Chapter 25: Intermediate Ranked Beast

’There are beasts on this planet?! What the hell?’ Rayleigh panicked inwardly. Panicking was a strange because the possibility of this happenening had crossed his mind once or twice.

Although panicking like every single Mulkan in the area, Rayleigh was not bolting like them.

While prepareing for a confrontation with the beasy, a Mulkan, whom one could have mistaken for a human due to having similar skin color to that of humans, stopped running. He glanced back, only to find himself staring at a foolish individual who was not running to save himself like every other sane person from the settlement.

"You!" he bellowed, rushing over to where Rayleigh stood. "Are you an idiot? Or, maybe, you are simply a brain-dead idiot?! What are you doing standing there? You should be running!"

The rumblings beneath the ground grew louder, and Rayleigh could feel the thumping that caused the soil to vibrate beneath his feet.

Seeing that Rayleigh still hadn’t moved a muscle, the Mulkan snapped. "Are you zhukkin’ stupid? We need to run!"

Rayleigh stood his ground. "I’m not running," he said, turning to the Mulkan. "I will fight this beast."

"What?!" The Mulkan exclaimed, eyes wide. "Fight the beast?! He is insane!" The Mulkan screamed dramatically, pulling on Rayleigh’s coat and urging him to run with him.

At this point, Rayleigh was fed up with his nagging. "Hey! Stop pulling on my goddamned coat or I’ll make sure you’re the first one to get eaten! That coat really cost a lot of Earth Nexels!" Rayleigh hissed, an invisible steam of frustration seemingly seeping from his ears.

"You should run. Go save yourself. I’ll slay this beast and absorb its core. I’ll grow even stronger!"

Rayleigh sounded maniacal in the eyes of the Mulkan. Did he just say he would slay the beast? Only a fool would do that on Planet Mulka!

But Rayleigh was not a fool from Planet Mulka. He was a glorified fool from Earth.

"ARS, I may need my Weaponry System," Rayleigh muttered under his breath, making sure the Mulkan did not hear him. He need not sound any crazier than he already had.

’I can probably end this fight with one meteor summon but I can’t exactly be seen summoning a burning rock from deep space on a planet I just visited.’

►[ Weapon System Active ]

►[ Gamma Plasma Cannon Selected ]

A new gun, with similar features to the previous Plasma Stun Gun and Gamma Requiem, rested in Rayleigh’s grip.

Its silver metallic exterior reflected the sunlight, and the feel of the gun was something to write home about.

One individual had seen the weapon materialize from thin air, and this mysterious person with loose screws held on to it.

His mouth opened slightly. "Magic..."

The beast had traversed a great distance, but it was closing on the settlement faster than its inhabitants could evacuate. Rayleigh decided to take the fight to it; a bold yet foolish move.

It wasn’t the first time he would be fighting an alien beast with powerful genetics and special abilities.

►[ CAUTION: Hostile beast detected ]

►[ Identity Scan Complete: Intermediate Rank, Grade 2 Beast ]

"Oh, what a fabulous way to die! Getting mauled by an Intermediate Grade beast!"

►[ New Objective Assigned: Defeat the Intermediate Rank Beast ]

►[ Reward: 100 Level-Up SP ]

Rayleigh approached at the beast with even more determination. 100 SP meant leveling up to level 4, level 4 meant unlocking even more features, conceivably, a new cosmic ability.

Although, Rayleigh had fought beasts before, but those had only been mere Lesser Beasts, creatures that were a hundred times weaker compared to their superior ranks.

This was different.

This would be his first battle against an Intermediate-ranked beast and for the first time since obtaining the ARS, Rayleigh wasn’t entirely sure if his current strength was enough.

Still, there was no time to hesitate. 100 Level-Up SP practically stared at him, all ready for taking.

Rayleigh charged into the open field before the beast could reach the settlement. He raised the Gamma Plasma Cannon and fired, releasing bright ball of radiated plasma shot from the weapon that struck the beast squarely in the chest.

BOOM!

