Chapter 13: 13 – Thunderstruck

Gilda and I continued hiking for a while without encountering any more horned rabbits.

The terrain became steeper the farther we went. As if we were ascending into a mountainous region. Eventually, the trees thinned out, and the ground became rockier. Just as I was about to suggest we try moving in another direction, I spotted something that looked like a Bighorn Ram. My targeting system overlay popped up information, showing it was a monster called a Thunder Head.

Luckily, it hadn't noticed us yet, because we were a fair distance away and downwind. I didn't know the first thing about this monster, so I focused on the identification skill icon, which expanded its name, showing full stats.

Name: Thunder Head

Damage - 0/100
Stamina - 100/100
Mana/Capacity - 100/100

Strength - C
Durability - C
Speed - S
Dexterity - E
Intellect - G

Skills:
Ram 3, Leap 2

Magic Skills:
Lightning Magic Level 1, Unknown Magic Level?

"Whoa, that thing has S-level speed... I can't even imagine what that looks like."

I was mumbling to myself mostly, but Gilda softly replied, "The ways in which high speed manifest can vary. Typically, anything that has a maximum speed faster than the speed of sound is automatically considered S level regardless of species traits."

I couldn't help but hiss out my panicked response, "What!? How the hell am I supposed to fight something that's supersonic?"

Gilda, for her part, looked completely at ease. Her lack of tension reminded me that this was just a video game. I could die here, and aside from pain, there wouldn't be any real problem.

Head back in the game, I listened as she continued to explain, "These particular monsters are capable of moving very fast, but they only move at that speed occasionally. The magic that allows for that speed consumes a lot of mana."

"Hmm. So, if I can kill it before it uses that magic, I win... I really wish I had my hunting rifle here."

Gilda seemed amused by that thought, "A bullet would be unlikely to penetrate enough to kill any monster."

"Ah... right. Magic bullshit. But the only long-distance attack I have is that lightning strike trick using a rabbit's horn. Do you think that would work here?"

"The Thunder Head also uses lighting magic. It is likely to be less effective using the same attribute to attack."

"Crap. Well, I can't see myself fighting something that can move that fast using just a spear..."

Just as I was considering a tactical withdrawal, the Thunder Head finally noticed us. Actually, I should say he just saw me. The monsters in the simulation never seemed to see Gilda at all. Anyway, it was too late to leave now, so I locked him in as my target and hoped to God that he didn't use a supersonic attack right out of the gate.

Once the Thunder Head identified me as a threat, he slowly floated into the air with electricity crackling around him in a sphere. I didn't even fully understand what I was seeing. He was suspended in mid-air but stood as if he was on solid ground, giving me a baleful glare with one eye. Not knowing what else to do, I wrapped my body in lighting magic the same way, hoping it would provide some defense. I held my spear at the ready, rabbit horn tip pointed directly at the Thunder Head, and fed more mana into it than usual.

Even though he was still quite a distance away, floating several feet off the ground, the Thunder Head reared up like he was going to ram something a few feet away. Suddenly everything went white, and I felt a searing heat. At nearly the same time, I was hit with a tremendous impact and sent flying backward. While I was still being launched mid-air, I was rocked by a sonic shock wave, like a thunderclap. When I impacted the ground, I was in incredible pain and couldn't breathe. I scrambled, trying to get back up, but I couldn't see or hear anything around me. However, I could still see the user interface overlay showing a victory announcement.

1 Thunder Head defeated

Killed 1 Thunder Head -> gained 100 experience points
Recovered -> 1 Pair of Thunder Head Horns

I tried calling out to Gilda, but I couldn't even hear my voice, so after mentally clawing my way through a flare-up of panic, I reached out to Gilda using our mental link.

<Gilda! What happened?!>

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<The fight is over, Willie. You won. Give your body some time to recover.>

Slowly, the nanites worked with my body's natural recovery. After a little while, my sight returned enough to see that I had been thrown about 20 feet. I slowly returned to where I had been standing and found the remains of the Thunder Head. There was nothing left of him but a little of his hind legs. His head and upper body were completely gone. As if the Thunder Head had eaten some dynamite.

<What happened? It all went down so fast...>

<As a party member, I can share with you the slowed-down replay.>

A small video screen appeared in the center of my vision. As I focused on it, the size enlarged, and a recording played. It was captured from another point of view, in slow motion. It was clear enough that I could see that when the Thunder Head reached the apex of his rearing motion, he was rapidly pushed forward by what looked like a lightning bolt under his back feet. He covered the space between us at incredible speed and rammed directly into my spear, head-first. The rabbit horn tip of my spear slid into his skull with almost no resistance and kept right on going until his head nearly collided with my forward hand.

Then our electric barriers collided.

At the moment our lighting magic touched, several things took place. First, his body began exploding in a rippling wave, originating from the point where the spear impacted his head. The explosive wave kept moving towards the center of his body, where the rabbit horn tip of the spear had stopped. Second, the electricity wrapped around us briefly mingled before exploding in a powerful burst of light and sound. I was thrown backward, partly from the explosive power of the mingled lightning burst and partly due to the force of his physical momentum. Which had continued even as his body was being torn apart.

As I watched, I thought the only thing that saved my life was my instinctual use of the impact absorption skill.

I didn't recover any other loot from the Thunder Head due to the extensive destruction of his body. Though the horns themselves seemed to be in good condition.

I won. At least in the sense that I survived the encounter, and the Thunder Head didn't. But I got really beat up too. There was no way I could keep hunting in that condition. I also needed to figure out a better strategy to beat Thunder Horns.

<Hey Gilda, I think I want to leave the simulation for now.>

<That may be wise. Just concentrate on the words 'log out.'>

I did as I was told and found myself back on the spaceship. There was no physical damage, but I was mentally wrung out like a rag and felt the need to rest for a while.

As I wearily stood up, I managed to mumble, "I'm going to lie down in my room for a bit."

Gilda seemed a little worried, but I was too tired to ask about it.

"Rest well, Willie."

"Yep..."

When I got to my room, I discovered I had only been inside the simulation for about 20 minutes. However, in my mind, it felt like almost a full day had passed. A very eventful day at that. I flopped down on the bed without even taking off my clothes and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up about an hour later, feeling better. I reviewed the slow-motion video of the fight over and over again. After analyzing it, I came to a few conclusions.

1) I only won because he was a stupid monster that tried to take on my mana-charged weapon head-first. Even then, if he had hit my spear with his more resilient horns instead of a relatively softer forehead, my spear might have broken.

2) Using the same lighting magic attribute against each other in close quarters seemed like a dumb idea.

3) The Thunder Head's lightning magic was way better than mine, even though we were at the same level. Given that he was stupid, this wasn't a result of intelligence but a manifestation of the monster's instinctual use of magic.

I also learned that there were more possibilities to lightning magic than I had thought, including ways of increasing attack speed. Speed was currently a weak point for me, so I was happy about that discovery. I also desperately needed to find some way to increase my attack range. Perhaps lightning magic could help there, even if it wouldn't work on the Thunder Heads.

There was also the question of why his horns were way more durable than the rest of his body. My initial guess was it might have something to do with the unknown magic listed in his stats.

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