He was alive once more, brought back to life by the slimmest of margins by the +10 stats when the end is near effect on Despair Intuition.
That marked the turning point in the battle, where the knight in battered armor would valiantly turn around with super strength and slay the giant lizard king, prevailing against all odds.
That's how it was supposed to go, right?
Marcello wished.
The King Jaeger's foot came crunching down yet again, as Marcello just barely crawled out of the way, aided by the added bonuses from his inheritance. He felt a bit stronger than normal, and got saved from death just one time, but that was about the extent of his physical powerup. He could barely feel his chest and his feet, and his armor was so dented out of proportion that he had to unsummon it. Alone in a t-shirt and shorts, the mud-covered human male was a sorry sight to see.
But the thing is, his inheritance was never a purely physical power up in the first place. Actually, the physical part of it was more of an afterthought than anything else. Physical strength was more in the realm of his class and breaker of skulls quest line.
Mentally, Marcello felt a bit sharper than before, and he could now clearly hear something in his head that wasn't there before.
Get the fuck out of here.
It was his own voice, talking to him in his head. Either a sign of schizophrenia or his own inheritance. Really, was there even a difference?
For some reason, this time the tone his sense used was a lot less formal than before.
The guidance it provided was not exactly reassuring either.
Anyway, the message was clear and he knew what he had to do. Marcello crawled as fast as he could as the giant lizard king stomped down again, rolling out of the way just in time as he gained enough strength to start running towards the lip of the hill.
The gargantuan King Jaeger threw another boulder at him as it chased, but Marcello was just a bit faster now that his agility was buffed up from his inheritance. He dove for the river, right as the boulder crashed behind him.
Splash.
The King roared as it chased the floating human down the river, but the river's current was far too fast for the beast to catch up. It roared defiantly into the air as the mid-afternoon sun beamed down on the grassy fluorescent biome with floating water particles bobbing here and there. Even in the wake of so many aberrations and hideous creatures, this was truly a special place even among the many planes of the universe.
Marcello swam and pulled himself out of the river for what seemed like the hundredth time at this point, shaking off his wet hair as he let the intense sunlight dry him out while he trudged his injured body to safety in the midst of the cover of trees.
Are you stupid? Why did you think running for the exit was a good idea?
His inheritance was talking to him now, and strangely it was in his own voice. Very few things were quite as disconcerting as listening to your own voice tell you off. Gone was the formal speech and echoing voice from last time, replaced by his own stupid voice.
It made sense though. His despair intuition was just another version of himself, so to speak. It was like the depths of his subconscious. Although it would be nice to hear that cool deep voice again some time.
Use your brain, fucking idiot.
"What do you mean?" Marcello said, throwing his hands in the air. "That King Jaeger blocks the exit with his body, doesn't sleep, and the only time that he left his lair to take a bath, I ran for it. It was the best strategy in that situation! How was I supposed to know that he has some kind of completely overpowered gigantism ability? Aren't you supposed to tell me about that?"
No. And to answer your question about what you're supposed to do, don't pussy out of a challenging fight just because it's hard. Just go fucking kill the King Jaeger. Just running past him is too much of a waste, man. Think of the rewards you'll get for killing him. No reason to give all of that up.
"I don't get it. How? I can't even physically hurt him with my rare longsword. What, you want me to go whack him with all my weapons one by one? Nothing's going to work."
Obviously not. Maybe use your brain for once. That's all I'm going to tell you. I'm sure you already know the answer.
And with that, his sense went silent.
"Fuck!" Marcello shouted in frustration. His despair intuition ran out way faster than he would've liked, and it didn't even tell him the answer, and instead just insulted him and called him an idiot. Of course he was using his brain! Every single one of his strategies was carefully thought out!
Fucking hell. This felt like an impossible puzzle thrust upon him, where some know-it-all teased the answer and then acted all cocky much to his frustration.
…
Anyway, it was time to put that detective work to action and consider all the angles. Was there something he hadn't thought of before?
Marcello spent the next hour just pacing about on the abnormally thick sideways growing tree that he was standing on, pondering all possible angles. How was he supposed to kill the king? He just didn't get it.
He felt like he was pulling his hair out, when suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.
No...
He laughed. Actually he didn't just laugh, he was howling like a hyena at this point just like Troy back in area two at the absurdity of his solution. It was honestly one of the dumbest ideas he'd ever conceived in his entire life, and that included waltzing into this impossible trial.
But… he had a feeling it could work. Just an intuition. It made perfect logical sense, after all.
Marcello had an evil grin on his face, cackling like he was a mad scientist. This damn idea. If it worked… and that was a big if… victory over the King Jaeger could be in his grasp.
He was about to try out the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas.