The Lupine System-Chapter 133: Result
Result
The panther seemed to realize that hitting Mike had become far more difficult than before with this new skill of his. As such, it switched things up.
It opened its mouth, and Mike frowned as the image of teeth appeared over his head. He tried to swipe it away, but it did nothing.
The panther then closed its mouth, and Mike’s world went dark as his vision was taken.
He snorted.
A skill that wasn’t easy to block but had no real attack power either. It was purely a debuff, and in a situation like this where the battle was incredibly chaotic, being unable to see would have been a death sentence to most.
But sight wasn’t the only sense Mike possessed.
As he worked on undoing the skill with his Authority, Mike focused entirely on dodging as his other senses mapped out his surroundings with uncanny clarity. When he only focused on dodging, Mike became a terror to attack as the window to land attacks grew even smaller with each movement he made.
As a result, the panther started to grow a bit frustrated, as no matter what it did, it couldn’t land a solid hit on Mike.
Worse yet, now that it had made use of its boosting skill, its energy was draining at an absurd rate, something the injury on its chest didn’t help.
That said, Mike’s situation wasn’t perfect either. While his regeneration was great, active healing still cost energy, and healing the damage the panther’s skill dealt caused a noticeable dip in his reserves.
Moreover, with Overclocking active, Mike was on a timer. He’d gotten quite a bit stronger between now and the last time he used it. Moreover, with Partial Transformation active, his body was more durable and could withstand the strain more, so it wasn’t simply 10 minutes long. But still, the moment the timer ended, he’d be done.
’For opponents I can’t just engage in melee with, I need to fight smarter.’ Mike thought as his sight slowly returned. He was still avoiding spatial attacks and strikes from the shadows, and from an outsider’s point of view, he seemed to be on the back foot. Sure, he was dodging, but he wasn’t exactly landing any hits of his own.
’... Alright, let’s try this.’ Mike had an idea and put it into action.
His aura flared, and with one hand, he unleashed a piercing Primal Rend just as the panther teleported again.
Sure enough, it reappeared in the path of the attack and was forced to teleport again to avoid getting hit. But Mike wasn’t done.
This time, he didn’t wait for the panther to teleport and simply released another attack, relying solely on his intuition as the panther once more teleported, and this time, he struck true.
The creature let out a pained yelp as the attack pierced its shoulder all the way. The pain halted its teleportation for a moment, and that was enough for Mike to close the distance.
It saw Mike approaching and immediately split into four clones that tried to delve into the shadows, but Mike had already created 4 Rings that bound each panther.
The clones instantly dispersed into black smoke, and the real panther was about to destroy the Ring binding it when the other three appeared and overlapped with the first one, holding the panther in a vice grip.
Mike appeared at that moment.
’As I thought, you can’t teleport if my aura is sticking to you with sufficient potency.’ He confirmed that the panther was unable to use its frustrating ability to evade him.
As he got close, the shadows suddenly surged forth, creating dozens of black tentacles that barred his path, and Mike didn’t hesitate to create two sets of Primal Rends that overlapped and sliced through the obstructions. When he broke through, though, his sense of danger blared, and he didn’t hesitate to step down, making use of his new skill to vanish.
A moment later, space ripped open to reveal the dark void from before. It was smaller than the one from before, but still very much lethal.
Unfortunately for the panther, Mike had learned his lesson.
And conveniently, Aura Step had taken him behind the thing.
The panther only had time to turn to see Mike. The lighting made most of his face obscured, leaving only his bright blue eyes shining with predatory malice.
The panther tried to explode with power, but it was instantly suppressed in all aspects. Its movements became sluggish, its energy moved slower, and worst of all, its injury was suddenly aggravated, sending a wave of paralyzing pain that stopped it from reacting in time.
At the same time, Mike’s aura condensed around his fist. He didn’t roar or make any dramatic movements. No, what followed was coldly efficient as Mike moved with seamless precision, making use of all the right muscles in his wind-up to unleash as much power as possible.
His fist collided with the back of the panther, and a horrid cracking noise was heard as, in an instant, its entire spine was shattered. What’s more, his aura also entered its body, burning nerves and destroying muscle.
The panther died instantly.
Mike’s punch continued and blasted the creature into the ground, shattering it and sending dust everywhere.
When it ended, Mike stood above the broken corpse of the panther while panting heavily.
For a moment, he just stood there and stared at his handiwork, then he quickly canceled all his skills and groaned as the strain hit him like a truck.
One might question releasing them so early, but Mike learned that the strain he’d feel from pushing overclocking to the limit was far worse than if he cut it short, and since his instincts didn’t warn him of any immediate danger, he guessed it was fine. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
He sat there for a moment, then he started laughing. Not hysterical laughter per se, but it was definitely heartfelt and came from the bottom of his chest.
Then, he fell on his back and sighed.
As usual, the feeling of immense euphoria from going up against a powerful foe and coming out on top was something hard to beat by anything else, and right now, the exhaustion and pain he was feeling were easily ignored.
However, not long after, the feeling of concern started to appear, because Mike still had a big question in his mind.
What happened when the chieftain hit him in the face?
Mike was very confident in his own durability, and yet, all arrows pointed towards his death from that final hit.
Oddly enough, it’s not the fact that he almost died that bugged him. Instead, it’s the method of his survival that bothered him.
Moreover, what happened to the chieftain? What injured the panther before they started fighting? Why was his Primal Authority domain weakened?
With no answers, he looked at the system, and that’s when he was suddenly bombarded by notifications he had been ignoring.
[Ding. Due to the Host’s efforts, a new skill has been created.]
[Primal Conduction (Level 1) – By forcing aura through an opponent’s point of contact, the Host can transmit destructive energy through weapons, armor, or limbs used to clash. This bypasses external defenses and directly disrupts muscles, nerves, and internal structures involved in exertion. Effectiveness scales with aura density, contact duration, and control.]
[Ding. Skill Haven Ring has leveled up.]
[Haven Ring (Level 2) – The Host may alter the form and behavior of Haven Ring. The ring can actively attract incoming attacks and reshape itself into bladed or segmented configurations.]
[Ding. Skill Haven Ring has leveled up.]
[Haven Ring (Level 3) – The Host may route outgoing attacks through Haven Ring, amplifying force, cohesion, and penetration.]
[Ding. Host has leveled up.] ×2
[Ding. Host has leveled up.]
[Ding. Host has leveled up.]
[Ding. Host has leveled up.] ×3
[Ding. Host has leveled up.] ×3
[Warning. Anomalous energy interaction detected.]
[Data insufficient.]
[Phenomenon logged.]
"... What the fuck?"
Mike’s face turned dark.
All the notifications except the last one were great. He was a little disappointed that the first one was named Primal Conduction since he wanted the name to have Aura in it, but that wasn’t really an issue.
The two level-ups for Haven Ring were also pretty good. He’d been feeling like the skill was a bit limited in how it worked, and it had been acting as more of a platform and binding skill than an actual defensive skill, so seeing the levels and new descriptions was great.
The levels were also crazy. From what he could guess, he got a level for creating Aura Step and Primal Conduction, then two levels for leveling Haven Ring twice, another two levels for surviving the two attacks from both the chieftain and the panther that could have killed him, and according to his instincts, 6 levels from killing them. That was, quite frankly, insane. Mike had never gotten so many levels in one go before.
Sadly, the glee he would have felt was drowned by the immense irritation towards the system by the moment, because he knew what that last notification meant.
It wasn’t going to tell him what happened.
