Much like before, I was blasted by a wave of nausea, but the pain I felt in my eye quickly drowned it out.
Staring through my only working eye, I found myself in an area very similar to the previous one, but in the middle of a clearing, there sat a calm river. As much as I wanted to run toward the water to cleanse my own blood from my face, I stood there anxiously, waiting for a monster to show itself.
And sure enough, after but a few more moments of waiting, a monster with the same features as the last one appeared on the other side of the river. Having discarded my sheath in the previous area, I stood with my arm outstretched towards the monster.
Unable to stop myself from shaking violently, my trembling only grows worse when the monster locks eyes with me.
'It's okay…' I try to calm myself. 'You've killed one before… you can do it again.'
Just as I find the courage to face this monster, I feel something plunge into my backside. As if the wind had been knocked out of me, my mouth lay open, letting out no sound. Eventually, though, an unbridled cry came, and I fell to the ground while trying to grapple at my wound.
Rather than touching my back, I touch leathery skin, which caused my hands to jerk, but then I grab at that leathery skin and try to toss it over my head.
I succeed in doing so and watch as the monster crashes a few feet away from me.
Now finding an exact copy of the one that still sat across the river, the thrown monster scurries to its feet, showing a maniacal grin as it does so.
Feeling something still lodged in my back, I quickly remove it and feel hot blood burst free. Finding it hard to even stay awake, I manage to collect myself just enough to find the monster approaching.
Its putrid eyes swapped between the knife I'd thrown away and myself until it eventually decided it could handle me without a weapon. Leaping towards my head, the monster latches onto it and starts to tear at my face.
Reopening my fresh eye wound, I scream out in agony and fall to the ground while lashing furiously at the monster that held me. Almost as if having been blessed, when one of my hands fell to the ground, it met the handle of my dagger.
Gripping the dagger, I hysterically wave my dagger at the monster. Feeling its blood drench me, I didn't stop swinging until its movements became lethargic. Dropping the dagger, I give one last try to remove the monster.
Popping from my face, the monster skid away.
'There's still one more!" I say to myself with utmost urgency, trying to lift myself. "Come on, dam*it!!!"
Trying to force my body to move, I screamed in anguish before deciding to give up and fight the last monster sitting down. Breathing heavily, I wipe at the blood that hinders my vision. Yet when my vision is clear, I don't find the other monster standing across the river, it's nowhere to be seen.
Shakily grabbing the dagger I had once discarded, I twist and turn my head, trying to find the monster. Every shadow that moved, every leaf that fell, caused me to jump. With labored, short breaths, the monster suddenly appears from behind a tree.
Flinging its knife from side to side, the moment the monster came within range, I bet it all on it running straight into my dagger, just like the one from the first area.
Closing my eyes in anticipation, with the sound of my heart drowning out everything, the familiar, disgusting feeling returned.
Cracking my left eye open, I breathe a small sigh of relief and watch the monster fall lifelessly from the dagger. But my feeling of accomplishment was short-lived as the pain of my wounds sprang to life. Now that I was no longer working on adrenaline, the pain felt so many times stronger.
Curling up into a ball proved a bad idea as the wound on my back flared to life. Feeling like I was about to die, I looked for anything to save me until my eyes rested upon the calm river.
Getting out of my fetal position, I dig my fingers into the dirt and begin to drag my body to the riverside. As I inched closer to the water, dark spots began to dot my vision.
"No!!!" I scream through gritted teeth, "I will NOT die here!!!"
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I make it to the edge of the river and then roll into it. Thrashing around in the water, I breathe in a mouthful of water, cough it up, wheeze in breaths, and with my mind in a scramble, I rip my shirt from my body and try to wrap it around the wound on my back.
Nearly drowning a few times in my effort to save myself, the world starts to turn into a fever dream.
One moment, I'm standing in the water, my wound properly dressed.
The next, I'm suffocating in a pool of my own blood.
I couldn't tell the difference between reality and my own imagination.
With water dripping from my face, I find myself staring at the solid ground just before my vision turns completely black.
---
Cracking my eyes open, the feeling of urgency washes over me as I breathe in a large gulp of air. I then start to cough violently, water and blood flowing from my mouth. Trying to prop myself up on my hands, the moment I realize I'm on dry land is the moment that I can finally be at ease.
Plopping right back down face first, I calm my wild heart and collect myself. After a time, I finally got enough strength to stare back at my wound and the river. My wound was properly gripped by my shirt and the river was an icky mess of dark red blood.
"I lived…" I crack a pained smile before lying back down.
