The moment he touched the ground, he threw himself to the side, the move sending him slamming into the wall again.
The bearās feet slammed into the place heād been, the impact forming a crater in the earth. It was wide enough to tell him heād made the right decision.
He scrambled to his feet, sword held loosely in his hand. The bear pounced after him, but instead of dodging or disengaging, he dashed towards it.
He ducked under its swipe, using his entire strength to slam his shoulder into the bearās torso.
His [Dread Cuirass] registered the hit as an attack, adding another twenty percent of his strike to the hit.
The bear was lifted off itās feet, flying backwards to slam into the wall. But before it could fall to the floor, Lukasā sword speared through the air to slam into its head with a meathy thunk, piercing it to the wall.
[You have killed a C-rank Zipper Bear]
He closed the distance with a few strides and pulled his sword out of the corpse, letting it fall to the ground.
He stood there for a moment, staring at each of the four entrances in turn. He no longer had any idea which one heād passed through before, so he simply chose one at random.
He ran through the corridors, meeting bears and killing them as fast as he could. The timer kept ticking downwards at the corner of his vision but he paid it no mind.
As much as he wanted the three hundred Gacha Points reward, obsessing over the time would simply make him slower. More haste, less speed and all that.
His eyes widened as he dashed down a corridor, seeing it diverged sharply to the left, and right in front of him were several spikes made of stones jutting out of the wall.
He skidded to a stop, his momentum halting just an inch away from the longest spike. He exhaled in shaky relief.
This was a sign for him not to grow overconfident. No matter how quiet things seemed, it was a well-known statistic that Awakeners died in dungeons regularly, not just from the beasts but from the various terrain they encountered.
If he hadnāt been able to stop himself, he would have been skewered and, in the best case scenario, injured himself.
Just as he came to a stop, a bear suddenly jumped out of the corner, slamming itās paws downwards.
The spot had been designed for an ambush!
With no time to dodge, Lukas tilted his head away from the strike, raising his hands and sword to block the attack.
However, he was too late.
Before his arms could be fully raised, the bearās paw missed his head and slammed into his shoulder, the force driving him to his knees.
Fortunately, his Cuirass reflected some of the damage, the bearās paw rebounding and taking the beast by surprise.
Lukas grunted from the pain of his knee slamming into the ground, but didnāt waste the time to swing his sword.
He tore through the bearās left leg, severing it above the knee.
The bear stumbled in pain, and before it could recover, Lukas leapt into the air above it, flipping himself upside down to land on the ceiling with his feet, and kicked.
He rocketed down like a bird, slamming sword first into the bear.
His sword pierced from the top of the skull down into the chest, while the force of his descent pulverized itās flesh from the neck up.
Blood splattered the walls, but Lukas simply kicked off itās shoulders, landing a few meters away.
He didnāt wait to see his handiwork. He simply dashed down the left hand corridor, now on the lookout for any ambush.
In addition to the other bears he killed, heād also been ambushed three more times, getting faster and faster at tearing through the beasts after each encounter.
He kept running until eventually, he stumbled into a dark hall.
The hall was much larger than the ones heād previously seen. There were no sources of illumination, with the only light in the hall coming from the various passages that led into it.
There was no mistaking it. This was the boss room.
The impression was made even more evident by the bear sleeping in the middle of the room.
The bear was a few sizes smaller than the normal Zipper Bears, but much more stockier, with thick muscles rippling over itās bulk.
Itās fur was a few shades darker than normal, and at the end of itās claws were longer and darker claws, which seemed to glow with itās own light.
The beast looked more like a boxer than a bear.
Lukas cautiously walked into the hall, not attacking recklessly. He knew that there was no way the bear was actually sleeping.
It had to be a trap, because no boss fights were ever that easy.
After a few seconds of silence, the bear opened one eye, gazing at him.
They held each otherās gaze, none of them moving.
And in that same instant, the remaining Zipper Bears he hadnāt killed began walking into the hall.
They were three of them, which was much lower than heād anticipated.
He cracked his neck, turning to face the three new bears. Of course, he didnāt turn his back on the boss.
There was no rule that said bosses couldnāt attack him while he was preoccupied with other beasts.
The first bear dashed towards him, and Lukas stood his ground.
Just as it swiped at him, he leapt backwards, and the moment his feet touched the ground, dashed towards the second bear.
The second bear was taken by surprise but still attacked him. He answered with his sword, severing its arm.
As the arm tumbled to the ground, he spun around and thrusted, catching the first bear which had been after him by surprise.
The bear wasnāt able to stop in time, running straight and skewering itself on his blade. Lukas yanked downwards, tearing from the torso down to the legs and spilling itās guts to the floor.
[You have killed a C-rank Zipper Bear]
He dove to the side, dodging the swipe of the injured bear to attack the third bear.
The third bear roared and dodged backwards, his swipe missing it by an inch. It had learnt from the mistakes of itās comrades, but Lukas was much smarter than that.
He simply followed after it, slashing in rapid succession, until he caught it by the legs, tearing through them both.
The bear roared in pain as it fell on its paws, but Lukas silenced it with a single slash.
[You have killed a C-rank Zipper Bear]
He turned back to the now one armed bear, finishing it with a few slashes.
As the corpse fell, he turned to the still sleeping boss monster and activated the skill heād been keeping for this moment.
[Blood Armor]
The blood of all the bears heād killed immediately evaporated throughout the entire dungeon, streaming through the air to merge and form a translucent red shell over his body.
He glanced at the timer at the corner of his vision.
He had forty seconds left.
It would be more than enough.