Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 170: Source III

The monster finally stepped out of the fog, revealing its appearance.

Unlike the other ones around, it didn’t take on the appreance of a resident of the outpost. It appeared as it was, a monster.

Standing at around 2 meters tall, bearly shorter than Jake in his transformed state, the montser had a rather thin frame with a torso smaller than Jake’s and the other monsters.

It had three pair of arms protruding from ita sides with the bottom one stretching all the way down to its knees. It’s pallid skin stretched tightly over its tall figure and across its elongated head with nothing but a circular, tooth-lined maw dripping with sticky slime in place of a face.

The creature also had long spikes protruding down its spine and tail which had a stinger like that of a scorpion.

With the creatures appreance, the other monsters which had been retreating paused and watched on from a distance.

The fight had left their hands and Jake was now welcomed with a new enemy.

’I should have paid attention in those classes!’

He shook his head, losing himself to the bloodlust once more. He knew nothing of the creature in front of him, when it had arrived, how long it had stayed hidden, where it came from and how long it must have observed him fighting.

A true predator was patient, it stalked and observed its prey before striking.

"Grrrr!"

Jake let out another growl, shaking away the bout of dizziness that had just struck him, even with healing, he still had to pay a price for cutting through that many monsters.

His eyes fixed themselves on the creatures tail and long arms. Those were clear danger signs, things to avoid, especially that tail equipped with a stinger and that wide jaw.

One bite and he could see himself getting into a major disadvantage.

His instincts warned him of the danger in front of him, yet that only riled him up more and with the rush reaching a high, he went low, on all fours and burst forward.

At the same time, the monster screech sending visible shockwaves out in the air, a screech which had the same effect and power as the combined attack of the other monsters at the beginning of the fight.

Jake who had been hit with a similar attack previously, pushed forward, the flowing elongated hairs on his body tightening and wrapping around each other to form an amor of sorts.

He had gone from looking like a hairy fantasy werewolf to something more sleek and compact, even his size had reduced and with this came another bust of speed, bearing some similarity to Kieran’s transformed state.

THUD!

His figure vanished for a moment and next he appeared was behind the monster, followed by a dull thud, which was quickly overwhelmed by a loud screech filled with pain.

He had just cut off one of the monsters hand, moving faster than it had expected and catching it off guard.

Despite the unexpected transition and change to another form, he didn’t come out unscathed as shown by the deep laceration which went across his chest and face.

Despite being unable to react properly, the monster had still managed to lash its tail like whip. It was incredibly fast, managing to strike him and cut him with the spikes which went down its tail.

"@^@%@#!"

The creature let out another inhumane sound and flashed, it’s figure moving with speed which easily rivaled Jake’s new form.

The battle was one of speed with the faster one coming out on top. The monster had low durability with Jake’s claw tearing through its skin like butter, yet it’s attack were far more dangerous especially at those high speeds.

Jake even with his amour like hair covering him, could bearly block the attacks coming from the creature whose long claws slashed and ripped out flesh from Jake’s body.

Despite the slight advantage Jake weilded in the speed department, he had barely managed to jand a serious injury on the creature after cutting off another one of its hand.

He couldn’t get too close too, lest he wanted to be slashed by the creature’s tail which moved like a whip, faster than he could react.

With that tail of his, the creature managed to keep Jake from getting to close to home and hold the flow of the fight for a while, but Jake was slowly losing it and he decided to take a risky bet.

Ignoring the waving tail and closing in on the monster. As expected, the creature’s tail shot forward in response but Jake ignored it, pressing forward as the tail pushed into his torso.

Seeing that it had its enemy in a seemingly tough position, the creature screeched once more in what could possibly have been delight and it moved forward to bite his head off.

A solid punch from Jake was enough to disorient it for a moment.

A moment was but all he needed.

His hand latched onto the creatures tail, preventing it from recalling it, and with gritted teeth, he raised his clawed hand and slashed down the tensed tail.

"@$@%@^!!!!"

A blood curling scream came out the mouth of the creature, pulverizing the brains of several onlooking monsters in an instant.

