"Fortune favors the bold, but it punishes the hesitant." — Virgil.
Micah’s left arm hung lower than his right. Blood soaked through the torn fabric, sticking it to his skin, but the pain did something else too. It cleared his head.
The panic, the confusion, the fog in his brain from waking up in this nightmare... all of it disappeared at once. He came to realize that the danger he’s currently facing is truly real. It could be the end of him.
Then the system spoke.
[Ding!]
[Physical injury detected. Source: Saber-claw Bear , 30% Flux Unlock.]
[Injury severity: Moderate. Enemy strength exceeds host baseline by 200%.]
[High-tier Gacha pull granted.]
Micah’s eyes bulged. A golden roulette wheel appeared right in the center of his mind. It spun so fast that the gold, blue, and white colors became impossible to tell apart.
’Now?! The system is actually working?!’
He didn’t have time to admire it. The Bear had already recovered from its missed lunge and was spinning around for another attack. Its eyes locked onto him with murderous intent.
Micah mentally grabbed the wheel and slammed the draw.
The roulette slowed down rapidly. It clicked past section after section before locking onto a glowing orb of pure golden light. The orb shattered like glass, and a wave of warm energy rushed directly into his brain.
[Talent Acquired: Beast Analysis (Passive, High-Tier)]
[Beast Analysis: Automatically scans and highlights anatomical weaknesses, movement patterns, and attack trajectories of all non-human targets within visual range.]
Micah’s eyes flashed with a faint golden hue for barely a second. Nobody in the crowd noticed it, but he felt it.
He looked at the Bear, and the world changed.
The beast’s chaotic movements suddenly now made sense. It wasn’t random. Nothing was random anymore.
The way its weight shifted to its left hind leg told him it was preparing to push off to the right. The tension in its shoulder muscles predicted the exact angle of its next leap.
He saw it all!
Floating red markers appeared across the beast’s body in his vision. Fifteen of them.
Minor weak points scattered across its joints, the base of its spine, the soft tissue behind its ears.
But one marker glowed brighter than all the rest. A single red point pulsed beneath the beast’s jaw.
That was its fatal weak point. One clean strike there could kill it instantly.
’Right under the jaw,’ Micah thought. ’That’s my target.’
The Bear crouched low again, muscles coiling for another assault. Through the Beast Analysis lens, Micah could see exactly where it was going to aim.
"Lunging straight for my neck again. Same angle. Same pattern."
He adjusted his stance and shifted his weight onto his back foot. He held his sword low, almost dragging the tip in the sand.
The crowd above murmured with confused excitement.
"Wait, is he actually trying to fight back?"
"Look at his stance! He changed his posture!"
"Doesn’t matter! The Bear will rip him apart anyway!"
The beast launched!
VRAAAH!
It came fast. Faster than the first time. Its jaws stretched wide, rows of yellow fangs aiming directly for his throat.
But this time, Micah saw it all coming and he was prepared.
At the last possible microsecond, he snapped his upper body backward. The beast’s head flew past his face, so close that he could perceive the foul smell coming from the beast’s mouth.
ARGHHHH!!!
A single fang grazed the tip of his nose, leaving a thin line of burning pain.
But... it missed!
The Bear’s body flew completely over him, carried forward by its own momentum. Its underbelly was fully exposed. Every red marker on its anatomy lit up like a beacon in his vision.
And right there, directly in front of him, was the soft, unprotected groin area.
Micah didn’t think twice, he just reacted.
He drove his military boot upward with everything he had.
CRUNCH!!
The Saber-claw Bear let out a sound nobody in that arena would ever forget. A high-pitched, pitiful yelp that sounded more like a kicked dog than a terrifying apex predator.
The creature slammed into the sand, rolled twice, then curled into a tight ball of fur and muscle, whimpering in pain.
The arena went dead silent.
Every single male recruit in the stands winced at the same time. They placed their hands instinctively to cover their penis. Several guys crossed their legs and sucked air through their teeth.
"Did he just... damn!!"
"He kicked it in the..."
"Oh my god!"
Even Vice-Principal Jason flinched. He couldn’t hide his reaction. His brows drew together, his nose wrinkled, and he winced as though the kick had landed on him instead.
Micah didn’t waste the opening. The Bear was down, curled up and whining, its flank completely exposed. He gripped his sword with both hands, raised it high, and brought it down in a heavy vertical chop.
The blade bit deep into the beast’s side, tearing a bloody gash across its ribs. Dark blood sprayed across the sand.
The beast howled and immediately uncurled, struggling wildly but the wound didn’t weaken it, it made it worse.
