Zortex could not stand up, he felt as if his body weighted a ton. The Health bar in the corner of his eye was basically invisible and even worse he was still under effect of the of the infection from the rat’s bite plus the bleeding effect.

You are Bleeding. Your HP will decrease by 10% each minute.

He hadn’t even checked his stats yet since entering AoL because he had been too excited to take part into the quest. He didn’t even think to follow the usual steps done by any noob and now he had no idea how to solve this situation. He had let Matthew drag him into a quest and he got completely screwed by him. Fucking Matthew! Rage overcame his misery giving him some energy. I will not die here! He wanted to survive and he would find a way to do so, no matter what.

His ears caught the sound of movement from around the room. No time to check my status. He had to fight or die. He remembered seeing five slimes in the room when there was still light, three were close to the door, one was climbing the left wall and another one was in a corner close to where he fell. He knew that they were all attracted by his presence, and slime never chose to run as rat did. If his guess was right he probably had only 1 HP left and no HP regeneration working. A simple attack of a slime connecting would send him back to his white room in Endless.

He had to strike first, before they could gang on him. The first target had to be the slime which was in the corner closest to him. But where was it? The room was completely dark now that the light crystal was gone with the traitor. Yes, a fucking traitor! I will kill Matthew! After all they went through together all these years and he just dropped on him all the fault of his unsuccessful life. “Stop!” Zortex told himself. This is not the moment for that. Now he had to survive.

He started crawling in the direction he heard the closest noise from a slime. His knife in hand, he moved slowly trying to make the less noise possible to be able to hear anything happening around him. After a few seconds he felt a close noise in front of him and he recognized it. It was the sound the slimes made when they stretched a part of their body making a tentacle to attack. Zortex rolled to his left side just in time to hear something hit the ground where he had just been. With the knife in his hand he slashed the position he was just a second ago and he felt the resistance of something being cut. Good! I should be less than a meter away from my target. He moved in that direction and slashed again, however he didn’t touch anything. He had misjudged the distance and missed his best chance to win. He decided to roll again to his left, repeating his previous move. His instincts told him it was around the time the slime could launch a new attack. Luckily he was right, another thud came from his right where he had just been. He had probably avoided the attack by only a few centimeters. Once again he slashed the new tentacle and felt the knife passing through something squishy, but he didn’t believe he could win with just that, he had cut the main body.

Before losing the advantage, he crawled forward a bit more and slashed again and this time his attack connected. So he slashed 2 more times as fast as possible and felt the slime in front of him deflate. He had killed the first one, however he also came to the conclusion that he would not survive against the other four. He needed a plan.

Zortex started to think as fast as he could while moving away. There had to be something he could do in this situation. The best way for him would be to recover his health if he could. If it was the previous him with perfect health, he would probably be able to handle five slimes at once, but now he saw no possibility there. Infection and bleeding were working against him.

Wait! I can try to stop the bleeding as in the real world he thought. He had to move fast, the other slimes moving his way. With some effort he took off his shirt, cut it in half and then he used one piece as bandage, wrapping himself in the belly where he was bleeding. With hope he waited for a notification, but nothing appeared. Fuck! Just my stupid luck.

Probably the slimes were upon him by now, so he just laid on his back and waited for the inevitable. Nothing happened. He could hear them, but they were not getting closer anymore. Why this turn of events? Did they get scared when they heard him killing their comrade? It didn’t seem like that. They were making weird noises. Almost as if they were sucking something. Of course! They are sucking the blood left where I fell down. It was absolute darkness in here and they could not see him. They were tracking him by the smell, or whatever other senses they possessed. There had to be a way he could exploit this!

The bleeding effect has stopped. From now on you will not lose HP anymore due to that.

Yes! The notification he had been waiting before had arrived now. He was still infected by the rat bite but his HP would start increasing again, albeit very slowly. He was not safe yet, as now the slimes were getting closer again. They had sucked dry the blood in the position he fell down and now they were following the trail of blood he had left while crawling. He had to run to as long as possible to let his HP restore.

