A Bright Light on a Dark Night (Part 2)

Before the prompt asking if he would like to Roll even appeared in his vision, Grant had already muttered, "Roll!"

{Rolling in 3... 2... 1... Congratulations, your item will be delivered momentarily. Would you like to continue rolling in succession until all Random Rolls have been used? Please say "Yes" or "No".}

"Yes!"

{Understood. Random Rolls will continue until you say "Stop". Each item will be delivered before the next roll takes place.}

With that, a bright light appeared in front of Grant, illuminating the darkness surrounding him. Having prepared himself for this moment, Grant was already squinting so that he wouldn't be blinded by the abrupt change in light.

However, the dogs clearly not expecting a miniature sun to suddenly appear out of nowhere, were cowering and turning their heads away in an attempt to avoid the blinding light.

With Grant finally being able to see his targets clearly, he immediately began surveying his surroundings and almost instantaneously came up with a course of action. Since he didn't have the time to look behind himself and find out what the dog standing there was doing it meant that he only had one option, move forward.

Grant put all of his strength into his legs and lunged forward as hard and as fast as he could with his Wet Noodle held above his head.

After one leap forward, he managed to cover enough ground to slide up along the side of the dog that was directly in front of himself and before the dog could even react to his close proximity, Grant brought the sword down swiftly upon its neck.

In one swift movement, without any resistance and before the dog could even make a sound, the sword lopped the head off the dog. The dogs les moved as if it was trying to run away, but its body tensed a moment later before collapsing on the ground with a small thud.

{Congratulations on killing Monstrous Mutt Level 18.

You have reached level 12.

Gained four status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +18 Strength, +11 Agility, +21 Health, and +12 Stamina.

You have gained +100 Credits and 2 Random Rolls for successfully leveling up.}

At the same time that the decapitated head of the monstrous dog hit the ground and rolled away off into the darkness propelled by the strong winds, the light from the Random Roll finally faded away and an item fell onto the street.

The item was of no concern to Grant at the moment, so he simply ignored it and focused on his task at hand.

"Stop!"

[Now that I don't have to focus on four different directions at one time, I should try to hold on to the rolls for now.

I didn't expect that to work so well but I also doubt it will work again...

These guys have displayed enough intelligence that they should adapt to the possibility that the light could reappear at any time.]

As the darkness once again took over the surrounding area, Grant re-focused himself.

[One down, three to go.]

This time, instead of waiting for the dogs to make the first move, Grant tried to focus on the direction that he could hear the loudest growling and then immediately moved in that direction.

Unfortunately, Grant was caught off guard by the sudden changes in his stats and ended up putting too much strength into his back foot as he lunged forward which propelled him forward like a bat out of hell. With the addition of the wind at his back, he had no chance of executing a proper move.

Before he knew it, he went flying past his intended target and had to force himself to come to a halt. The sudden exertion of strength on his wounded leg made him wince in pain but he did his best to swallow the pain.

Grant could tell that it was going to take some time to adjust to the large changes in his stats. Without the proper control on his strength, he could end up encountering a catastrophic situation in a fight with something equally as strong as he was that had better control over its own movements than he did. It finally made sense why Sherlock said this fight was a good opportunity for him.

To start adjusting quicker to his strength Grant started hopping up, down, and side to side to try and get a more elegant feel of how quickly he could move around without going too far. It wasn't going to solve all his problems instantly, but he figured that it would give him at least a hint at how reactive his muscles could be.

While Grant jumping around like some gymnast doing a floor routine, he could sense that the danger signals he had honed in on, were once again moving in his direction.

[Lets try and end this quickly. Only three targets left and the longer this drags on, the more likely that I commit some egregious error and something goes horribly wrong.

The feeling of growing in strength is starting to get addictive too. More and more I want to see how far I can take this! Killing these ugly mutts will help me make a nice leap forward in strength.]

Once again, without waiting for the dogs to make the first move, Grant planted his back foot into the ground and did his best to guide his strength to the bottom of his feet and toes before he lunged forward.

This time, Grant finessed the strength rather than trying to brute force it which allowed him to maintain some semblance of control.

While it still wasn't perfect, he hadn't launched himself forward at an uncontrollable pace and he made sure to take smaller steps forward, rather than one large leap, so that he could better direct his momentum.

Grant sensed that he was swiftly approaching one of the dogs, based on the feeling of danger he was getting, so he prepared to attack once again, this time with the sword to his side.

The moment he sensed the danger directly to his side, he brought Wet Noodle backwards even further, with the blade pointing towards the ground ready to swing upwards with all of his strength.

When the dog finally came into view, Grant's shoulder and arm muscles tensed and he immediately swung upward with a fierce momentum.

Unlike the first dog, Grant ended up cutting this one right through its midsection, nearly cutting it into two perfect halves.

{Congratulations on killing Monstrous Mutt Level 17.

You have reached level 14.

