Kazuki barely had time to process his new poultry-themed powers before the hydra regained its footing. Dust and smoke still clung to the air, but its glowing golden eyes cut through the haze, locking onto him with unmistakable fury.

  "Alright, alright, don't be mad! I know the exploding egg thing was a bit much—" Kazuki yelped as one of its heads lunged, fangs bared. He activated Feathered Footwork instinctively, his legs blurring into motion. With unnatural agility, he darted to the side, narrowly avoiding becoming a midday snack.

  The hydra's jaws snapped shut on the stone where he'd been standing, shattering it into rubble. Kazuki didn't stop moving. He zipped between the crumbling pilrs, using his new speed to weave through the ruins like a lunatic bird escaping a predator.

  "Okay, okay! This is fine! This is—AH!" A second hydra head smashed through a wall, forcing Kazuki into a desperate slide beneath a half-colpsed archway. He tumbled, rolling into a crouch behind a moss-covered pilr.

  His breath came in ragged gasps. He wasn't going to outrun this thing forever. He needed an actual pn. Something—

  His system chimed.

  [New Skill Avaible: Call of the Flock (C)]

  Kazuki stared at the notification, then at the raging hydra tearing through the ruins. "I really don't like how that sounds."

  He didn't have much choice.

  Taking a deep breath, he activated the skill.

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the air shifted.

  A distant chorus of frantic clucking echoed through the ruins. The ground trembled—not from the hydra, but from something else. Something many.

  Kazuki's stomach dropped. "Oh no."

  The first bird appeared over a crumbled wall. Then another. Then dozens. Chickens, glowing with barely-contained explosive energy, swarmed into the ruins like an incoming tide of chaos.

  The hydra hesitated.

  Kazuki's brain short-circuited.

  The chickens did not.

  With terrifying, reckless abandon, the feathery missiles unched themselves at the hydra, detonating on impact. Explosions rippled across the monster's scales, filling the ruins with deafening booms and squawking death cries.

  The hydra screeched, reeling as its many heads filed against the onsught. Smoke and debris filled the air. The ground quaked beneath the sheer force of the poultry apocalypse.

  Kazuki, still crouched behind the pilr, could only stare in horror. "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"

  [EXP Gained!]

  [EXP Gained!]

  [EXP Gained!]

  The notifications flooded in as the chaos unfolded.

  Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended.

  Silence settled over the ruins. The st of the fmes flickered out, revealing the hydra—or what was left of it. The once-mighty beast groaned, smoke curling from its charred scales. Two of its heads twitched weakly before slumping to the ground.

  It wasn't dead. But it wasn't getting up anytime soon.

  Kazuki slowly, carefully, stood. He felt the system notification before he even saw it.

  [New Title Unlocked: Harbinger of Fowl Destruction]

  His eye twitched. "I hate this system so much."

  With the hydra incapacitated and his mind still reeling from the poultry apocalypse he had unleashed, Kazuki did the only reasonable thing left.

  He ran.

  Because no way in hell was he sticking around to see what else his system had in store for him.

  The ruins blurred past him as his feet pounded against the cracked stone, his lungs burning from exhaustion. The hydra's distant, agonized howls echoed behind him, shaking the air like an earthquake, but he didn't dare slow down. If that monster so much as twitched in his direction, he was doomed.

  The ruined structures gave way to the dense, towering trees of the forest. His breath came in ragged gasps as he pushed forward, weaving between the thick trunks, using Feathered Footwork to keep his movements light and fast.

  His mind was still reeling.

  Exploding chickens.

  A chicken army.

  A hydra.

  And now, a desperate sprint through a cursed forest because of all of the above.

  "I hate this so much," Kazuki wheezed, vaulting over a fallen log.

  The forest stretched endlessly ahead, its shadowy canopy swallowing most of the light. Every snapping twig, every rustling leaf made his nerves coil like a spring. He half-expected another monstrous nightmare to jump out at him.

  But nothing did.

  The only thing that chased him now was the distant, furious howling of the hydra—an enraged, echoing sound that sent shivers down his spine.

  But it wasn't following him. Not anymore.

  Maybe it was too injured. Maybe it had finally given up.

  Maybe, just maybe…

  He was actually getting away.

  The realization struck him like a hammer. He wasn't dead. He wasn't even half-dead. He had survived.

  A hysterical ugh bubbled up in his throat as he sprinted through the st stretch of trees, the thick foliage finally starting to thin. His muscles ached, his legs felt like jelly, but he pushed forward, adrenaline carrying him the st few meters.

  Then—

  The trees broke.

  Kazuki stumbled forward, nearly colpsing as he burst into the open.

  He had made it.

  Before him stretched a vast, rolling ndscape—golden fields swaying in the wind, with a dirt road cutting through the tall grass. In the distance, he could just barely make out the outlines of buildings. A vilge. Civilization.

  Safety.

  Kazuki fell to his knees, gasping for breath, his heart still hammering.

  Then, as if on cue, his system gave one final ping.

  [Congratutions! You have successfully escaped the Forest of Fangs.]

  [EXP Gained!]

  Kazuki groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "I swear, my system is mocking me."

  But he didn't care.

  For now—just for now—he was safe.

  And that was more than enough.

  Zexusgo