Chương 23: [LD-1] 22. Fragment

XX Fragment Coughs rasping through a dry throat shocked me awake.

"God…damn." My entire backside was hurting. I turned over— Right into a claw hovering over my head. —I whipped the other way and rolled. The ground split where my head had been. Heartbeat punching against my ribcage, I leapt to my feet.

"Augh!" Fire exploded in my ankle, and I fell right back on my face.

"Fuck," I cried and glanced down. Even with the adrenaline, what I was seeing took my mind a moment to register. My left foot was intact, but my right was facing the wrong direction. It was so bad that the foot looked like it wasn't even part of my body.

"What…" I mumbled.

"Why…" Pain reared. As did memories of being teleported meters above ground hurled into my head— A roar shattered the thoughts. I whirled back to the beast. The creature lacked a lower body, so it could only claw its way forward. That's why it hadn't closed the gap yet. Adrenaline kicked into second and third gear. Cull materialised. I pushed off the butt of the weapon, then used the weapon as a walking stick and created more space.

'Where the fuck did this thing even come from?!' My head swivelled. Carts of random equipment covered in dust. Support beams keeping up rocky walls.

"A mineshaft?" I grunted through the hurt shooting up my leg. Three wide tunnels gaped at me on the other end of the room. The waves of dense mana coursing through their mouths made me turn away on pure instinct, back to the beast. [Darkin Crystalis - lvl. 15] This was the thing the warlock had summoned. The summoner was lying face-down on the ground behind the beast in a pool of its own blood. From the pieces of flesh scattered around its head, it'd died on impact.

'It's still around after its summoner died?' Cloth draped its bulky form. The attire shifted unnaturally like in a wind despite there being none whatsoever. Wisps of mana let loose from its waist and dissipated.

'It's despawning.' I hopped a few steps back when it closed the distance. My heart rate slowed.

"I'm fine." I caught my breath.

"Everything's alright." Too many things had happened in a short amount of time. All of it was frying my nerves— Muscles spasmed, and my head snapped forward. The beast's eyes were glowing. One of its arms stretched toward me as if it was grabbing me. A dark, red hot feeling surging inside me clouded my thoughts. Then my body burst into a run. But I couldn't walk, let alone run. So, my face found the floor again. The whirring feeling kept me from breaking my fall.

Cracks echoed from the front of my mouth, and the taste of iron bloomed on my tongue. Pain echoed through my head as an afterthought, but it slammed against the cloud in my mind. I reached out and scraped my nails across the ground. Clawed over the floor as the beast did… Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. My nail snapped. The reverberation thundered through me and ripped the haze in two.

On its trail, the pain turned from afterthought into primary consideration. I emptied my lungs, my shrill cry cascading off the walls into the tunnels beyond. That's when the crystalis lunged. Its three fingers raked across my jaw, and the force launched me a foot or two. Pieces of rock tumbled in my mouth. I crashed and rolled to a stop, face planting onto the floor. I lay still for a moment as I tried to catch up with what was happening.

There was no more tension in my jaw—something integral to its function had been cut. Then there was the pain… it added to the tally I had already racked up, so the hurt became an avalanche that devoured my every thought. Ground split near me. The beast had not quite been in range for the last strike. This time, it'd cleave my skull— Mana flooded into my fingers. I pushed off my one good foot and spun. Cull dematerialised and formed back into my hands at the apex of my arc. The crystalis jerked.

A dark poured out of its skin and encased it like a carapace… The sound of ripping fabric cut through the space. The end of my spin had me looking down again. Blood and shards of teeth seeped onto the floor. There was too much pain for me to feel, so I glanced to the side. Cull was buried deep inside the beast's skull. The arms dissolved first, then the rest of the body. Darkin Crystalis lvl. 15 slain! Increased experience gained for killing a monster above your level. Analysing alien essence…

Essence matches domain! Crystalis Fragment (I) has been stored. Some of the dissipating mana collected, floated toward me, and entered my skin. My breath hissed through the gap in my teeth. Arms strained and kept me upright on Cull's shaft—"Huh," a voice drawled.

"You're not half bad." I tried to turn in their direction, but the floor sped towards me. Then the world darkened. A warm, fuzzy sensation went down my throat. I opened my blurry eyes. Something… somebody… was sitting beside me. They whispered in my ear, but the words didn't make it through the veil of shadows wiping back over my sight. … When my eyes opened again, the fuzzy feeling had settled in my stomach. The sensation slipped into my bloodstream.

A bit of strength returned to my eye muscle, so they didn't close immediately. I peered through the blur. They were still sitting beside me. My dry lips parted— They put a slender finger on my mouth and lulled me back to sleep. … When I woke up for the third time, they were no longer sitting beside me. The tunnel was dark, but an orb of light illuminated the person. For so far I could call it a person. The figure, which didn't reach my hip standing, wore a black suit you'd expect from a businessman.

Its face was definitely that of a goblin, but its skin was the black of charcoal. They glanced my way, smiled, then raised their hands in a peaceful gesture and turned to back to the front of the tunnel. Kiba was standing a few feet away. The fur on his arm was no longer white but the colour of burnt wood.

"This your girlfriend?" the goblin chuckled.

"Sorry for touching her, tiger. I didn't mean any harm." I blinked. A talking goblin? Was I dreaming? There was a delay between the movement of its mouth and its words entering my head, which made me frown.

'A translation skill?'

"Joy," Kiba whispered without taking his eyes off the creature.

"You awake?"

"Uhm," I stuttered. I coughed and added: "Yes." Then crawled onto my knees. My foot planted, and I inhaled sharply.

'It's healed.' Putting too much pressure on it was still a problem, but the pain was a lot less. A health potion? I glanced at the beast.

'Did it…?'

"Then let's go," Kiba snarled. His snarl was a cry hidden at the last moment. He was doing his best to hide the extent of his injuries. But the way the hairs on his neck stood on end betrayed his emotions. What had him so spooked? I identified it. In the end, wasn't it just a goblin— [?] I stared for a solid second. Huh?

"Question…mark?" I muttered. It grinned.

"Ah, don't mind that. It's just a disguise. Besides, I don't think you want to leave now." It pointed behind Kiba. Kiba at first didn't want to spin around. However, he rotated after seeing my expression. We were in one of the three tunnels, I realised, from the earlier room. While the tunnel itself was quite dark, the common area, so to speak, was well-lit. Figures carried off a body that I recognised but couldn't place immediately.

I relegated them to the back of my mental stack, for another drew all my attention. Sombre lighting illuminated the colossal figure crouched beside a pool of blood. Red wool draped from the mantle, sitting on its wide shoulders, down its back. It dipped a thick finger into the pool, then smeared the blood on one of its tusks and closed its eyes. I focused on the creature's head. [Reee… Orssh… - lvl…] I blinked the message into focus. [Red Skull Orc Lord - lvl. 35— The world stopped. The level alone was enough for me to want to hide in the deepest hole I could find, lest the beast somehow find me. But the piece of information at the end of the system message split my aspirations in two. —Shadowlord Candidate]