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"Roaarr!"
"Shaaah!"
"Gruooh!"
The roars of a pack of over thirty Velociraptors echoed behind a group of Hunters running for their lives. After having been hunting low-rank monsters, they were suddenly attacked by these strange, gigantic versions of Velociraptors, each one being as tall as six meters. A lethal combination of a Velociraptor's cunning intelligence, pack-hunting abilities, and the size and strength of a Tyrannosaurus.
After having already killed two of the Hunters running away, the last four kept running; however, the dinosaurs were cunning, quickly beginning to circle the hunters. Before they could get any closer to the city, six more of these giant dinosaurs, whose dark green scaled bodies were decorated with colorful yet intimidating feathers, appeared before the hunters.
"SHAAH!"
With a furious hissing, the creatures stepped forward. The Hunters had already depleted their Mana, and they couldn't use most of their Skills as well. The Hunters began to realize that it wasn't just their own weakness.
The System felt flawed!
It asked for Mana for literally everything; without Mana, aside from their stats, they were as good as dead. Mana was everything; there was barely any Skill that required no Mana!
Passive Skills were extremely rare among hunters; usually, they would get mostly active skills related to weapons and magic, and if they're lucky, one or two very lame passive skills.
It was as if the System was intentionally only giving Mana-intensive skills to Players, while limiting passive effects so they wouldn't have to rely too much on their bodies, despite the stats enhancing their physical abilities.
And the problem of "always not having enough Mana" was common amongst all Hunters!
The only one they had seen that was not affected by such a flaw was Bing Xue, the savior of Earth and the strongest World-Class Hunter.
Even other World-Class Hunters have complained that they never have enough Mana…
Yet Bing Xue could do literally anything, and she seemed to have an endless and boundless source of energy.
They realized that she wasn't bound by any System.
Bing Xue had cultivated her own inner strength, a power that came from the very depths of her own being and of her own existence.
And this, from the strongest to the weakest of Hunters, made them all feel incredibly frustrated with themselves.
"If only we could have more damn Mana…"
"If only... we could be like her!"
"This fucking system, it's a damn scam!"
"Graaah!"
The hunters screamed, full of frustration, as they tried to fight until the very last moment. The Velociraptors seemed to enjoy their struggle, bringing out younger and smaller ones and teaching them how to hunt.
They let the smaller ones slowly bite, chase, and eat the hunters alive; their screams of horror only lasted briefly; however, a giant man whose skin was pitch black and with a metallic glow suddenly descended from the skies like a cannonball.
BAAAM!
His gigantic body crushed the Velociraptor pups and shredded them into pieces, leaving piles of flesh and bones where they were. He quickly brought with him two more hunters, the strongest members of his party: a blonde girl wearing white armor and a young man with red hair and a blue wizard cap.
"I-Is that…? Chairman Nicholas?!"
The Hunters couldn't believe their eyes as help finally arrived as healing waves of light healed their mauled bodies. The two Hunters Nicholas brought were for both the healing and transportation of victims.
"They're too wounded; it'll take a while to heal them!" The blonde girl cried.
"I'm already conjuring the bubble!" The magician said.
"Okay, I'll buy you enough time!" Nicholas roared, his eyes glaring with golden light. His Level had increased a lot since the last Raid. Although he wasn't as confident as before after his humiliation, he still wanted to save as many people as possible, even other fellow hunters.
As he said those words, the Velociraptors broke out into a berserk attack, over ten of them rushing towards Nicholas at once as he smashed the ground, his Mana spreading everywhere.
BAAAM!
Dozens of black steel pillars surged from the ground, impaling the Velociraptor's much frailer bodies despite being gigantic; several of them were hit in their legs or thighs, immobilizing them temporarily, although none died.
"These things are not only gigantic, but they're also tougher than I imagined!"
Nicholas manipulated the pillars of black steel and created a dome, protecting the wounded and his party members, before leaping into the skies, covering his body with more layers of metal.
