(A/N: The titles are becoming randomer each time...)

Chapter 11 - 私はポップコーンが好きです!

Sitting on the floor with his back against a wall, Asmund kept waiting to see just how many Death-Hounds he was able to ‘bait’ with the use of the level 2 he left to run away with its life.

Bored, he took a look at his left clawed gauntlet, which he left it as it was because he found it quite useful. The weird thing, is that Asmund actually didn’t make it consciously like he did the blade-whip or his giant sword, but completely out of instinct as he wanted something to protect himself while still having some offensive capabilities.

It didn’t feel awkward at all to fight with it, and although my memory of the fight is kinda blurry, I remember that it protected me well and gave me a lot of ways to deal with the numerous Death-Hounds trying to surround me. I should get more used to fighting with it as it makes a good combination with both my blade-whip and giant sword which, although not perfectly yet, I can wield with one hand.

Suddenly, Asmund’s eyebrows twitched as he felt barely noticeable vibrations. Vibrations which were growing more and more in intensity as time passed, making Asmund smile in delight.

Here they come! And this is quite the huge catch!

Standing up, he faced the side of the hallways from which the rumbling sounds were coming, and what he saw coming his way a moment later as he was uncoiling his blade-whip just made him even happier.

It was literally a stampede of giant beasts. An incredible number of horned Death-Hounds were charging with pure bloodlust in their eyes, and were filling the hallways so much that it was impossible to see the end of the horde.

Since there were barely any low levels among them, Asmund gave up on using the blade-whip and immediately switched for his sword… And charged, while half roaring like a beast himself and half laughing like a man who lost his sanity.

But even faced with a charging Asmund, the Death-Hounds showed no fear this time for some reason and kept advancing with the intent to kill.

Good! I wouldn’t like it any other way!

“Let’s play! MUTTS!”

Reaching the blood thirsty beasts, Asmund let his body drop and slide on the floor, his legs to the front, using this chance to cut of the paws of the biggest Death-Hounds at the front line, making their heavy bodies drop to the floor behind him and make a wall of flesh of a sort.

Using this opportunity he beheaded them as they were down with his sword, while defending against the smaller monsters’ attacks using his gauntlet.

Now having his back protected by corpses and making it impossible for anyone to sneak attack him. Asmund faced off what was left of the first wave with confidence and eliminated them before the second wave could even reach the battle.

When the second wave came next, the strategy they used was quite simple, the big Death-Hounds tried to pressure Asmund while the smaller ones tried to cripple him by assaulting his limbs.

Obviously they had yet to wound him, but Asmund did feel some pressure this time. It was basicly the same strategy that those monsters always used until now, yet, for a reason Asmund was unsure of, the Death-Hounds seemed much more ‘organized’ and willing to fight than before.

Is the Beta here and giving them orders from behind? I still can’t see what’s at the end of the line of monsters…

The pressure at least succeeded in making him regain some sanity as his cautious self came back to the surface. That didn’t stop him from massacring the mutts, but he became less ‘wild’ in his fighting style and more calculative.

The sudden change in fighting style which used the Death-Hounds’ own moves against them, by hiding behind one to sneakily attack another, or urge a big one to try to bite him and then use a small one as a meat shield, rendered their current strategy completely useless.

It was as if someone else entirely, who also happened to be more adapted to the situation, took on the fight while in the middle of it. Obviously though, since the Death-Hounds were far from being geniuses they didn’t change their moves and kept charging at Asmund using the same tactic as always. Resulting in their incredible numbers dwindling more and more in a matter of minutes.

… So boring… I have the impression of fighting a badly programmed AI… And with the improvement I put in my Mind stat lately, those already quite slow monsters now look like snails to me. As long as I keep fighting while using their weakness against them, I should be able to yet again win without a single wound.

*Sigh*

When I think that those weaklings were able to cover me in scars a week ago, I almost feel ashamed of myself, seriously…

Slowly, as the fight continued, Asmund lost his smile and fought the Death-Hounds as if he was sweeping leaves, mindlessly waving his sword around and cutting them apart. At the moment he was neither wild or cautious, he was purely bored of the constant same pattern of attack that the Death-Hounds were using.

Far from putting pressure on him, the monsters couldn’t even come closer than a meter away from him anymore. A yawn or two even escaped Asmund’s mouth as he was making his way through the stampede.

