It was coming straight towards him.

He had inadvertently entered the thoggua’s field of perception, having slipped on the unassuming mossy patch in front of him. The monster, like the diligent murder machine it was, identified him as prey and sent one of its long, super-sharp tails after him.

Or, more specifically, at his groin.

If Lukas hadn’t been shocked out of his wits, he’d have commented about how this murder-hobo could have given lessons to modern combat personnel if its reflexes were anything to go off of. But he was, and his body had decided that waiting for his brain to come up with something was counterproductive to his survival.

And so it acted on its own.

By putting his palms defensively in front of said groin.

Not very helpful, his thoughtful mind observed. The metallic edge had sliced through the pebble earlier— his hands may as well have been slabs of butter for all the difference it would make. From the looks of things, his own pebbles were about to be sliced and diced.

Suddenly, the Tom and Jerry reference became very literal in his eyes.

“Use it,” Inanna crowed.

Not needing any further prompting, Lukas activated his skill.

Tachypsychia.

His awareness of time screeched to an incredibly slow pace, dragging out what should have been the blink of an eye to several seconds. Everything around him became a twisted fusion of reality and a stationary image as the world descended into a strange, crawling mess.

And in the middle of all that, his perception expanded.

It became more.

Once a blur to the naked eye, the tail was no longer as fast as it used to be. He could now literally see it as the bloody thing crawled closer. It was a slimy, spear-like appendage covered in razor-sharp edges and connected to the thoggua at its base.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Just four more heartbeats and it would connect, dismembering his precious manhood for life.

His heart throbbed between his ears, and Lukas will his arms— his hard, unmoving-as-rock arms —to move up faster. He wanted them to take the damage, hoping against all hope that the layer of lifeforce on top would save his hands from being severed.

Thump!

Why won’t they move?

He tried to move them faster, but his hands simply wouldn’t budge. Despite what felt like seconds of effort, they were still too far away from where they should’ve been.

Thump!

That was the age-old problem with increased perception. It allowed him to shift his temporal awareness to a slow drag, but it was only his mind that was elevated as such. His body and movements stayed as they were before. Tachypsychia’s effect made the tail appear slow, but it made his body appear even slower.

Lukas would’ve gulped if it wouldn’t have taken forever to do so. The dichotomy between his increased perception and his body’s sluggish response was nothing short of terrifying. He could see the tail coming towards him, yet no matter how hard he pushed his body, he simply could not dodge it.

He had to sit there and wait for the inevitable, while being unable to do anything about it.

Thump!

No! I won’t let it end like this!

Lukas’s body screamed in pain as he forced lifeforce out of his hands. Two full-powered bursts blasted out of his palms, hitting the floor inches away from the thoggua with frightening intensity. The floor cracked in two different places, the shattered fragments of rock and stone alike shooting into the air under the force of his attack and throwing up a cloud of debris.

The spear end of the creature’s tail jerked midway, barely slicing through his skin and drawing a sliver of fresh blood as it swerved back. It was joined by the other two tails as the beast began to madly swing them all around, doing its best to strike at the falling rocks around it.

Thump! … Thump! Thump! Thump!

His body acting on autopilot, Lukas rushed backward out of the monster’s reach and allowed himself to breathe again as the effects of his skill dissipated.

All at once, his perception rightened, forcing him to double over as all sorts of stimuli hit him all at once. His heart— which had been beating so slowly not so long ago —was throbbing so erratically he felt it would rip itself out of his chest.

But despite all that, Lukas managed to heave a sigh. He’d escaped. His balls were safe. He was alive. He— he was—

He glanced back at the creature, scowling all the while.

“Are you going to give up?”

It was a fair question— was he? His grandfather had taught him to never pick fights, but the man was also the one who taught him how to end his fights. And this was a fight he had started, one that was meant to prove his ability to wield tachypsychia in a real fight.

And most importantly, this was a matter of his ego.

Lifeforce blazed into his fingers as his previous leg injury began to heal quickly.

He had decided to fight this monster, despite knowing how dangerous it was. The experience so far had only confirmed his suspicions, and giving up now in the face of danger would be the kind of disappointment he didn’t need, nor would he be able to get over it anytime soon.

Lukas clenched his fists. He could do this.

And somewhere deep within, he could feel Inanna’s smile as she focused her attention on him.

I can do this. I just need a—

His gaze fell to the floor, and he smiled.

A distraction.

With a quick burst of lifeforce, he cracked the floor beneath his feet, fracturing the rock slab into several tiny fragments. Two more bursts later, he had enough fragments to distract the creature in front of him.

Picking up a single stone, Lukas hurled it at the thoggua. It smashed against the creature’s slimy hide, but apart from a noncommittal grunt, there was little to no reaction.

Alright. Something larger this time.

He picked up two larger pieces and heaved them, aiming for the monster’s head. The first slab hit his target perfectly, causing the thoggua to grunt and flail around in annoyance and, dare he hope, pain. Its three tails haphazardly followed its body’s movements, in an attempt to drive away whatever was attacking it.

This time, he picked up a third slab, one that was even larger. Pumping some strength into his right arm, he sent it flying towards the creature, aiming for its belly.

CRASH!

“Bull’s eye!” he breathed, seeing the thick slab of stone actually make the monster agitated, its tails slashing the air with relentless fury.

Lukas grinned.

Two more rocks were flung next, this time skidding on the floor. All three tails zoomed towards the targets. The first tail missed by an entire foot while the remaining two managed to strike fairly well.