Jake who was closest to it, didn’t just feel his brain rattle like earlier, it felt like it was going to explode and he was forced to cough up several mouthfuls of blood as the tremors in his body settled down.

"Ughh!"

A pained groan escaped his mouth as he ripped he remaining part of the tail out of himself.

And that pain came some sense of clarity as he realized the state he was in.

He was feeling weak and dizzy from blood loss and there were several deep injuries which weren’t looking like they are going to close up themselves.

Biting down on his tongue, Jake forced himself to stay awake and the crazy, predatory glint slowly returned to his eyes and his aura slowly thickened around him.

The beast in front of him was still in pain about having its tail getting cut off, but it quickly stopped looking at it and turned its head towards him. Depite the creature’s lack of eyes, Jake could tell that it had locked onto him.

Rather than rushing forward, the creature creeped back, and Jake finally registered something he had missed till now, the fog had completely risen at this point.

He was so engrossed with the fight that he had missed that. Now, the creature creeped back and used the fog as a cover. It wasn’t as stupid as the others Jake and Kieran had fought.

The fog didn’t just block his vision, it messed with sense of smell rendering it almost useless. All he had left was his hearing, but even that was fucked up by the consecutive sound attacks he had endured. The blood still dripping from his ears were a testament to that.

WOOSH!

He jumped to the side, feeling an unnatural gust of wind blow against his side.

’This could work!’

A thought fought its way into his bestial, bloodthirsty mind.

The fast speeds of monster caused changes in the movement of the fog.

Considering how fast the creature moved, it would’ve been too late for an ordinary person to react by the time they felt that change, but Jake had an advantage in speed over the creature. Albeit, a slight one.

Hence, he had nothing but an extremely small window to react to the creature’s attacks.

It was an extremely risky gamble, but there wasn’t much of a choice avaliable.

WOOSH!

Feeling the fog roll again, his body flashed raised his hands up in a defensive stance.

Instantly, he felt something sharp and heavy dog into his hand followed with the circular, razor filled mouth of the creature appearing inches away from his face, sending hot air and disgusting spittle flying at his face.

Despite blocking the first attack of the of the creature, it wasn’t out of ways to attack, its second pair of arms which hadn’t been cut off by Jake showed themselves, slashing across his torso in a single strike, ripping off an unhealthy amount of flesh

Unfortunately, Jake didn’t have the luxury of collapsing from the pain and let out an inhumane roar of pain, raising a one of his legs on the body of the creature, taking advantage of the moment to grap hold of the top pair of arms.

And with the creature’s body as a platform, he tightened and flexed his arms, dragging hard while letting out a desperate scream, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

"AAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"@%#%#^@;!!!!!"

Another scream came from the creature, filled with pain as it felt its arms get ripped off by Jake.

With a final jerk, Jake succeeded, ripping off the two arms , getting soaked in a violent spray of black blood.

With this accomplished, he felt the strength leave his arms, his body was shutting down and he couldn’t even find the strength to resist.

The creature, having got its tail and two pair of arms ripped off by Jake, in a bout of pain and craziness, grabbed him tight with its last pair of hands and slammed him on the floor like a club.

After tossing Jake around like a rag doll and trashing his figure even further, it brought him closer, it’s mouth stretching to unnatural levels as it prepared bite off his head once and for all.

Yet, just as it was about to clamp down on his head, a low vibration went through the fog and the whole of the camp and the creature stopped, it’s mouth about to close completely.

Taking its head back, it let out a screech of unwillingness, but a stronger vibration ran through the outpost and it threw Jake off the side and rushed to the other monsters, tearing apart every single one in its path to let out its frustration before vanishing into the fog.

Unconscious Jake who had been thrown to the side was approached by the very monsters he had torn down back at the beginning of the fight, which then carried him deeper into the outpost.

With the battle over, the outpost became eerily silent and the damage done by the fight was quietly covered by the fog which continued to expand its reach.

.....

’This is where it starts.’

Kieran frowned, feeling the thick monster aura that flowed in the room.

GROWL!!

The sudden growl caught his attention and he looked to the side to see something he hadn’t anticipated.

"Jake?!"