The speed at which Asmund could adapt himself to a situation was really fearsome, and at this point calling him as something less than a prodigy would be a complete understatement.

“BETA FUCKER! SHOW YOUR UGLY MUG ALREADY BEFORE I KILL ALL YOUR UNDERLINGS!”

Having enough of the riff-raff by now, he tried to call for the elite monster in hopes of it showing itself. And as if it had been successfully provoked by him, the Death-Hound Beta did stop hiding and showed up.

Looking at the massive mass of muscles barely fitting in the hallway, standing with an infuriated look in his eyes in front of him, Asmund whistled in amazement.

“Did you gain some weight since the last time I saw you?”

[ Death-Hound Beta Level 16 - Elite ]

“Oh? You did level up! Great! Let’s brawl!”

Getting excited from having now a chance to fight a worthy opponent, Asmund’s grin reappeared on his lips as he charged the three-horned beast.

Emitting a low roar which broke all the windows nearby, the Beta also charged as the other Death-Hounds moved aside to not get trampled by it.

When both were at a 2 meters distance away from each other, Asmund took the initiative and swung his giant sword downward aiming for the Beta’s massive forehead. But with astonishing speed, it riposted by swinging its massive horns against the incoming sword.

*CLANG*

“Wha?!”

A loud sound of metal colliding was heard and Asmund almost released his grip on the handle of his sword, due to the amount of momentum the weapon had as it was pushed back. Forcing him to jump back in order to not let him completely open for the Beta to kill him, and regain the control of his weapon.

But the thing was that the Beta was faster to rush forward than Asmund to retreat, and tried to impale him on his horns. Surprised and out of choice, Asmund blocked the attack with his gauntlet, but as expected it broke like thin glass under the crazy amount of power which was behind the attack.

SHIT! CLOSE! TOO FUCKING CLOSE!

Luckily Asmund succeeded in using the flow of momentum to push his body to the side and barely avoided the horns by an hair-breadth. But the short exchanges he just traded with the beast now covered his back in cold sweat and made all the confidence that he piled up recently go up in smokes.

This fucker is ridiculous! Just what kind of strength is that?! I don’t think that a normal Death-Hound of his level would be even close to him! Or at least I didn't think the difference would be THIS obvious!

Rolling on the floor, Asmund immediately stood back on his feet while taking a fighting stance and his grin slightly stiffened. Since the Beta passed through him, Asmund expected to have some time before being assailed again by the monster's brutal strength.

But just as he took his stance, he noticed a huge shadow approaching him from the side, shadow which was none other than the Beta’s right hind leg, which kicked back like a wild horse. But unlike a horse, the long and razor sharp claw adorning the paws made it a much more obvious threat.

Out of reflex, Asmund let his body fall back like a famous slow motion scene in a certain Sci-fi movie where the protagonist avoided a barrage of bullets, and clawed upward with his repaired gauntlet the paw which was currently above him.

Tough!

Asmund did manage to leave some wounds on the paw, making the Beta roar in rage, but the wounds were so shallow that they could barely be called scratches.

Damn! If he’s this tough and strong, injecting my blood in his body would be useless as I would have no way to wound his inside with nothing but Blood Manipulation…

For once, Asmund really felt cornered in a fight. He just couldn’t think of any way to deal with this ridiculous thing as he was currently. At least he was glad that the other Death-Hounds stood to the side from the fear of getting hit by their leader and didn’t join the fray.

After avoiding and scratching the Beta’s paw, Asmund stood back up again and faced the Beta who had already finished to turn around by then. Its eyes full of anger and spite for the humiliation of receiving an injury from what he considered to be a utter weakling.

But there’s nothing that Asmund hates more than being looked down upon! NOTHING!

“YOU LITTLE SHIT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE LOOKING DOWN AT?!”

Losing himself to his anger, Asmund completely forgot about the predicament he was in and changed the status of ‘dangerous being’ in his mind, to ‘shitty thing to kill in the cruelest way possible’.

Turning back into his wild fighting style, his gauntlet turned into two clawed boots as he drew his blade-whip with his left hand.

Once again both charged at each other, but this time Asmund’s moves became much less straightforward and more unpredictable. Using his clawed boots he ran across the wall and jumped from side to side like an agile panther in a dense jungle.

