Blessed by Night

Chapter 35: First Gate Cleared!

His body that was covered in sleek black fur did nothing to hide his explosive muscles that were packed with power.

Seeing his prey attempting to flee triggered Mal's instincts as a predator and before the boss knew it, Mal was on the hunt.

In a frightening burst of speed, he appeared directly in front of the boss and placed his large clawed hands on her pincers.

With another bloodcurdling roar, he ripped the beasts appendages from her body.

"SCREEEEEE!!!"

The beast forgot about fleeing as it became enraged that it had once again been injured and decided to fight back.

She launched a flurry of deadly thrusts from her poison tipped tail, only for Mal to effortlessly sidestep them as if she were moving in slow motion.

When he grew tired of playing around, he spun the two claws around in his hands before stabbing them into the stomach of the woman they came from.

Hot blood flowed as she screamed in pain, the metallic scent of it was enough to drive his instincts even wilder.

An unfathomable hunger welled up inside of him. Unable to control it, before he knew what he was doing, he'd leapt on top of the still reeling creature and taken a large bite into her neck.

'Delicious…DELICIOUS!'

Not only was the meat perfectly fatty and delectable, there was an energy in her body that was being transferred to Malachi and strengthening his body.

The boss stumbled and fell backwards as it's vision began to darken.

It struggled with the last of its meager strength to push the beast on top of it away, but it's efforts proved to be fruitless as Mal continued his ravenous feast and ate the beautiful monster.

Finally, a flash of golden light appeared and three items appeared in its place.

A ring, a pair of boots and a black sword.

"Holy shit… he did it!" Bill had gotten the entire battle on film and the stream of over 30 million viewers was abuzz.

Hearing the voice of another human was enough to send a shock to the brain of Malachi and he immediately froze.

He slowly stood up from the corpse and walked over to check on Nina and Opal.

The two girls had a broken arm and cracked ribs, respectively but as blessed those injuries weren't anything to worry about.

They were already sitting up and groaning as they stared at a still transformed Malachi.

"Congrats on your first dungeon clear kiddo."

"I'd kiss you for saving us but you don't look very friendly at the moment."

Malachi merely rolled his orange eyes and helped the girls get to their feet.

He wasn't allowed to change back just yet because Opal was rather intrigued by his transformation and wanted to take a few pictures.

Meanwhile Nina collected the drops and brought them all to Malachi.

"Here, these are rightfully yours."

"Hm? We all fought the boss together didn't we? So why would I alone get the drops when there's enough to share?" Malachi asked.

"Are you kidding?" Nina stared at him in shock. "You're the only one who did anything substantial!"

While that may have been true, Malachi was not a greedy person.

He approached Nina and took two items from her hand, the ring and the sword leaving her with only the boots.

"H-hey you forgot-"

Malachi just ignored her and walked towards Opal and handed her the large black sword.

She stared at him in confusion before he held up his ring with a sense of satisfaction.

"Since they're my items, naturally I can do what I want with them right? And I want you girls to keep them as mementos."

He was certain that the sword would've gone to waste with him since he had no interest in learning how to wield one and the boots weren't quite his style either.

Leaving the girls no room to refuse, he began to walk towards the exit.

"Let's hurry guys, we only have three hours before this thing closes."

-

When Malachi exited the portal, the cheers of applause were deafening.

"THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!"

"You're my hero!!"

"Those flames were so cool!!"

The compliments from the crowd filled his eardrums and Malachi truly could not understand it.

He didn't think he'd ever look less heroic than he did right now.

His transformation had ripped through his clothes leaving him bare chested and with tattered pants.

'Is this how Bruce Banner feels?'

Suddenly a group of people approached him and he smiled when he recognized each one.

Luna , Sei, Aisha, Aubrey, and Morgan were all walking forward to congratulate him on the conquering of his first gate.

He was surprised when Sei rushed forward to hug him in front of everyone with tears streaming down her face.

"Did I make you worry?" He chuckled.

Sei's only response was to pinch him as hard as she could.

Even though he was being assaulted, he couldn't help but find her antics incredibly cute.

He tilted her head up and planted a firm kiss on her lips and the crowd went wild.

Ever since that picture had been circulating online a few weeks ago, the whole world had been clamoring to find out who the woman was and now it looked like they had their answer.

The sounds of camera flashes filled the air as everyone wanted to get a picture of the loving couple.

In the back of the crowd, Mal's ex girlfriend, Melanie was watching with a hurt expression.

Even if she somewhat expected this, it still broke her to see.

She knew what she'd done was unforgivable, but she walked away silently wishing that Mal knew the full story.

After the pair broke their kiss, Malachi held a blushing Sei in his arms as he accepted congratulations mixed with snide comments from Aisha and Aubrey.

"You did pretty good for a newbie." Aisha smirked.

In truth, he was exemplary but she didn't want him getting too full of himself like so many rookies do.

"Hey bro you almost died a lot, you should write a will and leave me all the money just in case." Aubrey joked.

Malachi rolled his eyes and silently wondered if he should mention to Aubrey that even if he died, there was no way in hell Aisha would let her want for anything.

"My friend… that was truly impressive!" Morgan was stunned.

From beginning to end Malachi had never given up even when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds.

Even when Morgan was younger and more hot blooded than he is today, he never would've been that courageous.

"Ah.. well I'm a bit disappointed I ruined the gift you gave me." Malachi honestly replied. "I wanted to be like you a bit."

Morgan looked at the young man who fought fiercely before shaking his head and patting his shoulder.

"You don't have to be like me Mal, you're going to be so much better."