《Cimex Lvl. 35》

It’s level wasn’t too different from her own, making it a rather even match. Kurushimi was fairly confident in her ability to kill it. Kurushimi met the cimex’s large eyes as she grasped onto her polearm.

The cimex stared back at Kurushimi. It’s big, bug-like eyes made Kurushimi feel a little grossed out, though that only made Kurushimi want to kill it more. Kurushimi was never too good with bugs, so a bug that was taller than herself made her skin crawl a little.

The cimex had many sharp legs that it could use to attack Kurushimi with, whilst she only had so many limbs to defend with. But in this melee fight, Kurushimi had one advantage.

“As long as I can keep a good distance between us, I should be fine.”

The greatest strength of her polearm was her range advantage. If she could harass the cimex from range and weaken it with ‘Blood magic’, she could win against it easily. But this advantage was also a great disadvantage. In that, if the cimex got close, she wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.

“Let’s go then~!”

Kurushimi stabbed forward with her polearm, holding it near the bottom of the staff to extend her range. As the blade got closer to the cimex, it raised a leg to parry the attack. Kurushimi understood that it would be hard to land a hit, but it would be hard for the cimex to block everything.

Suddenly, the cimex leaped towards Kurushimi. Immediately after parrying Kurushimi’s first attack, the cimex attempted to close the gap between the two. The cimex was clearly not just a dumb insect and could also tell the conditions for winning on both side just like Kurushimi.

“Ha-!”

Not allowing it to approach so easily, Kurushimi slashed diagonally as she jumped back. The cimex staggered as it used multiple legs to block the attack. Seeing an opportunity, Kurushimi quickly jumped back to jab the cimex with her polearm. Blood splashed out from the cimex’s body after a successful hit.

The hit was only shallow, so the damage wasn’t large. The cimex immediately recovered and attempted to close the distance between itself and Kurushimi. But all Kurushimi needed was a single cut. Lifting her hand up after retreating back to a safe distance, Kurushimi concentrated mana into the cimex’s wound.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 5』!》

It’s carapace immediately split open as the blood sawed into it with a spinning motion. The shallow cut in the cimex’s body had suddenly enlarged into a substantial wound. Unable to predict the unexpected development, the cimex immediately lost balance and crashed to the ground with a pained cry.

Landing at her feet, Kurushimi instantly saw the opportunity she had created. Reeling back her polearm with one hand, she prepared to thrust down towards the cimex. Using this chance, Kurushimi hoped to land a much more fatal wound than the last.

The cimex had the back of its head completely exposed to Kurushimi. Aiming to kill it in this blow, Kurushimi thrusted towards the cimex. The blade flew towards it and with the sound of flesh being torn through, the cimex’s head completely disappeared.

The small head of the cimex appeared to have been completely destroyed by the strike. But Kurushimi found something strange. When Kurushimi stabbed the cimex in the back of the head, she felt it make contact but she didn’t feel it pierce through at all. Kurushimi thought no matter how frail the head of the cimex is, there was too little resistance from its head. But I heard the sound of flesh being torn through?

“GYAH?!”

Kurushimi looked down and suddenly felt immense pain in her leg. Only after finding out what happened did Kurushimi begin to properly feel the feedback of her nerves. The sound of flesh tearing wasn’t the cimex, it was her leg! The cimex had lodged one of its legs into her thigh, cutting straight through it. A large volume of warm blood poured out from the big wound.

Looking back down towards the grounded cimex, it slowly began to lift its head. Contrary to Kurushimi’s beliefs a second ago, the cimex’s head was perfectly intact. Kurushimi realised the cimex had actually bent its neck upon impact with the polearm blade, making it look like the cimex had lost its head. Kurushimi cursed at the cimex for being so flexible and at herself for falling for such a stupid trick.

Kurushimi flinched as the pain suddenly increased in her leg. The cimex had started digging into her leg more, using Kurushimi as support to instantly lift itself up. Suddenly, another leg flew towards Kurushimi’s waist.

SHIK-!

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 5』!》

“Hah...Hah...Hah…”

Kurushimi breathed heavily as she looked towards her waist. The leg of the cimex had stopped a few centimetres just before hitting her. She had just in time cut off the cimex’s leg with the blood that had poured out from her thigh. Kurushimi was glad she was able to stop the cimex before it pierced her waist as well. But she wasn’t safe just yet.

