Epoch of Desolation: A Post-Apocalyptic Litrpg

Rain was uncertain about how fast he might have been before his amnesia, or the Plexus taking control of his body, but from his battle with the wharf rat he noticed that when he moved he seemed to glide past things a tad more easily than he felt would be expected from humans—at least the dehydrated and unathletic ones such as he. And this in particular was what he based the whole success of his plan on; him being able to fully take control of his best and boosted Attribute, his speed.

However it turned out to be anything but as easy as he’d hoped. After all, he had not taken one crucial thing into high consideration, and that was his opponent possessing an abnormal speed as well.

…15. 16. 17.

Rain counted down as he leapt to his side, away from the latest of the downward claw-swipes the Mutated Coyote he was engaged with rained down on him.

Immediately after that, he pounced a few steps back as the Coyote sent another attack in an arc towards his midsection, not giving him a moment to catch his breath.

He had already been low on stamina from all the prior sneaking and running he and J had been engaged in to avoid the beasts prowling the earth, but now his exhaustion was visibly planted on his face. Sweat escaped every pore, despite the cold air, and his mien was extremely pale.

Still, he kept his gaze anchored and focused on his opponent. The beast would not get the better of him. Not now, and most definitely not ever.

A moan of pain rushed into Rain’s ears at that moment, causing his knife-sharp gaze to falter and a sense of worry to tug at his heart strings.

It was J’s.

But he could not turn. If he shifted his concentration now when he was in battle it would prove fatal. He had to remain focused no matter what.

…20. He counted down again. Just hang on for 40 more seconds.

And with that Rain was upon the Mutated Coyote before him once more, though this time with surety of his victory.

The past twenty seconds had been him mapping out how the beast attacked, and it had in fact only taken that long because he was trying to find a loophole in its defenses where he would be able to deliver a killing blow to it without him getting injured. Alas, there was no such possibility of that occurring—at least quickly. And since wasting any more time would cause J to lose its life, he decided to tweak his attack pattern. After all, this was the whole reason why he had invested his Experience Points into the Durability Attribute.

Another swing came, and as he had done twenty-three seconds ago now, Rain sidestepped away from it. But this time with so much precision that a window of opening appeared for a second, one he did not hesitate to take as he jabbed his knife at the red speck of low intensity pulsing just above the joint of the Coyote’s right arm.

The beast howled in pain as the muscles surrounding the attacked area spasmed, forcing its hand to droop to the ground.

…30.

Without a moment to spare, Rain lunged forward as another opening appeared for him; the beast noticed what was coming and instantly tried to swing its other hand in an attempt, seemingly, to behead Rain in an act of defense. But the shrunken, amnesia-stricken teenager on the onslaught ducked beneath the attack just in time, and brought himself face to face with the beast.

This was it.

He did not know how Coyotes’ attacked before they’d been physically mutated, but in their current state, Rain had deciphered from their elongated arms that they were possibly long ranged fighters. And as such, it was common sense that the best way possible to break the defenses of long ranged fighters was to shorten the distance—no, cut it off completely so that their vital points would be exposed for assault.

That was what he’d done now. The Coyote could no longer make use of its long arms at this range.

Rain quickly switched his knife between hands, throwing it from his right to his left.

…But that wasn’t all. He’d taken one more thing into consideration…

At that moment the curved fangs of the Mutated Coyote towering before him bit into his right shoulder, piercing into his flesh with a mind boggling agony that almost ran Rain mad.

…The fangs of the beast. And it was because of his well thought out plan that he had been able to shift his neck aside just in time to avoid his head being taken apart.

The pain, on the other hand, was greater than he’d thought it would be. But he held on regardless. He had already resolved his heart and mind for this situation, so he did not falter.

“…45 seconds,” Rain uttered through a clenched jaw as he tensed the muscles in his hand and stabbed his knife into the side neck of the Mutated Coyote, the point with the highest intensity of the red specks all over the beast's body.

Instantly he was freed from the clutches of the Mutated Coyote’s fangs as a result of the guttural howl of pain the beast released from its lungs. He could not let it continue screaming though, so he immediately dug his knife into a few of the other red specks visible on the Coyote’s body until they all vanished as its life was snuffed out of it.

…60 seconds.

