Immediately after walking out the door, Grant was assaulted by a torrential downpour of rain and intense winds that were kicking up debris like they were as light as a feather. He even had to dodge the occasional piece of metal or wood that came flying out of nowhere. It felt more like he was standing in the middle of a cluster of tornado's than a thunder storm.

Heading towards the direction of the noises created by the monster dogs, Grant had to pass through the intersection where Tres had been killed. He had expected to see Tres' lifeless body laying in the road still, but it turned out that the body was gone.

Grant said a silent prayer for Tres and the likelihood that his body had been eaten by some sort of monster. It was a fate he was regretful that he could not prevent due to his injuries.

After paying his last respects to Tres, Grant continued onward.

As he forced his way through the storm, Grant couldn't help but question his sanity for even thinking that coming out to fight in the storm was a good idea.

[I'm going to end up as a meme.. some stop sign or something is going to come flying out of nowhere and fuck my shit up! This is an absolutely horrendous idea. How the hell am I supposed to fight in this storm?!]

{You fight by attacking and defending against the monsters. Is their any other way to fight?}

[Sherlock, I swear to god. If you don't zip your lip, I am going to kill myself just to get away from you!

This was your idea, remember!? If something happens to me, I promise you, I will find every single iteration of your existence and destroy you.]

{But you'll be dead, so I will have nothing to fear.}

Grant was starting to regret ever putting in a single iota of effort into leveling up. If he had just been a bit slower in reaching level 10, then Sherlock would have been someone else's problem and he could have lived a quiet and peaceful life.

Doing his best to ignore Sherlock, Grant forced his way through the storm and headed in the direction where the latest noises had come from.

Not only was the weather absolutely god awful though, it was becoming increasingly difficult to see more than a few feet in front of him. The clouds had managed to block out any semblance of light from the setting sun and rising moon and the street lights didn't seem to be working anymore. Grant figured that had to be due to the storm because the lights in the bathroom were still working which meant the power grid hadn't completely failed just yet.

While struggling to find his footing and figure out how he could best navigate the storm, Grant once again heard the symphony of roars that brought him out of hiding in the first place.

Since Grant had already covered a decent distance since leaving his bathroom hideout, he was much closer to the sounds this time and was able to better estimate their position.

Ironically, the roars seemed to be coming from the direction of his old apartment. So he turned and started heading in back towards where it all began.

While he was struggling to walk down the street, the roars became more frequent and louder the closer he approached to their origin point. He knew that he was making progress and that he would be forced into a fight soon so he began to adjust his focus and steel his resolve. He tried to work up a game plan for the fight, but since he didn't know what to expect from the monsters he was about to face, it was a fruitless endeavor.

[Sherlock, you said that they were most likely strength focus monsters and that I should be faster than them, correct?

Did you take into account how much the wind would slow me down?]

{Of course I took into account the wind and how that would effect your fighting ability. And I am never wrong, well, rarely am I wrong.]

Grant decided to put his faith in the eccentric guide. If he had been around as long as he had claimed, it was unlikely he would miscalculate something such as this.

Knowing that he would have to engage the monsters soon, he decided that he wouldn't make the same mistake he had made when fighting the unique zombie. Which meant that he would have to fight the monsters in the open to allow himself to utilize what speed he still had even with his injuries. That way, he could utilize his agility and speed to dodge any incoming attacks.

[As long as these dogs aren't capable of spitting fire or something out of their mouths, I should be alright if I don't get cocky and do something stupid.]

When Grant arrived near his old apartment complex, he stood in the center of the road trying to see or sense the monsters. They hadn't made any noise for awhile and he was starting to be concerned with his inability to see more than a few feet around himself so he didn't want to venture into the parking lot and get caught in some precarious position.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

While he was standing there trying to take in the situation, Grant drew Wet Noodle from it's scabbard. It was at that moment that Grant realized that he couldn't hear anything other than the sound of the rain. All the ambient sounds that he had been hearing through the rain had suddenly gone quiet. He couldn't help but tense up at the heavy silence.

It seemed like the dogs had noticed his presence, because he could faintly make out very low growls, similar to the sound that normal dogs make when they are angry and getting ready to attack, but the more he strained his ears to try and listen, the more the sound seemed to be come from all around him.

[Well we're in the shit now Sherlock. No wonder we hadn't heard them roar for awhile, they were busy stalking and surrounding me.

I will say this again, I swear to god if you were wrong about their stats I'm going to find the original version of you and end you! I'm too young and too handsome to die!

Plus, I can't see shit! How am I supposed to fight like this!]