《Used skill: 『Short-distance teleportation Lvl. 2』!》

Kurushimi attempted to escape her current situation by teleporting out. Unable to move with the cimex’s leg still stuck in her thigh, Kurushimi tried ‘Short-distance teleportation’ to get out. But much to no avail, the cimex was only teleported with her. Kurushimi cursed her own luck but she knew she could only blame the fact she hadn’t tested what would happen if she teleported while in contact with a monster prior to this.

Still stuck with the cimex, Kurushimi was in a bit of a problematic circumstance. With the cimex’s numerous legs, it had no problem just switching to another leg. The cimex swung a leg at her, to which Kurushimi barely blocked using the staff of her polearm to take the hit. The cimex then swung another leg. But with her polearm being used to block a leg already, she needed to use something else.

“AGH!”

The cimex’s leg stopped as it pierced her hand. Kurushimi had chosen to sacrifice her hand to avoid a vital getting hit. Looking at the cimex, Kurushimi despaired after noticing it still had two legs free. Even if she, by some miracle, blocked another leg, Kurushimi still needed to stop the next leg after that. At this point, Kurushimi had almost given up. Just when the cimex aimed for Kurushimi’s head and she had shut her eyes, accepting death…

THUD.

Suddenly, something slammed down in front of Kurushimi. The cimex had completely disappeared except for its leg stuck in her thigh. It had been severed from the cimex and where the cimex once stood, a giant fist stood instead.

Stumbling back, Kurushimi looked upwards to see a hulking giant of rock. Kurushimi’s face had gone pale from shock as her eyes shook. The giant lifted it’s fist to show the squished body of the cimex stuck to the bottom. It really had been squatted like a bug.

《Used skill: 『Appraisal Lvl. 2』!》

《Rock golem Lvl. 42》

“What is a rock golem doing here!? This is nowhere near the edge!”

Not wanting to experience her last painful death of being flattened again, Kurushimi had made sure to absolutely stay away from the edge. Yet a rock golem had appeared anyway. Kurushimi hastily looked around herself to look for any more rock golems. Luckily, she couldn’t spot anything except for the avem that had seemingly bled out a while ago after attempting to escape.

Even so, being saved from the cimex and then being forced to fight the rock golem made Kurushimi feel as if she had just jumped out of the pan, only to land in the fire. Although, Kurushimi realised she had a much better chance of surviving now at least. She currently wasn’t in condition to fight the rock golem but if she could get to that avem quickly enough, she could use ‘Fangs’ to heal herself.

“Now it all depends on whether I can outrun the rock golem.”

Looking up at the rock golem, it was staring straight back at her. It seemed that the rock golem had switched targets to her after dealing with the cimex. Just as she tried to move, Kurushimi suddenly staggered as she felt the cimex leg in her thigh. She needed to remove it before she could run. Kurushimi hastily bent down and attempted to pull out the cimex’s leg. It was thoroughly lodged in there and she wouldn’t be going anywhere until she got it out.

The rock golem lifted its fist. Sweat dripped down Kurushimi’s forehead as she rushed to remove the cimex leg. After struggling for a second, Kurushimi winced from the immense pain but was able to remove it. Panting heavily, Kurushimi felt that the removal of it was worse than being stabbed by it.

《Used skill: 『Evade Lvl. 3』!》

《Used skill: 『Short-distance teleportation Lvl. 2』!》

Time slowed down as the golem fist crashed towards her. With a combination of leaping out of the way and using ‘Short-distance teleportation’, Kurushimi crashed onto the ground just out of the impact area of the golem’s fist. Scurrying to get up, Kurushimi didn’t look back as she ran for the avem.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

The ground shook as the rock golem chased Kurushimi. It would be a lie to say Kurushimi wasn’t panicking a little, but Kurushimi guessed she should be able to get to the avem first. Listening to the rock golem’s footsteps, she tried to estimate how fast it was moving. But then the golem suddenly stopped moving. Confused, Kurushimi looked back to see what was going on.

Kurushimi saw that the rock golem had turned to face the completely opposite direction than her. Just when Kurushimi thought she had gotten lucky, she witnessed the rock golem crouch down and extend its arms. Kurushimi instantly paled as it picked up a boulder almost as big as itself and turned back towards her. The rock golem lifted the boulder up high over its head as it aimed straight for Kurushimi.

“Oh, you’re having a laugh…!”