They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 142: Alpha [3]

The ground shook with each step as it barreled through the ruined gate, its enormous bulk moving with terrifying speed despite the spear jutting from its shoulder.

Fifteen feet tall.

Over a ton of muscle and fury.

Coming straight at me.

I turned and ran.

My lungs burned as I crashed through the undergrowth, branches whipping at my face, roots trying to catch my feet in the darkness.

The forest was dense here, trees packed close together, the canopy above blocking out most of the moonlight.

I could barely see where I was going.

But the Alpha didn’t have that problem.

It crashed through the forest behind me like an avalanche, its massive bulk simply destroying anything in its path.

Trees splintered. Bushes were flattened.

And it was getting closer.

I pushed my enhanced agility to its absolute limit, but it wasn’t enough.

The gap was closing.

I could hear its breathing now, heavy, labored, but relentless. Could smell the odor of its fur and the blood coating its muzzle.

Twenty feet behind. Maybe less.

Then I heard a different sound, rock scraping against rock.

I glanced back just in time to see the Alpha’s massive paw close around a boulder the size of a cart wheel, its claws digging into the stone.

Oh shit—

It hurled the boulder at me with terrifying force.

I dove to the side, my shoulder hitting the ground hard, rolling desperately.

The boulder flew past where I’d been running and crashed into a tree trunk with explosive force, completely obliterating the lower half of the tree. The entire thing toppled with a groan of breaking wood.

I scrambled to my feet, gasping, and kept running.

But that had cost me distance. The Alpha was closer now, close enough that I could hear the wet sound of its breathing, the clicking of its claws on stone.

Think!

I activated my debug vision while running, the overlay snapping into place even as I dodged between trees.

The forest floor appeared in wireframe, roots, rocks, depressions, everything mapped out in translucent blue lines.

I modified the path behind me as I ran, making quick edits.

[Ground Stability: Stable → Unstable]

The earth where the Alpha was about to step became loose, shifting, like sand instead of packed dirt.

Its next footfall sank deep, throwing off its momentum. It roared in frustration, pulling its leg free, but it had cost precious seconds.

I kept running, kept editing.

[Tree Root Placement: Modified]

Roots lifted slightly from the ground in the Alpha’s path, not enough to be obvious, just enough to catch paws and trip.

The creature stumbled, crashed through another tree to regain its balance.

More seconds gained.

But it was learning. Getting more cautious. Slowing down but not stopping.

And I was running out of forest to run through.

I scanned ahead desperately, my debug vision expanding its range.

Then I spotted what I needed, fallen branches, some still relatively fresh, scattered around the base of an old oak that had lost limbs in a recent storm.

I scooped them up as I ran past, three, four, five branches of varying sizes. Not as good as the one I’d modified into a spear, but they’d have to do.

My mana was running low, but I had enough for what I needed.

I quickly modified each branch as I ran, sharpening the ends, hardening the wood, increasing their weight slightly to give them better penetration.

Then I expanded my debug vision outward, scanning the forest in a wide radius, looking for other life signatures.

There.

Multiple contacts. Moving through the trees maybe a hundred yards to my left.

[Dire Wolf Pack - 4 members]

[Level Range: 13-15]

And further beyond that—

[Razorback Boar - Level 17]

And even further—

[Shadow Stalker - Level 19]

The forest was full of threats.

Beasts that had been drawn by the commotion in Oakmere, or were just naturally prowling their territory.

Normally, that would be a nightmare.

But right now, it was an opportunity.

I adjusted my course, angling toward where the Shadow Stalker was prowling. It was the highest level of the nearby threats, a feline predator that hunted at night, ambush specialist, territorial as hell.

The Alpha’s roars behind me were getting more frequent, more frustrated. It knew I was close. Could probably smell me clearly now.

I needed to time this perfectly.

I slowed down slightly, just enough to let the Alpha close the distance, to make it think it was about to catch me.

The creature surged forward with renewed vigor, its massive bulk crashing through the undergrowth.

Fifty feet behind.

Forty.

