The Earth After Rebirth

"And you didn't detect it when it bit me?"

[It has a good stealth skill.]

"Useless." Kiro mumbled. "No matter how I look at it, that's just a humanoid mosquito."

Kiro was a bit tired from fighting it out with Hubris, he gave him dirty looks. Hubris simply looked away.

[You've encountered the King of the Squito.

Level 55

HP: 30 000

You have sh*t luck guardian.]

'Are you even allowed to talk to me like that? sigh.'

"Who are you calling an insect, kid?" It said ominously.

Kiro darted his eyes, to find this mosquito but it wasn't where it originally was. A surge of panic washed over him.

He remembered that it had a stealth skill that even eluded the system. He then felt a change in the wind, by instinct or skill, he narrowly escaped it's kick from above.

"I-it can fly!" Kiro remarked a little taken aback, "it can talk!"

"Not bad, kid." It said, landing where he had stood with it's spindly legs. "But I'm afraid it's gonna take more than that."

It hadn't landed for a second before it was already on the move. Towards Kiro, it threw in a punch, he blocked it with both his arms. He was pushed backwards.

"For a gangly insect, you sure have a lot of strength." He remarked with a smug smile.

His smile however turned into a frown when it's foot landed cleanly on his face, he crashes between two rocks half a kilometres away.

He hadn't gained his composure yet when the humanoid mosquito was already in front of him punching him senseless.

He activated vibrations and it was stunned in place. It was surprised by the turn of events, Kiro used bending kick which stole a chunk of its HP.

When it regained control of its body, it's eyes darted cautiously this time. "I was careless, but I won't be bested again."

Kiro hadn't expected it to come out of being stunned so soon, he lunged at it nonetheless throwing a punch, hoping to get a clean hit. His fist however met the mosquito's snout.

[You've been inflicted with bleeding. You'll lose 100 HP for the next 10 seconds.]

"Dammit, why didn't you tell me something so importa—"

[That's a perk for noobs. You should know better than attacking an enemy head-on, you know nothing about.]

"F*ck!"

Kiro tried tapping into his vibrational sense but the insect didn't give him the slightest chance to concentrate. He had never fought a monster so intensely before, he realised then and there that he was still lacking.

"Hubris, are you just gonna stand there? Dumb mutt, if I die you die too."

Hubris hadn't wanted to act but the beatings were still fresh on his mind. He was still a pup, grown as he was, he hadn't unlocked most of his skills. His best bet was his naturally fast speed, and hellfire.

Kiro on the other hand hadn't wanted to use blink, just to fight hand to hand. Something he has never done, but that was clearly a mistake. He now had Ryu in his hand.

Activating blink and lightning, both he and Hubris flew to their enemy's spot from both ends. The king just smirked and disappeared from where he stood. Hubris couldn't stop himself, he was about to crash into Kiro.

Kiro was quicker, as he planted Ryu into the ground to stop the momentum and propelled himself upwards, only to land on Ryu with one foot.

Hubris skidded his way and bumped into Ryu. The staff didn't move an inch, as Kiro was safely ontop of it.

His landing on Ryu was a complete fluke, even then he looked majestic standing on a staff.

"Such pity tricks," the king scoffed.

"You're the one hiding," Kiro said searching where the voice came from.

Hubris breathed fire on the direction the voice came from, his senses were keener. But it didn't seem he hit anything.

Kiro used the little time to try and tap into vibrational sense. Just like in the cave, he could 'see' it, everything invisible to the naked eye.

He noticed a gangly silhouette just a distance from him, it would take him one blink step to reach it. He had his eyes closed, in case he got distracted.

He blinked in front of the squito king, and activated whirlwind. It was peculiar, the skill didn't expand, but it remained just on his palms, pushing his palm forward, the king took a full blast of whirlwind right on his chest.

It created a huge hole, the squito king stood there disbelieving.

"but how—" he fell with finality.

His corpse didn't pixelate, the shock of his final moments were still etched on his face. Kiro stood there cautiously, thinking it would get up at any minute, monster's pixelated in this game if they died, and they get revived for the next player, but this was strange.

He stood there with his eyes closed, after a minute of waiting, the corpse shrivelled up and whithered away.

[Congratulations, you have defeated a Harbinger. Your rewards are still being calculated, wait a moment.]

"A Harbinger, just what do you mean?" Kiro said, confused by the choice of words the system used.

But the system didn't answer, Kiro just sat crossed-legged and entered both the meditative state and vibrational sense.

He wanted more than anything for it to be his sixth sense, so he didn't have to stop mid battle to enter the state.

This used a lot of his mana, but fortunately for him, he had mana veins and chi. So he replenished it, albeit slow but it was better than nothing.

Hubris stood guard, his pride was greatly bruised by the earlier fight as he couldn't do much to help, ontop of that, he felt a little guilt. They almost died because he attacked Kiro.

Kiro remained in the same position for several days, just as he was about to enter a space beyond the door he saw the first time, a space riddled with stars and planets, he was forcibly pushed out of the meditative state.

As though he was hit by a divine power, his chest almost caved in, he coughed up blood. His HP went from the thousands to just ten. He quickly downed potions, and laid on the ground breathing heavily.

"I almost died, I shouldn't have tried to use force to enter that door. Haha." He said in-between breaths.

He heard a crackling sound, like bones breaking. When he looked back, Hubris was engorged or in the process of it.

"Hubris, why are you getting fat?"