Kpuuck!
Once again, Jisung felt frustrated. For almost half an hour he’d been fighting an enemy he had no information about, until a minute ago.
[PARTICIPANT PROFILE]
[NAME: Split-Fang Harrier
CLASSIFICATION: ■■■■■■■
CLASS: C
UNIQUE ABILITY: Velc Hollow Reversal Lv.17, Velc Triform Split Lv. 10, Velc Fracture Breath Lv. 15, Velc Volley Lv. 11, Velc Crash Lv. 20
ACTIVE: Velc Fracture Breath]
He barely had time to process that information before the Harrier reared its head back, feathers along its throat glowing white and hot. He hissed.
"I’ve run out of curse words. Shit."
Jisung dove sideways with all his might as the blast tore past where he’d been standing, close enough that he felt his eyebrows singe. The heat of it almost made it feel less cold for a second.
[Massive Adaptability To Any Situation Lv.0 (Muscle Memory): Active]
He came up already moving, snatched the bag off the ground mid-roll, and lifted off the ground in a high jump, planting the bag against his knee like a shield and driving the whole weight of it into the side of the Harrier’s skull.
Kboom!
The impact sent up a spray of snow in every direction, and Jisung landed low, already braced for the follow-up he knew was coming.
It wasn’t just the attacks that worried him. The Harrier kept ’adjusting’ to his attacks. Every trick that had worked once didn’t work twice. That was his worry.
He had tried the ’cowboy’ move a second time and lost his scarf to the blast. He frowned at the memory of it and pushed his knee into the bag harder.
’You’ll pay for that, asshole.’
For a second, it didn’t move. Suddenly, the Harrier snapped its head up and flung him off with brutal ease. He hit the ground rolling, came up on one knee, breathing hard.
"Yah!" He yelled, breathing hard and glaring at it. "Why won’t you just let me kill you already. I swear it wouldn’t even hurt. One clean hit and we’re both done here."
The Harrier shook the snow off its body, circled once in the air, and shrieked.
"Sheesh! I’m sorry." He hissed, already moving before the sound finished.
[Velc Volley Lv. 11]
Jisung gasped.
It charged, and this time the glow building in its throat didn’t fire as one clean blast. It held a half-second longer than before, light stuttering, and then split. One becoming three, each fragment peeling off on its own trajectory, all three converging on Jisung from different angles at once.
’Wait. It could do that the entire time?’
Jisung didn’t have time to think. He eyed the first blast headed for him and backflipped. He felt the heat move just an inch from his hair and blast into a snow wall behind him.
’Close.’
He slid low just in time as the second came at him, snow spraying up around him.
But he was too late. Immediately he got to his feet, the third caught him mid-motion. A clawed foot closed around his shoulder and yanked him upright, dragging him directly into the path of the last blast.
’Shit.’
He wiggled and struggled to break free. The grip only grew tighter.
"Let me go!" He winced as its sharp claw left a small cut on his arm.
Luckily, he twisted at the last possible second, took the graze instead of the full hit, and used the momentum to drive an elbow into the joint holding him. The grip broke. He dropped, slid, and came up in a crouch, chest heaving.
A message rang out at the edge of his vision.
[Your Unique Ability Is Partially Active]
[Participant Yu Jisung’s Body Is Nearing Its Limit]
He clenched his jaw. Of all the things to worry about right now, that wasn’t even the one eating at him.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:27]
That was it. "Twenty-seven seconds," He said, trying to catch his breath. "..is all the time I have left. No more playing, Jisung."
The Harrier circled once, gathering itself for whatever came next, and Jisung planted his feet.
One long fight later, still nothing had worked. A message came again.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:15]
’Damnit Jisung.’
It came at him low and fast. He caught the first strike on his forearm, pain lancing white up to his shoulder. He watched closely, saw the opening and answered with a punch into its jaw that snapped its head sideways. It recovered faster than he did, whipping its tail into his ribs, and he felt something give.
But he refused to go down despite the pain. He grabbed the tail as it passed and hauled himself up onto its back, driving both fists down into the base of its skull, once, twice, the creature screamed and thrashed beneath him.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:08]
It threw him just as the message rang out.
’Damnit! I’m running out of tim—’
He hit the ground hard, rolled, and was already scrambling back to his feet before the pain caught up with him. He grabbed his ribs. He didn’t have time for this. He couldn’t. Jisung looked up and launched himself forward one more time, aiming everything he had left at the center of its chest.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:03]
His fist connected perfectly and the Harrier staggered.
But it wasn’t enough.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:00]
"No no, no! come on now. Come on!"
[The Given Time Has Run Out]
’Fuck! I failed again.’
[MISSION STATUS: FAILED]
[PENALTY IN PROGRESS...]
He watched as the Harrier suddenly scrambled to its feet and took off straight into the clouds.
[TRIAL DIFFICULTY ADJUSTED]
[B- → A]
[Your Awakening Trial Is About To Commence...]
****
Jisung watched in silence as the Harrier lunged up into the sky. For close to a minute there was no sound at all. Nothing but that of the wind.
His legs gave out and he landed hard on his knees. Pain ran through his whole body.
[Massive Adaptability To Any Situation Lv.0 (Muscle Memory): Deactivated]
[Participant Yu Jisung’s Body Has Reached Its Limit]
He coughed out blood, gripping his own ribs tighter and fighting back tears that were already forming in his eyes. He had failed again despite everything. And it hurt.
