《The Man who Could not Die》Chapter 10: Stand
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Seeing the impending doom that approached me, I swung my head forward and then back with as much possible momentum as I could. Thanks to doing, I managed to just free my head as I headbutted the bastard that had been biting my ear away, although I got a laceration on my ear as a result of my efforts. That however, was most definitely the least of my problems, as I frantically tried to move my groin out of the danger zone. Yet, this proved to be a fruitless action as the bastard continued to inch ever closer until he……
“HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA………….AA………..A….”
Releasing a piercing scream that even I didn’t know was possible from me, I felt what was undoubtedly, once of the worst pains I had ever experienced in my life. Unlike the instantaneous pain and panic from being repeatedly stabbed to death, this was a feeling that refused to go away, as unluckily for me, the bastard was unable to bite through my prized possessions and instead chose to crush them in the most painful way possible.
It seemed that my cry didn’t only manage to surprise me, as it also surprised the creatures around me to the point that most of them took a momentary pause in their attempts to eat me. It was at this moment that the experience of countless beatings finally paid off, as despite the unimaginable pain I was going through I still managed to keep my awareness and consciousness, something that would have been previously impossible if my brain hadn’t grown somewhat desensitized to pain.
Thus, seeing the opening caused by my cry, I quickly jerked my entire body to momentarily gain movement. Then, kicking a spear up from the ground, I first used it to stab the bastard that was still biting down on me before quickly stabbing a few more of the unsuspecting creatures who had not fully regained focused. Picking up two more spears, I made a mad dash off in the direction of the boss room as I stabbed any of creatures around me, not really caring to kill them as so much as preventing them from restraining me again.
After sprinting for about a minute, my body was no longer able to keep going just off the adrenaline of the situation as I collapsed and threw up on the spot as tears trailed down my face. Deciding to ‘fix’ the situation as quickly as possible, I grabbed one of the spears and quickly stabbed it into my heart with as much strength as possible in order to end my suffering. Unfortunately, however, I was unable to make it deep enough to end my own life as I made it maybe a centimeter past my skin.
Trying to desperately kill myself, I then broke the spear off as I ran straight to the wall with half of the spear still barely lodged in me. Seeing the spear make a bit of progress, I continued to repeat this action until I the spear finally hit my heart and a piercing pain that brought with it a feeling of relieve overtook me as I lost consciousness.
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I didn’t have the luxury to think about my experiences when I woke up as I heard the creatures quickly approaching my location. Holding the broken spear in one hand as I grabbed the other off the floor, I resumed my mad sprint towards the cave as I quickly increased the distance between me and the stupid creatures.
While making my way back unobstructed, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind kept on bothering me, giving me a bad premonition as I reached ever closer to the place where this nightmare had started. However, my thoughts were momentarily prioritized by the creatures that were chasing after me along with the phantom pain that I was still feeling. Despite my body having fixed itself, I was still feeling a sickening feeling in my stomach along with the painful memory of the event only exacerbating this feeling. I shook my head in an attempt to get rid of this feeling, but it didn’t really do anything. It seemed that I was simply going to have to deal with it, so, resuming my journey towards the boss room, I continued my trot through the corridor as I hoped that the events around me would help to distract me from my memories of the event.
As I made my last turn into the corridor that led into the boss room, I suddenly remember the big problem that I was now facing. Due to experience I had just gone through, my mind had managed to forget that the boss room had… well…… a boss level monster in it. And now, due to stupidly running back in its direction, I now found myself on a dead end… or well not actually. Although thanks to this shock, my body was able to partially forget the nightmarish event that had just transpired.
I still had the time to get out from here and turn around, the only problem was that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get away from here and run past the creatures in order to continue my path outside of this dungeon. Instead, it was looking like the better option was to turn away and head deeper into the dungeon via the boss room, although I was sure that it would only cause more problems in the long run. Still, I wanted to avoid being trapped by these fuckers again, so I was seriously considering Jumping deeper into the dungeon.
When I heard the characteristic moans of the creatures as well as the cacophony of their footsteps, I decided to take a gamble on myself. Either I managed to kill them all here, or I would have to run away deeper into the dungeon and deal with whatever the outcome was then and there. Thus, making my way towards the corridor, I began to make my way towards their direction as I came face to face with the creatures once again.
