Chapter 184: Sent a Holy Beast to Hunt Me

Raven was back on his feet before the Hound reached him.

Roland fired two arrows.

One at its face.

The second slightly above it.

Neither was meant to penetrate. They were there to force the creature to lower its head.

Raven saw the opening.

"Roland."

"Yeah?"

"Second pair of eyes. You don’t need to hit them."

Roland drew another arrow.

"That I can guarantee."

"Valeria. When I fire, gather mana on the right."

She understood immediately.

"You want it to avoid my side."

"Yes."

"You could’ve said that earlier."

"I only just figured it out."

Roland fired.

The Hound turned its head.

Valeria gathered blood.

The sacred gland detected the concentrated mana, and the beast immediately shifted toward the opposite side.

Raven was already there.

Burst Step.

He entered close range.

The Hound bit.

Raven raised his left arm.

Stonehide.

Its jaws closed.

CRACK.

Pain shot through him.

The mineral layer stopped the worst of the penetration, but the bone underneath was considerably less pleased about the arrangement.

Raven didn’t pull his arm away.

Valeria saw what he was doing.

"Raven!"

"Keep the right side charged."

The Hound pulled.

Raven stepped forward instead of resisting.

Kinetic Acceleration.

His knee drove upward beneath its chest.

The creature released his arm.

Raven followed with an elbow.

Stonehide struck white armor.

The impact traveled through his entire shoulder.

He hadn’t broken anything.

But he had confirmed something.

The plates overlapped.

Between each one were narrow gaps.

Small.

But enough.

The Hound twisted violently.

Raven escaped with Burst Step and landed poorly enough for his right leg to protest.

Predatory Regeneration continued working through the accumulated damage.

Valeria stared at him.

"That was deliberate."

"Yes."

"You let it bite you."

"I needed it to stop moving."

"You could experiment with methods that don’t involve losing limbs."

"I still have it."

Roland fired again.

"Argument later. It’s coming back."

The Hound charged.

Raven watched.

Now he knew its speed, its response time to concentrated mana, the direction it preferred when evading, and which of Roland’s attacks it considered threatening enough to respect.

He didn’t need to become faster than the Hound.

He needed to control which options it believed were available.

Black Hound had used plenty of terminology for that.

Channeling.

Movement control.

Kill zones.

Raven preferred one.

Kill box.

"Listen."

Valeria and Roland did.

"Valeria, don’t try to restrain it. I want three concentrations of mana. Right, center, then right again."

"That’s going to look like an obvious trap."

"To us."

Raven watched the Hound.

"To it, they’ll look like three threats it already knows how to avoid."

Roland began to understand.

"And you leave one exit."

"Yes."

"Where your rifle will be."

"No."

Roland frowned.

Raven pointed toward a narrow stretch between two stone walls.

"Where the bullet will be."

Valeria smiled.

"I like that better."

"Roland, I need its head turned left when it enters."

"I can’t punch through its skull."

"I don’t need you to."

"Just make it look."

"Yes."

Roland nodded.

"Got it."

The Hound attacked.

This time Raven didn’t try to damage it.

He was bait.

The Hound knew that too.

Predation was what it had come to find.

Perfect.

Raven retreated toward the narrow passage between the walls.

The Hound accelerated.

Valeria gathered blood on the right.

The creature veered away.

Raven repositioned with Burst Step.

The second concentration formed in the center.

The Hound corrected again.

Exactly as expected.

Raven saw the remaining route.

So did the creature.

"Now."

Valeria raised the third threat on the right.

The Hound entered from the left.

Roland fired.

The arrow passed beside its second pair of eyes.

The Hound turned its head.

Raven disappeared behind the wall.

He didn’t raise the Mk.I toward the target.

He didn’t need to.

The rifle was already supported.

Already aligned.

Already charging.

Blue filaments brightened along the weapon.

The Hound sensed the mana.

But by then Raven wasn’t tracking it with the barrel.

The rifle was aimed at empty space.

The creature tried to abandon the charging zone.

Valeria closed one route with Blood Threads.

They didn’t need to touch it.

They only needed to exist.

The Hound chose the clean path.

And stepped directly into Raven’s sights.

He pulled the trigger.

BOOM.

