Chapter 6_Chronicler’s Tale

New World Day 1

While my mind was busy cursing my foolishness, my body thankfully knew what to do. I dove over the makeshift barricade behind me, the shotgun landing painfully under me as I hit the ground. Hurriedly, I rolled off of it and placed it on the barricade to steady it as I aimed at the approaching beasts. After the fight with the goblin, I hadn’t taken the time to reload the shotgun. So, there were only two shells left, and I had to make them count. I didn’t think that I could kill one with a single shot, but if I could delay two of them long enough to kill the other two with the pistol then I just might have a chance. The beasts themselves were prowling forward slowly convinced, correctly as it happens, that they had me cornered. They advanced slowly enough that I had time to wonder if I should have just tried to close the stupid garage door anyways.

I noticed that all four of them were almost half the size of the previous beast, and they had a red tint to their green fur that the first one was lacking. Young ones? Or maybe the first was just an abnormality? Shaking my head slightly to get rid of the distracting thoughts swirling in my mind, I aimed at the fore most of the four beasts. Once I had it firmly in my sights, I let out a long low breath and pulled the trigger. Boom! The ringing in my ears returned once more, but aside from a slight wince, I paid no attention to it. All of my attention was focused on that first beast. It had been in mid step, its front right paw in the air, when the whirlwind of pellets struck it full on. The impact of the pellets knocked it to the ground. Some of the pellets had struck its leg and its softer more vulnerable paw, but most of the blast had taken it in the head and chest. Grinning, I noticed that while its thick fur prevented too much damage there was at least one pellet that had struck its left eye blinding it in that one eye. The wounds to its head and chest only let out small streams of blood, but blood absolutely poured from its paw and eye.

I don’t know if it was because of the loud noise or the smell of fresh blood entering the air, but the other three beasts changed gears and charged in recklessly. The three beasts charged forward nipping at each other along the way as they jockeyed for position. Now that they were closing the distance so quickly, I no longer had any time to take proper aim, but with all three of them practically filling my entire vision, I couldn’t miss. Squeezing the trigger, a second boom echoed in the garage, and I saw the middle beast come to a screeching halt as the barrage slammed into its chest. The beast didn’t fall like the first, but by the look of things it had the breath knocked from it. Stopping it for a short time was good enough for me. Dropping the shotgun to the ground with a clatter, I undid the flap on my hip holster and yanked the pistol out. The two uninjured beasts were dangerously close now. Close enough that I caught a whiff of their terrible breath that smelled of decaying meat. Close enough that a corner of my mind calmly noted that the red tint to the fur was actually blood stains. That same absurdly calm corner of my mind wondered why they were still so ravenous if they had killed something else recently enough that the blood on their fur had yet to dry. The one good thing about their close proximity is that I simply couldn’t miss. Filing those thoughts away for now, I smoothly pointed the pistol at the beast on my left, fired three times, shifted to the right and fired three more times. I had no way to know which of the shots was fatal, but I could see the life fade from their eyes. The momentum of their charge carried them into the garage and straight into the barricade of ATVs. The vehicles rocked back tumbling onto their sides and knocked me on my ass in the process.

Panicking, I struggled to stand, but the abrupt fall saved my life as a third beast sailed through the air right where I was once standing. The beast that had been hit by the second shotgun blast had recovered quicker than I thought it could, and it had been hidden from view by the two other beasts. It landed gracefully behind me just in front of the ranger and immediately pivoted back towards me. Leaning my head backwards, I shoved the pistol back towards the beast and wildly fired off five shots. The shots perforated the side of the beast mid-twist and it collapsed dead with a huff just behind me.

One more beast remained, and as that thought flashed across my mind, a whooshing sound entered my ear. The last beast! It was about to pounce right onto my prone form! Desperately, I rolled to the side, but it was too late to avoid the strike completely. The beast landed to my left with a crack as its claws slashed into the cold concrete with the full force of its considerable bulk behind them. Its front left claws caught me in the side as I rolled away gouging out three great chunks of flesh. Lightning struck and my mind blanked as pain coursed through my body. The pistol clattered to the floor as the pain caused my hand to spasm and lose its grip. Despite the pain, my survival instincts kept me rolling to the side leaving blood stains in my wake. I rolled right into the wall, left side first, splattering the wall with my blood and causing a new burst of pain to rip through my body, but the frantic roll saved my life for a second time. The beast had pivoted on its left leg, whipping its backside to its right so that it could let loose a vertical strike at me with its right leg, and the beast’s claws tore three long lines into the concrete right where I had just been.

