Chapter 4: CH 3 – Dancing At The Death’s Door

Inside a forest, a young man is chased by a HobGoblin.

The young man, Axel Blaze is so out of breath that he can fall anytime. His face has turned red from lack of oxygen. Still he is gritting his teeth and running with all his might.

Behind him the 7 feet, macho HobGoblin has its mouth wide open with big white teeth showing. Its four canines are quite large and sharp. It is roaring from time to time while thick sticky drools are flying out of its mouth in the air. It is swinging a long and thick wooden stick while chasing after Axel Blaze.

Looking from afar, this scene looks quite dramatic. Anyone who sees the facial expression of the HobGoblin will definitely think that the HobGoblin has some ulterior motives.

Well it definitely does. The HobGoblin wants it.

The meat of a human that is.

...

Even though Axel Blaze sometimes came closer to the trees on the edges while looking for herbs, he has never entered inside the Meru Forest. This is the first time. And on the first time he went quite deep.

It hurts.

His toe stubbed on a tree root so hard that it showed Axel Blaze stars in the day. It hurts so much that waterfall started from his eyes and nose at the same time.

He was already struggling to breathe and with all this water, it became even harder.

But what can he do? If he stopped even for a second, he may lose his ass— I mean, his life to the pervert, chasing behind him.

"Ahh! You bastard cabbage head! Go chase after some HobGoblina. Why are you chasing after me? Are you gay?" Axel Blaze shouted while running.

Like hell the HobGoblin could understand him, it kept chasing.

"Awoooo..." Suddenly a wolf howling sounded.

Axel Blaze could definitely see some bushes move far away from the corner of his eyes.

"Fuck my luck!" He cursed and changed his running direction.

He closed his eyes and ran with whatever energy he had left. He could now only leave things to fate.

"Aaaa..."

"Grrraaa..."

With two panicked cries, two bodies fell into a deep pit.

Bam! Boom! Pit! Pat!

Huge boulders and rocks slammed down from above.

"Siiii... Fwooo..." "It hurts. Oh god it hurts." With a twisted face, Axel Blaze opened his eyes, only to find his left foot pressed by a football sized rock.

Just a few feet away, a pool of crimson blood has formed. Some chunks of rocks are smeared with blood. Between all these rocks, something green could be seen under a big 5 by 5 feet boulder. The blood is flowing out of there. That's definitely the HobGoblin which has turned into mush. And the proof for that is—

[Congratulations! You have defeated a level 5 HobGoblin]

[You have gained 2000 Experience Points!]

[You have leveled up!]

[Warning! The character's body will undergo changes after one minute. Please find a safe place to rest.]

"Rest my ass! Safe place my ass! But the level up is good. It came at the right time." After taking a deep breath, Axel Blaze picked up the rock pressing his leg.

"Phew!... Glad the bone is not broken, it's only fractured. This much will heal after the level up." "If it was broken it wouldn't have completely healed just from level up. And if the leg was cut off, it would be lost for good. Only a Saint can heal such injuries." He murmured. But suddenly his face turned sour.

"Damn! I remembered someone I don't want to." He spat.

By mentioning the word 'Saint', the person he remembered is none other than Luna. He really wants to forget that ungrateful woman. He is trying his best to do so. His current habit of chasing after other women is also to get rid of any feelings he has left for Luna.

After a minute passed, Axel Blaze's whole body suddenly felt light and all his injuries were healed. Though his fatigue turned even more intense after relaxing.

Leveling up can heal the physical body, but it doesn't restore the lost energy. Axel Blaze still needs rest to recover from his tiredness. But unfortunately it doesn't look like he has the pleasure to do so.

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert!...]

[...]

The alert popped up for 17 consecutive times in quick succession before Axel Blaze could understand what was happening. His body jerked and he instantly moved away from the place he was sitting. He shook his head vigorously.

"What? What is happening? What kind of attack is this? It is giving me subtle nightmares." Axel Blaze made a disgruntled look.

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert!...]

[Alert!...]

Another 7 consecutive damage. Along with nightmares.

[Warning! VIT has dropped below 10%]

"Fuck!" Axel Blaze instantly took out a small vial out of his pocket and drank all the liquid inside. It's a VIT Recovery Potion. As for the nightmares he is having, it's not much severe, he can just ignore it for now.

[Restored 100 VIT]

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert!...]

The messages still kept popping up, scaring the shit out of Axel Blaze.

He has just leveled up to level 2, so his VIT has increased by 100. Thanks to the armor stats his current VIT is 250. If it was before, he would be lying dead by now without even knowing what hit him.

Axel Blaze, flustered, looked here and there, trying to search for the source of the hidden attacks.

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[...]

The message continued to pop up.

Axel Blaze instantly took out another vial and drank the potion.

He still couldn't find anyone inside that pit.

The pit is quite large, about 20 meters in diameter. Looking above, the mouth of the pit is half covered with rocks. The wall of the pit is also made up of stone.

Now looking carefully, this pit is actually a hidden room underground. And above is the ceiling, half of which collapsed when Axel Blaze and the HobGoblin fell in.

Axel Blaze still couldn't find the reason for him receiving damage.

With his chest beating like a drum and his whole body drenched in cold sweat, with shaking fingers he went in his pocket to take out another vial of VIT Recovery Potion.

Just as he was about to drink it he felt something chilly on his nape.

Axel Blaze instantly jumped forward.

"Wooosh..." A sharp, air-cutting sound reverberated inside this room.

Axel Blaze quickly turned his head. He now saw the culprit of the hidden attacks.

A ghost-like person made up of blood coloured fog, holding a black scythe.

"Inspect." Axel Blaze didn't waste any time.

