Logan slowly crawled into the chamber. Careful not to draw any unnecessary attention. Had he known he would have to face a monstrosity like the Dissonant gaunt, he wouldn't have ever thought about entering the dungeon.
They belong to the 'elite' class of zombies. Something he normally wouldn't have to face until much later. These creeps served as elite assassins and were extremely difficult to detect, let alone kill. Their camouflage skill was a pain in the butt to handle. But the problems didn't end there.
Even if I could find it and injure it, the fucker would just summon some zombies to help him heal.
Logan thought as he treaded deeper within the colosseum-like structure.
If I could somehow one-shot it, everything would be fine. But it isn't possible. At least not at my current level.
The stadium was in ruins. Nothing in the stadium remained untouched by blood and gore. Even the ground was drenched with blood. Ignoring all that, Logan pressed on. Soon he was in front was a security gate, one of many that the stadiums used to have.
Logan checked his equipment for the last time. Once he had made sure everything was in order, he kicked open the rusty doors leading into the stadium grounds.
"A stadium inside a fucking cave," he chuckled. "Is there anything that doesn't seem absurd in these games?"
He expected the doors to make a lot of noise, surprisingly; they didn't. Still, he waited for another couple of minutes to ensure that he wouldn't be ambushed as soon as he took a step inside.
He was fairly sure he had killed most of the zombies outside, but one could never be certain about such things. Just like in any survival game. Especially in a game as fucked up as Tartarus Online.
"Gaunts love to hunt their prey from higher places while remaining hidden. Also, the Bone Armor should protect me from getting one-shotted from a distance... who am I kidding? There's no way I can defeat a fucker like the Gaunt with this armor."
Logan shook his head in an attempt to shake the negativity out. It was true the odds weren't in his favor, but he remembered Gaunt's attack pattern like the back of his hand. Provided he avoids getting hit, he should be able to gradually decrease its HP.
"It's not like I have any other choice either..." Logan reminded himself.
There was only one way out of the hellhole and that was to kill the gaunt. Either he killed the creature, or it'll give him. Those were the only choices he had.
He headed inside and saw a familiar sight. The Gaunt's treasure. Well, it was a treasure only in name. It was a pile of corpses. According to the lore, these were the corpses of the people who challenged the Gaunt and came close to killing it. Thus making them special.
The Gaunt, in a sadistic way, used the skin of these people to cover itself and doing so 'empowered' it. Hence the pile was also referred to as The Gaunt's treasure. Anyone foolish enough to get close was immediately attacked and, most of the time, killed.
Sadly, the only way to make the bastard give up its camouflage was to destroy the pile of corpses. Without making the Gaunt give up its camouflage, it was impossible to fight it either way.
His only solace was Xenoic Energy. If he could only force the gaunt to summon its lackeys, he could kill them and get some xenoic energy. Logan could then use it for a variety of purposes. Whether it is to evolve his skills or to generate a shield would depend on the situation.
After making up his mind, he headed towards the pile of corpses. Skeletons lay strewn all around, and blood soaked the ground beneath his feet.
Logan didn't know why, but even though he had seen this scenario a dozen times before, just seeing gore everywhere was making him feel like he was going to throw up.
He rushed in, stabbed the nearest corpse with his kukri, and jumped away. However, the gaunt's attack came faster than he had expected. Also, unlike what he had expected, it wasn't a ranged attack either.
Ever since he entered the stadium, the gaunt had been tailing Logan. Waiting for him to do something he should have, and the moment he did, he was kicked in the torso.
A powerful kick sent Logan flying across the stadium, resulting in him rolling and tumbling until he crashed against a bunch of empty and broken spectator's seats. But the force was so strong that even the metallic seats got uprooted from their place before finally arresting Logan's momentum.
Somewhere within the trail of dust and blood, one could hear Logan's painful groans. He felt as if a truck overran him. Blood dripped down his head, his ears were ringing continuously and everything in front of his eyes was blurry apart from the notifications that just appeared.
"Son of a bitch! Fuck this pain limiter!" Logan spouted a mouthful of blood.
[You have lost 50% of your HP.]
[The
[Bleed Effect: Status effect. Makes the target lose 0.5% of their maximum HP per second for the next 10 seconds. This effect can be stacked 5 times. Has a cool-down period of 5 seconds. You can use
"Not yet. I only have five medkits. It would be a waste to use them for level 1 bleeding like this."
Thanks to the Bone armor he received as a reward for clearing the first round, he was just in pain. If it hadn't been for the armor, he was a goner.
It was clear the attack would've been deadlier had it not been for his armor. But if he kept getting hit, even his armor wouldn't do anything to help him.
"The bastard managed to get a hit because I wasn't expecting it." Logan mumbled while taking deep breaths, "It won't happen again."