...
[Ding! You have slain a Level 13 Beast, Dire Fanged Wolf! You have grown stronger!]
[Ding! You have leveled up!]
Meta's synthetic voice whispered into my ears as a couple of notification screens appeared before my eyes. I felt my body surge with inexplicable energy and euphoria—the sensation of leveling up. Compared to the first time, the feeling was more prominent. My body grew lighter, my muscles compressed, and my senses improved slightly as newfound power settled in my limbs.
Holy shit, Meta! Beasts are walking experience points! I leveled up in one kill!
I hadn't expected the wolf to die that easily. I had leveled up as easily as swinging a fist. It was completely different from leveling up through exercise—this was broken!
If it's this easy, why haven't I been leveling up this way? Oi, Meta, I'll blame this on you!
[...Why?]
I don't care! I'm just excited and frustrated at the same time.
[They're coming.]
Meta's alert brought me back to the present. The other wolves, incensed by the death of one of their own, all came at me at once.
A smile spread across my lips as I clenched my fists and sidestepped out of the way. A wolf's jaws clamped down where my head had been a few seconds ago with a disturbing crunch. Ducking under another one, I rolled out of the encirclement and quickly regained my balance.
I almost had my head bitten off twice, but I was this excited. Am I really a masochist? I didn't dwell on that thought and placed my catch and bow down before rushing at the pack of wolves!
My breathing was uneven, my heart raced with dark excitement, and my smile widened. The Dire Fanged Wolves were opponents beyond my current level, ones I normally wouldn't hope to defeat without injury. Much less, an entire pack of them! But they were also perfect opponents to test my current strength.
I channeled my Aura, feeling my body explode with frightening energy.
Let's find out how effective my Art is in a fight... I thought as a string of my Aura coiled around my right leg, tensing like a spring.
I kicked off the snowy ground, my figure blurring with motion and speed. I appeared before the nearest wolf, my right arm tensed for a punch at point-blank range.
'Aura... ' My Aura flowed and channeled through my right arm. The greyish, colorless hue converged down my arm, knitting tightly like muscle fibers and encasing my arm and fist like an ethereal gauntlet.
My arm exploded with a burst of strength I normally couldn't muster, smashing into the wolf's face.
' ...Armament!'
The impact felt strange. I heard bones shatter as the wolf's face caved in from my fist. Its neck cracked and sunk into its shoulders as its body was lifted off the ground and blown away.
The familiar system voice whispered in my ears again.
[Ding! You have slain a Level 13 Beast, Dire Fanged Wolf! You have grown stronger!]
"Eh? No level-up notification?" I looked down at my hands, muttering with disappointment. I felt a trickle of energy rejuvenate me slightly. More importantly, it died in one hit too?! That's weak!
[On the contrary, your Armament is that strong,] Meta inputted.
Oh, you think? I looked down at my right hand, encased in a strange, colorless hue forming an almost illusionary grey gauntlet made of tight muscle fibers.
[You are, after all, compressing at least one third of your Aura into your right arm. The resulting effect will be impactful.]
My incomplete Art, Armament, was simple but terrifying. While I mulled over the lack of a level-up notification, another Fanged Wolf lunged at me from the left, its sharp fangs glinting with ghastly saliva.
I was too slow to react. The wolf was upon me. I shifted on my feet and raised my left arm, encasing it with Aura and Armament like armor. The wolf clamped its large jaws down on my left arm, causing me to wince slightly. Its weight pushed me through the snow, and even with my Aura armor, the bite's power sent tremors through me.
Gritting through the pain, I pulled out a dagger hidden behind my back with my right arm. My movements were fluid as I brought the dagger down into the wolf's head. The silver blade cut through thick fur, hide, muscle, and bone, penetrating all the way to the hilt. The life vanished from the wolf's eyes, and the strength in its jaws eased. A system message informed me of another Dire Fanged Wolf's death.
I didn't waste a second to read it. I held onto the heavy body before it could collapse, planted my feet, and tensed my muscles. I forcefully lifted the corpse and threw it at another wolf before it could move.
"Wolf-scented wolf-repellent! Trust me, it's a thing," I groaned as the two wolves collided and crashed to the ground.
[Is that your scientific hypothesis?] Meta dryly quipped.
"Of course! Worked like a charm, didn't it?"
But with that, three wolves were down, and seven were left. The series of attacks that followed were brutal. I dodged, ducked, blocked, and cursed. One terrifying trait about wolves, even in this world, was their frightening coordination within the pack. Their attacks became merciless, to the point I questioned how I had managed to kill three already with my bare hands.
[Fluke.]
'It was not!' I quipped sharply back at Meta's rude commentary as I fell forward and rolled again to avoid getting my head bitten off for the umpteenth time.
'The pack leader, the level 17 beast, hasn't made a move since the beginning.' I took notice of the strange actions of the largest wolf, which I believed was the leader, as I finally dealt with the last wolf.
My breathing was ragged, and deep exhaustion permeated my bones. Fifteen minutes had passed since my battle with the entire pack. My arms felt like lead, and my head pounded with a relentless headache. I had only leveled up twice; I wanted to cry.
The fight had been grueling. I had exhausted everything just to survive, suffering painful injuries and numerous cuts. Yet, the pain kept my mind clear enough to keep going. A trail of red trickled down my nose.
I'm almost out of Aura... Faint wisps of colorless Aura seeped from my unraveling gauntlets. A deep growl resonated as the large wolf watched the last of its comrades fall to the blood-stained snow. Its massive tusk-like fangs were on display, and blood-red eyes glinted with maddened hunger.
Watching its eyes and the emotions brimming behind them, I couldn't help but comment,
"Winter is brutal." Were all seven of these packs really after one little rabbit? In retrospect, I may have been the one at fault here, but who's telling?
