Chương 21: Chapter 20: Sweet Revenge, Salty Fight

"AHHHHHH!" This time the howl came from Priam's throat. Without thinking, he ripped his spear from Orthos' skull and grabbed it. Fatigue weighed on his shoulders, but he ignored it. The fight against Orthos had been quick but intense, and returning to the front without a moment's rest promised a tough fight. Yet it seemed he had no choice... Dashing toward the Boss, he charged his kinetic skill and identified his enemy. He was angry but not blinded by rage. This new Baron was an opponent he had to face seriously.

[Identification] [Lunar Lord - Nemea] - Named after the legendary lion and son of Orthos. Nemea is only a pale imitation of the mythological beast and has no real kinship with the late Orthos. Nevertheless, they were friends, and it will pursue the murderer of its brother with its terrible vengeance. I hope your middle name is Heracles... Lvl Up: [Identification] lvl 3 MEM +1"My name is Priam fucking Azura, and I'll crush this cat. Hey you, come here! I bet you're neutered!"

As Priam closed the distance between himself and Nemea, Nemea looked away. The Baron leaped towards another fighter and easily cut him to pieces. To the rest of the warriors, Nemea and its white coat was a ghost. To be close enough to notice it was to be too close to death. As Priam altered his course to intercept the feline, it retreated, leaped, dodged, feinted, and killed more humans. It was faster than Priam and had no intention of letting the rest of the fighters who had trapped Orthos escape.

It seemed to have decided that the murderer of its friend would be the last to die. The warriors who had been knocked unconscious by the canine boss's scream were not spared, and Nemea seemed to enjoy stepping on them. As he tried to catch up with the Baron, Priam had to avoid stepping on human remains. Witnessing the massacre only strengthened his resolve: the cat had to die. In a matter of seconds, the Boss wiped out any semblance of resistance.

It seemed smart enough to recognize that allowing humans to organize could be dangerous. Playing with its food, yes. Losing to mice, no. Priam tried ten times to attack the Baron and failed ten times. He finally stopped when he realized he couldn't catch the second Boss. This one was too fast. His emotions were boiling over, and his fury and helplessness threatened to overwhelm his reason. He concentrated for a second on [Soul Mirror].

In the pure water, he saw his face distorted by a fierce sneer, and the ugliness of his expression calmed him. He was a man and not a beast. That the animal could play with his emotions was already a defeat. Priam breathed for a second before thinking. Every moment that passed sounded the death knell of a man or a woman, and he knew he didn't have time to calm down completely. He would have to deal with his anger. He could accept it as long as it was in the service of his fight.

By the time he thought about it, seven other people were dead. I want to stop it from killing more, but it's always one step ahead of me. I move fast, but it's an exceptionally agile Boss. I won't catch it alone. I need to contact Anne and gather some semblance of resistance. With one last look at a man about to be gutted, Priam headed for Anne's last known location. He couldn't help the stranger, but he hoped to avenge him. When he reached the top of the mound that was supposed to house Anne, Priam's eyes widened.

For a moment, surprise dominated all his other emotions. In front of him, about twenty corpses were strewn on the ground. About twenty archers were lined up. Behind them, fighters mingled with warriors in more utilitarian roles - such as trackers, guides, messengers, strategists, and bards. All were dead. What happened? Priam became dizzy. He had to lean on his spear to keep from falling. He had known death, but seeing one massacre after another would have been unbearable for any human capable of empathy.

The adrenaline of battle was slowly leaving him while his emotions were disturbed. He had defeated the first Baron, but almost everyone else was dead. Despite all his efforts, nothing was going right. Defeat was beginning to find cracks in his mental armor.

"No! I can and must act. People have died here, and it is not by crying over them that I will avenge them." Closing his eyes, Priam meditated for a few seconds to suppress the anger and sadness overtaking him. He repeated these words to himself several times to regain his confidence. He knew that scenes of massacre often broke soldiers, and he did not want to sacrifice his sanity today. I may be sad for these people, but I have to think about myself. And right now, I feel like someone is playing me for a fool...

He was not stupid. With his strength and style, Nemea would have thrown those corpses everywhere. Many would have been mutilated and scattered. Priam moved closer and turned over the corpse of a middle-aged man. The rest of the scruffy sweater - he must have been wearing it the day of the Tutorial - was stained with blood. Inspecting the clothing, Priam saw a clean cut through the heart.

