Martis instinctively recoiled, his body reacting before his mind had fully registered the danger.
Memories flooded back, unbidden, of the day he had been dragged away to his father's throne by the king's guards to be punished.
He had fought with all the fearlessness of youth, refusing to be cowed by their threats and their weapons.
However, facing this monstrous creature in front of him, he felt his fighting spirit break as felt deep fear for the first time.
"How could I even hope to beat or do anything against this monster?"
Martis thought to himself, his horror evident as he watched the beast.
He looks like someone who wouldn't even try to resist, completely giving up on his life.
That was until his head buzzed again, and the voice in his mind wanted to speak to him.
As Martis gazed into the beast's eyes, his mind conjured up a vivid image of a familiar figure, deftly maneuvering a game character through a dangerous virtual landscape.
The beast that now stood before him was a spitting image of the one he was seeing right now in the game where the game character that was controlled by the person on his head was facing.
Has massive jaws, razor-sharp claws, and rippling muscles that are all too real to look at.
The person in his head made a defiant gesture towards the creature, but he had a smile on his face unlike Martis' terrorized expression.
"You see this ugly spider bear thingy? I am only level 1 while this thing is level 15!"
The person in his head exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with delight.
"It wants to abuse me, just like politicians who want to show their power to the handsome poor civilians like me whenever they get drunk like a bunch of losers they are."
His African accent made him sound like he was really having fun, completely ignoring the beast in front of his character.
"But the truth is, it's not that formidable."
The person in his head said, his face was smug, he even closed his eyes.
The scaly, spider-like bear loomed over the game character of the person on Martis' head.
Its massive body rippled with muscle as it prepared to strike.
With a sudden lunge, it clawed at the ground, sending dirt and rocks flying in all directions.
The impact was so powerful that the earth shook beneath the character's feet.
As the bear disappeared underground, watching all this in his head, Martis breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the character had narrowly escaped its wrath.
But his relief was short-lived when a hole suddenly opened up beneath the character's feet.
The character quickly sidestepped to the left, narrowly avoiding falling into the abyss.
But before Martis could catch his breath upon the thrill of watching this, the bear burst out of the ground on the character's right side, its jaws snapping hungrily.
His heart raced as the character scrambled to dodge the creature's deadly claws.
Yet, the person in Martis' head laughs loudly.
"BWUHAHAHAHA YOU'RE SO PREDICTABLE BWAHAHAHAHAH!"
Martis was left speechless, his mouth agape in disbelief.
He couldn't comprehend how someone could laugh like that while their in-game character was being viciously attacked by the ground fairy in its monstrous beast form.
The sound of the laughter grated on his nerves, making Martis feel like he was going to be crazy.
The scene repeated itself, the beast - a monstrous amalgamation of three ground fairies - only knew how to dig underground and launch surprise attacks.
The character under the player on his head's control evaded the beast's attacks with ease.
It didn't have an expression on his face, yet Martis could imagine it laughing as if taunting the creature.
Martis had expected his nerves to hit the wall, but instead, annoyance turned into admiration.
The controlled character felt like dancing, twirling around with a sword in hand, slashing at the beast in daring maneuvers.
With each strike, the character moved like a dancer, evading the beast's attacks with graceful ease.
As the battle raged on, time seemed to stand still for Martis in this virtual world.
He watched with awe as the character of the person's control danced across the battlefield, his movements fluid and precise.
Martis felt a surge of excitement and pride as he watched the character fight with such skill and finesse.
"Huh?"
Martis' mind was still fixated on the scene that had just unfolded.
Has the beast been truly defeated?
The image of the battle played over and over again in his head, like a movie on repeat.
But the ending remained elusive, like an unsolved puzzle.
His thoughts were interrupted by another memory that flooded his mind.
Martis still hasn't moved on to the first memory in his head yet he was already greeted by the next one.
It was the video of the person in his head again, sitting in front of a computer screen, munching on chips while playing the game.
The familiar character he controlled appeared once more, ready for another round of combat against the spider-like beast, again.
As the person in Martis' head scrutinized the creature's movements on the screen, a smile crept across his face.
"You may be wondering how to defeat it," the person in Martis's head said, his voice steady and sure. "since it cannot be hurt by normal means?"
