When Lenny and Harry approached the area where the siren sounded, they saw a large building with the emergency exits open. A drone was above, perched outside the window of the fifteenth floor, picking off what it could with a burst of high-calibre spirit rounds. The drone looked battered, but still very much intact. It had taken out a large number of scavenger beasts, and even one or two prey class ones.
On the floor, there were two bodies of scavenger beasts who had managed to escape the building before being taken out. Lenny and Harry approached one: a sort of yellow skinned rodent, with a large, distended belly and tough furry hide.
"Here," said Harry, throwing over a small piece of grit. "This is what you wanted, right?"
Lenny caught it and studied the small thing in his hand. This was exactly what he had been looking for. Now, he could play it safe, fix the hammer somewhere private, keeping all his secrets to himself, and all without even having to fight. But at the same time, if he simply fixed the weapon here and now, he could go on a rampage, absorb a bunch more spirit essence and significantly up his ability level. He paused for a moment. There was no need to get greedy. Then again…
"What are we waiting for?" asked Harry.
Lenny gave him a strange look, then pulled out the rock mole hammer, and began to activate his ability. What did it matter? Harry practically knew anyway.
A bright yellow light filled the area, catching even the attention of the drone pilot monitoring from above.
"Crafting successful. Rock mole hammer has been restored to maximum durability. Remaining spirit essence 4 of 8."
Lenny suddenly felt drained; Harry gave him a strange look. Instinctively, Lenny made for the remaining body, retrieving its spirit core in hope of increasing his spirit capacity slightly. The drone camera above zoomed in and saw two teenage boys. One appearing to destroy a spirit core, while the other watched.
"Spirit core absorbed. Your spirit stat has increased by 1 point. Do you wish to review your stats."
"Not now," he thought. In truth, Lenny was a little disappointed by the result, but it made sense. He had only gained 3 points and a small increase in his wind affinity last time because the spirit core had been of the prey tier.
"Are we done now?" asked Harry.
The more he thought about it, the more he realised sticking around was reckless. He was eager to get his spirit stat to level 10, unlocking the ability to create cybernetic enhancements, maybe even unlocking the ability to make prey class weapons at some point, but honestly, he had no idea what was going on inside the building. It could be a monster or a demon portal for all he knew.
"Okay, fine, let's get out of here."
No sooner had he said this, than the drone above, distracted by what had been going on below was attacked by a prey class beast. Its sharp fangs bit through the casing and the claws scratched at the external control panel. The extra weight caused the drone to sink, before firing a few rounds. The prey class beast dropped off, wounded but not dead.
Walking off, Harry and Lenny stopped as they heard a sound of a large impact behind them. Turning, they saw a large yellow rodent with huge fangs and a furry mane. It staggered to its feet and looked at them both.
"Run!" shouted Lenny.
He hadn't needed the system to tell him this was a prey tier beast. The sense of threat was many times larger than the Carrier Beetle he had fought.
Chased by a large, wounded spirit beast, the two of them ran as fast as they could. The drone fired off several rounds in pursuit, but the creature seemed more eager for blood than defending its own life. This went on for a few dozen yards, till the creature's body was heavy with wounds. However, suddenly the drone was slammed by another prey-tier beast.
The two carried on running as fast as they could, but it was obvious the creature would catch up with them. They looked at one another, knowing they needed to do something.
"It's wounded," said Lenny. "I think it would only take a few good strikes."
"You got a plan?"
"Get it to follow you, I'll be right on your tail."
This was a difficult situation for Harry. He had to trust Lenny wouldn't just leave him as beast bait, but they'd only known each other for a short time. Although, he had trusted him before, and if they did nothing, they would both be dead.
"Alright," said Harry. He suddenly stopped, turning to face the beast, then threw an earth strike at it. The beast raised its arms, easily defending the blow. Harry ran off down a side street. The large rat, enraged, quickly followed him and after waiting a few moments, Lenny followed, trying to keep as quiet as possible.
It was good that he had not waited long, as Harry found himself at a dead end. Moving closer, the rat went to strike at the boy, who fell back to avoid the attack. Lenny used the opportunity to move in closer and before it could strike again, he sprung forward and placed a hammer into the back of its skull.