"He was killed from behind. By a dagger or a knife. First, Orthos guarding the secret entrance to the dome, and now this? What are you looking for, Anne?" Behind him, Nemea was finishing destroying the human resistance. Priam could do nothing more for them. To save a few people by staying by their side was to allow Anne to continue her machinations. Moreover, Priam was worried. The Amazon's plans did not look simple. Killing Orthos had opened a path to the dome.

Priam's family was potentially in danger, which came before a few strangers' lives. Priam did not consider himself selfish, but his family would always come first. Without looking back, Priam began to run in the direction Orthos had come from. In doing so, he knew the rest of the humans were doomed. What matters is my family. I am not the protector of the innocent... Priam was running for his life. Well, for his first life. In the white cottonwood forest, he was looking for the cave of Orthos.

He was faster than Anne and her Amazons and hoped to catch them. Priam didn't know what their plan was, but if they were capable of murdering a score of humans to avoid being followed, it didn't bode well. They clearly wanted to get into the dome, and his family might be there. He had to stop them at all costs. Papa, Sis... His mother might have been there too, but he didn't want to think about her right now. He had another more pressing problem. For the past few minutes, he had noticed that he was being followed.

Behind him, silent as the mist of which he was the master, Nemea moved smoothly. The Baron awaited a slip-up to pounce on Priam. The confrontation in the open would have been difficult enough for the young man, but in a wood full of blind spots, Priam didn't want to take the chance. His only advantage was that he could now see almost normally through the mist. Where before it was impenetrable, now there seemed to be only a slight veil over his eyes.

The Baron must have had the same gift but was used to humans not detecting it. Considering how difficult it was to defeat Orthos when weakened, Priam had no desire to attempt a fight without help. When Priam realized Anne had eliminated a third of the fighters, he knew it was over. Nemea had happily slaughtered the rest of the survivors before following him. Priam was annoyed that a hundred fighters had failed to give him even five minutes of respite.

He did not want to disrespect the memory of the dead, but they could have arranged a better resistance. Priam was the only one who could protect the dome and didn't have time to fight a second Boss. The two enemies ran close together towards the cave. Unfortunately, Priam could not accelerate to his maximum. Orthos had made a clear path through the woods, chasing the Amazon, but he still had to avoid uprooted stumps, fallen logs, and exposed brambles.

Lvl Up: [Art of Movement] lvl 10 AGI +1 PERC +1 DEXT +1 Despite the pitfalls, the two hunters navigated quickly through the destroyed vegetation, and Orthos' territory appeared less than a minute later. A kilometer ahead of them, between the branches of the cotton trees, Priam saw a peak. A small, isolated mountain about a hundred meters high seemed to have sprouted from the earth like a mushroom. As they got closer, Priam felt a strange sensation.

It appeared clearly artificial compared to the rest of the landscape. The System wants us to notice this place. Halfway up, a round, dark hole four meters in diameter had been drilled. As Priam watched the mount, his instincts screamed. He used [Kinetic Control] to throw himself to his right. A quarter of a second later, at his exact location, a paw clawed the air. The blow would have been fatal, and Priam did not doubt that Nemea would have finished the job quickly. He sat up quickly, surprised.

His inner ear seemed almost healed, and his [Balance] skill was working at full strength. Did my trance under Potential allow my Vitality to heal me faster? Dividing his attention in a fight was a bad idea, and Priam almost paid dearly for it. His instincts began to scream again. Without looking back, he ducked behind an old cottonwood tree. The System had undoubtedly decided to bring diversity to the lunar landscape, and the tree was massive. Its trunk easily stopped Nemea's attack.

Priam moved back quickly to keep his opponent in his sights. His perception, vivacity, agility, and dexterity combined to give him sublime reaction speed. It was the minimum to survive against a Baron who specialized in hunting. Tired of waiting for a mistake and being more comfortable in the forest, Nemea attacked. It did not want the young man to reach the mountain and lose its advantage. The Baron had not forgotten that the frail human managed to kill Orthos. Annoyed, it continued to attack Priam.

