Chapter 123: Nearly dead
Finding the hyena through normal methods would have taken too long, and Luke didn’t have that kind of time.
So, placing his fingers against the ground, he closed his eyes and activated his enhanced hearing.
In an instant, everything around him sharpened. It felt as though the world had leaned in to whisper directly into his ears. The rustle of leaves, the faint crawl of ants, every subtle movement became vividly clear.
He frowned and narrowed his focus, filtering through the noise until something stood out. Heavy footsteps, rapid and uneven. To the northeast.
His eyes snapped open. It took only three seconds, far less than before. Good.
He moved immediately, charging in that direction.
Scruff
Bursting past a bush, his gaze caught a trail of blood leading forward. He had a lead now.
Without hesitation, he shifted his attributes, channeling more points into speed.
His stride lengthened, pace increasing rapidly. He was moving at nearly twenty kilometers per hour, and in a forest this dense, weaving through obstacles at that speed was no small feat.
He kept his movements quiet, careful not to draw the attention of something far worse. He had a quest to complete first.
The blood trail was growing faint, but he no longer needed it.
"There it is..." He slowed to a stop as he watched the hyena slip into a cave. Fuck.
Things had just gotten complicated. If it had retreated into a den, there was no way it was alone. And worse, what if they were gathered around something bigger, something far more dangerous?
He needed to be careful. Chasing a few extra points wasn’t worth risking everything.
Taking a steady breath, he pulled out his cloak from the inventory.
In an instant, his figure blended into the surroundings. Unless someone looked directly at him with focus, he would remain nothing more than a distortion slipping into the dark.
Luke wouldn’t deny it, he was nervous. He had never taken a risk like this before.
Yet here he was. Perhaps it was the assurance that even if he died, it wouldn’t truly be the end. That thought alone had pushed him this far.
As he stepped inside, a sound reached him. Laughter.
Not one, but many.
Hyenas.
He couldn’t make out the exact number, but there were at least ten of them.
Should he take the risk? There was no harm in observing a little.
He moved deeper into the cave. Faint strands of sunlight slipped through gaps in the ceiling, giving him just enough visibility to navigate, though everything remained dim and uncertain.
Unarmed, he stayed alert, making sure nothing got close enough to catch him off guard.
Using boulders as cover, he advanced toward the source of the sound... and when he finally saw it, he froze.
The hyena he had stabbed earlier lay in the center, already dead, as a pack of hyenas tore into its corpse.
’Savage...’ Even Luke felt a flicker of sympathy. It had come back to its den seeking safety, only to be devoured by its own kind.
That was the rule of the jungle. If you couldn’t protect yourself, no one would.
He didn’t linger. His goal was the knife, and it lay on the ground, just a few feet from the feeding pack.
This was bad. The quest demanded he retrieve it, but getting any closer would be suicide. Even with the cloak, he wouldn’t go unnoticed at that range.
’Haah... I need to think this carefully—’
"FUCK!"
He yelped as something brushed against his leg, slipping inside his pants. Instinctively, he smacked it.
A rodent darted away.
But the damage was done.
Every predator in the cave turned. Dozens of grey eyes locked onto him at once.
The camouflage was useless now. They knew.
Fuck.
He immediately stowed the cloak and bolted for the exit.
"Keh-keh-keh-keh!"
"Gu-gu-gu-gu!"
"Kihihihi!"
Their laughter echoed behind him, twisted and sharp, mixed with the thunder of paws closing in. To them, he was nothing more than prey.
Luke glanced back. One had gotten too close.
He pivoted sharply. A glowing dagger formed in his hand, and he slashed without hesitation.
SHLINK
The leading hyena twisted aside, barely evading the strike, but the one behind it wasn’t as lucky.
"Khuungh!" it howled as the blade tore through its nose and upper jaw, a burning trail ripping across its face as it stumbled back.
Not dead.
And neither were the rest.
More poured in, circling him, cutting off every path of escape.
No way out.
He had no other choice.
