Chương 45: Head-On Clash

To be precise, it was the layer of "living oil sludge" covering its body that was decomposing. Vince hadn't expected his impromptu water attack to trigger this specific reaction. Instead of drowning or physically damaging the Mutated Hound, the pond had essentially "washed off" its outer layer of oily armor. As the thick sludge sloughed off its body, the nearly 3, 000 HP abomination finally revealed its true form—a physique significantly leaner, more compact, and far more ferocious than a standard Mutated Hound.

Although its overall volume had shrunk by a third, its entire body was now encased in a layer of dense, interlocking bone plating. Only its major joints were exposed. Right in the center of the bone plate protecting its chest was a finger-wide indentation. That was the mark left by Vince's full-power thrust earlier. Vince finally understood why his spear had felt like it was hitting solid rubber. The bone plating covering this monster was so absurdly dense that even the [Sharpness Crystal] struggled to pierce it.

It was exponentially harder than reinforced concrete. Uh... It's too late to run now... The thought had barely flashed through his mind when the Mutated Hound moved. Its speed had nearly doubled! Even buffed by the [Swiftness Potion], Vince could barely track its movement. He only had a fraction of a second to cross his two steel spears defensively in front of his chest before the hound's massive front paws crashed into him. The overwhelming kinetic force launched Vince straight into the air.

He smashed brutally into the side of a parked car behind him, shattering both side windows upon impact. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The car's alarm instantly began blaring, its headlights flashing wildly. [-39] [206/335]"Cough! Cough! Cough!" A mouthful of hot blood surged up his throat, choking his windpipe. Slumped against the pavement, Vince couldn't stop violently coughing. Motherfucker... cough, cough!

By some twisted twist of fate, throwing the monster into the water had washed away its annoying sludge armor, but he hadn't realized it would also strip away its heavy encumbrance. Feeling significantly lighter, the Mutated Hound seemed slightly unaccustomed to its sudden agility. It cautiously circled Vince, keeping a wary eye on the flashing, blaring "giant metal monster" behind him, occasionally lowering its head to sniff its own lethal claws. This hesitation gave Vince a desperate second to breathe.

"Pah." He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva to the side. Using his long spear as a crutch, Vince forced himself back to his feet. Seeing its prey move, the hound stopped pacing. It lowered its body into a predatory crouch, staring at him with hyper-vigilance. Vince didn't dare drop his guard for a microsecond. Being submerged in water had stripped away its outer shell, trading defense for unparalleled agility.

Vince no longer held a speed advantage, and in a head-on clash, that dense bone armor made landing a lethal blow nearly impossible. I'm running out of time... Originally, relying on his enhanced strength and the [Swiftness Potion] would have been enough to fight on equal footing. But now, facing the unencumbered, hyper-agile Alpha Hound, his raw power was actually falling behind. He had no choice but to burn his final trump card.

"Activate [Strength Potion]!" [Strength Potion Activated] Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. [9: 59] Instantly, Vince felt a torrential surge of raw, explosive power flood every muscle fiber in his body. He visibly "swole up" right before his own eyes. His previously lean, athletic frame rapidly expanded. Every single muscle group bulged massively. In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into an absolute, hulking unit of a man.

The seams of his shirt and pants began tearing apart under the sheer mass. Even the canvas of his boots was stretched taut by his expanding calves, the shoelaces pulling so tight they looked ready to snap. Feeling the terrifying, surging power coursing through his arms, Vince hesitated no longer. He tossed the short spear to the side, violently kicked off the pavement, and swung the heavy long spear like a baseball bat straight at the hound's head.

"Let's smash that ugly mouth first!" The [Swiftness Potion] was still active, and combined with the overwhelming explosive force of the [Strength Potion], Vince's current speed easily matched the bone-armored hound. Washing away the oil sludge might have seemed like it buffed the hound, but with Vince's strength now multiplying exponentially, the advantage had swung back in his favor. Previously, the bone armor was hidden beneath the sludge—soft on the outside, rock-hard on the inside.

