Chapter 48: Ch88. King’s respect - 3
Kurt saw the foot of the mountain more clearly when the sun was already at its peak.
Two days had passed since he entered the Nest, and he still didn’t have taken the boss down. He felt a bit frustrated about it, but what comforted him a little was that if it was the same as in the other Kurt’s world, the time inside the Nests passed differently from the time in the outside world.
Meaning that, if he was lucky, it still hadn’t been an entire day since he left the outside world.
"Ten days, huh..." He muttered. "Let’s see how you see us if we get back before five days, then."
Four hours later, the river that Kurt had followed until the foot of the mountain had turned right in an abrupt curve that made Kurt drink enough of it so he wouldn’t feel the need to for at least three more hours.
The mountain wasn’t too far after that, and Kurt’s [PERCEPTION] allowed him to feel an intense anger coming from the mountain.
"Sorry for making you wait." Kurt smirked, unsheathing his daggers.
And as soon as he did it, he heard the loud howl echo from the mountain.
A menacing howl that meant that anything and anyone that trespassed that invisible line and entered the domain of the mountain, would suffer the wrath of the Direwolf King.
It was so intense that Kurt felt chills down his spine.
But it only made him more anxious to meet the howling King.
Differently from the Dark Forest, that got its life back once Kurt got rid of the Direwolves and Diwerewolves, the entirety of the plains felt completely lifeless, which meant that the plains were part of Groth’s kingdom.
After a while longer, he could already see the entrance to the Mountain.
And there was a humanoid shape waiting for him, carrying a great war axe in one hand, an eye-patch covering its left eye, and the white-and-gray fur covering its entire body.
The beast were still a bit far from Kurt’s reach, but it was already very visible, and Kurt took the chance to use his [PRYING EYES] on him.
[NAME: Groth – The Wolf King]
[AGE: ???]
[LEVEL: ???]
[CLASS: Ruler of Direwolves]
[STAMINA: 600]
[HP: 900]
[MP: ???]
[BASIC STATS]
[Strength: 250]
[Agility: 250]
[Dexterity: 300]
[Perception: 330]
[Intelligence: ???]
[Vigor: 300]
[ABILITIES]
[Alpha’s call - LVL 10]
[Head hunt – LVL 10]
[Hand-to-hand combat LVL 10]
[War cry LVL 10]
[Moon’s blessing – LVL 10]
[Blood thirst – LVL 10]
"You’re quite tough. Tougher than your subordinates, that’s for sure." Kurt smirked at the King’s stats. "It’s a pity you don’t have any skills that I can copy."
He stepped forward, but when he did, Groth slammed the hilt of his axe on the rocky floor of the mountain.
The sound echoed and vibrated through the air, and when Kurt felt it, he knew it wasn’t just a regular declaration of war.
[THE ABILITY – HEAD HUNT – IS BEING USED]
[THE ABILITY – BLOOD THIRST – IS BEING USED]
[HEAD HUNT]
[DESCRIPTION: ACTIVE – Allows the user to enhance its senses and increase their physical stats by 50%]
[BLOOD THIRST]
[DESCRIPTION: ACTIVE – Increases the user’s strength by 50%; it also allows the user to not feel any pain for a certain amount of time]
[A SYNERGY IS BEING CREATED BETWEEN THE TWO ABILITIES]
[THE SYNERGY – UNYIELDING HUNTER – IS IN EFFECT]
[UNYIELDING HUNTER]
[DESCRIPTION: SYNERGY – The effects of the two abilities used to create the synergy will last until the user dies or admits defeat]
As soon as the synergy was activated, Kurt felt the sudden drop in temperature.
But it wasn’t anything related to the weather.
No.
It was Kurt’s leg trembling, shaking violently.
His teeth clattered and his skin crawled with goosebumps.
If he hadn’t been determined to face that uncommonly powerful enemy, he would have fallen to his knees right where he stood.
But he felt a strange warmth coming from within him, from something new.
His shoulder burned, but the shivers and chills he was getting were so intense that the burning sensation almost felt welcome, soothing.
Kurt had never been so happy to hear the system’s voice.
[YOU ARE FACING A WOLF-TYPE BEAST]
[THE SPECIAL TITLE – KING’S RESPECT – IS IN EFFECT]
[KING’S RESPECT – SPECIAL ATTRIBUTE]
[The user’s presence will make the King fight with all their strength to show you respect. Meanwhile, psychological abilities’ effects such as – FEAR – will not take effect on the user]
[Due to the user fighting one of the Kings, the special title – KING’S RESPECT – will grant you temporary stats increase by 50%, and damage against King-type beasts is increased by 100%]
Kurt opened his stats window to check how much power the system was talking about when placing the [SPECIAL TITLE] in effect.
