130 The Swamp
Luke ran after the huge beast while dodging the debris thrown in his direction. Among tree bark, branches, mud, and rocks, the half-wolf managed to use a rock to get at the creature. He leaped over the rock and used it to jump even further, keeping his ax at full maneuver to finally grab the animal’s tail with both hands.
As he felt himself being grabbed, the animal that looked like a mixture of lizard and monkey didn’t stop running as it increased its speed even more.
Struggling, Luke climbed up the creature’s scaly back and pulled some of its green furs to finally reach its neck. At that speed, the half-wolf didn’t want to risk attacking with the ax, because if the animal made any sudden moves, there was a chance that the ax would go through Luke’s chest or hurt him in some other way.
For these reasons Luke grabbed the creature’s eyebrow with his right hand and started to punch it in the face with his left fist. The animal was a little bewildered by the enormous strength of the half-wolf and slowed down even more.
In between so many punches, there was a moment when the animal stood up on its two hind legs and Luke didn’t let such an opportunity go unused. He braced his feet on the creature’s shoulders, threw himself forward a little, summoned his ax and drove it into one of the animal’s cheeks, then pulled it down hard.
The lizard-ape hit its head on the ground and still tried to grab Luke with his right hand, but the man was faster and struck the bizarre beast’s head again with his ax as he howled.
“Haa… Haa… What a fucking tough guy…” Gasping, Luke admired the animal that was in front of his feet. “I’ve never seen anything like it…”
Since the voice didn’t resonate in Luke’s head after he killed the creature, he had confirmation that it wasn’t a monster. Curious, Luke approached the animal’s head and opened its jaw, which was partially broken by the punches and ax blows.
“Man, the Forbannet frosks should thank me for killing you…” judged Luke, as he took a closer look at the animal’s huge teeth.
Each of these creatures’ fangs was larger than a dagger, and two main fangs were larger and seemed to be used to inject poison into its victims. This was one of the deadliest animals Luke had ever seen in his life.
Before the half-wolf could have time to rest, he heard the typical croaking of Forbannet frosks. When he looked back, he saw the huge bipedal toads that even after seeing Luke kill the largest predator in this swamp, underestimated him for not being so large and intimidating.
Forbannet frosks are part of a rare species of toads, so they can exceed sixty centimeters when standing upright.
‘Those fuckers will eat anything, won’t they?’ Luke deduced as he saw that one of the frogs was sneaking up on the carcass of the dead creature behind him.
Luke took a firm grip on the handle of his ax, quickly turned around, and threw it. The Behemoth Axe wedged into the Forbannet frosk’s head killing it on the spot.
“Objective accomplished, time to get out of here,” Luke spoke. In his forward vision alone, more than ten Forbannet frosks were coming out of the murky waters of the swamp.
So Luke ran to the body of the giant frog he had killed, picked up his ax, and put it away. Then he grabbed the Forbannet frosk by the legs, threw it backward, and tried to get out of there as fast as he could.
All the animals ignored him and started running desperately to the carcass of the huge creature that Luke had killed.
As he was leaving the swamp, Luke only regretted that he could not have analyzed the lizard monkey better, because it did indeed look like a very unusual creature. The half-wolf waited until he was out of the swamp to be able to work out what he should do, and as soon as he saw that it was already possible, he stopped beside a dirt road.
The place was empty, so he saw no problem in tearing the fingers off the Forbannet frosk right there. Each hand of this huge frog usually has four fingers, which can have nails that exceed ten centimeters, and he also has four fingers on his feet, but the nails are not as big.
“There. Sixteen fingers will be more than enough, I hope.” Luke put the fingers away in a small bag and put it in his inventory.
[Zero spaces available.] He heard the voice warn him. Even though he kept a few things together in bags that only consumed one space, his inventory was full again.
“Tsk… I wish I had a way to evolve that skill.”
The only way to evolve Genes Skills is to kill monsters, but Luke had already killed dozens and none of his skills evolved. The only sign of any change in the Skill was when she displayed the information about Hades’ Daughter, which is Nathalia’s Panspermia spear, but nothing else like that ever happened again.
Thoughtfully, Luke walked back to Oukiwa. On the roads near the city walls, there were dozens of wagons and carriages forming congestion.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen the city this busy…’
Since the half-wolf had not had the opportunity to walk around the city in the past few days because he had been training inside the Strogueher estate, he had not yet witnessed the economic boom that the Tournament of Legends brought to the region.
The town seemed busier than ever and people were certainly excited. However, seeing people’s smiles wilting as Luke passed them and feeling their scolding glances pointed at him still didn’t make him comfortable. Unlike before, now Luke was letting his ears and tail show, so everyone knew who he was.
It was still too unusual to see half-beasts, so people were weirded out, however, Luke expected that thanks to this gesture of courage from some half-beasts like Alexis and him, everyone would slowly get used to the existence of his race.
“Get out of here, you stinking half-beast!” A drunk shouted at him.
In fact, that was more of a dream than an actual expectation.