Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 46: Final form?

Growl

The Wrathhound’s body turned as its nose sniffed around, leading it straight back to the splintered remains of the tree, its entire chest vibrating to produce this hellish, threatening sound.

’Just like that…’ Theo thought, taking aim at the beast before tickling the release with his finger. ’Just a little bit more…’

Snap!

While nowhere near as strong as the iron threads the bowstrings of the siege ballistas were made with, the tightly knitted fibers making up the string of Theo’s arbalest were still enough to pack quite the punch.

Swish!

His bolt flew through the air so quickly, he couldn’t even track its path… nor see it at all, with how it struck the Wrathhound’s side, leaving behind nothing but a weird indentation that then burst out with blood.

"SCREEEE!!!"

The Wrathhound wailed as it reared its dreadful, fang-filled mouth to the sky… before tensing up and falling down right into the rummage of the tree it just charged.

’Wait, just like that?’

Theo squinted his eyes, baffled by the effectiveness of his shot. Yet, as soon as he looked down at the health bars to confirm the kill…

’I actually did it…’ he thought, retreating away from the shooting window as he reached for the arbalest’s lever, ready to prep the weapon for another shot.

Quite noticeably, however, it wasn’t any of the remaining two full health bars that vanished into nothingness, but one of the two that were already reduced to but a third of their original state.

Still, a kill was a kill. And while it only brought the level of the remaining Wrathhounds even higher…

Thump!

Theo’s pillbox shook in its foundation, struck with force rivaling that of actual artillery.

Struggling to remain on his feet, Theo had no other choice but to let go of the lever, using his hands to brace himself against the wall of his bunker instead.

Grrrr…

That’s when he saw it.

The saliva-soaked teeth bared through the bunker’s shooting window, revealing that Theo’s position was no longer a secret to those monsters.

’Well, crap.’

Falling back to the very doors of his bunker, Theo grabbed the lever of his crossbow again, pulling it up with one, fear-fueled jerk of his hand.

By now, the Wrathhound moved its head even closer, its crimson-red eye now peeking through the opening.

"Thanks for the nice shot," muttering more to himself than to the beast, Theo took aim…

"ROAR!"

The monster’s eye grew even more intensely red as it recognized its target. The pillbox shook, much weaker than previously… but this time, it didn’t cease to shake.

’They are going at it, aren’t they?’ Theo thought, his thoughts strangely detached from his motions of raising the arbalest up to take aim.

Thankfully, Theo was fast enough. And before the beast could move its head away…

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Snap!

Theo’s worries of missing such a perfect shot and sending his iron-tipped bolt to ricochet throughout the insides of his bunker proved to be unfounded when an explosion of dark blood replaced the monster’s eye, followed by the vanishing of yet another health bar from the bottom of his vision.

This time, however, it was one of the full ones, leaving Theo to deal with just two more beasts—one of which was supposedly heavily injured by now.

’Bit by bit,’ Theo thought, reaching to pull on the crossbow’s lever again… only to realize that his bunker suddenly ceased to shake.

What did it indicate, however…?

With no bird’s-eye view to check the surroundings, he couldn’t really do much to investigate. And the very idea of leaving his reinforced position just to get a better grasp of what was going on not only sounded but was the literal embodiment of peak foolishness.

’I didn’t work so damn hard to get those defenses just to go and leave them…’

The lever on the side of Theo’s arbalest clicked, indicating its string was now locked in position. Yet, as he reached out to put a fresh bolt into its slot…

The bunker shook again.

It didn’t shake for a period of time, but just once. And the shake itself was now much weaker than before, incomparably weaker to when the Wrathhound most likely slammed itself into it, not even as heavy as when it actively tried to dismantle it from the outside.

Weirdly enough, however, Theo’s instincts screamed out.

In a moment of confusion, he looked down…

’Wait, what…?!’

There was now only one health bar remaining at the bottom of his vision. A full one, at that.

’Did it succumb to its wounds?’ Theo thought, following the inexplicable feeling in his gut as he retreated out of the pillbox and into the reinforced corridor, holding his crossbow aimed at the shooting window nonetheless while already putting his system building overlay on, ready to seal the bunker.

Right on time.

"Kekakakekakeka…"

An unfamiliar, otherworldly laugh filled the air, sending a cold shiver up Theo’s spine.

It sounded… like some sort of sonar actively pinging the air to make out the structure of the underground?

’Wait, what if it didn’t just die…?’ Squinting his eyes, he just stood in place, waiting for the challenging beast to make its move. ’What if that thump…’

Curious, Theo relaxed his focus for just the short moment he needed to glance through his battle overlay.

And just as he confirmed that the final Wrathhound had now reached the level formerly attributed to its entire pack…

A bear-sized, red-glowing arm just… went through the pillbox’s roof, heavily stomping down on the bunker’s empty insides, its claws still dirty from the red-hot stone it had somehow… burned through? Clawed through?

Theo’s eyes widened as he fell even further back, wasting no time in sealing the bunker’s entrance with the blocks of stone he had at the ready.

His eyes locked in on the entrance’s bottom, the projection of the stone block already there.

With but a single thought, the block materialized itself into existence, leaving Theo with just one more to go. Yet, as his eyes moved up to lock on the position for the second stone, the roof of the bunker fully collapsed, with the front half of the maddened, red-hot beast now turning its bloodied eyes and teeth straight at Theo, glaring at him through the projection of the second block of stone he was already in the process of placing.

Snap!

Still not even fully inside the collapsed bunker, the beast snapped forth, its devilish maw opening wide as it pushed through the air, ready to chomp down on Theo’s throat with its bloodied teeth through the narrow hole of the missing block of stone.

Thump!

Thankfully, Theo didn’t dare even attempt raising his arbalest to take aim, opting to just fully seal the bunker instead.

And judging by the speed at which the hound attacked… it was the right choice.

’How did it go through the stone?’

One question popped up in Theo’s mind.

’It didn’t claw through it! I would feel it if it did!’

Things simply didn’t make any rational sense. And if it could just pierce through a block of stone with a single attack… why did it take so much time to do so?

’Did it… melt through it?’

An idea popped into Theo’s mind, pushing him to risk it and… place his hand against the stone he had just used to seal the bunker’s entrance, only to then jump away with a hiss, shaking his hand to get rid of the stinging pain of his palm burning up.

’It’s already so hot…’

Theo’s eyes widened as he dashed backwards through the tunnel, already covering both the top and the bottom of the passage with more and more blocks of stone, leaving nothing but the single-block gap in the middle.

’But if it could melt through the stone just like that…’ Theo thought as he felt the air inside his defenses now grow noticeably hotter, making it harder and harder to breathe, ’then what good would my iron-tipped bolt do against it?’