Chapter 47: Compensation (8)

When Luke arrived at the next crossroads, he immediately turned left, and the beasts followed him, but they didn't expect that he had stopped right there and prepared to attack. Using level one Stinger several times, Luke's sword pierced the neck of three wolves while he completely avoided the others. Once the third was killed, Luke had arrived on the other side of the street and began to run again.

The monsters stopped and changed directions, but they weren't fast enough to keep up with him, and he soon turned in the next crossroad as well to the right side. Luke wondered if he should stop there, but he kept going and turned right again in the end. Thanks to that, the beasts thought that he truly wanted to escape, but they were surprised when they turned to the right side as well. With fearsome precision, Luke used Stinger and then made his sword pierce the right eye of one of the Starving wolves. The beast died since the sword easily reached the brain, and Luke didn't have a hard time pulling back his weapon instantly. When three other monsters tried to attack him, Shalia fired Ice Needles toward their eyes and blinded them. While the monsters were grunting in agony, Luke attacked them the same way as before. Even when blood gushed on his body like a fountain, he didn't stop...

The same thing happened five more times, but then Shalia finally ran out of mana. While she retreated to suck some of Luke's mana, Rina stepped forward and buffed his strength. When Luke felt his sword getting incredibly lighter, he smirked from ear to ear.

"You only have fifteen seconds," Rina said.

"That is plenty!" Luke said and then dashed toward the other enemies.

When Luke went on the offensive, the monsters opened their mouths to bite off his limbs, but he swung his sword so hard and so fast toward them that they ended up losing half of their faces. A single strike had been enough to completely incapacitate them and left them bleeding to death. In five seconds, ten of those beasts lost their faces and lives thanks to their unstoppable hunger. So, the others tried to use their claws first… but that didn't help either. When Luke saw those paws moving toward him, he clenched his teeth and attacked them, hoping that his sword would reach the other side and cut the faces of the monsters as well. He managed to do that against the first beast, but only because the wolf only blocked the strike with a single paw.

By using both arms, the monsters decreased the power of the sword strike, and while their paws were still cut off, their faces had been protected… not for long, though. Without their front paws, the beasts couldn't move. They could only grunt in agony.

It was suicidal, but the remaining wolves decided to jump toward Luke at the same time from all angles and even from above. They knew that he couldn't defeat them all, and in the end, as long as they killed him, losing five or even more would be worth it if they gained that power. However, things didn't go as they planned. When Luke saw some of the enemies jumping to attack him from above, he already knew what to do… he used Stinger Level four and attacked one of the wolves head-on. The collision had been so powerful that Luke felt some bones of his arms cracking. Still, not only did he escape the encirclement, but he also made his sword pierce the wolf's body in two, up to its chest.

The monsters could turn around and keep attacking Luke, but they hesitated when they saw the blood raining over him… Luke was completely unscathed and managed to kill twenty of the fifty starving wolves already in a couple of minutes. Did they have any change against him? While they were beasts that came to that world to obtain power above anything else, the starving wolves couldn't help but flinch. They had that much intelligence, after all.

Luke, on the other hand, didn't hesitate. He charged toward the enemies without thinking about anything and pierced the head of one of the wolves. When he pulled back his sword, he made the creature's blood rain over the area, and that had been the sign of the monsters to decide to run away.

"What the hell…" Luke frowned when he saw the wolves splitting and running in all directions.

"Damned cowards…" Shalia said and then used all the mana that she had obtained to freeze the legs of some wolves.

That gave Luke the chance to approach them, but in the end, Shalia stopped only five of those beasts, so Luke only killed five more of them. Chasing them was an option, but it wouldn't be efficient.

You obtained 15 experience points.

You obtained 15 gold coins.

Congratulations! You have leveled up and obtained five status points.

Luke sighed in disappointment… Maybe he overestimated the wolves, and he prepared too much against them. In the end, he barely used the effect of his sword against them. Still, he was surprised that his sword managed to kill them so fast… was it because of its rank? The bonus in strength shouldn't be that high, though…

"Oh, well… I am too tired to care about this," Luke let all the tension leave his body, and the exhaustion took over him completely. "Let's grab the loot and then look for a place to rest."

"If you don't mind, a place with a lot of water would be good," Rina said.

Luke realized that those two were also covered in blood… he made a mistake fighting so recklessly; still, they couldn't complain since he got the results. Nevertheless, aside from two MP and one SP potion, Luke found a helmet as well.

Iron Helmet

It decreases your field vision a little bit, but in return, it increases your endurance considerably.

END + 05, RES + 02

Durability: 10/10