Hazel moved out of the way as the carriage crashed into the well, destroying it upon collision. She looked over at the aftermath and saw broken pieces of both brick and wood scattered all over the ground. If Hazel was caught up in that attack, there was no doubt in her mind that she would’ve died. And if she didn’t, she was fated to be a cripple instead.

Meanwhile, the Cyclops continued its assault, charging at Hazel with malicious intent; determined to end her life. The mage hastily raised her staff and fired a couple of mana bolts at it, only for the giant goliath to use its club as a shield, effortlessly blocking her spells.

“Of course, it blocked my attack,” Hazel grumbled, glaring at the Cyclops and its club. “What else was new?”

Hazel wanted to cast Baneful Sickle, but she felt that she needed to wait for the right moment to do that. Otherwise, the Cyclops would simply block her attack again, and unlike the Fractured rogue, this monster had a more durable weapon.

Sadly, her options were far and few at this point. So, she planned on hitting the monster with everything, including the kitchen sink.

As the Cyclops roared at Hazel, she gripped her staff and directed it at the monster before firing Baneful Sickle and watching her purple crescent blade rocket toward its target. Even when the Cyclops brought up its club to defend itself, portions of the crescent attack avoided the weapon and embedded itself deep into its flesh. Instead of blood, pieces of the wound cracked and flew away like dandelion.

The Cyclops roared, clutching its injury as more particle-size pieces came up and flew in the air then dissipated into nothing. Its eye bulged while it whirled around to glare at the mage. It snarled and purple saliva frothed out its mouth.

“Ten seconds before I could use it again…” Hazel muttered, mentally counting down her cooldown for her Baneful Sickle skill.

To avoid getting attacked, she rushed around the Cyclops, making it difficult for the monster to attack her. She also fired a couple of mana bolts at the creature to further weaken and wound it. The barrage of blue energy bolts pierced its skin but barely did enough damage to wound it.

Hazel furrowed her brows, annoyed by this.

Its skin appeared to be a lot tougher than she thought. However, that wound from Baneful Sickle told her that its durability had limits. And Hazel planned to exploit it.

The cyclops shifted its body, following Hazel as she scampered around like a rat. With its giant club, it raised the weapon in the air before slamming it on the ground where Hazel currently was. Thanks to her agility stat being high enough, she darted to the left, avoiding the club as it bashed against the ground, sending shards of concrete flying everywhere.

In retaliation, Hazel hurled a Mana Bolt at her enemy, aiming at its side that was unprotected. Sadly, she was met with a similar result.

This battle was taking too long for Hazel’s liking. And if she kept spamming her spells like she was, she was bound to run out before the fight was even close to finishing. She needed to further weaken its body, so she could take it down with Baneful Sickle. And she knew just the skill to use.

Hazel brought her staff up, prepared to cast her Decay skill on the Cyclops. Since Decay could further weaken a Fractured Monster, this skill was her best option at the moment.

However, before she could even activate her skill, one of the flying pieces of concrete flew toward Hazel. She didn’t notice it until it was too late, as it struck her head, drawing blood from the impact. Her head jerked back as everything went black for a few seconds. She lost her footing and fell to her knees in a daze, unable to see anything.

The pain wasn't as bad, likely because of her endurance, but not being able to see was incredibly inconvenient. That and also life-threatening since there was a one-eyed monster trying to kill her. So, she really hoped her blurry sight would go away before something happened that could almost definitely get her killed.

And just when her vision cleared, she watched the Cyclops’ club barrel toward her like a bat swinging to strike a baseball and make a home run. Although Hazel was disoriented, she had to move. She needed to move, or else she was dead.

Using every ounce of willpower in her very being, Hazel forced her body to jump back, trying to avoid a direct hit from the Cyclops’ club.

But she wasn’t completely out of the clear as her shoulder was unfortunately struck by the weapon, which was enough to fling her several feet backward. She stayed in the air for a few seconds then crashed into the ground, tumbling across for a few seconds. Her body skidded against the solid concrete, scraping parts of her skin and clothes.

Hazel groaned, her entire body aching from her collision with the club, especially her shoulder. She couldn’t tell if it was broken or dislocated, though in her current situation, neither one was good for her. Despite the pain she felt in her shoulder, the arm attached to it still held on to her staff, though whether she could move it or not was another issue.

The cyclops soon closed the distance between them, towering over her with its giant physique. Hazel could only stare at the monster with a malicious glare. The cyclops snickered at her current state, clearly seeing her as easy pickings.

