.
As he checked the beast’s info with Eye of Horus, a chill crept up his spine.
——————
*Name: Serpenthis
*Rank: D-Rank
*Ability: Venom Secretion
*Hp: 4500/4500
——————