The projectile struck the chest.

White plate shattered.

Then bone.

Then flesh.

The Hound twisted through the air before crashing into the ground.

The sacred gland in its chest was partially exposed.

Roland lowered his bow.

"That—"

"No."

Raven had already seen it.

The Hound was trying to stand.

One leg no longer responded, and blood poured from the opening in its chest.

FORGE appeared.

[Target Condition: CRITICAL.]

[Projected Survival Without Intervention: LOW.]

Then the gland lit up.

Not like before.

The entire body froze.

Completely.

The plates around its chest separated as golden light spread through muscle, bone, and skin.

Even the blood falling from the wound stopped against its fur.

Valeria formed a Blood Javelin.

"I’ll finish it."

Raven raised one hand.

"Wait."

"It’s wounded."

"That’s why."

The Hound wasn’t breathing.

It wasn’t moving.

But it also wasn’t deteriorating.

FORGE reacted.

[Unknown Sacred Biological Response.]

[Movement: ZERO.]

[Critical Physiological Deterioration: SUSPENDED.]

Valeria stared.

"Regeneration?"

"No."

"How do you know?"

Raven pointed toward the wound.

"It’s still there."

Roland moved slightly around the creature.

"Then a barrier."

Valeria launched the javelin.

Raven turned.

"Wait—"

Too late.

The blood struck the golden layer.

It didn’t penetrate.

It didn’t explode either.

It disappeared.

No.

Raven saw the change in the gland.

Brighter.

FORGE updated.

[Incoming Magical Force Absorbed.]

[Energy Retention Detected.]

Predation responded a moment later.

[PENANCE SANCTUARY.]

[Emergency Activation Trigger: LETHAL DAMAGE.]

[Duration: 6.0 seconds.]

[Host Movement: IMPOSSIBLE.]

[Incoming Kinetic and Magical Force Converted Into Stored Energy Within Tolerance.]

[Release Condition: Duration Expiry.]

[Release Pattern: OMNIDIRECTIONAL.]

Raven looked at the creature.

Then at Valeria.

"It didn’t block your attack."

She understood.

"It stored it."

"Back."

All three moved.

[5.2]

The Hound remained completely motionless while the gland grew brighter.

[4.1]

Raven activated Burst Step.

Roland dove behind a stone wall.

Valeria raised a barrier in front of herself.

[3.0]

Raven reached a depression in the terrain.

[2.1]

Golden light began leaking through every gap between the Hound’s plates.

[1.0]

Raven covered himself.

[0.0]

The world exploded.

BOOM.

The discharge had no direction because it went everywhere.

Forward.

Backward.

Sideways.

Up.

Down.

The earth beneath the Hound collapsed inward while the surrounding stone walls burst outward.

Fragments flew through the air.

Valeria’s barrier warped violently under the impact.

Roland disappeared behind a wall of dust.

The pressure wave passed over Raven and crushed him against the ground.

Stonehide spread across his shoulders and back.

Not enough.

Pain tore through his body as the air was forced from his lungs.

Then came silence.

And the ringing in his ears.

Raven raised his head.

"Status."

Valeria appeared first, hair disordered and blood still floating around one hand.

"Alive."

Roland coughed somewhere behind the dust.

"I’m reconsidering the definition of alive."

"That counts."

Raven stood.

His side hurt.

The arm the Hound had bitten remained functional thanks to Regeneration.

The Hound was still alive too.

But it no longer looked the same.

Its sacred gland had gone dull. The opening in its chest remained, one leg dragged uselessly, and nothing about Penance Sanctuary had repaired the damage.

It had simply purchased six seconds.

Then used everything thrown at it to turn certain death into retaliation.

Raven understood immediately.

"It didn’t regenerate."

Valeria studied the creature.

"It only survived."

"Yes."

Roland slowly raised his bow again.

"Can it do that twice?"

Raven didn’t know.

Which meant he wasn’t going to assume it couldn’t.

"Don’t hit the chest with mana."

Valeria nodded.

No argument this time.

The Hound forced itself upright.

Slowly.

Its four eyes found Raven.

It still classified him as corruption.

It was still trying to complete its function.

Raven spat blood onto the ground.

"Persistent."

