NOVEL WEB Chapter 82 Odd Encounter (2)
Despite Erik injecting a considerable amount of mana into the dart, the poison was not strong enough to kill a beast so much stronger than him. It wasn't just a matter of stats and levels but also Energy. Since the mana darts injected poison made by mana, the higher his target Energy was, the stronger the mana circulating its body.
The mana circulating inside the Leylarhad's body battled the poison introduced by Erik's dart, noticeably reducing its strength. The substance Erik injected into the creature crippled it a little bit the cub. Still, it wasn't enough to kill, paralyze, or severely reduce its stats. The young man wasn't aware of what was happening; he only knew that the beast was still on his tail.
"FUCK!"
WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF.
The Leylarhad barked while chasing Erik, trying to get rid of this pest in front of its nose. Erik didn't stop running, and after a while, he reached a clearing inside the forest where there were no trees around for kilometers; an open field covered with grasses and wildflowers. There weren't any creatures living here except birds flying overhead and small rodents scurrying away from Erik and the Leylarhad when they ran past them.
The thaid had followed the human through the field since they left the woods behind. The big carnivore chased him at full speed, leaving deep footprints in the ground; if Erik stopped now, the monster would catch up within seconds. He needed a way to escape from the beast!
However, Erik also noticed that the thaid was much slower than before, since he could now keep up with the beast's speed, which wasn't gaining any ground. Erik immediately realized that was the effect of the mana dart's poison that could do nothing more than slow down the beast.
He looked around him and saw nothing useful, but as he ran, he got closer to the breach. The problem was that if he went out of it with the beast on his tail, people were bound to see it and find out about the barrier's hole, sealing his only means to gain experience.
On the one hand, Erik's greed compelled him to try fighting the beast right here, though, on the other, his survival instincts told him there was no way he could kill the beast and urged him to run. In the end, Erik followed the latter, and despite knowing that from that day onward, his progress would be severely slowed, he decided to speed toward the breach and search for help.
As for how he ended up meeting the creature, he could simply say that he found it in the middle of the road to Mister Fox's farm. Though Erik didn't take something into account because he was obviously unaware of it, the beast was getting rid of the poison at an unbelievable speed, and he was starting to return to his peak strength!
After several more minutes of running, a chilling howl resounded behind Erik, who turned to look back only to see the Leylarhad just a couple of meters behind him.
"FUCK! I'M GOING TO DIE!"
The beast jumped in an attempt to bite Erik's head off, but the jump wasn't enough to reach him, and he kept running.
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!!!"
The beast ended up ten meters behind the young man, but it was rapidly able to get just behind a couple of meters from Erik. Then it tried to bite Erik's leg, but the young man luckily noticed it and moved the leg away just at the last second. Though, the young man lost his rhythm and fell to the ground.
Erik's face was drained of all colors; he was pale, and sweat trickled from his face while he panted hard. If it hadn't been for the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he would've already stopped running minutes before.
<Is this really how I'm going to die? What was the point of surviving this far? Of getting the system, of making friends?>
His thoughts raced like crazy, and his heart beat faster until he thought he might faint. His hands started trembling violently, and his knees felt weak.
All of that happened in a moment. The Leylarhad rejoiced once it saw his prey fall to the ground, it was even giving it his back, meaning that he was at its mercy. The beast then jumped on top of Erik.
As the young man felt the creature on him, he was terrified. Everything was happening in the span of a few moments, but it felt like years to him. Was there really nothing he could do in that grim situation?
If he didn't do anything soon, the thaid would surely finish him off. Erik racked his brain, he thought about the powers he could use at that moment to save himself, and after having recalled one, he had an idea.
The young man didn't know if it would work, still he decided to try it nonetheless. If it worked, good; otherwise, in a way, he would be at least free from a miserable life in the military.
Erik pumped mana at max gear; with his ten neural links, the amount of mana he could circulate through his body was much higher than before. The young man rapidly channeled his mana at his back.
In the meantime, the Leylarhad cub was opening his maws to bite at the young man's head, though it was at that moment that bluish-colored mana spikes started jutting out from Erik's back.
Everything happened in a second; the beast noticed the spikes growing out of the man's body but could do nothing to avoid them. The spear-like spikes rapidly grew until they made contact with the thaids body and pierced it all over.
The abdomen, chest, neck, shoulders, arms, legs...
It was too late for the monster; the spike penetrated every part of its body. It roared in agony, thrashing wildly, trying desperately to escape, but the spikes prevented any movement. It was basically impaled on Erik's back.
The thaid tried to shake itself off, hoping to dislodge itself from the deadly weapons, but it couldn't. Blood started trickling from the wounds as he moved, ending all over Erik's spikes. Unfortunately for Erik, the spikes didn't hit any vital organ, so the beast was left behind Erik, waiting to die for blood loss only.
Though, it didn't want to die alone, so it tried to bite Erik's head, but it wasn't able to since the spikes were too long and kept it far away from the teenager.
But as it moved and tried to kill Erik, the spikes slowly sank into its flesh, making it get closer and closer to the young man. It was then that Erik injected the last sliver of mana he had inside his body to grow a spike that ended up piercing the beast's brain and ending its life once and for all.
It was at that moment that multiple notifications rang inside Erik's mind.
[QUEST COMPLETE. 3000 EXPERIENCE POINTS AND 1500 DNA POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST]
[LEVEL UP!]
[HIGH LEVELED HOSTILE LEYLARHAD CUB KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]
[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]
[3...2...1...0]
[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 4466 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
As Erik heard these notifications, he smiled happily. He knew he had just made an impossible feat. He gained tons of experience, but what mattered most to him right now was that he managed to survive, and he did that by using one of the powers he got along his journey.
Though, Erik was also scared. He just danced with death and came alive from the confrontation because of his quick thinking. He was also lucky that he had enough mana to impale the creature's brain at the last moment. If he didn't have the mana, he would have been dead.
It was true that he was able to win thanks to his reflexes and quick thinking, but he was upset that things didn't go as he wanted. He could not risk his life like this; he couldn't take any more chances... Things had to change.