After the death dog died there wasn’t any notification about them beating the dungeon. There wasn’t any chest or prize at the end of it either. The prize was that they were now in the room with the highest mana density in the dungeon. They could break through the barrier.

Selene was the first to get up. She tottered to and fro as she walked, but she did walk right up to the death dog and threw a poison spear into one of its open mouths just to make sure it was dead. After that she sat down and presumably started breaking through. There was no visual clue that that’s what she was doing, but from the meditative position she was in it was clear. Caleb was the second and he simply walked over to check on Jason and then started to breakthrough right next to him once he saw there was nothing he could do.

The last to move was Jason. An entire three days after the other two had started their breakthroughs Jason moved. He was starving and slightly emancipated, but he had mostly healed. His health had regenerated to full within a day and then after that he had to wait for his body to actually heal through the excess health points he was naturally generating. He still wasn’t completely healthy, but his muscles and bones were fine now and his skin was only slightly charred.

As Jason stood he let out a great sigh. Not of relief, but just of satisfaction. I can move again. That was too long. Thank god I was unconscious for a portion of it. I wonder how long it's been. Let’s see if I can eat this dog’s heart. It doesn’t have the rabab in its song, but maybe since it’s very similar to a wolf I’ll be able to eat it. The wolves didn’t have rabab either so my body wanted something different from them. Why are my thoughts all over the place… maybe it's because of the injuries… I don’t know. Whatever.

Jason stumbled over to where the boss lay unmoving. Stepping past Selene he went to the bottom of the dog where it’s stomach was. He didn’t bother taking out his knife. It wouldn’t be able to cut the dogs skin anyway. He reached his hands into one of the wounds it had and ripped. His sensitive skin screamed at him to stop, but Jason just kept ripping the stomach of the beast open. Eventually the dead monster’s pelt gave up and Jason was able to expose the insides to the world. Taking his hands he reached into the beast’s belly and moved its guts around trying to find his quarry.

His arms drenched in blood up to the elbows Jason finally managed to reach the heart after a struggle. Wrapping his hands around the head sized heart the death dog had, Jason ripped it out with gusto. Lifting the heart up to the ceiling Jason roared his delight. Literally roared. His body had an uncontrollable reaction when met with the sight of this heart forcing him to roar as if he was a beast. The other two were apparently undisturbed by Jason’s outburst as they just kept on meditating. Just like the first heart Jason ever had Jason devoured this one like an animal.

The raw heart was ripped into various pieces as Jason shoved them into his mouth and chewed as quick as he could. Everytime he ripped a part of the heart off, blood splattered everywhere. With every bite and every chew his teeth and mouth got a little bit more dyed in red. With every morsel he felt an immense amount of energy fill his body. His skin was being healed rapidly all the while it started to bleed again. Everything was starting to bleed.

It was as if he was eating the blue fruit for the first time again. The pain was overwhelming and yet Jason just couldn’t stop eating. Despite the agony his body was experiencing it forced Jason to continue shoveling more and more of the heart into his mouth. He was only able to stop when he had finished all of it. Then he knelt down on his hands and knees and screamed. His body was twitching and convulsing making him slip and fall on his face. Spasming on the ground he felt his bones breaking and shifting around in his body. His muscles were squirming and he felt his empty eye socket throb. His screams shifted from wails to roars to groans to any other noise an animal could conceivably make. The pain was so great that Jason simply lost consciousness.

Then the pain stopped. Jason woke up and looked around. He didn’t find the bossroom with the dead death dog and his party. He didn’t find the desert, or the forest, or even the caves. He found emptiness. He didn’t even appear to be standing on anything. Everything was just blue. Completely and utterly blue. Then as if a vortex appeared in the sky above Jason all the calm blue energy got sucked up into a ball. Once all the blue was in a very teeny tiny ball in the sky there was momentary stillness followed by an enormous thud in which the ball exploded outward into a giant orange conflagration.

The sun had appeared. Fierce and bright the orange sun was pulsating in the sky. Waves of force and tendrils of orange were sent out each second. As Jason was sitting there staring at the sun it started to condense into itself eventually resolving into the shape of a death dog. This death dog didn’t have jet black fur but instead was made purely of the orange energy.

From its place in the sky the death dog looked down at Jason and considered him for a short while. Then it started to walk down to Jason as if walking down a staircase. With each step the death dog’s aura started to become permeated with fierceness and bloodlust. With each meter closer all four of its eyes were getting more and more wild. It’s mouths were growling and its heads were thrashing looking all the part of a blood-mad beast. At least in attitude.

Eventually the beast made it to the ground with its wild eyes and thrashing head. A mere twenty meters in front of Jason the beast suddenly focused itself and stared at the runic human. Its aura getting more and more wild despite its appearance getting slightly calmer. Whatever this place is and whatever that is. I don’t like it one bit. I guess my breakthrough test is if I can kill it? Jason cocked his head to the side and considered the beast. Then without even a bit of warning Jason pounced on it.

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If I have to kill you then I might as well start now! As Jason was skimming over the ground quickly thanks to his improved strength and jumping abilities the orange avatar rushed forward as well to meet him. Jason met the claw with his fist and found that in this headspace the two of them were completely even. Neither side was stronger than the other and in Jason’s mind he figured neither was faster than the other. This also means that it probably has the same offense and defense as me and since I don’t see any hellfire yet despite getting so close to its mouth I bet it can’t use its magical abilities either.