Gained four status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +12 Strength, +7 Agility, +18 Health, and +10 Stamina.

You have gained +100 Credits and 2 Random Rolls for successfully leveling up.}

Ignoring the notification that appeared in the corner of his eye, Grant started to feel himself being pulled off the ground by the momentum of his upward swing.

[Fuck me! I was way off on my control. I was so focused on my legs that I didn't even consider that the strength of my swing would pull me off the ground!]

Before Grant could return his feet to the ground, he suddenly got a strong sense of danger moving towards him quickly.

Moments later, something impacted his side just below the rib cage. It felt like he had been struck by a truck. Knowing full well that it was one of the two remaining mutts, Grant couldn't help glancing down at his side only to see a paw being forcefully buried into his flesh. It seemed as if time had frozen as his body absorbed the blow.

With the weight and force of the paw plowing into his side, Grant was sent flying like a bullet from a gun.

Since Grant had absolutely no chance of reacting to the impact while he was in midair, almost a millisecond after he saw himself being struck in the side, he had already crashed straight through the wall on the side of the road and slammed into a car that was parked behind the wall.

Grant coughed loudly as he scrambled to get to his feet, screaming in pain, "HOLY HELL THAT HURTS! Wait.. no it doesn't? What the fuck?"

Grant reacted on instinct thinking that he would be reeling in pain, but in the few seconds that Grant was scrambling to his feet, he only felt like he was being stung by a bee and no worse.

{Your tolerance for pain and your ability to absorb impact has been increased due to your strength and health stats being well beyond your level. You are still susceptible to blunt force attacks but your greatest risk for injury at this moment stems from blade like attacks instead of blunt force ones.}

[Seriously? It felt like I had been struck by a fucking train and then I flew through a wall!

Well whatever, time to finish these mutts off and go back to my fortress of solitude, aka my toilet throne! I'm starting to get tired from fighting these mutts and the storm at the same time!]

Without further ado, Grant started walking back towards the hole in the wall he had just been forced to create and shimmied his way through it.

Due to the impact of the paw and subsequent wall demolition, Grant had lost his concentration so he had to once again, strain his senses to the max so he could sense the dogs.

Just like before, he was able to faintly locate them by the killing intent that they were directing towards him.

While waiting for the dogs to approach a bit closer, Grant started to move around some more, trying to take advantage of every moment to train his control.

When he sensed that they were close enough where shorts bursts of strength would be all that it took to fight them, he put half his strength into his back foot and launched himself forward.

As he approached his now third target, Grant realized that the mutt was more prepared for him than the first two. He slowed his forward assault ever so slightly as he approached and when the dog attacked him head on, he put a small amount of strength into his left foot and slid to the right, just outside of the dogs outstretched paw.

Putting his right foot down, he used it to rotate his body slightly and with his sword pointed at the neck of the mutt, he stabbed it as it passed by. The momentum of the mutt caused the sword to slice the body of the mutt horizontally from where he first pierced its skin all the way until its tail which was the last part to be cut off as it passed.

The mutt fell to the ground with blood, organs, flesh, and everything else spilling out from the massive wound.

{Congratulations on killing Monstrous Mutt Level 18.

You have reached level 15.

Gained two status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +8 Strength, +4 Agility, +7 Health, and +3 Stamina.

You have gained +50 Credits and 1 Random Roll for successfully leveling up.}

Again, Grant ignored the notification, planted his left foot into the ground and charged at the final enemy.

The dog seemed to notice that this fight was a lost cause and turned around to run away.

Before it could even take two steps forward however, Grant had already managed to cut it off and was standing directly in front of it. The mutt, seemingly accepting the fact that it had no means of escape, attempted an attack. Anticipating the dogs next move, Grant already had his sword pulled back with both hands on the handle, holding it above his head with the blade pointed downward. The moment the mutt was close enough, he brought Wet Noodle down through the cranium of the mutt, pinning it to the ground and killing it instantly.

{Congratulations on killing Monstrous Mutt Level 16.

You have absorbed too many stats from the same monster and are unable to absorb any more.}

{Congratulations on learning the skill: Overclocked Perception (Level: 1)

Skill Type: Passive

Skill Tier: Normal

Skill Description: Overclocked Perception allows the user to pinpoint danger within a 20 foot radius.}

Grant just stood there reading through the new and old notifications with a smile on his face. The fight may not have seemed dangerous since he managed to escape unscathed, but Grant knew that one false move could have resulted in him being in serious danger.

What he was most satisfied with, aside from the levels he had gained, was the fact that he had learned quite a bit while fighting.

After seeing that he had actually earned a skill through his own hard work, he even more excited. He knew that he would have to test out the actual functionality of the skill before he would even consider relying on it but it was a fine reward for his efforts.

Grant took a few deep breathes and before he forgot, walked over to the location where he had used the Random Roll so he could pick up his new item!

[Please be something good!!]