Chapter 62 - Mutant Tiger
Kirika gulped in fear as the mechanical sabertooth tiger trotted towards them ominously, robotic red eyes glaring like lasers. She has stared death in the face before, but never has she ever encountered something like this. She felt 'trapped'—part of her wanted to just run away from the frightening danger extruded by this beast, but the more rational part of her also knew at the same time that if she made a break for it right now, she would only be hunted down and eaten.
But even so… if she didn't move, she would STILL get hunted down and eaten!
To her surprise, however, someone acted first.
Click.
"GRRR!"
The sabertooth mutant suddenly spun its head around towards the opposite direction, where the sound of a small stone falling on the cave ground and rolling a few meters had alerted it.
Naturally, Cyanide—the person who had made this distraction—wasn't about to let this opportunity go, and swiftly jumped up, landing on top of the sabertooth right as his invisibility disappeared.
"GRRR-?!" The monstrous beast growled at the sudden impact, and attempted to throw the uninvited rider off, but Cyanide had already drawn his knife.
He didn't hesitate. He didn't waver.
For while Kirika had been quivering in fear, searching for an escape route, Cyanide had ran [Inspect] on the creature, and determined it to not be too great of a threat—only five levels above him, at Level 30. The thought of running away never even once crossed his mind.
With a firmly held hand and a cold look in his turquoise eyes, Cyanide plunged his knife into the sabertooth, aiming for the underbelly of the beast. Unfortunately, due to the vicious and violent shaking of the beast, his aim was thrown off, and the tip of his blade met the side of the creature's body instead.
"…!"
That's when it happened.
A loud clinking noise echoed across the cave as the blade of Cyanide's knife was shattered to pieces, while the beast's metal scales remained perfectly unscratched.
Taking advantage of this momentary surprise on Cyanide's end, the sabertooth violently spun around, throwing the detestable human off its body and sending him flying with immense force.
"Ngh-!"
Cyanide groaned as his back crashed into a stalagmite, and another, and another, until at last he landed painfully on the rocky cave floor.
"Cyanide!" Kirika called out in worry, but she had her own problems to deal with. The sabertooth's attention was now fixed on her, and it growled deeply in anger before launching itself at the girl.
"Ugh…!" Kirika spat as she dodged nimbly to the left like a ninja, then kicked off one of the stalagmites on the floor to propel herself upwards. Then, in the air, she gracefully drew her katana before holding it in front of her face, and chanted:
"By my blade — Orbital Slash!"
Her body began rotating rapidly, and she flew downwards in the direction of the beast like a drill ready to impale solid earth. The beast had nowhere to run as Kirika soared towards it, breaking apart stalagmites and stalactites alike.
But that was fine.
It had no intention of running anyway.
Opening its mechanical mouth, the beast prepared its counterattack.
"ROAARRR!"
"—!"
With a roar loud enough to shake the entire cave, causing stalactites to fall from the ceiling, the sabertooth unleashed a deadly inferno ray from its mouth. The laser of destruction was far too much to handle for Kirika, and she was forced to dodge out of the way by changing her direction via kicking off a hanging stalactite, before smoothly transitioning into a deft tumble and rolling into hiding behind a stalagmite as she waited for the laser to stop.
But suddenly, a voice called out to her.
"Run!"
"Huh-?"
Her eyes widened as she realized what was going on, and quickly got to her feet and made a break for the exit of the cave with the help of her flashlight. Cyanide, the one who had warned her, was already well ahead, and had already memorized the path to take to make it out of the cave without ramming into any obstacles.
The laser blast earlier from the sabertooth had destabilized the entire cave system, and it was now shaking and rumbling violently. That beast may be strong, but it certainly wasn't very smart. Soon, this cave would collapse, and it would be buried inside. Cyanide and Kirika had no intention of joining it, so they ran for the exit as fast as they could—which was very fast, given both of them had specced out into the AGI stat quite a bit.
But still, the rumbling noise was getting louder and louder. Stalactites began falling from the ceiling, and that only made the two's escape harder—not to mention the amount of debris beginning to pile up at the entrance.
"Come on… just a little bit more…!" Kirika gritted her teeth and encouraged herself as she pushed onwards, going as fast as her legs would take her. By now, Cyanide was already outside, but the entrance of the cave was piling up quick with debris. At this rate, she wouldn't make it…
She already activated her [Speed Boost] active skill, but it still was not enough. She needed something more… something to give her a burst of speed…
Wait, skill…
That's it!
Pulling her Survivor's Assistant panel as she ran, she hurriedly browsed the Skills Shop and filtered it for movement abilities. The first thing that came up was [Afterdash]. She didn't know what it did, but she had SP to spend, her life was in danger, and there was 'dash' in the name. So, she bought it—and immediately used it.
"K-Kyah-!" She yelped as her body was suddenly propelled forward so fast it was almost like she was teleporting, but she quickly regained her footing and continued running. She was so close—just a few more meters!
But then, as if god, if there was one, played a joke on her, a massive stalactite hanging from the ceiling suddenly fell down directly where she was running. Her momentum from the dash was so fast that she couldn't stop in time.
… Was this it for her?