From the moment he pulled the trigger, his eyes had already been shut. Then after quickly turning around to not see the result of what he’d just done, he only then opened them. Yet, while he was facing away from the fresh corpse, another kind of result appeared before him.

Initial Merger Slain!

Doubled Experience Earned!

+22 EXP

New Quest Acquired:

Quest Series: Mightiest of the 42nd Merging

Quest: Mightiest Slayer

Description: Become the-

Congratulations!

By attaining your-

Jordan didn’t bother to read the rest of the last couple of notifications, Now wasn’t the time for focusing on them, at least. While the information in them might have provided a general clue about what was happening, he’d be a fool to waste more time by standing around and reading through it all. Not when the unknown but clearly deadly threat was still out there, and every second that ticked by could mean that he’d be the next victim.

His breathing was rapid and shallow as practically every inch of his skin was covered in goosebumps. Jordan’s stomach felt like it was twisting in on itself as a metallic tang filled his mouth. The look in Audrey’s slowly dying eyes felt burned into his brain, and it was taking everything he had already to just not collapse and start throwing up.

But he had to stray strong for now, his own survival depended on it. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Jordan cast Summon Air Drone and immediately ordered it to head back over in the same direction the other one had been destroyed, and start blasting. Using up the 3 TP base cost twice in a row was rough, but necessary. Even in the worst case, the drone should make a good distraction for at least a little bit.

As the drone whizzed away, Jordan kept a sharp ear out for just a moment. Yet aside from the grass rustling in the breeze, he couldn’t hear anything else. Without any indicator of if there were more of the thing attacking, or either way, where the threat was currently located, any direction was as good as any for running. Feeling his legs trembling slightly, Jordan smacked the butt of his Energy Pistol into one of his thighs, silently demanding his body not betray him.

Then with nothing but hope that he wasn’t about to run straight toward his death, Jordan sprinted. He at least knew the drone went one way, so he just went in the opposite direction. He didn’t know if anyone else was still alive or if he was the last one left, but it didn’t matter either way. His only goal now was to do whatever it took for him to survive; everything else be damned.

Tall grass whipped past him as he ran into the unknown. Jordan had to move with one arm always out to keep the grass out of his face. The running obviously did nothing to help with the sick twisting in his stomach, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

Please, please, please! Come on, please just don’t let me die! Jordan silently begged. He had no idea to whom his begging was meant to be reaching. It could have been the System itself, it could have been some higher power, or even just the general concept of luck. In this suddenly much larger world that he would never have imagined, he didn’t think it was a stretch to think that maybe there was someone watching and listening.

It was perhaps around half a minute later that the connection to his drone was suddenly cut off. Without even stopping, Jordan repeated his casting of Summon Air Drone. At least when it came to the base cost, his TP regeneration per minute was more than enough to cover the base cost. Though if they kept getting destroyed too quickly, he’d soon be able to remake one for that time. And in a life or death situation, almost a whole minute without a distraction could easily make all the difference in the world.

Jordan sent the drone away with the same order. But then, very soon after it went back, his heart jumped up into his throat. Because the drone had been flying for all of five seconds before he heard it start blasting at something behind him. Which meant that something was chasing him, and was definitely way faster if it could catch up that quickly.

Lead it away while shooting! Don’t just keep hovering after spotting it! Jordan sent as a new command, practically screaming inside his head. He felt stupid for not already having that be the plan. How many precious seconds had that lack of foresight already cost him? Still mentally berating himself, all he could do now was keep moving and hope that it’d now make a difference.

Just about twenty seconds later, the connection to this second drone was severed. Feeling his throat tighten around the lump inside it, he sent another one. At least drone would be shooting and fleeing at the same time, but the previous one being destroyed faster than the first was… a bad sign.

In addition to that was another bit of bad news. Jordan’s muscles were starting to tighten up and hurt. Even an absolute ton of adrenaline could only do so much for someone who spent most of his time ruining his posture by either spending the day hunched over a desk, or spending the night sleeping in absurdly awkward positions.