Bloodied from both his blood and that which had spurted out of the dead Coyote, Rain turned around and changed his locations in a second, moving away from the blissful scenery of his victory and into the tense air of the ongoing battle which had been ensuing behind him.

The Coyotes had traded extra brains for brawn, but they still weren’t completely fools.

They had noticed the death of their comrade, and were obviously frightened from the probability of theirs coming into fruition too. Rain took advantage of that shock of theirs, as well as his Companion drawing their attention. And besides, a single mode of attack was what the extent of the beasts’ wits would allow them to compose on the spot; now that he knew how to bypass that—coupled with the other elements in play—he could take them out swiftly.

This was his plan all along.

With that, Rain shot past J, not sparing its obviously injured body a glance at the moment as his mind was fully focused on fending off the adversaries before them first.

Then, replicating the same move he had used to take down his first Coyote—just this time without him being bitten—Rain forced blood to gush forth from the necks of the two Coyotes left, one from the front and the other from behind. He had done so with such quickness that they’d had no chance to react. And it was only when they were on the ground with no traces of life left in them did he finally breathe out a big huff of exhale.

[Side Plot: Completed]

Side Character Rain Leclair, and his Companion, have successfully eliminated their adversaries.

All the tension in Rain’s body released at the sight of those words, and before he knew it he was seated on the ground with his head leaning back.

[Bestowed Reward(s)]

+7 Experience Points (Assignable).

[Proceed to assign?]…

“It’s over,” Rain wheezed and winced in pain due to the fiery burn in his shoulder, then he turned to look at J seated beside him while licking the blood on its paws, confirming that, as he’d expected, his Companion was riddled with a varying amount of scratches.

He recalled how he’d thought of the Jaguar being more of a burden than help and wanted to slap himself for it, but apparently he was too tired for even that.

“I’m sorry,” he said instead, drawing J’s attention to him. “I took too long.” J had the same incredulous look it always had, and Rain found himself smiling at last. “High five?” he added with his right palm raised up. A few seconds later J placed its paw on his palm and his smile turned into a grin.

Suddenly, Rain’s throat burned. It was probably noon already, and his newfound thirst from all his scampering about since dawn was at its peak now. His neck was burning, itching, almost like it had been filled with the sands of a desert. He could take it no more. Anything would do for a drink. Anything. And at that moment of desperation, Rain’s eyes fell upon the blood oozing out of the necks of the dead Coyotes.

He swallowed hard. Something he had once thought irritating now seemed to be the only option he had left.

If he decided to wait until he came across a bottle of water, who knew when that would be? With how thirsty he was currently, continuing his journey would feel more of a chore than it already was.

As if to make sure his mind did not win over his body, Rain’s eyes blurred for a moment as a wave of dizziness engulfed him.

It had been brief, but… that had been enough. Rain was now without control of his humane senses.

Driven purely by his desires, Rain left J behind him and proceeded to kneel before one of his kills. He then cupped his hands together and scooped up the blood oozing out of its neck, tainting his lips red as he drank voraciously.

The taste was a little too displeasing and metallic—salty, to be even more precise—but it was not for the taste he was gulping the red, dense liquid down, so he did not let that stop him from quenching his thirst.

It was not until he had drunk his fill did his eyes grow to have life once again and his senses return.

His belly knotted then as a pained expression took over his face.

He slowly turned around in an attempt to look at J, regarding what sort of face the Jaguar had on for his actions, and it was then that he noticed it. His shoulder was completely healed, the burning pain that had once been there no longer existing. If not for the bite mark on his patient’s gown, as well as the traces of blood around that spot, it would have been impossible to believe that he had been bitten.

Rain’s mien transformed from the pained and shameful one it was into a dazed one.

What is this?!

That question he quickly found the answer to though. And as a result he turned his gaze from his shoulder to the corpses of the Mutated Coyotes before him.

It can’t be.

His thoughts weren’t far fetched; in a world where animals could become physically mutated, grow limbs longer than humans, grow horns their species had never once had, and could also become as wise as humans, his thoughts were definitely not far fetched.

And that was why he now sharply turned to J once again, looking past its listless gaze as he perused the fresh battle marks littered all over its body.

It was licking its own blood before but its wounds are not not yet healed… Does that mean?

“J!” Rain screamed, visibly startling the youth Jaguar. “Come now.” He gestured at the dead Coyotes. “Come drink, right this instant.”