[You have leveled up]
[You have reached Level 4]
Notifications echoed one after the other, but Xavier didn't lose his focus, his attention fixed on the last remaining zombie.
A zombie in orange clothing, with one eyeball missing, moved toward Xavier with hunger in its eyes.
Swish!
The rusty bar drew an arc through the air and swiftly landed on the zombie's skull, shattering it into multiple pieces.
Xavier sidestepped expertly, avoiding the brain matter from staining his clothes, not that it mattered, considering he was covered in filth.
He didn't care about the zombie. His eyes twinkled with anticipation as he stared at the blurring window.
[Kill Streak - 10]
Without even realizing it, he had achieved the first major milestone.
Now he should get the rewards, right?
Then, as if to answer his question, space wiggled and his vision was filled with an avalanche of multiple blue windows, completely blocking his sight.
However, before he could even take a look at them—
Howl!
A heavy, wolfish roar came from behind him.
Probably the sound of fighting had attracted the attention of some monster.
"I have to take cover… staying in the open will just make me an easy target."
Instincts took over. His body reacted faster than his thoughts, quickly running toward the lone checkpoint ahead, a single-storey building from where the officers kept an eye on the prisoners.
Before he could even get close, Xavier heard several shocked voices.
"Why is he running toward us…?!"
"Look behind him, there's a monster chasing him!"
"Don't come here!"
Millie's eyes widened in horror as she watched an almost ten-foot-tall wolf chasing Xavier, its grey fur dyed crimson with blood, mangled body parts clinging to its entire frame.
The monstrous wolf howled, revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth that looked capable of biting through steel.
"Run! Millie, run!"
Without wasting another second, Jackie grabbed Millie's hand and started running, rushing toward the stairs, intending to hide on the rooftop.
Jackie's eyes met Aron's, a handsome young man with a righteous appearance, holding a gleaming sword in his hand. She quickly commanded, "Block the exit!"
Aron nodded without hesitation. He pointed his hand toward the only opening leading inside and chanted in a solemn voice.
"ICE ARROWS!"
Immediately following his words, three exquisite arrows, each more than five feet tall, materialized in mid-air, completely blocking the entrance.
During all this time, he seemed to have completely ignored Xavier, as if his life and death had nothing to do with his actions.
Without another look, Aron swiftly turned, following Millie and Jackie upstairs, growing an ice arrow on each step to make it difficult for anyone to climb up, hoping the wolf wouldn't be able to follow them.
Aron's actions didn't go unnoticed. Xavier's eyebrows rose in fury, and he unconsciously cursed, "Bastard!"
The grey wolf's speed was extremely high. In just a few moments, it was directly behind Xavier, its gigantic frame towering over him.
Before he could even blink, the monster opened its mouth and leapt, intending to swallow Xavier whole.
"Not today."
Xavier was locked in. The momentum gained from killing ten zombies was still in effect. He immediately rolled to the side, avoiding the monster's sharp fangs by mere inches.
Bang!
The grey wolf's maw hit the ground below, the impact sending dust and stone flying in all directions.
This slight pause allowed Xavier to recover and take a good look at the monster he was dealing with.
An extremely brief glance, but it gave him all the information he needed.
Above the monster's head floated a row of text.
[Non-Evolved Grey Wolf - Level 15]
"Well, fuck me."
A level fifteen monster. Where did this son of a gun spawn from? Just as he was thinking that, he remembered the Infinite Record mentioning something about portals to another world.
"Don't tell me a portal opened inside the prison."
That was very bad news.
But that was all he was allowed to think.
After failing to kill Xavier in one bite, the grey wolf's anger surged, its eyes turning crimson.
Xavier was already running as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Break for me…"
As soon as he got near the entrance, Xavier raised the bar above his head and started smashing in frantic motions.
Kacha!
Finally, the icy arrow snapped in half, creating a narrow opening.
"That's it…"
Pushing the broken ice away with his hands, Xavier almost squeezed inside.
Bang!
Carrying unstoppable momentum, the grey wolf collided with the firm concrete walls. Even though most of the impact was absorbed, Xavier felt as if he'd been hit by a car, his organs rearranging themselves, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
Argh!
Clutching his stomach, Xavier used all his remaining willpower to get up, his vision slightly blurry.
After the impact, the grey wolf seemed to be stuck, only its gigantic head lodged inside. The monster struggled as it tried to force the rest of its body inward, exposed iron bars piercing through its fur, dyeing the ground red.
A suffocating silence enveloped the surroundings. Xavier's retreating figure came to a sudden halt.
"It's stuck… the monster is stuck…"
Xavier muttered in a low voice, his eyes instinctively narrowing as he met the monster's gaze.
He didn't know why, but the fear in his heart was replaced by something else… something foreign.
Xavier didn't know exactly what this feeling was, but he was sure as hell it wasn't love.
Shaking his head to get rid of useless thoughts, the grip on the iron bar in his hand tightened.
As soon as the intent to kill the grey wolf bloomed in Xavier's heart, the text floating above the monster's head changed.
[Non-Evolved Grey Wolf - Level 15]
[Weak Point - Eyes]
Xavier didn't react to the window. Right now, he couldn't be disturbed. Even without this new information, he was already aiming for the monster's eyes.
With each step, Xavier's speed increased. Just when he was a few meters away from the monster, he jumped.
Sensing danger, the grey wolf howled ferociously. Owww! However, the tight space restricted its movements.
Puchi!
Like a knife through hot butter, the iron bar pierced through the wolf's eye. The monster whimpered in agony. The pain of having one's eye pierced was unimaginable, but just then, Xavier forcefully yanked the bar out and pierced its remaining eye.
This time, Xavier used too much strength. The second eye exploded immediately upon contact with the simple iron bar.
The wolf howled madly, its struggle turning fierce, kicking and biting the air, but all of it was in vain.
Steeling his heart, Xavier continued to attack again and again, not realizing that at some point the wolf's body had gone stiff.
Like a machine, he continued attacking, only stopping when a small window flashed in the corner of his vision.
[Execution Streak - 0]
As he had used multiple attacks to kill the wolf, it wasn't an execution, so the streak reset to zero.
Xavier stopped attacking and took rapid, deep breaths to calm his raging heart.
At this moment, an almost basketball-sized ball of Soul Record emerged from the wolf's corpse and merged with his body.
[You have absorbed the Soul Record of a Level 15 Grey Wolf. +10 Strength, +13 Agility, +9 Stamina, +14 Mana]
[You have leveled up…]
[You have leveled up…]
[You…]
[You have reached Level 8]
The sense of tiredness he felt was immediately washed away. Xavier fell to his knees, letting out a long sigh, his eyes unconsciously moving toward the two items the monster had dropped after its death.
The grey wolf was ten levels above him. The treasures it dropped should be extraordinary.
With anticipation filling his heart, Xavier moved forward to pick them up.