Bittu clenched his teeth as he let out a muffled cry of pain.
"Aarrrgghhhhhh"
'The pain.', he thought as he endured the stinging sensation around his stomach.
"Huuurrrrgggggggg", he let out another muffled cry.
'It is acting up again, just like last time.... only after I upgrade myself.'
'Does that mean I would need to go through this pain every time I upgrade?', Bittu came up with a dreadful guess as his expression changed.
Just as he was about to plunge into the sea of despair, he sensed sixteen things coming his way in his perception, which altered his focus, thus breaking him from the illusion of endless pain for a lifetime that was about to consume his mind.
'No! In this world, I could definitely find a medicine that could cure me.'
Bittu, with difficulty, raised his head amidst his pain and looked at the incoming grey skeletons. His pritching gaze filled with determination and a tinge of madness landing on the first skeleton, which activated his ability.
[Skeletons Lv. 2
Strength-> F
Agility-> F
Stamina-> ∞
Constitution-> F
Perception-> G
Spirit-> G
Description : An ancient being that was awakened from its slumber because of an intruder.]
The skeletons were, though, not compassionate enough to wait for their target to recover as they raced towards him as soon as he appeared in their sight.
'Just a bit more... ', Bittu thought with clenched teeth as he felt the pain in himself gradually lessen.
The skeletons were closing in rapidly and were just a meter away from Bittu. Unfortunately, he had still not recovered from the pain.
'No, I can't wait any longer. I need to act now!' Summoning every ounce of his willpower, Bittu shouted in his mind as he forcefully stood up, but he was still a bit late as the punch of one of the skeleton landed right on his face.
*slam*
"... Cough.... Cough....Argh"
Bittu spit out the saliva in his mouth from the impact. He then raised his head with his disheveled hair and said with an utter calmness that had a hint of bonethrist.
"Finally, I can move!"
With his words still echoing in the closed path, Bittu raced towards the skeletons.
*Crack*
Bittu punched the skull of the skeleton that approached him first. He then used his thigh as a support to break the humorous of the skeleton and thrust it right into the skull of the skeleton that was about to attack him on his back. But, this gave an opportunity to the skeletons to encircle him and end him with a barrage of attacks.
But, already aware of their thought, Bittu rolled on the ground to escape the encirclement of seven skeletons. While doing so, he clutched the legs of the two skeletons and pulled them along. The skeletons, unable to stand after this surprise attack from Bittu, fell to the ground. Bittu, taking the chance, quickly finished them with two kicks and then back flipped to dodge the attacks from the rest of them.
He then punched the shoulder of one of the skeleton and then kicked the skull of the next one twice, crushing it with raw power.
He then swiped his leg at the incoming skeleton, making it fall and finishing it with a stump of his leg. After that, he turned back and finished the one with the broken shoulder.
[You have killed a Lv. 2 skeleton.]
[You have killed a Lv. 2 skeleton.]
[You have killed a Lv. 2 skeleton.]
Ignoring the notifications that flashed before his eyes, he did a flying kick at the incoming skeleton while also using it as a base to back flip while kicking the skeleton that came along with his other leg, at the same time.
With a stable landing, Bittu immediately rushed at the other skeletons, planning to finish off all these skeletons before the real danger comes out.
*crack*
*crack*
He chopped the neck of the skeleton that arrived near him with his palm and kicked the spine of the skeleton next to it, finishing it during its fall. Bittu then did a round kick aimed right at the incoming skeleton, killing it and using that momentum, did another round kick, aimed at another skeleton.
[You have killed a Lv. 2 skeleton.]
[You have killed a Lv. 2 skeleton.]
Suddenly, Bittu felt a being enter his perception and as he sensed the looming presence of something walking in, a wave of instinctual dread washed over him. His heart quickened its pace, thudding against his chest like a drumbeat of warning. Shallow breaths struggled to fill his lungs as adrenaline surged through his veins, heightening his senses to a feverish pitch.
His first thought after having such a reaction with just its presence was to flee. Run away from this place to somewhere else, somewhere safe. This instinctive feeling was way more clear than the fear he felt from that zombie dog, which was pushing him to a breakpoint, trying to crush his fighting will.
But!
Bittu was not the coward he used to be who would have his spirit broken just because.
Bittu ignored the tingling sensation from his danger intuition skill as anger filled him. Anger at the thought that....He! once again had that fu*king thought to flee from danger, from the path that would actually give him what he desired.