I wiped the blood from my nose with my dirtied sleeve and smiled savagely at the beast. Gripping the dagger in my left hand, I channeled the last remnants of my Aura into my hands once more. Slowly, visible wisps of colorless energy knitted tightly around my arms like muscle fibers, forming a disturbing-looking gauntlet.
The hue surrounding my arms was all the Aura I had left.
This was the product of three years spent creating an Art I named Armament. It allowed my body to gain the characteristics of a weapon through precise Aura manipulation.
It was more complex than simply wrapping my arms in Aura. At the moment, I had the remnant wisps of Aura in my body 'folded' and compressed multiple times.
I had to consider balance and other factors, or I'd lose my arms. I hadn't been able to bestow similar effects on my weapon yet; this was merely the prototype of the art. But it had helped me deal with the wolves so far.
Feeling my arm tremble from the strain, I made direct eye contact with the wolf as if taunting it. A level 17 beast... I wonder how many points it's worth.
[You're crazy,] Meta's dry voice, tinged with concern, said in my head. [Taking on a Beast that is more than five times your level and an entire rank above you is pure madness. Yet, it's crazy you've actually managed to take on an entire pack and come out with negligible wounds.]
Did... did she just call my injuries 'negligible'? I'm hurting like hell here!
Oh, what's this? Is the cold and sarcastic system worried about me?
[I have no emotions.] Flat rebuttal.
I let out a chuckle and grinned wider. Yeah, maybe I should be running.
As I had that thought, the large wolf with massive horns crouched and tensed. Its muscles exploded with terrifying motion the next second. Kicking off the snowy ground, the largest wolf rushed at me with such ferocity, my smile faltered. Its hulking body was like an over-speeding truck. Everything warned me to move out of the way.
"Fuck," I cursed between a chuckle and quickly rolled to the side.
As soon as my battered body hit the snowy ground, my muscles grounded and crunched in unbelievable places. Biting down on my tongue to restrain a painful cry, I masked my anguish with a smile and quickly regained my balance.
The large wolf was already upon me. Its massive claw cleaved through the air toward my unguarded chest. With minimal time and space to dodge, I pushed off my toes and leaned back to barely miss the glinting claws. I stumbled backward, and the wolf seized the opportunity to continue its onslaught. Once again, I rolled to the side; the snow cushioned me, but my bruised body still cried out in pain.
I heard the wolf growl above, its large shadow casting over me. I felt the urge to laugh.
Street fighting style—snow in the face!
I swept my hand and threw a handful of dirty snow into the beast's eyes, disrupting its movement.
Seizing the moment, I drove my dagger into its neck and laughed maniacally.
"And with this, your experience points are mine! Hahaha!"
...it was supposed to be.
"Eh?" I voiced emptily as I held the hilt of my dagger tightly. The blade refused to budge. The steel-like fur and dense muscles around the wolf's neck held it in place. My eyes widened and my complexion paled.
"What the fuck?!"
The next second, a massive force slammed into my body, and my consciousness faltered. My ribs shattered, and something large stabbed into my abdomen.
The pain was unbearable.
Like a rag doll, my body flung through the air, brutally smashing against a tree. I felt the air painfully leave my lungs, and my bones twist painfully. The cold snow was like an unforgiving ground as my body fell against it, a strange warmth spreading underneath my abdomen.
"Huh? Am I... bleeding?" Muttering to myself in a daze, I realized there was a big hole in my stomach. Red blood flowed, the crimson liquid quickly dyeing the snow underneath. Feeling the sensation of my wound, the heat of my blood, and the intense smell of iron, I wanted to laugh.
"Haha, even with an injury like this, there still isn't a system notification about my HP. Meta, you merciless system." Was it so intent on keeping all of my stats a secret to this level?
Having vain thoughts like that, I dragged my body up and sat against the tree behind me. I held my gaping wound and looked up at the beast responsible with a dead smile. The large ram horn on its side was painted red. Its eyes still held maddened fury as it steadily closed in on me.
Suddenly, the world felt much colder; the heat of my wound, ironically, my only solace of warmth and comfort. I couldn't move. I had exhausted my last bits of Aura, and my consciousness was waning like gas. Yet everything still felt so clear. Pain was an interesting thing.
Watching that large hulky wolf slowly pick up pace towards me, a self-deprecating smile graced my lips.
'Hey, Meta,' I said inwardly.
[...]
'I guess this is it.'
The beast was already upon me, jaws wide open, fangs glistening with saliva, and eyes maddened with hunger. Its head jerked towards me, straight for my neck.
Suddenly, I felt the urge to laugh.
"Just kidding."
My hand flashed out of the snowy ground, a single arrow held in my grip, and struck the eye of the beast as soon as it was only inches away. The sensation was wet and morbid, the point of the arrow penetrating deep through the wolf's eye and bursting it in a rain of crimson blood that splattered on my face.
The wolf cried in furious pain as its head jerked backward, its whimper filling me with such dark glee.
I drove the same arm forward, driving the arrow deeper into the punctured eye, penetrating deeply into the brain. And as the beast began flailing around, I held on with my broken body, hugging its large hulky form and feeling its long, bristly fur prickle my skin.
I drove the arrow out of the eye... then drove it back in deeper again. Pulling it out one more time, I ran it through a third time and repeated until my satisfaction.
"Haha — ahahahahahahaha! Die, die, die, die! Become fodder! You are fodder! You're just experience points, don't get cocky, you stupid beast. Die, die! Hahahahahaha!!"
...
[Ding! You have slain a Level 17 beast, Dire Fanged Wolf!]
[Ding! You have leveled up!]
[Ding! You have leveled up!]
[Ding! You have leveled up!]
...
[Requirements have been met. You are Ranking Up]