As it turned out, running track and field in high school stopped mattering when you hadn’t practiced for years after graduating. All the experience did now was make him painfully aware of just how out of shape he’d gotten since then. He could still move quickly due to having quite a spry body type, but that was all he had going for him. No wonder the System had rated his base physical Stats as average or below average for everything but Vitality.

Yet, while it wouldn’t keep him going forever, the adrenaline did help. Where he would have stopped or slowed down to catch his breath for a casual run, the adrenaline coursing through his veins helped to mitigate the ache of tired muscles. Imagining that a hungry lion or such was breathing down his neck, Jordan squeezed his jaw while trying to force his body to sprint even faster.

He sprinted through one last bit of tall grass that needed to be kept out of his face, but then reached a point where the environment changed. Quickly glanced around, he saw that he’d just passed a wall where the tall grass ended and a much shorter field began. For the entire area ahead that he could see, the tallest patch of grass still wasn’t tall enough to even reach his knees. The blades were also of a different color, more of a deeply tinted blue than green.

But now that his vision wasn’t being obstructed every few feet, he saw something far more important. Just a short distance away was a line of trees. The trees themselves were giant, each one at least comparable to an old redwood back on Earth. Even from a distance, he could tell that it would have taken his entire group holding hands with their arms stretched to wrap themselves around just a single trunk.

With the massive size of the forest and how dense it was, the thick canopy above covered it like a blanket shielding it from all light. From where he was, the area below that canopy appeared to be almost like a separate realm enshrouded in darkness. But while Jordan knew that the forest of giant trees was just as likely to have its own deadly creatures, it represented something else at that moment. And that was a goal for him to reach.

Stolen story; please report.

The treeline wasn’t close, and it’d take him at least ten minutes of sprinting at top speed to get there. The logical part of his brain knew that it wasn’t like it marked some safe zone. That crossing the invisible line didn’t represent some mystical boundary that would prevent whatever was chasing him from passing. But for a brain currently drugged up on a whole lot of fear and desperation, logic was secondary.

Come on! Come on! Jordan mentally chanted as he cast Summon Air Drone once more. When it flew back, again he heard it start firing from a disturbingly close distance away.

It sounded like the thing pursuing him was still just barely within the taller grasses. But once it destroyed the drone again and kept chasing him, he’d probably be able to see it in this shorter field. Though in case it was something truly horrible, Jordan doubted that he’d have the stomach to spare even a brief glance backward.

Then, he felt the connection to the drone disappear. This time it’d actually taken longer, thankfully, allowing Jordan almost a whole minute of running. Which meant that there’d be barely any time at all until he could summon the next one.

From behind, Jordan heard a deep, low-pitched rumble. And perhaps against his better judgment, his curiosity was just too much as his head twisted to look back. And the sight that met him was… actually not as bad as he’d thought?

It turns out that his mental image of being chased by a lion had somehow actually been close to the truth. Because while it wasn’t a lion, the creature in question definitely looked to be some variant of large cat. Its body appeared to be covered in a layer of grass from the taller field. It was so accurate he couldn’t honestly say if it was just really good camouflage, or if it actually just had grass instead of fur growing from its skin.

Yet there was one feature of its body that gave Jordan hope. And despite the fact it would have been a horrific sight in general, this feature was currently setting his heart at ease.

Part of its body was charred, with the fur or grass completely gone to show burnt flesh underneath. And while Jordan couldn’t see the cause from just looking back while continuing to run, the creature was limping as it continued to chase him. Yet as it was now in the much shorter field where its torso was taller than the grass around it, the cat looked around as if realizing that it was now exposed.

Slowing down to a trot, it then came to a complete stop. Then after staring at the fleeing human for just a few moments, it slowly began to back up. Seeing that it was intending to return to the cover of the previous section of grasslands, Jordan felt a flurry of emotions all at once.

Leftover fear of the animal before him. Suspicion of if it was just one, or if more were around. Relief that it was seemingly intended to leave him alone. Surprise that it was actually quite injured, and not the invincible monster he’d conjured up on his mind. And then… anger.

