Chapter 89: C-Rank
Tyler stood a few meters back from the edge of the Gloomfang's territory, close enough to watch the spear strike home, driving deep into the Alpha's shoulder as a raw, agonized howl tore loose from its throat and rolled out across the clearing. He didn't let himself pause on the sound of it.
The silver bow materialized into his hand in the same breath, the string already drawn taut beneath his fingers before he'd fully registered reaching for it, and he loosed the arrow the instant it was nocked, [Flashing Arrow] flaring to life the moment the shaft left the string.
The arrow detonated in a blinding flash of pure white light, washing out the whole clearing and blinding nearly every creature caught within range of it, the wolves flinching back as one, snapping their heads away from a light too sudden and too total to shield against.
Small system panels hovered above each of them, marking out their levels one by one, but Tyler barely spared them a glance, too locked into the fight already unfolding in front of him to spend even a second reading a single rank.
A second arrow materialized against the string almost before the first had finished its flight, and he loosed it just as fast, the motion barely more than a single extension of his arm before the next arrow was already drawn back and ready again.
A third followed on its heel, then a fourth, each one materializing and firing in the same unbroken rhythm, arrow after arrow leaving the bow within half a second of the last, until the sound of the fight around him had turned into a chorus of pained howls rising up from wolf after wolf.
He reached for another the instant the last one left the string, some deep reflex already curling his fingers around a shaft that wasn't there, and froze at the empty air where an arrow should have materialized. The inventory gave nothing back. He was out.
By the time the blinding light finally faded, the Gloomfang Alpha's vision had cleared enough to take in what was left of its pack. Every muscle along its body drew tight as a low growl built somewhere deep in its chest, though its eyes went wide at the sight spread out around it, and its tail, thick and bushy, curled slightly in against its hind legs. So many of its pack lay dead in front of it. The handful still breathing barely counted as alive, by the look of them.
Arrows stood jutting out of nearly every one of them, driven in almost to the halfway point of each shaft, some catching less vital ground than others, but Tyler had made certain that every single creature out there carried at least one arrow buried somewhere in its body. Only the Alpha's own hide had turned some of them away, the shafts glancing off its thick hide instead of finding purchase, a few of them left scattered in the dirt at its feet.
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
The panels flared into view in front of him, and his skin lit with a faint green glow as the mana he'd spent came rushing back into him all at once. But the glow hadn't even finished settling before the surviving wolves were already closing the distance, the Tearra Dagger materialised back into his grip a heartbeat later, its extra 44 points of agility folding into him instantly.
The energy of it hit him all at once, an overwhelming surge that mixed straight into the new lightness already threading through his limbs, quick and loose in a way that made every motion feel a fraction ahead of where his body had been a second before.
He exploded forward off the mark, each step tearing a fresh patch of soil loose from the ground beneath him and kicking it out behind him in a spray of dark earth. Three wolves stood between him and the rest of the clearing, each one C-rank, arrows still jutting from where they'd landed earlier, a level 52, a level 65, and a level 58, all three of them bearing down on him at once.
He hurled the dagger forward in one sharp motion, and it struck the level 58 wolf clean in the throat, the blade burying deep enough to drag a raw howl of pain out of it the instant it landed.
[GLOOMFANG ACTIVATED SKILL RUSH]
The level 65 wolf lunged at him in the same instant, jaws snapping toward his arm, and Tyler answered with his left fist alone, clenched tight and driven hard into the side of its jaw before its teeth ever reached him.
Bone gave way completely under the strike, the wolf's whole jaw wrenching sideways as the impact lifted it clean off its feet and hurled it backward through the air, until it slammed bodily into the level 55 wolf still closing in behind it.
The Gloomfang Alpha itself was faring little better, its breath ragged and blood still running freely from the wound at its shoulder, soaking dark into the fur beneath it. Then the system panel rose in front of Tyler:
[GLOOMFANG ALPHA ACTIVATED SKILL: BLUE FLASH]
The Alpha surged toward him, jaws stretching wide as its speed climbed to something far beyond what it had shown a moment ago, closing the distance faster than anything its size should have been able to manage.
For a fraction of a second it looked as though its whole body had grown, bulk swelling out in every direction, but it was only the muscle beneath its hide, bunching and swelling thick along its shoulders and haunches, the skill clearly feeding raw strength into it right along with the speed.
