Sprinting made it a short trip out to the dungeon, not that I knew how long it was exactly. I’d lost my ability to keep track of time forever ago. Hell, I wasn’t positive how long I’d even been in this world.

All I could see were more plains for miles around with a city in the distance and a tree line off to my right. Both were also miles away. There were also portals. Not many, just a handful, but it forced me to remember which one exactly was my target. At least they were spaced apart fairly well and I’d gotten here quickly enough to remember what I’d memorized.

I identified what I figured was the right one, walked up to it, and slumped off my pack. This was going to be the most dangerous place I’d ever been, so I should probably prepare a little bit. Pulling out and equipping my caestus, I kept my head on a swivel just in case. Nothing was coming out of the portals, like usual, and no animal in their right mind would willingly approach these tears in space.

Equipped with my weapons and ready to start, I picked up my bag again and walked through. The inside was chilly, though nothing too bad. Though I suspected that if survival mode were still on, I’d not be having such an easy time of it. Maybe that was part of the danger here, people being unprepared for freezing cold when it was the middle of summer outside.

Once again I was in a cave which seemed to be a common theme here. Smooth, bluish gray stone was all around me with only one opening and it was directly in front of me. I’d barely stepped two feet forward before the tell tale sounds of many legs scrambling across stone echoed down the tunnel. I quickly threw my pack to the side and took a step forward as my next opponent showed itself.

It was just a giant horseshoe crab. Well, it was a little smoother looking and had a longer tail portion, but that’s basically what the creature was. Its shell was the same bluish gray as the rest of the cave system and was nearly to my waist in height. As it got closer and my vantage point improved, I could see that it was about four times longer too. So a really big horseshoe crab.

And it was fast!

By the time I’d registered what the charging shell was, it had nearly reached me. Sliding my right foot back slightly, I angled my shoulders towards the ground and unleashed my strongest attack.

“Straight.”

My armored fist collided with the creature’s shell and a cracking sound filled the cave. It didn’t slow at all, forcing me to jump to avoid its barreling charge. Just as I took to the air, confident I could clear the short monster, it reared back on its tail, revealing what was hidden underneath.

It was pure nightmare fuel, and I thanked god that I didn’t need to sleep. Dozens of long, spindly legs stretched out in every direction, squirming and grasping to bring anything in front of it into its circular maw. With it suddenly gaining several feet in height from its maneuver, I was headed straight into the shredder.

“Jab! Jab!”

Terrified of the sight in front of me, I unleashed two desperate punches directly into the squirming legs, hoping to get it to back down. It didn’t, but my repeated hits did break several of the legs off while also pushing it back slightly. While it was upright, it clearly had less pushing power than before.

Sadly, time continued and my jump carried me along with it.

I crashed into its underbelly and immediately heard the destruction it brought. My armor was chewed to pieces in the second it took me to escape, only managing to slip out thanks to the legs I’d broken on the way in. It simply stood there, still reaching out towards me but with its momentum fully stopped. Before it had the chance to back down again, I unleashed several more jabs at the scrambling legs.

A sharp pain ran up through my right fist which was my second indication that something was wrong. Jumping to the side of the monster to buy a little time, I looked down to see what it was.

My caestus had shattered on impact with the crustacean, and the last few jabs had pushed some of the hard material into my knuckle. Blood ran down my fist as I stared at it numbly. The crab had done more damage to me on my attacks than I’d done to it, as it turned to face me without a single scratch on it.

This wasn’t going to work, which my handy health bar was nice enough to remind me. I was in a battle of attrition with a fucking crab, and I was losing. Badly.

I began circling it, using its inability to strafe against it. Fortunately for me, it was the wrong kind of crab for that. I could circle it endlessly it seemed, since it moved slightly slower than me when going from side to side. Really, that was just insulting. It was the faster sprinter, tougher, and probably stronger than me even after all my levels and grinding. No wonder people had died to this thing.

The cave itself was barely big enough for me to circle it too, meaning that a group of people would have been totally screwed. If there were just a couple more people in here for me to move around, I’d have gotten caught and killed by now.

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Fortunately, I was alone and had time to recover. With my eyes glued to the monster, I continued to circle it while removing my caestus. Pain shot through my whole arm as I did. I had to remove the spike from my knuckle first, and my bone was the weaker of the two materials. The distraction caused me to slow down a step, and that small opening was all the creature needed to close its angle of approach, forcing me to jump to the side to dodge. That, in turn, caused me to rip the lodged shard from my fist rather than pull it out carefully.

