The Moon Devourer

[New skill: Bear coat]

'How exactly is that useful?' Luna placed the palm of her hand on the back of her head. Massaging it to make the pain stop.

To think she would absorb such a useless skill.

The wolf standing in front of her was already in the middle of charging its next attack, the electricity around it getting more and more unstable, snapping and cracking lightly.

Drool dripping down its mouth.

'There is no way I can survive a bite from those teeth.' Her head was racing with ideas about how to get out of this situation.

Brute force? Zero chance. Thunder wolves teeth are known to be sharp enough to cut through everything up to tier three material.

Dodging its attack? Not enough time and space.

Her only way out was to keep being cunning. She grabbed a handful of dust from the ground around her.

As the beast tensed its muscles, electric static in the area kept getting worse, signaling its incoming attack.

**CRACK!**

All of the static snapped suddenly, and beautiful blue light engulfed the wolf as it dashed towards Luna at lightning speed.

She barely had enough time to throw the dust at it.

Luckily for her, some got into its eyes, stopping its attack.

The wolf tripped due to the lack of vision, giving her enough time to stand up and unsheathe the dagger on her thigh.

[Thunder step lvl 1]

Luna wasn't nearly as fast as the thunder beast, but it was fine. She gripped hard on the blade in her hand. Putting as much strength behind the strike as possible.

**SPLASH!**

Mist of blood filled the air. The dagger barely reached the eye of this monster, making it go blind on its left side.

'Nice!' She decided to take advantage of the opportunity and struck with her dagger again.

But this time her blade barely cut the skin on the wolf's stomach, shattering in the process.

'That's what I get for using unenchanted gear.' She clicked her tongue while jumping backwards a few steps.

The ways in which she could defeat such an opponent almost ran out, if not for the now missing eye.

Her prey tried calling for backup with a loud howl. Luckily, it seemed that the other contestants had already found their target, as no one came, visibly shocking the wolf.

A rock hit the wolf, shifting its focus back to Luna.

"This way, you stupid dog!" Her taunts were effective. Maybe a bit too much, as the beast became enraged and dashed towards her again.

But instead of sinking its teeth into Luna, it landed headfirst on a boulder. Luna was standing next to it, dashing on the last moment before the attack.

Lack of eyesight on the beast's left meant that it wasn't able to spot her movement, angering it even further, foam forming on its mouth.

It started jumping around trees, each consecutive dash faster and harder to track than the last.

'Shit, I can't defend against that!' She panicked, the blast was imminent and about to come any second.

Her heart started beating fast; she felt like it wanted to jump out of her chest.

[Bear coat lvl 1]

There was no thought put behind using this skill, she was panicking too much to think of anything else.

'I should have just stayed home...' Tears fell down her face.

With one last jump, the wolf rushed at her.

The buildup energy from accelerating so much created a deafening sonic boom. The trees around almost got pulled out of their roots by the sheer force.

**BOOM!**

An explosion big enough to be seen from the fort took place. Dust cloud covered the whole area, taking some time to settle.

When it did, it revealed a huge hole in the ground. It was as deep as it was wide, with the wolf biting into Luna's body.

**crack!**

The sound of bones breaking echoed soundly. The young girl's arms were shattered, making her cry out in pain.

Luckily they weren't torn off, thanks to the skill she used, which made her muscles and skin many times denser. Dense enough to even harm her attacker as the beast's fangs fell out.

The pain rang in her head, but she began smiling widely as she saw that the wolf was also wounded.

'The luck is on my side today, it seems.' She dashed backwards, ignoring the blue blood dripping everywhere as she closed her eyes.

[Axolotl regeneration lvl 2]

The broken bone tissue started healing, going back to how it was moments ago.

"I'm not stronger than you... like not even close to being your level," Luna took a step forward, taking the fang of this beast. 

"I just got luckier." She smiled towards the beast as her bones finished healing.

[Thunder step lvl 1]

She took the fang of her prey and used it as a dagger.

"If it's strong enough to pierce monsters all the way to tier three, then that also includes you!" The tooth that was just used by the wolf to harm Luna was the same thing that finished this fight.

