Chapter 64: Rampage

"What the hell is happening now?!" Michael was disoriented. One second he'd been in the car; the next, everything was chaos. The windshield had shattered, glass biting into his head and chest. The door had been bent inward, metal crumpled like paper. The driver's seat was empty.

*Not this again. I'm done. I've had enough. Just stop. Leave me alone.*

The tangled mess of feelings from a moment ago got swallowed whole by rage, burning through everything else until there was nothing left but that.

*THAT'S IT!!!*

The door wasn't opening — it was crushed too far in for that, no matter how hard he shoved against it. He couldn't see Julian anywhere, but on his side of the car a whole pack of monsters had gathered: four-legged, wolfish things with narrow snouts and too many teeth, every one of them fixed on him, snapping at the glass, snarling, trying to get their jaws around whatever they could reach.

Michael vanished and reappeared outside, behind the pack.

"DIE!!!"

The rage took over completely, and whatever restraint he had left went with it. He stopped caring about his own safety. All he could think about was killing. He tore into the first one from behind, spun to the next, tore into that one too.

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

The third one reacted in time and swiped at him with a paw — Michael didn't care. He swung again and cut clean through the paw and the leg behind it. He didn't step back. He didn't even sidestep like usual. The second one strike ended, he was already winding up for the next. The wounded one, still reeling from the pain and the missing leg, took the next hit across the skull — Michael didn't even see the head come apart, because he was already sprinting at the fourth.

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[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

Somewhere behind him there was still the noise of fighting, but none of it registered.

The fourth one wasn't caught off guard like the others. It was braced, ready, teeth bared, hackles up. Michael didn't care about that either — he charged straight at it and swung. It was a wide, obvious swing, easy to read. The wolf-thing sidestepped it without much effort and lunged straight at him in the same motion, jaws snapping for his throat. Michael didn't even think about dodging. He didn't think at all. There wasn't time left to bring the sword back around for another slash, so he stabbed instead, driving the blade straight through its skull. He killed it — but he hadn't dodged, hadn't defended himself at all. So he got hit too. The claws on its other paw caught him full across the left shoulder and punched straight through, tearing muscle on the way in.

The pain was enormous.

"ARGHHHHH!!!"

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

For one short second it pulled him back out of the frenzy. "I'm going to kill all of you. ALL OF YOU!" Then he teleported again, straight into the next pack. They'd already been running at him.

This time he didn't appear behind them at a safe distance the way he usually did — he appeared right in front of them, already swinging before he'd even fully materialized, already moving toward the next one mid-strike. The one he'd cut open kept going on its own momentum, and it barely missed him — not because he'd dodged it on purpose, but because he was already lunging at the next target. Everything happened fast. The rest of the pack was still closing the distance. While he caught the next one head-on, he opened another one from the side, straight through the middle, splitting it clean in two.

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 3)]

[You have received 50 Experience Points]

Only then did the rest of the monsters realize what was happening. They tried to turn, instinct kicking in too late — their own momentum threw them off balance, and they went down hard, sprawling across the asphalt. Michael was already on them. He caught the one if them defenseless. He wasn't aiming for anything specific anymore, just cutting wherever the blade landed — but the strikes were sharp and hard enough that it didn't matter where they landed. The wounds went deep enough to split some of them clean in half, and the ones that didn't split still cut deep enough to reach whatever kept them alive. Either way, death came instantly, or close enough to it.

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

The last one managed to get its feet back under it in time — but it had watched everything that happened to the other monsters. Whatever killer instinct it had walked in with was gone, replaced by something closer to fear. So it didn't even try to attack. It turned and ran.

There was no outrunning Michael. He teleported directly into its path and drove the sword through its throat, cutting off whatever sound it had been about to make. If he'd still had his head about him, he would have never teleported — spending mana chasing down something that was already fleeing instead of saving it for when it actually mattered. But he wasn't thinking that far ahead anymore.

The moment the last one dropped, a notification came with it, and warmth spread through him as his wounds started to close, the torn shoulder knitting itself back together beneath the blood-soaked fabric.

[You have killed a Hound-Fox (Level 4)]

[You have received 100 Experience Points]

[Ding! You have leveled up]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 8. All baseline attributes have automatically increased by +1 point. You have received 5 attribute points and 1 skill point]