Not that precise when you’re agitated, are you?

Now was the hard part.

Pumping more strength into his arms, Lukas picked up the largest stone fragment— it was practically a boulder, given its four-foot length and slightly lesser width. It would have been impossible for him to lift as an ordinary human, but with his recently acquired lifeforce abilities, it was a simple task.

Amusedly, he shook his head. It was stuff like this that reminded him that he was no longer the normal guy he used to be.

That this world was real.

Inanna… he mentally called out. I just want to point out that I can drop this rock and walk away in peace, and this thing wouldn’t even know it. But if I step in and something goes wrong…

He held back a shiver.

I’ll be in pieces.

If the resident goddess heard him— which he knew she did —she didn’t acknowledge it. Maybe she truly didn’t care, or perhaps she simply didn’t want to spoil her greatest entertainment in eons by getting involved in it. Either way, he was going to deal with this by himself.

Fine.

Exhaling, Lukas took a step forward as the thoggua continued to lash around, chasing off phantom attackers.

Another step.

The thoggua didn’t see him approaching.

Nonchalantly, he dropped the boulder a step in front of him.

This time, all three tails came flying towards him— barbed, poised for murder, and centered on the obvious, large, heavy target he graciously provided them.

His nostrils flared, oxygen rushed in as Lukas inhaled deeply.

And once again, tachypsychia began its magic.

Thump!

Lifeforce instantaneously blazed into his hands. He had to be fast. The tails were approaching, one zooming towards the slab as the other two followed closely behind.

Thump!

The lifeforce in his palms swirled and layered against his body like a second skin as his right arm moved in a sweeping curve.

The tails approached even closer.

Faster!

Thump! Thump!

The barbed tip of the first tail scratched the surface of the boulder. His arm was still too far away. Not enough time.

Burst came into existence, and the arm moved just a little bit faster.

Still not enough.

Thump! … Thump! Thump!

Come on! BURST!

Sheer desperation and a will to survive beyond all odds forced more lifeforce into his hands as Lukas poured in everything he had. And somehow, it worked. If his hand had been a makeshift ax earlier, it was now a razor-sharp broadsword in comparison. But still, he needed to be faster.

Faster!

As if sensing a bad omen, the thoggua began to pull back—

SNAAPP!!!

With a single, clean strike, two of the three tails were severed right off at the tip, leaving the metallic edges still impaled into the boulder. The third tail continued to lash around madly, slashing against a part of his cheek and drawing blood.

But Lukas was past caring.

His hand continued to move ahead as the third tail finished carving a thin red line against his cheek and—

THUMMMMPPPP!

Lukas doubled over and puked out all the contents of his stomach as stimuli from all his senses hit him with all the force of a freight train. His cheek, now bloodied, began to ooze red onto the rocky floor and—

CLANG!

The third tail, now fully severed from the middle, dropped onto the floor, its metallic end bouncing and rolling around before it came to a complete standstill.

Lukas glanced at the now-tailless thoggua with maniacal eyes, feeling wildly retributive about the whole affair. Without its tails, the monster was completely defenseless. And he, the predator, now had three immensely sharp daggers to choose from when he tore the heart out of his prey.

The gamble had been steep, but in the end, it had paid off.

Victory was his.

It was coming straight towards her.

Tanya inadvertently flinched, raising her other hand in front of her face to intercept the blow. Somehow, her mind managed to squeeze an extra fraction of a second in between it all, just to remind her how futile and stupid her action had been. The razor-sharp claw came closer, now barely inches away as—

Ching!

Before she knew it, a single, paper-thin layer of stone shot up between her face and the incoming claw, deflecting it. The hound, not willing to go down, dove into the rock wall and came out the other end, swiping towards her with another claw.

Tanya cursed, falling onto her back. Trust Banksi to talk about how polished rock surfaces were a bad idea, then create that very thing.

Fortunately, he seemed to have a follow-up plan.

“Earth Spear!”

The ground beneath the phaser hound trembled as a jagged, tapered piece of rock erupted upwards, piercing the slippery creature through its abdomen. With one claw stuck within the rock slab and its body skewered by another, the creature had nowhere to escape.

The rocky spear continued to grow upwards, and the phaser hound let out a mechanical, grating scream as it slowly tore through its belly

And then, it died.

An event which gave the other hounds pause.

“Good work,” Tanya gulped. “This thing got the better of my instincts earlier.”

“Where instinct doesn’t work, intellect must persevere,” Zuken cheekily replied, grinning all the while.

“Guys?” Elena spoke up, wide-eyed as she pointed a trembling finger towards the dead creature before them. “It’s not dead. It’s still hungry!”

Tanya glared at her. “One of these days—”

She paused as the hair on the back of her neck suddenly rose. She could feel something about to happen. Something bad.

Something wrong.

The body of the hound slowly began to vibrate, almost as if it was waking up, before its slimy underbelly sank even lower into the rocky edge, impaling the creature deeper into the spear. Tanya watched on in horror as the monster stopped pushing itself down, then began moving backward, allowing the spear to tear its body into halves.

What the FU—

The rest of her thoughts perished midway as two phaser hounds— slippery, slimy, and complete with their own set of tentacles —stood up. The four hounds from before walked up and took positions behind the frontal pair.

Then, all six phaser hounds bared their tentacles and roared.

…

Tanya sighed.

“I’m really beginning to hate this place.”