He couldn't see where to aim, and he couldn't pierce the hidden plating. But now, the armor layout was completely exposed. All he had to do was aim for the unarmored gaps! CRACK! A sickening, meaty thud followed. Unable to dodge the blistering swing, the monster took the steel pipe directly to the face. The [Sharpness] energy infused in the shaft violently detonated upon impact. One of the four fleshy petals forming its grotesque maw was brutally ripped off and sent flying into the air.

Only a bloody stump remained attached to its jaw. [-169] [2419/2694] It worked! Although the damage was still heavily mitigated by the surrounding bone, it was a massive improvement over the pitiful double-digit damage from before. The Mutated Hound reeled from the colossal impact, nearly collapsing onto the asphalt. It seemed washing away the sludge provided another massive advantage: the hound's total body weight had plummeted. It had to be at least two hundred pounds lighter than before.

If it hadn't shed that weight, this swing wouldn't have possessed nearly enough kinetic force to stagger it so severely.

"Now's my chance!" Seeing the enemy lose its balance, Vince smoothly pulled the spear back and instantly transitioned into a vicious forward thrust aimed directly at its head. Time to end this! But to his shock, the monster's reaction speed hadn't dulled in the slightest. Instead of flying into a blind rage from the injury, the moment Vince thrust the spear, the hound pressed all four paws into the ground and executed a flawless sideways leap. The lethal strike hit empty air.

Four legs are just inherently more agile than two! Missing the strike, Vince didn't waste a single breath on frustration. He ripped the spear back and immediately charged toward where the hound was landing. He had less than two minutes of [Swiftness] left. Once the potion wore off, having monstrous strength wouldn't matter if he couldn't keep up with the beast's reaction speed. If this dragged out until all his buffs expired, he was a dead man.

Before the hound's paws even touched the ground, Vince closed the distance in three massive strides. He drove the heavy spear forward, aiming precisely for the dark, fleshy gap between the bone plates on its flank. Suspended in mid-air, the hound had no way to dodge. And a creature covered in bone plating absolutely had to have unarmored joints; otherwise, it would be physically impossible for it to move with such agility.

Despite the spear tip having been slightly blunted, under the terrifying combination of Vince's hyper-accelerated reflexes and monstrous brute strength, the thick steel pipe—gleaming with the deadly aura of the [Sharpness Crystal]—was brutally wedged into that narrow gap. SCRREEEECH— An agonizing, teeth-aching sound of grinding bone echoed out as the thick steel pipe forcibly pried the adjacent bone plates apart, violently cracking their edges. Vince let out a primal roar.

The muscles in his arms coiled tight like dragons as he ruthlessly drove the steel stake all the way in. Squelch! The spear tip slammed against the inner wall of the bone plating on the opposite side of its body, letting out a muffled thud. With the massive kinetic energy having nowhere to escape, the [Sharpness] energy violently detonated inside the hound's body, churning its internal organs into a bloody porridge.

The fleshy gaps between the bone plates on the far side of its body violently burst open from the internal pressure, spraying geysers of black blood into the air. [-389] Under Vince's current titanic strength, the three-to-four-hundred-pound hound was literally flipped over by the thrust, crashing heavily onto its back. Howling in agony, it thrashed wildly, desperately trying to scramble back to its feet. But fighting against the clock, Vince absolutely refused to give it the chance.

He stomped his heavy boot down onto the hound's neck, pinning it to the asphalt. He ripped the spear out and, with every ounce of strength he possessed, rapidly thrust the blade into the newly shattered gaps in its armor three consecutive times. Black blood sprayed everywhere. [-306] [-378] [-288] [1058/2694] Pinned by its neck and unable to break free, the agonizing barrage of strikes drove the hound into an absolute, feral frenzy. Its two massive front claws began frantically shredding at Vince's right leg.

Simultaneously, its powerful hind legs kicked upward with manic aggression, aiming a devastating double-claw strike directly at his groin.

"Fuck!" Vince hurriedly lifted his right boot off its neck and executed a rapid backward hop, narrowly dodging the beast's vicious sneak attack. That was way too close! If that desperate counterattack had actually landed... Vince stared at the four razor-sharp, gleaming claws on the hound's hind paws. That absolutely would have been an instant -99 HP critical hit!