Chapter 25: The Wilderness
The silver edge of Asher’s vanguard blade cut through the center of the compressed gravity vortex with a terrifying, heavy whoosh.
The violet-crimson energy of [Soul Fracture] tore out from the steel, expanding into a jagged, crescent-shaped shockwave that ripped through the bone armor plates of all four clumping beasts simultaneously.
The explosive spiritual rupture didn’t just deal raw damage; it violently forced open their data layers.
The four hounds let out a synchronized, agonizing shriek that echoed off the jagged volcanic ridges as thick streams of dark purple mana particles were forcibly ripped from their chests and pulled into Asher’s open left palm.
[Soul Fracture Success! Four Targets Affected.]
[Wither Effect Applied! Maximum Health Pools permanently reduced by 20%!]
[Marches Bone-Hound: 650 → 520 Max HP]
[Direct Physical Damage Dealt: 145! (Critical Hit x3)]
[Target 1: 375 / 520 HP]
[Target 2: 375 / 520 HP]
[Target 3: 375 / 520 HP]
[Target 4: 375 / 520 HP]
The massive chunk of health instantly vanished from their bars, turning into a gray, unhealable void.
The sheer kinetic weight of the Strength strike sent all four hounds flying outward, their heavy bodies crashing into the rust-red dirt and sliding several yards before they could regain their footing.
[Current Viewers: 17,850]
The stream chat back on Earth was completely locked into the choreography, the text scrolling at a speed that blurred into a smooth neon-blue wall.
[MinMax_Andy]: Look at the scaling efficiency! He hit all four hitboxes simultaneously because of the gravity well clump! This isn’t just tanking, it’s efficient AoE grinding.
[LootGoblin]: The health bars didn’t just drop, they shrank! I will never get tired of watching the wither effect completely ruin a monster’s stats.
[User_Tim99]: They’re getting back up! Look at the alpha hound, its eyes are turning pure crimson!
The lead hound, its front bone plates completely shattered from Asher’s initial shoulder tackle, let out a low, guttural snarl.
Its red eyes flared with a desperate, chaotic light. Driven by the unchained AI of the Shattered Marches, it abandoned its tactical packing lines and launched a frenzied, berserk sprint straight at Asher’s throat, its jaw snapping wildly.
Asher didn’t step back. The heavy grime beat in his head hit a sharp transition, a fast, syncopated snare pattern kicking in that matched his exact execution timing.
Using [Shadow Perception], the monochrome silver lines in his vision painted a bright red tracking line showing the exact path of the beast’s lunging skull.
"Predictable," Asher muttered.
He waited for the exact frame where the hound’s front paws left the dirt. Then, with a fluid, lightning-fast pivot, he sidestepped the main trajectory line by a mere three inches.
As the heavy hound sailed past his shoulder, Asher brought the heavy pommel of his sword down in a brutal, vertical smash directly onto the base of the beast’s neck.
[Critical Hit! You have dealt 88 Bludgeoning Damage.]
[Target Status: Fractured Spine (Stunned for 3 seconds)]
The alpha hound crashed headfirst into the dirt, its body twisting awkwardly as it rolled onto its side, completely pinned by the system’s hard crowd-control duration.
The remaining three hounds, seeing their leader instantly grounded, split up.
Two of them lunged simultaneously from his left and right flanks, while the third circled behind, executing a low, snapping strike aimed at his Achilles tendon.
"No positioning advantage," Asher said, a cold, confident grin breaking across his face.
Instead of dealing with the flanking strikes individually, he stood perfectly still and let his internal skill matrix cycle back to zero.
The moment the three sets of jaws closed in on his limbs, his mind slammed onto his primary active defensive layer.
"Activate skill: [Fortress Stance]."
A dense, crystalline dome of dark gray energy instantly snapped into existence around his Obsidian plates.
The three hounds slammed into the barrier, their teeth and claws clattering uselessly against the reinforced mana field with a flurry of sharp, high-pitched tinks.
[HP: 620 / 620 (0 Damage Taken - Fortress Stance Active)]
[Soul Shield Pool: 60/200 → 180/200]
The violet bubble of his phantom shield expanded to near-maximum density, pulsing with a volatile, heavy gravitational hum that made the loose gravel beneath his boots violently rattle.
"Cooldown’s up," Asher whispered, his silver eyes flashing through the dark gray shield energy.
He didn’t wait for the hounds to recover from the rebound frame. He swung his vanguard sword in a massive, sweeping 360-degree circle, the blade roaring with a fresh charge of violet-crimson smoke as he triggered his second **[Soul Fracture]** rotation.
The silver steel wove through the three trapped beasts with absolute, ruthless precision, cutting through bone, flesh, and data lines in a single, fluid continuous frame.
[Triple Kill! Three Targets Eliminated!]
[Experience Gained: 360 / 1000]
The three flanking hounds violently froze in mid-air, their bodies bursting into a massive cloud of loose gray pixels that scattered across the rust-red soil like ash.
The only entity left on the field was the alpha hound, which was finally recovering from its 3-second spine fracture stun.
It slowly pushed its front paws off the dirt, its breathing ragged, its maximum health pool sitting at less than 15% from the lingering wither decay. It raised its broken head, its crimson visor eyes looking straight up into the glowing silver pupils of the young vanguard standing over it.
"Alright, chat," Asher said smoothly, looking directly into the blue lens of the hovering camera drone as he lifted his sword into a high vertical execution stance. "The appetizer is over. Let’s see if the Tier-1 gacha drops something worth our time."
He brought the blade down in a clean, swift line.
The steel split the hound’s bone skull completely down the middle, the beast instantly dissolving into a thick pile of gray data dust.
Simultaneously, a bright, multi-layered golden slot machine manifested out of thin air, its heavy crystalline gears humming with a deep, rewarding system frequency directly over the carcass.
[Regional Elite Target Defeated!]
[Gacha Table: Tier-1 Beast Attributes Initiated.]
[Spinning...]
Asher rested his sword over his shoulder, his silver eyes locking onto the rotating gold and purple reels as the grime track in his head hit a slow, suspenseful fade-out.
"Let’s see what we’re pulling," Asher smiled.
