Drawing a cross on the ground, she started moving in a counterclockwise position around the cross while slowly going outwards.
That's right. She had lost the arrow that she had drawn.
'I can't be more disappointed in myself...'
She thought as she walked in circles.
'This should be the fastest way to find the arrow at least. Unless another quake happens.'
Yawning, she looked at her surroundings while walking.
Seeing a group of grey figures walking around, she thought to herself.
'I wonder. Can people even die here? I mean it's sort of like your soul or spirit just turning to light and disappearing. For all, I know the people that die here could just immediately reincarnate or something.'
Just as she came to the conclusion that she didn't know all that there was to know about this world, she tripped and fell.
'Oof.'
Looking back, she saw that she had tripped over nothing.
'And here I was, rather proud over my body control.'
Looking up in front of her, she saw a figure.
In her way stood a dog.
That dog was rotting at the seams as it stared down at her, letting out a course and gross breath. Its eyes were all dark, the only thing reflected in them was the one he was standing over.
'Oh. Gross.'
As they made eye contact, the dog made its move.
Biting down, all it hit was the hard ground as its prey had rolled to the side.
Getting up, she took a step back as the dog tried to lunge at her again.
Sidestepping it, she kicked the dog on the side of the neck.
Hearing a snap, she had figured that it was over and let down her guard.
The dog that was kicked away bounced on the ground once before coming to a stop.
The awaited death did not come as the dog stood back up with its neck broken and grotesquely hanging to the side.
'Ew. Aren't things supposed to die when their head gets mostly separated from their body? Is it maybe because of the rot?'
The dog started running at her, its head hanging from the side almost as if its body was dragging it along.
Winding up as the dog closed in, she let out another kick as if she were playing soccer.
The rot infested dog was launched away into the air and as it hit the ground a moment later and the insides of its skull turned to mush on the ground, the dog finally turned into motes of light and dissipated into the air.
'...Was I always strong enough to kick dogs the size of adults like they were sports balls?'
Turning away from the dissipated dog, she realized something.
She had lost the way she was supposed to be walking.
Sighing, she glanced down and drew another cross. And so she started to walk in circles again.
Whichever would come first the arrow or the other cross, she did not know.
'Hey, at least I know that the kid wasn't lying about how killing would make you stronger in this place.'
As she thought so, she yet again failed to notice how a part of the defeated dog's soul entered her body.
...
A few hours, about 4 more crosses drawn on the ground and nearly 18 defeated rotting animals later.
'Finally! The arrow!'
Looking at the direction the arrow was pointing towards, she started to make her way to the source of the quake.
'All this trouble because of some weird earthquake thingy.'
As she walked, she took a glance behind her.
'I wonder how that rot is even spreading.'
Ignoring it for now, she kept walking to her current goal.
After a few minutes, she was graced by yet another rotting animal that wanted to fight.
This time, it was actually a very pure white soul.
It was that of a large rhino. Its eyes held a hint of intelligence but it was overshadowed by the rotting scars and wounds on its body.
Drawing a quick arrow pointing in the direction she was walking in, she sighed and got ready for combat.
The rhino huffed and puffed and charged at full speed.
Dodging to the side, she noticed how its steps would leave rather deep marks on the ground.
'I thought it was supposed to be difficult to break the ground!'
She thought as she observed the ground. The holes seemed to be slightly less than 1 cm deep.
'Even I can't make dents that deep if I don't punch at full strength. Probably.'
The rhino charged again. The ground seemed to shake with its every step.
Jumping over the charge, she landed on top of the rhino.
She tried to grab and break its neck but failed to as she lacked the needed strength as well as the needed reach since her hands couldn't reach all the way around.
Giving up on trying to snap its neck, she tried to punch any part of the body that seemed vulnerable.
Every hit that she landed would cause a small shockwave, yet she didn't realize this herself due to the struggling rhino and thumping ground.
'Stop moving!'
After a few hits and no obvious damage, she aimed her hand towards an already opened wound.
'Okay. What about...'
She stabbed her arm into an opened rotting wound.
It seemed to deal a great deal of damage as the rhino started to roar and thrash around.