The difficulty of the fight was totally different from the previous one. Nemea was pristine white in the white mist among the flowering cottonwoods. Its camouflage was perfect. Even if Priam's eyes could now pierce the mist, whenever it passed behind a tree, he lost sight of Nemea. The giant cat often took advantage of this to get closer to Priam from a blind spot. This tactic, coupled with the hunter's speed and silence, forced Priam to defend himself at the last moment. A single error meant death.

It was complicated for Priam to counterattack. He didn't have the range to do it without a weapon and surrounded by trees, his spear was of little use. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. While dodging several attacks, Priam gradually got the hang of his new skill. He felt it was his ticket out of this situation.

[Moon Mist - Rare] lvl 1 - By modifying the environment of the Moon, the Concepts have chosen to artificially increase the weight of the atmosphere. A semi-permanent haze has been placed on the surface of the satellite. Made of aether, oxygen, nitrogen, and tiny water droplets, it hinders the inhabitants' perception. You now control this mist and are almost immune to its effects. Be careful, if the mist is already manipulated, your total immunity turns into partial resistance.

PERC +1 META (AFFI) +2 Bonus (quest) - Lvl Up: [Moon Mist] lvl 2, 3, 4, 5 PERC +4 META (AFFI) +8 His ability to manipulate the mist was still weak, but Priam could already sense it within a certain radius of him. By concentrating, he was able to feel where the fog was denser. More importantly, he could sense where the mist was not. In this environment, if there was no fog, there was something else. Trees marked Priam's skill because they replaced the mist. But when an absence of fog moved, it was not a tree...

There it is! Priam dodged the attack by a hair's breadth. Turning around during his dodge, he managed to grab the Baron's paw to steal its kinetic energy. Priam accelerated using the stolen power. Nemea was slowed down as Priam transferred the speed from one body to the other. He pulled Nemea to him. The surprised cat had no time to react before the human's fist slammed into it.

"I'm not going to let go of you!" Priam knew he probably wouldn't get another chance. He had dropped his spear to maintain his grip. In hand-to-hand combat, Nemea had the advantage of its sharp claws, but Priam could cushion the blows, speeding up his own body and decelerating his opponent's. Relying on his extra life to cover his back, Priam began to strike the animal on the snout. Nemea growled before attempting to slash Priam.

Despite their speed difference, dodging claws in close combat was nearly impossible, and he was hit superficially in the left arm while blocking an attack. He absorbed as much of the feline's kinetic energy as possible, and the Boss's attacks no longer had enough speed to be truly dangerous. Priam's exceptional constitution allowed him to ignore such assaults. His muscles were so dense that Nemea's claws couldn't cut through them. Priam struck the animal's snout several times with no visible effect.

The snout is not his weak point. Its eyes then! Holding Nemea tightly, Priam continued to gather seven hefty charges of kinetic energy as he absorbed the cat's power. In the previous fight, Priam had learned to save kinetic energy by stealing it for a few seconds instead of just absorbing it instantly. He was getting better and better at using his skill [Kinetic Control]. The charge could be filled for a longer time and also served to slow down the opponent while he gained more energy.

There is nothing like a fight to the death to awaken one's abilities and push one's limits. Lvl Up: [Focus] lvl 8 PERC +1 VIVA +1 DEXT +1 Lvl Up: [Kinetic Control] lvl 11 VIVA + 2 DEXT + 3 META (FOCUS) +4 Although the two enemies were fighting to the death, a spectator could have thought they were taking turns to strike. While Priam waited as long as possible to deliver a devastating blow, Nemea was a little lost. It had been born on Earth a few weeks earlier. Its foster family had been adorable at first.

The kind servants were human, but Nemea was willing to forgive them if they continued to provide it with quality kibble until the end of time. Even the big dog - Orthos - who was already occupying the house, wasn't all bad. Then, about ten days before, everything had changed. The family was gone, the house was gone, and it had arrived suddenly on the moon. The big dog was still big, but the rest of the world had become smaller.

While its canine brother guarded their new home and protected the dome where their servants were, Nemea had chosen to roam the area a bit. As a feline, its place was at the top of the world, and its arrival in this new world had not changed that fact. The entire food chain bowed to its supremacy, and the Baron - he should have been King - had never met resistance. Its ability to hunt was unmatched. But the frail human in front of it would not leave it alone.