Jordan clenched his grip around his Energy Pistol, before raising it up. Barrel pointed at the cat, it paused as it seemed to recognize the gesture as a threat. But Jordan didn’t care, as his eyes had already narrowed with hatred at the target before him. It thought that it could kill those around him, make him run for his life, and then just duck away when it felt like it?

Hell no.

Tech Points: 4.3/17

Next to him, a drone materialized out of thin air. He already did the mental math on how long it’d persist while he was about to do something else. It wouldn’t exist for long, but just a few seconds was all he needed. Because at the same time, Jordan pumped a use of Overchage into his gun.

Three.

The drone immediately flew straight for the predator at its top speed. The large cat arched its back as it growled, looking between Jordan and the drone while attempting to look bigger.

Two.

Jordan lined up his Energy Pistol to aim at his target. As soon as the drone got close enough, it began to fire. The cat seemed to have already learned its attack pattern, however, as it was already jumping up to dodge the first bolt.

One.

His barrel followed the path of the cat. As another bolt from the drone was shooting toward it, it was already twisting its body mid-air to also make that one miss. But it’d already peaked in the height of its jump, and gravity had just started to reclaim it.

Zero.

Right as it was about to fire off another shot, the drone disappeared as Jordan ran out of TP. As if not expecting that, the cat had already moved to avoid the next attack. Already committing itself to the action while staring at the more pressing threat, it barely paid attention to the human who’d just been standing there. A mistake, as he had just pulled the trigger of his Energy Pistol.

The Overcharge-empowered bolt flew through the air. Without even waiting for the result, Jordan was already firing regular shots to follow it up. Yet even the extra dexterous predator could only twist and move its body so much when it reached the point where it was just about to land on the ground.

The main shot landed true as it took the cat by surprise, piercing straight into its side. With a pained yelp, it tried to leap out of the way of the follow-up barrage of shots. But then its legs buckled right out from under it, and Jordan could see the wound that’d already been there. A hole right through the meaty part of one of its back legs and out the other outside. It wasn’t bleeding, however, because the flesh had been cauterized with a minor burn in the surrounding skin too.

Thanks to where one of his previous drones must have landed a lucky shot, the second bolt hit its upper torso. With less of an impact than the first in the hole it created, but still solid damage. Then the third pierced into the section of flesh that had already been badly burnt, piercing through a section of its back. Then the fourth bolt tore into another part of its midsection. From that, the the beast had started to flee, but then suddenly collapsed and rolled across the grass.

“Fuck you, just go to Hell already! You damn-” Jordan didn’t care anymore about staying quiet as his emotional turmoil exploded out as a string of curses. Every swear he knew was thrown out at the cat as he continued to fire again and again. His vision had gone blurry as tears welled up, but that didn’t impede his aim now that his target was on the ground.

Experience Earned!

+75 EXP

Breathing heavily, Jordan saw the notification but still pulled the trigger a few more times. But it only resulted in empty clicks as nothing came out. Looking down at the gun, he saw that the charge now read at 0%.

Jordan tried to swallow, but his mouth felt completely dry. His heart was still racing in his chest, but a sense of accomplishment had begun to well up within him. One that was baked deep into his very genes, from the days that his ancestors had fought predators like this one with nothing but crude and ancient weapons.

Slowly approaching it, he then decided to use Appraise on the corpse. Just to see what it would provide as hopefully helpful information.

Species: Grass Panther

Level: 5

Description: A common mammal found within the grasslands of Vervina-C. They are predators that have evolved to camouflage themselves within certain species of tall grass. Due to their highly territorial and aggressive natures, these predators are loners that stop at nothing to ambush any potential threats within the fields they mark as their own.

So it was probably alone, then? But to think just one might have killed everyone else… damn it.

The direction of the wind turned, carrying the scent of the body now toward him. The smell of burnt flesh filled his nostrils, and as the belief that the threat was over led to his survival instincts starting to crash back down, Jordan’s legs fell limp. He fell to his knees and keeled over, finally throwing up.

It was over, as far as immediate danger was concerned. But he knew that if anyone else was still alive, he would have heard something by now. Between the yelling from before and his shouting that would have carried across the quiet fields, someone would have responded. But the simple reality was that they hadn’t.

Which meant that now… now he was all alone.