TUMBLE
ROLL
Arken felt the floor bite into his back and the rest of his body crumple to shoulder the impact of his hurtling body against the walls.
"Aah!" he screamed and leapt up in anger.
He was battered no doubt. His body aching in every pore, he could even feel the small tears in his trusty cloak he had worn ever since his time here.
Yet he felt more alive than before. He spat out blood and immediately noticed another waft, something close to blood, but not his.
His dagger had a greenish tinge in the blade and saw a similarly colored fluid dripping to the floor.
The goblin that had pushed him away was in his final moments, falling slowly on one knee then two. Then flat on the ground, it's curved blade clattering to the ground.
My first kill.
[-1 for a direct kill has been deduced]
And my first fail.
He waited for another drastic notification change. A subtle shift in power between him and the author.
But nothing came. Seconds passed. He felt mixed emotions.
"Oh my god, are you alright?" he heard Kalni rush towards him, sword drawn and obviously distraught that he had been thrown across the floor.
She saw him motionless, not reacting to the obvious wounds on his body.
Then he turned to her with a toothy grin. "Bloody hell that was amazing!"
☆
"W-what?!"
Arken dusted himself and winced at his injuries but lost none of his suddenly uplifted spirits.
"So yeah, I can kill as you see. I didn't know I had it in me myself but," she caught the glow in his eyes as he studied the dagger's blade, "I think it gives me a few ideas."
"Arken, wait...are you even in your senses? That was a huge fall," her insistent tone fell on deaf ears as Arken wrapped his cloak tighter around him and walked forward.
"So this is the first floor right," he muttered and closed his eyes.
"Act: Extra."
[Skill Extra activated]
His presence removed like a shadowy ghoul he didn't even notice his path as he eased between goblins, without their notice or suspicion and only upon a stab here or there did they feel even a hint of the enemy within their ranks.
They began to clamor and often fell against his muted presence, judging the other, killing themselves at times to oust the foreigner.
[-1 for a direct kill has been deduced]
[-1 for a direct kill has been deduced]
More of the same. I wonder, what will a maim cause me?
It would take more effort. He knew that. But he had to try. New world, new rules after all.
So he took in a deep breath and loosened his body for the act.
Spotting a thin one in the midst of others he closed in on it. It's eyes were wide in suspicion, terror not just for the outlier but for his own immediate companions who were meatier, fatter and more vicious than himself.
Arken suddenly pulled its arm to him and twisted its wrist, its dirty, green hands coiling before he brought the dagger to it.
Then he began to saw through.
Green blood spurted right across and the goblin screamed as others moved away in shock at the sight of something unseemly cutting the arm.
Fuck me, this is a pain. Just keep on it. Bone, tendrils, skin, gnaw through it all you fucker!
He cursed at his own incompetence till the deed was finally over and the bloodied, limp wrist fell to the ground with a plonk.
And no notification came this time. No immediate deduction.
"Ok, so it's that type of game then."
The crowding goblins immediately began to swing their swords near the area where the wrist-free goblin trembled in pain and met his fate with their blows. But Arken was already gone from there.
Maim, no kill. Got it.
He had picked up the dulled, crude blade of the fallen goblin and thanked it in silence as he began his task.
☆
Kalni could barely make out what was happening. She had tried to follow where she believed he was and after a while saw the trail.
Mutilated goblins.
A hand missing, some limbs, some fingers, some half of their face, some fingers, some eyeballs.
But all of them alive. Breathing, but in terrible pain. Gasping for mercy.
"I don't understand, why did he leave them alive?"
She passed them all one by one, giving them deaths in her path and her feet hurrying to catch up, but also not wanting to. Not knowing what else she had to witness this day.
BRANK
THUNK
SWING, SWING, SWING!
SPLURTT!
Arken had picked up the discarded body parts of some of his victims by then and either wrapped them around the blade or fastened it to it.
They were a collective of bones, teeth, light fleshy parts all forming a foot long crude blunt weapon. He tried to keep the sharp edge for sawing but it was proving difficult as most of the parts kept falling off or sagging but his saving grace was his skill.
So he hid and struck. Hid and struck. He didn't have time to think about anything.
All just a test.
He noticed the monsters dwindling now and knew to expect a different set, as he came to the second floor.
"Goblins are okay at most, but wolves?" he felt doubtful. "Maybe they're like dogs, but fast?"
"And blimey, what if they sniff me out despite the skill? Would it even work on them?"
Red eyes glowed from a dark space and he saw a pack of them walk towards him. But they didn't snarl yet, just strutting forward to be someone else's problem.
WHACK! WHAM!
WHINE!
He smacked the last of them multiple times in the head with his heavy weapon, not stopping till the bloody and gooey remains of its brains seeped out of its animal skull. Its companions had turned but seemed clueless as they bared their fangs in his direction.
[-1 for a direct kill has been deduced]
They all paused as the corpse of their buddy suddenly floated to them then dropped with a smack in their midst. Right before the blows began to land on them from all directions.
They scrambled in a frenzy, running helter-skelter not knowing what to target or whom to defend from.
Arken felt a few random bites land but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He broke ribs, limbs, jaws and used their tails to flung them around like a maniac against the others, till they all limped away from him.
"Alright," he wiped his sweaty and bloodied face with the back of his hand and stared down the hall, "who's next?"