Robert leaped from branch to branch while projectiles consisting of logs and boulders flew at his way. The projectiles either grazed him, flew over him, or simply hit a tree.

The Spliced Ghoul was chasing after him on ground. Its numerous hands gave it the leeway to multitask. It was throwing everything it could reach as it gave chase.

From what Robert knew about the Dark Zone, there was a clearing up ahead which also served as the indication as the edge of the middle layer and the entrance into the inner layer. The clearing was practically an open plains with nothing but grass and small flowers for a mile.

And it was where Robert was heading towards as of now.

A boulder hit the tree he just leaped to.

“Fucking hell, that was too close!”

The Spliced Ghoul was fast for something of its size but it was still slow in comparison to the average speed. Its strength wasn’t at the level where a single hit would break every bone in the body. And so, the issues came down to its defense and its ability to throw heavy objects like it weighed nothing. If Robert disable at least of one of its arsenal, it would make the fight relatively easier.

But that didn’t mean victory was assure. It only meant better chances for Robert.

Then, something approached him at high speed.

“Insects up in the trees?”

A lust for his blood came from his right. When he turned, he saw an insect-type monster lunging at him. It had the size of a tiger.

The insect was quick with its skittering six legs but it was not any quicker than Robert’s reflex. He quickly drew a throwing disc and threw without a pause. The disc easily carved through the insect like a cake. With the Return spell, it flew back into Robert’s grip.

There was another similar insect-type monster springing at him from his left.

But the insect met an untimely and messy demise at the hands of stray thrown-log.

“Fuck me… am I going to get splattered like that too if I get hit?”

Robert noticed there were other monsters in his path. They looked familiar but a few extra features made Robert thought twice. These monsters however, all share a common similarity, they all looked disfigured.

“There can’t be so many new breeds in such a short time, can it?”

The eyes of these monsters held no light nor life but neither were they dead. They were still warm and their heart still beats.

“At least they don’t have a friendly relationship.”

This was the silver lining. If the monsters worked together, it would spell the end for Robert. The Spliced Ghoul paid no mind to the monsters in its path. It crushed everything that were in its way or under its feet.

Occasionally, monsters of twisted appearance would pounce at Robert, some from the trees or simply from the ground. They were either easily dispatched by Robert or get hit by the stray projectiles. It was infuriating on the surface to have so many worries in a battle but it was in actuality, instrumental. Sparring and training could only do so much when it came to increasing one’s strength and power. Actual combat and experience of real danger had the best efficiency but at the same time, a small single mistake could prove to be fatal.

In simpler words, Robert was actually getting stronger albeit at a subtle rate.

Speaking of fatal—

One of the merged bodies crawled out of the amalgamation that is the Spliced Ghoul. The detached Ghoul set it sights on Robert who hopped from one tree to another. Without any cries of sorts, it shot out like a bullet.

“Bloody f—”

Robert turned to face the detached Ghoul flying at him like an arrow fired from a bow. Without putting a stop to his momentum, he withdrew a throwing disc and threw it at the Ghoul’s heart, all done in a quick succession before resuming to his leaping.

“There! I can see the clearing now.”

Eventually, Robert reached the clearing. An uneven plains of grass stretching out for a mile, basking in the full glow of the moonlight. Half a mile into the plains would be considered the inner layer.

Knocking away the last two trees in its way, the Spliced Ghoul had also entered the plains.

It looked to its right, its left, and then its back. And it returned its gaze to Robert. It screeched at him, its feet stomping at the ground. It was throwing a tantrum for being played a fool. It had nothing to toss at Robert.

Now Robert didn’t need to worry about the Spliced Ghoul throwing anything at him. It still had that ability to shoot out of one of its merged Ghoul but that would only work to Robert’s advantage. The threat was only moderate at that time as Robert was caught off guard. But now, it was only a move that shaved itself of its advantage.

“Okay… what’s happening now?”

The Spliced Ghoul trembled. The flesh on the right side of its body began bubbling. A hand, larger than the others grew like a tumor from its side. It was almost as thick as its own body and twice the length. Due to the uneven proportions, it was using its massive arm to support itself from falling.

“Impressive.”

The Spliced Ghoul spun and threw its massive arm into the air. The weight and the momentum carried the rest of its body along.

“Bastard!”

As the Ghoul fell back to the ground, it was diving towards Robert.

And Robert made a decision, now wasn’t the time to be frugal.

He dodged to the side as the Spliced Ghoul crashed into the ground. Before it could regain its posture, Robert threw the disc once again, infused not with Conventional Magic, but a Conjuration Magic, Spell Blade. A type of Magic that generates a magic layer of the infused weapon on top of the weapon itself, increasing its power, strength, and speed. And in some cases, it could even extend the reach of a weapon. It was a Conjuration Magic with a steep price for one with a modest pool of Magic.

The Spell Blade enchanted disc cleanly sliced off the massive arm. The extra hands moved to catch the spinning disc but only to be minced by the Magic-created blades.

Needless to say, the Spliced Ghoul screeched over the lost of its arms.

Robert watched the disc flew, waiting for the right moment.

