I contracted the legs muscle and initiated step three... dashing.

...closer to the Shredder.

With arms more than two meters moving out of the monster's range is impossible. And even on the possibility, I was able to get out, I have to take into consideration the monster's speed and agility, which are way higher than mine. Thus the only practicable plan is to use one of the two noticeable flaws; its long arms.

In any other situation, the lengthy arms would have been a terrible weapon to be alert to with a high level of alertness; more than two meters long, strong, and swift with three sharp blades, capable of slicing an adult human in three parts with one single swing.

However, what will serve as an advantage in one circumstance can turn into a liability in another. In this case the long arms. They are extremely practical especially if the target is equipped with firearms, yet the arms require space to swing freely and the target to be in its range... not at an intimate distance.

I moved forward. The shredder didn't react in any unexpected way, it didn't seem surprised nor did it retreat, instead it used it only weapon it can use in this extremely close distance; its teeth.

The shredder has a small head prolate spheroid and half of which is a mouth, that is fitted with sharp teeth. I have no uncertainty about its jaws' strength, the probability of its capacity to break steel bars is extremely high, and I don't need to see it in action to come up with a reasonable supposition.

Getting any closer to it is a deadly mistake.

...but this is where the essence of step three lay into.

The Shredder's sharp teethed mouth is every bit as dangerous as its long bladed arms. And it is perfectly capable of killing me with one swift launch forward. And it is moving closer to me, it is just not as swiftly or rapidly as it is capable of.

And that is for two reasons. The first is in its physiology; it does not have a neck. The second reason is due to step two; deviating its arm's attack forward caused it to lean its center of gravity forward and lose its balance.

Thus why the speed of its head attack is significantly reduced to below mine.

That give allows me to bring the practical knife in my right arm to its small right eye.

A sticky and mushy sound was registered as the knife pierced the small black eye. The numbers representing disgust spiked. The Shredder let out a guttural cry and tried to tilt its head from the knife, but without a neck the movement it can do are limited.

I ignored the irrelevance and pushed with all my weight. I need to pierce its brain before my injured right arm gives up. I drove in harder, but I seem to have either underestimated its inside eye protection or overestimated the strength of my injured arm.

I gritted my teeth, not a helpful action but it is an unconscious reaction of humans in difficult situations so I let it happen.

The monster shrieked again. I put my left hand over my right, squeezed with all the working muscles, focusing all the necessary energy, and pushed more and more. My feet started sliding backward, the snowy ground not providing enough friction, but I pedaled and kept forcing more of the knife onto the Shredder's eye socket until a slight vibration traveled from the knife to my hand; the knife is breaking in. It is small but it is working.

3 to 5 seconds.

3 to 5 seconds is the estimated time for the knife to break the eye socket's bones and reach the brain.

...yet that proved to be unsatisfactory.

I thought as I felt an unexpectedly strong impact on my left and back upper body, sending me flying, hitting the ground, and flying more before I turned my body, stabilizing my balance and coming to a halt, in a crouching position, my hands on the cold ground, my back a couple of centimeters from a large tree trunk. I moved my head up to the Shredder confirming my assumption.

The plan 'Shredder's mushy brain' is a failure.

I kept my eyes on the Shredder as I analyzed both the damage I caused and the damage I received.

A black viscous liquid slowly poured out of the empty hole that once served as the Shredder's eye. The Shredder however doesn't seem to have taken much damage, and is in a fine fit circumstance albeit in an agitated state, probably angry. But can't ascertain since being in an angry state is its default appearance.

My body, however, is in a less positive state than the Shredder, though way more optimistic than expected. The analyses returned no broken bones, fortunately, and no ruptured organs, or internal bleeding, but only external bleeding; lacerations on my back and shoulder. The injuries tough might avert deadly if not treated in less than 20 minutes.

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And blood loss isn't the only threat, the monster's claws are poisonous.

I didn't notice it until I run the internal analyses, but an unknown toxin is frying itself in my muscles, voraciously eating my flesh. The positive part is the toxin doesn't seem to propagate through the blood. While the negative part is it is highly probable I will get my arm amputated from the shoulder if I want to stop its toxic advance.

A hot knife is what I will need to remove the infected flesh. I will also need external help if I want to reach injuries on my back. The military team will do, they will also provide sutures and needles to close the lacerations. But most importantly I need to remove this unexpected variable, the third Shredder, before proceeding with the previous plan.

I inhaled through my nose as I adjusted my pace of breathing, after my rapid series of actions my breath shortened considerably proving this body is hardly following.

My breath came up as a foggy puff passed through my vision as I focused on the Shredder that pushed both arms against the ground propelling itself in my direction, madness in its only working eyes.

The snowstorm had already stopped when I woke up leaving only a light snow falling. Quite unfortunately, it would have an adequate screen against anyone or anything with a vision deficit.