It lifted its club, ready to turn Hazel into a human pancake. Bringing down the weapon on her, she quickly acted, forcing her arm to move, and fired another Mana Bolt. The spell zipped past the club and went straight for its face, piercing the Cyclops’s eye. The monster released a guttural and inhuman roar that shook the whole town as the club missed its target, striking the ground next to her.

More stone fragments flew in the air and pelted Hazel’s body. Thankfully, none of the pieces were big enough to incapacitate her like before.

With the monster in pain, Hazel moved her body, slowly getting up and limped away from the Cyclops. She didn’t have a lot of time before it attempted to attack her again, so she used this chance to hide from it. She hoped that she could take a moment to recover before it found her. She sluggishly dashed into an alleyway, hiding behind one of the buildings away from the Cyclops.

Once she was hidden, Hazel leaned her back against the wall and held her shoulder in place. She was starting to lose feeling in her fingers as they loosened slightly, nearly making her drop her staff on the ground. To prevent that, she placed her weapon in her left hand.

Since she was right-handed, it felt a bit off-wielding it with her left. Though, that was hardly a problem compared to what she was currently dealing with.

Hazel breathed heavily as her heart pounded hard against her chest. That situation was too close for comfort. If she hadn’t blinded the Cyclops to run away, it would’ve killed her with that club attack. Still, the fight wasn’t over yet.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Hazel wanted to run away and wait until she was fully recovered to deal with this monster. After all, she was still only level six, and her attacks barely did anything to the creature. If this fight continued like it has, she might end up losing her life in the process.

And yes there was this other part of Hazel to refused to run away. She felt as though there was a blazing fire in her chest, urging her to continue her battle against the Cyclops. She couldn’t afford to let this monster recover, not when there was a chance to defeat it here and now. Plus, starting this fight over would’ve been an even bigger pain in the ass after the thrashing it put her through.

No, Hazel was determined to finish this fight. Even if it meant putting her life on the line in her current condition.

When the monster recovered its sight, its, now, bloodshot eye glared at its surroundings, determined to find Hazel and end her. But when it stared at the spot where she used to be and noticed that she was gone, it started to roar in anger, slamming its club against the ground like a baby having a temper tantrum.

Good, it hadn’t spotted her yet. Hazel peered her head over and watched the Cyclops continue its little fit. With it distracted, she moved toward another building, staying out of sight so she could attempt to attack its blind spot.

The cyclops swung its club around, smashing anything that it could see from the ground to the carts, to even some of the buildings as well. It was destroy what was left of the abandoned town so it could find its prey. It was like a walking hurricane of destruction and rage.

Little did it know, Hazel was nearby, waiting to strike it while its guard was down. Moving behind another building, she glanced over at the monster until she could only see its back facing her. Attacking it from the front would alert the monster and also expose her. Now that she had the element of surprise, she needed to make use of it.

With the cyclops still searching for Hazel, she used her uninjured arm and pointed her staff at the monster. Using her skill, malicious tendrils of purple energy formed and snaked their way toward the monster, coating around a certain area instead of its whole body. Hazel cocked an eyebrow but did her best to stay possible. As soon as it touched its skin, purple cracks slowly spread from the spot, festering like a disease.

The cyclops stumbled around, as it just got hit, then whirled around where Hazel fired. Thankfully, she still hid behind the building but knew it was time to go as the monster roared angrily and charged toward her general direction. It practically razed its way through a building before reaching the back of it. But when the cyclops looked around, the culprit behind the attack was nowhere to be seen.

Hazel hastily scampered to another building, using the structure as cover, and kept a close eye on her opponent.

Although her decay spell worked, it would take a little while before the effects would show. Even so, she couldn’t just wait. That spell was simply to weaken the Cyclops so she could finish it off with another spell.

As for the cyclops, it wasn’t really happy that its prey escaped again and repeatedly bashed its club on the ground, making small craters around it. It changed targets and then smashed the building it bulldozed through into pieces, reducing the structure into a pile of wood and stone. The monster’s destruction didn’t stop there as it went on to destroy the next building.

It seemed that its plan now was to destroy everything in the town until it either found or killed Hazel while reducing the buildings into rubble. And considering this creature’s destructive power, it was capable of doing so.

Hazel couldn’t let this happen since this town was still valuable to her in terms of shelter. So, she knew what needed to be done, and ran out from behind a building. As she did, the Cyclops’s singular eye spotted her immediately, locking on like a heat-seeking missile. Hazel turned to face the Cyclops and smiled.

“Over here, you one-eyed moron!” She taunted the monster while running away.

Although it likely couldn’t understand her words, the Cyclops nonetheless roared at the mage and charged at her, smashing bits of the buildings while flinging its club around in rage. Now that she was spotted again, it was time to put her plan into action.

