Caught by surprise, Clover responded the only way he could: Slowly, he inched his hand upward, carefully watching the peculiar monster for the slightest hint of movement. With a familiar slouched-over posture, it continued to point, its spindly claw now twitching as well.
Something was off about the Bone Rat - more than just the strange color that dyed its tag.
Black eyes met brown. There was an unsettling spark of intelligence in its gaze, unlike anything he had ever seen in a monster.
Like a scene from an old western, the two stood off against each other, waiting for the other hand to drop. Clover didn't allow even a slight hope of a peaceful resolution with the strange beast to enter his mind. It was a question of when, not if. Monsters and humans could not coexist. The world wasn't big enough for the two of them.
Clover's nerves threatened to get the better of him as his heart began to race. He clenched his jaw. He hadn't gone through so much trouble just to lose now that he was on the cusp of escaping.
This wasn’t the place he wanted to die.
Behind him, a scraping sound echoed. It rapidly grew louder as it approached his position. Clover risked a glance back. Barreling down at him, another mutated rat charged toward him.
Bone Rat - Lvl 5
Its paws were encased in bulky gauntlets of bone that ended in harsh spikes. They dragged against the floor as the monster stumbled forward in an awkward bent-over gait, imitating the bipedal nature of the other Bone Rat.
Not giving him any time to react, it lunged forward, swinging one of its heavy gauntleted claws at Clover. He leaned back, but there was nowhere to go in his small chair - he couldn’t entirely avoid the hit. The monster’s claw dug into his forehead, cleanly slicing through the outermost layer of flesh.
Carried by its momentum, the gauntlet continued its arc, throwing the monster off balance. Unused to standing on two legs, the Bone Rat was unable to recover and collapsed to the ground in an uncoordinated mess of limbs at Clover's feet.
Not one to pass on an opportunity, he thrusted his free hand forward, stopping a mere foot away from the rat’s snout. Quickly, a lumpy blue bolt of mana formed in his hand. Before the brutish rat could clamber to its feet, Clover blasted it in the face with [Unstable Mana Bolt].
Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 16. +1 Skill Point.
The attack landed cleanly, snapping its head back. With all the Levels [Unstable Mana Bolt] had under its belt, the Skill was starting to legitimately hit hard. At first, its power had been comparable to a thrown rock - good, but not good enough to vanquish mutated sewer rats, but now, he'd compare its power to a strike from a professional bare-knuckle boxer. However, even with its power, he had no illusions that a single shot would be enough to put down the monster.
Clover wasted no time in wheeling away, putting distance between him and the Bone Rat as it angrily climbed to its feet.
Paranoid, he took his eyes off the beast for a moment and hurriedly glanced about, searching for the other strange Bone Rat. It had not moved from its previous place, not taking advantage of the chaos to attack Clover. For some reason, that made Clover even more concerned.
A loud crash boomed outside the building.
Seemingly no longer interested in Clover, the masked Bone Rat casually walked away. Clover did not have time to see where it was headed as he was forced to focus back on the other monster that rapidly approached.
Clover continued wheeling backward down a wide-open walkway in between rows of items. As he did so, blood dripped from his brow into his eyes, obstructing his view. He didn't have time to patch up the wound, so he did his best to ignore it. Still, it made maneuvering difficult.
Energy hummed in his core as he shot out another [Unstable Mana Bolt] from his free hand, aiming at the approaching beast's face again.
The attack went wide, smashing into the monster's unprotected knee, causing it to stumble over itself. It was not an entirely poor result, though an unreliable one - Clover didn't have the practice or the talent to consistently hit a moving target yet. Not being able to see well didn't help either.
Despite being somewhat clumsy, the Bone Rat was fast, unlike the other monsters he had fought so far. There was no outmaneuvering it. It caught up to him before [Unstable Mana Bolt] could come off cooldown. The moment before it entered range, Clover snagged a rice cooker from off a shelf and held it out in front of him as a shield.
Clover intercepted the Bone Rat's slashes with the rice cooker twice. The first time, deep lines were cut into the plastic, and the second time, the force of the strike knocked it out of his grasp. However, even though his desperate defensive maneuver had ultimately failed, it had bought him time. That was all he needed.
Once more, the Bone Rat pulled back its arm, preparing for a heavy slash, but before it could follow through, Clover blasted it in the face with an unstable bolt of mana.
The beast stumbled back; blue motes of mana fell from its face like flakes of snow, revealing an injured visage. His attacks were adding up. He was whittling down the monster.
He wiped the flow of blood from his forehead, clearing his vision.
