"That's it?"
Alaric's voice came out quiet. Almost disappointed.
His hand had gripped the dreadhound's head. The creature writhed weakly in his grasp.
Alaric's fingers tightened.
The skull crunched. Bone splintered beneath his palm with a wet, grinding sound. Then collapsed inward completely.
He opened his hand.
The body dropped to the forest floor. Hit the ground with a dull thud. Twitched once. Twice.
Then went still.
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
The notifications erupted across his vision in rapid succession. Translucent panels flickering into existence, stacking over one another in layers.
[+90 Exp]
[+130 Exp]
[+75 Exp]
[+110 Exp]
More kept coming. The text glitched and stuttered, lines of information fragmenting and reforming. The panels themselves looked wrong—edges bleeding into each other, colors shifting erratically.
Alaric didn't look at them. His hand came up, fingers raking through his hair in irritation.