It seemed the bastards didn’t decide to bring their spears with them, which meant that the ones in my hand were all I had for the occasion. Thus, as soon as I was in range, I plunged my spear into the hard of one of the creatures as I immediately tripped the following one. Living up to their stupidity, a good amount of the creatures managed to trip themselves as I rapidly plunged my spear into the creatures at the back with enough speed to prevent them from possibly grabbing it and taking away one of my only two weapons. With a few of them getting close to me, I used the shorter spear to hit them on their heads as I cleared all of the creatures in my vicinity before focusing on the creatures on the back.
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This part of the dungeon was rather narrow, so I was able to put up a better defense like the Spartans did at Thermopylae. Unlike them however, I neither had a shield nor the help of 299 others to keep the mass of creatures at bay, and with each attack that I did, I drew ever closer to the boss room and my eventual defeat. And no matter how many I was able to kill, it didn’t really appears as though I was putting a dent into their numbers.
I really wanted to complain about how broken the balance of monsters seemed to be. As the number of Minotaurs and hellhounds was far tamer compared the endless waves of creatures that I’ve had to deal with. Still, considering how this situation arose, it was possible that this was something that was easily avoidable by more experienced adventurers and the other monsters might be more difficult normally. Still, that was something for me to worry about later, as right now I was using my old tactic or killing and tripping the stupid creatures in a seemingly futile attempt to trim their endless numbers.
I was getting quite efficient at this strategy, as I was getting better at tripping up these stupid monsters and dealing with them on the spot as compared to before. However, even this was not enough, as I was slowly but surely being pushed back.
After around five minutes of fighting, I was now beginning to see that the numbers of creatures were actually being trimmed, as the noise level of the creature’s moans seemed to be decreasing. Still, from what my eyes could see, there were still as many of these fuckers are before, and I was now making my way into the corridor where the boss room was.
Considering how bloody strong the boss Minotaur looked, and not even counting the two stupid hellhounds he had with him, I decided to focus all of my attention on defeating these fuckers and avoiding a situation where I would be stuck in the boss room, as it might truly be a hopeless one.
Thus, continuing to use my legs to trip the fuckers near me whenever I could, I tried to halt their advance as much as I could. This time, I managed to trip enough of them that it seemed to have caused a reaction with many in the back tripping over those on the front as they pushed forward. Not letting this opportunity go to waste, I quickly began stabbing those on the ground while using my other hand to deal with whoever got near me. Thankfully, the narrowness of the corridor prevented too many of them from going around to flank me, not that they didn’t try. And with many of those that tried also tripping, a small wall of creatures began to form that seemed rather difficult for the creatures to cross.
This time, I truly managed to halt their advance at this makeshift wall, and I was now getting pretty good at quickly plunging my spear into any of the advancing creatures. It was as if I was playing a game with the purpose of preventing the creatures from crossing the invisible line between the dead creatures and my feet, and I was getting pretty damn good at it. Thus, with a smile on my face and a vengeful wrath fueling me, I repeated the actions of building my wall of bodies as I exterminated the creatures that had caused me much harm and humiliation.
However, my revenge was short lived, as a somewhat familiar noise entered my ears. When I turned around to see what this familiar noise was, the sight of a Minotaur coming out from the wall greeted me. Just a second later, more cracks began appearing on the walls as more Minotaurs, along with the cursed hellhounds, began to make their way out of the dungeon’s walls.
It seemed that my time to deal with the creatures had been cut prematurely, and I would have to make a quick decision about what course of action I would take, lest I found myself sandwiched between these two sets of now equally terrifying monsters. Thinking about it deeply, I hoped that my little level up was enough to provide me with a fighting change, thus, turning around, I stabbed the monsters coming out from the walls as I made a dash towards the boss room. Before I could get there, the sound of a hellhound freeing itself from the wall came from behind me. I, however, was not worried, as I quickly turned and dealt with the bastard before resuming my run as more and more of the hellhounds I didn’t manage to kill on my run freed themselves from the wall. Still, the distance between us was too great, and I managed to enter the boss room once more as this time, I would face the inhabitants of the room I had made my base for a few hours……
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