Jet’s instincts screamed in primal warning.
His body reacted before his mind could fully process the speed of the incoming shadow.
He violently wrenched his torso to the right, throwing his weight into the damp soil. He managed to evade the full force of the pounce, but he was not quick enough to escape without injury.
A sharp, searing line of pain sliced through his left arm.
The beast’s curved talons tore through the heavy fabric of his black shirt like wet paper, ripping deep claw marks into his skin.
Blood immediately welled from the lacerations, dripping steadily down his forearm and splashing onto the leaves below.
Gritting his teeth against the burning sensation, Jet tumbled across the roots and scrambled to his feet.
He brought his arms up into a defensive guard, his chest heaving as he finally got a clear, unobstructed look at the creature that had ambushed him.
Standing a few meters away from him was a quadrapedal nightmare. The monster stood nearly as tall as an adult human when resting on all fours. It was covered in a thick coat of coarse, pitch-black fur that seemed to absorb the dim light of the forest canopy.
Its legs were thick and muscular, resembling dense iron bars, and its paws ended in heavy, dulled talons designed for crushing bone. A pair of elongated, ivory-white fangs protruded from its lower jaw, dripping strings of thick, acidic saliva onto the grass.
It glared at Jet with a pair of glowing, crimson eyes that burned with absolute killing intent.
The crimson system interface flickered directly between them.
[ Beyond Monster has been spotted: Black-Fang Hyena ]
[ Rank: Lesser ]
[ Description: An apex predator in the outer regions of The Thousand Boughs. ]
Jet swallowed hard, the copper taste of adrenaline coating his tongue as he read the description.
He realized the reality of his current situation. Although he possessed an SSS-Rank Divine Rune etched into his very soul, that was merely his Talent.
In this world, a Talent did not instantly equal raw physical strength; it represented potential, a theoretical ceiling of how far he could eventually climb.
His actual strength was still locked at a novice 1-Star Awakener rank.
Furthermore, he lacked real, high-level combat experience. In his previous life, he had spent a decade surviving as a low-level corporate worker behind the desk while elite hunters did the fighting.
This Lesser-rank beast possessed a physical stat line roughly equal to his own, but its primal combat experience far exceeded his. If he failed to remain focused for even a single second, he would be slaughtered before he could even begin to enjoy the benefits of his regression.
The Black-Fang Hyena did not give Jet any more time to get his thoughts together. The beast snapped its massive jaws shut, its muscular hind legs compressing before exploding forward. It lunged from the side with immense speed, its black form blurring against the green backdrop of the foliage.
This time, Jet was prepared. He focused his white pupils on the shift of the beast’s shoulders, throwing himself into a low side-roll across the dirt.
"Dammit! I should have brought a baseline weapon before entering the Beyond!" Jet cursed under his breath, his voice raspy as he pressed his back against a wide tree trunk.
Because he had been in a frantic hurry to escape the chaos of the city and begin his progression, he hadn’t wasted time purchasing a standard iron blade or a survival spear from Earth’s markets.
Now, he was forced to fight an apex predator with nothing but his bare hands.
The Hyena pivoted instantly upon landing, its heavy paws tearing up chunks of moss and dirt as it swiped its massive front claws horizontally.
Jet ducked his head back, the wind of the strike rushing past his face as the jagged claws grazed past his cheek by a few inches, leaving a thin red scratch along his jawline.
The near-miss snapped something loose in Jet’s brain. He stopped panicking. The residual pain of the ten sealed runes in his body seemed to dull as the active Eight-Armed Asura tattoo on his back began to react to the presence of danger.
A deep, heavy warmth spread from his shoulder blades down to his fists, artificially stabilizing his shaking muscles. His physical strength felt denser, more solid.
He couldn’t manifest the full strength at his current synchronization level, but the passive physical conditioning of the war god allowed his 1-Star body to keep up with the rapid movements of the beast.
The Hyena lunged again, aiming its jaws directly at Jet’s throat. Jet didn’t roll away this time. He stepped inside the beast’s trajectory, slipping past the snap of its teeth, and drove his right fist straight into the side of the monster’s snout.
BANG!
The impact felt like striking a block of solid concrete.
The sheer density of the Hyena’s skull sent a jarring shockwave up Jet’s arm, bruising his knuckles, but the raw power behind the punch succeeded in driving the beast’s head sideways.
The Hyena let out a sharp yelp, its heavy body stumbling off-balance for a fraction of a second.Seizing the brief opening, Jet brought his left elbow down in a brutal arc, smashing it into the creature’s exposed neck.