The Ghoul charged at Robert, its eyes said nothing but only rage.

“Now!” Robert willed the disc back.

The Spliced Ghoul realized what was happening but it was all too late.

The disc, augmented with Spell Blade that increased its radius of effect, came back and severed the Ghoul into two halves through its waist. The moment Robert caught the disc, he threw it again with his full might, bisecting the upper half of the Ghoul into two. And when the disc returned, it further cut the lower half into two.

The segmented parts of the once colossal Ghoul fell to the ground. Their cries of agony clearly resounded through the plains and the night.

“Not good, got to finish this quickly.”

Robert could make out the multiple presence of monsters closing in fast.

The Spell Blade infusion on the disc vanished shortly after. Since Robert did all he needed with the disc, he tossed it back into storage.

The remaining chunks of the Spliced Ghoul slowly molded into bodies of their own. Robert had only hit three hearts with those consecutive attacks but the hearts weren’t the target. His goal was to make the Spliced Ghoul smaller. It made them faster but also frailer. Now, he had no problem reaching their heart with a dagger or a short sword.

There were four Ghouls remaining. Three of them had three hearts and the last only had only a single heart.

This time, Robert lunged first, taking out a dagger and a short sword.

He went for the Ghoul with a single heart. Accelerating his body with Magic, his sword easily found its target. The Ghoul was about to let out its death cry but Robert smashed its throat with an elbow.

Stowing away the bloodied sword, he casually flung his dagger at one of the Ghouls, impaling a heart. Only then, he turned around with his left hand aimed at the Ghoul who was howling in pain.

He fired two bolts of Magic from a single palm, with both of the bolts finding their their targets, the Ghoul’s hearts. The force from the Magic Bolts sent it stumbling back, knocking the dagger out of its body as it hit the ground. There was no cry nor screech. It was too shock with Robert’s sudden Magic attack to give its last throes.

“Two to go— well, six to go.”

Robert rushed at the last two. He kneed one of the Ghouls away while driving his sword into the other. He destroyed one heart and seek out the other two.

The Ghoul screeched with the intent to wrapped all of its arms around Robert.

“Yeah… no thanks with that,” Robert murmured and quickly stabbed at the heart with another dagger he took out in one swift. For the last heart, he willed the return of the dagger which was left on the ground from before. The dagger flew back by going through the last heart.

The Ghoul screeched but even their suffering had become dull to Robert’s ears.

“Last one..”

Robert faced the last Ghoul standing. In his hand, a short sword and a dagger. In his Storage Ring, two throwing disc and an another dagger.

Although the Ghoul did not have much intelligence but even a mindless beast would be aware of death if they were staring straight at it. Normal Ghouls were Undeads. They neither felt fear nor pain. They had no will. But this Ghoul wasn’t a product of Necromancy. It wasn’t actually a Ghoul at all. It felt fear and pain, and it had a will even if it was a feeble one.

This was its demise, it knew it but a cornered rat would bite the cat.

The Ghoul lunged.

Robert tossed the dagger in his hand after infusing it Magic. The dagger plow through the limbs that acted as a shield in futility, and into one the hearts. Robert then closed the gap immediately, cutting off the remaining limbs that resisted against him, leaving only the two legs used for standing.

Left without any way to defend itself, the Ghoul could only submit to its fate. Not a second after its resignation, Robert destroyed the remaining two hearts with his dagger and short sword.

And the final Ghoul was slain.

“I still have half a pool of Magic left,” Robert assessed the aftermath, “and I’m only at the border of the inner layer.”

There were consumables such as Magic Restoration Potion which does as the name suggested. Potions in general were expensive but effective. Also, they came with side-effects such as; drowsiness and effect dampening due to consecutive ingestion. Robert’s unique constitution possessed immunity towards almost all poison, disease, and curse. However, his unique constitution had its own flaws. Potions and medicines were essentially drugs and in a way, poison. Which was why Robert did not carry any Potions with him. His constitution would nullify the effects before anything happen.

Nevertheless, now wasn’t the time to be worried over what could have been or what couldn’t have been, especially when the serene moment was only a fleeting one.

“Here they come.”

The first monsters made their appearance.

Robert knew them as Gnolls, humanoid monsters with a head of a hyena. Instead of the normal red fur, these Gnolls had gray furs. Their eyes were pale. Similar to the Ghouls, they looked lifeless but they all had a beating heart.

Soon, other monsters of all kind also emerged from the forest. They all bore one similar aspect. They had the appearance of one being on the verge of death but their hearts were beating quite lively.

One of the Goblins bumped into a Kobold and the Kobold shove back. The Goblin then slashed at the Kobold with its claws. The little scuffle erupted into an all out brawl. They didn’t fight in the usual way. Instead, they were clawing at each other with their nails which had turn into claws. They were gouging at each others’ flesh, devouring one another.

Some joined the melee while some went for Robert.

As an experiment, Robert beheaded a Dire Wolf and a Gnoll’s head but other than a display for feeling pain, they kept moving as if their head wasn’t essential to their living well-being.

