CH 8 CURSED FOREST
Jason felt his whole body shivered when his eyes met with glowing eyes of hound. outside may be dark but Jason has developed his eyesight somewhat to see in dark better than others, but he assumed his opponent's number by the glow that every hound's ribs and eyes are radiating. slowly these hounds are surrounding the rock below which Jason is hiding. Jason knew their strategy but still, he didn't respond.
From the past few days, Jason had learned that all creatures and races present here have hierarchy and now Jason is waiting for their Lord, but when the lord didn't appear he decided to act. As he stood up he punched the rock above his head and the rock burst into tiny pieces thanks to his stats which has improved a lot fighting hundreds of creatures.
[QUEST ISSUED: KILL LAVA HOUNDS
B RANKED L.HOUND KILLED- 00/25
C RANKED L.HOUND KILLED- 00/36]
'F***, so many, Ku..ah!.'
Before the dust can settle down hounds started attacking him. when was is busy with the hound in front of him, A hound stabbed his claws in his back.
'ahhh' Jason yelped in pain.
Jason launched several ASTRA BREATH in all directions to push these hounds back and looked around to find himself surrounded by numerous glowing eyes staring at their prey. but this only crazed Jason. not with fear but excitement. A malicious smile appeared on his face.
'Not today' saying this he jumped and stood on the branch of one tree.
''LANTERN, LANTE...LANTE..., LANTERN'
[HP- 386/400]
four football-size glowing balls shot in a different direction to lighten up the dark battlefield. Looking down on blinded Hounds Jason smirked.
"I knew, they must be weak to the light they have spent their whole life in darkness which makes their eyes weaker to the brightness.
all hounds are trying to cover their eyes, Now Jason can see Hounds they have red glowing eyes, razor-sharp teeth, and claws, B ranked are bigger than Cranked, nearly all have scars. Blood dripping from their mouths. few are bleeding from injuries Jason caused with the spear.
some hounds open their mouth, a glow started forming in their neck and then.
shoo,shooo...
they spitted lava ball towards Jason which he countered with Astral breath and jumping away but some passed and hit Jason burning his clothes and then his skin.
[HP- 350/400]
[ENERGY- 80/100]
{In the past Jason have combined modified and simple ASTRAL BREATH so that he doesn't have to rely on external exchange. if he didn't have mana or any other thing to convert the energy stored will be used}.
Jason threw his spear which penetrated the skull killing the B rank hound who was preparing a lava attack. Jumping down on the battlefield Jason activated ASTRAL canon killing all the Hounds in front and suddenly grabbed the neck of one hound that leaped on him from behind next second hound turned into dust.
[ENERGY- 70]
A notification popped up which he ignored.
seeing their comrades turning into dust all hounds stopped for a sec and then attacked him like hungry dogs, few fired lava balls. Jason kicked the hounds approaching him breaking their necks and other bones while stabbing his spear in hounds. the howls of Hounds are irritating him a lot. letting go of his spear he started fighting with his bare hand and legs. Now, this battle is of strength and agility. he kicked, punched, dug his bare hand in the eyes, chest, or in any part that comes in contact with hounds, He even ripped them apart like a beast with his teeth. this fighting style may look crude but he developed this by fighting numerous life and death battles.
he used the hound's body as a shield for their lava attacks. once he grabbed the hound by his neck that has his teeth stabbed in Jason's leg and pulled him breaking his all teeth then used Astral Breath seeing the result he used his all skill like this whenever possible causing his skill level up many times. this gruesome battle destroyed the surrounding forest.
Looking at his stats
[HP- 147/400
mana- 250/400
ENERGY - 20/100]
he used 'RECOVERY' to recover some HP [HP- 247]
Seeing how Jason killed their comrades leftover hounds stopped fighting head-on which angered Jason but it allowed him to test his new weapon.
he grabbed his spear and the Goblin king's core embedded as a tip starting glowing. he pointed it towards the Hounds feeling the deadly aura around them hounds started running in the forest
'if you will not come, still you death will approach you' he murmured.
A bright beam left the spear seeing this Jason smiled and rotated the spear this beam destroyed all things that came in its way, cutting everything cleanly in its range. trees, hounds everything but his spear turned into ash. a one-time skill [HELL'S SWORD].
