Breaking himself out of his shock, Karrakas remembered why they were there in the first place.

"Move!" he yelled, already running. "Now. All of you."

Together, they broke into a run.

The sand was harder to move across at speed than flat ground, but the boots did what they’d been made to do, and after the first few strides they found a rhythm that kept them from sinking with each step they took.

A Chilopoda erupted to Melody’s left, throwing sand in a wide spray as it tore free of the surface. It hadn’t fully oriented itself before Melody activated her bracer.

Her body shifted to the same red hue as the sand, and she leapt into the air, traveling on a low arc.

She came down on the beast’s head with both feet, driving it into the sand, and thrust her sword through the eye socket before it could react.

[You have killed an E-rank Razor Chilopoda.]

She stored the corpse before it had even finished collapsing, pushed off the ground, and rejoined the run without breaking stride.

"That’s two kills," she said, breathing easily. "Same as Lukas. We’re tied."

"I didn’t know this was a competition," Akira said.

Melody laughed. "Now you do."

They kept running, then the sand on their right split open.

Two Chilopodas pulled themselves free, screeching, their legs already cycling hard as they dashed towards the group.

Before anyone could take action, the sand on their left broke apart a moment later. Four more, coming from a wider spread, rushing in from the flank.

"Oh, yeah! That’s more my speed." Akira grinned as she dashed to the left, Melody following behind her with a matching grin towards the four beasts.

Lukas cut right towards the two, leaving Karrakas behind, who slowed down to accommodate their fight, and make sure they were heading in the right direction.

Lukas was already closing the distance between him and the beasts when something occurred to him.

The quest had said he could only use one skill for the duration of the hunt.

It hadn’t said he couldn’t use [Items].

He almost stopped running.

He had been treating the restriction as broader than it was, fighting with [Smite] alone and nothing else, when the entire time his [Items] had been sitting untouched in his spatial ring.

He had a full set of tools he hadn’t used once since arriving on the Second Floor, and here he was, making things harder than they needed to be.

In one word, he’d been stupid.

The two Chilopodas were almost on him when he leapt into the air.

The jump carried him high above both beasts, the desert floor dropping away beneath him, the red sand stretching out flat in every direction at this height. He was already reaching into his spatial ring.

His hand closed around the [Kairos Fillet] and he pulled it free, pressing it to his head in one motion.

The golden headband settled against his skin, and then it did something he hadn’t expected.

It didn’t sit on his head like something worn. Instead, it merged with him. He could feel it fused to his skull as naturally as if it had always been there.

But he also knew, without testing it, that a single thought would detach it completely.

He hung in the air for half a second at the peak of his jump, looking down at the two beasts below him.

Then the [Kairos Fillet] activated.

The world cracked.

It happened in an instant, the desert splitting apart like a pane of glass struck at its center, fracture lines running out in every direction. And through the break, Lukas saw himself.

He watched as he descended from the sky. He watched the two Chilopodas screech at his falling body and coil upwards to meet him, their front segments rising, mouths open.

He watched himself reach out, catch the edge of one open mouth, and use the contact to throw his body to the side, redirecting the fall into a controlled drop.

The beast’s own lunge carried it past him. He hit the ground beside it, rolled to his feet, grabbed the last leg on its right side, and swung the creature hard into its companion, sending the second beast sliding several meters across the sand before it found its footing again.

The fracture sealed and the world returned to normal, time resuming its normal course.

Lukas descended, chuckling to himself. He could definitely do better than that.

He reached into his spatial ring and retrieved the [Deathstalker Gauntlet]. It appeared on his arm, already fastened in place over his forearm and knuckles.

He pointed downwards as he fell, charged the beam in a single second, and fired.

The beam was Awakener ranked and against Adept beasts, it wasn’t going to do much of anything, but the two Chilopodas didn’t care about the power of the beam.

They split apart, each one throwing itself to a different side to avoid the shot, opening a gap between them.

Lukas dropped into it.

He hit the sand between them and both beasts lunged at the same moment, driving towards him from opposite directions.

He rolled forward and they hit each other instead. There was a loud crack as their armored shells hit against each other, both creatures staggering.

He was back on his feet before they recovered.

He grabbed one with each hand, fingers closing around a leg on each side, and threw them both up into the air with everything he had.

They left the ground fast, spinning, rising high above the desert floor.

He stretched both hands out theatrically and activated [Smite].

He cast as many times as he could before they fell. The bolts came down in rapid sequence, each one hitting and driving through the beasts.

Then the familiar notification appeared in front of him.

[You have killed an E-rank Razor Chilopoda(x2)]

He stepped forward and his hands blurred forward, touching the beasts and storing them away before they could hit the sand.

He had four kills now.

It was a nice haul for the start of the hunt.

***

A/N: It is with heartbreak that I announce that I will be temporarily stopping bonus Chapters going forward. Don’t worry, this development does not affect the promised ten bonus Chapters from hitting 700 golden tickets. The reason for this decision is two fold.

First, I do not want to affect the quality of the story by always trying to rush out bonus Chapters. This way, I can make sure the story you’re all getting is well thought-out and up to standard.

And second, I’ve found myself pumping out Chapters right from the moment the book went premium, and I’d like to slow it down a bit to allow the ideas I have for the story to marinate in my head.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.