Rughsbourgh had certainly not expected an ordinary beast to be so damn strong. A groove was carved into the ground in the wake of their terrible clash—stone split, debris scattered. Not just that, the heinous creature had nearly torn his limb off before he sliced it with a spatial strike. Amusingly, the monster sensed the space fracturing and vanished off him with that astounding speed.
Rughsbourgh stood, looking down at his best clothes, which were now no different from rags. One sleeve had been ripped apart from the shoulder, and several torn pieces of his upper garnt hung loose, ruined.
He grabbed the torn sleeve and ripped it off completely, then did the sa to the ensemble covering his upper body. Everything gave way easily within his grip, releasing an addictive tearing sound.
His upper body was revealed as the last scraps fell away—impeccable muscle alignnt that made him look more like sculpted stone than flesh.
He stood like sothing that belonged to heaven but walked amongst n, showering them with his otherworldly grace.
He turned to the monster, rage suppressed. His hair now fell around his face, reaching his shoulders.
He was silent for a mont, staring at the monster. The monster stared back, snarling.
The beast was wary. Incredibly wary. Its blue eyes glead with hatred—sothing Rughsbourgh didn't really understand.
But it was a beast rank, albeit an Apex level one.
'A beast's still a beast nonetheless…'
Rughsbourgh looked at the monster with apparent disdain and shot his hand forward. Instantly, the beast vanished—more like leaped away with a speed faster than the space ripping apart could follow.
"What?"
A cocktail of surprise and shock flickered across Rughsbourgh's features, with a little sprinkle of confusion.
"How?"
The beast was fast.
'A beast shouldn't be that fast.'
He squinted a second later.
'Perhaps it's a speed-based creature?'
But when had he ever seen a beast with a speed-based nature?
Rughsbourgh was one of the top 2% of the world population that could boast of entering at least a hundred rifts and killing millions of monsters. He had a very deep understanding of the ecology of monsters.
Each rank had how their nature worked in tandem with their capabilities. A beast rank creature was suited to hunt. All monsters hunted, but Beast rank ones were specially natured for it.
If a hundred beast rank monsters gained an Apex, it was possible to out-hunt almost any hunter—except those that were just unfairly devastating.
Sure, they could be fast... but not this fast. He shook his head as he traced the ripped space that had already repaired itself, then tracked the beast—now standing hundreds of ters to the left. That cocktail of emotions was still on his face.
'I'll be damned.'
He knew imdiately that there was sothing he was missing. This creature was not an ordinary beast.
He hissed a mont later.
"To what does it matter anyway? I'll just kill it."
Rughsbourgh turned to the beast and swung his hand forward as if throwing sothing toward it.
The beast vanished again. But this ti it was not just once—the tears followed the monster in quick succession such that it could not dare to land for a fraction of a second. It kept hopping around, space ripping after it like sothing from the other side was clawing its way through in pursuit.
And yet the creature kept evading. It leaped onto the wall and ran up, defying gravity. The tear chased nonetheless, chunks of stone ripped free and crashing down, the fortification itself groaning beneath the catastrophic onslaught.
The beast moved with blistering speed, climbed to the top of the structure, and flew into the air—back toward Rughsbourgh.
A small frown folded his brows as he saw the beast already leaping at him.
He straightened his fingers like he was about to slice through the enormous creature as it descended. And indeed, as the beast plumted toward him, he lunged his hand forward—but the beast suddenly shrank, dodging by a hair's breadth. Many hairs' breadths, actually. A colossal tear ripped through the space where it had been, revealing nothing but darkness within for just a fraction of a second before rging together.
The tear itself had sliced a torrent of the beast's white fur loose, flying around and falling down like snow.
He missed the creature the mont it shrank, and suppressed a curse, clicking his tongue in irritation instead.
The beast lunged at him from the side, but he rely glared at it and rewound—
—and now it was already launching toward him from the side. But this ti Rughsbourgh anticipated it, had enough ti to intercept. His hand shot out like a blurry blade.
The beast shoved itself aside. Rughsbourgh's hand sliced through a torrent of long furs again, spilling white into the air. The beast let out a small yelp as it rolled away.
Rughsbourgh's irritation mounted. The damned creature was sohow evading each of his deadly strikes.
'Why is it so damn difficult to kill a wolf!'
He turned to the beast—and the beast was slowly rising from the ground. When Rughsbourgh laid his eyes on this strange rising, his eyes widened.
The beast wasn't just growing larger this ti. It was shapeshifting. Its legs elongated and changed; so did its body. It grew taller, stood upright. Its face restructured along with the rest of its form until it now stood as a tailless, two-ter bipedal creature with terrible claws and fangs. Its blue eyes glowed with deadly intensity, and it was far more imposing now.
It had given Rughsbourgh enough trouble as a four-legged thing. But now it glead with an unsettling intelligence as well as unsettling hatred.
Rughsbourgh stared at the beast with comical shock.
'Where in the world did a shapeshifter co from? In all my life I have never t a shapeshifter! Goodness, this is a trophy! All my efforts! Finally a reward!!'
A bright smile split his face and he fixed Mr Fluffy with very very greedy eyes.
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