The creature attacked.

Slower now.

Still Elite.

That was enough.

Raven didn’t raise the rifle.

There wasn’t enough time to charge another shot, and he had no intention of feeding the gland if Penance Sanctuary could activate again.

He went in instead.

Predator’s Instinct read the damaged movement.

One bad leg.

Weight compensating toward the right.

Jaw slower from the trauma.

"Roland. Outer eye."

The arrow flew.

The Hound turned.

"Valeria. Rear leg. One thread."

"Already."

A Blood Thread snapped into place.

It wasn’t enough to restrain the Hound.

It didn’t have to be.

It delayed one step.

Raven arrived.

Burst Step.

The Hound swung its foreleg.

Stonehide.

Impact.

Something cracked in Raven’s forearm.

He didn’t stop.

Kinetic Acceleration.

His fist drove beneath the jaw.

The Hound’s head snapped upward.

Raven rotated his body and struck again at the exposed ribs.

The creature responded with a bite.

Raven retreated half a step.

Too late.

Its teeth tore across his shoulder.

Predatory Regeneration activated.

[Trauma Detected.]

[Regenerative Demand Increasing.]

Raven ignored the pain.

"Roland."

Another arrow.

The outer right eye disappeared.

The Hound screamed.

For the first time.

It turned toward Roland.

Mistake.

Raven entered from its blind side.

The gland was exposed.

Still dull.

Valeria raised more blood.

Raven spoke without looking at her.

"Not the chest."

Her spell changed immediately.

Blood Threads wrapped around one foreleg.

The sacred aura began degrading them almost at once.

They didn’t need to last.

One second.

Less.

Raven drew his sword.

The Hound pulled against the threads.

Valeria clenched her teeth.

"Now!"

Raven thrust.

The blade entered through the gap between two plates.

The gland reacted.

A flash of gold.

Not a full activation.

Predation displayed another warning.

[Critical Sacred Organ Destabilized.]

Raven gripped the sword with both hands.

The Hound struck him across the chest.

Stonehide formed too late.

His ribs gave.

One.

Maybe two.

Raven didn’t release the weapon.

Kinetic Acceleration.

Not through another strike.

Through the rotation.

The blade twisted inside the organ.

CRACK.

The light went out.

Strength left the Hound’s body.

Raven pulled the sword free and drove it in again.

Deeper.

The creature collapsed.

This time it didn’t rise.

Raven remained above it for several seconds.

Predator’s Instinct detected nothing.

FORGE remained silent.

Then the confirmation appeared.

[Target Deceased.]

Raven breathed.

Another window followed.

[Elite Threat Eliminated.]

[Target Level: 31.]

[Host Level: 11.]

[Extreme Level Disparity Confirmed.]

[Combat Contribution: HIGH.]

[Tactical Contribution: HIGH.]

[Final Kill Confirmed.]

[Experience Bonus Applied.]

The first surge passed through his body.

[LEVEL UP.]

[Level 11 → Level 12.]

Another followed.

[LEVEL UP.]

[Level 12 → Level 13.]

Mana flowed through damaged muscle.

It didn’t heal the injuries, but Raven could feel greater capacity behind every Trait.

A larger reserve.

A stronger body capable of sustaining more of what he already possessed.

[LEVEL UP.]

[Level 13 → Level 14.]

Roland looked at him.

"Is something happening?"

Raven didn’t answer.

The fourth surge came harder.

[LEVEL UP.]

[Level 14 → Level 15.]

Silence returned.

Raven breathed slowly.

Fifteen.

Awakened.

Still Awakened.

Elite began at twenty-six.

Eleven levels remained.

The creature lying at his feet had been twenty levels above him when the fight began.

That explained why every mistake had hurt so much.

Valeria approached.

"You leveled?"

"Yes."

"How far?"

"Fifteen."

She stopped.

"From eleven?"

"Yes."

Roland whistled.

"Four levels from one dog."

Raven looked at the corpse.

"Elite."

"Elite dog."

"Sacred," Valeria added.

Roland raised both hands.

"My apologies. Sacred Elite dog."

Raven flexed his left hand.

Stonehide responded slightly faster than before.

Not an evolution.

Simply more capacity to sustain what he already had.