Dread

For a moment, it was like the world went still as silence overtook everything.

Then, all at once, chaos ensued.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A horrific shriek tore through the bubbling mass with such intensity that it created a visible shimickwave and tore up the ground.

Kris couldn't help but wince as the sound hit him, his eardrums trembling dangerously. Despite this, though, he couldn't help but notice two things.

First, was the lack of reaction from Mike. It was like he'd barely registered the sound and its effects, as his gaze was trained solely on the form of the Rat King.

The second thing he noticed... was the Rat King itself.

'It's... not growing anymore.' He realized with a start.

The undulating mass of flesh was still wriggling violently, but it was as though some invisible hand was holding it in place and preventing it from growing further.

Then, Mike clenched his fist.

The screeches of the Rat King rose by an octave, but the results were visible.

Against its will, its body began to forcefully contract. Sickening sounds left its body as flesh was crushed and bones were crushed, litres of its vile blood staining the ground.

'Incredible.' Kris thought and turned to Mike, ready to urge him on, but as soon as he spun, his eyes widened.

Mike still looked focused, but his appearance didn't look good.

Blue veins were bulging across his skin like small snakes, and his eyes were bloodshot. Kris froze and did a mental calculation, then he cursed.

'Shit! It's been almost ten minutes.' He'd forgotten that Mike was using some sort of boosting skill to increase his power, but seeing him now...

"Mike! Stop! We need to get you out of here!" Kris said urgently. He had no idea what would happen if Mike reached his limit, but he wasn't keen on finding out.

However, if Mike had heard him, he gave no indication s he kept his gaze on the Rat King that was gradually getting smaller.

Kris looked between them, feeling torn.

On one hand, he didn't want Mike to face the backlash of whatever boosting ability he was using. But on the other hand, whatever Mike was doing seemed to be effective in dealing with the Rat King, and if they didn't deal with it now, who knew what sort of monstrosity it would become?

"It's fine." Mike suddenly spoke. His voice sounded hoarse, probably from the strain, but his eyes were focused.

Seeing this, Kris wanted to protest, but when he saw the looks in Mike's eyes, the words died on his lips.

He seemed so... sure. Like the idea of his plan failing wasn't even conceivable in his mind.

Kris hesitated, then he grit his teeth, and a chain appeared, wrapping around Mike's waist.

"The moment you seem ready to collapse, I'm getting you out of here." Kris said resolutely. Mike didn't respond, but he didn't refuse either, so he'd take that as a green light.

Meanwhile, Mike had indeed heard everything Kris said. He simply didn't have enough mental energy to reply.

Naturally, he was aware of his own condition, and calling it good would be overly generous.

To begin with, he came to find Kris after an intense battle. Granted, he'd eaten the corpse of the 6-armed creature and regained most of his energy, but saying he was in his peak state would still be an overstatement.

He'd also burned through a LOT of energy during the fight with the Rat king, just healing many of the wounds that he passively and actively sustained, be it from the lava or getting hit, which there was a lot of both. Plus, he'd been using Crimson Ladder since the start of the fight, which was another large strain on his body which only grew the longer he used the technique.

And that's not even talking about the energy he spent actually using his aura and other skills like Primal Rend and Haven Ring.

Sure, his passives helped his energy regeneration, but if he was being honest with himself, he was running on fumes at this point. The only reason he was even able to use Primal Dread at such high output right now was due to how it scaled, and it didn't seem to take from his resource pools directly.

Still, it was a lot, and add the strain of Overclocking... yeah.

However...

'It's not like I'll jhst deactivate the moment the ten minutes is over. It's just how long I can use Overclocking ssafely. I can keep using it after, just that doing so becomes increasingly dangerous.' Mike's durability simply could not be ignored.

He was already incredibly solid before, and after he acquired the Vitalis Core ability, his endurance was simply through the roof. Sure, it was a losing battle if he put his regeneration against the strain of Overclocking, but it could still delay the negative effects long enough for him to accomplish his task.

Like right now.

'It's resisting.' Mike noted.

The Rat King, as if sensing that things were going badly, had tried to devour the Primal Dread binding it. However, the concepts behind the skill were simpmy too vast and complex for it to understand, so even with its seemingly insatiable appetite, it couldn't consume it.

That said, it still tried, and that slowed down the effects of Mike's skill.

Mike didn't like that.

'... You are a rat.' His lip curled disdaincully as he clenched his fist tighter, and the mass of flesh was constructed more with another scream.

'How dare a mere Rat try to assert its presence in the face of a predator? Do you honestly think that eating so much gives you the right?' He took a step, and that simple movement caused bursts of pain throughout his body, but he didn't care.

'There is a hierarchy for a reason, you pathetic creature. That is why your kind is known for picking up the scraps of those larger than you. You accept compare. No matter how much you increase your numbers. You can never truly be up to par.' If Mike was properly coherent, he would have realized that there was something seriously wrong with his thought process.

Sure, he displayed signs of that predatory pride from time to time, but nothing like this, nothing so... blatant.

And yet, this was him. Or rather, at part of him that he usually, subconscious, kept under wraps.

'You poor thing.' Mike took another step, and several blood vessels burst across his body, filling his armor with blood, but he barely registered it. At the same time, the body of the rat king was crushed even more. Any resistance it put up was torn through like paper, and from its immense size, it was now just 5 meters in diameter, blood pouring from it like a wet towel being wrung violently.

'Your existence is filled with hardship. All you know how to do is scrounge, isn't it. What are you the predator of? Hm?' No words left Mike's mouth, and yet, it was like his skill seemed to project them directly into the mind of the Rat King, filliwing it with immense, well, Dread.

'Can your feeble existence fathom it? The joy of being a predator? Of being the hunter instead of the hunter? Of course it can't. How can it? After all, you spend your whole life fleeing. You spend it being prey.' Mike kept walking despite the pain, and soon, he was just a few meters away from the Rat King, which now looked like a small sphere that tried desperately to escape the confines of the creature before it.

'What a sad existence. I couldn't imagine such a thing, really. I suppose that's just the difference between us. You were unlucky to be born as you are. Cursed to feed on what above you left behind.' His thoughts were as mocking as they were patronizing.

By now, the 'Rat King' was just a couple of inches in diameter, not any bigger than a basketball. The flesh of its mass had all been contracted into paper thin walls that clung to its core tightly.

Mike reached forward and grabbed the thing.

He could feel its emotions. Its desperation, its reluctance, its indignation, its anger...

Its fear.

It was scared.

Scared of the predator before it.

And Mike preyed on that instantly.

Like a shark that smelled blood, his Primal Dread locked onto that feeling and burrowed deep into it, entrenched itself into the very being of the creature, binding it into an ephemeral grip from which it never had any hope of escaping.

Mike's lip curled upward slightly, revealing his sharp canines stained with his own blood.

"Allow me to grant you the sweet release of death. Only then will you be rid of this harrowing existence of yours." He brought the trembling orb close to his lips, and in a voice that could almost be described as soothing, he said softly.

"Die."

The orb froze, then trembled violently within his grip... and went dead.

Any life within it was simply snuffed out, as Mike's will had completely and utterly destroyed it.

Mike heard several notifications and smiled even as his vision began to darken.

The Rat King was Dead.

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