The beast grunted, its front legs buckling slightly, but its predatory reflexes were too fast. Before Jet could follow up with a third strike, the Hyena swung its heavy, iron-like rear leg outward, catching Jet squarely in the ribs.
Jet gasped as the blunt force knocked the air from his lungs, sending him crashing backward into the thick brush. He rolled over quickly, his hands scraping against thorns as he scrambled to clear his vision.
The Hyena was already on him, its claws raking across his shoulder, tearing fresh lines of blood through his casual shirt.
The combat was ugly, raw, and desperate. Jet kept struggling against the superior weight of the predator. He wasn’t a martial arts master; he was a survivor using every trick he remembered from watching raiders in his past life.
He traded blows, landing heavy punches to the beast’s ribs and eyes whenever it pressed close, but the Hyena’s thick hide absorbed the majority of the damage, while its sharp talons left deep, bleeding scratches across Jet’s chest and arms. His breath became ragged, his black shirt turning completely soaked with a mixture of sweat and blood.
He knew he couldn’t win a prolonged battle of attrition; his human stamina would give out long before the monster’s hunger faded.
He needed a weapon, and he needed a tactical bottleneck.
Jet darted backward, intentionally creating distance as he parried a sweeping claw strike with the meat of his forearm. His bloodshot white eyes scanned the immediate terrain, searching for an environmental advantage.
A few meters to his left stood an ancient, massive tree with colossal, twisted roots that erupted from the earth like giant wooden arches before diving back into the soil.
The gap between two of the primary roots formed a narrow, V-shaped wooden vice, barely wide enough for a beast’s torso.
Right on the ground near the base of the trunk lay a long, shattered branch of ironwood. It was thick, heavy, and one end had been fractured into a jagged, sharp point during a past storm.
Jet made his move. He feigned physical exhaustion, letting his shoulders drop and stumbling backward toward the ironwood branch.
The Black-Fang Hyena, sensing its prey was hitting its absolute limit, let out a low, victorious growl. It lowered its head, its crimson eyes locking onto Jet’s throat as it prepared for its final, lethal pounce. It charged straight down the center line, its heavy paws thumping against the earth with terrifying momentum.
Jet dropped to his knees right as the beast leaped. He grabbed the heavy ironwood branch with both hands, using his momentum to slide across the damp mud directly underneath the root arch.The Hyena sailed through the air, its trajectory carrying it straight into the narrow gap between the two massive, twisted roots.
Because of its high speed and immense forward momentum, the beast’s muscular chest and front shoulders wedged themselves violently into the V-shaped opening.
The iron-like roots clamped down on its ribs like a physical vice, trapping its front half completely. The monster let out a panicked, muffled roar, its rear legs kicking wildly into the air as it tried to violently wrench itself backward out of the natural trap.
"Got you, you bastard," Jet hissed, his voice full of cold fury.He didn’t waste a single millisecond.
Grabbing the heavy ironwood branch, he stood up on his shaking legs and rammed the fractured, jagged end straight toward the beast’s trapped head.
The Hyena thrashed violently, turning its head at a sharp angle. The first thrust of the wooden stake missed its eye, slamming into its thick cheekbone and tearing off a chunk of black fur and flesh.
The monster snapped its fangs wildly, trying to crush the wood in its jaws. Jet ignored the snapping teeth.
He withdrew the branch, stabilized his stance, and put the entire weight of his body behind the second thrust.
CRUNCH!
The sharp, durable end of the ironwood stake pierced directly through the soft tissue of the Hyena’s throat. Blood sprayed from the wound, coating Jet’s face and hands in warmth.
Jet roared, driving his palms against the base of the branch, pushing with every ounce of physical strength his Eight-Armed Asura rune could provide. The wood punctured straight through the interior of the throat, fracturing the upper jaw bones, and drove directly into the base of the skull, destroying the central nervous system.
The Hyena’s movements stopped instantly. Its crimson eyes dilated, the light fading from them completely as its heavy, muscular body went entirely limp, hanging loosely between the two giant roots.
Jet let go of the branch, stepping backward as his knees buckled. He collapsed heavily onto his haunches, his chest heaving violently as he tried to catch his breath. His hands were covered in dark monster blood, and his body was maps of burning pain from the numerous claw scratches.
He stared at the dead predator, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
He had survived his very first encounter in the Beyond.
The red system interface dropped down smoothly in front of his face, clearing away the darkness of the forest.
[ You have killed the Black-Fang Hyena. ]
[ You have received one Lesser Monster Core. ]
A small, dark crimson stone, roughly the size of a marble, materialized in the air above the beast’s corpse before dropping cleanly into Jet’s open palm.
It felt cold, dense, and radiated a faint, primitive energy that made the tattoos pulse in recognition.