No.

Light, a hazy sort of thing through a veil of rushing water. Something hot seared into my face.

Was this death?

No.

My whole body was throbbing. I tried to take a breath, and choked. I coughed up water, and spat out mud. I groaned, flopped over onto my hands and knees and dragged myself up out of the river, gasping through clenched teeth.

No.

I wasn’t done. I wouldn’t fade into bleak nothing again, prompted by the irritating system and its responses that made a terrible attempt at humor. This wasn’t over. Not yet.

I didn’t dare look down. I didn’t want to see the damage the fall had caused. I could barely move now, and several sections of my body seemed to be broken or injured beyond normal movement. I knew the extent of my overall health, though, from the blazing warning in my vision.

Low Health! 1 / 50 HP remaining!

Critically injured!

You have received a grievous wound that must be treated. While Critically Injured you lose the benefits of automatic Health Restoration.

This would end here. I had nothing to lose but one single digit, and I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I peered up at the sheer cliff and caught sight of an indented pathway snaking up to the top a few hundred feet above. That would be my highway to vengeance.

I could feel the cold, pointy pebbles of the bank beneath my feet. My slippers were gone. My chest felt cold and wet, I was shivering from being soaked and the wind whipping over me. I knew that I was naked from the waist down. It was painfully apparent. All of my belongings seemed to be gone except...

The flutter of the tattered blue vest appeared in my vision. It was practically a cardigan at this point, and offered little warmth or protection, but at least I still had it. I had nothing else on me.

Actually…

I opened my Menu and saw it.

[ Shattered Wood ]

Well, it’s not nothing.

I climbed. Hand over hand, I made my precarious climb up the narrow ribbon of exposed rock along the side of the cliff. Anger and shame consumed me, and only worsened with each foot of the stretch that I conquered. It was as though my rage was giving me energy, and speed. I noticed that while my Stamina was only at twenty points, it would only decrease for a moment, and then return. It appeared that the measurement was breaking even between my arduous climb and something else entirely. I didn’t think too deeply about it. Just another mechanic I didn’t understand, probably. Whatever was happening, it was helping. Not only was I not tiring, I was also picking up the pace with each passing moment.

Faster and faster I began to climb, scaling the rock face in a fraction of the time it would have taken me in my body back in the other world. When I finally reached the top, I watched as my Stamina continued to increase, completely unhindered by my strenuous activity. Something was definitely off. It had never filled up this fast before.

Whatever. It’s still just some additional bullshit thing, in this bullshit world full of bullshit.

I waited just long enough for it to fill up, which only took a few seconds. Then, peering down the path I’d arrived on, I began running, looking for any sign of the Stoor Worm.

I was fast. I’d never been this fast before, I knew that. I was absolutely dusting it, tearing off through the trees as though engine-powered.

Whatever, Vale. Don’t worry about it. Stop fighting every aspect of this world and just accept the one thing since you’ve arrived that has worked in your favor.

I picked up speed as I hit the downward slope of the hill that had been so exhausting to climb, and I passed the spot where I’d juked out the beast and switched directions. However, as I passed the tree that I'd laid Sage against, my stomach dropped. He wasn’t there. That could only mean one thing...

That stupid fucking worm ate Sage!

As an NPC, dying was permanent, just like in the world before. A hot dagger of bile filled my chest, and I choked it back. I was shaking now, and not from the cold. It was pure rage. Something I’d not often experienced in my life. Normally, I ran from these sorts of situations. But that had gotten me half-killed, and now, something about my primitive lizard brain was going into overdrive.

He was completely innocent. He didn’t deserve to die. I deserve to die, not him. The Stoor Worm deserves to die!

This spurred me on. I pushed myself, watching my Stamina begin to deplete but fighting against whatever entity was causing it to increase. I blazed forward, pushing through the dense forestation until I flashed into the clearing where Shizu had been devoured. I saw it.

The Stoor Worm was lazily moving along the ground, and looked to be heading back to the hole in the earth it had created to get here. Why hadn’t it just made a new one? Who could say. But it was my opportunity. I pounded my bare feet against the ground and saw a glint.

The hatchet!

It was standing upright, its blade in the dirt where I’d dropped it.

I was there in an instant and didn’t slow my pace as I shot forward, wrapped my fingers around the handle of the hatchet, and continued. The woods around me were a blur as I was quickly closed in on the Stoor Worm.

Die, you fucking tunnel snake!

With a loud cry, I leaped at the beast, hatchet in hand. My speed caused me to overshoot my jump, and I cleared the ten-foot back of the creature with ease, just barely able to drag the blade of the hatchet across its skin.

The beast roared, and wheeled around to face whatever had struck it, but I was already on the other side, having pulled off a fantastic distraction without meaning to. I raised the hatched and brought it down in an arc, chopping into the beast’s flesh, and then bolted around behind it, en route to the other side. The beast turned again, but this time, in the direction I was running to, and it saw me.

Miscalculation!

It reacted quicker than I thought, and opened its jaws, gathering green mist to blast me. But, I dove to the side and the blast of paralysis didn’t touch me. I tumbled in the dirt. Hard. My speed was going to be the undoing of me, but I hadn’t taken any damage.