{Concentrate Grant, focus on the minute sounds and try to feel the movement of the monsters around you.}

[Easy for you to say! You try and concentrate with the threat of death looming over you! And how do you "feel the movements around you?!"]

{Focus or Die. Your choice.}

Though Grant was complaining, he still followed Sherlocks advice and tried to clear his mind of any unnecessary thoughts.

This was going to be his first real steps into this new world and he didn't want to stumble and fall before he even got started. He had just been doing his best to survive up to this point, but now he was trying to do more than that.

The clearer Grant's mind became the more intense the feeling of danger grew. Before, he could only sense that danger was surrounding him, but now he seemed to be able to focus that sense into the directions where he could hear the low growls.

It felt like somehow, something was guiding his senses to be more precise and acute.

Suddenly the sense of danger coming from his left seemed to suddenly spiked in comparison to the others.

Without consciously thinking about it, Grant's instinct told him that something was attacking from that direction, and without hesitation he slid his right foot forward so that he could rotate his body to his left. While taking advantage of the momentum caused by the rotation, he swung Wet Noodle in a downward diagonal direction aiming for where the spike of danger came from.

That was when Grant... splendidly missed the target!

Mere moments after Wet Noodle made contact with the ground, Grant saw a jet black dog that was at least three times the size of your average rottweiler appear seemingly out of nowhere. It was flying through the air towards Grant, apparently aiming to rip his head off because it's jaw was wide open and multiple rows of teeth were in full display.

[Oh FUCK! That didn't work at all!]

While complaining to himself, Grant pulled out his best Neo impersonation and leaned his upper body backwards as far as he could in an attempt to avoid the attack.

Luckily, being in midair the dog didn't have complete control over its own movements, and with the speed that Grant was able to move, he was able to lean out of the trajectory of both the dogs open maw and swiping paws.

Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief though, he felt another spike of danger coming from behind him, so without even so much as a conscious thought, his body immediately wheeled around to face the new incoming threat.

Unlike before though, Grant was prepared to wait until the last moment to deal a blow. Seeing the speed with which the first dog had attacked, he knew he would have time to make his move once it entered his limited field of view.

So Grant held his ground waiting for the dog to appear from the darkness. A few moments passed however, and Grant still hadn't seen anything.

That was when he sensed another spike of danger from the direction where the first dog had landed. He wasn't positive, but it seemed like the original dog was preparing for another attack.

In an attempt to protect himself from both angles, he rotated his body to have one shoulder facing each of the two sources of danger to give himself a better chance to react to whichever one actually attacked.

Mere moments after Grant had positioned himself, the first dog to attack him, appeared from the dark on his left hand side. Since Grant was a right handed person, he had been holding his sword in his right hand and his scabbard in his left which meant he would have to rotate his body almost 180 degree's to get a proper swing in.

Grant had a feeling that if he were to move his body to swing his sword at the dog to his left, the dog to his right would immediately attack.

So in a split second, Grant switched his grip on his scabbard so that he was now holding it like it was another sword. He brought the scabbard in front of his body and right before the dog was close enough to attack him, Grant swung his left arm down and away from his chest in the direction of the dog. He wanted to hit it in the head or neck with the scabbard in an attempt to disorient it with the force of the blow.

With Grant's strength and agility, the scabbard moved swift through the air and managed to make contact with the dogs head, knocking it off course with a loud bang that reverberated through the silence of the night.

With a small yelp the dog retreated back into the darkness and the danger that Grant was sensing to his right decreased slightly.

[Holy shit, are these dogs just feeling me out and testing me? How smart are these pups?! Plus where are the other two? I can vaguely sense them but they haven't moved at all.. what the hell is going on here?!

If they are men, they should all attack at once!]

{They are dogs, you know? You just hit one with your scabbard, did you not notice their species?

And besides, most species of monsters gain intelligence as they progress in levels. There are exceptions and limitations to this rule, but your conjecture that these monsters are smarter than your average dog is correct.}

Ignoring the quip about their species, Grant fumed, [You have got to be fucking with me, right? RIGHT?!]

{I am not fucking with you, Grant. Prepare yourself, they are getting ready to attack again.}

And just like Sherlock had said, Grant started to sense spikes of danger from pinpoint locations, once again. Unlike the first set of attacks though, he could feel a strong sense of danger from the direction of each of the four monsters.

Grant knew that they were done testing him at this point and they were going to launch serious attacks at this point. At least that was the vibe they were currently emitting.

Mind whirling as fast as it could, Grant tried to come up with something that could help him fight all four monsters at the same time.

Suddenly, he had an idea, whether it would work or not, he wasn't sure, but he might as well give it a try.

Before the monsters could make their move and attack, Grant quietly under his breathe muttered,

"Random Roll"