He could try to brute force his way and learn their patterns, but that would result in a quick painful death.
Since he was going to fight them either way, might as well try a few things from the start.
He manipulated the mist surrounding him to create arrows on his fingertips, shotting out in a barrage that forced the trio of monsters to scatter.
The halberd-wielder deflected those attacks easily, though, and the serpentine warrior's shield-like carapace negated most of the damage.
He died at least a dozen times that day—if 'days' even had meaning here. Each death was only a world of pain and then sudden darkness, followed by awakening at the last checkpoint he'd earned.
Each revival increased his mastery over the abyssal energy as well as his battle senses.
The halberd monster had a slight stagger after executing a particular combo; the twin-sword warrior left its flank open when lunging too aggressively; the serpentine creature, while tough, was slow to pivot its shield, leaving narrow attack windows if he feinted properly.
After dozens, maybe hundreds of resurrections, he overcame them, piecing together a flawless sequence of attacks and counters.
The mist he had been wielding had begun to resonate with his intent more intimately.
When he unleashed his chains, they struck like vipers; when he formed blades, they hummed with lethal aura. Each Abyssal Monster defeated brought another subtle enhancement in his control.
In the aftermath, as he knelt amid the corpses, he spotted a faint glow in the distance.
Unlike the dim light of fungi or ore veins he'd passed before on his way, this gleam was steady and pure, cutting through the darkness like a beacon. Cautiously, he approached the beacon of light.
Amid a cluster of broken spires, half-buried in black gravel, lay the hilt of a sword. It's blade reflected no light, as if it devoured the light rather than scattering it.
Runes etched along its length pulsed faintly, welcoming his presence. Nova reached out, fingertips grazing the hilt of the sword.
A flash of abyssal energy pricked up his arm—not hostile in nature, but intense, as through messing his worthiness.
He tightened his grip on the hilt before pulling it. The sword slid free with a humm, the runes flaring for an instant as if coming back to life before settling down quietly.
[You have obtained the Abyssal Devourer Blade.]
He felt its weight in his hand. Perfectly balanced, as if it was crafted for him alone.
He tried to swing down with the sword, but it didn't merely cut the air, he sensed that even the abyssal energy was being absorbed by the blade when he moved it in the mist.
A weapon fitting for his Abyssal Manipulation skill, "Good, with this I can face these motherfuckers more easily," He said before softly sliding his hand on the sword as he felt 7 distinct runes forming along the blade.
He looked at the sword in confusion as those runes were not there before, "What are these?"
Even after looking at the runes for a while, he couldn't understand anything about them, so he decided to leave the matter for the future and gazed into the darkness.
The Abyss had gifted him exactly what he wanted and needed to ascend to even more savage battles.
There will be more complex enemies in the future, he knew because the skill 'Loathed by the Abyss' guaranteed no easy path forward.
It would send monstrous lords and nightmarish creatures that made previous enemies look like level 1 monsters.
He would die, again and again, hundreds, thousands, or even more times. He clenched his fist as these thoughts swirled in his mind, "I won't let this shitty place break me."
He softly muttered to himself before setting the blade against his shoulder, he advanced once again while gazing into the darkness.
…
"Haah…haah… How many deaths has it been?" He muttered with rough breaths as he glanced at the system panel.
[Deaths: 547]
"547 huh," He wiped the dark blood off his cheek as the carcasses of Abyssal Monsters lay beneath his feet.
Nova's gaze swept over the grotesque landscape, illuminated only by the faint flashes of darkness. All around him, stretching as far as his weary eyes could see, were broken remains of Abyssal Monsters.
Their twisted bodies piled into multiple mountains all around him, releasing Abyssal Aura relentlessly.
"547 deaths to make this," he muttered, his voice weary from the relentless battles.
"How much time has passed?" Nova softly asked.
[2 Weeks.]
His gaze paused as he stared at the screen blankly. "2 weeks, huh? It's only been 2 weeks in the main timeline, and the time spent on the reset wasn't considered, so I might very well be fighting for years."
He leaned against the Abyssal Devourer Blade, that was stabbed firmly into the ground.
The blade's runes flickered faintly, as though excited from the relentless battles it had encountered alongside him.
"No need to be excited, real challenges will be coming later." He said with a tired sigh.
The sword hummed slightly in response.
"Sentient huh. But not sentient enough to have a conversation." He muttered before standing up and pulling the sword out. He gently caressed the sword, feeling it resonate with him.
Nova sighed and dragged himself forward, his feet stepping on the brittle remains of shattered carapaces and severed limbs.
The stench of decay was suffocating, but he had long since grown numb to it. Each step forward was a mark of his resolve to not step down before a challenge.
Somewhere in the distance, a faint roar echoed, carried by the cold air of the abyss. Nova instinctively reached for his sword, his muscles becoming tense as he waited for the beast to show itself.
He waited while silently gazing into the endless darkness until he was certain no more threats were in his immediate vicinity.
"Keep going," he muttered, clenching his fist. "I will kill everything in my path to survival."