Champion of Earth (part 3)_The catalyst collection

Late into the night, Travis began to snooze off on the floor. Even with all his recent advancements, sleep was not something he could prevent.

As he slept, the sharp sound of a twig breaking rang out in the unnervingly quiet forest. Travis immediately snapped awake and looked in the direction of the sound.

He heard it again, this time closer. It marched towards the shack in a measured rhythm.

'Someone's coming.'

Travis didn't panic and stood up with his eyes closed. He tried to focus on his sense of hearing as much as possible.

After about five seconds, the steps came to an abrupt stop just outside the window, Travis opened his eyes and picked up the fire axe, he quietly crept to the side of the window and waited.

*BANG* *BANG*

The intruder smashed into the boarded-up window twice, completely smashing it in letting some lunar light into the shack. The intruder then placed his hands on the window sill and sent his head in to investigate the shack.

Travis brought down his fire axe like a guillotine on the intruder's neck, decapitating him with ruthless precision.

Blood gushed out as the man's head fell with a thud and rolled into the shack, the expression on his face was utter confusion as he didn't even understand how he died.

Travis just shook his head and pulled the headless corpse in, he then took off its shirt and used it as a rag to wipe down the window as much as he could and tossed it to the side.

He walked over to the corpse and searched it for a bit. He was slightly disappointed as he found nothing of value on him.

As he was about to stand up, he felt a sharp pain on the side of his neck. He hastily rolled to the side and swung his axe horizontally which caused a howling gust of wind.

The attack struck nothing which surprised Travis. He used his myomastery to close the wound by pure instinct and stood up. He looked around on high alert but couldn't see anything even with the aid of his superhuman senses and the bright moon coming in from the window and gaps in the shack.

Suddenly he felt a slight pain across his left calf, he swung his axe again only to hit nothing but air.

He frowned and walked backward slowly, he tried to pay as much attention as he could to his surroundings but he still detected nothing.

When he got about a meter away from the wall, he thought to himself.

'There has to be a way to track him.'

He closed his eyes and focused on his sense of hearing. After a few seconds, he got nicked on the neck again and countered with a powerful swing. Frustration started to set in.

Travis took two wild swings in front of him randomly then he suddenly spun around and delivered a crescent moon slash behind him. He still hit nothing but this time he heard soft thudding sounds on the wall behind him, he instantly got a clearer picture of why his opponent was so elusive.

'What is this guy? Spiderman.'

He racked his brain for a solution against his ghostly foe as the intruder accelerated his pace of offense. He got slashed in the forearm, leg, and on his back in rapid succession. When Travis got cut in the back for the second time, an idea formed in his head.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He took off with a sprint towards the decapitated head of the first intruder and lifted it off the ground with his foot like it was a football. He kicked it overhead and smashed it like a watermelon with his fire axe. Blood, Brain matter, and bones rained all over the cabin.

This hail of gore revealed the elusive intruded giving him a bloody silhouette. He was running on the closest wall after Travis at an inhuman speed when the blood splashed on them, let's call them Stalker.

"Gotcha!"

Travis roared as he used the momentum of his previous swing to launch a heart-stopping overhead hack at Stalker.

Stalker easily weaved the attack by jumping off the wall and stabbed at Travis' hands with his now visible dagger. Travis hastily maneuvered his axe mid-swing to go from an overhead hack to a horizontal slash.

Stalker wasn't phased by this as they ducked the slash while cutting into the wooden handle of the axe which immediately came apart with the axe head smashing into the far wall due to its momentum.

Travis realized he was at a disadvantage and tried to make some distance but Stalker appeared in front of him with some ghostly footwork. They then stabbed straight at Travis' heart.

Travis' mind went blank as his instincts and fighting experience took over. He weaved the strike, caught Stalker's hand, and whipped out a sharp low kick all in one smooth motion.

Stalker, not to be outdone, blocked the kick with their own, dropped the dagger in their other hand, and slashed at Travis' midsection

Travis hastily leaned back while letting go of Stalker's arm and dodged the slash by centimeters before he whipped out a fierce punch which shattered Stalker's dagger-wielding arm in the elbow, disabling it with pinpoint accuracy.

"Argh!!"

Stalker screamed as the dagger fell from their grasp, Travis exploited this opening by unleashing an explosive barrage of strikes on Stalker's cranium and neck, each strike landed with bone-shattering ferocity, producing sickening sounds that echoed throughout the shack.

Travis closed out the barrage with a mighty hook which made a wet *thawk*. Stalker crashed to the ground with a thud as blood pooled from his smashed-in head.

*pant* *pant*

Travis panted for a bit, not because of physical exhaustion but mental exhaustion. He sat on his ass and uttered out loud.

"Fuck, I was almost gutted by a rat like him?"

He could finally see Stalker now. He could tell he was a male solely due to his body structure given that his head had been all but eviscerated.

Stalker was rather lanky and very pale. He was wearing a pitch-black, skin-tight suit that clung to him. Apart from these traits, Travis couldn't identify much else.

When Travis got himself under control, he walked over to Stalker. He immediately noticed something off, he was now completely naked. His invisibility suit was gone.

"What the fuck?"

Travis said out loud, his posture changing as he became more alert. After a few seconds of silence, he rationalized that the game had something to do with taking the outfit and it wasn't another invisible opponent.

'Hopefully...'

Travis' attention was then drawn to the Stalker's ruined head, he looked down at his bleeding fists and said to himself.

"I did this."

He sighed after a few moments and then clenched his fist, pushing the carnage around him to the back of his mind.

He took his mind off the matter by trying to locate Stalker's weapon. Luckily he spotted it easily. He picked it up for closer inspection.

[Weapon analysis: Grade two dagger, specter's edge. Grants the user invisibility as long as they move above a certain velocity.]

"Jackpot."

Travis smiled at this discovery, he didn't bother to clean up the scene and just sat in a corner with his back to the wall. He messed around with the blade for quite a bit, cutting himself a few times in the process. He placed it into his bandolier after his experimentation and said to himself.

"Okay let's see how many points I racked up."

He checked his notifications.

[Announcement: You have defeated a contestant. +0.75 kill point.]

[Weapon found. Do you wish to equip it?]

'Yeah, I would like to equip the dagger.'

When he equipped Specter's edge, the weapon felt like and part of him and he could freely summon it to his hand. But if he was knocked out or in a daze, he wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to do so.

'Status.'

Status

Name: Travis Banks

Physique: 3

Health: Peak condition

Weapons: Specter's edge

Armor: None

Implants: Myomastery

Manuals: E.H.M.A

Kill Points: 2.5

Shop Points: 0

Contestants: 8901/10,000

Map

Shop

"Hmm... I still have much to do if I want to be among the last thousand much less, the last man standing."

Travis murmured to himself as he recalled his fight against the Stalker. He knew if it wasn't for them being in an enclosed space and improvising a way to reveal him, he would have been the one to die in that battle. He racked his brain for a more stable solution but only one thing came to mind.

'I need more points.'

Since he knew that was the only solution he became at ease. If he had confidence in anything, it was fighting. So he sat with ease keeping one eye open for any other contestants.

Eventually, it was dawn, and Travis prepared to head out, leaving behind a bloody scene in the rundown shack. As he stepped through the window he got a notification.

[Special announcement: 4 loot boxes have been launched, Endeavor to locate and claim them.]

He hastily opened his map after he read the message. He saw 4 spots glowing green on the map. He located the closest one and rushed off. Based on what he knew about the game, this loot box would define whether he would survive or not...

[Status