He chopped the Gnoll into pieces with a Magic-infused short sword. The pieces of the Gnoll were still moving. The fell arm of the Gnoll was desperately crawling towards Robert. It was only when Robert stabbed into the heart, the pieces withered along with the torso that contained the heart.

“Definitely no Magic…,” Robert concluded. If it had been Magic, Robert would have detected it and it would take a tremendous amount. If it was a tremendous amount, no way anyone wouldn’t notice and it was impossible for the superpower factions to not take notice.

Which begs the question, “If not Magic, then what could it be?”

He looked beyond the plains, at the inner layer of the Dark Zone while swiftly and cleanly dispatching the monsters who came for his flesh and blood. The grass plains beyond the borders and in the inner layer were pale. They still retain their green but they were losing their colors, like they were withering. The trees were of the same fate. They weren’t dead but they were dying. The condition displayed by the trees and grasses reminded Robert of the Ghouls and the monsters he was fighting, dying but very much alive.

He exchanged his blades for two throwing discs. He charged it full with Spell Blade on both. With all his might, he threw the discs.

The howls, bellows, screeches, and cries exploded into the dead of night as the spinning blades mowed through the small horde of monsters. When the discs returned, the carcass count increased further.

Giant rats with multiple eyes pounced at the lone Robert but they only added into the list of victims of the discs. Somewhere in the middle of the battle, the Goblins and Kobolds had broken up their scuffle and were now aiming for Robert.

He threw one disc at the group Goblins, and the other at the Kobolds. The discs missed one of the Goblins and two of the Kobolds who leaped over the spinning blades. With two daggers in his hand, he thrust one into the Goblin’s heart and guarded against an attack from a Kobold but there was one Kobold left, and it bit into Robert’s right shoulder.

He let go of the dagger which was still lodged in the Goblin’s withered corpse. He grabbed at the Kobold who was biting on him. Concentrating Magic into his gripping hand, he crushed the Kobold’s head.

Before the headless Kobold and the other Kobold could strike again, the returning discs denied them of such future.

“My first major injury… great…” but it was not great. Robert was now bleeding profusely. There were many ways he could think up to avoid the bite but his body was no longer able to keep up with his mind. While his mental health was in the pink, fatigue was seeping into his body.

His concentration slipped for a moment and a foot-long talon from an Avian-like creature grazed his arm.

Robert put up with the pain and countered, impaling the Avian monster’s heart with his short sword. The glint of the fallen Avian monster’s talon invoke a grin from Robert. The monster had four talons in each arm, each as thick as a tree branch.

Robert stowed back his weapons and tore the talons off from the monster’s arms, arming himself with the talons. He also stow away the six talons as spares.

He threw one at an ape monster with exceptionally long arms, killing it in its leap.

An ant-like monster had its body bisected with a clean throw strengthened with Spell Blade.

Robert rushed to pick up the two talons he threw. He reflexively turned and drove the talon at a charging Gnoll’s heart. He kicked the withering Gnoll into its group which were coming for revenge of their fallen kin. At least that was what it looked like to Robert.

He parried consecutive strikes of from a transformed Goblin with six stingers as arms. He was forced to use a Magic Bolt to bring the Goblin down in the end.

Monsters of assorted form and distorted shapes came like waves. They found enemy in just about any monsters that weren’t of their kind. Ironically, their numbers were dwindling rapidly due to the mutual offense against each other. Robert wasn’t bountiful to let this opportunity slip.

He made short work of the monsters. When the talons were all broken or blunted, he drew back out his short sword. When his short sword had garner too much chips in the edges, he switched to his daggers. When the daggers were dull, he used the discs as melee weapons. When the blades of the disc snapped, he let his fist do the job.

His knuckles cracked against the bones, shells, carapace, and hides of the varying array of monsters.

When his fist was out of commission, he resorted to his final measure, Conjuration Magic. He unleashed bolts and beams at the monsters.

When the monster saw the voracious ferocity of Robert Ross and the swift decrease in their numbers, they retreated. Of course, not all the monsters were able to repress their pride. They continued their relentless assault and Robert met their wish with similar perseverance.

The night still persist but the moon had departed from the starry sky. Robert emerged from the all-out battle as the victor. The monsters had either run away or became just another corpse among the lot.

When the adrenaline ran off, Robert let the gravity claimed him and fell to his back.

“Finally.”

His chest rose and fell rapidly. His breathing ragged. His limbs felt extremely heavy. Wounds were uncountable on his body. He had threw blocking and guarding out of the window in his last stand. He relied only on dodging and parrying. The result led to the accumulated injuries he had now. Normally, this would be the end for many but Robert wasn’t part of the “many.”

“What a beautiful night,” Robert praised, in contrary to the ground and his own apparels, splattered with blood and guts. His mask now covered only a quarter of his face.

He stilled his body, controlled his breathing. He cleared the blood rush completely out from his mind.

He reached for the partitioned force resting within his core.

When a dimple of the force wasn’t enough, he took a drop.

Steam arose from his wounds as they began to close up. The process was excruciating but nothing he wasn’t accustomed to. Under a few minutes, he was good as new.

“Now, let’s go back. This is enough for a probe.”