Samael returned to the inner city with excitement coursing through him. The speed at which he was running was immense. Just from this Attunement he was moving at speeds far exceeding even most cars, and it wasn't even close to being his top speed. On the way back, he began experimenting with his 2 skills. Trying to figure out their function as well as how he could use them to kill more monsters or other mutated fauna. With a thought he activated [Appraisal] and his mind was bombarded with information. Names of different plant species, small animals hiding in the bushes and bugs fleeting about in the brush. Like the name said, [Appraisal] seemed to appraise anything he looked at. Basic information about species, like names, behaviors and preferred food popped into his mind. His eyes lit up with excitement. This was incredible. He continued searching around as he traveled, gathering information for later excursions into the wild, and within a few minutes he could see the ruined skyscrapers and collapsed buildings of the inner city.
Fires raged and the situation seemed to have only worsened as time went on. Screams of pain echoed out and bodies littered the ground. Many were charred and destroyed beyond recognition, while others had somehow remained pristine. They looked like they were just sleeping. The smell of a burning city was ever present as Samael looked on in horror. He had gotten used to death. To those around him disappearing without a trace. The Guild had done anything and everything it could to try and get him. This however. This was another level of destruction and carnage. That wasn't to say the Guild was responsible for this. The words of that mysterious voice he had come to associate with the System still remained ever present in the back of his head. When he had left the inner city to camp out in the forest in order to remain of the radar he had not intended to return within just a few hours. He had wanted to stay until that giant timer in the sky hit 0, and the World Awakening could begin in full. He understood that this was essentially the end of the modern world, and the beginning of a new era. That much became clear as soon as he saw those runes back in the small book store. Despite that, despite knowing that most would not survive this. Deep down he had wanted to at least try and minimize the loss of life. Instead he ran away, and now that he was back? Hope of even finding a single survivor in this annihilated city was reduced to an impossibility.
As he moved further into the former inner city, he began to see monsters roaming around. Hideous things with too many eyes, too many limbs and scaly skin. Their scales were a pitch black color along their backs, stretching all the way along their elongated bodies. The color faded to a deep purple the further down towards their belly it went. On the sides, a pure white line, almost like that of the lateral lines seen in fish, cut through the fading purple. They had 10 legs, 5 on each side of their crocodilian bodies, and 2 large eyes on thick stalks on the top of their heads. More disturbing was the fact that on each of their limbs, right above the elbows, another set of eyes were firmly planted within the skin. All of a sudden, one of them stopped. One of the eyes on its limbs snapped towards him. Fear like nothing he had ever felt before coursed through him.
[You've been afflicted with status effect Fear]
[Movement speed reduced by 20%]
Samael froze. His legs were shaking and he struggled to remain upright, but even so he forced himself to keep his eyes on the monster. With a thought he activated [Appraisal] and information about the monster flowed into his mind.
[Crocodylus Infernalis, Lv13]
[Crocodylis Infernalis, or Hellish Crocodile, is a mutated form of Crocodylus Acutus native to the southern reaches of North America. These solitary hunters use their enhanced senses to locate suitable prey before paralyzing it with a simple look. These monsters then rip apart their paralyzed prey with their thousands of teeth and vice grip by performing death rolls.]
The croc slowly turned towards Samael. When he saw its face, his terror deepened even more. Distinctly human eyes looked back at him from the front of the head. It opened its mouth and thousands of large sharp teeth layered in rows like a shark's maw revealed itself. Coating the teeth, and the inside of the entire mouth was an almost glowing violet substance. A drop dripped off a tooth and fell on the ground. Immediately hissing could be heard and a small plume of smoke rose up into the sky. A red glow started to form as the asphalt around the drop began to deform and melt. The croc walked awkwardly towards Samael and a human scream echoed out from its still slightly open maw. Its eyes, all of them, were fixed onto Samael with a predatory glint. It knew its spot in the food chain, and it knew he was below it. He was certain he could outrun it. The speed he had achieved while traveling back to the former inner city was far higher than anything displayed by the croc. Yet he didn't move. He stood there, frozen still. Paralyzed by fear. Samael had lived through things most others his age couldn't even dream of surviving. Assassinations, grenade explosions, stabbings gunshots and countless other injuries. He wasn't one to be afraid. He had even somewhat known in advance that the world would be changing soon. The runes, the words of the man from the Guild, the System. All of it warned him of the brutal future that awaited him. Yet as these thoughts raced through his head, one became more and more prevalent; this fear didn't seem natural. Sure he was afraid of some archaic monster croc that had the power to paralyze prey with a mere look, but it was more then that. He wasn't just paralyzed by its ability, he was paralyzed by his own fear as well. Coming back here had shaken him more then he had thought. Now however, only one though was on his mind; He had to survive, and kill this damn croc.