The wolf fell over as the fang pierced its neck.

Luna stared scared, feeling the adrenaline rushing inside her, really hoping that it was enough to defeat it.

The beast in front of her took a step... then another... opening its mouth to bite Luna's head off. She couldn't move away because of exhaustion. The problem with using the ability for regeneration was the physical toll it took on her.

Luckily for her, those steps were just a fluke. The wolf fell over next to her, not breathing anymore.

She didn't have the energy to stand up and even celebrate, putting her hand on the belly of the fallen beast.

Its body started dissolving into her hand, the purple smoke eating at the high-tier corpse with wild abandon.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Skill upgrade!]

[Thunder step lvl 1 -> Thunder step lvl 2]

Luna could feel her body rejuvenating its energy with the corpse, leaving nothing but the head of this beast behind.

She easily stood up now, with the newfound energy, and grabbed her trophy.

"*sigh* That was way too close." The girl began walking back, looking up at the sky to find out that barely any time had passed from the start of the hunt, maybe around three hours.

Heavy head of her prey prevented Luna from running, making her walk calmly, expecting to be the last contestant to finish.

'Let's hope Sillia won't scream at me too loud for taking so long...' She remembered the last time she disappointed the fort sage. She had to clean her entire tower as punishment for not training hard enough with her ability.

After some time she had finally reached the gates back inside, for some reason, everyone there looked shocked at her.

"What? Did I take too long?" She scratched the back of her head, looking at the confused faces of everyone, including Rogard himself.

"Luna... are the others okay? Why are you back by yourself?" The oldest of them all, Rogard, rushed and grabbed Luna by her shoulders.

"I don't know. Should I?" She was as confused as they were about the whole situation.

"You know it was a team hunt. Right?" A snarky, short woman who leaned on the wall exclaimed.

"Aunt Sillia!" Luna ran to her and embraced the woman, easily being a head taller than her. "It was? I thought it's a solo mission." She turned red from embarrassment.

"Then that means..." One of the slayers in the crowd spoke.

"Luna hunted a thunder wolf by herself!!" Another one shouted over the first.

The entire crowd gathered there erupted into a cheer, some wheezed, and some danced.

"Silence!" Rogard, their one and only chief, shouted. Making every single one of them shut up and look at him, no one dared to speak up.

"You are forgetting one thing," Their elder began another one of his speeches, is what they all thought. "And that thing is... me!" He took a bottle of osmanthine wine from one of the crates behind him.

His comrades went back to celebrating; some ran to pick him up like a music star. Others brought food and tables to start the feast.

It was the fastest Luna had seen the slayers move; not even the neighboring kingdom's army raiding the village close by created more urgency than the party they were preparing in front of her.

"What about the other contestants?" The girl looked down at Sillia's face.

"You better worry about yourself, you didn't pass the exam yet." The sage frowned, pushing Luna away.

Before she had time to ask what she meant by that, a crowd of slayers started chanting her name over and over.

"LU-NA! LU-NA! LU-NA!" A beautiful glass bottle decorated with a silver chain was being pushed on a small tray.

The liquid inside the bottle was a pure white color, clean of any imperfections.

All of them looked scared of dropping the bottle, elixirs like that were very expensive and dangerous, so they had to be treated with utmost care.

Rogard opened the bottle, letting the potent smell escape, all of the slayers who had already passed the trial and taken the elixir scattered, covering their noses. Leaving only Luna there.

The small amount of liquid was just small enough not to kill the person trying to use it, any more would be a lethal dose.

And this year's elixir was even more potent than before. If even a drop of it touched any of the slayers, they would have died a gruesome death from overdosing.

Luna's hands trembled as she held them out to pick the bottle up.

'If I drink this, I will become a slayer...' She had to tell that to herself over and over just to push through the instinct of pushing the dangerous liquid away.

**gulp gulp gulp**

Content of the bottle disappeared down her throat, leaving nothing but a bad smell behind. The taste was surprisingly pleasant, tasting like warm milk with honey.

Luna smiled towards Dirk. "I did it! It wasn't that ba-" She clutched her chest hard. Screaming in pain all of a sudden.