Chapter 30

Thinking it foolish to seclude and potentially trap himself in that small, one-entrance room, he avoided it entirely and moved to hide behind an overturned table. His breathing was quickly steadied, and he charged another Blood Lance across his right arm as ribbons of red started peeling off his skin while he peered out around the edge of his concealment.

Then, he waited.

The swarm of flies overhead buzzed around the deathly still corpse. His heartbeat picked up. His eyes narrowed as he silently watched from cover, pumping himself up in case of a coming fight, as the sound of metal scraping against the stone floor grew louder. While it neared, he began to hear the thud of feet against the ground, too, and soon saw the creature making those noises enter the room from the hallway he’d originally come through himself many hours before.

It was a grotesque humanoid monster—an abomination, if no other words were used to describe it. It was pale, naked, bald, and lidless, with enormous yellow eyes that scanned the room when it came in. It had an unmoving and creepy smile with lips peeled back to show sharpened yellow teeth—literally from ear to ear—that set his hairs on end. One large, veiny arm on its right side dragged a huge, lusterless, and battle-worn claymore behind it, while a shriveled left arm just dangled uselessly at its side, displaying cracked yellowing nails that were far too long for its own good. There were four slits along the front of its face that it used to breathe like nostrils, and its thorax was abnormally elongated into a hunched position.

Even so, it stood well over seven feet tall, and its long, scrawny legs were just as out of place as the left arm in comparison to the roided-out right arm that carried the claymore.

Riven slowly exhaled, never letting his eyes leave the creature while remaining in his concealed position. “What in the southern cousin hillbilly marriage is this thing?”

[Mutated Ghoul Berserker, Level 7]

Another undead? Perhaps he’d be able to take this thing out with the new ability he’d obtained. However, it looked rather dangerous considering how tall it was and how muscular that one arm was. It’d probably be able to crush him easily if it got ahold of him, and it certainly looked far more intimidating than that little zombie he’d fought earlier… Did he really want to chance it before meeting up with Athela?

No, he didn’t. It was too risky to fight this thing by himself when he didn’t even know how the basics of this world worked yet or what kind of chance he stood. So he’d just sit his pretty little ass here and wait for that thing to walk on by.

The metal dragging along the stone floor continued as it leaned back and forth, back and forth, coming down the center of the ballroom and heading toward the opposite end that Riven hadn’t ventured down yet—when it abruptly stopped.

Slowly, the ghoul turned to face the room Riven had just partially looted…where the wooden door Riven had opened was still ajar. The creature seemed to know something about that door was amiss, and if it traveled these halls frequently, it’d probably never seen that door open before. It cocked its head with that sickening smile it wore and began to visibly salivate, drool dripping from its yellow teeth to splatter along the ground.

With a sudden scream and echoing roar, it rushed forward with a lumbering waltz straight out of a horror film that shouldn’t have been as fast as it was considering the way it ran. The monster barreled through a pile of furniture, crushed skeletons underfoot, contracted its veiny muscles, and slammed its large claymore into the side of the ancient stone wall adjacent to the room’s doorway.

Riven went pale when he saw part of the unstable wall give way under the creature’s strength and collapse in on the small room: crushing the bed, books, and the nightstand in a shower of rubble as the large undead bellowed thrice in a deep, guttural bark. The ghoul probably wouldn’t have been able to take the entire thing out with that one swing under normal circumstances, but given how old things here were…Riven wasn’t too surprised after the initial shock evaporated.

The ghoul waited for the dust to settle, looking right and left expectantly with its large, yellow eyes—searching for the creature that had violated its hunting grounds…only to find nothing.

When the confused ghoul whirled around and scanned the ballroom, Riven skirted around the edge of his concealment to place himself on the other side. He could hear it breathing, loudly and rapidly sniffing like a dog on the hunt as its footsteps began to close in on his location.

Wait…

Could this thing smell him?

Oh, fuck.

His mind raced, as he couldn’t imagine how it’d feel to be struck by a claymore as large as he was. It’d probably be the last thing he’d feel if it came down to it. Or worse yet, he might be eaten by this thing. It certainly looked carnivorous with those sharpened Willy Wonka teeth.

God, it was even uglier than the haunted zombie he’d killed earlier.

So despite his level disadvantage, he committed to a plan. He only had one life to lose, and he’d be damned if he died here while not putting up a fight. Picking up a small piece of rock on the ground in the hand that still shimmered with writhing black shadows, he threw it across the ballroom toward the chandelier at a low angle so that the ghoul wouldn’t see the toss.