Metal twinkled and glinted in the light of the setting sun just in front of me as I tried to blink away the pain. It was the axe! Pulling my legs under me as best I could, I thrust myself forward trying to squeeze past the Ranger to the axe leaning against the wall just behind it. Enraged by its failure, the one eyed beast snarled at me, advanced a step forward and lashed out with its left leg in sideways swipe. The dirty black claws whistled through the air and tore deep into the calf of my right leg before I could get completely past the Ranger. I thought it couldn’t possibly get any more painful, but I was wrong oh so wrong. The pain was overwhelming and unlike anything I had ever felt before. It threatened to shut my entire mind down, but I focused on one thing. On just one single thought. The axe! If I could just get to the axe maybe I could survive. Maybe I could turn things around. Holding that thought, I struggled through the gap between the Ranger and the wall towards the axe. The beast rushed forward snapping literally at my heels its saliva splattering over the back of my legs and its warm putrid breath washing over my body.

With single-minded focus unlike any I had ever conjured up before, I shut out the pain in my side and leg and the crazed howls of the beast behind me all so that I could limp forward to the axe. My efforts were rewarded when my trembling hands finally closed around the handle of the axe. Raising the axe, I twisted to my right and blindly swung the axe in an almost 360 degree ark behind me. The axe sunk into something with a sick thunk and my arms shook heavily from the impact. The beast had been trying to force its way past the Ranger after me, and it let loose a manic pain-filled howl as the axe sunk itself right into its muzzle. Wrenching the axe free, I swung it down overhead towards the beast’s head. The blow was ill-aimed and missed its skull yet it still left a long jagged cut below its left eye. Stunned by pain, the beast tried to pull its head back from the gap, but I was not about to give it any breathing room. Limping after it, I wildly swung the axe at it over and over again. Blood drops flew across the room, and cut after cut opened up on the beast’s body. The beast desperately backpedalled attempting to escape from my onslaught, but I didn’t give it a chance. I couldn’t give it a chance. The moment I stopped moving, the moment I stopped swinging, was the moment I died. Each blow was harder to unleash than the last, my vision began to grow fuzzy, and my breath grew more and more ragged. However, I kept swinging over and over and over again until there was one final wet thunk as the axe sank deep into the beast’s chest. The axe was stuck, and I didn’t have the strength to pull the axe free anymore. With a growl of victory, the beast raised itself up on its back legs as if to maul me like a bear or lion might and tore the axe from my hands in process. Unblinking, I stared straight ahead at the beast. I refused to give it the satisfaction of flinching as I met my end, but the blow never came. The beast raised itself to its full height only to tumble to the side with a stunning crash. Staring in disbelief, I limped around the beast to the pistol, leaving a trail of blood in my wake, and emptied the clip into the beast’s body for good measure.

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With the immediate threat gone, the pain returned in full force and threatened to overwhelm me once more. Gritting my teeth, I scrambled to keep the darkness encroaching my vision at bay. I had lost too much blood and didn’t have much time. A new message was blinking on the screen, and I knew that as bad as my injuries were the System was likely to be my only hope of surviving. Shouting in my mind, I said, “Status!”

*Ding*

Title awarded! Pack Killer (B) *

Title awarded! Beast Killer (B) *

Skill awarded! Basic Gun Mastery (B) *

Basic Axe Mastery (B) * leveled up!

Basic Gun Mastery (B) * leveled up!

Basic Gun Mastery (B) *leveled up!

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 1 55%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 1 25%

Fool (B) LVL 1 0%

Pack Killer (B) LVL 1 0%

Beast Killer (B) LVL 1 0%

Title Points:

Stats:

HP:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Bonus Points:

8/100

Status Effects:

Bleeding x6

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 2 25%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 3 45%

Two things immediately caught my attention. The first was that I had only 8 HP left, and the second was that I had a status effect of Bleeding x6. If that effect was anything like the one in games, then it meant I would continue to lose HP until I died or managed to remove the effect somehow. Naturally that made sense since I only needed to glance at my side or leg to see the blood was still flowing freely from my wounds, and if I didn’t find some way to stop the bleeding soon I would die! Tearing my mind away from that dark abyss of a thought, I whispered, “Title Skill Purchase!” An immense list immediately appeared on the screen in front of me. There were hundreds if not thousands of skills that appeared. I simply didn’t have time to sort through them all! Hoping that the System had a sort function I thought, “Healing skills!” Praising the gods, I saw the list shrink to just four skills just as I had hoped it would.

Available Healing Skills:

Basic HP Recovery (Active) (B) * Cost: 1 point

Basic HP Recovery (Passive) (B) * Cost: 2 points

Basic Regeneration (Active) (B) * Cost: 2 points

Basic Regeneration (Passive) (B) Cost: 4 points

With my life literally draining from my body, I mentally screamed, “Purchase Passive Regeneration!” The choice was almost instinctual and based solely on the fact that it was the most expensive and thus hopefully the strongest skill. Using what little strength I had left, I limped towards the button that would close the garage door. Along the way, fresh pain surged through my mind and body as the System implanted the knowledge of the Regeneration skill in my mind and enhanced my body so that the skill could take effect. Dragging my battered body forward, I slapped the button, flipped over to put my back to the wall, and slid down it to collapse onto the ground as darkness finally overtook me.