CHALLENGE

The undead hyenas looked at Mateo and his blood summons before cackling in pleasure. Even though they were now undead who needed no sustenance, their bodies and jaws still craved the feeling of sinking into flesh, tearing it apart and with prey in front of them, they couldn't hold themselves back anymore.

The roar of the biggest hyena followed by two slightly smaller ones dashed the hopes of the regular ones, as with fear in their eyes and trembling in their steps, they gave way for the leaders.

Standing at about 2 meters tall, half a meter taller than their counterparts, these leaders redefined the word menacing. With foam and drool darkened from the effects of necromancy used to revive them, these monsters destroyed the small amount of courage Mateo had built.

With another growl, the leader commanded her Tierless subjects to attack the petrified Mateo. With cackles of delight, the hyenas gave into their urges and raced to their prey, each wanting to be the first to take a bite out of him.

The sight of 20 hungry and deformed hyenas running towards him scared Mateo even more, but after a brief internal battle about whether he truly wanted to die, a small piece of his courage returned and with a Glock 19 with extended magazines in each hand, he rained a total of 65 bullets before needing to reload.

The hail of bullets did nothing to deter the undead hyenas who didn't feel pain. The only way they could be killed was by hurting their brain or destroying their whole body, and with them running around in snake like patterns, only 4 of them died.

Unable to reload before the hyenas reached them, his summons were forced to confront the hyenas who looked to have become crazed due to the nearness of their prey.

Placing the gun in their holsters, Mateo took out two cutlasses and circled the summons and hyenas engaged in a deadly skirmish. Utilising every opening he got, he was able to land crippling blows on their legs, breaking them, while the others were left with light cuts which served no purpose.

Having seen enough, the leaders slinked closer, attempting to catch Mateo off guard which didn't succeed since Mateo always kept at least one of them in his range of vision.

Fir every step they took, Mateo took two and before they realised that their plans had been seen through, Mateo broke into a run for his life.

Ignoring his shameless behaviour, the leaders also broke out into a run with the main leader, the only TIER 2 in the clan of hyenas, in the lead.

As a general rule, whenever a beast and a man at the same TIER met, a beast would always win because of its higher physical stats due to a more strenuous lifestyle, and so it did not come as a shock to Mateo when the beasts were gaining on him despite his summons' attempt at slowing them done.

With 20 feet left to reach the wall and an even shorter distance for the hyenas to reach him, Mateo pulled the safety pin off one of the few hand grenades left in his stock, threw it backwards and sped up with all his energy.

The hyenas ignored the weirdly shaped rock and maintained a steady speed, knowing their prey would tire out eventually unlike them who had endless stamina.

That was probably the most stupid thing they had done in both lives as it wasn't a normal rock that was thrown. Heck it wasn't even a normal hand grenade. It was the M67 frag grenade, with an advertised effective kill zone radius of 5 m (16 ft), the casualty-inducing radius of approximately 15 m (49 ft) and a 5 second timer to detonate, this weapon of mass destruction was fashioned to reap many lives and Mateo didn't want to be one of them.

BBBBOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

The sound of the grenade exploding took the hyenas by surprise and most of them soon found themselves burning or being torn to pieces.

As for Mateo, he found himself being hurled into the fortress wall at high speeds, ultimately making contact back first into the stone wall. While implanted in the wall, Mateo got a few visitors in the form of the TIER 2 hyena leader and its TIER 1 underlings who broke the wall with their force of impact.

Slowly getting up, Mateo then limped away from the rubble, barely alive due to his Special Forces Suit and his enhanced Endurance.

He walked quite a distance before the noise of moving rubble caught his attention, and with a grim countenance, he watched as the hyena queen picked herself up.

With countless fragments sticking out of her hide and two broken legs, anyone in her place would be howling in pain, something being an undead deprived her of feeling.

Expecting to see boundless rage in her eyes, Mateo was surprised to find mirth as it seemed that she was enjoying the hunt, irrespective of how many members of her clan she had to lose.

With all his weapons either damaged or destroyed from the blast, the closest thing to a weapon Mateo found near him was a piece of bent metal, once a cutlass but now not sharp enough to serve its intended purpose.

Limping away to the broken bed where he left a few of his weapons, Mateo was surprised when a clawed hand lifted him and placed him on its shoulder. His last blood warrior had reduced to its original 2 meter size due to all the attacks it had received.

Even with so much undead hyena blood on the battlefield, it was having a hard time regenerating the holes on its body, with its situation worsening, Mateo knew it wouldn't last the trip to the bed.

Changing plans, Mateo commanded the blood warrior to lie on the crawling hyena and seal it's mouth.

Watching it do so, Mateo placed the only sharp point of the metal on the beast's head.

Knowing that he couldn't generate enough force to pierce through the beast's semi cracked skull, Mateo activated his only skill, emptying out his mana reserve.

And with an exhausted scream, he brought down the biggest earth boulder he had ever conjured on the bent cutlass' hilt, braking through the skull and tearing apart the brain, bringing an end to the short but hard fought battle.