“Ha ha — co here, you furry pile of at!” Urgol roared, his aura swelling until it filled the small clearing. This new stage was the best one yet, in his opinion. Not that there hadn’t been others, but when else could you fight to your heart’s content and rack up as many points as possible? Normally he sent out his horde to scavenge treasure while taking a small hunting party with him. Not this ti. They’d already found a map showing multiple safe-zone locations for this stage, which let Urgol hunt solo and slaughter beasts without splitting the experience. Allies often ant smaller shares, and he liked his shares big.
He couldn’t ask his patron for intel in this system event, which irritated him. He usually pinged the Warbringer for guidance and having that information withheld left him feeling exposed. Maybe the system only counted it when an aura touched the target, and therefore it registered as an attack? Perhaps attacks so trivial didn’t grant XP. That made a kind of sense. But back to the glorious brawl. He’d found so kind of wolf-bear with massive butterfly wings sprouting from its back. The whole creature stood on its hind legs, howling in rage. It wasn’t angry because of anything natural. It was furious because Urgol had ripped its two ten-ter wings out so it couldn’t fly off.
His waraxe still hung on his back. This was a hand-to-claw slugfest, and it was pure joy. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight, but Urgol wasn’t even using his axe, just his fists and his boosting skill to ensure he outmuscled the level 103 monstrosity. His aura humd around him as he delivered the punch of a lifeti. The beast probably hadn’t expected such speed. The blow landed on its belly button and launched the multiple-ton behemoth into a tree on the far side of the clearing. It crashed through branches; the impact and splintering wood echoed for a long distance.
This kill would net him fifty leaderboard points. Speaking of the rankings, Urgol wondered again how the top two weren’t Chosen or tied to so god. They were probably incursion leaders, but surely there’d be a way to integrate even stronger combatants into the system. His god had said that a few weeks after the event, D- and C-grade factions could send their best fighters. Maybe, given the importance of this event, everyone would be allowed to deploy top champions earlier. Many things were different this ti; the outco felt unpredictable. The First Daughter of the Hive was probably so insectoid powerhouse, while the others might be humans with devastating bloodlines. It seed unlikely anyone was hiding a divine blessing because those were usually displayed on the leaderboard. He couldn’t even choose which na to display himself. The system decided that for everyone.
The beast before him activated a boosting skill and opened its maw to spit a massive ball of blue fla at him. “Ha ha ha—finally it’s getting warr here,” Urgol bellowed, vaulting through the fire and slamming his shoulder into the creature’s midsection. His skin had undergone so much body-tempering that a little fla was nothing. He grabbed the beast, swung twice into its gut, and hurled it back into the clearing. It landed on its side, shook its head to clear the daze, and Urgol didn’t give it a mont’s respite. He leapt, kicked it square in the jaw, teeth and bone flying across the clearing as the upper jaw nearly tore free.
The creature howled, but Urgol seized the shattered jaw, shoved it back into place, and delivered an uppercut that snapped both bone and the monster’s massive neck. He didn’t draw his weapon to finish it; instead he kept punching the helpless carcass until it stopped moving. Fifty points, right on the dot. He tucked the carcass into his spatial amulet for another five points. Not bad at all.
Now the hunt continued. He deactivated his boost and let the brief weakness wash over him. Only a few seconds, not the hours most fighters endured, thanks to his bloodline. He’d keep killing until he clawed his way toward that top leaderboard spot. No one in the top five was a weakling, but that insect better believe it would stay hidden forever because if it surfaced, he would crush it like the rest.
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