But, because he didn't want to lose his cool in front of such a dangerous opponent, he focused his gaze on the incoming skeleton and said with seriousness and suppressed anger, "...Is this a flaw of this skill?",
[Mutated Skeleton Warrior Lv. 3
Strength-> E
Agility-> E
Stamina-> ∞
Constitution-> E
Perception-> F
Spirit-> G
Description : An ancient being that was awakened from its slumber because of an intruder.]
"Cause, if I don't fight something stronger than me, how would I be able to walk....the path of freedom...Eehhhh?!",Bittu's serious words were broken by the status that appeared before his eyes as he exclaimed in surprise and confusion.
"The skeleton.... It isn't even that powerful... then why am I feeling this aura of predator from this skeleton?", Bittu, baffled and skeptical of this situation, asked in speechlessness.
"... Is the status giving me wrong information?", he had a serious thought, because if that was the case then.... He would have to reconsider the value of this ability. But;
"... Could it be because it hasn't taken in the body of that species that it can't give me an accurate status?", he thought, pensive about the situation.
It wasn't impossible because he could only see the status of those grey skeletons because the ability had taken in the bones of one of the dead skeleton, almost like a sacrifice, to show him their status. He found this out earlier only because of his desire to learn about his skills and abilities better. It was almost like the criteria, a condition of the ability to see the status of other species.
"This also explains its unusual name; The tomb,"Bittu came up with a guess, but still disappointed that he couldn't learn why he was having this feeling, but he didn't have long to consider since the skeleton was already close to him, just a couple of meters away.
Bittu, not confident about engaging in close combat with this skeleton, was about to jump back to maintain distance and because of their matching speed, he could do so easily. But, before he could, he was shocked to find his skill; danger intuition, tingling with such intensity that he was almost about to get dizzy.
He immediately put a stop to his thinking of maintaining distance and instead closed in to fight in close combat as he thought,
'Why did I get that feeling?..... Could it be that this skeleton has a skill that can be used in long range?!', Bittu guessed with the amount of information he had till now. But that immediately proved to be wrong as the skeleton before him, instead of closing in, jumped back and did something unexpected.
Two swords appeared in both its hands out of nowhere!
"..."
".... I see it was going in for a sneak attack."
"That's quite vicious, ", Bittu concluded with a sullen expression when he saw the skeleton back off.
" It seems I need to be careful of faints and sneak attacks, ", he said, now alerted by the cunningness of this skeleton as he inspected the skeleton and its swords.
The skeleton was the same, just like others, with the only difference being in its appearance, which was pale yellow, which almost made it look sickly. The swords in his hands, though, were opposite. They looked as good as new with their sharp end without a shed of dust, let alone rust. With his intense stare, a status flashed before his eyes.
[Bronze sword
Rank:??
Enchantments:??
Description:?? ]
*shing*
"Sigh.... I really can't–.", before Bittu could continue his words, he had to back off to dodge the sword slash.
The skeleton immediately used the opportunity to build momentum as it slashed right at his chest. Bittu once again dodged as he side-stepped but, the attacks of the skeleton remained relentless as it didn't give Bittu any moment or opportunity to counter.
But, Bittu didn't have any time for the thoughts of counter because currently he was fighting another battle; a physiological warfare.
That predator aura of the skeleton was constantly attacking his mental defense, which had made it quite hard for Bittu to even concentrate on the true battle as his body instinctively trembled and slowed by this feeling.
'.... What should I do? I don't think I can hold on for long', Bittu thought with slight panic, as he couldn't stay calm in this situation even if he wanted to.
As a human, he had never truly experienced a psychological battle, even when he had his memories.
Even if he had eye contact with a lot of veterans such as the mafia and police that were constantly around him because of his relations, he hadn't truly gone into a war or even a gunfight, at most a street fight.
'First of all, why is it even excluding such an aura?', Bittu desperately sought an answer to this question so that he could quickly come up with the solution.
Unknown to him, earlier his guess was correct. This mutated skeleton did have a skill, and that was; fear of the dead. This was actually an aura skill that had a mental effect, and Bittu was currently going through just that.
The only reason he could stand his ground till now was because he has experienced death! Even though he survived passively with the help of the system, the aura of death still taited his entire being. Thus that skill of the skeleton was only having the least effect on him, if not the outcome would have been terrifying.
If he wanted to win, then he had to break free from this new type of attack or else.... His time has come to an end!