The only thing he had on his mind as he was about to fight these monstrous S-Rank creatures were his daughters; he was simply praying for their safety. Anything else, even his own safety, didn't matter!
"RAAAH!"
"SHAAH!"
The scream of a modern man against a monstrous primal and a prehistoric fiend echoed, both clashing against one another. The sharp fangs of the velociraptors attempted to bite through his body, only for the fangs to break before his incredibly tough metallic body.
"I did well on investing in my passive enhancement skills!" Nicholas thought.
Unlike the younger hunters, Nicholas had already learned how biased and unfair the System was and had purposely invested all his time in passive skills above all else.
Yeah, it made him lack a lot of abilities and usable powers, but it also secured his life the most. Something that he had realized the System somehow didn't want to do.
It was a strange thing; he knew the System wanted to "help" and granted amazing abilities, but most of them were all mana-intensive, and more often than not, physical enhancement powers that needed no mana were incredibly rare.
The system was purposely limiting what it gave to humanity—to keep them all weak and squishy so other monsters could kill them easily.
It was all rigged, and Nicholas knew it.
"Hmph!"
With a furious uppercut, he dislocated the jaw of one of the dinosaurs, then grabbed it and tore it apart from the neck. Before lifting the entire gigantic being up into the air and using it as a weapon, he spun into the ground, hitting every dinosaur that got closer with the dead body of their pack member.
"RAAAH!"
Then, while still carrying the corpse, he jumped up high and descended rapidly, smashing the corpse into pieces alongside the three other velociraptors below, who died immediately.
CRASH!
As he did so, five more velociraptors opened their maws, biting his arms, head, and legs, and pulled as hard as they could. Nicholas gritted his teeth as his reinforced, metallic skin layers began breaking one after another.
"BASTARDS!"
With a mighty howl, the metallic composition of his body changed. As growths of black steel ore surged from his hands, head, and legs, like sharp black spears, they pierced the throats of the dinosaurs, making them reflectively pull out their jaws, vomiting blood and then falling into the ground, slowly dying.
"Hahhh… Fuck! I used most of my Mana already?" Nicholas groaned.
To conjure his main element, metal, he had to use Mana, naturally. After all, there was no passive skill that provided him with the ability to endlessly produce metal out of his body.
The rest of the velociraptors had grown wary of the metallic man; his body seemed invincible. Yet... these dinosaurs were only the weakest of the bunch, as something else began to approach—something bigger and deadlier, with larger claws.
"GRRHHH…"
Nicholas immediately noticed who this dinosaur was, which came accompanied by four more of its kind. He also noticed cavemen riding them.
"Therizinosaurus?!"
One of the deadliest dinosaurs ever discovered, with incredibly long, sharp claws and large bodies. The tallest of them are capable of even going toe to toe with Tyrannosaurus rexes. After having been mutated with Primal Power, their body sizes were now over thirty meters, hovering above all like mighty wingless dragons.
"Unga! BUNGA!"
The cavemen ordered the dinosaurs, something Nicholas also noticed. He quickly realized that the way all these dinosaurs behaved was strange! Despite being of different species, they all cooperated, helped one another, and didn't attack each other either.
It was rather obvious what was happening here. The cavemen, which he assumed would be either Neanderthal or Australopithecus or a strange, chimeric breed of both, had somehow tamed dinosaurs and were commanding them as if they were their loyal dogs.
"How is it possible for those prehistoric humans to command these gigantic dinosaurs?!" Nicholas thought. "And didn't humans appear millions of years after the dinosaurs went extinct?!"
Many things made no sense the more he thought about them, but Nicholas didn't really have any time to think either, as a barrage of claw attacks coming from the Therizinosaurus began rushing down.
CLASH!
He didn't evade the attacks, relying on his amazing defenses to take on the hits head-on. A terrible strategy, the claws of these dinosaurs couldn't compare to anything he had battled against before, sharper than even the swords the four horsemen wielded.
