Chapter 521 Thieves Hunt, Part 3

'In terms of mythical creatures…' Lee Seng thought as he held his shirt up to his nose. 'I think this is like a Chimera.' Lee Seng instantly smiled as the Pack launched itself forward.

"You're nothing like the Chimera I know!" Lee Seng chuckled. He dashed forward, three Echoes appearing. They all took their own paths in dodging, all mimicking the way Lee Seng would dodge, as the Pack grew confused, running straight through the Lee Seng's. Lee Seng struggled to keep up with the speed of this large creature and its acid. Lee Seng illusionary stepped through as his other Echoes tried not to get instantly destroyed by the large creature's feet.

Lee Seng grunted in pain as he stepped in acid. His shoes and feet burned as he ran straight for the assassin. He came to a complete halt as he moved the dead assassin's head around. His "Chang blind sight" had stopped him from noticing the obvious as he hyper-fixated on it. He found the fairly large mask wrapped around the assassin's neck as the Pack turned around and shook its tail.

The horrible noise sounded like rattlesnakes and a shriek piercing glass. Lee Seng quickly and carefully ripped the mask off and pulled it onto himself.

"Sorry I killed you but you're not using this anymore so I'll take it." Lee Seng strapped the mask on himself as the Pack fired off acid balls at him. Lee Seng snapped his fingers and watched as a thick barrier appeared in front of him. The acid splashed all over the barrier, sizzling as it was off like mountain dew hitting a car window. Lee Seng could smell the putrid acid as he continued to strap the mask on.

"Ew, this smells." Lee Seng gagged. He tightened the last part of the mask and grabbed his things and stood up from the dead body. "Thanks for the mask. Sorry you were my enemy." Lee Seng twirled the katana and scabbard. The Pack shook the ground as it ran forward. "Let's tumble, big boy." The barrier exploded, slowing the Pack as it ran straight for Lee Seng.

"Devouring Slash: Piercing Flash and Slash!" Lee Seng propelled himself into the air, leaving an Echo in his spot as his katana began to glow a bright golden color. Lee Seng released the first attack, watching it connect but show no serious injury. The Pack howled as it swung its head straight for the mid-air Lee Seng.

"Illusionary Step." Lee Seng pulled back to his original spot, watching his Echo explode in light as he dashed forward. The Pack howled in pain as Lee Seng slashed horizontally, severing its front leg. The colorful wisps flew into the wound as Lee Seng dodged the toppling beast. It howled in pain as acidic blood poured out.

It's body began to bubble as tiny versions of itself fired out of it.

,m 'Is it called Pack because it packs as much of itself into its large body?' Lee Seng wondered as he slashed the normal sized beast in half. Tiny Packs fired acid at Lee Seng, forcing him to back away from their large hivemind body. They broke into their Pack tactics. Some would chase after him while the others would continue to fire acid at him. Lee Seng gritted his teeth as he threw up a barrier. Acid washed down the barrier like mountain dew, burning away at the barrier. He flexed his wrist and watched it push everything away from him as he lifted his scabbard and pointed at some ranged Pack beasts and fired off some ranged attacks at them.

The beasts did well to dodge his ranged attacks. It was like they were anticipating it. Lee Seng clicked his tongue as he flicked his hand towards him. The devouring slash pulled off of the half-large Pack. Lee Seng let out a sigh of relief as he felt the energy he'd been wasting come back to him. He threw up another barrier as the large group of Packs attacked him.

He took a moment to check himself. His negative was creeping on him. He glanced at his watch. He had one new message.

'Please be good news.' Lee Seng thought as he clicked it.

"No beams of light that I can see from miles away." The message simply said. Lee Seng grinned and shook his head as the sound of the Packs shattering the barrier snapped him out of thought. The Pack beasts launched themselves onto Lee Seng, packing themselves on top of him as smaller Packs went straight for a bite.

BOOSH!

The Packs flew off of him, rocketing the small Packs in every direction, exploding those nearest to him in an instant. Lee Seng screeched in pain as acidic blood burned him. He instinctively pushed the acidic blood off of him with his gravity shove and jumped up onto his feet.

"OWWWW!" Lee Seng screamed. His eyes glanced around at the enemies. They were recoiling from the sudden explosion and some of their Pack members were actually killed. The half-large body of the collective Pack continued to spew out smaller Packs as Lee Seng focused his eyes on it. "That needs to die somehow… How do I get that without wasting so much energy?"

[Want my help?]

The tiny Packs flew straight for him, breaking into their pack tactics. Globs of acid flew out of the ranged Packs mouths as the others rushed in for Lee Seng.

"Your tactics won't work against me." Lee Seng shook his head. He threw up another barrier and watched everything slam into it, instantly releasing it and pushing the melee Packs away, again. "I'll use that spell." Lee Seng stuck his hand out and watched the cosmic energy billow around his hand. "Gravitum: Meteor Rush." The colorful energy spread across the ground in an instant.

Lee Seng watched as the starry night spread across the ground. His eyes twinkled as he looked at the beasts. Even they, the tiny little monsters, knew what was coming. They started to run but Lee Seng watched the meteors destroy everything around him. Buildings, monsters, even the dead bodies couldn't withstand the immense power of the Meteor Rush.

"Ma'am! What is that?!?" A shooter pointed. The head honcho turned and looked. They watched as huge Meteors flew up into the sky. Buildings turned to dust as the meteors continued to rise into the sky.

"Get away now." The woman ordered. "Before the aftershock gets to us. Get inside now!" The group started to sprint as the inevitable came. Everything shattered in an instant, exploding through the long hallways as screams erupted.

[The Pack has been killed. 350 Souls have been added. 1302/1000 (1200). Allocation has been automatically triggered. 50 given to Shapeshift. Level 3 achieved. Charm leveled up. 100 has been deducted. Light Manipulation has leveled up to 4. 2 points have been added to Light Manipulation.]

[Forced Evolution has been staved off. Please find a safe place to Evolve before time is up.]

[Notice: Negative levels at 89%.]

Lee Seng huffed as his limbs desperately wanted him to drop. Everything around him had been cleared away. His body pulsed with energy as the AI automatically staved away Evolution. He took a moment to take in the starry field around him. Everything around him turned into dust and nothing was seen around him.

[Notice: Devouring was used to help stave off your DME levels.]

'Thank god.' Lee Seng thought. 'Gimme a guesstimate (estimate) on how long I have left until forced evolution.'

[Estimation… 4 hours at best.]

Lee Seng nodded and turned. The weight forced him forwards, stumbling as he slowly moved forward. He was on a crunch time and didn't know where the other enemies were. They had left after the Pack was released and he assumed they saw the catastrophic spell go off.

Lee Seng moved at a slow pace for awhile. To him, it was slow, but to others it was just a slow human's walk. It was quiet. Too quiet for this city. Lee Seng's nerves were on fire as he pulled himself along. Once he deemed it a reasonable distance, he slipped into a building and made his way into a closet space that could be locked from the inside with items.

He sat himself down and bumped his head onto the wall. His tired, heavy breaths filling the quiet space as his body began to pulse. He pulled at his collar, trying to fan himself of the heat that was building inside of him. His mask cracked, revealing his face as his illusionary human ears faded as his real ears sprouted back into existence on his head.

'Start evolution.' Lee Seng ordered. His body erupted into his true form as his tails wrapped around him. The spidery webs of white energy attached themselves all over the room as Lee Seng's body stiffened. 'I wonder how much souls this is gonna be… This time…'