Chapter 20: Sweet Revenge, Salty Fight

Chapter 20: Sweet Revenge, Salty Fight

"AHHHHHH!" This time the howl came from Priam's throat. Without thinking, he released his spear from Orthos' skull and grabbed it. Fatigue weighed on his shoulders, but he ignored it. The fight against Orthos had been quick but intense, and returning to the front without a moment's rest promised a tough fight. Yet it seemed he had no choice...

Dashing toward the Boss, he charged his kinetic skill and identified his enemy. He was angry but not blinded by rage. This new Baron was an opponent he had to face seriously.

[Identification]

[Lunar Lord - Nemea] - Named after the legendary lion and son of Orthos. Nemea is only a pale imitation of the mythological beast and has no real kinship with the late Orthos. Nevertheless, they were friends, and it will pursue the murderer of its brother with its terrible vengeance.

I hope your middle name is Heracles...

Lvl Up: [Identification] lvl 3

MEM +1

My name is Priam fucking Azura, and I'll crush this cat. Hey you, come here! I bet you're neutered!

As Priam closed the distance between himself and Nemea, Nemea looked away. The Baron leaped towards another fighter and easily cut him to pieces. To the rest of the warriors, Nemea and its white coat was a ghost. To be close enough to notice it was to be too close to death. As Priam altered his course to intercept the feline, it retreated, leaped, dodged, feinted, and killed more humans. It was faster than Priam and had no intention of letting the rest of the fighters who had trapped Orthos escape. It seemed to have decided that the murderer of its friend would be the last to die. The warriors who had been knocked unconscious by the canine boss's scream were not spared, and Nemea seemed to enjoy stepping on them. As he tried to catch up with the Baron, Priam had to avoid stepping on human remains. Witnessing the massacre only strengthened his resolve: the cat had to die.

In a matter of seconds, the Boss wiped out any semblance of resistance. It seemed smart enough to recognize that allowing humans to organize could be dangerous. Playing with its food, yes. Losing to mice, no.

Priam tried ten times to attack the Baron and failed ten times. He finally stopped when he realized he couldn't catch the second Boss. This one was too fast. The young man's emotions were boiling over, and his fury and helplessness threatened to overwhelm his reason. He concentrated for a second on [Soul Mirror]. In the pure water, he saw his face distorted by a fierce sneer, and the ugliness of his expression calmed him. He was a man and not a beast. That the animal could play with his emotions was already a defeat.

Priam breathed for a second before thinking. Every moment that passed sounded the death knell of a man or a woman, and he knew he didn't have time to calm down completely. He would have to deal with his anger. He could accept it as long as it was in the service of his fight.

By the time he thought about it, seven other people were dead. I want to stop it from killing more, but it's always one step ahead of me. I move fast, but it's an exceptionally agile Boss. I won't catch it alone. I need to contact Anne and gather some semblance of resistance. With one last look at a man about to be gutted, Priam headed for Anne's last known location. He couldn't help the stranger, but he hoped to avenge him.

When he reached the top of the mound that was supposed to house Anne, Priam's eyes widened. For a moment, surprise dominated all his other emotions. In front of him, about twenty corpses were strewn on the ground. About twenty archers were lined up. Behind them, fighters mingled with warriors in more utilitarian roles - such as trackers, guides, messengers, strategists, and bards. All were dead. What happened?

Priam became dizzy. He had to lean on his spear to keep from falling. He had known death, but seeing one massacre after another would have been unbearable for any human capable of empathy. The adrenaline of battle was slowly leaving him while his emotions were disturbed. He had defeated the first Baron, but almost everyone else was dead. Despite all his efforts, nothing was going right. Defeat was beginning to find cracks in his mental armor.

"No! I can and must act. People have died here, and it is not by crying over them that I will avenge them."

Closing his eyes, Priam meditated for a few seconds to suppress the anger and sadness overtaking him. He repeated these words to himself several times to regain his confidence. He knew that scenes of massacre often broke soldiers, and he did not want to sacrifice his sanity today. I may be sad for these people, but I have to think about myself. And right now, I feel like someone is playing me for a fool...

He was not stupid. With his strength and style, Nemea would have thrown those corpses everywhere. Many would have been mutilated and scattered. Priam moved closer and turned over the corpse of a middle-aged man. The rest of the scruffy sweater - he must have been wearing it the day of the Tutorial - was stained with blood. Inspecting the clothing, Priam saw a clean cut through the heart.

"He was killed from behind. By a dagger or a knife. First, Orthos guarding the secret entrance to the dome, and now this? What are you looking for, Anne?"

Behind him, Nemea was finishing destroying the human resistance. Priam could do nothing more for them. To save a few people by staying by their side was to allow Anne to continue her machinations. Moreover, Priam was worried. The Amazon's plans did not look simple. Killing Orthos had opened a path to the dome. Priam's family was potentially in danger, which came before a few strangers' lives. Priam did not consider himself selfish, but his family would always come first.

Without looking back, Priam began to run in the direction Orthos had come from. In doing so, he knew the rest of the humans were doomed. What matters is my family. I am not the protector of the innocent...

Priam was running for his life. Well, for his first life. In the white cottonwood forest, he was looking for the cave of Orthos. He was faster than Anne and her Amazons and hoped to catch them. Priam didn't know what their plan was, but if they were capable of murdering a score of humans to avoid being followed, it didn't bode well. They clearly wanted to get into the dome, and his family might be there. He had to stop them at all costs. Papa, Sis...

