Chapter 77: The building

Before the leopard could recover its balance, Jelo used Wing Burst to create sudden distance. His body blurred through space, moving several meters away in the blink of an eye, putting him at optimal range for his ranged attacks.

The moment he solidified at his new position, he sent a concentrated Dragon Claw directly at the leopard’s exposed side.

The energy construct hammered into the creature with explosive force. It howled in agony, a sound that echoed across the ruined cityscape, and staggered sideways from the impact.

Blood sprayed from the fresh wound, adding to the injuries it had already sustained. Its legs trembled, struggling to support its massive weight.

Jelo didn’t give it any chance to recover. He fired another strike immediately, it crackled through the air as it formed and launched. The leopard tried to dodge but was too slow, too injured.

The attack caught it squarely, and the creature’s teeth ground together audibly as pain overwhelmed its nervous system. Its legs finally gave out completely, and it went down hard, its body hitting the ground with a heavy thud that sent up a small cloud of dust.

Both Dabba were on the ground now, bleeding and broken, but Jelo knew better than to assume they were finished. Wounded animals were often the most dangerous, capable of surprising bursts of desperate violence. He needed to end this decisively.

Jelo sent one final Dragon Claw at each creature, first the tiger, then the leopard. They struck their targets with precision, delivering finishing blows that ensured neither creature would rise again. The tiger shuddered once and went completely still. The leopard’s breathing stopped moments later, its massive body relaxing into the stillness of death.

They both stopped moving entirely, their threat finally ended.

Almost immediately, system notifications appeared in Jelo’s vision, the familiar text scrolling across his sight.

[Opponent Defeated; +40 Ess]

[Opponent Defeated; +40 Ess]

Jelo looked at the two dead Dabba lying motionless on the ground and dropped heavily to his knees, utterly exhausted and bloodied. His body was screaming at him, every muscle aching from the intensity of the consecutive fights.

Blood, both his own and the Dabbas’, covered his clothing and skin, mixing with the dust and grime that coated him. His breathing came in ragged gasps, each inhale burning in his lungs as he tried to recover from the exertion.

He caught his breath slowly, allowing himself this brief moment of rest even though he knew it was dangerous to remain stationary for too long in a place like this. The sounds of combat would have carried far across the desolate landscape, potentially attracting more threats to his location. But his body simply refused to move yet, demanding recovery time after pushing itself to the absolute limit.

After several long moments, Jelo’s breathing began to stabilize, returning to something approaching normal. That’s when he remembered the Dabba crystals, the valuable resources contained within each creature’s skull. The system had told him about their worth, and he’d already collected one from the massive reptilian Dabba earlier. It would be foolish to leave these two crystals behind, especially after fighting so hard to defeat their owners.

With considerable effort, Jelo pushed himself back to his feet and approached the two Dabba corpses. He went to the tiger first, the larger of the two creatures, and began the laborious process of accessing its skull. Using the same sharp stone he’d employed before, now slick with accumulated blood and increasingly dull from repeated use, Jelo carefully worked to cut through the thick bone protecting the crystal within.

The process was even more exhausting than the fight itself in some ways. His arms trembled from fatigue as he worked, and more than once he had to stop to catch his breath and gather what remained of his strength. But eventually, through persistence and determination, he managed to extract the tiger’s Dabba crystal.

It was similar in size and appearance to the first one he’d collected, dark and pulsing with contained power, warm to the touch.

He stored it in his inventory with a mental command, then turned his attention to the leopard. The second extraction went slightly faster since he’d learned from the first, but it was still grueling work that left his hands cramping and his shoulders burning with strain. Finally, he retrieved the leopard’s crystal as well and added it to his inventory alongside its companion.

When he finished both extractions, Jelo wanted nothing more than to just sit down or lie down right there on the blood-stained ground and rest forever. His body was begging for it, pleading for him to stop pushing so hard, to give it the recovery time it desperately needed. Every fiber of his being wanted to collapse and surrender to exhaustion.

But he knew he could not afford to indulge that desire. Who knew how many more Dabba were lurking in the surrounding area, drawn by the scent of blood and death that now saturated this location? The longer he remained here, the greater the chance that something even more dangerous would show up to investigate.

And more importantly, he still had to find Mira. She was out there somewhere in this hostile wasteland, alone and vulnerable, potentially facing threats she had no ability to defend against.

The thought of Mira in danger was enough to override his exhaustion. Jelo forced himself to stand up fully, ignoring his body’s protests, and started searching for Mira once again. Each step was an effort, his legs heavy and uncooperative, but he pushed forward through sheer willpower.

After a considerable while of moving through the ruins under the scorching heat of the harsh sun beating down from that sickly red sky, Jelo’s throat had become parched and his lips cracked.

Sweat had long since stopped flowing, his body too dehydrated to produce it anymore. The combination of physical exertion, blood loss, and the relentless heat was taking a serious toll despite his enhanced constitution.

Then, through the haze of heat distortion and exhaustion, Jelo saw a building just ahead. It stood apart from the surrounding ruins, not intact exactly, but still complete enough.

His curiosity was immediately piqued, and he wondered what might be inside the structure. Would he find a human survivor, someone who had somehow managed to live in this poisoned wasteland? Or perhaps, if he was extremely lucky, he might find Mira taking shelter within.

The building could also contain supplies, water, food, medical supplies, anything that might help him survive and continue his search.

Of course, it could also contain more Dabba using the structure as a den, or some other threat he hadn’t anticipated. But at this point, Jelo was too exhausted and desperate to be overly cautious. He needed to check the building out regardless of the potential dangers.

He decided to investigate and walked toward the structure, his steps becoming slightly more purposeful now that he had a concrete destination. As he drew closer, more details became apparent.

The building appeared to have once been some kind of residence, a house rather than a commercial or industrial structure. It was modest in size, perhaps a single-family dwelling from before the city’s fall.

A small wooden step, weathered and worn but still intact, led up to a wooden porch that ran along the front of the house. The porch boards were warped and discolored from years of exposure to the elements and radiation, but they appeared solid enough to support weight.

The door itself was closed, which was unusual, most buildings in the ruins stood open, their doors long since rotted away or torn off by violence.

Jelo climbed the wooden step carefully onto the porch, testing each board before putting his full weight on it. The wood creaked ominously beneath his feet but held.

He approached the door slowly, his enhanced hearing straining to detect any sounds from within the structure. Was that breathing he heard? Movement? Or just his imagination and the natural settling sounds of an old building?

There was only one way to find out. Jelo raised his fist and knocked firmly on the door, the sound echoing strangely in the oppressive silence of the ruined city.

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