The result was obvious: his skin was torn apart, leaving terrible wounds on his own body. Nicholas vomited blood as he felt his stomach being pierced. Relying on his defenses against monsters he had not battled before was a terrible decision!
"Ugh..! AGH…!"
He quickly ran away from the claws, drinking a healing elixir and a mana elixir from his storage ring to quickly recover while conjuring spears of black teel to stop the dinosaurs.
However, as he attempted to aim at their legs, the dinosaurs sharply responded with their claws again. Using them, they slashed apart the pillars of steel Nicholas conjured, completely negating his offensive magic from even touching them.
"You have to be fucking kidding me…!"
Nicholas gritted his teeth. He had no time to fight these ridiculous beings. He had already been humiliated and ridiculed after he tried fighting the four horsemen. He had come to rescue people, not to sacrifice his life trying to fight monstrous beings.
He jumped towards the dome, hearing that his party members were done. The metallic dome changed shape as he repurposed the metal, composing it and creating a dozen giant spears of black steel, firing them at the nearby Velociraptors that were still trying to kill them.
"Nicholas, the bubble is done!" The wizard said, conjuring a barrier sphere that floated in midair.
Nicholas jumped over the barrier and kept conjuring magic as he pushed the dinosaur away from the bubble, which carried the barely alive hunters they rescued and also included the corpses of those that couldn't be healed in time. Bing Xue existed, and as long as the corpses were brought with them, Nicholas knew she could revive them later.
"Hurry! I'll distract them; go back to the city!" Nicholas said.
"O-On it!" The wizard nodded, as he was drinking a mana potion constantly while wielding the bubble of magic carrying everyone.
"UNGA!"
The caveman gave a command as the Therizinosaurus roared back, jumping towards the sphere and pointing their giant, sharp claws towards the sphere. Nicholas quickly reacted in time, conjuring a huge metallic shield from the ground.
CLANK!
The giant claws ended up hitting the shield, which resisted only three hits from those sharp and indestructible claws before it was torn apart.
"HURRY!"
Nicholas screamed as the sphere reached the skies above, managing to evade the incoming attacks from the Therizinosaurus in time! Their bodies and claws were big, but they were so heavy that they were unable to jump high enough to reach them.
Nicholas had also realized these dinosaurs and cavemen had no magic whatsoever, working completely using their strange energies to reinforce their bodies' strength, stamina, and resilience.
It could be said they were the complete opposite of the hunters, who relied on a system and mana to use spells and skills.
These beings only relied on their immense physical capabilities and nothing else!
"For now, we should be fine. Quickly, back to the city, and- AH!"
"CRAAAH!"
However, that's where he was wrong.
Although these dinosaurs and cavemen could not fly, that didn't mean there couldn't be those that could.
BAAAM!
Giant beaks started biting and tearing through the barrier, and within seconds of them setting into the skies, a huge flock of enormous flying dinosaurs appeared, attacking them.
"What?! Quetzalcoatlus?!" Nicholas gasped as he saw the enormous group of flying dinosaurs.
Most of them also had cavemen riding their backs.
And this time, they carried weapons.
A rain of bone-made arrows descended from the skies, hitting the barrier and rapidly piercing through it.
Cracks started to spread.
"You have to be fucking kidding me…!"
Nicholas roared as he kept trying to fight the flying monstrosities. Already as big as giraffes originally, they were now ten times as large, easily surpassing thirty meters in height.
It was as if he were fighting a flock of S-Rank Wyverns all on his own—no, even deadlier than that!
Crack…!
Crack, crack!
"FUCK!"
As Nicholas screamed in fury and frustration over his own weakness and his faulty overreliance on a rigged system, a flash of bright light emerged from above.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Quetzalcoatlus were all pierced by giant swords made of blue and gold metal, exploding with cosmic black flames. Their burning bodies fell from the sky like flies after being sprayed with insecticide.
"Oh, thank god…"
Nicholas sighed in relief.
It was alright now.
She was here.
The guardian of Earth.
"Bing Xue…"
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