Chapter 47: The Race Beginns

*Blip.*

He vanished from the asphalt and reappeared instantaneously right within the beast’s blind spot, directly behind its left flank. Moving with nothing but rage, his Level 5 shortsword flashed outward in a horizontal, fast arc. The sharp edge of the dark, matte-grey sword sliced cleanly through the creature’s thick neck before its eyes could even register the spatial shift.

The hound’s head severed from its torso in a single, silent stroke, crashing into the debris as the body collapsed with a heavy thud.

[You have killed a Dire Hound (Variant) – Level 2]

[You have received 25 Experience Points]

The blue notification flickered across his vision, but the momentary satisfaction did not last. The brief surge of adrenaline faded, leaving behind the cold reality of his resource expenditure. Michael stared down at the carcass, his lips thinning into a hard, dissatisfied line.

*Damn it,* he thought, his internal voice reprimanding his own impulsiveness with a severe, cold discipline. *I must maintain absolute emotional control. I allowed an uncalculated emotional spike to dictate my actions. I just wasted a precious blink and a significant chunk of my remaining mana pool on a low-level trash variant that I could have easily dispatched with a standard attack. That was highly inefficient.*

He took a slow, deep breath, stabilizing his biological rhythm. He approached the open door of the black SUV. Peering inside, he confirmed his hypothesis: the mechanical key was still resting securely inside the ignition switch, the dashboard displaying a nearly full tank of fuel.

Michael slid into the leather driver’s seat. He didn’t know the streets of the 23 districts of Vienna by heart, especially not with the primary roads likely blocked by mass structural collapses. He pulled out his phone, and initiated the navigation application. He typed in his parents‘ residential address, waiting for the satellite global positioning system to calculate a route.

He shifted the vehicle into drive and pressed down on the accelerator. The engine roared to life, the heavy metallic frame of the SUV surging forward across the debris-strewn asphalt.

However, the laws of sound remained absolute in the quiet apocalypse. The moment the heavy vehicle began to move, its tires grinding over shattered glass and its engine emitting a continuous mechanical vibration, the ambient silence of the sector was completely torn apart. The sound waves traveled rapidly down the concrete corridors, acting as an immediate sound for every predatory entity lurking within a three-block radius.

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Unknowingly, Michael accelerated, guiding the vehicle through a slalom of abandoned sedans. His eyes remained constantly active, shifting between the forward windshield and the side mirrors, analyzing his perimeter.

In his rearview mirror, he noticed a sudden motion. A large, hairless canine variant had emerged from an intersecting alleyway, its powerful hind legs propelling it forward as it ran directly behind the accelerating SUV.

*The car is way faster than that low-tiered monsters,* Michael analyzed, checking the speedometer. *It won‘t reach me.*

He felt a brief, rational sense of security. But life never conformed to simple, linear expectations.

Just as the SUV passed a dense row of parallel-parked vehicles along the narrow side lane, the passenger-side window was suddenly shattered by a massive, violent impact.

A second hound-like variant had been waiting in ambush between two parked vans. It had launched its muscular body sideways directly at the moving SUV.

The creature was not massive enough to completely flip the multi-ton vehicle, but the kinetic energy of the high-speed lateral collision caused a severe, sudden redistribution of weight. The SUV jerked violently to the left. The steering wheel violently tore itself from Michael’s grip as the front tires lost traction on the slick, blood-stained asphalt.

*CRASH.*

The SUV skidded sideways, its front bumper smashing at high velocity into the chassis of a heavy, parked delivery truck. The impact deployed the airbags as the frame came to a grinding halt.

Michael felt a sharp jolt of pain radiate through his shoulder as he was thrown against the door frame. He panicked for a second but at the next moment his mind assessed his physical condition—no structural fractures, or internal damage, only minor scratches. But his tactical position was catastrophically compromised.

He attempted to force the driver-side door open, but the heavy impact had pinned the frame directly against the solid steel flank of the parked delivery truck. The exit was completely blocked.

Through the cracked windshield, he could see the lateral attacker—a Level 2 Dire Hound—scrambling back onto its feet, its jaws snapping as it lunged directly toward the broken passenger window. Beyond it, the sound of the crash had alerted the rest of the pack. Two more shapes were sprinting down the asphalt, accompanied by a third, significantly larger entity that towered over the others.

Michael unbuckled his restraint with a single, fluid motion, his Level 5 shortsword already drawn from the inventory and took is phone back.

As the Level 2 hound forced its snarling muzzle through the broken passenger window, attempting to snap its teeth at his throat, Michael utilized the cramped architecture of the cabin to his advantage. In a confined space, a long weapon was useless, but his shortsword was prime. He braced his feet against the dashboard and executed a swift, precise thrust. The sharp edge pierced cleanly through the creature’s open maw, driving deep into its brain stem.

The beast choked, its eyes rolling back as its life force dissolved into particles.

[You have killed a Dire Hound (Variant) – Level 2]

[You have received 25 Experience Points]

But there was no time to celebrate. Before he could even attempt to crawl over the center console to exit through the passenger side, three distinct shadows blocked the light.

Two standard Level 2 hounds and a massive Level 3 variant—nearly the size of a boar, with a jagged ridge of bone protrusions tearing through its spine—lunged simultaneously toward the open passenger door, their claws extending to rip him apart inside the metallic cage. Their synchronized strike left Michael with no physical space to dodge or parry.

The physical constraints of the vehicle had become a definitive death trap.