Hazel skidded to a stop and turned to face the monster. Her body was still in pain from crashing into the ground, but she had plenty of strength to finish this fight. With her staff, she hurled a couple of mana bolts at the monster, aiming at the torn torso from the Baneful sickle. The monster didn’t even try to block and let the bolts hit the wound, which was its first mistake.

Due to its injury, the mana bolts easily penetrated the skin and bore into its body, making the wound worse than before. The Cyclops didn’t seem to notice this and simply maintained course, charging at Hazel with malicious intent.

It raised its club to smash Hazel like a bug, but she jumped away, narrowly avoiding the attack as another crater was made in the ground. With its weapon currently down, Hazel fired a couple of mana bolts, striking the same wound as before, taking off more pieces of its fractured body.

The cyclops howled in the air, its singular bloodshot eye narrowing at her. It slid its club across the ground, dragging it over to Hazel. She took a step back and watched the weapon slide past her. Just before the cyclops could lift its weapon, she directed her staff at the club and hurled a purple ball of energy at it.

Phasing into the club, its color slowly started to desaturate, turning from a dirty brown to a pale white. After the color transition, the weapon could no longer maintain its form and crumbled to pieces in the Cyclops’s hand. The monster was wide-eyed at such a scene, staring at the traces of its weapon as it scattered in the air.

While distracted, Hazel hurled a malicious crescent blade of purple energy at the monster, aiming at the same wounded torso as before. This time, the spell tore through the wound, nearly splitting the monster in half. Despite only having a little over half of its torso left, the Cyclops angrily growled and reached for Hazel.

She tried to run away and avoid getting caught, but the one-eyed monster managed to grab her, wrapping its palm around her body and tightly gripping her. Hazel screamed in pain, feeling her shoulders and body get crushed under its grasp.

The Cyclops was ecstatic that it finally caught its enemy and pulled her closer. Its lips twisted into a malicious smile and continued to squeeze the mage. Once Hazel was face to face with the monster, its singular purple eye narrowed while glaring at her. Squeezing its hand, Hazel could feel her bones grind up against one another, threatening to break if the Cyclops tightened its grip any further. Even if her Endurance stat made her a little tougher, she could tell that there was an obvious limit to it. A limit she wished to never find out in this kind of situation.

Despite her pain, Hazel kept her eyes trained on it, not giving it the satisfaction of showing her pain, though that was thanks to Endurance reducing some of the pain. She then noticed that the cracks on its body were a lot worse than before, and continued to slowly spread across its body. It was all over its arms, chest, and neck, even snaking up its way to its head.

She smiled, realizing that Decay was working as intended. The cyclops noticed her grin and leaned its head in confusion before snarling at her. Either it didn’t notice its body deteriorating right now or didn’t care. Either way, Hazel knew what she needed to do.

“Eat shit, nobody!” She shouted.

With her staff still in her hand, Hazel used one final spell to finish off the monster and summoned a purple crescent sickle blade, making it tear through the cyclops’s eye and beyond. The purple light from its eye faded while the cracks completely overwhelmed the monster, making it shatter on the spot with the sound of glass breaking.

Before Hazel could feel happy about this, she realized that she was still in the air and soon descended to the ground, since the Cyclops was no longer keeping her up. She screamed while crashing into the concrete with a bone-breaking thud. Pain flared across her entire body from the fall.

Hazel lay there for a moment, in a daze after falling into the stone road. She could barely move and it felt like a good majority of her bones were broken or severely sprained. In conclusion, that fall fucked her shit up expeditiously.

Despite the pain coursing through her body, Hazel couldn’t help but laugh at her achievement. She managed to kill the Cyclops. And since she accomplished her goal, that meant only one thing.

[You have completed a Dungeon Challenge!]

[You have been rewarded Seven Free Points!]

[You have been rewarded a Common Loot Box!]

[Level Ten Fractured Cyclops has been defeated!]

[You have leveled up! You are now Level 7!]

Seeing the panels of her success materialize before her, Hazel smiled at her progress. She only made it to level seven, but that was still good enough for her.

While smiling at the panels, a thought occurred to her during her final words to the Cyclops.

“Wait, I’m pretty sure Odysseus was nobody, not the Cyclops…”

In Greek Mythology, when Odysseus fought the Cyclops, he proclaimed himself as “nobody” to the one-eyed monster before defeating it. So, what Hazel said before was inaccurate to the actual lore she was using.

Upon making this realization, Hazel groaned after screwing up the one-liner she made against her enemy. All in all, she still won the battle and was satisfied with that.