Whoosh!
The moment Kairo saw Hugo dashing back, his adrenaline levels spiked as goosebumps creeped all over his skin.
He knew that all hell was about to break lose.
"Construct attack!" Hugo shouted, bringing the full team to alert. "It's E-Rank!" He added with a panicked voice.
And then…
Snap! Snap!
The sound of falling trees reverberated deeper in the forest, before with a deep hissing sound, it revealed itself before the humans.
A gigantic snake appeared. Not a biological snake though, a construct just like Major Pain said all the hazards would be. But it was E-Rank.
Its E-Rank aura crashed heavily against the applicants, suffocating them.
It had a peculiar design. Stretching as long as seven feet, what slithered towards them was a half serpent, half machine creature with rusted steel fused with muscle and bone spikes at its joints.
Snakes were not supposed to have joints, but this one had. Not just that, it had an arm, a cleaver arm and also with jaws filled with dagger-sharp fangs.
It also had an exposed molten core.
Staring at this creature, even Kairo felt a chill run down his spine.
Mira shivered in fear. "W-what is that?!"
The others? They were horrified.
But before fear could have its way over them, Kairo snapped out of it as he gritted his teeth. "Formation!" He growled, his muscles already flexing beneath his skin as his eyes narrowed, locked on the creature.
Ben remained frozen, his eyes staring ahead as his teeth clattered together in fear.
"Ben, what are you waiting for?!" Kairo growled in annoyance.
Kairo's deep voice for a teenager snapped Ben out of his reverie. The boy had a look on his face like he was resigned to die, but he did it nonetheless.
Activating his special ability, a gray magic aura appeared around him, engulfing his armor and turning it almost impervious to damage.
"Ahhh…!" Ben yelled as he charged towards the snake.
'Good distraction…,' Kairo thought, eyes narrowed in calculation.
HISSS!
The serpent-machine didn't hesitate as with a deep hiss, it lunged towards the human with its jaws opened wide, exposing its dagger-sharp fangs.
Staring at those fangs that seemed capable of shredding his body into two, and that aura… Ben lost his belief.
The fear of death gripped him, and then the innate self-preservative instincts of humans took over his respect for Kairo's order. Ben turned mid-way and tried to run, but the serpent was not benevolent enough to let go of its prey.
As soon as the human turned, its eyes glinted with murder evident in them.
But that was when Kairo moved.
~----~
[Hypermuscle Creation Activated!]
>Muscle Charge: 2/6.
…
[Muscle Lock Activated!]
~----~
Kairo felt his muscles roll under his skin like steel cables, tightening for an explosive outburst even as with Muscle Lock, his skin turned to armor.
His eyes narrowed into slits.
Kairo knew this was not like the other F-Ranks. Against an E-Rank, he was the weaker one, he was the one at a disadvantage. It was risky, but Kairo knew he wouldn't pass if he couldn't even beat this construct.
He charged towards the snake while all of its attention was on the pathetically running Ben. Pivoting on one foot, Kairo punched with his right hand.
BAM! CRKSH!
Kairo's fist hit like thunder, smashing the serpent-machine's midsection as a devastating shockwave erupted.
Kairo aimed for the exposed molten core but the creature was clever as sensing it, it shifted at the last moment, blocking with another part of its body.
Kairo smashed that part, injuring the construct, but with its molten core still intact, the construct was still intact.
"Dammit!" Kairo cursed. He knew his element of surprise was gone.
He didn't even get a moment of reprieve when the serpent retaliated, striking down with a massive cleaver strike.
Activating Muscle Lock again, Kairo blocked. He was not fast enough to dodge an E-Rank construct's attack, the serpent was faster.
BAM!
The ground beneath Kairo's legs cracked as he felt his bones nearly break from the impact, but they survived.
But that was not all as the serpent quickly swiped with its tail, catching Kairo square on his abdomen as like a broken kite, Kairo was lifted off the ground, flung off towards a nearby tree.
"Argh…!" His ribs cracked as Kairo coughed blood.
~----~
[WARNING: Severe injury logged!]
>Breakdown: You have two broken ribs.
~----~
Kairo grimaced.
And yet, in a moment of bravery, that was when Mira charged in, coating her legs with wind mana as she charged with speed, slashing at the core with her dagger but the serpent swatted her aside like a bug.
She stood her ground though, but her legs were like jelly in front of an E-Rank construct.
Staring at Mira bravely stand her ground, Kairo gritted his teeth.
"To hell with this!"
He pushed himself off the tree and charged back into the battle, refusing to quiet. "E-Rank? I don't care if you're A or even S-Rank, you can't stop me!"
He activated Hypermuscle Creation again as his muscles flexed with power.
As Kairo charged forward, his body filled with adrenaline and brain filled with intense bloodlust, that was when something clicked…
DING!
~----~
[Emotional spike detected!]
[Muscle Index rises…]
>Pain Threshold Adaptation: +3% strength for 2 minutes.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked an Emergency Skill: Muscle Surge!]
>When activated, grants one explosive override of physical limits.
>Cooldown: 1 day.
~----~
Kairo didn't even pay attention to the system notification when he instinctively activated the new skill.
Hypermuscle Creation already flooded his muscles with power, but this… this was another level of power.
BZZZ!
Kairo felt saturated with power, he felt like a prime Mike Tyson.
Locked in, he charged in, weaving and ducking the peekaboo style. He read about it in a comic book, but now, with his life on the line and in an extreme emotional state, he executed the style without even knowing.
And as the serpent tried to lash, he struck like lightning.
His fist flashed forward faster than ever before, targeting the exposed molten core, and he landed a devastating blow…
KABOOM!
The glowing core ruptured completely!
The serpent-machine froze for a heartbeat before collapsing in slag and ruin.
Silence followed.