I could see my HP was still hovering at one point, and I sighed in relief. Of course, I probably should have known I hadn’t received any damage, as I would have just died. But that was logic, and logic had no place here in this fight based on pure rage and adrenaline.

I shot up with ease. I felt more in control of my body than before, but I wasn’t sure why. Nothing had changed.

Had it?

There I was, thinking about stuff again, when I should have been acting. I focused, getting my bearings, and watched as the Stoor Worm seemed to be confusedly trying to locate me.

Now.

I blazed forward again, hatchet at the ready, and raked the blade across the worm’s flank just as its head had turned the opposite direction in its search. It bellowed in agony, and I had to suddenly leap to the side again to avoid its sinewy back portion. The body came flying at me as the beast thrashed in torment from my scrape. But, this time, I was able to quickly turn, and as the body moved toward me again, I chopped down hard, piercing the flesh, watching as black blood gushed out of the wound.

New Combat Skill Learned [ One Handed Weapons - Ax Weapon Fighting - Level 1 ]

More screams. I wanted to laugh.

Take that you filthy nightmare.

I didn’t bother to read the Skill’s flavor text, as it would only distract me. It seemed wildly unwise to offer a system where obscuring messages could pop up in the middle of combat, but that was neither here, nor there. The hatchet was instantly more comfortable in my grip, and I knew that it was high time to switch tactics.

I slid to the side, seeing the body thrash again in an attempt to take me down, and this time I shot around it, heading to the front of the monster. I wanted to kill it, and it seemed like a few hatchet wounds to the face would fuck up its day pretty badly.

The monster screamed, and it must have seen me coming because it suddenly positioned its head directly at me, its black eyes all holding me in their creepy stare, and it released a cloud of the toxic mist directly at me.

I’m tired of this.

I jumped.

I cleared the mist--somehow--and landed right on the monster’s fat head and neck, and before it could react, I began chopping into its skull. I hit it repeatedly, and quickly, like I had with the wood earlier, which seemed liked a lifetime ago now. I squeezed with my legs, trying to hold on, as the moment I began my assault, the worm thrashed so badly that it almost threw me off. But I kept chopping and it kept screaming, more black blood beginning to gush and squirt, covering me.

Then my hatchet got stuck in it’s thick skull. I’d hit it so fast that the velocity had lodged it into the bone. It wasn’t deep enough to kill it yet, but it was deep enough to keep me from retrieving it with my infinitesimally low Might score.

“Shit!” I yelled, and the beast bucked again, and this time I couldn’t hold on and tumbled from its back. As the ground rushed up at me, I felt that I knew what to do. I positioned myself into a roll, and used my momentum to somersault harmlessly along the ground, springing up.

How am I doing this?

There still wasn’t time to ponder. I watched as the beast roared, and made a direct flight to ouchie town, speeding at me with its jaws wide.

I zipped my finger in the air. I only had one more weapon.

As the Shattered Wood appeared in my hand, I felt the despair of my predicament set in. It was just a club. I remembered the effect it carried, [ Stunning Strike ], but that didn’t seem like a fantastic thing to bet on.

Here goes nothing.

The Stoor Worm was advancing. As it came within a few feet of me, I reared back with the makeshift club. Green fog burbled up from its throat, and then I acted.

For the hundredth time today it seemed, I sidestepped, then I released the most aggressive swing I was able to muster. The weapon connected with the underside of the monster’s jaw, and I watched as the words appeared in front of me.

You activated [Stunning Strike]!

You attack with a disabling blow that sends your target reeling.

Effect: Stun

Duration: 8 Seconds

Cooldown: 1 Minute

FUCK YES!

The creature dropped. I had to act fast. I clambered up onto its back again, and reached for the hatchet. It was still stuck, so I slid the [ Shattered Wood ] underneath the handle, using its leverage, I jammed upward.

CRACK!

The [ Shattered Wood ] broke in two just as the hatchet’s blade came lose.

“Fuck!” I yelled. I opened my Menu quickly, and put the two pieces of the definitely Shattered Wood in my inventory. Then, I grabbed the hatchet, and slid down to the ground. I didn’t have much time. I wheeled to face the beast. Its eyes were all staring in different directions as it laid in its stupor. I attacked.

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

I hit the Stoor Worm’s face repeatedly, as fast as I could. Suddenly, a red bar appeared above.

It’s Health is low! Now or never!

Seeing a visual representation of its life force spurred me on even more. I chipped away quickly at the creature’s HP until finally…

“GRAWWWWWP!” it screamed out, and its HP meter disappeared.

“Yes! I did--”

From the creature’s jaws erupted another plume of gas. But this one was red. I had been standing right in its path and was too busy celebrating to move out of the way, and the blast hit me full force. My skin screamed. My body was on fire, and I put my hand out in front of me and watched as it melted away before my eyes.

Suddenly, Shizu’s words bubbled into my mind.

Even if you kill it, it can still hit you with a final attack, so watch out.

“Son of a bitch,” I wanted to say. But, my face had been dissolved.

So instead, I just died.