Looking at Asmund’s crazy movements, the Beta frowned as it hesitated on what way it should kill this pesky fly. Unlike Asmund who used his blade-whip and assaulted the giant Death-Hound’s head, hoping to destroy its sight.

Surprised by how brutal Asmund’s assault suddenly became, the Beta did its best to protect its eyes by waving his horns around to block the barrage of strikes aiming for them.

Seeing that not a single one of his swings was getting past the monster’s defence, Asmund did something strange… He coiled his blade-whip around his waist and put his sword to his back, unarming himself as he was coming closer to the Beta.

Roaring like a beast, thick bloodlust emanated from him as he jumped straight at the Beta’s head, who was so startled by the amount of bloodlust that he failed to stop Asmund from reaching him.

Now crouching on top of the Beta’s head, Asmund held tight the two horns closest to him while ravaging the skull under him by using his boots. Making the Beta scream in pain from the sensation of its skin being ripped and its skull being scratched.

Going completely crazy from the pain, the Beta tried everything to make it stop, be it jumping and slamming the top of its head against the ceiling, ramming its body against the wall or even roll on the floor. It really tried everything, but even as his bones were close to breaking, Asmund didn’t release his grasp on the beast’s horn or stopped ravaging its skull. On the contrary, he became even more like an enraged beast and even literally bite off one the Beta’s eye, munching it loudly and swallowing it as if it was a nice treat.

From then, the Beta’s attitude started to really change, for the first time since it was birthed in this world, it felt ‘fear’. Death was stalking him at the moment, and if nothing was done it would be sure to catch him.

Emitting a pitiful low sound, the Beta called for his fellow Death-Hounds to help. But seeing their leader getting trashed in such a way made them reluctant, after all they really didn’t want to be next on the list. They all were confident before thanks to the presence of the Beta at their back, and were spirited enough that they didn’t mind to offer their life to fight the enemy. But now that the Beta was in such a state after already seeing so many of their kin slain like moths to a flame, their morale was at its lowest.

As the Beta kept calling for help, the other Death-Hounds just looked at each other, waiting for one of them to take a decision. Soon, a decision was made and the Death-Hounds started moving.

Slowly at first, but getting faster as the more who made a move the more still-waiting monsters would notice the new trend. Seeing this movement out the corner of it's remaining eye, the Beta was able to partially resist its fear as there was no way this two-legged demon could take on the horde and the Elite at the same time.

At least until it heard Asmund's psychotic laughter, which not only sent chills down the beast's spine but also made it think something was terribly wrong. The monster hiding in the form of their prey should not be laughing in such a gleefully violent manner when it's about to be under a barrage of attacks from all angles.

Paying more attention to its surroundings, the Beta noticed that the movement it had seen from its underlings was not that of incoming reinforcements, the entire pack was fleeing! They were leaving him here to die!

Suddenly, the Beta was terrified. It couldn't even be angry, it was in too much pain and the situation was too hopeless, even he would be running if he was one of the pack watching his Beta get beaten like this.

Even more unfortunate for the Beta, the time it spent surveying the pack and feeling sorry for itself was time it wasn't actively trying to turn Asmund into a bloodstain on the wall. Time that Asmund happily took advantage of to prepare an especially brutal attack.

Drawing his sword from his back, he stabbed it downward. Yet the sword still wasn’t able to pierce through the Beta’s skull who at least still got stunned by the vibrations of his skull.

Annoyed, Asmund kept piercing the part of the skull in between his feet while shouting like he was out of his mind. (Which he was, pretty much…)

“BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK!”

At that point the Beta was already close to fainting from the pain and the nausea he was currently going through. Its body was so heavy and it’s mind so exhausted, that it finally gave up, letting its body fall… Right as the sound of a sword piercing through skull and brain was heard…

At last, the monster was dead. It’s corpse slumped limply to the floor, and Asmund battered body was thrown away from its head as he didn’t have any strength left.

Laying down without moving, Asmund kept staring at the ceiling while breathing roughly, some blood escaping his lips as he probably received some internal wounds.

He was so exhausted that he wanted to fall asleep, but forced himself awake to mend his internal wounds as best as he could by using his Blood Manipulation. He didn’t want to croak right as he beat one hell of a foe, that would be a lame way to go...