His mother might have been there too, but he didn't want to think about her right now.N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

He had another more pressing problem. For the past few minutes, he had noticed that he was being followed. Behind him, silent as the mist of which he was the master, Nemea moved smoothly. The Baron awaited a slip-up to pounce on Priam. The confrontation in the open would have been difficult enough for the young man, but in a wood full of blind spots, Priam didn't want to take the chance. His only advantage was that he could now see almost normally through the mist. Where before it was impenetrable, now there seemed to be only a slight veil over his eyes. The Baron must have had the same gift but was used to humans not detecting it. Considering how difficult it was to defeat Orthos when weakened, Priam had no desire to attempt a fight without help.

When Priam realized Anne had eliminated a third of the fighters, he knew it was over. Nemea had happily slaughtered the rest of the survivors before following him. Priam was annoyed that a hundred fighters had failed to give him even five minutes of respite. He did not want to disrespect the memory of the dead, but they could have arranged a better resistance. Priam was the only one who could protect the dome and didn't have time to fight a second Boss.

The two enemies ran close together towards the cave. Unfortunately, Priam could not accelerate to his maximum. Orthos had made a clear path through the woods, chasing the Amazon, but he still had to avoid uprooted stumps, fallen logs, and exposed brambles.

Lvl Up: [Art of Movement] lvl 10

AGI +1

PERC +1

DEXT +1

Despite the pitfalls, the two hunters navigated quickly through the destroyed vegetation, and Orthos' territory appeared less than a minute later. A kilometer ahead of them, between the branches of the cotton trees, Priam saw a peak. A small, isolated mountain about a hundred meters high seemed to have sprouted from the earth like a mushroom. As they got closer, Priam felt a strange sensation. It appeared clearly artificial compared to the rest of the landscape. The System wants us to notice this place.

Halfway up, a round, dark hole four meters in diameter had been drilled. As Priam watched the mount, his instincts screamed. He used [Kinetic Control] to throw himself to his right. A quarter of a second later, at his exact location, a paw clawed the air. The blow would have been fatal, and Priam did not doubt that Nemea would have finished the job quickly. He sat up quickly, surprised. His inner ear seemed almost healed, and his [Balance] skill was working at full strength. Did my trance under Potential allow my Vitality to heal me faster?

Dividing his attention in a fight was a bad idea, and Priam almost paid dearly for it. His instincts began to scream again. Without looking back, the young man ducked behind an old cottonwood tree. The System had undoubtedly decided to bring diversity to the lunar landscape, and the tree was massive. Its trunk easily stopped Nemea's attack.

Priam moved back quickly to keep his opponent in his sights. His perception, vivacity, agility, and dexterity combined to give him sublime reaction speed. It was the minimum to survive against a Baron who specialized in hunting.

Tired of waiting for a mistake and being more comfortable in the forest, Nemea attacked. It did not want the young man to reach the mountain and lose its advantage. The Baron had not forgotten that the frail human managed to kill Orthos. Annoyed, it continued to attack Priam. The difficulty of the fight was totally different from the previous one. Nemea was pristine white in the white mist among the flowering cottonwoods. Its camouflage was perfect. Even if Priam's eyes could now pierce the mist, whenever it passed behind a tree, he lost sight of Nemea.

Lvl Up: [Focus] lvl 9

PERC +1

VIVA +1

DEXT +1

Lvl Up: [Strike] lvl 11,12,13

FOR +3

Lvl Up: [Blunt Resistance] lvl 4,5

CONST +2

Lvl Up: [Cut Resistance] lvl 4,5

CONST +2

As Priam landed on his feet a few feet away from the Boss - he had let go of his grip because of the pain - he looked at the damage he had caused. As if in slow motion, Nemea's body collapsed and lay on the ground. Shards of his own bones had penetrated the Boss's brain. Its dead.

Seeing the Baron's immobility, Priam looked at his left hand. Bits of bone had pierced his flesh. His fingers looked like crushed sausages. The sight of his shredded hand made him dizzy. He wanted to vomit in horror and pass out at the same time. Can I heal from this?! With my vitality over 100... Maybe? In the worst case, it will be cured in my next resurrection, right?

There was a difference between knowing you would be perfectly healed and seeing your flesh mutilated. Priam had died many times before and was no stranger to pain. Yet he knew he was not yet ready to get used to seeing his body tortured. Moreover, Nemea's last attack had also hit him hard in the side. The animal's claws were sharp, and Priam couldn't absorb the blow because he was so busy attacking himself. Without his exceptional constitution, Priam's insides would have escaped by now. He gritted his teeth and tore off his shirt to make a makeshift bandage. His Vitality was already healing him. He wouldn't die from this wound, but combined with his crushed hand, he was seriously disabled.

"Well, I hope the System doesn't know the adage 'bad luck comes in threes'. But if it does... Am I going to fight a giant ferret? A colossal snake? A monstrous turtle? What else do people have as pets?..."

The Baron's body jerked as Priam pondered how to treat his hand. Incredulous, Priam looked up: bits of bone were being pushed out of the Boss's eye socket, and his wounds were closing rapidly.

"A Boss cat... Don't tell me his skill is that he has nine lives?! Holy shit, that's totally cheating!"

Indifferent to the indignation of Priam, Nemea opened its eyes.

Status: (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)

PHYSICAL:

Strength 67

Constitution 82

Agility 97

Vitality 113

Perception 76

MENTAL:

Vivacity 92

Dexterity 77

Memory 31

Willpower 48

Charisma 40

META:

Meta-affinity 38

Meta-focus 44

Potential: 105

Tier 0