Boom!

  Debris rained down like ash, and the air turned thick with dust and the acrid stench of corruption. As the haze began to settle, I surveyed the aftermath of my attack. The goblin chief—once a towering figure of raw, corrupted might—had been reduced to nothing more than a splattered paste lying at the bottom of a yawning crater.

  The situation was ridiculous. That oversized bastard had put me through the wringer, but in the end, it was obliterated—reduced to mush by [Sanguis Telum].

  “Hahaaa!” I laughed, a wild, raw sound that burst out of me in a mix of relief and exhilaration. The absurdity of the situation was not lost on me.

  I stepped closer to the crater, shaking my head in a mixture of disbelief and admiration for the sheer destructive force of my finishing move.

  “Damn, that’s one hell of a finisher, but it's very subjective… Most would be able to sense the lance forming easily unless they are stunned or paralyzed," I muttered under my breath, my eyes lingering on the ruined remains of the creature.

  Hmmm… what if I can keep a blood orb floating way high up in the air permanently like a passive… thought for the future; for now, that would be impossible to do.

  But victory came at a cost. A sharp, relentless pain throbbed in my left arm—a constant reminder of the brutal clash I’d just endured. I gritted my teeth and frowned, realizing that my body was paying the price for every savage blow exchanged on that cursed battlefield.

  “Fuuu… Alright, alright,” I grumbled, reaching into my ring to retrieve a spare strip of cloth. I wrapped it tightly around my mangled arm, biting down hard on the fabric as I pulled the limb into alignment. With a determined twist of my good hand, I forced my arm back into position. There was a sickening pop as bone slid into place, immediately followed by a fresh surge of pain that shot through my entire body like a lightning bolt.

  “Ahhh, shit!” I hissed through clenched teeth, beads of sweat trickling down my forehead. I fought to maintain focus amid the agony, summoning [Mutation Essence] in the lowest amounts to the injury just enough to mend it back. The familiar burn of the essence was as comforting as it was excruciating; I could feel the tissues knitting themselves back together, my flesh reasserting its stubborn resilience. It wasn’t perfect, and the ache would linger for some time, but at least my arm was solid again—usable, if not battle-ready.

  I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a battered water canteen. I downed its contents in several large gulps, the cool liquid offering little relief from the burning pain but enough to clear my foggy mind. My senses, still heightened from the adrenaline of combat, slowly began to calm.

  Finding a relatively stable chunk of debris, I sat down and leaned back, allowing my ragged breaths to even out. The chaos of the fight still echoed in my veins like a fading drumbeat.

  “Damn, that was a crazy fight. Again, I have to work on my endurance, and the essences are really useful… I need to start mastering them as well," I muttered, wiping sweat and grime from my brow as I tried to piece together the fragments of the battle in my mind.

  It's high time I plan a proper build with what the other 3 essences should be for my build. It is fixed that I would need [space essence] for having a chance to return back home... what others could I get...

  Everything had been chaotic and situational as hell—dodging lethal swings, countering savage blows, pushing myself beyond known limits—but I couldn’t deny that my armor, my skills, and maybe a little bit of dumb luck had pulled me through. As I replayed the moment of [Sanguis Telum] in my thoughts, although I marveled at its raw, devastating power, I was also scared of what would have happened if the attack had missed… then I would have been forced back into the fight.

  However, the ability to spin, elongate, and compress that projectile mid-flight opened up a world of possibilities—the only issue was that it demanded too much concentration.

  “With the right prep, this could get insane. Maybe I can snipe major threats before fights?…”

  My reverie was suddenly broken by a nagging thought. “Luna,” I said, glancing around the debris-strewn clearing. The little floofball, my ever-loyal companion, wasn’t on my shoulder as she had been during the fight. I frowned—Luna had hopped off earlier when I set her down, and now she was nowhere to be seen.

  “Luna? Hey, that's not a good place to be," I called, rising to my feet. My heart thumped in a mixture of concern and residual adrenaline. I scanned the periphery of the crater and then, just as I was about to worry too much, I saw her.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  There, near the edge of the crater, her small body was crouched low on the blackened ground. She was sniffing curiously at the area where the goblin chief’s remains had pooled—a dark, sickening stain against the scorched earth.

  I froze, a chill crawling down my spine. The ground around the remains had darkened unnaturally—the soil, once rich and earthy, was now as black as pitch, sapped of any hint of life. A sudden, eerie realization hit me: something was off.

  Alarm bells began to ring in my head as I noticed subtle, almost imperceptible movements around the remains. The corrupted flesh, which I had thought was utterly destroyed, was shifting—merging and coalescing in a grotesque, writhing mass. I leaned in, my breath catching as I watched the once-static paste begin to pulse and contort.

  “Shit,” I breathed, my heart pounding louder with every passing second.

  Before I could react, the mass surged forward with a violent, predatory lunge. “LUNA!!!” I shouted, my voice raw and panicked, slicing through the oppressive silence.