Even angrier than before, it continued its pursuit, its movements continually growing more erratic. A heavy blow swung toward his head, threatening to decapitate him. With nothing to defend himself with, Clover was forced to blindly swerve away. He watched, almost in slow motion, as a white comet of bone swiped by his face, missing by a matter of inches.
He, like the dinosaurs, would have gone extinct if it had landed.
Thrown off balance by the miss, the Bone Rat almost toppled over.
Unfortunately, he was not able to take advantage of the opening. Dodging the monster's clawed gauntlet had set him on a collision course with a metal shelf stacked with items. There wasn't any time to swerve out of the wave of the obstacle. Clover braced for impact, closing his eyes at the last second out of reflex.
Clover crashed shoulder first, rattling the shelf; a cascade of blankets and pillowcases tumbled to the ground. When he opened his eyes a fraction of a second later, the Bone Rat was already upon him; it hadn't given him any time to recover. Deep red energy wafted off its gauntlet in thick plumes - some sort of innate special ability.
He didn’t want to find out what it did.
With only a fraction of a moment to react, Clover threw himself to the side, tumbling out of his wheelchair onto the ground. Above him, the shelf groaned as the Bone Rat’s clawed gauntlet speared through the space where his head had been just moments before, leaving a trail of twisted metal.
Sprawled out on the wet floor, Clover readied an [Unstable Mana Bolt] as the Bone Rat tried to free its trapped arm from the shelf. As it formed, the structure in his soul flickered. This cast would not be a normal one.
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He grimaced. His fate was now up to luck - a roll of the dice. If a strong effect was added to the spell, he'd live. But, if the spell misfired, or an otherwise negative effect was tacked on… well, in that case, he wouldn't be around long enough to complain.
He could do nothing but hope things turned out in his favor.
The spell's usual defined border grew hazy. Orange and red tongues of flame sparked to life. The fire twisted back around the bolt of mana, growing in intensity.
Even as the spell burnt at his palm, he felt relief. He was saved. If this was anything like the bone or slate effect…
Clover released his hold on [Unstable Mana Bolt], causing it to rocket forward. It shot through the air, perfectly on target.
However, at the last moment, before it could connect with the Bone Rat’s face, Clover’s heart dropped. He watched in horror as the monster raised its free gauntlet to block the attack; deep red energy burst forth from it.
The two effects clashed in a burst of flame and energy, largely canceling each other out. Slightly singed, the oversized rat pulled its arm out of the shelf.
Clover's breathing quickened - short and shallow, he wasn't getting nearly enough air. He felt lightheaded as he scooted himself back with his arms. There was nowhere to go. The Bone Rat blocked the nearest exit.
Even if there was, his wheelchair had flipped over. Without it, he was slower than the monster rat.
Striding awkwardly, the beast stumbled forward, heavily fatigued as it advanced upon him. Its pursuit was slower now, and an unhealthy paleness had sunken across its face.
In a panic, Clover pushed himself away from the monster, half-crawling as he counted down the seconds till [Unstable Mana Bolt] would come off cooldown. His back butted up against a wall - nowhere left to run.
He didn’t want to die.
His hand shook as he channeled [Unstable Mana Bolt], focusing the entirety of his attention on aiming it. The spell needed to land perfectly. Before the bolt of mana could finish forming, something in its structure snapped, and as a result, it fizzled out, dissolving harmlessly into blue motes of mana that drifted away on an unseen breeze.
Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Lvl 17. +1 Skill Point.
Despair gripped at Clover’s soul, and his heart pounded wildly in his chest, calling forth an intense wave of nausea. In that moment, some part of him wanted to give up. It was a voice he was used to listening to, but today, he did not...
He clenched his burnt fist so hard that his knuckles turned white. “Come on then. Let’s do this!” Clover shouted, full of false bravado.
Smaller and less vibrant than the last two times, sharp red energy formed over one of the Bone Rat's gauntleted claws. It lunged forward, stabbing at Clover's fallen form.
Jerking his head to the side, Clover narrowly avoided the glowing claw. It stabbed cleanly through the wall till it got stuck in something with a metallic clang. The other claw, he was unable to avoid. He raised his arms, shielding his head, as the unpowered gauntlet raked across his forearms, cutting red lines into it.
All the Points he had put into Vitality had been good for something. A normal person would have been torn to shreds by the blow. He, on the other hand, got off with losing around a quarter of his HP and some minor injuries.
Clover grunted, then grappled with the monster's overextended arm, doing his best to trap it in place. With [Unstable Mana Bolt] still on cooldown - longer than usual, he threw three sloppy punches, connecting with the animal's snout each time. The monster recoiled in pain, not used to getting hit in such a sensitive area.
