The victory was sweet, a metallic taste in his mouth that had nothing to do with blood. One hundred points. It was a number that had seemed impossible an hour ago. Now it glowed in his vision, a promise of everything to come. He clutched his bleeding arm, the pain a dull, throbbing counterpoint to his triumph.
He just needed to get back to the village, patch himself up, and—
The sound froze him mid-thought.
It wasn't a growl. It was a chorus. A rolling wave of snarls and chittering barks, crashing through the undergrowth. It was close. And it was getting closer. Fast.
His deductive mind, still humming, did the math in a split second. The wolf cries. The blood. The noise of the struggle. He hadn't just called dinner for two. He'd rang the dinner bell for the entire damn forest.
"Shit," he whispered, the word swallowed by the rising tide of noise.
Shadows exploded from the tree line. Not two. Not ten. Dozens. They were smaller than the wolves, about the size of large dogs, but built low to the ground with ragged, rust-colored fur and eyes that burned with a mindless hunger. Their mouths were full of needle-like teeth, and they moved in a skittering, horrifyingly fast swarm.
[Gutter-Runner. Level 2. Status: Frenzied. A swarm predator. Weakness: Area of Effect attacks, Fire.]
Area of effect? Fire? I've got a sharpened stick and a bad attitude, Leo thought, panic clawing at his throat.
The first of them reached the clearing. It didn't even pause at the pit, just leaped over the carnage without a second glance, its focus entirely on him—the lone, bleeding thing standing in the open.
There was no time for the tree. No time for a clever plan. There was only run or die.
He turned and ran.
His body screamed in protest. His bruised ribs, his torn arm, his exhausted muscles—they all filed their complaints at once. He ignored them. Adrenaline, raw and potent, flooded his system. He crashed through ferns, ducked under low-hanging branches, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The skittering, chittering sound was right behind him. He could smell them—a musky, foul odor of rot and filth.
He risked a glance back. A sea of red fur and glowing eyes poured through the trees, maybe thirty, forty of them. They were faster. They were going to catch him.
Think, damn it! his mind screamed. A hundred points! What can I buy?
He pulled up the Omni-Bazaar interface even as he ran, the blue screens overlaying his vision of the treacherous forest floor. He filtered by price, 100 NP and below. Most of it was junk knowledge or basic tools. Useless.
Then he saw it. Tucked away in a sub-menu under "Consumables."
[Explosive Tag (Basic) - 100 NP]
[A single-use parchment seal. Upon activation, adheres to a surface and detonates after a 3-second delay. Effective radius: 5 meters.]
An area-of-effect attack.
It was everything he had. His entire nest egg. Spending it meant going back to zero, back to being the pathetic Kaelen with nothing but a clever mind.
A Gutter-Runner lunged from his left, its teeth snapping an inch from his heel.
Screw it. Zero was better than dead.
"Buy it!" he mentally screamed.
[Purchase confirmed: Explosive Tag. Nexus Points: 0.]
A small, square of parchment, covered in black ink, appeared in his good hand. It felt unnaturally cold.
Now, the geometry. He needed a choke point. Somewhere they'd be forced to bunch up.
Ahead, he saw it—a narrow gully formed by two large, moss-covered rocks. It was a tight squeeze, maybe wide enough for two of the creatures at a time. Perfect.
He put on a final burst of speed, his lungs burning, and dove into the gully, scrambling to the other side. He turned, his back against the cool stone. The swarm hit the entrance like a red tide, piling up in their frenzy to get to him. They scratched and bit at each other, a seething, snapping mass of teeth and fury. In seconds, the entrance was clogged with them.
Perfect.
He slapped the Explosive Tag onto the rock face beside him.
The ink on the parchment began to glow a malevolent red.
One...
The lead Gutter-Runners pushed through the bottleneck, their eyes locking onto him.
Two...
He met their gaze, a bloody, feral grin spreading across his face. "Welcome to the party."
Three.
He dropped to the ground, curling into a ball and covering his head.
The world turned white, then orange.
The sound was not loud; it was a deep, concussive WHUMP that hit him in the chest, followed by a blast of superheated air and a shower of rock fragments and... other things. The shrieks of the creatures were cut off instantly.
He stayed down for a count of three, then dared to look up.
The entrance to the gully was gone. In its place was a smoldering crater. The two large rocks were scarred black. The air stank of ozone, burnt fur, and cooked meat. Twisted, smoking carcasses littered the ground. The ones that had been at the back of the swarm were now scattering, their mindless frenzy broken by the sudden, shocking violence.
But they weren't all dead. A handful, maybe six or seven, on the edges of the blast, were wounded and disoriented, but still alive. And they were still between him and the village.
His arm was on fire, his energy was gone, and he was out of points. But he was also out of options.
He pushed himself to his feet, his legs shaking. He picked up a rock the size of his fist. Then he started forward.
The first wounded Gutter-Runner saw him and tried to hobble away. Leo didn't let it. He walked up, his movements stiff with pain, and brought the rock down on its skull with a sickening crunch.
[Gutter-Runner Eliminated. +15 Nexus Points.]
He didn't stop. He moved to the next one, a creature trying to drag its broken body away. Another crunch of rock and bone.
[Gutter-Runner Eliminated. +15 Nexus Points.]
It wasn't a fight. It was an execution. A grisly, necessary cleanup. He was no longer a hunter or a strategist. He was a scavenger, reaping the bloody harvest of his one brilliant, expensive move.
He moved through the carnage, a phantom in the smoke, dispensing blunt, final justice to everything that still twitched. Each rock fall, each stomp of his boot, was accompanied by the soft, chime-like notification of points earned.
By the time he was done, the clearing was silent again. The only movement was the slow curl of smoke from the blast site.
He stood amidst the ruin, drenched in blood—both his and theirs—covered in soot, and trembling from sheer exhaustion.
The system messages scrolled, a final, breathtaking tally.
[Gutter-Runner Eliminated. +15 NP.]
[Gutter-Runner Eliminated. +15 NP.]
...
[Quest Completed: Swarm Clearance. Reward: +500 NP.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Improvised Demolitions. Reward: +100 NP.]
He watched the number in the corner of his eye, his heart stuttering as it climbed, higher and higher, finally settling.
[Nexus Points: 1,245.]