38 Monster

'Good!'

Vlad smiled as he saw the signal, pleased with the soldiers' quick response. Of course, he was still in great danger, with demons coming from both ahead and behind him, but now that he didn't need to draw their attention, escaping wasn't too hard.

He made a sharp turn, darting to the side and blasting through a door into a building. The demons immediately chased after him, but they were so numerous and the space so limited that they ended up trampling over each other.

Vlad's smile widened as he saw this, but he didn't wait around. He immediately started his ascent to the rooftop as the monsters began to chase after him. The building trembled as some of the stronger demons started breaking the pillars and walls, but Vlad only needed it to hold until he reached the rooftop.

Once there, he planned to jump to the other buildings and move away from the horde. Some might chase him, but most would give up once they lost sight of him.

The building had ten stories, and Vlad reached the seventh in less than a minute, a smile radiant on his face as he felt sure of his success. Suddenly, everything began to tremble. It wasn't just the building due to the destruction caused by the demons, but the ground itself. He looked through the windows on the side and saw the cause, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

"What the hell!"

What shocked Vlad was simple: a hippopotamus, one of Terra's many natural life forms. However, this one was nearly seven meters tall and was charging forward with such momentum and power that it made the earth tremble beneath its feet, shattering all the houses in its path!

Although Vlad was shocked, he recognized the creature's nature thanks to Asmael's memories. It was not a Champion demon like the Abyssal Mantis, but an actual life form of Terra, a hippopotamus.

As for how it reached its size, that was also simple; it began to absorb the energy from the world. While the Plane Will opened the Soul Dimension of all humans and gave them the means to grow, that didn't mean they were the only ones able to do so.

The flora and fauna of the world could also grow stronger, but their path would be different. Some animals were special, able to draw the energy of the world and advance in Levels, with animals capable of such feats taking the name of Monsters. However, unlike humans whose advancement was related to their energy pool, their advance correlated to size. 

Unlike humans who keep their energy in their Sea of Consciousness, Monsters use their flesh as a reservoir, which is why their size can be used to measure their Level. 

Vlad had expected to see Monsters in the future, but they were not supposed to appear so fast and much less advance so quickly. He could only blame Asmael's ignorance for his miscalculations. As for where the hippopotamus came from, he had no idea nor time to figure it out since the Monster was charging straight into the building where he was.

'Dammit, dammit, dammit'

The young man kept shouting in his mind as he moved faster and faster, reaching the rooftop just before the entire building crumpled. The Hippopotamus Monster had rammed its massive body against the side of the building, causing it to collapse.

'How the hell is it so fast?'

Vlad was shocked by the speed of the Monster but did not hesitate, dashing forward at full speed through the rooftop, reaching the edge before leaping to the side.

Just as Vlad reached the rooftop of another much smaller building, he felt a sense of danger. Turning around, he saw a massive maw opening toward him, seemingly wanting to devour him. His eyes widened as a sense of terror assaulted him, but he did not hesitate and used all his strength to jump into a nearby house.

Vlad made it just in time as the hippopotamus's maw closed on the building, shattering a massive piece of it.

The Monster Hippopotamus swallowed the debris as if it were nothing, but its eyes remained on the young man, seemingly intent on consuming him.