Chapter 17: Rank-Up

He could actually try to murder the monster now… and there was about a 25% chance it would die, since the hind legs were still active… and the monster had seen him now.

If he tried to cross there, he would just be welcoming his own death with open arms.

’I’m not that stupid.’ Kōya thought, his stomach tightening as the Stoneback Gnawler’s wheezing snarls rattled through the narrow alley.

Its stone-plated torso scraped and screeched against the ruined walls with chunks of dust and gravel raining down each time it thrashed.

Even while it was pinned and stuck, the monster radiated violence… a wild, unpredictable force that could snuff his life out with a single misstep.

He walked away from the monster’s line of sight and turned to the wall. ’Now I need to look for a heavy piece of rubble to fall onto the monster.’

「At least you remember something…」

’Insulting much?’ He shook his head.

His heart pounded against his ribs so hard he wondered if the monster could hear it.

He lowered his gaze, then looked up again… slowly in an attempt at searching for anything, anything, that could kill this thing without him having to stand near those monstrous legs.

There was a small chance that there would actually be a big enough rubble to completely crush the hind legs of the monster in one go.

But as he narrowed his eyes and scanned upward, he saw it… a cracked support beam about two meters up in the right direction. The bricks that supported it to the wall were already jutting out, threatening to fall with the slightest pressure.

A long fracture ran diagonally beneath it like a lightning bolt frozen mid-strike.

He traced the direction with his eyes.

If he felled the whole support beam, it would crash directly onto the Gnawler’s hind region, destroying its mobility completely… and then he could safely go for a finishing strike.

“Well… fuck.” he muttered under his breath.

He looked at the wall in front of him again. It was a mosaic of broken pieces… cracks, jagged stone, dislodged metal rods, bits of rebar poking out like skeletal fingers.

They were things he could potentially climb with… emphasis on potentially. Their structural integrity was questionable at best.

He didn’t waste any more time. Thinking too much would only make him hesitate. He backed off a bit, steadied his breathing, then ran forward and leapt upward with his fingers stretching.

His hands latched onto a crack in the wall, slipping his fingers in deeply enough to hook themselves between shattered brick and cement.

His body jolted from the sudden weight distribution, and he gritted his teeth as his arm muscles trembled.

’Damn… it’s a bit stressful.’ His pulse hammered inside his throat.

He reached for a brick that had lodged outward. The brick was large but as he grabbed it with his free hand, he felt it shift.

The moment he released the crack to switch his hand placement, the brick jerked downward under his weight, scraping loose from its dusty prison.

“Shit—!”

He pushed himself upward in a desperate hop, letting go of the brick before it snapped entirely free. It clattered loudly onto the ground below him, sending dust exploding upward.

The Stoneback Gnawler growled from the alley behind him in agitation.

Kōya pressed his back to the wall, inhaled shallowly, then continued climbing.

He reached up again, his fingers groping around for any hollow or protrusion he could grab.

His fingertips brushed against cold metal… a bent pipe jutting from the wall.

With a grunt, he grabbed it and hauled himself upward. His foot scrambled against the wall until it found a crack deep enough to wedge the front of his shoe into.

The metal pipe creaked.

’Don’t break… don’t break… don’t break…’ He held his breath as he shifted his weight slowly, trying to keep his motions smooth instead of sharp.

The wall pressed grit into his palms, scraping his skin raw.

He pulled again, inching upward. Every muscle in his body burned, but he kept climbing… grabbing another jutting rock, pushing off a slanted plank, and hooking his knee over a half-collapsed ledge.

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, he reached the position he needed.

His left foot was shoved deeply into a crack for stability. His right hand clung to a pipe overhead. And his left hand? He was pressing it on the beam’s underside to balance himself, feeling its vibrations.

’Now how can I get it to fall?’ he thought with a deep breath.

「Jamming your sword into the crack and using it to rock it leads a 100% chance of the beam collapsing」

He swallowed.

He then forced his left leg deeper into the crack and his right leg too.

A fall from this height wouldn’t kill him… but he would fall directly within hind-leg territory, and the monster would unquestionably try to stomp him into paste.

He adjusted his feet carefully, distributing his weight and bracing every limb.

From his storage ring, the sword flashed into his hand.

He immediately shoved both hands onto the weapon and forced it into the crack beneath the beam, pushing down with his full weight.

A small rain of dust sprinkled down on his hair, shoulders, and face.

“Come on… come on… break already…” he hissed.

Even though the place was old, the proof of structural integrity was clear… it resisted at first, barely giving him any leverage.

He had to rock the beam, twist the blade, and press down again and again. A low groan echoed through the small alley as the crack began expanding.

’That’s it…!’

He repositioned his body, left the underside, and began prying from the side. His sword dug deeper into the fracture. The beam trembled violently.

Then…

A long, painful creak.

The entire structure shuddered.

And finally…

CRAAAAACK!

The beam gave way.

With it, a large slab of weakened wall followed. Not only that… dozens of bricks, broken chunks of concrete, and a corner of upper structure all collapsed together in one heavy avalanche.

A brick flew right past him… so close that it brushed air against his cheek before shattering on the ground below.

They crashed directly onto the Stoneback Gnawler’s hindquarters.

A wet, violent sound erupted… the sound of flesh ripping apart under massive impact followed by a deep, guttural howl that shook the entire alley.

The monster’s stone-plated back was intact… but its exposed flesh beneath?

Completely crushed.

Not only had the monster’s hind been destroyed, but it began whining and thrashing its neck, twisting desperately.

The iron tripline held, tightening as the monster jerked, forcing its head to turn more sharply in the right direction and revealing the exposed neck tissue Kōya had planned for.

“Can’t I just jump down from here and kill it…?” he wondered aloud.

In the System’s animated tutorial, he had been told to go down… but that felt like such a waste of force.

And maybe less cool.

「In this situation, you are required to be above the monster and with a proper jump, you will achieve a 100% kill chance. If you don’t push properly… that percentage drops to about 70%」

“Okay, okay…” he muttered.

He immediately began climbing left, moving above the monster by using cracks and holes in the walls.

Sweat dripped down his chin and onto the old brick. Each pull required effort he barely had left. But finally, he arrived.

He bit his lip, holding onto the wall with one hand while gripping the sword in his right.

The monster was attempting to move violently but the line prevented it. Its eyes burned with both agony and fury, and the exposed neck tissue pulsed with each panicked heartbeat.

Kōya inhaled.

Then… he jumped.

The air rushed past his ears in a sharp whistle.

The wind burst against his face as he descended directly toward the soft tissue. He steadied his sword with both hands mid-air, positioning himself like a human spear.

And then…

SHUNK!

The blade pierced through cleanly.

There was a pause… a horrifying half-second as a shock ran through his arm. He was suspended mid-air, and his weight was caught by the blade lodged in flesh.

Then suddenly…

BOOM—!

The neck swelled, then exploded with blood under the pressure. A geyser of hot crimson erupted outward, flooding the alley.

It splashed into his open mouth.

“FUCK—” he gagged as he fell backward, spitting and coughing violently. “It got all in my mouth—!”

He landed hard on his side, rolled, and groaned. Blood soaked his clothes, his hair, his face… even inside his pants.

Then… A strange, violent sensation rippled through his entire body.

It was pain…

An electric, bone-deep pain like every bone was being crushed and rebuilt simultaneously. His muscles twitched uncontrollably as he collapsed face-first into the dirt while trembling.

He raised a hand weakly into the air.

“Fuck…”

And then…

「Congratulations on your Rank-up, Host」

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