The first hyena launched itself at his throat.
Luke dropped into a crouch, letting it sail over him, and drove the dagger upward as it passed. The blade caught its belly and tore a line of fire across its gut. It crashed into the cave wall and didn’t get up.
No time to watch it fall.
Two came from the left. One from the right.
He sidestepped the pair, let their momentum carry them forward, then spun and buried the dagger into the neck of the third.
It died mid-lunge, weight crashing into him and knocking him sideways. He hit the ground hard, shoulder scraping against stone.
Fuck, get up!
He scrambled to his feet as jaws snapped shut inches from his calf.
That was close.
He stomped down on the snout and felt it crunch beneath his boot. The hyena reeled back, shrieking.
"Keh-keh-keh-keh!"
They were laughing. Even now. Even as their packmates bled out around them.
Luke’s jaw tightened.
He shifted his stance, weight low, dagger held close to his body. He had stopped running. There was no point. They were faster in open ground and he was burning energy he couldn’t afford to waste.
He needed to be smart about this.
One broke from the circle. He let it come, sidestepped at the last second, caught it by the scruff with his free hand, and plunged the dagger into its side. Once. Twice.
The burning blade left glowing wounds that hissed in the dark. It collapsed, twitching.
Another lunged before he could pull free.
It caught him.
Teeth sank into his left forearm, not deep enough to hit bone but deep enough to hurt like a bitch. Pain blazed up to his shoulder like something hot had been poured through his veins. He grunted, refusing to give it the sound it wanted.
He didn’t pull away. Pulling would only make it tear.
Instead he drove forward, slamming the hyena into the cave wall with his full body weight. Its grip loosened on impact. He used that half second to wrench his arm free and dragged the dagger across its throat in one clean motion.
Warm blood spattered across his cheek.
He took one breath. Fuck, this was hard.
Three down. One crippled. At least six still circling.
His arm was bleeding badly, soaking into his sleeve, dripping off his knuckles. He tightened his grip on the dagger.
They could smell it now. That was the problem with bleeding in front of things that hunted by scent.
Their laughter grew louder.
He moved first this time, refusing to let them set the pace. He charged straight at the nearest one, feinted right, went left, and opened its cheek to the bone.
As it spun away he caught the one behind it with a backhand slash across the muzzle.
They yelped. Stumbled. The circle shifted.
He kept moving, never stopping in one place long enough for them to coordinate.
That was the key. Hyenas were patient hunters. Let them settle and they would overwhelm him through pure numbers. So he gave them no patience to work with.
Slash. Step. Pivot. Drive.
Each strike left a glowing line of burning flesh in its wake, the dagger doing more damage than its size had any right to.
He could see the fear beginning to creep into them now, the way certain ones at the back started edging away rather than pressing in.
Smart animals.
But still dumb fucks.
The last three broke at almost the same moment, scattering into the deeper dark of the cave.
Luke stood there breathing hard, good arm hanging at his side, wounded arm tucked close to his chest.
The cave floor around him was a mess of bodies and blood. The smell of burnt fur and flesh hung thick in the air.
Slowly, the laughter faded.
He exhaled.
Then he looked down at his arm and winced. That was going to need attention. He pressed his sleeve against the wound, applying pressure, and turned toward the center of the cave.
The pack that had been feeding was gone, fled with the others.
And there, lying undisturbed on the cave floor exactly where it had been before, was the knife.
He walked over and picked it up.
Quest complete.
And not only that,
[Ding! Congratulations, host. You have successfully achieved the first goal of the floor.]
[Rewards would be calculated once—host, watch out!]
The sudden shift in notification was caught by his eyes just a blink before something rammed into him from the side.
*DHAK*
His body hit the wall, air knocked out and eyes turning blurry.
He slid to plop on the ground and saw something approaching through his blurry gaze.
The first thing his eyes caught was the orange tag hanging over its head.
<Lvl 2>
For fuck sake.
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A/N:- I hope you liked the Chapter.