Free Web NovelChapter 17: First Gate
I found myself standing in a cavern.
The ceiling arched high above me, twenty meters maybe, the stone rough and dark and streaked with veins of something pale and crystalline.
The walls curved inward at a slow angle, and the floor under my feet was packed dirt over flat rock, smooth from whatever had walked it before.
No beasts were visible in sight. No movement except the slow drift of dust in the air.
Light came from the flowers.
They grew in clusters along the walls, low to the floor, their petals open and glowing with a soft white-blue radiance that lit the cavern in patches.
Bioluminescent light. They lined the path forward in clumps and clusters, and where the path bent further ahead, more of them grew along the curve.
I exhaled.
"I should’ve been more careful before entering this gate. I didn’t think it through enough."
If the gate had been pitch black inside, I’d have been in deep trouble. If the environment had been water, or vacuum, or burning air, or any of the half-dozen other things gates were known to drop on awakeners who weren’t prepared, I’d have been done.
I’d walked through that gate without a light source, without a potion, without a weapon, without checking what kind of gate it was.
The choice screen had said E-rank and I’d let that be enough.
It was sloppy decision making from my end, and I would ensure not to repeat that again. I couldn’t just rely on the system for everything, I had started becoming complacent.
I made a note of it in my mind and kept moving.
The path through the cavern took a slow leftward curve. I followed it, walking at a steady pace, one hand near my hip and the other open at my side.
The light from the flowers brightened in patches as I passed by, dimmed in the stretches between them. The air smelled faintly of damp stone.
The path opened into a wider section. freёwebnovel.com
Five beasts waited in it.
They stood in a loose half-circle across the cavern floor, blocking the way forward. Black fur, yellow eyes. Each one the size of a large dog, lean through the ribs, their shoulders high and their heads low.
Their lips were peeled back from rows of sharp teeth, and the closest one had a thin line of drool hanging from its lower jaw.
They’d been waiting.
The lead beast took one step forward and growled at me.
The other four spread out behind it, slow, finding their angles.
The lead beast lunged first.
It came in fast, paws scraping the dirt, jaws open. I shifted my weight to my back foot and let it close the distance. At two meters out, it left the ground in a clean leap, throat exposed, the whole length of its body committed to the bite.
I stepped to the side and brought my fist around.
The punch caught it under the jaw mid-air. I felt its bone crack from the impact. The beast’s head snapped sideways at an angle bones weren’t meant to bend at, and its body folded around the impact, tumbled past my shoulder, hit the cavern floor and slid three meters before it stopped moving.
I stood there for a moment, shocked by my own instinct and ability. I was never a good fighter back in my previous life, but it appeared like my class’s awakening had some sort of influence on my combat in general.
"I can’t complain..."
[+10 SP]
The second beast was already coming, before I could even check out the system notification.
It came from my right, lower than the first, angling for my leg. I dropped my elbow and brought my knee up at the same time. My knee connected with the side of its skull. The crack was wetter this time. It went sideways into the wall, hit the stone with its shoulder, and crumpled in a loose heap at the base of it.
[+10 SP]
The third and fourth came together.
They split as they came, one for my left side, one for my right. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
I took the left one first because it was closer. I caught it by the loose skin behind its neck mid-leap, used its own momentum to redirect it across my body, and slammed it down into the dirt hard enough to drive the breath out of it.
My other hand came down on the back of its skull with the heel of my palm. The crack of the impact echoed off the cavern walls.
The fourth was on me before the third finished twitching.
Its teeth managed to close on the sleeve of my uniform jacket. I felt the pressure but not the bite, the academy fabric was thicker than it looked, and the angle was wrong for the beast to get its full jaw around my forearm.
I twisted my arm. The beast’s neck twisted with it. I drove my free fist down into its throat in a short hard punch, felt something collapse under the knuckles, and the jaw on my sleeve went slack.
I shook the body off my arm.
[+10 SP] [+10 SP]
The last beast hadn’t moved.
It stood at the far end of the cavern where the path opened up, lower than it had been a minute ago, its head almost flat to the dirt.
Its yellow eyes tracked me. Its tail was tucked tight against its haunches. The growl had stopped. The pack mentality had broken the moment its four siblings stopped twitching, and what was left was an animal that had finally figured out it was looking at the wrong meal.
It took a step back, lifting my right hand up.
Mana moved in my chest. It was a different feeling than the small physical-enhancement I’d been running on.
Heat ran down my arm. My palm faced the beast across the cavern, fingers splayed.
[Buddha’s Palm]
A golden light gathered in front of my hand, forming a palm-shape of pure mana, fingers and lines and the deep grooves of an enormous open hand, the size of two of me end to end.
It floated in the air for half a second, then rushed forward with a low pressure-wave that pushed the dust on the cavern floor outward in a ring.
Feeling the danger, the beast attempted to run, but it had no time. The golden palm approached it rapidly.
The palm hit it broadside.
The impact lifted the beast off the ground, drove it backward across the cavern in a straight line, and slammed it into the rock wall at the far end with a wet crunch that shook dust loose from the ceiling.
The gold light flared on contact, held for a beat, and then dissolved.
The beast slid down the wall and didn’t move again.
[+10 SP]
I lowered my hand.
The mana draw had been bigger than I expected. But it wasn’t too bad, I could use the skill several times without worrying about mana drain.
The result was more than worth it. I was incredibly satisfied with it.
"Time to see what this ’SP’ is about..."