The rock hit true, loudly shattering one of the still-intact pieces of ornamental glass.

Immediately the sniffing stopped, and the ghoul let out a low growl before turning it into a scream. Its large gray muscles flexed and sent it barreling past Riven’s hiding place and into the fray of glass.

The huge arm and claymore came up, then swung back down—delivering a shattering blow to the remnants of the huge chandelier. Shards of it flew in all directions while the ghoul repeatedly beat the area around it in a downright violent temper tantrum.

Riven watched, partially in awe and partially in confusion while the rampage continued. Either this thing was incredibly stupid, or it simply wasn’t hurting itself doing what it was doing. But…judging by the way the glass shards were cutting into its body and causing it to bleed—he could safely assume that it was just stupid.

Really strong, but also really, really stupid.

Well, that made him feel a little bit better, but why was this undead bleeding red when the zombie he’d killed earlier bled black? Was it because it was mutated? Weren’t undead supposed to be devoid of actual blood, from the stories and books he’d read?

He waited just a little bit longer, taking aim and waiting for the jumping, hacking undead creature to stop its rampage—before Riven stood up and aimed.

Red magic exploded out of his right arm, rocketing with immense speed toward the ghoul and ripping through its body to pierce where its heart should have been. Blood and flesh sprayed out the front side with the shock of the intense energy tearing away to leave a large, gaping hole.

The ghoul stumbled forward, shocked and gasping as bodily fluids ran out the front and back of its thorax. It bent down, screamed at the floor in rage, and dropped the claymore with a clatter of metal. It whirled, wide-eyed, looking for its attacker, just when Riven dived back into cover.

How the hell is that thing still standing?!

In a fit of madness, the monster left the claymore it’d dropped and began to bulldoze through the room—throwing debris, skeletons, and furniture to the left and right as it went. It didn’t know where the attack had come from, exactly, but it knew the general direction and was quickly approaching Riven’s position when he scrambled to set down one of his three unfinished wooden totems. He had yet to use them in real combat and wasn’t sure how effective they’d be, but when the first totem was set firmly on the floor, he got a quick notification asking whether or not he wanted to activate it. He selected Yes, then popped out of his hiding place and engaged.

A Wretched Snare bloomed in front of him as he held his staff at the ready, the dark magic turning from an orb into a net as it shot through the air—but the magic was significantly slower than his other attacks, and the ghoul easily dodged right in its advance with a snarl of fury. Yellow eyes bulged and locked onto him with primal hunger, and the creature renewed its efforts in bulldozing through everything in its path.

Cursing as the infuriated undead rushed him, Riven activated the Blessing of the Crow only to realize his Blood Lance was still on cooldown.

Red lightning sparked across his skin, and his body was blessed with newfound Agility. It was Agility that he’d very much needed, because he barely managed to dance backward in time to avoid a crushing blow that shattered the table he’d been hiding behind—sending splinters flying as the creature roared at him with yellow eyes wide. Blood covered the creature’s lower body, continuing to seep from the hole the Blood Lance had made, but Riven now saw that the hole was very gradually starting to seal itself up…and he knew it was not going to be a fatal wound.

The creature screeched in annoyance and pain when the totem Riven left behind summoned a ribbon of red power just over the top of the wooden object and shot it at the ghoul—hitting it in the side of its right arm. It began continually beaming health from the undead monstrosity, ticking away small amounts of damage every second it remained latched to the slow-moving, stupid monster. The creature whirled, hissing at the blood magic leeching off its primary limb, and crushed the totem with repeated strikes of rage. This was more than enough time to buy Riven space, though, and his now-enhanced body leaped backward again. The blessing significantly increased his speed, and he rushed across the room far faster than a normal human ever could. He slid over another table while simultaneously firing a flurry of five decently sized discs of sharpened, solidified blood aimed at the undead. The spinning discs tore into the screeching creature while it followed, burying into its body and shattering in sprays of red shrapnel while leaving parts of the ghoul ripped or bleeding and forcing it to slow down.

[You have inflicted an Amplified Bleeding debuff on your enemy, and it will now take damage over time.]

[Bloody Razors (Blood)—summon spinning discs of crimson with minor lock-on abilities to only slightly adjust for enemy movements. Targets hit will experience damage to stamina and a slowing effect, and a high chance for Amplified Bleeding damage.]