[QUEST CLEARED]
[REWARD: COMPLETE RECOVERY
COST: 0
COOLDOWN: 2HOURS ]
and hundreds of more notifications
Although Jason may have felt joy seeing this, he didn't move from it. he is waiting for someone and his wait finally ended when a figure appeared from the branches. A pitch-black figure resembling a dog but 7feet tall walking on its 2 limbs, like hounds his eyes are also glowing but the blue giving the feeling of death.
seeing this Jason felt a chill running down his spine, his senses screaming at him to run, hide, do anything to avoid this guy.
[EMERGENCY QUEST: Anis 'king of cursed forest'
RANK A
REMAIN ALIVE FOR 5 MIN]
'what?' this is Jason's first time the system issued this type of quest.
'so system wants me to do anything but remain alive for 5 min' Jason said while spitting blood and removing the teeth of hounds.
'This guy didn't saw his friends die and never entered in battle' but the next thing shocked him, ANIS lifted his hand and the next second a dark smoke engulfed Jason's lantern one by one. looking at his system screen he sighed.
'COMPLETE RECOVERY'
"use all stored energy in ASTRAL CANON"
'gro....rrrr'Anis roared.
Jason started running towards Anis but when he is going to touch him, Anis disappeared from the front and slapped him from knocking Jason's several teeth, spitting mouthful blood,he jumped back to maintain a distance, his speed was so much it felt like he teleported, however, Anis followed him and sent him flying hitting a rock with a punch. he felt sharp pain spreading in his shoulder.
'arghh...' Jason cried in pain.
he looked at the timer ticking in front of him.
[4:26}
'f***, only half a minute passed' grunted Jason.
His HP has dropped a lot only in 2 hits of Anis. Jason stood with the help of rock while looking at Anis who is preparing a spell but before Jason could do anything Anis formed a lava ball bigger than even himself and fired him towards Jason.
In hurry, Jason used the rock to form a shield in front of him, but Anis's attack not only shattered the shield in an instant but also burned the trees around it. Anis walked towards the affected area but Jason was not there, He tried to smell Jason but the fire hindered his senses.
'Sh**, I thought I am going to die' Jason murmured while hiding in a hole he created. His shoulder is healing on its own. He is thinking to spend the remaining 4 minutes here.
[HP- 300/400]
[Mana- 250/400]
he only took 2 hits.
'I must endure it for 4min..' but before Jason can finish his sentence sharp claws appeared from above but Jason avoided it by an inch. Anis starts moving his claw around ready to rip anything that will come in contact. Anis overwhelmed by the anger stabbed another claw in the ground.
ASTRAL CANON..
Jason fired the biggest attack at the instant he saw another set of claws on Anis from underground.
Astral canon sends that Anis flying more than a hundred meters away, Jason used all his stored energy and cores for that attack but
'aahhh.. arghh' Attack was too much for Jason to handle, So it injured him.
Jason came out of his hole slowly and looked around. Anis can't be seen anywhere but his surrounding is a complete mess, Timer is still running it means Anis is alive.
Jason started extracting core from hounds in hurry before Anis again show up. but before Jason can extract cores from all hounds an aura starts engulfing his surrounding, Jason quickly ties the bag of cores while looking in the direction of the aura source soon trees started breaking like a wave approaching towards Jason. Anis is ripping every hurdle that is between him and Jason with his sharp claw.
'Killing intent is so dense it's suffocating me' said Jason punching his chest.
'He is alive but my attack must have injured him.
Along with killing Aura, Darkness starts forming a dome over Jason but before darkness could cover him he used a lantern countering the darkness in the dome. looking here and there he shouted while the system healed his Injuries.
'come mf, I am still here' Jason can sense the aura and eerie energy Anis is radiating so he knows he is coming but he is injured. Trees were falling like a wave approaching Jason and then Anis appeared covered in his blood and burns,, but Jason's last attack exploded his one arm decreasing his attack power.
[2:50}
'gro...rrrrrrrrrrr..., ro.rrrrrr' A loud battle cry echoed.
[ANIS HAS USED "AGRO]
[NEUTRALISING...DONE]
smoke around Anis formed hundreds of blades aiming towards Jason. this is similar to ASTRAL BREATH but instead of energy, Anis used to smoke that appeared out of nowhere.
[King of hounds used SOUL needles]
[ANIS used the souls of his fallen comrades to form needles]
's***, think Jason think' murmured Jason looking at the Blades hanging over his life.
shooooshhh... shooooshhh... shooooshhh...
*********
AUTHOR NOTE:
I took inspiration of "ANIS" from "ANUBIS" an Egyptian god who guides the souls in the afterworld usually kings.