Chương 17: Hollow

His chest tightened with an unexpected sensation of nostalgia. Only five days had passed since his induction into this new world, yet that brief stretch already felt like a lifetime. He was nowhere near the level of the top ten, but he trusted himself capable enough to hold his own. Let's put it to the test. Hoping for another horde of goblins waiting inside, he pushed through the door. The interior wasn't just a regular club. It was closer to a concert hall.

An elevated stage dominated the center of the room, flanked by large speakers—their mesh screens humming under the pounding bass. Four figures clawed at the speakers, dragging their nails down the mesh in long, screeching strokes. They stood roughly six feet tall, propped up on short, stubby legs that left them top-heavy and unsteady. Denim jeans, several sizes too small, clung to their lower halves, the seams straining and popping at the seams.

Pale, doughy flesh spilled over the waistbands in thick rolls, folding up their torsos all the way to their necks. Gray caught a side profile of one of the monstrosities. Four pairs of eyes lined its face where two should have been, and a jagged horn jutted out from where a nose belonged. Beneath it, a tongue rolled loose, long enough to hang past its chin. Abomination Lv. 3"Abomination sounds about right," Gray muttered, backing toward the exit one slow step at a time.

"I asked for goblins. Not… whatever the hell these are." He turned to leave. Then he froze mid-step. Am I really going to stagnate here? After coming all this way? He turned back into the club, hugged the wall, and slipped into the shadow of the velvet booths, keeping clear of their line of sight. He racked his brain for a plan. A few seconds later, one struck him. The stripper pole. He crept up to the steel rod, dagger in hand.

After crouching low, he began sawing at its base, hoping to shear it clean in one motion. It wasn't clean. Gray winced with every grinding pass, the blade catching and skipping against the metal. Luckily, the music swallowed the shriek of steel on steel, and after five grueling minutes, the pole came free at the bottom. Then there was the top. Gray held onto the base tightly to steady the shaft, then set to work sawing a diagonal edge where the steel reached his chest.

The result was a crude hybrid weapon: five feet of steel bo staff capped with the jagged edge of a spear. He gave it a couple of test swings, feeling out the balance. It was heavy, but the reach more than made up for it. The reason he opted for the staff instead of using his daggers that were evidently much stronger was simple: there was no way he was getting within an arm's length of those things using his daggers. Mid-swing, he overshot and the staff cracked against a railing.

All four Abominations snapped their heads toward the sound in unison, then let out a shrieking war cry that tore straight through the pounding music. They charged. Their stubby legs gave every stride an uneven, waddling stagger, the kind that might have looked almost comical on anything else. Nothing about the rest of them left room for humor. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Gray aimed his palm at his feet.

Shroud Domain was still on cooldown, so he opted for the next best thing—improvising a smokescreen with his general Cloud Mastery instead. A dense cloud erupted at his feet, spreading outward and up. It wasn't as grand as his signature ability, but it was more than enough to swallow him from sight. The Abominations skidded to a halt at the sudden burst of smoke. Gray tightened his grip and drove the jagged point into the lead beasts chest.

Cloud Mastery's passive kept his vision clear inside the haze, leading to the accuracy of his strike. It wasn't fatal, only enough to send the thing toppling backward onto its rear. He pivoted to the next one, swept the staff low, and felt the metal bite deep into its shins. It dropped sideways, thrashing against the floor beside its companion. The third lunged into the smoke. Before it could reach him, Gray swung the staff into the side of its head.

A crunch echoed over the music as the impact lifted the thing off its feet and sent it crashing into the DJ booth. The fourth surged forward, not at Gray but at his weapon. Its fingers clamped around the far end of the pole. He wrenched at it, hard, but the grip didn't give. In response, he slid his hands down the shaft, angling the jagged point toward the thing's skull. One hand held the staff steady while the other hammered the base, driving the steel through its eye socket in a single strike.

Brownish-gray blood sprayed from the socket as the abomination went slack and folded to the floor, bleeding out fast. You have slain [Abomination] +0. 7% EXP | +50CP Three were still alive. One lay slumped against the DJ booth while the other two scrambled to right themselves. The first one he'd tripped finally regained its footing. They take forever to stand up, he realized. Gray swept the staff low again, knocking it back onto its rear. Beside it, the second was buckled on its knees, still struggling to rise.

With its head bowed low, the rest was simple. Gray raised the staff and drove it down in a overhead strike. The impact caved in its skull. You have slain [Abomination] +0. 7% EXP | +50CP Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the last one stirring against the DJ booth, straining to push itself upright. Gray hefted the staff over his shoulder, took aim, and hurled it like a javelin. The weapon tumbled end over end through the air before the blunt side cracked against the side of its skull.

You have slain [Abomination] +0. 7% EXP | +50CP Gray shrugged. That works. One enemy remained, sprawled on the floor and thrashing as it fought to roll over and find its feet. He had no real idea what his new Hollow ability could do, and this struggling thing made a convenient test subject. He didn't bother extending his hand. He simply willed the spell into being above the creature's head, the same way he had against the ogre.

Hollow Black smoke bloomed instantly, swallowing the creatures head and enveloping its upper-half. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the thing began to hack, wet and violent, the sound cutting straight through the thumping bass. It managed to plant one foot beneath itself, fighting to rise, but the coughing dragged it back down to its knees. Clawing at its own throat, it let out a wet, strangled gasp that sent shivers up Gray's spine.

His visibility remained completely clear through the black vapor, allowing him to witness the beast's struggle. Its four pairs of eyes—grotesque as they were—were narrowing in agony, and he watched every detail of its choking struggle until its murky gray flesh darkened to a bruised purple. It eventually dropped, hitting the floor with a heavy, final thud. You have slain [Abomination] +0. 7% EXP | +50CP The dark gas thinned and vanished, leaving the corpse behind.

Gray stared down at it as a sick feeling settled in his stomach, his mind only now catching up with what he had just done. This is different from the time I suffocated that ogre. My smoke never killed the brute. Had some evil god handed him this power on purpose? He wasn't naive enough to feel guilty about killing monsters. It was him or them, plain and simple. But the irony wasn't lost on him.

He wouldn't have blinked twice roasting a goblin alive with a fireball, yet choking something out, watching it claw for air until the light left its eyes, felt entirely too personal. It crossed a line he hadn't known was there. He had other tools for the job. And right then, he swore he would never use this particular spell again. Shaking off the tension, he pushed through the heavy club doors. Cool night air hit his face, and with it came a wave of déjà vu. Three figures waited just outside the entrance.

The one in the center stepped forward first, a polite smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Excuse me," he said.

"Would you like to join our party?"