Chapter 60

Not willing to let opportunity pass him by Rain leapt across the pool and bounded toward the groggily sitting up Adlen. Rain’s paw slapped down and clamped on to the leveler’s foot.

Adlen jerked, seeing what had caught hold of him.

“Wha- s-stop!- Nononono!!”

Rain’s paw swept up and around as he skidded past, Adlen went from lying down to being ripped into the air and meteorically spun around Rain at arm’s length until Rain let go and he was flung toward the nearest building at frightening speeds. Adlen screamed as he flew until his voice was cut off with a crunch and an explosion of masonry. Rain bounded after him and leapt at the jagged hole in the building’s wall Adlen’s passage had created. He barely fit, shoving and ripping his way through, but that wasn’t about to stop him. Inside, Adlen was crawling away on his hands and knees one hand clutched at his side. By some miracle his spear was still with him, clutched in one bloodied hand.

Masonry crumbled around Rain’s shoulders as he hauled himself inside, the floorboards groaning desperately under his weight.

“G-get away from you monster freak!”

Rain strode toward him, the top of his head brushing the ceiling, looming over everything in the room, a dominating presence.

Before he could get much closer however Adlen rolled over and held his spear up, grasping it in the center. Rain paused as the spear seemed to vibrate and then the ends flashed. Now Rain was looking for it his sharp eyes were able to pick out what was happening. The last foot at either end of the spear was not uniform metal but covered in small holes laid out in a diamond pattern. Incredibly powerful cone shaped jets of air were being forced through the holes on one side of the spear accompanied by a bloom of white light. In effect Adlen gripped the spear parallel to the ground and the spear rocketed up into the air, roaring jets at either end lifting it, dragging him up off the ground to standing.

Rain eyed the spear, that weapon ... was extremely powerful. If the blade was driven into him with the additional boost the air jets provided he doubted even his unusually tough body would hold up.

The spear flipped around in Adlen’s palm, microbursts of the jets giving Adlen incredible speed and control. The spear spun and flipped to his other hand, nearly scraping the walls and floor as it moved but expertly adjusted to just avoid them.

Rain realised it might have been a mistake to chase him in here, an enclosed space where it would be hard to evade. He readied himself, if this was going to be where things ended then he would likely need to take a wound if he wanted to get to Adlen before that spear took him apart, he could only hope it wouldn’t be deadly.

His foot shifted across the floorboards, settling his weight, his pads brushing aside masonry dust as his claws dug down into the wood.

He would go for it and end it right now, on one, two-

Adlen turned around and ran away.

Rain was left flat footed, it took him a moment to realise that the leveler had thrown his advantage away, and then another moment to realise his prey was getting away.

His prey was getting away.

Predatory hunting instincts flash burned across his mind and he exploded forward, the floorboards shredding beneath his feet. He smashed into the door frame with a roar, wood and walls disintegrating around his shoulders as he brute forced his way into the hall, smashing up against the wall before rolling down the hall after Adlen like a wave of black furred death.

Adlen’s back disappeared around a door frame and the door slammed shut and remained that way for all of one second before it was blown apart, the door becoming so much splinters as Rain smashed through, the frame coming with him as he burst free roaring his fury.

They’d appeared out on a street outside the market seemingly used by caravaneers judging by the number of crate stacked carts parked around, dozens of workers who had been unloading and reloading stock were frozen in place and staring at Rain.

“M-monster! There’s a loose monster!”

“Someone get the guard!”

“On me! We can take it! All of us together!”

Rain did not like where this was going, even less so seeing Adlen darting around a cart out of sight. This was not going to happen, not again, not like Lira. He snarled and bounded into a sprint, explosive thrusts of his legs powering him through the air and shattering cobble under foot. He was fast, very fast. It occurred to him that he’d never actually tried to see how fast he could run in this body, there just hadn’t been enough room in the dungeon most of the time, and he had never thought to test it once in the outside world.

His outsized strength plus his massive stride together were a deadly combination and the workers barely knew what was happening before he was blasting past them, one sweep of his arm knocking over a cart, one bound into the air taking him over the top of another.

Adlen turned his head, glancing behind as he ran, a pale and sweaty face that became paler and sweatier seeing Rain gaining ground. Rain’s huge bounds were enough that even with Adlen using a Skill to boost his running speed he couldn’t out pace him. Out of desperation he thrust his spear into the air and hissing jets burst from each end, his feet stepped, hopped and then he was lifted into the air, floating upward, carried on his jet-propelled spear.

Unfortunately for him the act of doing so slowed his pace significantly and he could do nothing but look down in terror as Rain’s giant paw wrapped around his foot.

Rain skidded, twisted his upper body and torqued down hard. Adlen full throatedly screamed as Rain whipped him downward like a wet rag. The cobble shattered and cratered as he struck, chunks of stone spraying up around his bloody body. Somehow he survived the impact, his body enhancing Skills preventing most of his bones from breaking, mostly. He was barely able to get out a gasp of protest as he felt his foot rocketing back up and he along with it. He went flying over Rain’s head in an arc before he came meteoring back down once more creating a second depression in the cobble, as he was pulled back up yet again he left behind a bloody smear on the stone, then another as he smashed back down to earth.