The giant club swipes for the third time in a vertical swing. My leg explodes in pain to jump back, evading it just enough to feel the wind of the weapon on my chin before it explodes onto the wall.
I stagger to recover my balance and I move to the side while every vein in my body burns in agony, my wrist going over my chest to control the pain. Throughout the entire time, the Ogre never broke his glare at me.
That's why I played this game for so long…
I glance around, checking Mark and Elay's positions and where each wall is, taking mental notes of my surroundings.
The white ghostly clock inside my head shines, one of my skills is ready. The Ogre's intrusion bought me enough time.
This is how I survive. The only thing I'm truly good at.
I sheathe my daggers and start running, activating the skill that just refreshed and almost falling to take a pebble off the floor, but the wind pushes my back while my feet leave a trail of blue energy from its wings and I recover my balance as I dash towards the Ogre.
I fought hard to have this life. All that time spent, the effort to become a professional grinder, the training, the research, the experiences. Everything I lived until now was my choice, my way of fighting against the real world. Giving up now is not an option!
I throw the pebble at the Ogre, hitting its closest head in its temple. He lets out a shriek of pain while I jump through the hole in the wall.
The red lights at the corners of the arena change to a golden tone, and when my feet lands on the ground once more, I'm back in the oversized corridors, outside the arena.
As long I'm inside a game I can still survive, all I need to do is keep on moving.
The walls in my peripheral vision blur as I reach inhuman speeds to run. I follow the corridor and head to a right turn I see far away, one of the many forks the labyrinth has, but the ground begins to tremble and the walls around me to wide.
The path I was looking at distances itself and the bricks rearrange themselves to make it into a wall, a few other breaking points farther away do the same. A dozen meters forward, the corridor shuts itself with stone bricks, and then, the yellowish baseboards turn red.
I stop roughly by hitting my shoulder against the newly made wall and slide my back against it to sit on the cold floor breathlessly. My legs are at their limits, pulsating in pain together with my fast heartbeat and strong headache.
Without being able to focus my sight, my tired arm extends to the side while I open my inventory. It takes a couple of seconds for me to find what I was looking for, and then, a red flask comes out of the hovering transparent window at my side.
I take off its stopper with my teeth and start drinking it.
The liquid is refreshing. The pain in my body decreases while it goes down my throat, the blood drenching my clothes peels off in blue flakes of energy, my strength slowly comes back to me, and the cut on my forehead and the bruises all around my body heals slightly.
[3##/3710]
[6##/3710]
[10##/3710]
[1517/3710]
My vision in my left is cleaned from the blood and my pulsating pain eases.
"That was close, too damn close."
I drop the empty flask to the floor and take a look at the new enormous rectangular-shaped arena, the Ogre is charging at me with its shoulder somewhere in the middle of it, just like it did when I first encountered it, and the two players are standing back on the other side.
That's when something ticks in my head.
The realization of why I had a strange feeling of familiarity until now, as if I had done this many times before.
"So, that's why…" – I think aloud while standing again. – "I've seen them before, that's why it was so easy to predict and evade their every move. Sure, they are more fleshed out but they are still the same."
I extend my hand to take another potion of healing out of my inventory.
"Their moves, strategies, builds, and all their classes… it's the same as in the game. The same ones I studied this entire time, that I practiced against and learned how to counter during all these years."
The inventory panel at my side closes.
"Dying meant a whole week of work gone, so I did it as if my life depended on it, but to think that I would be using all my knowledge and muscular memory to actually defend myself in a real fight…"
I smirk as the earthquakes get stronger with each step.
"Hah, it doesn't matter, as long this is the same game, I will win. No doubt about it."
I step forward, looking at the growing image of the Ogre as I open my arms with a wide grin on my face.
"Come and get me if you can, dumbass!"
My body fades to invisibility, and when I see my arms become completely semi-transparent, I jump to the right with everything I've got.