Thirty.

I could feel the vibrations of its footfalls through the ground. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Then I saw it ahead, a massive feline shape, easily eight feet long, covered in dark fur that blended perfectly with the shadows. The Shadow Stalker, crouched on a thick branch about twenty feet up, its eyes gleaming as it tracked some prey below.

It hadn’t noticed me yet. Hadn’t noticed the Alpha.

Twenty feet from the Alpha.

Then I grabbed one of the modified branches and hurled it with all my strength, not at the Shadow Stalker directly, but at a young deer grazing in a small clearing near the base of the cat’s tree.

The branch struck the deer in the flank, not killing it but wounding it badly enough that it screamed and bolted.

Directly toward the Shadow Stalker’s position.

The cat’s predatory instincts overrode everything else. It dropped from its perch in a fluid leap, landing on the fleeing deer, claws and fangs driving deep.

The deer’s death cry echoed through the forest.

And the Alpha, charging full-speed in pursuit of me, crashed into the clearing at exactly the wrong moment.

The Shadow Stalker’s head snapped up from its kill, blood dripping from its muzzle.

It saw the Alpha, a massive intruder in its territory, interrupting its hunt.

The cat’s ears flattened. Its lips pulled back in a snarl.

The Alpha saw the cat. Saw it standing over prey. Interpreted it as a threat, as competition.

It roared challenge.

The Shadow Stalker screamed back, a sound like metal tearing, and launched itself at the bear.

They collided with tremendous force, the impact shaking the trees.

I didn’t stop to watch.

I used my debug vision to modify my heat signature, my scent trail, everything that could be tracked, dampening them, making myself harder to detect.

Then I changed direction completely, moving at an angle away from the fight, circling around toward where I’d sensed the wolf pack.

Behind me, the sounds of battle intensified, roars, screams, the crash of bodies against trees.

The Shadow Stalker was fast, vicious, landing hits on the Alpha’s face and shoulders. But the Alpha was bigger, stronger, its thick hide absorbing punishment that would kill lesser creatures.

It was a fight between predators, both too proud and too aggressive to back down.

Perfect.

I found the wolf pack within minutes, four of them, lean and hungry, investigating the sounds of combat with wary curiosity.

The alpha wolf, slightly larger than the others, scarred around the muzzle, growled low when it caught my scent.

The pack started to spread out, flanking positions, preparing to hunt.

I grabbed another modified branch and threw it, not at the wolves, but past them, toward the sounds of the bear and cat fighting.

Then I threw another. And another.

The branches crashed through the undergrowth, creating noise, movement, the impression of fleeing prey running toward the battle.

The wolves’ heads swiveled toward the sound.

Then back to me.

Then back to the sound.

Pack hunters. Opportunistic. They’d rather join a fight where there might be easy pickings from wounded combatants than chase a single fast-moving target through dense forest.

The alpha wolf made its decision, barking sharply to its pack.

They turned and loped toward the battle, disappearing into the darkness.

I kept moving, kept circling, using every trick I could think of to mask my trail.

The sounds behind me grew even more chaotic as the wolves joined the fray, their howls mixing with roars and screams.

I found a dense thicket of thorny bushes and crawled inside, ignoring the scratches, making myself as small and hidden as possible.

Then I used my mana to modify the immediate area around me.

[Light Reflection: Modified - Stealth enhancement]

[Scent Dispersal: Enhanced]

[Sound Dampening: Active]

[MP: 28/194]

Almost empty.

But I was hidden. Invisible, hopefully, to anything without specialized detection abilities.

I sat there in the darkness, breathing as quietly as I could manage, listening to the battle rage maybe two hundred yards away.

The Alpha’s roars. The Shadow Stalker’s screams. The wolves’ howls.

They were tearing each other apart.

And I was hidden, waiting, letting them do the work for me.

My HP was still critical. My mana almost depleted. I had no weapons.

But I was alive.

For now, that was enough.

I just had to wait for the right moment.

And hope the Alpha didn’t survive whatever was happening out there.