Al stood his ground, his mana exhausted, blood dripping from the myriad of wounds in his body, but his gaze carried a determined glint.

Until ten years ago, he had been a kid of the slums, a plague of society. His mother worked at a brothel, and of course he didn’t know who his father was.

When he was young, his mother had treated him well enough, but after he turned 10 it all went to hell, and he was taken to foster care. After a few years, they ran out of funding and basically kicked the children out. That kinda stuff tends to happen in some parts of Mexico.

But the day he turned 16, the [INCORPORATION] came. When he was young, he loved to read fantasy novels and manga and the like, so when suddenly everybody had a [STATUS SCREEN] and could use magic or improve their physical abilities indefinitely, he saw it as an opportunity.

He grabbed a stick and started stabbing the mutated rats that appeared, and after a few years he was known as Sonic-Boom Sword.

He had come this far, and he wasn’t going to lose to some measly continent boss. The other three were close to their limit too, but they weren’t gonna give up now, and have this oversized wolf take thousands more lives.

It sure was a tough bastard though. Al had already gouged out both of its eyes, which were the size of beach balls, and the others had also done a number on it, but it was still limping its way towards them, howling with rage.

Unfortunately there was not much Al could do here, since he couldn’t penetrate the bastard's tough hide with his rapier. Even if he was one of the top 5 in America, he wasn’t omnipotent. ‘That guy’s Toughness must be at least A rank’ he thought as he rushed the wolf for the umpteenth time.

He saw a patch of skin on the beast’s chest where the nigh-indestructible fur had been singed clean off, probably by Lily’s strongest spell, Red Ravage. The iron-like skin was also severely cracked, maybe from one of Thor’s hammer arts. That wasn’t his real name, by the way.

Al took the chance and slipped his trusty Airbreaker in between the cracks, and activated his Thrust skill, piercing the beast’s heart. Piercing was his specialty, after all. He felt a wave of relief wash over him and plopped down onto the ground, ignoring the torrent of blood gushing out of the wound, and not even bothering to retrieve his rapier.

Then the beast fell on top of him. Al realised he had made a rookie mistake, but it was too late to regret now. As the spiked back end of his own weapon pierced him and his entire body was crushed by sheer force of gravity, he shed one last stray thought. ‘Should’ve put some points into Intelligence...’

Then the world went black

Al woke up with a start.