The tactical knife is still strongly held in my right hand. Though it is injured and got slapped unexpectedly, I did force the nerves on my entire arm to close the gripe.

Prepared for step one of the contingency plan.

The monster is 27 meters right ahead of me, and the toppled jeep is 43 meters at my ten. Making the idea of getting the rifle null.

I focused on the progress bar to the top left of my vision.

BM (Bar Mode) = 46.1%.

31.6 seconds in the Stale State.

The internal analysis' cost was heavier than expected at 3.4%, which is 2.3 seconds uses in the Stale State. While the altercation since I activated the ability to present lasted 5.3 seconds.

And since going any lower than 20% of the BM might result in crippling aftereffects, I would have exactly 17.6 seconds to maintain my ability active with just the Stale State.

17.6 seconds.

What are the probabilities of removing the variable in that time frame?

46%.

The probability of killing the two Shredders in that time frame?

17%.

The probability of dying?

66%.

The monster hurled forward with rage at its prey, me. Black blood dripped from its eye and mucus from its mouth. It shortened the distance between us from 27 meters to 24 in 0.2 seconds, making its speed to be 14.44 meters per second. Meaning it will be upon me in 1.66 seconds.

And if we take into account its long arms, my death is in one second... if nothing interferes with it that is.

Bang.

The Shredder staggered and stumbled to the side losing its balance for a moment, but I didn't stay to examine it more. As soon as the signal I was waiting for fired, I made a 180 degrees turn, and bolted to the thick expanse of trees behind me.

The monster hollered and hissed at the annoying female human for interfering with its prey. But soon recovered its stable footing before following shortly after the cowardly and treacherous quarry.

The humans can run, some of them do, some of them don't, but all of them die.

Rushing after it, no place to hide from its claws, or it shouldn't be, but this prey is different, is strange, it smells than it doesn't. It is wrong, wrong. It smelled, the human smells, and when liquid comes out from them, they smell more, more... until they stop moving, until they don't smell anymore.

A moving human smells.

A still human doesn't smell.

A moving human not smelling is wrong. Wrong.

Humans either smells, either still.

The monster stopped, it jumped left then right, it can't see its eyes are not good, they had never been good, and now that there is only one, it is worst. No traces of human prey. The human is weak, it shouldn't have gone far.

Tried to smell the air.

The smell of the four distant humans is here.

The smell of the first one it chased to this place is also here.

The smell of the tricky not smelling and moving human is not here. Not here.

It needs to find it.

It needs to kill it.

It needs to take revenge.

It needs to make things right.

No more wrong human.

It is when the monster stopped moving that something fell from the sky and on its back. The human. The tricky human. Thrashing left, right trying to get the human down. The long arms thrust back but their joints don't allow and don't reach the monster's back. The monster hollered at the tricky human. Kill it. Kill it. The monster raised its arms and swung them left, and right.

Screaming again. Tricky human. Not smelling human.

The monster hit a tree in its frenzy, it staggered almost falling but so was the tricky human. Humans not liking trees?

Humans die soon.

Not smelling human is not moving human.

The monster staggered and then turned into a tree, before dashing and hitting the tree. The human, it felt it, almost falling from its back. Another tree dashing. But before it hit the tree, everything turned black and pain come from its only good eyes.

The monster howled and screamed a gut-wrenching scream as I stabbed its only remaining eye with my knife, this time, however, I didn't linger, making sure it lost all its vision before jumping from it back just before the Shredder collided head-first with the tree.

I sprinted back in the direction of the jeep as soon as my feet touched the ground. I staggered and almost cried out loud as I deactivated my ability, tears flying down my cheeks, the fucking pain, the pain of getting eaten alive flooded my entire being, my breathing ragged, and my heart in my ears, but I didn't stop, I couldn't stop, I shouldn't stop.

Deactivating the gift means stopping the pain receptors are active again.

I wanted to activate the gift immediately, but I didn't. I know it would be a bad idea.

I run with shaking legs and gritted teeth.

14 of the 17 seconds are used up.

Killing three Shredders in three seconds is unrealistic, I am well aware of that, I will probably have to use up all of the remaining Bar Mode to achieve the second step of the contingency plan.

The first step is the removal of most sensory organs of the third Shredder and to get it out of my way to the jeep.

It was what was planned at first. The plan doesn't require 14 seconds. I wasted that time analyzing the Shredder. Since I took one of its eyes it was a given its vision will be lacking, yet I didn't expect its ears and nose to not be on the predatory level.

"Fuck!"

I swore as I fell but I used my hand to not stop running, stopping is not allowed, stopping is foolish, stopping is death.

My head is throbbing, my shoulder and back are stinging and tearing, and my eyes blurring with water, but I can see it. Was it three seconds or four? With a monster on your back and a drilling pain, it felt like hours. But I can see it; the place I started running from, the jeep should be a bit to the left, less than fifty metr-

BOOOM BOOOM