Rise Of The Monster Slayer

Chapter 9: Pursuit of Power

The Alpha's unnatural stare bore down through the suffocating canopy, pinning him in place

Aren held himself in a state of absolute stillness on the thick oak branch, the daggers gripped so tightly in his hands that his knuckles were stark white. His Predator’s instinct screaming at a volume that made his vision physically blur around the edges. The sheer, overwhelming mass of the Shadow Wolf Alpha standing in the clearing below was terrifying. Up close, it was a disaster a creature woven from thick, iron-coarse black bristles, razor-sharp steel claws, and suffocating dark magic.

The Alpha let out a low, rumbling growl that vibrated through the mud and traveled up the trunk of the tree, rattling the soles of Aren’s boots. The giant beast lowered its massive, scarred head, the muscles across its back and haunches coiling like immense steel springs beneath its dark hide.

Aren’s heart hammered against his ribs. He rapidly calculated his odds and found them entirely lacking. He only had 18 Agility. Even if he timed his Shadow Burst perfectly, he might be able to dodge the first catastrophic strike, but he couldn't outrun a beast with legs the size of tree trunks. Furthermore, his jagged daggers, no matter how much force his Strength applied, wouldn't pierce the Alpha's fierce skull.

This was the end. He had been arrogant, and the Wasteland was about to collect its due but just as the Alpha’s muscles tightened to launch itself up into the canopy, the deafening, unnatural roar from the deep woods echoed a second time.

It was a sound of absolute, world-ending fury. It didn't sound biological; it sounded, mixed with the shrieking of a hurricane. The sky above the Wasteland seemed to literally darken in response, the bruised purple clouds swirling violently and aggressively toward the distant, jagged mountain peaks. The temperature in the clearing plummeted instantly.

The Alpha’s ears snapped flat against its massive skull. The beast physically flinched.

Aren watched in complete, disbelief as the apex predator of the deep forest tucked its tail firmly between its legs.

The Alpha completely ignored Aren. It didn't even look up at the tree a second time. Its ego and territorial dominance were instantly shattered by a primal terror. The giant beast scrambled clumsily over the shattered trunk of the fallen tree and sprinted blindly into the thorny underbrush, fleeing desperately toward the outer edges of the forest, away from the deep woods.

Silence slammed back down over the clearing.

Aren remained completely still on the branch for a full minute, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. He slowly lowered his daggers, staring at the deep, muddy trenches the Alpha had left behind in its panicked retreat.

He was alive. But the brutal reality of the Wasteland had just crashed down on him with crushing, undeniable weight.

The Alpha wasn't the king of this domain. The Alpha, a nightmare that required platoons of elite, magically gifted hunters to slay, was just another piece of prey running from a much larger, unfathomable predator.

A cold sweat broke out across the back of Aren’s neck. If an Alpha was running for its life, what chance did a human with bone knives have?

If he wanted to survive, he couldn't afford to be weak. He couldn't afford to level up slowly. He needed absolute, overwhelming power.

The lingering terror in his chest rapidly crystallized, shifting into a cold, hard, and ruthless determination.

The nine Beast Cores currently resting in his system weren't enough. He needed the tenth core. He needed to trigger his first major evolution, and he needed to do it tonight, before whatever had made that world-ending roar decided to sweep through this part of the forest.

He dropped silently from the oak branch, his boots landing softly in the mud. Pushing the fear completely out of his mind, he sprinted into the dark woods, heading deliberately in the opposite direction of the fleeing Alpha.

He activated his Shadow Vision, the skill immediately painting the darkness of the creepy woods in crisp, monochromatic gray and white.

He scoured the forest floor, his eyes darting frantically, searching for any sign of a monster that hadn't been completely terrified into hiding by the intimidating roar. But the ecosystem had reacted to the predator's cry. Most of the wildlife had gone completely to ground, burying themselves deep in the mud or retreating into heavily fortified subterranean caves. The forest felt like a massive, sprawling graveyard.

After tense hours of searching, his enhanced perception finally picked up a faint scent.

Aren stopped immediately, dropping into a low, predatory crouch. He moved silently through a dense patch of glowing, bioluminescent ferns, following trail.

Fifty yards ahead, half-buried in the hollowed-out, rotting roots of a massive dead tree, was a Scavenger Crawler. The giant, armored centipede was aggressively and frantically digging its dozens of spiked legs into the earth, trying to bury its massive body to escape the terrifying, oppressive aura currently blanketing the forest.

Aren didn't hesitate. He didn't care that the beast was trying to hide. He needed its core to survive.

He gripped his daggers tightly and triggered Shadow Burst.

The Crawler, despite its panic, possessed incredible subterranean senses. It felt the violent vibration of Aren’s approach and whipped its massive, armored head around. Its jagged mandibles snapped open, spraying a thick, pressurized stream of glowing green, melting acid directly at him.

Aren had anticipated the desperate counterattack. Without breaking his forward momentum, he vaulted off a large, moss-covered rock, using the upward kinetic force to launch his body into the air, soaring directly over the lethal acid stream.

The corrosive liquid hissed violently as it struck the mud directly beneath him, instantly melting the stone and earth into a bubbling, toxic puddle.

While airborne, Aren flipped his grip on his daggers. As gravity pulled him down, he landed squarely on the back of the Crawler’s heavily armored neck.

Before the beast could thrash, Aren drove both of his jagged daggers directly into the soft, unarmored, pale joints between the crawler’s thick chitin plates, aiming right behind its skull. His strength pushed the blades deep through the tough tissue and directly into the beast.

The crawler shrieked with a horrific sound of chitin and escaping steam. It thrashed violently, its dozens of sharp legs kicking wildly, several of them slamming heavily into Aren’s chest and violently throwing him off its back.

Aren hit the muddy ground hard, rolling backward to absorb the heavy impact. But the fatal damage to the monster was already done. The massive Crawler twitched uncontrollably, thick green acidic blood pooling around its shattered armor, before its legs finally curled inward and it went completely still.

Aren didn't wait for his breath to return. He didn't check his own bruises.

He scrambled frantically over to the dead carcass. Embracing the caustic heat washing over his toughened skin, he thrust his arm into the boiling green blood and wrenched the stone free from the center of its chest.

He stood up, his chest heaving, holding the tenth Beast Core in his palm. It felt incredibly heavy, pulsing with a volatile, highly green magic that illuminated his scarred face in the darkness.

He retreated quickly from the dead carcass, crawling backward into the hollowed-out roots of the dead tree the Crawler had been trying to hide in. He needed a place hidden from the open sky, shielded from the roaming horrors of the Wasteland.

He sat cross-legged in the dark, cramped hollow, staring down at the glowing green stone resting in his bloody palm.

[ Beast Core Detected.]

[Evolution Milestone Reached.]

The familiar chime vibrated through his skull, significantly louder and more resonant than any system notification he had experienced before. The holographic purple screen didn't just appear; it rapidly expanded, completely taking over his entire field of vision with glowing, undeniable text, waiting for his final command.

[10/10 Cores Secured.]

[Warning: Phase 2 Metamorphosis will induce extreme biological trauma and cellular reconstruction.]

[Initiate Phase 2 Metamorphosis?]

Aren looked at the prompt, his heart pounding a steady, relentless rhythm. He thought of the horrific shadow from the memory, the terrifying roar, and the absolute weakness of his human body.

He tightly closed his fist around the glowing core and whispered into the dark.

"Initiate.”