But at the same time, the Ogre suddenly changes courses and instead of going straight, it turns slightly to the right and slams into the wall, sinking into the rubble with violence.
The Ogre is stunned for a moment before it tries to pull itself out of the crater on the wall.
Besides the bricks crashing down to the floor, the arena turns silent until a bottle stopper pops out from thin air and falls to the floor. And when I start drinking it, my invisibility fades away, showing myself safely a few dozen meters behind the Ogre.
I take a few big gulps before stopping in the middle of my flask.
"I can't even have a drink without losing my invisibility? Well, I guess this really is SFO after all, so damn stupid."
I drink it until the last drop and watch my health bar rise back to about seventy-five percent. My eyes go back to their sharper selves and I feel as if nothing had happened. Then, I take some time to stare at the Ogre, who tumbles and falls to his back on the floor.
"But why the hell did he turn though?" – I mumble in deep thought. – "As soon I disappeared, he changed courses. If I went on the opposite side he would've hit me."
My index finger taps the flask's glass, seeing the Ogre trying to get up with the help of his club.
"Well, I could have blinked away to evade, but still… If someone turns invisible you aim to where they are going, but monsters shouldn't know that, they go where they saw their target last, so why--"
Someone steps behind me.
I drop the empty flask and my hands go to my daggers' handles as I turn.
Mark and Elay are just a few steps away from me, their clothes back to normal without any superficial cuts or blood.
I turn my vision ability on, the grey ping goes all around me and their status bars pop over their heads, both their healths are at their peak, completely full.
"Tsk. Of course, I wouldn't be the only one using health potions."
I turn my vision skill off.
Elay: "The Ogre's up again," – she says analytically.
Mark: "Fucking hell, now what? We kill both of them?"
I gaze at the Ogre, now turning his heavy body to face me. That's when an idea comes to mind.
Elay sighs and lowers her electrical hammer, building the courage to speak.
Elay: "Mark… we should stop. I don't think he is bad, we should--"
Suddenly the world warps and the surprised faces of Elay and Mark appear in front of me.
"You don't have any movement skills, do you?"
Mark: "Huh?"
In a single move, I slice Mark's ribs and Elay's neck from beginning to end, blood splattering with the backswing of my daggers, while my blades are wrapped in crystalline bluish steam.
And when my feet reach the ground behind them, I run to where they came from.
Mark: "What-?! He just attacked us!" – He takes his axe and swings backwards, missing me completely.
Elay: "He crited on me!" – her voice glitches out with radio static, covering her neck to stop the bleeding.
Mark: "That's it! Let's kill him first!"
I slide to a stop and another dagger slices the air to slash the middle of Mark's chest. And a second later, frost grows out from his injury.
"Oh, yeah? You're going to kill me?!"
I pull my dagger closer to spin it in the air as I step back.
"I want to see you try."
Mark: "Fucking-- NPC!" – he growls.
Another dagger flies, hitting Mark and Elay on the legs. Frost spreading even more on them.
Mark steps forward at a slightly slower speed.
Mark: "Dammit, my character is moving slow as fuck!"
Elay: "His attacks are slowing us."
I laugh at them.
"You never heard of freezing skills before? Seriously, how are you guys in a legendary dungeon?"
They keep on forcibly going forward, but at each strike I land the slower they get.
As long I have energy left, they won't be able to reach me. Sure, I'm not really damaging them that much, freezing magic not only slows your enemy but also increases their overall resistance. I was afraid to use this ability and not have enough energy to finish them off, but now… I don't need to deal the damage.
The ground shakes behind them in a heavy run, and in the next moment, the Ogre's club hits their sides.
Elay flies straight to the far wall, hitting Mark on the way and knocking him down.
Mark: "Fuck, he's using the Ogre-"
-The Ogre steps forward, stomping Mark.
The ground cracks and blue particles disperse from below the Ogre's foot. The flakes float in the air, gradually slowing to a stop and suddenly shooting like small beams upwards until they are completely gone.