"Spirit core activated. A portion of spirit protection has been ignored."
Unfortunately, a scavenger tier weapon, though able to kill something of a prey rank, was not particularly effective at it. The spirit essence of the beast worked as a kind of secondary force which protected it. This was why it was so important to gain the most powerful spirit weapon possible before taking on higher tier beasts, one able to cleave or smash through with its own essence.
And so, the strike had hurt the beast, even making a small crack on its skull, but it was not critical.
In retaliation, the beast slashed at Lenny and caught his chest, ripping through his clothes and a chunk of his left pectoral muscle. He found himself thankful he was right-handed, or the fight might have been over.
"Quest: kill the prey tier beast to unlock rewards."
The relay of information from the system was quicker than real speech, but even that period of time had been a crucial moment in the fight. Lenny knew he lacked the speed to keep up with its attacks, so quickly activated his new skill.
"Adrenaline rush has been activated. Speed and strength plus 50%. Time remaining: 10 seconds."
The final part had surprised him. In hindsight, he really should have tested it sooner. He knew that such a powerful skill would have a drawback, but 10 seconds seemed like a very short period of time to finish the fight. Especially with a beast a level above what he was really ready to face.
He instantly put the speed boost to work, leaning back, and avoiding a strike. It went to strike again with the other arm and Lenny, instead of defending, cracked the claw coming at him with the hammer.
"Spirit core activated. A portion of spirit protection has been ignored."
He had felt a strong thud as the beast's powerful bones made impact with the weapon. If human anatomy was anything to go by, the bones in the hand were small and relatively fragile.
"Seven seconds remaining."
The beast screeched, cradling the clawed hand awkwardly, but it still went to strike again with both hands. Lenny ducked the first, but realised he would be too slow to avoid the second and his head would take the blow. He raised his arms to cover up. Four strong claws slashed his left forearm, leaving thick grooves in the bone which could be felt. Blood streamed down his arm.
He took a step back, momentarily, to reassess the situation. In these last few confrontations, his body had taken a lot of punishment. The beast, frustrated, made a horrible noise somewhere between a roar and a shriek.
"Four seconds remaining."
Damn, it was now or never. Lenny stepped in, swinging wildly at the creature's head, but it saw the strike coming and moved back, avoiding the strike. He tried to quickly swap directions, changing the attack into a back swing, but he knew it would be too late. Lenny saw the beast's sharp claws heading for his face.
At that moment, he felt a pain in his stomach. A mound of earth had struck him in the belly, pushing him back and causing him to keel over. Because of this, the strike had missed.
"1 second—"
The system's countdown was interrupted by a well-timed leap from Lenny's new position. He had struck the beast in the temple with the hammer, using all of his strength. The thirteen points he had, plus the 50% boost from adrenaline rush gave him nearly twenty points of strength for a limited amount of time. On top of that, he had used the last of his spirit essence to activate the core of his weapon. If this hit failed, he would be exhausted, with no essence left to defend himself. Had the beast been fresh, not receiving so many bullet wounds from the drone, perhaps it could have remained conscious, but the blood loss had been great, and the two strikes to the head had been well placed. In truth, had the beast not already been injured, the fight would have been over a lot sooner.
"Adrenaline rush skill is deactivated. You must now pay the penalty."
And the penalty was great. Just as if he placed a stat point in them, his speed and strength were half their usual level. But worse than that, his stamina was completely drained. He'd never felt so exhausted.
"Quest reminder: to defeat a spirit beast, you must kill it. Knocking them out is not sufficient."
Lenny didn't respond. Panting, he eventually came to his feet. Through absolute exhaustion, he repeatedly dropped the hammer on the beast's face, till its skull was completely caved in and multiple system notifications popped up.
"Quest complete: kill the spirit beast. Rewards will now be unlocked. Rewards: defeat a higher-level opponent, instant level up; first time killing a prey tier beast, instant level up. You are now level 6. New skill unlocked: spirit drain. You have two stat points available."
That was a lot of information to take in. In a way, the trip had been a resounding success, in terms of progress made at least. But Lenny's forearm was bleeding profusely, and his pectoral muscle had been sliced through deeply. He felt weak, tired, and trying to stand, he collapsed.