He willed his body to move, trying to force any reaction at all. Anything that could help him get away from it and create some more distance. His body's response was slow. Compared to what it had been before this encounter it was like comparing a well oiled machine to one that had rusted over decades of neglect. It simply refused to do as he wanted. The croc was closing in fast. Despite its awkward gait it moved faster than an Olympic sprinter and there were only a few meters left before its jaws would close on him. He took a step back, then another, and another. He pushed against the ground with all his strength and took off running. I've created the space I need, time to kill it. He brought out the same knife he had killed the goblin with as well as a machete from the duffel bag. Holding the machete in his right hand and the knife in his left he watched the croc charge at him with an unearthly aggression. He determined the croc to be at least 9 meters long, if not longer. It was absolutely titanic compared to him. If he were to try and wrestle it, even with his new strength, he didn't doubt that he'd be thrown around like a ragdoll in its jaws.
Given that there's clearly some magical mutation bullshit that has made these things possible I doubt most normal weapons will have much effect on it. Especially since even that goblin, that didn't even have any armor was able to withstand a knife hitting it with all my strength. I have to find its weak spot, if it even has one. If it's anything like that goblin, its eyes might not have as much protection as the rest of its body. Let's try for one of the human looking eyes to try and stab into its brain. Having strategized, he watched the croc pass the last few meters left between him and the croc. In the last second, he jumped up to try and get above it. The croc's head flew back, its massive jaws wide open and ready to swallow him whole. Samael put his foot down on the upper jaw and pushed off towards the eye stalks. The thick armored stalks were at least 3 decimeters across and the eyes on top were gigantic, the size of a large watermelon. Right behind him, where he had been just moments before, a plume of violet fire burst out of the crocs mouth. The heat was so intense it incinerated parts of his hair and left severe burns all across his back and legs. A grunt of pain escaped Samael's mouth as he pushed through the pain. He landed right next to one of the eye stalks and instantly his shoes began sizzling and melting. Its body temperature was so high it simply melted the plastic of his soles and made it impossible to remain in one place on its body. He made his way towards one of the 2 human eyes on the front of its face and shoved the machete through it with all his strength. Despite having looked so distinctly human from afar, now that he was closer he began seeing the imperfections in the huge eyes. With brown irises and pitch black pupils the eye looked eerily similar to that of a human, but the sclerae weren't quite right. They were a milky white but there were no blood vessels flowing through them, and purple spots, too small to see from afar dotted the sclerae like stars in the night sky. His machete sunk deeper and deeper without much resistance, but something about it felt off. He pulled back on the machete and when he did a grim expression appeared on his face. The machete hadn't penetrated the eye whatsoever. Instead, it had melted and boiled off the metal the moment it came into contact with the eye. A tinge of despair made itself known within Samael as he realized this. There was no way he could possibly stab through this this when mere contact with the eye had boiled a solid hardened steel blade. Even staying on top of the monster was getting difficult. The burns were beginning to affect him as the adrenalin wore down and its constant attempts to shake him off were becoming increasingly difficult to withstand.
Taking a desperate gamble he balled up his fist and plunged it deep into the croc's hellish eye. His arm burned with temperatures surpassing 5000 degrees Celsius. He pushed deeper until his shoulder was in contact with the surface of the eye. Moving his arm around to do as much damage as possible he felt something soft squish in his hand. For about 30 seconds all he could do was hold his breath and try to kill it with the damage he did. It seemed like an impossible task, but soon the loud sound of the crocs body hitting the ground and the cloud of dust spreading out told him that it was at the very least incapacitated. All this time he hadn't felt much of the damage done to his arm. The last bit of adrenaline coupled with all the nerve ending getting completely charred writhing moments of touching the eye saved him from a lot of the agony. With the last of the adrenaline fading and actually seeing his completely charred arm he realized the severity of the damage. This wasn't the kind of damage that healed in day or even weeks. Something like this could take years to fully heal. He hoped that he would be able to heal it a lot faster with his new enhanced physique, but he had no idea whether that was the case or not. Luckily he that at least thought ahead a little bit and went in with his left arm, rather than his dominant one, or he would've been left virtually completely defenseless with similar monsters likely roaming around, just ready to devour him as a snack.
[You have slain Crocodylis Infernalis Lv13]
[Experience awarded for slaying a monster]
[Bonus experience awarded for slaying a monster more than 10 levels higher than yourself]
[Title awarded for slaying a monster more than 10 levels higher than yourself]
[You have leveled up]