Chapter 77: Chapter 77 (Super gift Chapter)
Chapter 77
AWHOOOOOOOO!
A loud howl echoed across the whole place, rattling the humans who moments ago had been laughing and exchanging words with one another. The howl was chilling, bone-shaking, and so intense that it felt like their very innards quivered along with it.
Everybody immediately knew what it was. In unison, they all leaped away from where they stood and quickly huddled together, forming a tight line barely three metres away from the swirling portal. Their weapons trembled in their grips as they raised them anxiously, preparing for whatever horror was about to emerge.
Beads of sweat trickled slowly down their faces, and some of them shook uncontrollably in fear. The terror was even more visible among those who had previously faced off against a B-ranked boss. They knew what was coming, and the memory alone was enough to strip away every ounce of bravado.
Kael, who surprisingly already had his clothes back on, was visibly shaking. His shield was held in a white-knuckled grip while his body was drenched in sweat. The flashbacks came to him vividly—how close they had all been to death the last time they faced a B-ranked boss. The thought made his stomach churn.
Even Jace, as composed and confident as he usually was, could not hide his fear. His eyes widened in horror, his heartbeat racing rapidly and loudly within his chest.
Badum! Badum! Badum!
The thumping of his heart was so heavy that even those closest to him could hear it.
And yet, the beast had not even shown itself. Just its howl, just its aura, was enough to send shivers crawling across the spines of every Reaver in the area. It was as if the atmosphere itself was suffocating them.
Finally, they saw movement. The beast’s claws shot out of the portal, swiping viciously at the air as though expecting prey to already be waiting on the other side.
Its strike sliced through empty space, but the sheer force of it made the ground rumble. Then came its hairy foot, stepping through with dreadful finality, followed by the rest of its massive frame.
In less than a minute, it had fully emerged.
Before the Reavers now stood a monster that almost made their skin crawl right off their bones.
Standing nearly three meters tall, the B-Ranked Dredfang Lycan exuded raw dominance the moment it crossed the threshold. Unlike its lesser kin, its fur was not a dull grey or brown but pitch black, so dark that it seemed to devour light instead of reflecting it. The coat rippled with unnatural vitality, as though living shadows crawled beneath its surface, writhing like a curse given form.
Its frame was monstrous, twice as broad as an ordinary Lycan, its muscles layered with sinew-tight strength that radiated overwhelming power.
From its shoulders and down its spine, jagged bone-like spines jutted out, glowing faintly with a blood-red hue. With every heavy step it took, the ground cracked beneath its weight as if the beast carried the burden of an entire mountain.
Its claws were no longer ordinary either. They had mutated, grotesquely elongated into jagged obsidian talons etched with crimson veins that pulsed in rhythm with its heartbeat.
Across its chest stretched a massive scar, glowing faintly with dark energy. It didn’t look like a wound—it looked like a seal, a source of something far more sinister that throbbed in time with the beast’s monstrous presence.
The Lycan’s face was twisted, less wolf and more demon, primal and hideous in its design. Its eyes were not amber like the others but a chilling glacial blue, swirling like a frozen storm that promised death to anything it gazed upon.
When its maw opened, it revealed rows of curved, predatory fangs, each designed to tear flesh apart in an instant. Its jaws could unhinge unnaturally wide, letting out bone-rattling roars that warped the very air around it.
It didn’t charge recklessly. No, it stalked forward with precision, every step calculated, every movement filled with the confidence of an apex predator that had never lost.
And now, this chilling B-ranked beast stood face to face with a group of mostly D-ranked Reavers, with only a handful of C-rankers scattered among them.
"Ri... Rina. Please, leave from here now." Renzo whispered, his voice hoarse. His hands trembled around his weapon, yet he didn’t dare tear his eyes away from the nightmare in front of them.
"And leave you guys alone to face that thing? No way." Rina snapped back. Her voice was sharp, but her face betrayed her fear—sweat dripped from her chin as she struggled to steady her breathing.
"Babe, I hate to say this, but there’s nothing you can do against it. You have the healing Veil, and that makes you our lifeline. You need to step back. If any of us go down, we’ll be counting on you to pull us back up to fighting condition." Renzo reasoned desperately, even as his own heart hammered in his chest.
The Lycan had stopped walking now. It loomed only a short distance away, its icy gaze scanning across the gathered humans as though deciding who would die first.
"No! I won’t leave you here to face something much more powerful than you. Never! We promised to stay together forever through thick and thin. I can’t leave now when things are looking rough." Rina huffed, her voice trembling between anger and fear.
"What don’t you understand?!" Renzo finally snapped, his shout breaking through the chaos, laced with both anger and desperation. "There’s nothing you can do here other than slow us down. Don’t you get it? You might die!"
"What about you? Won’t y..."
"Guys! This ain’t the place for your lovers’ banter! Damn it, we have a freaking B-ranked beast in front of us!" Zarin cut in sharply, his voice cracking as his hands trembled around the hilt of his D-ranked sword.
GROWL!
The beast rumbled as it lifted one massive claw, pointing it menacingly toward the group of humans. Instantly, every Reaver stiffened, weapons rising in anticipation as their hearts pounded in unison.
Then, in a display of terrifying cruelty, the Lycan grinned. Its maw split unnaturally wide, revealing endless rows of curved fangs glistening with saliva, its icy eyes scanning each human as if savoring which one to kill first.
Kael’s shield shook in his grip, but his eyes stayed locked on the creature, studying its movements with keen precision. He noticed the way its muscles bunched, the twitch in its leg, the subtle shift in its claws. His instincts screamed the truth.
"Brace yourselves! It’s going for the attack now!" Kael bellowed, his warning cutting through the tense silence.
BANG!
The beast vanished in a blur, moving so fast that its departure caused a deafening shockwave. The air cracked, dust blasted outward, and every Reaver flinched, unable to track its form.
"From the left!" Renzo roared, spinning on instinct. From his sleeve, his weapon slid free—a massive spiked mace gleaming menacingly under the faint light. Without hesitation, he swung it with every ounce of his strength and speed.
CLANG!
Another explosive bang erupted as Renzo’s mace collided with the Lycan’s claws. The force of the clash tore through the ground, fissures splitting outward while dust and debris shot into the air like shrapnel.
The C-ranked Reaver’s body strained under the impact. His muscles bulged, veins standing out across his arms, his teeth gritted tightly as the force of the Lycan’s strike pushed him backward, boots carving lines into the dirt as he skidded inches at a time.
"Now is no time to get scared, shocked, or stunned! Now is the time to fight this damned beast or we all die!" Renzo shouted through clenched teeth, his voice fierce as he struggled to hold his ground against the grinning monster.
His roar sparked something.
Jace’s trembling ceased. The hammering in his chest slowed as focus returned to his gaze. His grip on his sword tightened, and he raised it with renewed determination.
"He’s right!" Jace thundered, voice cutting through the paralysis that gripped the others.
"Now is the time to prove ourselves! Yes, some of us faced a B-ranked boss before and failed, but that was because we were too few! Now we are many! With all our strength combined, we can at least drive this beast back to the abyss it crawled from!"
His words lit fire in the hearts of the others. The fear did not vanish, but courage began to burn through it.
"Water Veil!"
"Earth Veil!"
"Ice Veil!"
"Wind... yawn! Wind Veil!"
"Lightning Veil!"
One by one, voices echoed as the Reavers unleashed their abilities, the battlefield lighting up with elemental fury. The ground rumbled, the air crackled, and power gathered in waves around them as they prepared to clash with the monstrous B-ranked boss.