Chapter 12 - My all against Yours

“That powerful attack just now…it was that Howler’s tail right…?”

{Shadow Howler has inflicted critical damage}

The impact wedged me into the wall of the pit, large cracks surged out into the stone behind me. My energy faded and there didn’t seem to be a way of freeing myself.

Both my ears twitched at the subtle pitter-patter of paws that raced in my direction.

The Houndlings charged at me in a uniformed line, clearly taking advantage of my staggered state.

“Don’t think I’ll just sit here– Devour…!” I muttered with a short breath.

The corpses of Shadow Prowlers littered across the pit filled my eyes. They were all that was left from my killing spree before, more than I cared to count.

I planted my hand over the dirt beside me and the aura of my skill flooded out, covering the bodies and dirt alike.

{Shadow Prowler skill tree has increased in proficiency}

{New Skills have been unlocked}

Moments before the hounds could reach me, the window of the skill menu closed abruptly and my body was surrounded by a heavy black aura.

From a glance, I got the gist of the skill and my lips moved accordingly.

“Shadow Step.”

My body burst into a light cloud of smoke and vanished in front of their eyes. The Houndlings crashed into the pillar and cracked it further.

The second burst of smoke indicating my reappearance, was triggered on top of the stone pillar. I extended my legs out and kicked off from the structure.

{User has activated Strike Kick}

This is the only way to take them all out, it’s an all-or-nothing gamble!

With a powerful blow to the top of the wall, the entire structure fell over and crushed the pack of shadows under its colossal weight.

A pulse of shadowy dust burst out from the sides of the toppled structure. The chilling growls and yelps of howling beasts were instantly silenced once the structure fell flat on its side.

“There’s no time to rest, I need to take care of him before he can regroup!”

{Rush activated}

I jumped over the collapsed pillar and sprinted to the defenceless figure at the centre of the pit. The Shadow Howler's presence was still as great as before, only now, it was on its own.

“Graaaaaargh!”

The Howler let out a monstrous moan as my chakram sliced across its shoulder. I buried my feet into the ground to halt the momentum and went back for another strike. Once I stopped, I noticed the thin black whip headed toward me.

Swish!

I can’t take that head-on again, I need to cut them loose!

With an acrobatic leap through the air, I flipped upside down over the attacking whip and cut off a sizable portion of the tail. The loose end faded out of sight like dust in the wind, along with the sharp pointed end that caused me so much trouble.

I didn’t give it a chance to react, once I landed my feet shuffled back for another jump.

“Hyaa!” I shouted as I took the second tail off.

That should make things slightly easier, I just have to worry about him now-

The warm breath of the Howler's open jaws crept over my shoulder. I rolled to the side and dove through its legs and out of danger.

My face cringed just thinking back to the first Prowler that managed to grip hold of my shoulder. I wanted to avoid that at any cost, so much so that my body moved on its own.

“You’re bringing back some unpleasant memories I’d rather forget!

{Strike Kick activated}

A powerful white aura focused around my foot as I sent it flying up into the jaw of the beast. Its head cocked back from the blow and a massive chunk from its HP chipped away.

{Strike Kick has reached the required proficiency to level up}

{Skill has been evolved to Strike Kick Lv.2}

Good timing! To kill this thing, I’ll need to give it everything I have and then some! Pour everything I have behind this– push yourself to your limit!!

I dove in with my chakrams extended and cross-chopped at its chest, cutting out a large X into its body. A spray of blood followed my blades as they left its body, staining the ground with wide splatters of dark red blood.

In a fit of rage from my chain of attacks, the Howler vanished into a burst of black smoke and appeared behind me with open jaws.

Even with my boosted speed back, the Howler's overwhelmingly fast! I can’t keep up with it as I am now–

The Shadow Howler teleported in an endless spree of attacks, I only managed to dodge them with my Rush skill. It was an intense game of cat and mouse that I was losing. It pushed me back and took everything I had to not get caught.

“You’re not the only one who’s got that skill!”

The Howler appeared out of the smoke and bit down on a new cloud of smoke. The trail of my skill was a thick smog that filled its jaws.

{User has activated Shadow Step}

Appearing over its body I arched my shoulders and threw out my chakrams with all the strength I had left in me.

Both blades sliced through the monster's sides but it endured, jumping back toward me. On top of that monstrous speed was an unbelievably durable body.

“I can't do it endlessly like you but…”

{User has activated Shadow Step}

“I can do a lot more than you!”

{User has activated Strike Kick}

A powerful blow launched the Shadow Howler into the air and dropped its HP into the red. Without any chakrams to hold on to, I used my Rush skill to launch into the air.

{Shadow Claw activated}

A series of extensive cuts and gashes covered the Shadow Howler’s body as I let go of all form and technique, gouging at it like a wild beast.

“GYAAAAHHHHH!”

{Congratultions!}

{User has slain the Dungeon Boss, you have cleared the Dungeon}

{1000 Exp gained}

{Level up}

I collapsed to the floor, with every muscle in my body aching and screaming worse than before. My head caved into the loose dirt under me and everything went numb.

“I didn’t…know the Tower…could be this fun.”

I had spent a week hacking away at Funks as if it were life and death, never in a million years would I have guessed that I’d be in a dungeon a week later.

There was so much I wanted to know, about Ellios, the Tower and much more. I had so many questions but at that moment I couldn’t think of any of them. I was completely absorbed in the moment and smirked at the open skies with a goofy smile.

“If this is what the Tower offers higher up…I’ll need to get stronger. Much stronger.”

My eyes drifted to the Shadow Howler's corpse lying beside me, carved up with scratches. I devoured the body and instantly went to my skill menu to see the rewards.

A new icon for the Shadow Howler emerged which connected to the Shadow Prowler's skills. From what the descriptions told me, it was just an evolved version of the Shadow Prowler. Devouring the Shadow Howler seemed to have increased my proficiency for both species.

From what I skimmed over in the skill tree, I managed to unlock quite a few new skills that were left grey before.

Perhaps there’s another requirement to unlocking them that I don’t know about,

I pondered while rubbing my chin.

{User has reached level 10}

{System Upgrade is available, will the User accept the Upgrade?}

An upgrade? What will this change, well so far everything’s been good so I doubt I wouldn’t enjoy the rewards.

“It should be fine.”

In response to my words, Uriel's message disappeared along with my HP bar that was in the corner of my eye. Everything related to the system disappeared out of sight and went silent.

“Uh…Uriel, where did my health points go?”

With no answer, I got anxious.

Does the upgrade take him away completely, I didn’t sign up for that?!

“Sigh…”

There was no point in dwelling on it, I just needed to wait for the upgrade thingy to finish. I directed my attention to the wreckage behind me. No matter how much I concentrated, I couldn’t appraise anything I looked at.

All forms of the system were gone, it was as if I had returned to being how I was before I met Uriel. I gave it some thought and hovered my hand over the grass with an anxious grin.

“Devour!” I shouted tensely.

Black mist shot out and retracted back to my hand as normal, a sigh of relief followed. I didn’t know what I would have done if all my powers were gone while still in the Tower.

“So I’m still me…just without Uriel for a while. I should be fine for a while, the Dungeon’s already been cleared anyway.”

The portal reopened a few steps away from me, identical to that of the one that brought me there. Its bright blue glow caught my eyes and triggered a smile.

“Dungeon cleared.”