The Razorhound didn’t seem to consider Max’s charge much of a threat.
If anything, the creature appeared almost eager to meet him halfway.
Its hind legs struck the ground hard, launching its body forward with enough force to scatter loose stones behind it.
Its jaws opened wide as it aimed directly for Max’s throat, clearly expecting the same inexperienced prey it had been tossing around only moments earlier.
This time, however, Max was waiting for exactly that.
He watched the contraction in its hind muscles, judged the direction of its shoulders and stepped diagonally just before they collided.
SWOOSH!
The Razorhound shot past his chest.
Max immediately turned with it and wrapped his left arm around its torso.
The impact nearly tore the creature straight out of his grip.
"Woah!"
His boots skidded several feet across the stone as the Razorhound’s momentum dragged him along, and for one ugly second, Max thought he’d badly miscalculated again.
The creature twisted violently in his arms.
Its claws scraped across his trousers, cutting through the fabric, while its head snapped backward in an attempt to bite whatever part of him it could reach.
Max jerked his face away.
The Razorhound’s teeth clapped shut barely an inch from his cheek.
’Way too close!’
He tightened his left arm around its body and slammed his right hand into the shoulder he’d already wounded.
SHNK!
The gauntlet’s claws punched deep into flesh.
The Razorhound released a high, furious shriek and thrashed harder.
Max gritted his teeth as its movements nearly ripped his shoulder from its socket.
"Would you just fucking die already?!"
Apparently, the Razorhound disagreed.
It planted one front paw against the ground and violently threw its body sideways, smashing Max against one of the stone pillars.
BANG!!
Pain exploded through Max’s back and the Razorhound immediately tore itself away, but Max refused to let it escape cleanly.
His claws were still buried inside the wounded shoulder, so as the creature pulled away, he dragged his hand downward with everything he had.
Flesh split open as blood splashed across the stone.
The Razorhound crashed onto one side, scrambling desperately to regain its footing.
Max staggered away from the pillar, one hand pressed against his back.
"Goddamn..."
That one hurt.
The warm excitement he’d felt a few moments earlier had disappeared beneath a much more unpleasant realization.
The creature was wounded badly enough that one of its front legs was barely supporting its weight, yet Max hadn’t won.
If anything, it looked even more dangerous now.
The Razorhound lowered itself near the ground and snarled at him, saliva dripping from between blood-covered teeth.
Max’s chest rose and fell quickly as he watched it. His shoulder burned and his back felt like someone had taken a hammer to it.
But somehow...
He was smiling.
That realization almost distracted him.
’Why am I enjoying this?’
A few days ago, Max’s idea of physical confrontation had been arguing with senior researchers until they either admitted he was right or got tired enough to leave the room.
Now he was standing inside another dimension covered in blood, staring down a monster that had nearly taken his head off several times, and his heart was hammering with something that definitely wasn’t only fear.
This was completely insane but Max loved it!
The Razorhound moved first.
Its good front paw dug into the ground and its rear legs compressed again.
Max felt that strange warning from [Feral Instinct] crawl through his body, but this time he didn’t simply obey it without understanding.
He knew what the creature was about to do.
More importantly, he knew what he was going to do.
The Razorhound launched itself forward.
Max dropped low and rushed to meet it on all fours.
Their distance disappeared almost immediately.
At the last moment, Max dipped lower than before and shifted toward the monster’s wounded side.
The Razorhound tried twisting its spine to compensate, exactly as it had done earlier.
That was what Max wanted.
Its injured shoulder failed beneath the sudden change of direction.
’Got you.’
He immediately drove into it shoulder-first.
The impact sent both of them tumbling across the stone floor, but Max recovered first.
He climbed onto the Razorhound before the creature could stand and shoved his left forearm against its throat.
The beast thrashed beneath him.
Its claws scraped across Max’s side and one hind leg slammed painfully against his ribs, but this time he didn’t let go.
He raised his right hand.
The black claws gleamed beneath the light. Then he drove them down.
The Razorhound jerked violently as the claws entered the side of its neck.
Max pulled them free and struck again causing blood to spray across his shirt.
The creature snapped desperately toward his arm, but its movements had already begun slowing.
SLASH!!
Max struck a third time and finally, the Razorhound went rigid..
Max remained over it for several seconds with his right hand still buried against its neck. A smile began spreading across his face.
"I actually killed it!"
A notification appeared before him and confirmed the kill.
[Razorhound slain.]
[EXP +10]
[EXP: 10/100]
Max’s eyes shifted back toward the corpse. The kill itself wasn’t even what he was most interested in.
He crouched beside the Razorhound and dragged one of the gauntlet’s claws through the fur over its chest. Years of dissecting monsters made the rest almost automatic. He worked between the ribs, cut through the surrounding tissue and soon felt the familiar resistance of something hard against the metal.
A dark-red mana core came free in his hand.
Max turned it beneath the pale light with a satisfied smile. One kill had already recovered more than half the cost of his permit. He threw it into his backpack and focused on the beast.
Now came the real reason he’d entered the Gate.
Max leaned down and sank his teeth into the Razorhound’s shoulder.
CHOMP!
His jaw closed through the hide so easily that his brows rose in surprise.
His bite strength was definitely not normal. For a brief moment, he imagined catching a monster by the throat with his teeth during a fight... That was an extra move in his arsenal.
A familiar screen appeared before he could explore that thought any further.
[Devour activated.]
[Target: Razorhound]
[Select parameter to consume.]
[Experiences] [Stats] [Memories] [Skills] [Class]
Max considered the choices briefly before settling on the simplest experiment.
’Stats.’
Warmth spread through his body for only a moment before another notification appeared.
[AGI +0.5]
[AGI: 12.5]
"Half a point..."
Standing still, the difference was too small for him to properly notice, but that wasn’t what excited him.
There were close to twenty Razorhounds inside this Gate.
Even if the amount changed between monsters, the possibility alone was absurd. He could gain Stats through leveling like every other Player and then continue stacking more on top through [Devour].
Max grinned down at the corpse. Only then did he remember the piece of meat still in his mouth.
As he chewed it, his grin got wider.
"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me."
It was fucking delicious!
The meat had a rich, slightly sweet taste, with none of the metallic bitterness or burning sensation raw monster flesh was supposed to cause.
Max took another bite and savored it even more.
"All those years of research and all I needed was an eating Class?"
By the time Max remembered that he was supposed to be conducting an experiment, more than half of it was gone.
What surprised Max even more was that he still wasn’t full. He had eaten more than half a Razorhound, yet his stomach felt like it could comfortably take more.
’Okay... that’s definitely not normal.’
That was probably another question worth investigating.
Growl!
Max was about to take yet another bite when a low growl echoed from the passage ahead.
Max looked up with a strip of meat still hanging from his fingers.
Another growl followed, and several pairs of pale eyes appeared inside the darkness.