Martis nodded, his eyes fixed on the elemental beast that loomed before the character that the person in his head was controlling.
"You are scared because it says it's an elemental and can elementalize itself?"
He continued, his eyes looking like it's scanning the creature for any signs of weakness.
At the same time, the creature raised its head and roared at the character.
"ROOOOAARRR!!!"
The person on Martis's head only snorted, clearly unimpressed by the creature's boasts.
"You saw earlier that my kick did not work on it."
The person on Martis's head said, his jaw clenched in frustration as he was pissed by the attitude of the creature.
"It only pushed me away. But fear not, a simple sword is enough to pierce through it."
He controlled his character and then his game character drew his sword, its blade glinting in the dim light.
"If you also want to put greater damage to this creature, stab your sword into a tree or get your sword wet in water or cool it with ice."
Martis did not know where to look while listening to the person in his head. He was curious as to why he had to.
"The creature in front would be vulnerable to all of it once you did what I told you to do,"
The person in his head continued, his tone reassuring.
"After all, it is a fairy and a creature from the deep earth, it would be vulnerable to plants, ice, water, and steel elements, these are the natural counter elements to this beast."
As he spoke, Martis couldn't help but feel a twinge of doubt.
Would the advice of the person in his head be enough to defeat the creature?
Or would he perish in its elemental fury?
He pushed the thought aside and focused on the task at hand, determined to learn at all cost.
Out of nowhere, the spider bear - or perhaps it was the Ground Fairies in disguise - let out a guttural, gnarly roar that shook Martis from his daze.
He blinked, disoriented, struggling to reconcile the surreal events unfolding before him.
As he tried to make sense of it all, the voice and the memory in his head that had been plaguing him since earlier vanished without a trace.
It was as if the creature's roar had exorcised the unwelcome presence from his mind.
But any sense of relief was short-lived.
The creature, now towering over him, slammed its head into the ground with a thunderous crash.
Martis stumbled backwards, his heart racing as he realized the true danger he was in.
When his eyes searched for the towering creature, it failed to find the beast.
Ding!
[ For ground fairy beast use Sneak Dig! ]
Despite the blaring electronic sounds emanating from the gaming system's screen, Martis stood motionless, his fingers tightly coiled around the hilt of his swords.
He was poised to unsheathe his weapons at a moment's notice, ready to face whatever beast might come his way.
But then something unexpected happened – Martis ran!
The memory of the ferocious creature lurking inside the game, battling the character controlled by the voice inside his head was still fresh, then it had suddenly flooded his mind.
So he couldn't help but flee.
It was as if a giant grizzly bear had been unleashed upon him - the creature was massive, with fur as dark as night and claws as sharp as knives. It moved with lightning speed, capable of burrowing underground to launch surprise attacks.
While he, Martis is a puny, naked knight facing this terrifying beast, armed with nothing but a single sword to defend himself.
His heart raced as he realized the gravity of the situation – one wrong move, and he could end up as the creature's next victim.
Martis felt a knot of fear in his stomach.
If he were to perish at the claw of the beast, the game would end here.
All of his efforts to come here would be for nothing if he couldn't take something from this game world to the real world.
Although his training had been focused on straightforward sword art, it was only effective against Asura knight vs Asura knight combat.
He had never seen this art used against a beast like the one before him.
As much as he mastered the Knight's sword art, he knew it won't do anything against the beast, so he couldn't help but feel hesitant.
The risk was too great.
Martis stopped running from the beast and stood in a battle stance, facing the way he had come from.
Behind him was a tree, providing him cover from a potential sneak attack at the back.
With a swift motion, he struck the tree with his sword, then came back to his battle stance again.
The sound of steel against wood echoed in the forest, and Martis took a deep breath.
"I need to calm down," he muttered to himself, panting heavily.
He gripped his swords in his hands, ready to face the beast again.
"How do I defeat it?"
Martis asked himself seriously, his mind racing with possible strategies.
Then, his eyes fell upon the memories of the character that was controlled by the person in his head.
The way it moved against the beast, the way it swiftly and beautifully wounded it with smaller cuts.
A spark of inspiration ignited in Martis' mind.