They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 143: Am I Gonna Die

The sounds of battle stopped.

Not gradually, or something like with the slow wind-down of exhaustion or retreat.

Just... stopped.

One moment, the forest echoed with roars and screams and the crash of massive bodies. The next, silence.

I sat there in my thorn-covered hiding spot, breathing as quietly as possible, listening with every sense I had.

But there was nothing.

Just the normal sounds of the forest, wind through leaves, the distant call of a night bird, the creak of branches.

Did the Alpha die?

I pushed myself to standing with a wince, every muscle in my body screaming protest.

I should probably get back now...

Just before I could turn to move.

I paused. All hair on my neck stood to no end.

As I heard a faint sound. Barely audible over my own breathing.

My blood turned to ice.

And I turned my head mechanically, every instinct screaming at me to run but my body frozen with the horrible certainty of what I was about to see.

The Alpha Dire Bear stood maybe few feet away, partially obscured by trees and shadow.

Blood seeped from dozens of wounds across its massive body. Its fur was matted with blood, both its own and from its enemies.

One eye was gone, just a ruined socket weeping blood and fluid down the side of its face.

But the other eye was locked on me with singular, terrible focus.

And it was panting. Not from exhaustion.

From rage.

"Fuck—"

The Alpha lunged.

I threw myself sideways, but not fast enough.

Its claws caught my shoulder, tearing through flesh like paper. I felt something pop, my collarbone snapping like dry wood, and the impact sent me tumbling across the forest floor.

I slammed into a tree trunk hard enough to see stars. Tasted copper.

The Alpha was already moving again, faster than anything that wounded had any right to be.

Pain wasn’t slowing it down.

Pain was fuel.

I scrambled behind the tree as those massive claws gouged deep furrows in the trunk where my head had been a heartbeat before. Splinters exploded into my face, one cutting a line across my cheek.

My left arm hung useless, shoulder screaming agony with every movement. Blood ran hot down my side.

Move. MOVE!

I spotted two fallen branches nearby. Both relatively straight, maybe four feet long each.

I grabbed one with my good hand, my vision swimming from pain.

[Branch 1: Sharpness Enhanced, Hardness Enhanced]

The Alpha circled around the tree, methodical despite its frenzy. It had learned. Wouldn’t let me escape again.

I looked at the tree beside me, then at the branch in my hand.

An idea formed through the haze of pain.

I positioned the sharpened branch against the trunk at an angle, wedging it into a modified section where I’d made the wood more flexible, more spring-like.

Then I bent it back with my good arm, using my body weight, creating tension.

The tree held it like a drawn bow, the branch aimed at chest height.

The Alpha kept coming, its remaining eye burning with hatred, blood dripping from its maw.

My arm trembled with the strain. Broken ribs sent white-hot spikes of agony through my chest with every breath.

Thirty feet.

Twenty.

Come on...

Fifteen.

The Alpha’s lips pulled back in a blood-stained snarl.

Ten feet.

NOW!

I released.

The branch shot forward like a ballista bolt.

The Alpha twisted at the last second, and the branch that should have punched through its heart instead caught it in the shoulder.

It sank deep, but not deep enough.

Not nearly deep enough.

The bear roared, the sound shaking leaves from trees, and charged.

I tried to dodge.

But again, I wasn’t fast enough.

The Alpha’s head caught me in the chest like a battering ram. I felt more ribs snap, felt my sternum crack. The world spun as I flew backward, crashed through a bush, and slammed into the ground hard enough to drive every bit of air from my lungs.

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t move.

The Alpha loomed over me, blood pouring from the branch still embedded in its shoulder. Its remaining eye was wild, insane with pain and rage.

It raised one massive paw.

Those claws that could split me open from throat to groin.

I grabbed the second branch with my good hand and thrust upward with everything I had left.

The sharpened point caught the Alpha under the jaw, the modified wood harder than steel driving up through soft tissue.

But my angle was wrong.

The branch skidded off bone instead of penetrating the skull.

The Alpha jerked back, roaring, shaking its head violently. The branch tore from my grip, clattered away.

I tried to crawl backward. But my legs wouldn’t respond properly. Something was wrong with my spine, my back screaming with each movement.

The Alpha lowered its head, blood streaming from the wound under its jaw, and lunged for my throat.

I threw my good arm up instinctively.

Teeth sank into my forearm instead, grinding against bone. The pain was beyond description. Beyond anything I’d ever felt.

I screamed.

The Alpha shook its head like a dog with a rabbit, and I felt bones in my arm shatter. Felt my elbow dislocate.

Through the haze of agony, my free hand, scrabbled across the ground.

Found a rock.

Fist-sized, but with a sharp edge.

I swung it at the Alpha’s remaining eye with every atom of strength left in my dying body.

The impact made a wet crunch.

The Alpha released my arm with a shriek that pierced the night.

It stumbled backward, thrashing, now completely blind, my mangled forearm dropping from its jaws.

I couldn’t feel my right arm anymore. Couldn’t feel much of anything except the cold spreading through my body.

The Alpha swung wildly, claws catching a tree trunk, ripping bark away in sheets. It was trying to find me by sound, by scent, but its own roaring and the blood pouring from its face was overwhelming its senses.

I found the second branch, the one that had skidded away, and dragged it toward me with my destroyed left arm.

Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through my shattered body.

The Alpha crashed into a tree, disoriented, and I saw my opening.

One chance.

Maybe my only one.

Then... I pushed myself up with my legs, my core, anything that still worked. Held the branch in both ruined hands, the wood slick with my own blood.

The Alpha turned toward the sound of my movement.

I drove the sharpened branch forward with the last of my strength, aiming for the neck.

For the jugular.

The point sank into flesh.

Not as deep as it needed to. My strength was gone.

But I’d found the artery.

Hot blood erupted in a spray that covered me completely, filled my mouth, my nose.

The Alpha’s claws came around in one final, desperate swing.

Caught me across the ribs.

I felt them cave in. Felt something inside tear. I didn’t know what.

Just gritted my teeth and pushed it with all I’ve got.

And Alpha shrieked, thrashed.

Then, we both collapsed.

The Alpha hit the ground first, its massive body shaking the earth. Blood pooled beneath it, spreading dark across the forest floor.

I fell a second later, landing on my side, unable to move, unable to breathe properly through the blood filling my throat.

The Alpha shuddered once.

Twice.

And then, went still.

Dead.

I won.

The thought was distant, disconnected. Like it belonged to someone else.

I couldn’t feel my arms anymore. Couldn’t feel my legs. The cold was spreading faster now.

My vision was dimming at the edges, consciousness slipping like water through fingers.

Just need to rest. Just for a minute.

Then I’ll get up.

Get back to the village.

Just... for a minute...

But before I could close my eyes... somewhere in the darkness beyond my failing vision, I heard something.

A howl.

Not a single one, but from multiple sources, coming from different directions.

And I saw... movement in the bushes.

Eyes gleaming in the darkness, watching.

Waiting.

The scent of fresh blood had drawn them. Of course it had.

A whole pack, moving closer now, snarling softly as they saw the fallen Alpha and the broken human beside it. Making us an easy prey.

I tried to move. Tried to reach for anything I could use as a weapon.

But my body was done. Finished.

No. Not like this. Not after—

And the darkness swallowed me whole.