Even so, something about the charge read wrong to him: for all that new speed, it still moved slower than the Crimson Alpha had, back when he'd faced it down. A status panel flickered into view above the beast for only a split second as it closed in, just long enough for him to catch it mid-charge:
[Gloomfang Alpha: Level 75]
Tyler threw himself to the side on instinct, the Alpha's jaws snapping shut only inches from his shoulder, close enough that he felt the rush of displaced air against his skin as they closed. The dagger vanished from his right hand and reappeared in his left in the same motion, and he carried the momentum of his own dodge straight into a low skid, dropping into a crouch across his knees as he cut hard around the side of the charging beast.
From that low crouch he twisted hard through his torso, driving the teeth of the Tearra Dagger into the meat of the Alpha's leg and dragging it through nerve and muscle in one tearing motion. A ragged howl broke out of the beast at the bite of it, and Tyler kept moving through the same motion, skidding forward low across the ground to open a second deep gash along its back legs before it could pull away.
The force of the twist spun him all the way around mid-motion, and he caught himself square on his feet just as the Alpha wheeled around to match him, already surging forward again before he'd even finished turning.
*Already?* he thought, brow pulling tight. *Does it not feel any pain?* Blood still poured freely from the gash the spear had torn open earlier, and more of it welled steadily from the fresh wounds along its legs, yet none of it slowed the Alpha down in the slightest, it bore down on him again with the same unbroken, brutal force as before, wound after wound doing nothing to blunt it.
Tyler charged forward to meet it. *Its level is lower than the Crimson Alpha, and its skill isn't as impressive. I can win this,* he thought. The Alpha's jaws stretched wide again, driving down toward him, and once more he cut hard to its side before they could close, the movement carrying him straight into position to bring the blade down against the line of its jaw.
The dagger sank in halfway along its length on contact, and Tyler drove it the rest of the way forward himself, teeth clenched hard as he kept running with everything his legs could give him, forcing the blade deeper with every stride.
He ripped the blade back out in one clean, fluid motion, and the Alpha's howl tore loose the instant the edge cleared its flesh. He skidded to a hard stop and spun back around, then burst forward again immediately, closing the distance in a single committed rush that carried him straight into the next opening, a slash across its knee first, then a full turn that brought the blade around into its side, and from there another turn that launched him straight upward off the ground.
He drove the blade down into the back of its neck on the way up, landing the strike just as gravity pulled him back down onto the Alpha's back, and the beast howled and thrashed hard beneath him, its whole body bucking and twisting in an effort to throw him clear.
Tyler clenched his teeth and held on through it, both hands closing around the hilt as he twisted the blade and forced it in deeper still, driving down through muscle until the edge finally broke into its throat from above. Another howl tore out of it, thinner this time, choked halfway through as blood began welling up from its mouth, gurgling low in its throat before its legs finally buckled and it went down beneath him.
Tyler went down with it, rolling hard off to the side the instant its legs gave out, and he was back on his feet almost before the roll had finished, dropping straight into a fighting stance as the dagger materialized back into his grip.
His breath came ragged as he stared down at the monster stretched out in front of him, its eyes still open, still wide, and utterly still. Dead.
A sound reached him from somewhere close by, and he snapped his attention toward it fast, finding the level 55 Gloomfang standing frozen in place, its whole body trembling as it stared back at him. It backed away from him slowly, tail curling in tight against its hind legs, its whole frame drawn low and small against the ground, before it broke into a string of thin, panicked howls and bolted into the bushes.
Tyler let out a long breath, his shoulders loosening as he turned his attention back to the Alpha on the ground, blood still welling steadily from the gash where the blade had just been.
He looked out across the clearing and took in the scattered bodies of the dead wolves lying still around him. His breath still came hard, though no real exhaustion sat behind it, his heart was still slamming against his ribs, adrenaline and the leftover charge of the still-active skill keeping his whole body running hot and fast beneath the surface. He still couldn't quite believe it. He'd actually won. "I killed it," he breathed out.
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
Before Tyler could react to any of it, an intense green glow washed over his whole body at once. He felt himself grow stronger within it, lighter too, the last of the energy he'd burned through the fight flooding back into him in the very same instant.
Rush deactivated somewhere in the middle of it, but the glow carried him through the drop-off clean, nothing left behind that ached or dragged at him the way it might have otherwise. The light dimmed away from his skin as quickly as it had come, and the system panel rose in front of him:
[CONGRATULATIONS. THE USER HAS REACHED C-RANK. +40 EXTRA STATS]