[NAME: Kurt Blake]
[AGE: 15]
[LEVEL: 04]
[CLASS: ???]
[STAMINA: 400]
[HP: 400]
[VP: 150]
[BASIC STATS]
[Strength: 111]
[Agility: 148]
[Dexterity: 150]
[Perception: 117]
[Intelligence: 86]
[Vigor: 188]
[SKILLS]
[Quick fingers - LVL 04]
[Ghost move – LVL 01]
[Copycat]
[Prying eyes - LVL 01]
[Proficiency with blades - LVL 03]
[Hunter – LVL 01]
***** **** ** * ******** ****
Kurt sighed in relief, feeling the wave of fear dissipating from around and within him.
"Boy, that got me worried for a second." He tightened the grip around the hilt of his daggers. "Now, I know I’m still kinda no match for you, but shall we begin?"
He received another howl in return of his question, and before Kurt made the first movement, Groth was already halfway from him.
Kurt gritted his teeth, understanding more and more the gap between their strengths, and chose to just walk toward the opponent.
A few seconds later, the two of them were already face to face, and Kurt noticed the difference in height between them.
Right before the King of the Direwolves swung his war axe towards him.
’Nope!’ Kurt thought, finally moving.
The difference between them, both in speed and reaction was overwhelming, but Kurt was able to get just a few grazes from Groth’s attacks, blocking them with the daggers and evading them as best as he could.
But despite the increase in his stats, he still felt like he was being pushed back.
And just dodging or evading the attacks wouldn’t work against such a powerful enemy.
Kurt’s [PROFICIENCY WITH BLADES] helped him minimize the impact from Groth’s axe attacks, but he noticed that minimizing the damage received wasn’t going to be enough when he evaded a strike from Groth’s axe, and immediately got hit by the King’s massive fist right on his chest.
He immediately felt the air leaving his lungs all at once as he flew away like a rock thrown at the surface of a lake.
"COUGH!" Kurt gasped for air as he got up. "Shit, I guess I don’t have a ch-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, he had to lean backwards, feeling the blade of the axe grazing his cheek ever so slightly.
Kurt fell backwards on the grass, rolling a few more steps backwards, feeling the heat on his cheek.
He got up and cleaned it, seeing the reddened back of his hand.
"Yeah. It’s not a game, at all." Kurt spoke to himself, more like addressing his other version, somewhere inside the system.
Groth just looked at him, as if waiting for his honorable opponent to get up and allow the fight to go on.
"What? Are we displaying some courtesy now?" Kurt mocked, bitterly.
It was then that he noticed that Groth’s hands were empty.
He readied his fighting pose, prepared to charge towards the King, but when he had both hands at eye level, Kurt noticed that there were no daggers.
His hands were empty, too.
He looked a little far ahead himself, and saw that his daggers were over the grass, almost parallel to Groth’s axe.
"You gotta be fucking kidding, me..." Kurt laughed, bitter.
He spat a little blood and the pain hit him.
His ribs were at least cracked.
Which meant that a race towards his weapons would probably be suicide.
And it made the light bulb of an idea light up in Kurt’s head like a neon sign.
’Suicide, huh?’
He wasn’t so used to pain, but he remembered how every beating the other Kurt had gone through very well.
So, despite the pain of a single punch that broke God knew how many ribs being very unpleasant, he gritted his teeth and got ready to run.
And just as he expected, Groth did the very same.
’Just a few more meters, then.’ Kurt thought, running as if his life depended on it.
He counted the distance with unnatural precision, stepping forward just enough to make not even an inch further than the necessary.
’Four meters... Three meters... Two meters...’
Groth was exponentially faster than Kurt, and he had arrived at his axe way faster than Kurt, knowing that his opponent wouldn’t be able to stop or kill the movement so suddenly without fully breaking the ribs he had cracked with his clawed fist.
So the Direwolf King prepared to smash the axe’s head into Kurt’s body with a single blow.
Kurt laughed maniacally as he watched Groth doing exactly what he had foreseen, with the axe’s head coming towards him like a meteor.
’[GHOST MOVE]!’ Kurt thought, ducking through the last meter.
[VP REMAINING: 100/150]
