I punched the Enigma in the face and jumped back, avoiding a leg sweep. Although barely.
‘Ha…’
My body was littered with wounds, but so was the Enigma. This fight had been going on for about half an hour, and with each second passing, both of us would strike each other with devastating blows that would easily shatter a boulder like it was glass.
Blood trickled down my nose and entered my mouth.
The metallic, mana-rich blood of mine tasted weird…I hated it.
It was so repulsive, that I wanted to puke. But I held back.
I swallowed the vomit that climbed up my throat and looked at the Enigma with a wary gaze.
Just like me, it was also severely wounded, maybe even more injured than me.
And that was good.
“What’s wrong?”
I spoke, taunting it.
It had spouted the bullshit of making me afraid for so long but now?
It was silent, silent as the sound of a man waiting to die.
The enigma glared(?) at me, and If I had to be honest.
It brought me an incomprehensible amount of joy.
“Haha…”
I could not just hold it in…The feeling of that thing being quiet when it was babbling non stop for so long.
It was exhilarating.
“…”
The enigma, exasperated, continued to glare at me.
“What’s wrong?! Scared yourself?”
Enjoying the state of the Enigma, I continued to taunt it as I gained time to rest my tired and injured body.
“Where is all that talk about making me feel fear?”
I received no response, and that fueled me even further! Even fucking further to annoy the shit out of that thing. Taunting it until it made the fatal mistake of attacking me first!
“Come on! Where is all that vigor!” 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚
My voice penetrated its ears and made its skin shiver.
“Shut up.”
And finally, I received a response from the damn thing, a response so full of hate and annoyance that turned to utter joy when it reached my ears, I laughed like there was no tomorrow and moved forward, tempting the enigma to come and attack.
I even left myself full of openings, just so it would take the bait.
And knowing myself, it was going to take it in just a moment!
And Voila!
The enigma, with a sudden burst of energy, rushed at me, just like I had expected.
In order to make sure it didn’t sway off course, I kept myself full of openings.
And just when it was close to attacking me, it was the most opportune moment.
To strike back.
Jumping back a bit in order to lessen the impact of the elbow coming towards my chin, I, with steady footwork and great acting(of course) pretended to be hit by the blow.
Well, since it was ‘me’ who delivered the elbow, of course, it hurt.
But I managed to portray the pain more fiercely than it was.
Hence…I got it.
I got the enigma in the perfect position!
Laughing to myself, I hurriedly reached out with my arms and grabbed the right arm of the Enigma before it could pull it back.
Looking at its face with a devilish glare, I dashed forward and spun myself, with the arm of the enigma still held firmly in my ‘lock’.
As I spun, I made sure to slam its body on the ground. Due to the weird angle, its arm was now broken and bent at a weird angle.
Before the Enigma could recover, I let go of its broken arm and hurriedly grabbed its neck in a choke hold.
“Urgh!”
It groaned in pain as my forearm and bicep crushed its neck.
“Die you fucker!”
I cursed at it, intending to suffocate the damn thing to death with my hold.
As I was suffocating it to death, the enigma tried fighting back, by means of trying to roll its body or even try to punch me with its left arm.
Because of the great flexibility my body possessed, it was able to succeed, continuously hitting my lower chin and sometimes my nose, causing it to blaze with pain.
: Die! Die!”
But I did not relent, I kept adding more and more force until there was nothing it could do.
And it could do nothing only in death.
The enigma rolled on the ground and took me along with it in a desperate final struggle, but to its dismay, I was still grabbing it in a chokehold.
Even though I was now the one on the ground, it would be unable to attack me.
Gritting my teeth, I refrained from using mana to enhance my strength in order to end this quickly. It was hard to stop my habit of using mana to increase my strength. .𝘤𝘰𝑚
“Gah…gh…”
Only its painful and depressing attempts at a guttural scream managed to escape my hold.
And then, as its vein appeared on its skin it gradually started to turn red. Its body grew limp.
I knew I had done it, I had killed the damn thing.
But I did not give up my hold, not until the tower announced the clearing of the trial.
Even though my body ached with pain, I did not decrease the amount of strength I was inputting until I heard that damn trial-clearing notification.
And thankfully, I heard it soon.
[You have cleared the 40th trial, the Trial of Thyself.]
[You are the first person to clear the trial, additional rewards have been given.]
[You have received: Crystal of Enigma.]
[You have received: Perfect Enigma’s amulet.]
[Transporting to the 41st floor.]
Before I could even let go, white light surrounded my body as the Enigma’s body faded to dust.
Shocked, and terrified, I screamed.
“Wait no! I want to go back to the lobby and rest!
But the tower did not listen.
[Transported successfully, Welcome, Challenger, to the 41st floor.]
“Wait!”
Before I knew it, I was in a body not my own, and around me were corpses of people, all mangled and torn apart by the claws and teeth of monsters, some even with intestines spilling out.
The scene of torn buildings and debris filling up the roads, along with monsters filled my sight. And I wondered.
“What the he-”
“Help!”
𝑖𝘦.𝑐𝘰𝘮