The Depraved Ghoul once again wrapped his claws around Zaen. But unlike before, Zaen didn't struggle. He had noticed one thing in his confused state of mind. The more he struggled against the ghoul, the excitedly the ghoul proceeded to beat his a*s.
It was also the reason why the ghoul did not beat him to death when it had the chance. For the ghoul, Zaen's existence was nothing more than a game and if it killed his toy, who would the Depraved Ghoul play with? After all, it had killed all of the other ghouls occupying the Special Force HQ because it had found a new and unique toy to play with.
But Zaen wasn't in the mood to play with the ghoul anymore. The Depraved ghoul was a bit confused because Zaen did not react to its touch as he had been doing till now. Fearing the worst, the ghoul placed his gigantic head on Zaen's chest to check his heartbeat. The ghoul might have been more intelligent than his counterparts, but even ZAen could outsmart it if he wanted to. And outsmart the ghoul, he did.
[03 seconds remaining until the Depraved Ghoul's Primal skill: Silent Kill Zone deactivates. The Zone has contracted by 95%.]
As soon as the ghoul brought his head down, Zaen sat up as if he was struck by lightning, before plunging his remaining Dagger deep into the ghoul's head. Although the ghoul was covered in exoskeleton for most of his body, its head was still as squishy as the other Ghouls.
Zaen had been wanting to target the ghoul's head as he knew it was supposed to be their weakest body part through his various faceoffs with the other ghouls. But due to the Ghoul's reflexes, abnormal height and gigantic shield, he wasn't successful in doing so. But that wasn't the case anymore. The ghoul had foolishly dropped his guard around him and paid the price for it.
[Twin Blade, Novice Slasher (Level 4), Powerhouse (Level 3), One shot-two wounds and Frenzied's Slayer effects applied. Damage against humanoid monsters increased by 70%.]
[You have hit the Depraved Ghoul's weak point. Damage increased by 400 points.]
[Total Damage Dealt: 1080]
[Depraved Ghoul HP: 8920/10000]
The Bloodlust dagger went right through the ghoul's head like a knife through butter. And as a result, the dagger's secondary skill
However, his troubles were far from over yet. Even though Zaen managed to hit the Ghoul's weak point, it still wasn't enough to do long-lasting damage to it. He did not have enough time to use bandages to heal him up. But thankfully he had something better.
[Skill: Ghoul's mark activated! You'll heal 300 HP in the next 15 seconds. Blood loss due to various injuries have stopped.]
Almost all of the blood he had lost, was immediately sucked back to his body through his wounds and the opened wounds got sealed once again. Zaen was pretty sure that this effect wasn't mentioned in the skill description of the skill he had used. However, it wasn't the right time to wonder about his skills.
Zaen's health had recovered a bit. But the sudden movement of blood in his head made him a bit dizzy. Zaen couldn't stop now. He had to keep pushing, especially when the kill zone had finally been lifted.
[Silent Kill Zone has been deactivated. The Zone has collapsed.]
Zaen let out a deep breath before he ripped off the dagger from the ghoul's head, while the ghoul wailed in pain. Even though the damage dealt to the Ghoul wasn't much, it had severely affected it. The pain that the ghoul felt was similar to what a human usually feel when someone punched them on the ridge between the mouth and the nose. Although the pain wouldn't affect the ghoul in long term but at that moment, the pain it felt was completely unbearable.
Seeing the ghoul in its pitiful state, Zaen was almost tempted to hunt him down for good. But Artifact once again warned him that just because he found the Ghoul's weak spot, it didn't mean that he was strong enough to kill him.
'The Artifact's correct. I barely managed to survive the ghoul's ruthless attacks... now is not the time to get into more trouble.' Zaen thought as the zone collapsed and the exit finally came in view. Zaen reached the top flight of the stairs with a jump, but that was also when the ghoul finally got up.
The ghoul was enraged. How could it not? It was the first time someone had managed to inflict pain on it. And the ghoul did not like how it tasted. In a flash, the ghoul jumped over Zaen and was standing in front of him.
But this time, nothing was going to stop Zaen from leaving that da*ned place. Before the Ghoul could pull a stunt like before and stun him, Zaen used his own stunner ability to momentarily stun the ghoul instead. After that, he used Shadow step to teleport behind the ghoul. Even though Zaen went through all that trouble, the Depraved ghoul was only stunned for a couple of seconds and began chasing after Zaen as soon as the effect was lifted.
Thankfully, the ghoul had killed all of the other ghouls so there was no one in the lobby to stop Zaen from making an escape. Moreover, the path to get to the top floor was narrow and the walls were sturdier than before. Thus the Ghoul was slowed even more. by the time the Depraved Ghoul reached the lobby, Zaen was already out of the building.
Zaen expected the ghoul to burst out of the building like a certain gigantic gorilla he had seen in a movie. But instead, the ghoul just stood there, staring at him from through the opened doors. After the two stared at each other for a few seconds, the ghoul turned around to leave.
Zaen found it weird, however, he did not dare to stop and analyse the ghoul's strange behaviour. He hopped on the bike before racing towards the nearest exit portal. He wanted to leave this place as soon as possible and no one could blame him for that after what happened.
But unlike what Zaen believed. The ghoul did not turn back to walk away, instead, the ghoul was preparing to launch an attack. As Zaen sped away on his bike, dozens upon dozens of bony spikes rained on him from the skies. Zaen saw the attack from the side view mirrors of his bike, but there were simply too many spikes for him to dodge.
"ARRGGH!!" Zaen wailed in pain while barely managing to control the bike.
Despite the best of his efforts, two of the spikes managed to plunge him in his chest and left shoulder respectively. His left collarbone was completely shattered, while there was a wide hole in his chest. All of the health he had just recovered vanished in a moment. But he kept on riding even through his pain. Stopping in the open in his weak state was like inviting death over for dinner.
Soon the return portal came into his vision and so did over a hundred ghouls. It was just as the artifact had told him. The ghouls were attracted to the aura of the return portal and had gathered there. But even the ghoul's could not stop his raging bike. Zaen accelerated, driving over the ghouls who dared to get in his way until he finally collapsed while ramming the bike through the portal.