Sucking in a very cold breath, Arthur focused on his surroundings. The injury was minimal so it didn’t really matter at that moment. There was a way bigger problem at hand that he needed to deal with.
The hordes of monsters attacked Arthur at the same time. There was no way for him to escape. So, he immediately activated ‘Lonesome Warrior’s Howl’ and ‘Soul Fear’ at the same time.
Immediately, a loud roar coupled with a strong wave of energy exploded from his body, sending most of the spirits stumbling back in fear. The effect of Soul Fear immobilized the closest ones and stunned many of the other monsters.
Arthur immediately took that opportunity and dashed forward, slicing through several targets in quick succession. Notifications popped up in his retina quickly only to get ignored the moment they appeared.
‘This hurts! Each hit feels like I’m swinging at a hard wall!’ Arthur clenched his teeth as he kicked and sliced through his enemies. Not only was their body nature annoying to slice with a sword, Arthur knew that his Sanguine Blade was sustaining damage constantly with each hit.
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[Ding!]
[+1 Health.]
It took the monsters a few seconds to regain their composure, during which, Arthur had already killed almost 7 of them. His speed had increased again and his monstrous strength made him appear like a deadly ghost, rushing through the masses of Lake Spirits.
Once they finally lost the sense of overwhelming fear, it was chaos again. The monsters quickly chased after Arthur like crazed beasts. Swarms and swarms of these spirits manifested out of thin air as they encircled him from every direction.
‘Great. I can’t create any kind of space.’ Arthur clenched his teeth as he dodged a sharp slash to his neck before he grabbed the monster’s head and smashed it into the ground. Then, he grabbed the rest of the body and threw it at two other monsters.
At the same time, Arthur was constantly manifesting blood arrows as if there was no tomorrow. The area around him turned into a complex net of flying projectiles that kept hitting their targets. The arrows turned out to be quite useful as they were able to kill a good number of spirits.
Meanwhile, Arthur himself didn’t really focus on that as he kept fighting the dozens and dozens of monsters attacking him. His reaction speed was luckily considerably faster than most of them so he was able to dodge the attacks in time. However, with their sheer numbers, Arthur quickly started getting overwhelmed.
*BANG*
Punching a monster, Arthur stabbed the second one with his left claw before he kicked a third monster in the face. Another monster sneaked up behind him and slashed his back.
“Ugh!” The boy groaned before he turned around and punched the monster square in the chest, bursting through its body.
‘It really got me. That attack took at least 5% of my health.’ Arthur clenched his teeth. ‘Not good, not good at all. I need to find a path out of this mess.’
Looking around him, all Arthur could see were swarms of these spirits closing up on him like a horde of zombies.
As he was thinking of a way out, Arthur kept fighting to the best of his ability. The more he killed, the more monsters manifested around him.
The wind swept through the area and the piles of crushed crystal bodies started growing in number.
Minutes passed in the same state with Arthur moving through the swarms of monsters, killing everything in his path. At some point, his mind stopped thinking and only his instinct was working. He was at a point where he didn’t even need to think for his body to take the right decision, like an automatic killing machine, programmed to fight hordes and hordes of enemies with amazing efficiency.
[Ding!]
[You have killed 10…]
[Ding!]
[You have leveled up.]
[+2 Bonus Points.]
[Ding!]
[You have killed 12…]
[+4 Strength.]
His stats kept rising at breakneck speed, crushing through one level, and then another one in a matter of minutes. It took him days to go from level 24 to 26 and now he was up to level 28 in a matter of 30 minutes. The number of monsters he was killing was simply that ridiculous.
However, the damage Arthur was sustaining grew along with it as he exhausted his stamina and mana rapidly.
“Ugh!”
What were at first superficial scratches turned quickly into deep, bloody injuries all across his arms and legs. The sharp limbs of the Lake Spirits were simply brutal. However, Arthur was still quite shocked.
‘The Sharded Skull Armor set is insane! It’s deflecting most hits!’ He thought to himself.
Although the situation was extremely bad, it would’ve been way worse had it not been for Arthur’s powerful armor. It was capable of stopping most attacks from his enemies, easily deflecting or absorbing them without any dents or cracks.
It was safe to say that Arthur would’ve already been dead had this armor not been active. But, it was still consuming mana to stay active which put an extra toll on his mana bar.
“Hah… Hah…”
The boy dodged another attack that almost sliced his head and then barely sidestepped another one that almost cut his leg open. Arthur was growing exhausted and he couldn’t find a way out.
‘Goddamit!’
Swinging his sword, Arthur killed another monster that almost stabbed his chest before he kicked another one. But, a third monster, for the god knows what time, sliced his leg, almost making him fall to the ground.
‘They’re coordinating their attacks to get me trapped! How could it get any worse than this?!’
Arthur was already on the edge. He had been fighting for almost 45 minutes without stopping and the number of these monsters was only increasing. It was as if the lake was manifesting these things by the dozen.
‘Maybe if I can somehow create an opportunity to escape… All I need is just a small op-‘
At that moment, several spirits attacked him at the same time.
“Ugh! Can you give me a second to think, goddammit?!” He yelled loudly. The frustration Arthur felt at that moment had reached its threshold. He had enough of these monsters that kept popping up in his face wherever he looked.
Arthur’s yell echoed in the empty ice lake to the point where even Arthur was surprised that he had yelled that loudly.
Then, for the first time, the monsters suddenly halted their steps, all at the same time. Their frozen expressions were as blank as ever. However, Arthur immediately felt something wrong with their behavior.
‘Why did they stop? Was my scream that intimidat-‘
*BADUMP*
At that moment, Arthur heard a soul-shaking noise in his ear. The sound was akin to a deep ripple… coming from the most horrifying places imaginable. Like a twisted heart beat of an ancient being or the cry of a horrifying beast, echoing across the vast area.
*BADUMP*
Looking around him in a hurry, Arthur couldn’t pinpoint the noise. It wasn’t coming from any of the monsters nor from the wind and the snow. However, each time that ripple echoed in his ears, Arthur felt his limbs grow cold and his face slowly paled.
*BADUMP*
‘What is this? Where is it coming from?’
Even as he tried to breathe in and out and calm himself, Arthur was starting to panic. The deep feeling of unease welled up in his heart.
‘Where is it goddamit?! What am I listening to?!’
“Show yourself!” He yelled in a not-so-calm manner. He was at his wits end and he couldn’t keep himself composed anymore. There was only so much Arthur could handle and this fight, as short as it was, took a toll on his mind as it only dragged on and on, without any positive outcome in sight. Now, there was another mysterious noise and possibly even more trouble on top of the trouble at hand.
It was getting out of control!
*BADUMP*
Then, at that moment, he saw something. It happened in a split second, but he still saw it and quickly realized… The reason he couldn’t pinpoint the noise wasn’t because it came from nowhere or because it was too far. Instead…
It came from beneath.
*BADUMP*
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets and ps. Let’s keep it up!