I wanted to sleep, but the wounds on my body kept me wide awake, So, I lay there until I got the confidence to stand up. With wobbly legs, I do manage to support myself.
Resisting the urge to fall right back down, my eye drifts to the new stairway. As if realizing that I was injured, the stairway had a railing that I could prop myself on.
Staring at the corpses of the monsters that I'd killed, I murmur softly, "I'm sorry… it had to… had to be done."
With that, I grip the railing and start to slowly, mechanically climb to the top.
Rather than going to the next area though, I sit down and rest there. Only after feeling like I'd be able to fight more monsters did I take a deep breath and enter. Nausea this time felt significantly less imposing, but it did cause the pain from my wounds to flare.
Forcing out a breath, I examine my surroundings, constantly checking behind me the entire time. This new area was the exact same as the last one. I was in a lush forest where a calm river ran through the middle.
Waiting anxiously with my dagger held out in front of me, I listen and watch for any monster. Even after a few minutes of waiting, nothing appeared. I was left there, with sweat dripping from my brow, waiting.
I wanted to sit down. I wanted to be at home in my bed. I wanted to eat. All my wants ran through my mind with one thought being the loudest.
I want to relax.
Just as though they'd sensed that thought, I watch in horror as three monsters leap from the tops of the trees, hurling down towards me.
"F*ck."
What ensued after the fact was a battle that left me wounded and gasping for life. I managed to kill one of the monsters as it fell, but the other two managed to dig their knives into me. It then became a battle between my frenzied wide swings and their incessant stabbing. I managed to beat them, but much like in the previous area, I rely on the river and my own will to survive.
Resting my back against the bark of a tree, I stared at the stairway presented before me.
"Surely... surely... there ought to be something that'll fix me higher up… right?" I asked, receiving no answer. "What the h*ll, let's keep going."
Psyching myself up, I lethargically climb the stairs, rest at the top, then head to the new area.
The next floor held four monsters. Two tried to ambush me from the trees, one from behind, and the last one ahead of me. Somehow, I managed to clear it and climb to the next area.
Such self-destructive progress continued. In the fifth area, I fought five. In the sixth, I fought six. After the fight on the ninth floor, where I fought nine and barely lived, I was brought to a standstill when facing the door that led to the tenth.
The door was a faint royal red with faint gold embroidery that speckled it. The embroidery may've once been a picture of something, but it was lost to time.
"What secrets do you hide?" I ran my hand along the different-looking door.
Entering the tenth floor, my surroundings changed. No longer was it a lush forest, but a cave with stalactites and stalagmites that were illuminated by a glow hidden from the naked eye. Water dripped from the cave's ceiling, causing echoes to bounce every which way with each drop.
Finding myself standing in a narrow corridor, I saw that further in front of me, it expanded out.
Making my way toward the cave opening, I enter to find it to be like an arena. In the middle of this arena, there was a rock, but upon closer inspection, I saw the rock moving up and down rhythmically.
Feeling my heart beat painfully in my chest, the thing seems to smell me.
Watching as something moves from under the giant heap, it begins to sniff the air and survey its surroundings. Not finding me, the thing stands up revealing its staggering height which was nearly three times as tall as me. Its body was a mass of muscle and fat, with its limbs looking awfully skinny compared to the rest of its body.
As it turns around, it's revealed that it's wearing a black cloak, with its skin actually being the same tannish color as the monsters from the previous areas. Covering its head, there was a shining silver helmet with slits that revealed putrid yellow eyes.
Seeing me stand there silently, it cocks its head before reaching behind itself and whipping out a tree trunk twice my size. Wielding it with ease, this monster began to thump toward me.
With the cave shaking with every step and the water coming down in heaps, I stand there frozen.
Just as this monster stands in front of me, it stamps its hands down next to me and leans down. Sniffing the air past its helmet, it growls slightly. I then watch as it slowly flicks its wrist, causing the club to barrel toward me.
Unable to even dodge at this close range, the club hits me in the side and I hear the sickening crack of bones and am thrown through the air before landing almost unconscious in a puddle of water.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, I stare back behind me at the slowly approaching giant monster.
"Th-this isn't fair!" I start to cry, "How… how am I supposed to beat something like this?!"
The giant monster was like death as he had come to take my soul.
"I-I have eternal life, don't I?!" I scream to the heavens, "Aren't I supposed to live forever then? I can't die…"
But no matter how much I called out, no matter how many tears I shed, the monster still approached. As it loomed over me once more, I watched it slowly wind up to bring its club down.
"I'd been through so much just to get here and yet…"
Incessantly crying, the giant monster finally brings his club down, and then…