Jason was willing to bet that he was right and simply lost himself in the combat. Stamina, health, and mana seemed to not be limiting factors here as he didn't feel himself getting more tired as the fight went on. Though he did feel his opponent getting stronger.

With every punch thrown and strike received he found that the orange thing was getting more resilient and it’s claws were getting sharper. After a few minutes of fighting Jason saw that he was actually getting hurt and would eventually be killed and overtaken by the monster. After a few hours of fighting Jason was unrecognizable with every part of his body exposed down to the innermost muscles or the skeleton. He couldn’t move quickly anymore and he felt his body slowly disintegrating as the beast got ever stronger. Yet still he fought.

I… I’m going to die. Fail to breakthrough. This is a lot harder than what Selene said it would be. Condense the mana she said… it’ll be easy she said… load of shit. Jason threw a punch that had the strength of a baby behind it. The beast didn’t even put the punch in its eyes and simply bore down on Jason one head biting his arm and the other biting his neck knocking him down in the process. Jason’s body disintegrated even faster now leaving just his skeleton with a few strands of muscle.

NO! I don’t understand why I’m getting weaker! I don’t understand how it's getting stronger! I don’t understand why this isn’t at all what I was told! This damn dog! This damn DOG! THIS DAMN DOG! The fear of death drove Jason to slight madness. Jason didn’t fear pain as he couldn’t feel it anymore as long as it was under a certain threshold. He didn’t fear attacks or hordes of enemies because he would only find that fun. Death on the other hand was something Jason did fear.

He was just getting started in this new world. He was hot blooded and someone obsessed with fighting, but death was his limit. If this fight was a fair one then death wouldn’t have seemed so bad. Jason just would’ve thought that him and his opponent had done the best they could and he ended up on the bottom, but this wasn’t a fair fight. This was a rigged fight. Rigged in the avatar’s favour. There was no glory here in death. There wasn’t any honour.

I REFUSE! I look at you, ye overgrown puppy, AND I REFUSE! Jason did the only thing he could do in this situation. He saw that a bit of the mouth of the head that was biting his neck was in range of his teeth. So he did the most natural thing to him. He took his skeletal jaw and crunched the “skin” of the dog with his teeth twisting his head as far as the dog’s grip would allow to each side. Eventually after a few seconds of struggle he managed to rip a part of the dog’s skin off and watched it dissipate into the ether. What he didn’t see was that when it dissipated it was absorbed into his bones.

He had injured the dog before. He had ripped skin and muscle off of the dog, but they had always just assimilated back into the dog when the ether took them. This was the only time the skin had assimilated into Jason.

The reaction the dog had to this attack was intense. It immediately let go of Jason’s neck and started trying to bite his skull off. Jason fought back with just as much ferocity. The dog had him pinned still so Jason couldn’t do much except move his head and bite back. His free arm being used to try and scratch and rip the ears and other easy to grip parts of the dog's body off. Eventually Jason succeeded with his biting and tore the dogs ear off. Which assimilated into his own body once more.

Jason at this point was only focused on tearing and biting the death dog he found in front of him. He would meet savagery with savagery, monstrosity with monstrosity, wildness with ferality. He was biting and tearing into the beast as much as he could. Acting much like a beast himself.

He didn’t notice when the beast had gotten off of him. He didn’t notice when the beast lost its tail, or limb, or head. He didn’t notice that the orange energy that made up the beast was slowly coming to suffuse into his own body. He was the beast. The fight between him and the avatar had turned into a fight between two alpha beasts each determined to show that they were stronger, better, fitter. That only they were worthy of being the sole survivor.

Jason’s mind wasn’t full of thoughts anymore. It wasn’t even full of music right now. It was full of snarling and madness. Jason in fighting the monster had descended to become one himself.

He didn’t even clearly notice when he had reduced the death dog down to a skeleton which was missing one of its heads, its tail, and two of its legs. He never even paused after he crushed the last bit of orange bone into dust he merely looked around the black space for something else to kill. Unaware that he was the last thing in the space.

His eyes glowing a burning orange and his body's runes glowing the same color Jason stood there leaning forward, legs bent, shoulders hunched, and arms lightly touching the ground as if he was ready to propel himself forward with them at any moment. His face was twisted and a low growl rumbling from his throat. After looking around for a few seconds Jason raised his head and howled in victory. His enemy had been crushed and he was the victor. He was the alpha.

Then all the sudden Jason was back in his body next to the real death dog. Jolting from his sleep he found that he felt… different… stronger. He looked around and saw a young girl sitting there. Taking his claws he grabbed her lightly by the throat and lifted her up ready to tear into her throat with his canines and rip her guts out with his free claw. Claws? No I don’t have… wait… no? She looks familiar. Why am I acting like this? Of course she looks familiar… isn’t that Selene?

Jason’s hands dropped leaving Selene to fall to the ground. Dazed for a second or two. I have to… have to… I have to get my mind together. Jason stumbled away from the corpse and the now lying down Selene, who he was going to kill just moments before. Without another thought he went to the living creature he felt the most comfortable around and sat down.

Little Cub on the other hand when he saw the monster that had sat down next to him froze in fear and awe.