"I guess these creatures are one of the reasons no one has made it out of here since eternity." Callista said to Ashton as he stood in a defensive position subtly watching the moves of the creatures as they advanced towards him.
"Do you think I can take them down?" Ashton blurted out warily.
"Did you not say you could take them down in one go and you are not afraid of them?"
"There was only one then and now, there are five of them." Ashton shot back his gaze twisting in puzzlement.
"Whatever."
"Do you think I can enchant them with my fear manipulation skill?" he asked again.
"A trial wouldn't hurt." Callista subtly replied floating away from where Ashton was as she had decided to watch him fight from a distance.
"Activate fear manipulation skill." Ashton said to his system and an interface dampened in crimson red materialized before his face issuing a warning.
[You cannot activate your skill in this area]
"What?" Ashton exclaimed in surprise. "What about my celerity amulet? Can I use that too?"
[2 stat points are needed to activate the celerity amulet]
"Great…activate it for me!" He commanded and with a buzz, he dashed towards the first creature in his path.
He slashed his dagger towards it and he successfully created a deep cut through its skin. The creature screeched in pain and agony and it roared like a gorilla with its hands in the air.
The other creatures seeing their brother had been attacked dashed towards Ashton with their sharp claws growing immensely as they charged towards him on all fours.
The first creature that got to Ashton slashed its claws at him but he was quick to deflect the attack with his dagger. The creature pressed its weight against Ashton and he could only help himself by dragging his feets on the ground creating a straight line as he reeled backwards.
He pushed himself against the creature making it fall out of his path and before the creature could get itself together, Ashton had jumped into the air with his dagger pointed directly at the creature ready to create a deep cut into it.
The creature was slow and couldn't evade Ashton's attack and before it could let its reflex come into action, Ashton's dagger had pierced into its body aiming straight for its heart.
For a moment, nothing moved neither Ashton nor the other four creatures moved as they all watched what was about to happen to their brother who had been stabbed by Ashton's dagger.
And like a log of wood falling off from its initial stand, the creature fell to the ground– dead sending some dust into the air as it had fallen mercilessly into the ground.
A small smirk appeared on Ashton's lips as soon as the dust had settled and he was happy he had managed to take down one of the creatures despite their ferocious looks and body weight.
"It's not that hard taking one down." Ashton said to Callista.
His system interface materialized before him again as he had achieved a quest on his own.
[You have defeated one bestial creature]
[You have been rewarded 70 exp]
"A single creature gives me 70 points?!"
As Ashton was still focused on viewing what his system interface had for him, one creature advanced towards him without notice and with a single swing of its hand, it slammed it against Ashton sending him flying through the air and landing against the bark of a tree.
"Argh!" Ashton groaned at the impact of the sudden attack. He tried to get up to his feet but the moment he tried, he felt another pain in his body which was different from the reeling fall against the bark of the tree. He looked down at his chest and to cut his suspicion true, there was a deep slash mark that razed across his chest.
[You have been suffered an enormous cut from a bestial creature]
[You are growing weaker]
[All stats will be halved if you do not recover from this loss]
[Health point: 5/10]
His system notified him.
"Fuck!" Ashton cursed as he saw the lines the creature's claws had created thicken and his blood began to swell up fast on the lines.
"Ashton!" Callista called with worry etched in her voice as she floated to where he had landed horrendously. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay to you?" Ashton gasped trying to sit up properly. "You warned me about this already but I was ignorant."
"It's too late to regret your decision now."
"Look," Ashton pointed and Callista swerved in the direction he had pointed to. The creatures were dashing towards them with rage written and all over them. "They are coming again. I can barely stand up to my feet now."
"Don't tell me you're giving up already? You took only one of them down and you are giving up now?"
"This shit hurts. How can I heal myself without Alden here?" Ashton groaned.
[You look a little weak, do you need help?]
The system asked and Ashton felt that was the most stupid question that had ever come into existence. His system had clearly notified him of being weak and now it was asking him a question it knew what the obvious answer was.
At the same time, two different status materialized before him before he could give a candid reply to the damn question the system had notified him of.
[Do you want to get stronger and bring down the bestial creatures?]
[Yes] [No]
[Do you need healing?]
[Yes] [No]
A slight smirk ensued on his lips and he turned at Callista.
"Tell me," he began to say to her. "What would you choose between instant healing and getting stronger right now?"
"Instant healing is undebatable."
Ashton swiftly clicked on the [Yes] option for healing and at that moment Callista swerved farther away from him before she began to swirl in a pink pixie ball and with a wild gush, she filled her spirit into Ashton without prompt notice.
The minute she had filled Ashton through and disappeared from that scene, the ugly claw cuts on Ashton began to stitch themselves up and within a minute, the cuts were gone as if they had never been there in the first place.
"Activate celerity amulet!" Ashton commanded his system and with a blur flash, he dashed towards the bestial creatures that were still advancing towards him.
As he got closer to the first creature on the run, he tilted his dagger to the side as if he wanted to send a sickening pressure crunching punch into its face but his plan was different and with one blue dash, the blade of his dagger cut through the creature like a lightning bolt.
Ashton stopped abruptly in his tracks making the dust ripple in the air and the next thing that rolled by his feet was the head of the first bestial creature.
His system interface materialized before him again but he didn't bother to check the message it had for him as he wanted to finish up the bestial creatures first.
With a slight grin on his lips, he muttered, "This world is just an easy peasy place for me to level up. Come on goonies I will finish you all with one strike of my dagger."
He turned around and dashed towards the third creature and he swung his dagger at it and the creature tried to deflect Ashton attack with its sharp claws but that only ended up as a bad counter attack for it as Ashton slashed through its long claws slicing them into tiny pieces with one strike.
"Is that all you've got?" Ashton sneered at it before delving the dagger into its heart core like he had done to the first creature he had killed.
He rushed at the other two who were now advancing together as they had seen attacking Ashton one on one was probably not going to work on him. Attacking him at once would definitely level up their chances of taking him down.
Ashton, not bothered by their advances stood in the middle the dead bestial creatures he had taken down as he awaited the charging ones who were coming at him from different directions ferociously.
"Come on." Ashton sneered at them as he listened to their advances with his instincts calculating the proximity of their closeness to him.
"Almost there!"
The ferocious paw pounding on the earth was just a few meters away and as if planned together, both creatures leapt into the air ready to sink their claws into Ashton as they fell back to the earth but they had both failed to calculate Ashton's move.
The last thing both creatures saw before they landed to the ground mercilessly was Ashton spinning in a wild circle like he was preparing a sand hurricane. Small sparks were flying around him as he spun making the dust swerve round him as if they were readily waiting to devour both creatures.
As the creatures fall leveled against Ashton, with his blurry spin move, he cut through their skin, sending their body parts splashing around in different directions. Their bloods bathed Ashton in its damp hue and he finally stopped spinning.
He raised his bangs off his face as he lifted his face towards the sky to celebrate his victory over the creatures.
*DING!*