’Stop it, Jisung.’ He told himself as he wiped his face.
He had to keep a strong head. Whatever came next, he had to be ready for it. He winced as he shifted to a more comfortable position, resting down with his legs spread out as he brought up his profile window.
[PARTICIPANT PROFILE]
[NAME: Yu Jisung
AGE: 22
CLASSIFICATION: Participant
STATS: Strength Lv.3, Speed Lv.3, Agility Lv.3, Stamina Lv.3, Health Lv.3, Mana Lv.0
UNIQUE ABILITY: Regression Lv.1, Massive Adaptability To Any Situation Lv.0, ???, ???
ACTIVE STORY: None
RECORDED STORIES: The Sole Regressor, I Am God Class, Don’t Mess With My Fist
TOTAL COINS IN POSSESSION: 10,100
YOUR AWAKENING TRIAL IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE...]
He scanned it. "I still have ten thousand coins left." It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t nothing either.
He might need to prepare and this was the most important part of the preparation.
[You Have Spent 1200 Coins]
[Health Lv. 3 → Lv. 7]
[TOTAL COINS IN POSSESSION: 8900]
The relief hit almost instantly, warmth spread through his chest where the pain had been sitting and he let out a long breath, feeling his own body settle for the first time in what felt like hours.
’One stat at a time.’
He let himself collapse fully into the snow, just for a second. Just to watch the sky do nothing for a while.
His mind drifted, unbidden, back to the last time he’d failed a Trial, the moment he’d heard something crack after landing and panicked, certain he’d broken a rib. Only to open his bag and find one of Seojun’s snacks split cleanly in half.
He chuckled at the memory. Then, without really meaning to, he broke into full laughter. His ribs hurt as he did but he didn’t care.
Finally, he closed his eyes, and listen to the quiet, calming sound of the wind.
’Come home,’ the note had said.
Those words were enough motivation to pull through. "I won’t let you down, hyung."
His eyes shot open and he sat up.
’I won’t let... me down.’
He stared at nothing for a while, letting that sit. Then he remembered. ’Wait. My bag.’
He kept losing it over and over again in the fight. He chuckled, stretching and twisting around.
Finally he spotted it a few meters off, half-buried in the snow but intact.
He did a little stretch before getting to his feet, yawning wide in the process, enough that his jaw cracked, and giggled at himself.
"Just one more." He muttered, and got up.
He’d barely taken two steps toward it when the sky split open above him.
A blast came down from directly overhead. It was massive and the impact with the ground throwing up a wall of fog and pressure that knocked him sideways even from a distance. He threw his arms up, shielding his face, bracing against the force of it. By the time the fog cleared, a message was already waiting.
[Velc Hollow Reversal Lv.17]
"...Huh?"
He didn’t get long to wonder what that meant as something hit him hard from the side, so fast he didn’t even have time to brace. Then again, almost immediately, from the other side.
A double hit, both landing before his brain could process the first one.
’Its back.’
The world spun as he went airborne, and came down hard. Not on snow.
But on ice. "What the...?"
He blinked up at the pale sky, pushed himself upright, and gasped. The snow field had become a sheet of ice, stretching in every direction as far as he could see.
’Fuck.’
He tried to stand but his boots slipped instantly.
"Whoop—!"
Legs sliding out from under him in opposite directions, and he went down in a full splits he was in no way flexible enough for. Pain shot up between his legs and he collapsed forward onto his face.
’M-my... my balls! Fuck!’
The health boost was helping as the pain faded faster than it should have, but it was not fast enough to stop him from lying there a moment, eyes shut, silently making peace with his life choices.
A few seconds passed before he regained confidence to try again. He raised his head up slowly.
"Sorry." He said out loud to the ice, once the worst of it passed. "It’s not your fault."
He pushed himself up again, more carefully this time.
"Okay, Jisung. You’ve got this."
His boots made an awkward scraping sound as he planted them, arms out for balance like he was learning to walk for the first time. "Yes. Yes! I got it."
That was when it hit him again, from the other side, at the same invisible speed. He landed back-first on the ice hard enough that it cracked beneath him, and he lay there a moment, listening to the fractures spread outward from where his body had landed.
’Oh... boy.’
He could feel the ice shifting under his weight and whatever was beneath it, deep or dark, he didn’t really want to find out.
The only thought that mattered was this: get off the ice, find solid ground, and don’t give this thing any more advantages than it already had.
He mumbled to himself, eyes scanning the horizon for anything that looked less likely to swallow him whole. "It already knows I panic. Let’s not give it the show."
Trying to stand again, slower and more carefully this time, weight distributed evenly across both feet, he saw it.
The message hovered before him like a nightmare. And for the first time in longer than he could remember, he had absolutely nothing to say.
[AWAKENING TRIAL - SUB #2]
[PARTICIPANT 34 YU JISUNG
MISSION: Defeat a B-Class Split-Fang Harrier in one-on-one combat before the time limit ends.
TIME LIMIT: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
DIFFICULTY: A
PENALTY: Death
REWARD: 20,000 Coins]
"I’ll... die?" The words were out before he could stop them.
The Split-Fang Harrier tilted its head at him in a distance, and charged.
’’’
Author’s Note: If you’re enjoying the novel, don’t forget to add it to your library and show some support. It really helps!
’’’