Name : Bloody Nightmare (Cursed/Weakened/Irritated/Confused)

True Name : Raul

Level : 50/120

Title : Ex warden of hell, World Boss

VIT : 12,500/600,000

Reading the status of the monster in front of him, Axel Blaze's whole color faded away. His face turned extremely pale and his body started to tremble with fear.

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"Aaaa..." With a cry he started throwing whatever he could grab at the smoky monster.

"Screee..." With a screeching sound, the monster rushed to Axel Blaze and slashed him with the scythe at an extreme speed.

Axel Blaze couldn't dodge and got slashed in half. But surprisingly no blood came out nor did there was any sign of a cut. But—

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

He indeed received damage from this weird attack.

Axel Blaze swept his body with his hands, astonished. He soon realized what was happening.

The monster in front of him is similar to the dark attribute monsters like the Wrath. Though they are invincible to physical damage, fire and light attribute attacks are their weakness.

"Flare." Axel Blaze used his Flare skill without any hesitation.

Though he almost wet his pants, this life and death situation surprisingly made him calmer.

"Inspect." Axel Blaze used the command to check the damage he had dealt. So he only focused on the VIT of the monster.

VIT : 11,990/600,000

"Impossible." Axel Blaze couldn't believe what he saw.

The Flare skill, which should have dealt 15 damage, has surprisingly dealt 510 damage.

"How?" Axel Blaze stared at the VIT status of the monster with disbelief.

Though he expected the monster to have some MDEF and the damage from Flair to decrease, he didn't expect it to increase instead and that too by 5000%. Truly insane.

"Screee..." The monster let out a shrill cry and rushed to Axel Blaze, slashing him two times in quick succession. It didn't stop there and went for more attacks.

Axel Blaze tried his best to dodge as many attacks as he could while drinking VIT Recovery Potion.

"10,000 amilots, you bastard, these potions cost 10,000 amilots each. It's my life savings you are slashing at." Axel Blaze yelled with a wanting to cry expression.

He has already used 5 potions by now.

His VIT is 160/200 right now. Not to forget that 50 points from the 160 are the 50 VIT bonus from the armor.

Standing near the wall, Axel Blaze looked inside his pocket with a depressed gaze.

Two potions in his left pocket and five in his right.

Ten seconds have passed, the Flare's cooldown is up.

"Flare." Axel Blaze attacked again.

"Inspect." He murmured to check the monster's VIT, just to make sure.

VIT : 11,477/600,000

"The last attack dealt 510 damage, this one dealt 513. It increased? Why?" Axel Blaze became confused.

With a shrill cry the monster dashed again slashing at Axel Blaze.

This time Axel Blaze did his best to dodge, only receiving three hits. His VIT has dropped to  130/200.

After another 10 seconds, Axel Blaze shot another Flare.

This time the damage was 511. It decreased.

Next was 509, then 515, then 515, then 512 and so on.

Axel Blaze received several hits after each attack. He became more and more cautious as the number of VIT Recovery Potions decreased.

As time passed, the monster seemed to turn weaker and weaker. It also started to miss its attacks.

After about 4 minutes, huffing and puffing, with his VIT at 30/200, Axel Blaze gulped down the last potion.

Every second of this battle seems to be tiresome.

"Inspect." Axel Blaze commanded while wiping his mouth.

Name : Bloody Nightmare (Cursed/Weakened/Irritated/Confused)

True Name : Raul

Level : 50/120

Title : Ex warden of hell, World Boss

VIT : 1,238/600,000

"Screee..." "Screee..." Suddenly the monster's blood color turned darker and its smoky body started to distort. Its cries became more sharp, filled with horror, sending shills to one's soul.

It randomly started slashing its scythe here and there, without any goal. Its movements look as if it has gone into a frenzy. It has completely lost its sanity.

Axel Blaze definitely understood that the situation has turned extremely dangerous.

He looked here and there then jumped behind one of the fallen boulders hiding behind it.

The monster has lost all its reason and its scythe slashes also seem to have lost their direction. Soon the whole room seemed to be filled with after images of the scythe.

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert! You have received 10 damage]

[Alert!...]

[...]

"Damn it! I forgot that its attacks even pass through objects. I have to kill it before I die. I don't have any potions left." Flustered, Axel Blaze jumped from behind the boulder and shot a Flare.

Unfortunately the Flare got cut by the rapidly moving scythe.

"Oh no!" Axel Blaze held his head.

The attack failed and he couldn't attack for the next 10 seconds.

With no other options he could only try his best to dodge and wait for the next chance to attack.

After 10 seconds Axel Blaze has only 30 VIT left.

"Sigh!... Even if I hit this one, I will still need two more attacks to finish it off. That's it for me I guess. Even though it wasn't a good life. I still tried my best to enjoy it." Axel Blaze lost all hope. 

He slowly raised his hand. "Flare."

This time the attack hit.

Axel Blaze didn't say anything and just stood still on his spot.

The scythe found its way and slashed at Axel Blaze taking 10 points off his VIT.

He closed his eyes. A drop of tear fell slowly through his cheek to the ground.

He slowly opened his eyes to see another slash pass through him.

[Warning! VIT has dropped below 10%]

Only 10 VIT left. One more slash and it will be all over.

Axel Blaze let out a deep breath.

The last scythe slash is approaching him. At this moment everything around him turned into slow motion.

"If there is a next life, I wish for it to have no regrets." He softly mumbled and slowly closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

This life was too short. Too unfair. I couldn't achieve a single thing. So pathetic. Why am I so pathetic? Why? Why? Why? Someone. Someone please help me. I don't want to die.

With his thoughts in turmoil, the room turned completely silent.

The death he was waiting for never arrived.

[Congratulations! You have defeated a level 120 Bloody Nightmare]

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