The Bear’s eyes changed. The calm predatory glow was replaced by something wild and untamed. The pain had flipped a switch inside the creature’s brain, pushing it into a full adrenaline frenzy.
Its muscles bulged. Its movements doubled in speed. It stopped thinking like a hunter and started attacking like a cornered animal.
The beast bounded toward Micah so fast it left blurred afterimages in the dusty air. Three of them. Four. Micah’s Beast Analysis scrambled to keep up, the red markers flickering wildly as the system tried to track multiple phantom trajectories.
’Too fast! It’s way too fast now!’
Micah backpedaled, swinging his sword in wide, desperate arcs to keep the creature at bay.
The Bear casually knocked the blade aside with a swipe of its front paw, as if it were nothing. The impact numbed his arms all the way to the shoulders. The rusty iron nearly flew out of his grip.
His back hit the arena wall and he had nowhere left to go.
The crowd screamed. They were on their feet, throwing fists in the air, sensing the kill.
"HE’S CORNERED! IT’S OVER!"
"Rip him apart! RIP HIM APART!"
The Bear crouched low again, hind legs coiling for the final kill. Blood dripped from the wound on its flank, leaving a dark trail in the sand. Its red eyes were wild, pupils dilated to full black.
Micah’s chest heaved. His shoulder wound ached with every heartbeat, pumping blood down his arm. His body was failing him. His stamina was draining fast.
He had just one shot or else, he was cooked.
Micah looked at the beast. The red markers were still there, flickering in his vision. Fifteen minor weak points.
A single red bullseye glowed faintly under the Bear’s jaw.
"To reach the jaw, I need to get close. Closer than anyone should ever get to this thing."
He took a deep breath, then he dropped his sword entirely.
The crowd went quiet immediately.
"What the fuck does he think he’s doing?"
"Really? Did he give up?"
"Is he just going to let it kill him?!"
Micah stood completely still with his arms wide open. Chest exposed. Defenseless. The sword lay in the sand behind him.
Every survival instinct in his body screamed at him to pick it back up, guard himself, and run. But he ignored them all.
The Bear saw the opening. A defenseless prey, standing perfectly still, offering itself up.
The beast’s wild brain didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
ZOOOOM!!
It lunged immediately.
The ground shattered beneath its feet. Dust and rock exploded outward. The large creature launched itself directly at Micah’s exposed chest, claws spread wide, jaws stretching open to bite his head clean off.
The crowd gasped.
"OH MY GOD, HE’S DEAD!"
"HE LOST HIS MIND!"
Nobody blinked. Everyone held their breathe.
Not until the beast’s claws were inches from spilling his guts from hip to hip across the sand. Then he charged!
Straight into it. No dodge. No roll. No sidestep. He ran directly at the monster like a man who had lost every last shred of sanity.
The entire stadium lost it again.
"WHAT IS HE DOING?!"
"IS HE TRYING TO DIE?!"
The Bear’s right paw swung down. Through the Beast Analysis lens, Micah saw the trajectory a split second before it landed.
He couldn’t dodge it. Not at this range, nor at that speed.
So he jumped. His body lifted off the ground and turned almost parallel to it. Then he twisted in mid-air, spinning once... then again. His spine let out a sickening crunch as he forced his body through an angle no one should have been able to reach.
The claws passed within a hair of his stomach. He felt the wind pressure against his skin. Felt the heat of the beast’s body against his face.
His shoulder slammed into the beast’s chest. The impact was like hitting a wall of solid rock.
Something in his ribs cracked, and he immediately tasted blood in his mouth.
But he was inside the beast’s guard now. So close the creature couldn’t pull its arm back. So close its fangs couldn’t reach his neck. So close he could almost feel the beast’s heartbeat hammering through its ribs.
The fatal marker beneath the Bear’s jaw pulsed brightly in his vision.
It was just right there. Above him.
Even though every muscle in his body was sore and his shoulder wound was going numb from blood loss, he didn’t care.
He gripped the sword with both hands and drove it straight upward with everything he had left.
The sword sank into the soft tissue beneath the beast’s jaw. It crunched through bone. It drove deep into the creature’s brain.
The Saber-claw Bear froze. Its glowing red eyes snapped wider, then dull. Then dark!
The moment the blade went in, blood rushed out, hitting Micah’s face and chest. It dripped from his hair and soaked into his uniform.
Then the beast collapsed.
It hit the ground so hard the entire arena shook. A huge cloud of dust rose around its body. The sword was still buried deep in its jaw, sticking straight up like a flagpole.
Micah stood there, covered in blood, his chest still heaving seriously, his injured arm hanging limp at his side. He stared down at the corpse of the beast that was supposed to kill him.
"Fuck,’ he thought, swaying slightly. ’That was way too close."