2
As the goblin stares in my direction I react instinctively, causing what seemed to be organic blades to spring out of my body in various places. 2 from the back of each hand reaching to the tips of my claws, 1 from each forearm reaching from wrist to just past the elbow, 1 from the top of each knee, 1 from the top of each foot like a raptors claw, and one from the back of each foot also like a raptors claw. I also felt my fang like canines lengthen.
Before I even have a chance to register the emergence of these blades the goblin yelled some unintelligible thing and charged at me waving its club over its head. I promptly stand in a relaxed posture with my arms raised and feet spread awaiting my opponent. When it swings it's club down at my head I dodge pivoting clockwise and as it stumbles past I punch it as hard as I can in the side of the head. My blades slide into it's skull like butter causing it to instantly go limp before the force of my blow launches it across the tunnel and into the wall where it impacted with a soggy thud before sliding almost boneless to the ground.
At this point I was shocked to see the corpse slowly sinking into the shadows. A few seconds pass and all signs of the goblin have vanished with a chime and the voice declaring, “Goblin consumed.” I then heard the sound of bare feet running towards me. It sounds like multiple sets of feet and so I stay in the narrower confines of my tunnel as the foot steps draw inexorably closer. Three goblins converge in the intersection, they seemingly converse briefly before turning towards me. They charge as soon as they see me, screaming the same gibberish as the last one, this time I went to meet them. I am apparently much faster than goblins, before they could even take a second step I had taken ten and already punched the one in the middle in the nose sinking my blades into its eyes before kneeing the one on my right in the stomach and driving my tail through the neck of the one on my left. As the first was launched backwards, the second in an arcing path into the ceiling where it splattered, and the third collapsed one way while it's head rolled another I listened to yet more footsteps closing in as my other senses informed my of countless others rushing towards me, and the voice intoned, “Experience requirement reached. Level up. Skill acquired. Unarmed combat level 1.”
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As the third wave appeared I was notified, “Goblins consumed. Item acquired. Shadow storage activated.” I was however focused on killing the angry goblins who just kept coming with increasingly frequent waves. Some waves were as small as two goblins some as big as six while the time between arrivals was growing shorter with every wave until only a few seconds pass before the next arrive, and thus I ignore the chimes and notifications. For 48 hours I remain in that intersection slaughtering the endless waves, and when they still show no sign of slowing I realize I will never find my way to the surface by staying where I am.
By now I have already begun striving to kill as fast as possible while minimizing my effort and thus becoming as efficient as possible. Bloodbath is an entirely inaccurate term for what I have unleashed in this place, I have become a flood of slaughter, I envision a maelstrom of blood and shadows surrounding me shredding and swallowing everything entering my path. I punch, elbow, kick, knee, slice, and stab my way through what has long become countless copses to feed my raging growth. And I have been growing, I am now twice the size and three times the mass I was when I hatched, and I am still growing. Eventually I realize that there actually was a maelstrom of blood and shadows surrounding me and it probably killed a third of my enemies while injuring the rest.
If the numbers come to quickly or I want a seconds peace I expel my breath attack at them causing great harm via level loss or instant death on everything it touched. This works wonders for clearing small and mid-sized tunnels, those that die from my breath simply melt into puddles only to sink into the shadows.
After a tremendous amount of murder the voice declared, “Skill acquired. Aura: shadow of death. Skill acquired. Aura: blood storm. Skills fused. Aura: blood shadow tempest.” I don't pay it any attention, I just continue my relentless massacre as if its as natural as breathing.
It is strange multiple times through out my first 48 hours of violent life I felt that I should feel tired, or I wondered when the exhaustion was going to strike, when would I break down due to lack of sleep? And yet my instincts denied that these things mattered at all they constantly wished to me to keep going, to fight harder, to kill faster, to take advantage of the ever hostile hoard of angry goblins to fuel my growth , because some how I felt that I hadn't yet reached adulthood. It did seem as though my body was in fact still growing, at least that made more sense than thinking the goblins were shrinking.