“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The unearthly, rage-filled scream chilled Riven to the bone as he rolled to the side and narrowly dodged an incoming strike that sent vibrations through the floor. Riven’s body blurred left when he empowered his blessing with another large infusion of mana, then he somehow managed to awkwardly flip backward and came to a rolling stop to avoid yet another strike from the ghoul that landed in quick succession and shattered a nearby chair. He couldn’t continue to move like that, though, and needed to keep his blessing at a baseline level lest he completely run out of mana and be defenseless.

He kicked off from his kneeling position after the roll and lunged backward to try and put some room in between the undead monster and himself again, but the creature was almost as fast as he was even with his amplified speed. The monster lunged ahead and clipped his shoulder, but Riven retaliated while holding his staff in his left hand and casting another snare that hit the ghoul point-blank. Meanwhile, while his right hand sank the dagger he’d picked up deep into the rolling muscles of the creature’s bicep.

They crashed into one another when the undead pivoted, and the ghoul briefly snickered at him mockingly while ignoring the burning magic wrapping around its body. For Riven, time seemed to slow as he realized he was in deep shit. The creature’s mouth dripped saliva onto the ground from its sharp rows of teeth in that moment, and the ghoul abruptly backhanded him a second later to interrupt his casting. Simultaneously it ripped through the entangling snare with little effort and screeched. The blow was enough to knock the air out of Riven completely, and he was flung five feet backward to land on his back with a thud.

Coughing, catching his breath, and reorienting himself to the threat, he quickly realized that the ghoul was now standing over him with its large, muscular arm raised above its head for the killing blow. It had acidic burn marks all along its decrepit flesh from where the snare of Unholy magic was still wrapped around it, hissing as smoke sizzled off the undead’s body, but the magic simply wasn’t strong enough to hold it in place. Nor did the creature appear to feel any pain. Compared to the necromancer he’d fought or the men he’d killed in the tutorial, this thing was an absolute beast. They couldn’t even hold a candle to it.

With a final roar, the ghoul brought its huge fist down just as Riven screamed in defiance and sprayed another five Bloody Razors out in front of him to blind the monster. He simultaneously just barely rolled out of harm’s way to the left. The blow slammed into stone beneath the undead’s fist, blood from its wounds seeping down its body to pool around its feet, and the creature’s head and neck were slowly oozing from bloody wounds. Spikes of red were sticking out of its upper body and head—the left eyeball completely blown open with one of Riven’s sharp magical projectiles sticking out of the eye socket, and numerous shards of glass were stuck into its thorax and legs…but the bloodied ghoul didn’t even seem to notice.

What it did notice, though, when it raised its fist to look at the spot where it’d hit—was that there was no victim. There was no body, there was no meat to feed on…it took a solid couple of seconds for the stupid creature to realize, but the prey had escaped in the hail of crimson that’d blinded it.

It cocked its head in confusion and stared dumbly at the spot for another fifteen seconds, not understanding what had just happened as Riven channeled red ribbons of mana up his right arm for the second time when his hand gestured a clawing motion.

Riven was pretty sure a rib was broken and his ankle was injured, making him lean on his staff for support. His nose was bloodied, and he had a killer headache, but he was still very much alive and hell-bent on bringing this creature down. He grimaced hatefully at the stupid creature when they finally made eye contact and then gave it the finger with his noncasting hand.

Its one remaining, large yellow eye dilated upon seeing him, and its sharpened teeth clacked and clattered together as it threateningly gnashed them in his direction with the promise of pain.

“DIE!”

The air in front of Riven split apart. Ribbons convulsed and tore away from his outstretched arm, ripping through the air and into the undead creature’s skull in a splatter of brains and bone. The magic continued out the other side to make impact with the far wall and it, too, exploded with rocky debris a ways behind Riven’s target.

A wet, sloppy splat was heard as the remnants of the creature’s skull hit the ground; the ghoul’s body staggered back as if in surprise before the huge mass of grotesque, gray flesh slowly fell backward to crash into the stone floor.

[You have landed a critical hit. Max Damage x 4.]

[You have gained one level. Congratulations! Please see your status page to assign stat points.]

Riven was panting at this point, red sparks of lightning still streaming along his skin at random, and he dropped his quivering right arm to the side just before turning and vomiting to his left. He puked again, his heart rapidly beating into his chest, and his body ached…but he was alive. He shook his head, sank to the floor, and wiped off his mouth while spitting at the creature’s body.

But then he grinned, and slowly he began to laugh.