The giant fat foot lifts, showing nothing below it anymore. Mark died instantly. I stop and look at Elay, who is apparently unconscious and leaning on the wall in a bad shape, leaking a pool of blood onto the floor.
A wide smirk comes to my face.
"That's it, I won..."
In front of me, the Ogre continues its march.
…
My hands' grip tightens.
"Now… How I'm going to kill you, on my own?"
My first encounter with it comes to mind, when I was still playing the game on my computer, and I remember that phrase I said to myself:
("… this guy would need an entire squad of players to be taken down.")
My victory smirk transforms into a crooked nervous smile as I lift my chin to look straight at its three heads. My hands begin to shake.
One thing was players, the other is that creature, big enough to almost hit the high ceiling, who can kill someone with a single stamp, and is intelligent enough to try predicting my moves in invisibility.
That thing isn't a mob or a player. That's… that's something else.
My legs refuse to move, not exactly out of fear but of uncertainty. I can't decide if I need to wait or charge, go left or right. My next move was being disturbed by the many possibilities.
I'm walking on the edge of the abyss; one wrong step means certain death.
The memories of the Ogre lifting his club when we first met reappear in my mind. Then when he charged with his shoulder at the small room I found Sigivald. And after that, when every time he swung his weapon, from when I was pinned down in the wall to the one that hit Elay a few seconds ago. Every single moment I have of him burns in my eyes like flashes.
"No, actually…" – The confident smile returns to my face. – "I'm sure… I can win against you."
I step forward.
A blue light brightens on the wall to the side, where Elay's body is transforming into fragments of blue energy, and suddenly, they shoot upwards like beams and disappear. She is dead.
Now there's just me and the Ogre, no more disturbances in the way, my two daggers against his oversized club.
Only one enemy left to kill.
But before I go one more step, the entire place shakes. The Ogre stops and looks around for a brief moment and the walls begin to shrink. In a surprised realization, he charges at me.
However, part of the ground suddenly rises and the ceiling falls, closing between me and him in a newly created thick wall.
He bumps into it, pushing some stone bricks forward, but the walls violently rearrange each brick back to normal.
Another two hits are heard, probably the Ogre punching the wall, then everything falls silent.
And with a flicker, the baseboard's all around me light blue.
"What the hell?"
Now, I'm in a smaller rectangular room, the ceiling is high as ever but I'm not in the arena anymore, nor in the labyrinth. I'm in a closed room with only a single path to go, an inverted U-shaped entrance to a dark path with a white light at its end.
I stare at it in awe and wide eyes, it's like my brain stopped working entirely, taking me a few seconds to process what's happening.
"That's it…? This is the end? the exit?"
But before I go a step forward, something flies above my head and makes my hair move violently with the wind of its speed. It heavily travels to the exit path and pierces the stone ground with brutality.
Completely lost, I look at the wall on my back. It is still untouched. I turn again to the pathway and stare at the static giant tree log sunk into the broken floor just in front of it. The wall behind me hits one more time, and then it falls silent. The Ogre isn't there anymore.
Without understanding much of what just happened, the fact of being transferred inside the game, of fighting people, or the bunch of giant Ogres. The only thing that truly made sense was to sheathe my daggers, walk towards the brightness at the end of that path, and leave the white stone walls and the sunk giant's club behind.
I couldn't see where I was stepping on, everything was extremely dark, but as long I had the light in front of me, I could orientate myself.
The refreshing breeze is the first one to welcome me. And when I stepped outside, I took a minute to glance at the outside world. It feels like it's been so long, but I remember, this is the same place I was before entering the dungeon. The bright blue sky, the purple flower fields, the snowy mountains, and behind me, the ravine-like cave entrance.
The path I was on had disappeared as if it was never there to begin with.
I'm free now, but of course, still inside the game. A game that felt more real than when I was inside my own room.
I am, however, in a way more dangerous reality.