  Time seemed to slow as I watched the corrupted mass hurtle toward Luna. Her wide eyes locked onto the dark, oozing shape, and for a split second, I was sure I was about to lose her. My heart pounded as I broke into a sprint, legs pumping hard and every muscle straining with desperate urgency.

  I burst from behind the crater just as the mass reached the edge—and then something impossible happened. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and blinked again.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered, shaking my head as if to dislodge the absurdity from my brain. There, in the very spot where terror had reigned moments before, stood Luna. Not a trace of panic marred her face; she was eerily calm—as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, aside from an unexpected burp from the little floofball.

  My mind raced as I tried to process the inexplicable. The writhing, corrupted mass had lunged at her—but now it was gone, completely vanished. I scanned the area where the grotesque flesh had been, and all I saw was a faint, oily sheen on the ground.

  Then, my gaze returned to Luna. The tiny kitten tilted her head ever so slightly, her eyes gleaming with an odd, mischievous intelligence. “Meow,” she chirped cheerfully, as if greeting me on an ordinary day. With a lazy swish of her tail, she trotted toward me as though nothing had just happened.

  “Wait, what…” I stammered, taking a cautious step back as she gracefully hopped onto my shoulder. Her purr grew louder, resonating with an almost imperceptible power, and she nuzzled into my neck as if to silently say, “All good, boss. Crisis averted.”

  I stood there utterly dumbfounded, struggling to replay the surreal sequence in my mind. I closed my eyes, desperately trying to piece together the fragmented memories: the dark mass surging toward Luna, the sudden flash of movement, and then—a transformation that defied all logic.

  When I opened my eyes again, the truth hit me like a bolt. Luna had done something impossible. As the monstrous mass lunged for her, her tiny mouth snapped open—but it wasn’t a yawn. Out of nowhere, long, sinuous tentacles erupted from her maw, their surfaces glistening with an otherworldly sheen. In one fluid motion, the tentacles snaked forward and ensnared the advancing mass, coiling around it with a strength that belied her diminutive size. With effortless precision, she pulled the abhorrent, corrupted flesh toward her.

  I could hardly believe what I was witnessing. Almost nonchalantly, Luna dragged the entire writhing mass toward her open mouth. The tentacles tightened their grip, and within seconds, the grotesque amalgamation of corrupted flesh was swallowed whole. I watched, mouth agape, as she processed it like a mere snack—and then, as if nothing else mattered, she burped. The unceremonious sound was accompanied by a faint, unpleasant odor that hung in the air for a moment.

  Staring down at the tiny ball of fur now nestled against my collar, I struggled to reconcile the image of the pet I’d known for so long with this astonishing revelation. “Meow,” she repeated innocently, blinking up at me with an expression that offered no hint of the supernatural feat she had just performed.

  “…What the actual fuck are you?” I muttered, a mix of shock and incredulity lacing my voice. I couldn’t fathom that the kitten I’d taken in was hiding something so utterly bizarre beneath that adorable exterior.

  She responded with a soft purr, rubbing her head against my jaw as if to insist that everything was perfectly normal. “No,” I said slowly, shaking my head as if to clear the absurdity from my thoughts. “No way. Normal cats don’t just eat corrupted flesh monsters like they’re a goddamn snack.”

  Her reply was a cheerful “Meow,” accompanied by a light swat at my chin with her tiny paw—a gesture so casual it belied the enormity of what had just transpired.

  For a long, suspended moment, I simply stood there, overwhelmed by the surreal turn of events. My mind raced with questions that had no answers, and my heart pounded with both relief and lingering disbelief. “Yeah,” I finally muttered, the words heavy with resignation and awe. “I definitely picked up a future absolute kitten overlord.”

  It felt like a scene ripped straight from one of those old superhero comics—one where the seemingly ordinary pet turned out to be an alien monster, a devourer of armies, with powers that defied every law of nature. And yet, here I was. This was not fiction. This was my life.

  “Meow,” she replied, her tone light and completely unbothered by the weight of my words. In that moment, it was as if she were challenging my very understanding of normalcy. I sighed deeply, rubbing my temple as a headache began to form—one born of the sheer, unyielding absurdity of it all.

  “Alright,” I muttered finally, “we’re going to talk about this later. For now, just… don’t eat anything else, okay?”

  Her tail swished as if in silent agreement, and she let out another contented purr. “Great,” I said with a wry roll of my eyes. “I’m babysitting a goddamn monster cat.”

  “Alright, Trouble,” I said softly as I scratched her chin affectionately. “You and me? We’re going places.” Her purrs seemed to punctuate my words, a comforting soundtrack to the surreal aftermath of the battle.

  I took a moment to survey the battlefield once more, the remnants of the corrupted chief still smoldering in the crater. The ground, darkened and lifeless where the creature had once reigned, now served as a grim reminder of the relentless violence of this world.

  And yet, amidst that desolation, there was a strange sort of hope that this goddamn outpost was ours to loot.

  “Let’s see what we can find, furball."