My hand split open from the back as blood poured out, but I didn’t have the dexterity necessary to fix it. Not with my other hand still in its weapon. In full desperation mode, I ignored the pain in my right hand to pull the caestus off my left, spreading blood everywhere as I did. Then, I kept my eyes on my surroundings and the crab, using every point I had in awareness to find the best opportunity to grab my bag. It didn’t take long.

Sprinting forward, I grabbed my satchel and dove through the portal. Once on the other side, I rummaged through it as fast as I could, finding my old crappy clothes quickly enough. I wrapped my hand in the material, more focused on stopping the bleeding than anything else. My regeneration would fix it up, probably, but only if I could stop my health from dropping. Once that was done, I finally breathed a sigh of relief, determined to avoid that place for as long as possible. It was lucky that I’d grinded my awareness as high as I did.

I barely noticed the sounds of movement over the adrenaline in my ears and the pounding feeling in my hand, but the movement in the corner of my eye was what really got my attention. I leaned slightly and managed to move just enough for the arrow to hit what remained of my armor, pushing through the carapace and stopping on my skin. Focusing up, I saw the signs of at least four more people moving into position around me, flanking me as they did.

Without thinking, I grabbed my bag with my good arm and rolled back through the portal, snapping the arrow as I did. If they wanted their loot, they could go through the crab gauntlet themselves.

My old friend had managed to leave in the short time I was gone, but came back shortly after I did. I got back to circle strafing the creature, holding my bag close to me all the while.

How did I not see them before I came inside? Clearly, I’d grown overconfident to be caught in a pincer attack like this. The irony of this being the wrong kind of crab for that still brought a smile to my lips, despite the situation.

Eventually, the adrenaline stopped pumping and my mind calmed down, giving me the chance to think while avoiding my enemy. The people outside clearly had some kind of stealth skills, so I was never going to spot them until they moved for the kill. They could have stalked me all the way from town and I’d never have noticed.

The only reason I could think of for why I wasn’t dead was that they were trying to be quiet and didn’t coordinate their attacks. If all of them had shot me at the same time, they’d have turned me into a pin cushion. Knowing my luck, they wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Assassins outside and killer crabs inside. I might be able to make a break for it, but one well placed arrow would mean my death. Hell, with how chewed up my armor was, it wouldn’t even need to be that well placed. The pauldron they hit before was one of the few intact pieces I had left.

That left me with only one choice as I continued to circle the crab, dislodging and discarding the arrowhead my armor had caught. But how the hell was I supposed to win this fight? Sure I could circle it and punch away at the shell, but that would do more damage to me than it, as I already found out. Waiting for it to expose its feet and punching at them seemed like a risky move at best, leaving me one mistake away from death.

No matter what, I’d have to wait for my hand to heal before I could do much of anything. The hours ticked by painfully, every step a reminder that I had no solutions to my problem. Every second was spent in pain, my aching hand reminding me of how dire the situation was, how limited my options were. Punching was off the table or I’d lose my arms. Kicking would be even worse. If one of my legs got even slightly injured, then I’d be dead for sure.

I picked up the pace, getting fully behind the thing after a few quick hops and then watching from there. It had a tail, and a long one at that. I knew that most of its strength was in the front legs that shredded my armor, but what if I stuck it out back here? An idea blossomed in my mind as images of a shelled creature being spun around by its tail filled my head.

“This might work.”

I spoke to myself in hopes that it would help pass the time. It didn’t hurt but it still took half a day before my hand stopped aching. Removing the impromptu bandage revealed that I’d been more injured than I thought. I didn’t know how my regeneration fixed bones, but it needed to work overtime to push through the thick cloth. Little pieces of bone littered my old, recently bloodied clothes, telling me that I needed proper bandages and maybe a lesson on first aid when I got back to town. For now though, I just needed to wait.

By the time my hand was recovered, I was dying to get to work. The only reason I even knew that fifteen hours had passed was that I’d gained a fourth of my health. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have been able to even guess how long it’d been. But once my hand could open and close without issues, I sprang into action.

I dashed at an angle, getting to its tail without letting it spin it around. Then, I grabbed with all of my strength and pulled, not to get it into the air but to swing it around. The crab was heavy and incredibly strong, but it wasn’t prepared to grip onto the ground. Even better for me, it was actively moving towards the direction I was pulling, trying to circle around to me.

Gravity fought back, but I hadn’t spent all those days at the gym for nothing. The crab came off the ground as I pulled. With all the momentum and strength I could muster, I spun it around me like swinging a baseball bat, letting it go at the end of the arc.

The stout monster flew through the air, colliding heavily into the wall with a crashing noise before landing on the ground.

Then it got back to its feet before slowly turning towards me with some scratches on its shell. No cracks, no real damage, just some scuff marks. I grinned as I jumped to the side to avoid its charge. This was going to be a long fight.