Lord Of Beasts

Ethan and the A Rank were the last two to enter the gate.

The others had already vanished, one by one, into the swirling tear in space, their figures swallowed by the shifting black-and-purple haze.

He stood just before it, hands in his pockets, staring in awe at the unstable surface of the rift. It pulsed faintly, like something alive but also ominous.

Behind him, the blonde woman lingered.

She was silent as always, and he had yet to hear her voice or know her name. But more than that, she was hesitant and seemingly on edge.

It still didn’t sit right with Ethan that an A Rank could appear so weak and be so timid. Despite that, he was curious about her and wanted to gauge as much as he could.

He scratched the back of his head and glanced over his shoulder.

”So...”

He started casually, but before he could finish, she scurried forward and stepped into the Gate.

Ethan blinked, then let out a short laugh.

”I guess she’s not much of a talker either.”

He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head slightly. Then, without overthinking things, he also stepped forward into the rift...

-

There was something Ethan had always questioned about Gates.

’Why don’t they just shove a bunch of bombs in it and call it a day?’

Well, there were a couple of reasons for that.

The first was that only Titled could enter the Gates, and that alone made things complicated.

Few would volunteer to become a suicide bomber.

But more importantly, the second reason was that modern weaponry simply didn’t function properly inside Gates. Electronics failed, signals died, and even advanced targeting systems became unreliable the moment they crossed the threshold.

It was as if the environment itself rejected them.

As for anything that did work, it was drastically weakened: explosives lost potency, shockwaves dispersed strangely, and sometimes the blasts just didn’t propagate the way they should.

It was like the rules of physics had been bent, or more correctly, rewritten.

Worse still, there had been many attempts to rely on conventional weapons. There were many Titled who relied on assault rifles and military-grade equipment, thinking advanced firepower was the answer.

But in most cases, it backfired.

Gates often had unstable and unpredictable atmospheres, in many of which gunfire didn’t behave normally. The changes in pressure distorted trajectories and even caused misfires.

In some cases, weapons jammed mid-combat.

In others, they exploded and took their users with them.

Many unlucky groups had learned the lesson of not relying on modern weaponry the very hard way. It almost felt like there was an intentional restriction on relying on technology.

Simply put, what worked best against monsters and beasts, especially within gates, was Titled abilities.

Nothing else came close.

Then there was the third reason: even when weapons did work, they usually weren’t that effective.

Most artillery struggled against beasts and monsters, and lugging heavy equipment through unstable terrain during a Gate expedition wasn’t very practical.

Creatures at C Rank and above were especially resistant.

Even something like the Lithoserpent Burrower, a D Rank Beast, would require serious firepower to put down cleanly. And that was just a D Rank Boss Beast on an E Tier Floor, which was far from being a world-shaking threat.

Though he still doubted most of his group would have been able to take it on, aside from their C Rank leader, Jared.

’So essentially, Gates are fucked up places where all you have is basic equipment and your Titled abilities, kinda like the Tower.’

That summarised it perfectly.

But he was about to find out that this specific Gate was going to be even more like the Tower Of Beasts than he could have ever imagined...

-

As soon as Ethan’s fingers touched the surface of the black and purple spatial rift, he instantly felt a familiar sensation.

It was just like when he was entering the tower, when his very soul was being pulled from one body to another. But this time, it was his entire body being dragged through space itself.

And unlike in the tower, this wasn’t his Tower Body: there was no reset, second chance, or safety net.

Darkness swallowed him whole as the world twisted around him. It felt like his entire body was being pulled through a narrow space, compressed, and then stretched.

After what felt like both a split second and an eternity, he suddenly felt himself being yanked back to reality.

Ethan’s sneakers hit solid ground.

His eyes snapped open, and he instantly studied his surroundings, which reminded him of somewhere.

’It’s just like Cavernous Hollowreach.’

They stood inside a massive underground cavern.

A colossal open space stretched out in every direction, the ceiling high above them barely visible through dim, natural luminescence bleeding from the rock itself.

The air was surprisingly clean and cool, not suffocating as you’d expect from being underground.

That alone seemed to ease some of the tension among the group.

Around them were dozens of tunnels, some wider than others. They branched out in every direction like veins in a living organism, each one leading into darkness and the unknown.

”Great,” someone muttered.

”This place is a maze.”

”Stay sharp,” another voice added.

Weapons were drawn, and stances tightened instinctively. The earlier confidence the group had was now replaced by caution and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, Ethan observed everything calmly.

His piercing blue eyes swept across the terrain, analysing entry points, escape routes, choke points.

Then, a familiar glow flickered in front of him.

{Congratulations on completing the Objective: Enter a Gate}

{Reward: Beast Call (D)}

Ethan’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

’Another skill? I mean, I’ll take it.’

While the others were nervously examining the cavern and whispering among themselves, Ethan subtly shifted his gaze downward.

His focus was elsewhere.

He navigated to the Skills Tab quickly on the System Interface, which was invisible to others, making sure no one was paying attention.

’Let’s see what this one does...’

He selected the skill he had just unlocked that was on the edge of the Skill Tree.

{Beast Call - allows the user to draw in all surrounding beasts through a universal call.}

{Cost: Variable amounts of MP, at least 1.}

{The more MP used, the louder and wider the range of the call.}

Ethan stared at it for a second.

’You’ve got to be kidding me.’

A quiet breath escaped him.

’That’s exactly what I needed, a suicidal skill.”

But even as the thought crossed his mind, he didn’t disregard the skill. Everything had its place, and the system had a habit of giving him things when he needed them most.

His eyes sharpened slightly.

’This has its uses.’

Drawing in beasts intentionally allowed him to control the battlefield and also force encounters. Maybe he could even get them to face each other, like he had done on Floor Zero when survival meant chaos.

’I’ll know when I need to use it when the time comes.’

He was sure of that.

But before he could think about it any further, something that shook him to his core happened.

That voice, the hoarse, distorted and ancient voice he only ever heard again inside the Tower. The same voice he heard when he received his Title.

{Gate Takeover Initiated}

Ethan froze, and his heart skipped a beat.

’I guess that bad feeling was real.’

That was the start of everything going to shit...