Removing her hand from the wound, she was about to attack again but felt that something was wrong.
'Nope!'
Leaning backwards, she saw how tendrils of rot shot out from the wound she had attacked.
'Nuh uh.'
Jumping off of the rhino's back, she noticed how the opened wounds she had yet to attack did not change at all.
'Fucking gimmick boss.'
The rhino charged at her again, even faster than before.
Dodging to the side, she stabbed her hand through another opened wound.
Removing her hand and backing off, she saw how the rhino thrashed about before more tendrils came out of the wound she had attacked.
'Just a few more. Come on baby.'
The rhino charged yet again.
Dodging, she stabbed with her hand yet again but felt pain as it entered the wound.
Backing off and jumping away a good distance.
She looked at her hand.
'Damn how many gimmicks do you need?'
Her hand was slowly rotting. The more she attacked the rot the more damage she would deal to herself as well.
She switched her way of attack to her other hand, hoping that 1 or 2 more attacks would end it.
The rhino, faster than ever before, charged at her again.
As it was about to reach her, it jumped.
Realizing that just dodging yo the side won't save her from the inevitable damage, she turned and ran.
Almost tripping while running, she continued without looking back.
As the rhino hit the ground, the rot tendrils turned into spikes and stabbed far outwards into the surroundings.
Some tendrils that hit the ground would launch out a few tens of meters away almost like they were aiming at her.
'Okay. Let's hope the boss doesn't do that attack again.'
The rhino stood up and looked at her.
Its eyes lost any hint of intelligence, instead gaining a glint of insanity.
The rhino slammed its head into the ground.
Tearing the ground out, it roared as ice started to materialize around it.
'Second Phase! And it has magic now!?'
Feeling how unfair the battle had become, she prepared herself to run away.
Yet for some reason, she felt that this was her victory.
The white rhino with rotten scars and tendrils littering its body started to glow.
It charged forward at a speed she had never seen before while roaring.
Dodging to the side as fast as she could, she saw how spikes of ice were shooting out of the ground into the surroundings where the rhino had passed through.
Getting to her feet, she ran for her life.
'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit'
Jumping onto her stomach after a fair bit of running and covering her head almost as if one were running from an explosion, she heard and felt how the ground a small ways behind her trembled and rumbled as spikes of ice shot out from the frozen ground.
Unluckily for her, she had two spikes of ice land and penetrate her right leg.
The pain was horrible as the ice felt like it was freezing her from inside out.
Looking back, she saw how the rhino was panting while walking toward her.
Yet before it could reach her, it fell to the ground lifeless.
Moments later it turned to light and dissipated.
There were more pressing matters at hand though.
She pulled out the two spikes of ice as she looked at the ground through the holes in her leg.
She felt that she could still stand but it would be troublesome since the pain had yet to disappear.
And again, she did not notice a part of the rhino enter her.
And, before she could do anything more, a golden and black rabbit appeared next to her.
'Goddamn! I can't deal with another boss enemy yet.'
She punched at the rabbit, whose face suddenly malformed into that of a nightmarish beast.
Its jaw split in half and opened up to show a row of teeth, parts of beast souls and a very long and sharp tongue.
As her fist was just about to hit the rabbit, the rabbit suddenly disappeared and the fist ended up hitting the ground instead.
The ground shook as nearly a 15 cm deep hole appeared.
'Arghh!'
Holding her injured, rotting hand that she had used to punch, she tried to ignore the pain as she stood up and looked towards the rabbit who was now nearly 40 meters away from her.
'I can't deal with this now. I can't run either.'
As she was trying to figure out what to do, she suddenly noticed how the area around them turned darker than before.
Feeling a slight tinge of dread, she saw how the rabbit looked up only to be squished into mush by a nearly 55-meter tall black dragon.
The shockwave pushed her away by a good few meters as she protected her face.
Lowering her hands she looked at the giant beast in front of her.
'Actually, for fuck sake. How unfair can this place be?'
She thought to herself as a feeling of dread and regret surfaced in her heart.
How was she supposed to know that the closer one would come to the source of the quake, the stronger the enemies would become?
The dragon huffed as it raised its head high.