The barking Dog

Rowan reached the next level and was surprised that he had stepped into a room that was covered in speakers. The room was padded and pure white, other than the massive black speakers that stuck out to anyone with vision. Across the room was a man standing with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall. It was to Rowan's surprise that he got a slight tingle in his fingertips that indicated danger, but not enough of it for him to be worried. He took the feeling as the man in front of him may be capable of harming him but not seriously. Rowan was forced to realize that his intuition was growing with each passing day. The man got off the wall and started walking towards Rowan.

The man slowly lowered a dog shaped mask over his head as he slowly lowered himself to all fours. The entire room was about the size of a football field and right now the man was at the halfway point where he stopped on all fours and Rowan was still standing at the entrance. "Really? No words, you are just gonna approach me on all fours like some type of weirdo? I get it now. All of you are absolutely bonkers. That's the only real solution here. It has to be." A screen slowly lowered itself from the ceiling and Tiger appeared once again.

"Hunting Dog hasn't spoken since the apocalypse began. Some of his changes caused his vocal cords to warp, so unfortunately, he is no longer innately capable of human speech. He does make for a great hunter, though. The boys upstairs were his. Welcome to stage 2 Rowan Raid." The screen receded back into the ceiling and closed. Rowan smiled and was about to talk when he heard a peculiar sound like the world was snorting and the danger sense that had been minimal sky rocketed.

The TV came back down from the ceiling at the same moment that Rowan swiped his left hand through the air and backhanded the speeding man right above, an outstretched blade held in his mouth, sending him spinning across the floor but back on all fours. Tiger came back on the screen once more. "Oh, I forgot to mention the boss took us to clear two of the remaining dungeons in Evergreen city. Thanks to that, the remaining members of the zodiac gang have reached level 50. Best of luck." Rowan looked at the crouched man and then at his own level. He had been told about the cap of this planet. After level 50, there won't be enough mana for anyone to ascend to level 60 because not only does the planet not get enough mana, but because of mana cultivation.

They may be level fifty, but Rowan highly doubted that their mana cultivation had made the same progress. They had to be at least rank 2 since they had their bloodlines awakened as a side effect of soul-stirring. They would pose more of a threat otherwise, but why would someone help them get the levels but not their mana cultivation? There was something else going on here, but for now, it was time to fight once again. Hunting Dog took off once again, running across the floor on all fours.

The sound barrier shattered, and he seemed to appear in front of Rowan. This time he was paying enough attention and his time dilation from hyper-vision perfect captured Hunting Dog. The dog mask had changed while he was running. There was a blade coming out of the side of the mouth on either side of the mask. It glistened with a black fluid that Rowan assumed was some type of poison. Weathervane burst to life in cloud form while Rowan formed a hand with the clouds and grabbed Hunting dog by the back of his neck and flung him towards the wall with enough momentum to turn him into a human pancake.

Rowan never got the destined splatter as he began to roll through the air and suddenly, right before he was about to hit the wall, his head snapped backwards and he let out a short bark. The bark released a concentrated bubble of wind force that smashed into the wall right before he would have and killed his momentum, causing him to flip backward and land back on all fours.

He pressed a button on his belt and started his voice in a low whine before switching to a ferocious bark. The sound bounced around the room from the speakers or so Rowan thought until suddenly all the sound waves that the speakers and that Hunting dog accumulated suddenly changed directions and blasted into Rowan. The action nearly shattered his eardrums, but his current strength stat made it so that it was not capable. It did shake his brain though and as he dropped to his knees hunting Dog saw his opportunity.

He dashed across the room in a flash and was diving towards Rowan once again. He dove, but Rowan was still stunned by the bark that somehow collapsed on him. Hunting Dog kept barking, and it only got more intense. He tried to move out of the way and before he could; the mask was before him and about to puncture him. Rowan himself had forgotten that the storm armament skill grew stronger with his own strength, so his armor gained a slight tear that mended itself. It proved that the blade was dangerous enough to pierce his defense but not by much and so it was not able to fully cut past it to poison him. Rowan gritted his teeth, and a helmet created from his storm armament wrapped itself around his head, shutting out all sounds. Hunting dog had some type of ability capable of harnessing sound waves, maybe an offshoot of wind mana. Rowan grew tired of it, though.

He created several storm points while he used cloud form to defend himself. Hunting dog had stopped his charging tactics and was now wearing clawed gauntlets and boots and the mask blade had lengthened. Rowan did confirm, though, that their mana cultivation was no higher than his at rank 2, despite them being capable of Rank 5 mana. Rowan recently broke into rank thirty. He would need the system to advise the next steps and he would see to it after he handled the bothersome Zodiac gang. Rowan snatched cloud form and switched to rain form. He let the weapon duplicate a single time and then enlarged both from dagger sized to sword size. The weathervane now looked like a sword with a feather shaped blade with a slight curve. It made it look like Rowan was wielding two scimitars.

He met Hunting dog in close combat, and sparks began to fly. Rowan knew he had to conserve mana at this point, so instead of his high consumption mana skills, he simply created a row of storm points along the edge of the blade, which caused the edges of the blade to glow amethyst. Hunting dog barraged Rowan with sound bullets, but now back in his element, he simply sliced at them. He slowly set up storm points around them both and turned them into mini tornadoes that trapped them in the middle while at the same time blocking the sound bullets. Rowan was going to use the deluge, but sound moved faster in water and he would turn those sound bullets more lethal with that recourse.

The mask on Hunting dog's face warped and began to shoot sound bullets of its own in close range. Rowan cut through one and the second blade shot for Hunting Dog's head. Rowan had executed [Chop] in the split second after he defended and the storm points on the edge hid the weapon light. Hunting dog used a clawed hand to try to stop it, but he was unaware of the fact that a skill had been used as the blade passed directly through his hand and split the entire arm in half like a hot dog left in the microwave. He went to swipe at Rowan with his other hand amidst screams and followed with a kick to hit nothing but open air.

He felt a massive force on his back as Rowan kicked him into the tornado wall. Hunting dog bounced between each as the sharp winds disoriented him and covered him in miniscule cuts. It spit him back towards Rowan with his limbs flailing when Rowan exploited his defenseless less state and drove a blade through his heart and throat at the same time. Rowan dispersed his mana and turned the weathervane back into its cloud bracelet state.

Rowan smiled as his level had gone up to 35. This zodiac gang issue was going to be a great resource for his leveling. He would then just need to refine his mana cultivation in preparation for leaving. Rowan looked down at the body and thought that no less than a month ago, the act of taking a life would probably have made him falter. Rowan looked down at his hands as the helmet he created had receded, and for a moment he thought he could see the blood dripping between his fingers.

The blood of the lives that he had already taken and the ones that he was yet to take. He clenched his fist, and the blood seemed to seep into a bloody for winged falcon in his mind that represented his killing intent. Another door began to open and Rowan couldn't help but smile to himself as he activated [Call of the Fairy King]. This time was slightly different though as he saw a red wisp be pulled from Hunting dog's body and flow into him as he felt the single point that the process delivered to each of his stats. He could swear that the soul wisp had tried to hold on to its body when the process started, but that wasn't his problem. He did not pick this fight; he was simply happy to finish it. He stalked into the next room with his head held high, ready for his next fight.