He punched again as hard as he could, breaking the skin over his knuckles.
Then finally, off cooldown, point blank, he launched another [Unstable Mana Bolt]. A strange resistance tried to stop him from activating the Skill, but he pushed through it, and a second later, the bolt smashed into the Bone Rat's face with a crack, breaking skeletal structure.
There was no time to reflect or think about what was happening; it was a mad dash for survival.
The beast flailed about, its claw cutting into Clover's arm as he fought to keep it trapped. Once more, he struck the beast, targeting its fractured cheek for maximum effect.
The Bone Rat gave up on freeing its limbs and instead snapped its jaw forward and bit Clover's hand. Wholly unprepared, he screamed in pain as sharp teeth pressed down against his fingers with a crushing force.
In the upper left-hand corner of his vision, his HP dropped precipitously.
All thoughts other than freeing his hand immediately left his mind. Straining, he tried to free his arm, but the monster's grip was firm. It jerked its neck around like a dog with a chew toy, sinking its teeth in deeper.
His HP dropped further.
117/210
83/210
Finally gathering his wits, Clover tried to activate [Unstable Mana Bolt], but the Skill did not respond. The Skill was off cooldown, but a force - a resistance, blocked him from activating it.
His subconscious summoned forth a memory: outside the sinkhole, the man with the shovel had claimed it was impossible to cast a spell inside of a monster. Till now, he thought it was a useless bit of trivia.
Clover hissed in pain as its teeth tore deeper into his hand. He did not know what to do.
59/210
31/210
"[Unstable Mana Bolt]," Clover desperately repeated under his breath, the edges of his vision going dark. The force that blocked him gave way the slightest bit. No. More than a force, as he pressed harder against it, it felt like a living, breathing organism - something with a rich history.
Right now, Clover didn't care. All that mattered was that it was malleable - that it was possible to destroy it. He pressed with all his being; the complex energy patterns beneath [Unstable Mana Bolt]'s crystalline surface rapidly rearranged, changing to fit his needs. Beyond that, even the mana that rested in his soul roused from its slumber and slowly began to bounce around, crashing through the space wildly as it gained speed. The barrier budged. Slowly, he made progress.
He feared it was not fast enough.
Above, with each further bite the rat took out of his hand, it mutated. Bones sprouted out of its back, interlocking with each other to slowly form a primitive armor of sorts. Though, from its pained expression, Clover's efforts were clearly doing something.
17/210
9/210
Clover’s HP hit 0. Suddenly, he felt cold and weak. The entirety of the support the System granted him fell away. He felt as if he was on the edge of death, and the Bone Rat’s teeth felt that much sharper.
Something in his hand - a finger gave way.
Details blurred as Clover screamed. The world seemed to tunnel down on itself. Blindly acting by instinct, he urged every last bit of mana he had into action, pitting his very soul itself against the barrier - the monster’s soul.
There, in the space between their souls, he found a resonance. Then, in the next moment, the resistance crumbled. In one go, his MP dropped by 100, hitting 0. Something vital had drained out of him. Hollow and unmoored, an intense wave of fatigue struck him as if he had just run one hundred miles.
A dizzying amount of energy gathered in his mangled palm - a blue glow shone through the Bone Rat's teeth. "Go to hell," Clover muttered, the words coming out slurred - almost unintelligible.
Inside its mouth, the bolt of mana exploded. With a crack, Clover's vision flashed blue.
Headless, the Bone Rat slumped over, dead.
Clover's ears violently rang as a storm of blue screens appeared. He tried to read them, but his eyes would not focus - the text was too blurry. His consciousness wavered.
Drained, he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a year straight. But he knew he could not do so. More monsters would be coming; if they found him, he'd be as good as dead.
Grunting in pain, Clover forced himself up onto his elbows and dragged himself forward. Not more than a couple dozen feet away, he spotted a place he could hide. It felt like an impossible distance. His limbs were sluggish, moving as if they had been weighed down by lead, and his bones burnt, throbbing in pain, feeling like they were coming undone.
Things that did not exist flashed in and out of his peripheral vision.
His body was shutting down. Whether he wanted to or not, he would be unconscious soon.
Each movement he made brought a fresh surge of pain. Even still, he persisted, driven by no rational thought other than the urge to survive.
Finally, he reached his destination. Crawling, he wedged himself under a fallen metal shelf in the corner of the building. Using the last dredges of his energy, he blindly shifted fallen items around, amateurishly blocking himself from view.
Clover closed his eyes, not knowing if he would ever open them again.