The howl made me come back to my senses. The last few seconds, I truly felt like I passed out, but I continued fighting like a reflex. Truth be told, it felt exhilarating.

Now, I see a vicious looking gigant beast. It seems similar to the other mutts but there are some very weird differences, specially it’s body that looks like it’s going in and out of reality.

What the fuck is that?

[Target is most likely an Avatar of Mh’ithrha, a mutated alpha beast that commands packs of hounds of Tindalos]

Who names this stuff?

Anyways, with a clear head now I can figure out I can't fight that thing mindlessly. It looks at me with intelligence, something that none of these hounds have done until now.

I sense something approaching, but I see a rifle flying my way. I catch it with my left and see the direction it came. A massive looking guy is struggling with a hound that’s biting him, but it seems like he considered that I needed the rifle the most. I appreciate the gesture, and I'm not gonna turn it down because I really think I'll need this. I nod at him, and he does as well. I turn around to put my eyes in the Avatar, while hoping that big guy can handle the situation.

Hallie, a brief overview of this weapon please.

[IPAR-07 “Interdictor” is a plasma rifle, a high class weapon product of a technology exchange between the Stellar Union of Mankind and the Pelismus Autocracy. Fires small plasma bolts at slow speed but has high penetration and explosive power]

My kinda gun then.

[Warning. Rejuvenation skill working at 173% efficiency, high risk of collapse of nervous system, recommended retreat]

Aaand that’s how you ruin the mood.

Well, it’s not like there’s a chance of me not tackling that monster, so we’ll have to deal with that risk.

[Acknowledged. Rerouting processing power to support Technomancy module. Might experience short term memory loss, be cautious]

Yeah yeah, don’t worry about it.

Another one of these hounds comes up to me and I try the Interdictor by shooting at its chest. A little blob of plasma is shot and blows away half of its chest, making it go limp during his dash. It doesn’t have the punch-through power of a laser but the damage area is greater.

Now the big wolf starts moving forward, so I do the same. The amount of hounds has reduced, probably due to how many we’ve killed, and that the surviving people here are really fired up, their killing rate has gone all the way up. I wanted to keep them safe, but I'm not about to reject the help here.

And I'll need the breathing room to kill the big guy.

Let’s start, shall we?

As I point my rifle to it, the Avatar flexes its legs and does a gigantic leap. My HUD displays the zone it’s going to land, and it’s right above me. Guess with that size comes some really good instincts. As much as i’d like to stab it, i’m not sure to win the clash, so I quickly move out of the way while starting to shoot at it. Some of the bolts hit it in different parts of its body, but it doesn’t change it’s trajectory. It’s really damn resilient, and heavy.

When it lands, the ground trembles, making me have to balance myself to not fall to the ground. A cloud of dust raises in the air, and it goes away almost immediately after the beast turns to rush at me again, at such speed that the cloud parts to the sides.

This time, I can't dodge him, so the only thing to do this time is meet him head on; at least now that he’s on the ground I don't have to deal with gravity now.

I start shooting at the Avatar, aiming at its head. Some shots connect, and even if it doesn’t slow it down i can see in its expression that it receives damage at least. It dodges most of the shots with an absurd nimbleness, which reaffirms to me that I really need to engage in melee.

I hold the rifle with my right and start running towards it, while also pointing the wrist blade at its neck. Just when were about to clash, the freaking monster turns into a blur and vanishes!

What the fuck?

[Warning]

In the moment it takes me to articulate a thought, I feel three razor sharp claws slash my back, which sends me flying towards some hound corpses.

I get up in a rush, feeling the burning sensation in my back and my own blood soaking my already drenched clothes. What happened there?

[Target is phasing through dimensions, unable to track with combat mode]

It’s doing what now?

I don’t have time to think, it comes right at me again. This time I'm already wary of it, so when it closes the distance, I run as well and leap before impact, and cleave a diagonal slash towards its snout while I shoot with the other hand. I feel some resistance as I cut, and watch the eye of the creature grimace as it gets hit on its ear, but then it phases again, reappearing behind me and attacking with its claw.

The same trick doesn’t work that well the second time, as i maneuver as i can in the air to block it with the rifle. The downside, the weapon gets torn apart, and I get a nasty wound on my left hand, which looks absolutely nasty. My fingers are a tangled mess and it’s completely covered in oozing red.

Trying to mitigate the pain, I focus on the beast. It crashed on the ground because it didn’t expect me to block it and lost its balance, but it’s getting up ready to continue this deathmatch.

My mind processes a lot of different ways to proceed, planning how to react to its moves, and the most efficient way to kill it. But when it all goes on at the same time, I feel like my vision gets blurry, except for the figure of the Avatar of Mh’ithrha, which gets extremely detailed. I can see the movement of his skin when it randomly phases, and how the bullet wounds it received have actually dealt some damage, although minuscule.

I don’t hate you creature, but I will kill you.

[Detecting use of unregistered technomancy skill...Registering Metaphysical sense on skill list]