North Side - Open Forest
Razeal stood still silent, unblinking, and fully guarded.
His gaze was locked onto the monstrous hound before him, a beast cloaked in heat and menace. The atmosphere between them was heavy, like the moments before a thunderclap.
"System," he spoke internally, voice calm but tightly controlled. "What's the primary attack method of this thing?"
[Response: Predominantly physical. Sharp claws and nails imbued with extreme internal heat averaging 800°C. Its teeth maintain a consistent surface temperature between 700 to 1000 degrees Celsius. Additional attacks include headbutts, charged leaps, and body slams extremely lethal due to its hardened, blade like exoskeleton.]
Razeal's thoughts churned, yet his focus never wavered from the hound's searing gaze. The two locked eyes like predators sizing each other up, waiting for the faintest twitch.
The beast wasn't lunging yet. It was waiting... waiting for him to draw his weapon then pounce.
"And its bite force? PSI reading?"
[Average recorded: 7,638 PSI.]
"...Tch," Razeal's eye twitched. "At that level it could tear through a grown man's leg like it's warm butter."
"And my pain tolerance? After everything I've endured, it better be maxed out by now."
[Pain Tolerance: SS Rank – 166,362 / One Trillion]
"The hell...?" He nearly snapped. "I was tortured from inside out by that crazy women and this?! What kind of scale are we using here?!"
But there was no time to argue. He grit his teeth, shoving his irritation down his throat. "Later. Focus now."
He slowly exhaled and let his tension settle. Then, from beneath the folds of his sharp tuxedo coat, his hand emerged gripping the dagger.
He didn't draw it in any conventional manner. The blade was reversed in his grip, the tip pointed toward the ground, his wrist tilted down, fingers coiled with an eerie calm. His stance didn't scream 'ready'. It whispered 'trap'.
The hound twitched.
Its entire frame tensed like a drawn bow.
Razeal's hand slid the dagger free in the most subtle motion imaginable and the hound moved.
Boom!
The ground cracked beneath its leap.
It lunged, speed blurring past the eye. Razeal saw the blur, his body not fast enough to react, but his mind already knew. It would go for the obvious target the dagger arm.
He didn't resist.
Instead, he extended his arm forward deliberately.
"Bite it, bastard."
The hound's massive jaws clamped down.
CRUNCH!!
Agony exploded.
His tuxedo sleeve burned instantly into ash, revealing scorched flesh beneath. The beast's blistering-hot teeth pierced into his skin, sizzling through muscle, digging down until
Clink!
Something halted the bite.
The hound's fangs ground against an unnatural resistance beneath his flesh a dense, inhuman alloy layered over bone. Its jaws couldn't close fully. It was like biting into molten steel.
Still, blood burst from the torn flesh, spraying in a crimson arc. Steam hissed off the wound as the seared meat bubbled. His upper arm was bathed in blood, the scent of burnt iron heavy in the air.
And yet
Razeal didn't flinch.
His eyes remained cold and locked.
Because the real counter... was just beginning.
Razeal's gaze didn't waver. His eyes remained sharp, fixated on the beast locked onto his right arm. The hound's jaw trembled slightly, muscles tightening with primal force as its superheated fangs sank into flesh, steam rising like breath from hell.
The pain wasn't gone but dulled, numbed into something distant. But still a faint signal buzzing from a broken wire. A tingling reminder that his body had been injured, but not overwhelmed but as if only to remind him. Tho it was nothing for him eveb if he could've felt the pain He'd been through hell... Literally.
And just as he expected… it worked.
The dagger slipped free from his bitten hand not from weakness, but by design.
His left hand flashed into motion, catching the falling blade mid-air by the hilt. In the same motion, Razeal twisted, his body pivoting with unnatural grace and precision. A clean, fluid arc like a dancer mid performance before the cold steel of his dagger plunged into the soft, exposed underside of the hound's neck.
A low, guttural growl escaped the creature, confused and pained, its body jolting.
But Razeal was merciless.
With a brutal twist of the blade, he carved deeper into its throat, severing the pulse of life. The hound shuddered once, violently and then collapsed, dead weight slamming into the forest floor with a dull thud. Its jaw unlocked, teeth unclenching from his arm, as if even in death, it obeyed his will.
Blood soaked through his sleeve, dripping steadily from his elbow.
Still just a dog Afterall. Razeal exhaled, calm, almost disappointed. He wrenched the blade free, flicking it to the side with a sharp snap of his wrist. The hound's dark blood sprayed in a narrow arc across the dry leaves and cracked roots.
"Wasn't that hard," he muttered, his voice low, almost conversational, as he looked down at the corpse. Then to his own arm shredded tuxedo, seared skin, and a fresh trail of blood. The sight would've shaken a lesser man.
But Razeal merely sighed.
[Host… why don't you fight like a villain is supposed to? That was… barbaric. You hurt yourself before your enemy did.] The system's voice echoed in his mind, as if sighing through digital static.
"I would've if you weren't so useless," Razeal replied coldly, casually binding his right arm with a silk handkerchief from his pocket. "This was the most efficient way to win. If I fought head-on, I would've taken more damage. Unexpected injuries aren't exactly in fashion."
[And what if there were more monsters? Your method would've left you vulnerable.]
"There aren't," he said simply. "The trial time is already up. And if there were more monsters? I would've figured something out."
A beat passed.
"I call it… using my brain."
He paused, his expression sharpening into irritation.
"Also, I'm really glad I didn't put all my trust in that obsidian agony skeleton of yours."
[...What do you mean?]
"I mean," he said, tightening the knot of the handkerchief with one hand, "mind explaining why the sharpest, most painful material in existence did nothing just now? I expected the hound's bite to trigger the agony reflex. Instead nothing."
[Ah, that… The hound's fangs never reached the obsidian skeleton itself, Host. I suppose I didn't explain properly, but the structure has partially integrated with your body. Some layers of your skin have mutated hardened mimicking the outer shell of the obsidian material. That micro-thin covering 0.000001 mm, to be precise absorbed the damage.]
Razeal's eye twitched.
"...So what you're saying is, the trick I thought was genius letting it bite me so the pain would trigger a berserker state was pointless?"
[Completely.]
"Bruhhhh..." He groaned, rubbing the side of his head with his left hand. "And here I was planning to rip the skin off my knuckles next time just to punch with full agony boost. My luck really is cursed."
He exhaled through his nose, then crouched down beside the beast's corpse.
"Whatever. Let's claim the prize."
His dagger slid into the hound's chest, finding the gap between the thick exoskeletal ridges. A few seconds of searching and then a faint click as steel struck something solid.
He pulled it free, now holding a crimson, marble-sized orb between blood-slick fingers.
"A fire elemental core. As expected," he murmured, eyes reflecting the gentle pulsing glow within the gem.
"Ten more gold coins. GG."
He whistled softly to himself, shaking his head in a mixture of awe and annoyance. "Other kids have to kill a hundred of these just to get into the academy. Literal hell."
He turned, already planning to climb the nearest tree and wait out the remainder of the trial.
But then he froze.
Something stirred in the air behind him.
A sensation.
Not hostile… but resonant.
Familiar.
Powerful.
Slowly, Razeal turned his gaze back toward the hound's corpse. His brows furrowed.
His eyes drifted to the wound he'd made in its chest. A pulse not visual or physical but something he could feel instictively.
"…I'm feeling something," he whispered. "Weird, but… good."
His fingers flexed slightly.
Eyes narrowing.
What is this feeling?
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