My right hand found my axe laying a little further behind , and I used it to prop myself up on the one leg that had finished healing.
The Knife-Tailed Boar still lay ahead, its chest heaving, forelegs scraping weakly against the tile. It couldn’t find the strength to rise.
I gripped my axe and limped toward it. My jaw clenched. The mory of being dragged across the ground, of being slamd repeatedly, of my legs severed in a spray of blood, of the agony that followed, it burned through .
"You took my legs." I said out loud, my second leg snapping into place. "Now I’ll take yours."
My greataxe rose, and then it ca down.
Bone cracked, hide split, flesh parted, and a foreleg spun away in a red arc. The boar squealed, thrashing sideways but I walked around it, to its other foreleg.
Another slash. Another leg torn free. Blood sprayed hot across my chest.
The beast writhed, its squeals morphing from anger to fear. Pitiful.
I hacked again.
And then again.
All four of its limbs were severed, and it lay floundering in a spreading pool of blood, trying to drag itself away from on its stumps.
My chest heaved, breath coming hard. I waited for the release, the satisfaction of revenge.
It didn’t co.
The beast’s pained wails grated against . They didn’t make feel triumphant. They didn’t feel like victory. Or accomplishnt.
They gnawed at . And at the hate. The anger. Leaving only a hollow ache.
A taste in my mouth. Bitter. Like iron.
Why?
My gaze washed over the mutilated beast, Why doesn’t this feel good? Why does it feel so...empty?
The boar’s eyes lolled towards . Wide. Wet. Terrified. The red light in them was gone. Only a simple, brown iris remained. It almost looked human.
The creature squealed again. Weaker now. My hands tightened on the axe.
Before I could think. Before I could reason. My body acted.
The axe dropped in a clean, heavy arc, separating its head from its body.
[You have killed a Lv.6 Squall-Class Knife-Tailed Boar.]
Only silence followed.
I stood there, leaning on the haft of my axe, listening to my own ragged breaths echo against the sterile white walls.
What is this? I don’t understand.
I had taken revenge. I should feel satisfied. I should feel right.
But there was only that bitter taste. That sinking feeling. A weight in my chest.
My voice ca out a whisper, "It’s dead. So why..?"
[The Second Wave has been cleared successfully.]
[Do you wish to continue?]
[Yes/No]
Yes.
[Do you wish to Rest?]
[Yes/No]
My gaze lingered on the prompt.
...No.
I watched as the Boars’ corpses dissolved and shattered into those sa red motes of light.
Grinding roared through the walls again, as the tiles on the opposite wall split open, this ti into three hatches.
From the two on the sides, stord a single club-tailed boar, and a single knife-tailed boar.
But from the middle hatch...lumbered sothing superior.
What... is that?
It was towering, at least two heads taller than the other boars. Plates of bony armor ran down its shoulders, jagged spikes jutted from its spine, and a clubbed tail bristling with bone spikes whipped side to side. Its eyes burned a molten red, brighter than all the rest.
[The Third Wave has begun.]
It was only then that I realized what I had done.
My fingers tightened around the haft of my axe. I should have rested.
The Armored boar reared its head, its snout opening wide, but it didn’t shriek. It roared.
And what followed was the thunder of hooves as all three beasts charged , the armored boar overtaking the other two by a mile as it burst forth.
My teeth grit in frustration. In anger. I had been careless yet again.
I pushed it all down. Every unnecessary thought and emotion. I balled it up and locked it away as I planted my feet. Muscles flexed, axe raised. My voice ripped raw from my throat in a primal bellow.
"CO ON!"
I took the Beast head on. My posture squared up as I wrenched the Axe above my head, and when the mont was right, I roared in effort as I pulled it straight down with everything I could.
Everything. Every ounce of focus, of anger, of frustration. I poured everything I’d been feeling into that single swing.
And that desire...that will...it drew out those blue-white strings of energy in my core. It all happened in a fragnt of a mont, but that fragnt stretched out in my mind’s eye.
From within my core, like a sentient ball of wool unraveling, the strings shot out, piercing and running through every blood vessel it could find.
I felt like I was burning from the inside out, but a new strength surged through .
In that single mont, before my swing even reached the halfway point...I knew...whatever stood in my weapon’s way would die instantly.
And it just so happened to be the Armored boar’s skull that t that descending blade.
Bone didn’t crack. It didn’t even split. It burst. Shards of ivory sprayed outward like shrapnel, flesh and blood vaporizing in a mist as the sheer force of the blow pulverized its head. The armored plates that had shielded it shattered into fragnts, scattering across the chamber in clattering echoes.
The corpse collapsed where it stood, headless, robbed of all montum as its legs twitched in the puddle of gore. But my axe didn’t stop with it. The weight, the power, the impossible montum, all of it carried through until steel smashed into the pristine white tile below.
CRACK.
A spiderweb of hairline fractures across the immaculate surface. A surface that had laughed off every strike I’d thrown at it before. Proof of strength beyond anything I’d ever touched.
[You have killed a Gifted Lv. 10 Squall-Class Club-Tailed Boar]
My arms trembled, the haft vibrating violently in my grip. My lungs heaved ragged air, my whole body alight as though every vein carried fire.
How did I do that?
[Your Blood Vessels have been burnt by Mana.]
[Your Blood Vessels have been burnt by Mana.]
[Your Blood Vessels have been burnt by Mana.]
[Your Blood Vessels have been burnt by Mana.]
...
[Your Blood Vessels have been burnt by Mana: x350]
What the hell?
I tried to bound back, to reset my stance and create distance from the oncoming beasts, but as the fire receded, my body betrayed . My knees buckled. The axe’s weight dragged down with it, and I collapsed against the tiles.
Agony flared in every nerve. Not a clean pain, not the sharp edge of a wound, but a smoldering ache that ran through every inch of . My blood felt cooked, my flesh stiff and unresponsive.
I grit my teeth, fingers twitching against the haft, trying to force strength back into limbs that no longer listened.
Everything hurts. Everything aches.
The club-tailed boar shrieked as it thundered closer, hooves hamring the tile. Its tail swung wide, bone knot whistling through the air like a flail, and the knife-tailed one ca in from the side, tusks lowered, eyes blazing.
The club struck first. The bone knot smashed into my side, flipping across the chamber like a ragdoll.
Before I could suck in breath, tusks punched through again.
[You have been impaled by a Knife-Tailed Boar.]
[You have been impaled by a Knife-Tailed Boar.]
[Host’s [Pierce Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Pierce Resistance] has increased greatly.]
I tried to force my arms to move, to swing, to do anything, but they were dead weight. My body refused to answer.
The beasts didn’t stop. Hooves thundered down. Bones shattered.
[Your sternum has been shattered by a Club-Tailed Boar.]
[Three ribs have been fractured.]
[Both clavicles have been fractured.]
[Host’s [Impact Resistance] has increased significantly.]
[Host’s [Impact Resistance] has increased significantly.]
[Host’s [Impact Resistance] has increased significantly.]
And yet despite the amalgamation of horrific mutilation and anomalous recovery, despite the raw agony raking across every nerve and sinew, my mind had locked onto sothing else entirely.
[Attempts at healing Host’s Circulatory System have failed.]
[A form of Resistance against the type of sustained damage does not exist.]
[Submitting a Request...]
What? A request? To whom?
Even through the fog of pain, realization dawned slowly.
The Words. Lysha’el’s words...
The beasts slamd into again.
But the ssages cut through the haze:
[Request approved.]
[Creation of Unique Skill: [Mana Strain Resistance I] is underway...]
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