Free Web NovelChapter 4: First Beast Contact
"Immediate biological termination if I can’t kill ten Level 5 beasts?!" Uhtred yelled, waving the screen away quickly as he ran.
He broke into a full sprint, throwing all caution to the wind. It was useless to pretend anymore. Something was truly stalking him, and he’d rather risk it all and possibly surprise the creature with his sudden move, than pretend he hadn’t sensed anything and wait for the creature to catch up to him.
The System was also not making things easy for him either.
"This damn System! The penalty is death and I have to kill Level 5 beasts already? Whatever happened to Level 1, huh?! Why not start with that instead?!" Uhtred lamented, his eyes flitting about as he ran, trying to find anything that could give him an edge against the creature chasing after him. He could already hear it crashing through the shrubbery in hot pursuit.
"There!"
He spotted a fallen tree not too far away. It wasn’t on his direct path, but he changed his heading towards it without hesitation. He needed to see what exactly was hunting him, and that fallen tree would provide the best cover.
Uhtred pushed his new, enhanced body to its absolute limit. He felt his muscles coil and release with a level of power he’d never felt before, driving him forward in a final, desperate dash.
Immediately he reached the log, he used the momentum of his sprint to vault over it, placing one hand on the rough bark and swinging his body across in a clean, athletic move.
The moment his feet hit the ground on the other side, he dropped low and spun around, pressing his back against the thick trunk.
A split second later, Uhtred heard the creature burst through the bushes behind the log. Its footsteps thundered loudly without any sign of stopping.
It’s not slowing down at all?! Uhtred grit his teeth, bracing for impact just as the creature plowed through a section of the log not far away from him, sending splinters flying everywhere.
His eyes widened in surprise the moment he finally took in the creature.
Is that... a lizard?
By all normal visual cues, this was a lizard. But not like any he’d ever seen before. This one was the size of a large dog, with elongated limbs and a muscular body covered in brown scales. It hissed loudly, its yellow eyes locking onto Uhtred the moment it broke through the log.
The momentum of its charge carried it forward in a skid, but it grounded itself quickly and reacted before Uhtred could, charging straight towards him with frightening speed.
It’s fast, Uhtred thought.
Surprisingly, he found that he was weirdly calm. Now that he had seen what he was up against, he seemed to have entered into some sort of detached, calculative state. All the variables were now in place, and it was up to him to respond accordingly.
The lizard lunged, and Uhtred reacted by throwing himself to the side. He moved with a speed that shocked even him, his body rolling across the dirt and coming up into a crouch. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
The lizard’s jaws snapped shut on the empty air where his head had been a millisecond before.
How did I do that? Uhtred didn’t have time to ponder. The creature hissed, pivoting the moment it landed, and launching itself more viciously this time.
Uhtred ducked, feeling the wind of its passage whizz right over his head.
Again. Just in the nick of time...
Uhtred found himself somehow able to dodge the creature’s attack yet again. Just seconds ago, its speed had stunned him, and now he was suddenly fast enough to adapt?
At the back of his mind, he attributed it all to the "evolution" the System had mentioned, but as he continued to dodge the lizard’s relentless assault, he started to think otherwise.
Every time he needed to move, every time he needed to push off the ground, a warm, pleasing sensation flared in his chest.
His core.
Each time he moved, a steady cycle of energy flowed from his core and out into his limbs right when he needed it most.
The moment he became aware of that fact, he immediately tried to influence the energy.
As the lizard coiled its muscles to spring at him for another attack, Uhtred focused entirely on that warmth. Instead of letting it flow naturally, he mentally nudged it toward his legs... and the effect was instantaneous.
His body moved so quickly and with such precision that before the lizard leapt, Uhtred had moved to meet it halfway.
With wide, excited eyes, he swung his fist towards the midsection of the lizard in the air, channeling that warm energy into his fist and punching with everything he had.
A heavy thump resounded on impact, sending the lizard to the side in a tumble for several feet. The blow was as clean as it could get.
But to Uhtred’s surprise, there was no damage at all. All that the blow served to do was anger the lizard even further. In fact, Uhtred was the one who suffered more damage. He clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly, hissing and cursing in pain as he tracked the lizard which was already back on its feet and snarling at him angrily.
"Its skin is so damn thick," he muttered under his breath. It felt like punching a rough leather sack full of wet sand.
The lizard circled him, hissing in challenge, now wary of him and thinking more carefully before attacking.
But Uhtred wasn’t about to give it such time to think. He pushed more energy into his legs and sped forward with a yell, landing a flurry of blows on different parts of the lizard’s body — its ribs, neck, spine, just searching for a weak point.
But it all proved useless. This creature was solid all round.
Shit! This can’t continue like this! I’ll be the one to tire out first before I can kill it with blunt impact, Uhtred cursed.
Not to mention the fact that the more time he spent engaged in this fight, the more likely it was for him to have to face another beast right after. He wasn’t particularly quiet with all the thudding and loud noises he was making right now.
I need to finish this decisively, Uhtred stopped moving.
He stood his ground, centering his weight as he watched the lizard coil its muscles for another lunge. If he couldn’t break its skin, he’d have to break what was underneath.
He was going to take a massive gamble.