The impact halted the beast in its tracks. Dust exploded into the air, spreading across the field and briefly creating a mist, blinding Rayleigh’s.

Rayleigh narrowed his eyes as he waited for the dust to settle. When it finally cleared, his eyes adjusted to the enormous figure standing before him.

The beast was massive; it was almost the size of a house.

Eight thick legs protruded from its body, each one covered with visible spikes. One look at those limbs was enough to tell Rayleigh that a single strike could smash one of the settler’s houses into rubble.

The creature’s head was unlike anything Rayleigh had ever seen. Hundreds of tiny eyes covered the entire surface, packed together like pieces of a cracked mirror. Each eye moved independently, giving the beast a full degree view of its surroundings.

There was no way to hide from it and no way to launch a surprise attack.

Besides its eyes, its entire body was covered in steel-colored armor plates that shimmered like polished metal, making the creature looked less biological and more engineered.

Rayleigh’s expression slowly changed. Unfortunately for him, his radiated plasma beam had done absolutely nothing.

If anything, it had merely annoyed the beast, and the beast did not take kindly to being annoyed.

It released a deafening screech and immediately turned its attention toward the direction of the attack.

Hundreds of eyes focused on Rayleigh. He felt as though every single one of them was piercing straight through his body.

"Shit!" He cursed as the beast charged.

Its speed was ridiculous for something of its size. Even with a Reaction Speed of 10, Rayleigh could barely react on time. He moved to the side, but one of the beast’s enormous legs swung toward him and realizing here was not enough time to dodge, Rayleigh acted.

"Activate Lonefield Aegis!"

The Lonefield Aegis barrier wrapped around his body faster than he could blink and the beast slammed one of its spiked legs into him.

BOOM!

Rayleigh was sent flying through the desert like a ragdoll.

►[ Lonefield Aegis Integrity: 50% ]

He crashed into the orange sand and rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.

Rayleigh slowly pushed himself up. Fortunately, he was unscathed. But at what cost? A single strike took out half of his defence intergrity!

One more attack like that could leave him utterly defenseless.

Rayleigh looked toward the beast, but it seemingly ignored him and turned its feral gaze back toward the settlement. Perhaps the creature assumed its prey was already finished but that wasn’t the case. A beast had never been known to ignore its prey in the middle of a fight.

Rayleigh stared at the beast, a bit confused. "That’s not right."

There had to be an explanation for such action. Rayleigh’s gaze darted toward the settlement as he concluded, ’It must be after something.’

He immediately dashed forward.

The Gamma Plasma Cannon lay several meters away from him, and Rayleigh quickly picked it up before rushing toward the beast. Within seconds, he was standing directly behind the eight-legged creature.

"Don’t you dare ignore me, you ugly bastard!" he yelled.

Rayleigh fired five rounds of plasma radiation.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The beams struck the beast’s body in rapid successions, this time, Rayleigh’s attack was more effective; he had been precise with his shots.

He had intentionally aimed at a part of its body that wasn’t covered by the steel-colored armor plates and the plasma scorched its exposed flesh, forcing the beast to turn around.

Rayleigh quickly moved backward realizing he didn’t actually have a plan for fighting an Intermediate-ranked beast.

The only times he had ever fought beasts were with the help of a Dune Sword. A sword required close-range combat, which Rayleigh was terrifyingly good at, but using guns and cannons placed him at a disadvantage.

His weapons simply weren’t doing enough damage to the beast.

The creature was about to charge at Rayleigh again.

"This beast is far too powerful for my current stats and weapons."

He tightened his grip around the Plasma Gamma Cannon, finally succumbing to the one thing he had known from the start.

"To kill it, I’ll need an ability." His eyes hardened. "A cosmic one."

The last thing he had wanted to do was summon a meteor, he knew that because he had no idea how the Mulkans would react to something like that, and he certainly didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention.

But now, he had no choice.

"Activate Meteor Summon."

He stared directly at the eight-legged beast.

"Let’s blow this eight-legged fucker to hell!"