He started crawling again while getting back some energy, but it was too early to stand up. Zortex felt that the enemies were gaining ground, so he played his last card. He still had with him the bloody part of the shirt he tore from himself. He threw it to the other side of the room and waited. He didn’t dare to make a noise. He also stopped breathing so anxious he was. The noise from the slimes stopped for a second. Then they started moving again, but the direction was the opposite from him. Perfect! My plan has worked. Now I need to think of something else. It will not be long before they will be back for me.

His health was still low, too low. Maybe he could survive one attack, but not 2. The problem was that as soon as he would be in range to slash a slime, there would be 3 more attacking him with tentacles. It was impossible to avoid all of them at the same time. Not with the body in his condition and without being able to see their attacks. Could he get some light? He couldn’t think of anything. No way to light a fire or to use magic to light a crystal. If only he had learned a spell he could attack from a distance and be safe. His mana was full. It would be no problem to waste it on them.

Zortex suddenly had an idea. It came back to him something Matthew said to him before hunting rats. He said to just kick them or throw rocks, and Zortex had seen some rocks scattered around the room and he also felt them under his body while crawling. He started moving as fast as possible trying to find as many as he could. He wanted to accumulate them before attacking.

After 2 minutes he managed to pile up two dozens more or less, and by that time the slimes had finished with his shirt and started to come back for him.

He was able to get to his knees right now and with some effort he could even stand up, but he wanted to keep his newfound little energy to throw rocks as strong as possible. He waited to pinpoint their position by their sound. When he was ready he threw the first one, however he missed. The rock hit the wall on the other side of the room and bounced back, at least from the noises he heard. Probably he had aimed too high, overestimating the height of the monsters. He made a new throw and he missed again. Where are those motherfuckers?!? He thought

He picked up another rock and launched it, and this time he heard a squishy sound. Yes! Zortex had made a hit finally. He had never played baseball during his school years and now he regretted it. Some experience would have been nice. He started throwing as fast as possible and using all of his strength. He made a few other hits, but the sound of approaching slimes didn’t stop and he knew why. Blunt weapons were not very effective against slimes, but he had nothing else, so he continued. He was wondering if he had killed at least one of them, however he had no way to know that. Nothing was giving away their presence apart from the noises. Suddenly a tentacle hit him in the shoulder and he stumbled back.

By now his HP could probably survive 3 hits, or so he hoped. The closest slime was now within range, so it was time for plan B. He scrambled back as fast as he could and reached his second stash of rocks. These were the heavy ones, that he could not throw very far, but if they connected they should deal a lot of damage. He picked up the biggest one and threw it to the position of the slime which had just hit him. He felt a nice squishy sound. Hopefully that was enough to kill it. He picked up a new one and launched a bit farther in the same direction. That rock just went against the floor. That meant that the slimes were not coming at him in a straight line. Very bad! He had two more rocks left and no idea of the direction of the enemy. He thought he heard something a bit to the left. So he threw the rock that way. He could not afford to get hit again just to pinpoint the direction of the attack.

Luckily he felt again the squishy sound. Yes! I am a genius! He thought to himself. He prepared the last rock, confident in his ability. There was still sound of movement so he was not alone yet. His heart was beating super fast in his chest. His senses were as sensitive as possible and he was sure he could catch any movement close to him. I am going to win he thought.

An attack came from behind him hitting his scalp. How it that possible? That's cheating! The tentacle stuck to him and the slime actually dashed to his face trying to suffocate him. That was its mistake and Zortex’s best chance. If the slime had kept attacking from a distance with tentacles, it would have won. This way instead Zortex was able to easily slash at it with the knife and kill it before completely losing his breath.

One more slime and he would be free. The problem was that he could take no more attacks and he had no more rocks to throw. Being so close to death had once again slowed his body to barely being able crawl. He tried to hear it but he could sense nothing.

He stayed tense like that for 5 whole minutes but nothing moved. He couldn’t believe it. Apparently there were no more slimes left. One must have died when he had thrown the smaller rocks from a distance.

Zortex laid on his back and tried to relax. He could not believe he had just fought the greatest battle of his life against 5 slimes. The lowest of the lowest monsters and yet in this moment he felt as if he had defeated a nest of dragons. And just like that he fell asleep.