Kaios wiped the sweat from his face, his eyes locked on the pack of nightmares in the distance.
Even though he couldn't fly here, as a Stage 10 his speed was double that of sound. The gap between him and the metal horrors widened—their relentless pursuit slowed further due to their metal constitution.
As he saw them closing in, a smirk appeared on his face. He had already chosen the next target for hunting.
You will be lucky participant this time.. Kaios thought as made the decision.
He then waited patiently, studying the weapons that had just transformed in his grasp. In one hand he held a heavy hammer, in the other a broad shield, their edges gleaming faintly with a silver light.
Resting across his back was the glaive—his newest addition, randomly shaped from the alloy taken off the crow nightmare. His eyes lingered on it longer than the others, as it had unique properties unlike the other weapons he carried.
This alloy was unnaturally light, as if enchanted with gravity resistance, even though its durability matched the other weapons. When shaped into a wider form, the alloy granted him longer airtime with each leap—a rare advantage in this plane, where flight was restricted.
"Hmm... I can do some interesting things if I slightly tweaked it.." Kaios said to himself while observing the glaive.
In a second, all four horrors closed in. The boar led the front, flanked by the bull and the writhing centipede, while the wolf held back, preparing to unleash a volley of quills.
The boar charged closer with each resounding step, its tusks melting and twisting into a gleaming scythe, ready to rip Kaios to shreds.
"Come you fatty boar, show me your strength." Kaios taunted even knowing it will not react to that.
As the boar came too close, Kaios slammed the shield against its snout. The impact slowed the beast, transferring all its momentum to the shield. Kaios used this momentum and leaped higher into the air.
Mid-leap, he switched the shield with the glaive. The shaft shuddered, then with a snap unfolded into a small glider. Two wings extended—one from just below the blade, and another at the far end—balancing and carrying him higher into the air.
Before the three nightmares could react, he angled the glaive-glider toward the wolf in the distance. With the help of alloy manipulation, the wings shifted, fastening his descent toward it.
"I chose you" Kaios shouted at the wolf, while landing.
He landed just in front of the beast. Before the wolf could even move, Kaios rolled with the momentum from the landing to its right, rising with the hammer already in hand. He swung at the wolf's torso with all his strength. The crushing blow sent the wolf skidding sideways—widening the gap between it and the other three horrors.
"How is that, you porcupine and wolf hybrid?" He mocked.
Saying the he leaped at the wolf horror, not giving a chance to recover from his earlier blow. While in the midair, he subtly reshaped the hammer— its edges now jagged with spikes. He then drove the hammer downward with all his force, after landing on the beast's back, piercing its metallic spine and shattering it in the process.
The wolf let out a screech filled with pain, its body convulsing violently as sparks flew from metal crashing against metal. Limbs flailed uncontrollably, but the spiked hammer held firm, pinning it to the metallic plain. Its veins spewed molten metal to close, but the wound remained unhealed. With a final, piercing shriek, the metallic howl cut short, and the horror went still. The molten iron stopped—the wolf was finally downed.
Kaios stepped back, breathing steadily despite the rush of adrenaline in his body. All three weapons in his grasp were now shifting again as the thirteen seconds were over.
The moment he realized the wolf's speed and sheer danger—capable of launching quills as deadly volleys—Kaios had immediately marked it as his second target.
He snapped out of his reverie, fixing his gaze on the approaching horrors. They had been frozen before—not by the wolf's death, but stunned by its brutal shriek and the sparks flying from its thrashing. But now they were out of it, closing in rapidly.
Kaios resorted to his most trusted strategy—run. He sprinted with every ounce of speed he could muster, tired from his earlier circus performance, though not before taking his reward.
This chase of cat and mouse dragged on for some time, before Kaios heard a sudden clanking sound from behind. As he spun around, his heart skipped a beat. A rusted, brownish chain was hurling at him with breathtaking speed.
He swung the recently shifted weapon to intercept, but something strange occurred. The moment the chain coiled around it, the jitte began to corrode. Within seconds, rust spread along the blade, reaching down to the handle where he held it, threatening to spread to him.
Seeing this, Kaios threw the weapon without a second thought, then leaped backward. Just as he touched the ground, he saw something that made him nearly puke.
Dammnnn...
Sharpened bones were flying toward him, their intent clear—to pierce. But it wasn't just that which churned his stomach. It was the bull nightmare itself, tearing the bones from its own torso, some even ripping through its skull and mouth as it hurled them.
Each fragment seemed soaked in molten blood, jagged edges glinting—a gory display of self-mutilation that made his stomach twist.
He used the recently acquired spine of the wolf to intercept the incoming bones, widening it for better defense. The manipulation didn't take more than a second—since it was still in its natural form.
The widened wolf spine swung like a living barrier, deflecting several shards away. But during this Kaios noticed a strange phenomenon. With each impact, the spine shimmered, a silvery glow spreading along it. Kaios didn't understand what this was, until— until it released a blast that shattered every shard in front of it. Even Kaios, standing behind, didn't escape unscathed. The recoil threw him backward violently.
At a distance, Kaios could be seen struggling to push himself back onto his feet.
What the heck was that? And why do all the weirdest things in the world happen to me?
He muttered under his breath, cursing both his misfortune and the violent blast that had just flung him across the metallic plain.
But all that vanished when he saw the scene in front of him. The boar, close to him, had been blown away by the blast. The centipede had lost some of its rusted chains, limiting its mobility.
What made Kaios almost grin was the bull horror. The blast had shattered nearly every jagged bone it had hurled at him, leaving it crippled—its massive frame sagging. Limp now, with most of its skeletal support gone, it was unable to rise.
"Well, well… what a wonderful opportunity. How could I not take advantage of it?" Kaios chuckled, forgetting his earlier frustration.
He approached the bull slowly, cautiously, breathing deeply between steps. The closer he got, the more he saw the fatal damage it had suffered from the blast. The torn body still bore the marks from where the bones had protruded—the skull was split, jagged fragments jutting grotesquely.
Reaching out, he gripped the blade in his hand vertically, aiming at its head. It was the most recent form, the spine of the crow horror. Its edges were jagged, resembling an ancient torture tool crafted to inflict maximum pain.
He drove it down. The limping bull couldn't resist. The jagged edge sank deeper, ripping apart the remnants of its skull, leaving nothing but a ruined, uneven hole.
As the bull horror died, a crazed smile spread across Kaios's face.
"Hehehe… Time for butchering. Don't you think I deserve a reward for taking you down?"