Nemea had no desire to continue to fight the little being head-on, but he held it firmly. Its powerful pawing did not seem to have the desired effect. The young kitten was annoyed with this human who dared to bother it. As if killing its dog and refusing to commit suicide wasn't enough! While Nemea was losing patience and was planning to use all means to annihilate the heretic who stood between him and the feline supremacy, it got a bad feeling.

While the Baron was busy with useless thoughts, Priam thought he had gathered enough kinetic energy. He jumped and pirouetted over the big cat. With his free hand, he grabbed the fur on Nemea's head before releasing the animal's front paw. He had thought of using a super-powered blow to amputate the feline, but he was currently holding the Baron. Thus, the backlash from the attack was sure to amputate him as well. Any action caused a reaction. If I'm going to use all my strength, I might as well not hurt myself.

I have to aim for the eyes. Perched on the head of the Boss who was growling in indignation, he cocked his blow by flattening his left hand. The eyes of the two antagonists met, and Priam struck. In the same movement, Nemea clawed. Nemea did not see Priam's hand before it entered its left eye socket. The arm disappeared into the Baron's skull as all of Priam's kinetic energy was discharged in the movement. Unlike the previous fight, Priam was using kinetic energy to accelerate his own body.

He had better control of the attack, but he was putting his arm at risk. Hitting a tree slowly was benign, but when you hit a hard surface with all your might, it was not uncommon to break your hand. Priam's movement was almost perfect. His inhuman perception of his own body and his dexterity allowed him, even without training, to know instinctively how to move his muscles. No false moves, no self-inflicted wounds from a brutal and violent blow.

But the kinetic energy of the acceleration caused the muscles in his arm to buckle. The Baron's eye was easily pierced, and the flattened hand continued on its way. Behind the eyeball, it met the bone separating the eye from the brain in a cat. In humans, the brain was directly behind the eye, but the skull of a cat protected it better. Priam didn't know this and, carried away by his momentum, his hand came crashing against the bone. Both shattered, and Priam screamed as the bones in each of his fingers broke.

Lvl Up: [Focus] lvl 9 PERC +1 VIVA +1 DEXT +1 Lvl Up: [Strike] lvl 11, 12, 13 STR +3 Lvl Up: [Blunt Resistance] lvl 4, 5 CONST +2 Lvl Up: [Cut Resistance] lvl 4, 5 CONST +2 As Priam landed on his feet a few feet away from the Boss - he had let go of his grip because of the pain - he looked at the damage he had caused. As if in slow motion, Nemea's body collapsed and lay on the ground. Shards of his own bones had penetrated the Boss's brain. It's dead. Seeing the Baron's immobility, Priam looked at his left hand.

Bits of bone had pierced his flesh. His fingers looked like crushed sausages. The sight of his shredded hand made him dizzy. He wanted to vomit in horror and pass out at the same time. Can I heal from this?! With my vitality over 100... Maybe? In the worst case, it will be cured in my next resurrection, right? There was a difference between knowing you would be perfectly healed and seeing your flesh mutilated. Priam had died many times before and was no stranger to pain.

Yet he knew he was not yet ready to get used to seeing his body tortured. Moreover, Nemea's last attack had also hit him hard in the side. The animal's claws were sharp, and Priam couldn't absorb the blow because he was so busy attacking himself. Without his exceptional constitution, Priam's insides would have escaped by now. He gritted his teeth and tore off his shirt to make a makeshift bandage. His Vitality was already healing him.

He wouldn't die from this wound, but combined with his crushed hand, he was seriously disabled.

"Well, I hope the System doesn't know the adage 'bad luck comes in threes'. But if it does... Am I going to fight a giant ferret? A colossal snake? A monstrous turtle? What else do people have as pets?..." The Baron's body jerked as Priam pondered how to treat his hand. Incredulous, Priam looked up: bits of bone were being pushed out of the Boss's eye socket, and his wounds were closing rapidly.

"A Boss cat... Don't tell me his skill is that he has nine lives?! Holy shit, that's totally cheating!" Indifferent to the indignation of Priam, Nemea opened its eyes. Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0) PHYSICAL: Strength 67 Constitution 82 Agility 97 Vitality 113 Perception 76 MENTAL: Vivacity 92 Dexterity 77 Memory 31 Willpower 48 Charisma 40 META: Meta-affinity 38 Meta-focus 44 Potential: 105 Tier 0