ROAR!

The Shadow Panther was the fastest. It charged at Luke fiercely, leapt into the air, and threw its deadly claws at him.

SCRAP!

The blonde lady grinned, expecting to see Luke’s body on the ground with his stomach open, but he was... still standing?

"What? How’s that possible?" she thought.

When she looked closer, she found out that the panther’s claws hadn’t even touched him in the first place. There was a scaly armor around his chest area. The attack had slid off its surface, leaving only sparks.

Meanwhile, Luke widened his eyes when the panther failed to kill him on the spot. Thanks to the Bluespine Centaur Chestplate, he was still alive. Also, the 100,000% defense sense made his surroundings feel like they were moving at 10 fps. He could see the two Iron-Armored Boars stampeding toward his legs, and the notorious Hawk soaring high up.

Along with these boosts, Luke also became more arrogant like the Bluespine Centaurs.

He remembered he was in the middle of a battle. Instead of fighting back, he stepped away.

DRUM!

The two boars rammed into each other, squealing in anguish as they stumbled around with tangled legs, trying to shake off the concussion.

Up in the air, the Flame-Wing Hawk folded its wings and dive-bombed toward Luke’s blind spot from behind, its talons glowing. But Luke sensed it and tilted his head from its target.

Flap flap! The bird tried to regain its balance. Desperately, it flashed him a beam of fire before retreating toward the ceiling.

At the opposite end of the ballroom, the hunters were confused.

"Did he just tank a panther claw?"

"Hacker detected!"

"What kind of crazy armor is that?"

Of all expectations, Luke was meant to scramble backward or scream in fear, but he just neutralized four beasts without even raising his fist!

The leader hooked his thumb under his eye patch.

"That’s high-grade monster gear," he whispered. "Is this really a human or a monster? We might be in over our heads here."

"Boss, let us retreat and wish him a good day!"

Slap!

The blonde woman had just slapped Billy’s shoulder to get him to focus.

"Are you idiots blind?" she screeched. "He’s just a Level 8 nepo baby! If we drop him, that awesome armor belongs to us! Move your asses!"

"Bitch..." the leader mused, eyeing her. "Senseless foolish bitch. We could have talked our way out of this, but you just had to go and mark us as his enemies. There’s no going back now...

And you, you poacher..." the leader continued, glancing at Luke. "You think you’re tough? Look around you. There are four professional hunters here, and four beasts. That’s eight against one. Do you honestly think you can survive those odds?"

"Charge him again! Don’t miss this time!" Billy shouted.

"And keep your snout to yourself!" the fourth hunter ordered too.

The two Iron-Armored Boars shook their heads, snorted blood, and charged again from the left and right sides simultaneously, trying to pin Luke in a sandwich.

"Mochi, get his legs from the dark!" the blonde woman yelled and the Shadow Panther complied, staying so low to the ground that it became a pool of ink, slithering toward Luke’s ankles.

Up above, the leader telepathically ordered his flaming bird to create a screen that could burn Luke’s vision out. Boom! Boom! Boom! The Flame-Wing Hawk launched smoke grenades that exploded around Luke so he couldn’t see anything coming.

But all their efforts proved futile because Luke had the Molten Triceratops Mask, making him still see the beasts via heat marks. It was so funny to him that he laughed out loud; they thought he was mad.

Lifting his leg, the Shadow Panther snapped its jaws at nothing. Then, Luke softly kicked its head away.

Slide!

The beast went skidding across the ballroom like a bowling ball, crashing into a pillar.

The Hell Ape Gauntlet made Luke so strong, that was considered his weakest move. Weilding even 1% of his strength could turn these summons to Flame, but he was still considerate of this hunter party, which is why he hadn’t.

In fact, Luke began sweating because of the mental struggle of holding back so he wouldn’t commit a slaughter.

"Get his ribs!" Billy and co yelled, thinking they finally had him trapped.

The two boars closed in from both sides to crush Luke’s chest, but since Luke stood at a place, they just hit his chest directly.

CLANG! CLANG!

The impact left both boars dazed with broken teeth. Meanwhile, Luke didn’t even budge an inch.

"Hey, I’m trying really hard not to turn your pets into paste here," he said. "And your teamwork is kind of embarrassing. Are you guys sure you didn’t buy these summons from a discount rack?"

"Discount rack? How dare he."

"He’s supposed to be a level 8 novice, now we don’t even know what he is anymore!"

Before any of the hunters blinked, Luke vanished from his spot.

BOOM!

〖Skill: Blitz Charge has been triggered!〗

Using the skill, he instantly appeared in front of them.

The speed he used caused a sonic boom that echoed all over the dungeon, and the wind’s rebound hit the party in the face, ruffling the leader’s hair and knocking the blonde woman off her feet.

While the party gasped, Luke was busy marveling at the abilities the chestplate gave him.

You see, while the boars and the panther were hitting his torso earlier, Luke had been aware that his〖Damage Absorption〗skill had been assimilating the damage, converting the attacks into fuel to 〖Blitz Charge〗. So now he had tried it, and it worked even better than he thought!

Amigo poked his head out of Luke’s jacket again, his eyes spinning like the Milky Way.

"Whoa, Master! That felt like riding a crazy rocket ship! My shell almost flew right off!"

On the other hand, the hunters still had "?!" on their faces, sweat running down their foreheads.

What is this inhuman doing in a Beta-grade dungeon?!

Luke patted Amigo before he decided to address them. When he spoke, the Molten Triceratops Mask made his voice sound like it was coming from the depths of the underworld.

"You guys really should have taken the twenty-five grand," Luke said. "As you can see, trying to kill me was a bad idea."

Without waiting for a reply from them, Luke blitzed again to a corner of the ballroom where the Shadow Panther was still trying to recover near the crushed pillar.

As soon as the panther saw him, it whimpered and tried to crawl away from him. But Luke didn’t feel sympathy for the beast as he grabbed it by the head with his armored hand. Turning around, he started walking toward the hunters, effortlessly dragging the beast along the floor like a sack of garbage.

"Mochi! Get away from him! Get away!" the blonde woman screamed at the top of her lungs.

Unfortunately, Luke tightened his grip just a tiny bit. Because of his planetary strength, his fingers easily cracked the panther’s skull, killing it.

The beast cracked like alchemy glass and its body gradually dissolved into red dust that seeped through Luke’s fingers.

〖Ding!〗

〖You have slain a Shadow Panther!〗

〖Flame Points +20.5!〗