The air thickened with tension since the clash was just seconds away from igniting. Yet the surrounding monsters weren't alarmed. In fact, they looked thrilled. Some were practically salivating at the thought of the two combatants tearing each other apart. If they were lucky, both would end up crippled, and they'd get a chance to dive in, maybe tear off a limb or two for a hearty feast.
But Hansen didn't react with anger. Instead, his eyes narrowed with intrigue as he studied the system panel displaying Slime Octopus's information. A cold glint sparked within his gaze.
[Monster: Slime Octopus]
[Disaster Level: Tiger (Mid-tier)]
[Ability 1: "Viscous Ink (N)" – Ejects a large volume of highly toxic, sticky ink from its mouth. Can interfere with enemy perception and movement.]
[Ability 2: "Powerful Constriction (R)" – Its eight tentacles possess immense muscular strength and durability, capable of high-speed entanglement and lethal strangulation.]
[Ability 3: "Tentacle Regeneration (N)" – Lost tentacles can regenerate by consuming a portion of its life force.]
A solid mid-tier Tiger—one R-ranked ability and two N-ranked ones. Hansen would have avoided provoking such a monster before, but now…
He had changed.
The system had ranked Hansen's power as Tiger-Upper, and that was no ordinary upper-tier Tiger. Slime Octopus might be the apex predator in this area, but even so, the system rated him only as Tiger-Mid.
Hansen had absorbed four golden abilities from Rover, each one more overwhelming than the last. With those powers, he could be considered an elite warrior in any powerful organization. Among those at his level, he stood peerless.
"Yare yare~! Got a problem, bitch?" Hansen's voice cut through the silence.
This time, it came with a sharp edge, like lava boiling beneath the surface, threatening to explode.
"Of course I've got a problem!"
He stepped forward. Though his black, armor-plated body wasn't as large as Slime Octopus's, the energy rolling off him was suffocating. Each movement crackled with brute force.
"You got a problem?!"
Slime Octopus's expression darkened. His eight tentacles twitched, and the suction cups opened and closed in rapid succession, producing a string of wet, snapping noises. He was seconds away from launching a deadly strike.
He had expected Hansen to back off. Yet this guy had the audacity to press forward?
"My problem is..."
Hansen raised his head. Through the eye-slits of his mask, his eyes glowed an ominous red, locking onto Slime Octopus like targeting lasers.
"You should've been dead already."
"...You're dead meat!!!"
Slime Octopus lost it. His enormous octopus head turned scarlet with rage, and his tentacles lunged like furious vipers, slicing through the air with terrifying speed as they surged toward Hansen.
Even before the tentacles made contact, a thick, nauseating stench spread through the air, causing several nearby monsters to gag and recoil.
"They're fighting!"
"Tear him apart, Boss Octopus!"
"Crush that insect!"
The spectators erupted in bloodthirsty cheers, already envisioning Hansen crushed beneath tentacles, bones shattered, body twisted into a mangled heap.
But Hansen didn't flinch. As the eight steel-like tentacles closed in on him with terrifying speed, his expression didn't show fear. If anything, a dark excitement flared in his eyes.
It was time to put his SSR abilities to the test.
In an instant, his senses surged to their peak. Every detail sharpened until time itself seemed to crawl. The incoming tentacles, once blindingly fast, now appeared sluggish, their paths unfolding like a slow-motion simulation.
He could see everything, the force behind each strike, the angle of approach, the currents they disturbed in the air. Every variable clicked together in his mind like clockwork.
Fast.
Just as the tentacles were about to close in, Hansen's black-armored body launched forward. He became a blur, a shadow streaking through the chaos like a black arrow fired from a war bow.
He moved as if he had teleported, slipping through the narrow opening between the converging tentacles at an angle that defied physics, reappearing a heartbeat later at the flank of the towering Slime Octopus.
That speed shattered the reaction threshold of any Tiger-level threat.
The heightened awareness granted by "Beast Instinct" allowed Hansen to anticipate every move before it happened. Combined with the monstrous physical power from "Excessive Growth" and "Behemoth Physique," he displayed explosive speed and strength far beyond what anyone would expect from someone of his disaster level.
"What?!"
The Slime Octopus's pupils shrank as its instincts screamed in alarm.
Hansen had disappeared in an instant. The octopus couldn't even register the direction he'd gone. A wave of danger erupted from his side, and only then did he realize, this so-called trash, who had barely scraped mid-Wolf-level earlier, had transformed into a monster he could barely follow with his eyes.
How was this happening?
Before Octopus's sluggish brain could catch up, before he could twist its body or spew ink as defense, a claw wreathed in jet-black armor sliced through the air.
The tips gleamed with cold, deadly precision. The claw tore forward like a bolt of lightning, trailing a shriek in the air as it stabbed toward its mark with violent speed.
The target, its enormous, unguarded head.
Splurt!!
The sound was wet and sharp, like a blade cutting through spoiled meat.
Hansen's claw ripped clean through the Slime Octopus's slick skin and brittle cartilage, his five fingers driving deep into the soft tissue of his skull.
Half of the creature's head collapsed under the strike. A grotesque fountain of dark inky-blue blood erupted from the wound, mixed with fragments of pale, pulpy brain matter spilling between his fingers.
"Uwaaahhh!!!"
A shriek tore from the octopus's mouth, a sound so high-pitched and unnatural it didn't seem like any living thing should be capable of producing it. The agony of having his brain pierced directly, paired with the primal terror of death, overwhelmed his mind instantly.
The remaining tentacles, those not yet severed or immobilized, thrashed with wild abandon. They lashed out in every direction, striking at Hansen in a desperate frenzy.
Yet even these furious Tiger-level blows landed with dull, useless thuds against the black armor covering Hansen's body. Veined with crimson patterns, the armor absorbed the impact without buckling.
Sparks flew.
His physique and durability, bolstered by Level 1 of "Behemoth Physique," were leagues beyond what a mid-tier Tiger-class creature could possibly harm. No matter how hard the tentacles struck, the armor didn't even show the faintest crack.
"This can't be happening!"
The Slime Octopus was drowning in disbelief. His strikes weren't even leaving marks. But he refused to die without fighting back. His enormous head jerked backward, mouthparts opening wide.
A jet of thick, revolting black liquid blasted out in a torrent.
"Viscous Ink!"
This wasn't just toxic, it was corrosive, disorienting, and nearly impossible to see through. It was one of his aces, a move meant to turn the tide.
"Yare yare~! Trying a beam struggle, huh?"
Hansen's voice came low and amused, a spark of challenge in his eyes. With a smooth, efficient motion, he sliced through the remaining flailing tentacles at their bases. As the severed limbs dropped, he leapt backward and opened his mouth wide.
Inside, blinding white light rapidly gathered, swelling into a glowing orb of energy. Heat and raw power radiated from it, warping the air.
In an instant, the bomb took full form and launched, piercing through the thick curtain of ink still hanging in the air.
"Scorching Bomb!"
Sizzle sizzle sizzle!
The moment the blazing energy collided with the ink, violent hissing and bursts of steam exploded outward. The noxious slime couldn't resist the blast at all; it evaporated on contact, utterly destroyed by the searing heat.
In the Slime Octopus's remaining eye, the approaching crimson orb reflected in terrifying detail. His pupil constricted into a pinpoint.
Terror gripped his core.
Hopelessness swallowed his final thought.
The next second, the entire enormous body of the octopus was engulfed by the exploding sphere of energy.
BOOM!!!
(AN: There might be some errors regarding the pronouns of Slime Octopus since I tried to make him male, so please bear with it for now.)
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