Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 8

XP: 210

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 64/64

Strength: 5/Speed: 10/Endurance: 7/Magic: 4/Plasticity: 1/Luck 6

Senses: Vision 3, hearing 4, smell 2, taste 1, touch 2

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 2, aposematism 1, innate magic 4

Skills: Bite 1, strike 3, grapple 2, throw 1, climb 2, sneak 3, hide 1, dash 1, dodge 2, block 1, discern weakness 1, mysticism 1, quickstep 1

Spells: Bluster 5 MAX, windfury 4, jetstream 1, cloud step 1

As the “monstrous king of havoc” (talk about a mouthful) raised his blades, I took one deep breath in, trying to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest, but I still felt like I was being punched in the ribs. The blades arched, one held up the other held down as he lurched forward, corkscrewing through the air as a battlecry wailed into the air, sending a chill through my blood. Without thinking I leaped back, instinctually activating my new quickstep as the place I’d been standing had a blade passing through where my midsection had just been a moment before.

My first thought as to how I could attack, watching how quick that slash was, I can’t just charge right in, and even if I waited until after he attacked, he can just immediately use his second sword. It’s like there’s no opening at all. And with that thought, the second blade slashed further forward than the last, but I was still just out of reach. His face was just in front of me, and I could see into those empty cavities where eyes should be. He thrust his blade forwards again, and it was too fast for me to react. I watched as the tip of the blade sailed just past my face and scraping across my back

-1 hp

There was no way I was going to be able to dodge backwards out of range again in time. I could already see the sword curling back like a snake as his skull peered at me from beneath a yellowed brow ridge. I don’t know if I am seeing the look in his eye, like a sadistic glee, or if it’s just me projecting onto the emotionless mask of a face. If I do nothing here, I’ll just be skewered. So, I just turn off my brain. If I can’t decide, my body will make a decision for me. And decide it did, I watched as if it were someone else picking up the controller as my body moved. Not away, but toward the skeletal maw pushing my shoulder forward and sweeping the makeshift club downward with surprising speed. It impacted his shoulder as the sword was shooting forwards, and both the shoulder and sword crashed down onto the stone stage below, metal screeching as it dragged forward.

I didn’t process the aftermath, all I could see was the skull now careening uncontrollably into me, smacking into my shoulder and chest as I raised off the floor, and dragged along. Unlike all the other skeletons, which were fairly light, he must have been something over a hundred pounds. My feet left the floor and instinctually latched onto whatever they could, taking handfuls (feetfuls?) of that matted mane around his neck. I dropped the torch which I could see spinning in the air out of the corner of my eye. My other hand kept a hold of my knife though, and as soon as my now empty hand grasped at his jaw, the knife pressed down and punctured his back at least twice.

I had a sense then that I couldn’t place, like I knew with how his muscles were bunching up. Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew that his sword was coming up towards me. In a flash I used the knife in the back as leverage against his rib and vaulted over his shoulder. The blade sliced upwards wildly but the second blade I did not see came from behind and carved a groove into my shin. A sting for just a moment, but white hot ran through me. Again my mind was blank, and the only thing I could focus on was the pain.

-3 hp

I was basically hanging from the knife in his back as I felt him fly into the air again, suspending us both some ten feet above the ground. He looked back over his shoulder at me and made a noise I can’t place, like it was halfway between a growl and a sigh. He waved his blade around behind him again, but the angle made it awkward as I clambered across his back to avoid the ambit of the blade. After three fruitless swings however, I saw the blades glow green and I knew what that meant. I took in one sharp breath before the blade raised and a cloud of blackish green smoke enveloped us in seconds. My eyes burned immediately but I held my breath, careful not to breathe any in. I ambled over to the center of the creature’s back and felt my chest squeeze in, the sudden shock of the wind aimed dead center of his shoulder blades.

-1 hp

Now, I expected to blow the poison away, and push him back, however as the blustering winds realized themselves in front of me, my hands and feet were holding nothing. The grip I had was ripped away from me and I was suspended ten feet in the air for that moment. The smog around me, punched through like a cannon, revealing the blue light of the candles once again. The “king of havoc” wasn’t pushed a few feet away like I’d suspected, but all the way across the room, bounding off the stairs with a dry crunch. I was not expecting bluster to have that much effect. Was it just because he was flying? Or maybe because he didn’t see it coming? It didn’t matter really, as I plummeted to the ground, landing on three limbs, the other arm held out with the knife in hand. The landing shook my knees, but it wasn’t as bad as I was suspecting. I suppose being lighter makes falling hurt a bit less.

-1 hp

As my head raised, the wailing cry sounded again, and before where I heard almost indifference in the voice now I could only hear rage. My speculation on the look in his eye was no longer needed as the body language was now dripping with venom. His head was lowered, pushed forward as his shoulders raised. Both fists gripping the handles of the blades so tightly I wouldn’t be surprised if they were bleeding. Well, I would be, given that he’s undead and has no blood, but you know what I mean. I watched him levitate, but not upwards, he shot forwards like a bullet through the air, the blade letting out a loud WHOOSH as it swayed through the air. My face paled. Before I saw him like a human, because he could speak, but at this moment, no longer humoring the little monkey, I could see this was a monster. I dashed to the side to get out of the way, but he turned along with me. I could feel it, he was going to cut me in half. I rushed to the edge of the stage and rolled off it as I heard a harsh scrape first, then the vision of the desiccated form barreling forward and whipping around to face me.

-1 hp

I’m going to die. That’s all I could think of. Both blades rushed in, one raised for a thrust and the other poised to do just the same after the first. The only thing I could do was dodge, shunting my torso sideways before the blade came close. The second thrust there was no way to dodge, it was too fast. Like a bolt of lightning it came in, and I threw my arm up to block it, hoping to reduce the impact but instead, the knife in hand came up just as fast, accidentally flicking the tip of the sword up, the metal screeching against metal as the second blade flew over my shoulder and the dissonant clang ringing out as it sacked against the stone behind me. It wasn’t over though, as the first blade came up again for another thrust. This time I could react though, and quickstepped to the side, the stab hitting open air as I moved along with the retracting arm.

-1 hp

He started to move again to slash at me but this time I took the initiative. Leaping forward, seeing the skirt billow outwards and opening my maw and my teeth sunk into his foot. I hadn’t actually thought about the fact that I would be tasting what I bit into, but an instinctual wave of revulsion bubbled into the back of my throat, as I was essentially tasting living human jerky. The monster wailed again as his foot kicked up, swinging me like a ragdoll as my jaw was able to keep me locked into place instead of going flying again. Though, from under this heavy skirt, he can’t really get me with his swords either. I contemplated using this to my advantage before seeing another faint green glow from the outside and suddenly my vision was filled with smog again.

-1 hp

I couldn’t keep my eyes open, the burning was too much. Tears welling up as I, without a held breath, had to flex the pseudo-lung on its own. My fangs dug grooves through the foot as it was ripped violently from my mouth, flying straight up. My eyes opened gain and I could barely see through the blur of the tears as he tumbled through the air and impacted one of the rafters with a loud CRACK, though I doubt it did any damage to him. And with that revelation I silently lamented that I didn’t really have a way to deal any damage to him. At least not in any reliable way. All I’ve done so far was wildly stab at him any chance I got. This isn’t a plan that is going to win this fight. All I’m doing is delaying the inevitable. He’s going to get me with one lucky swing and I’ll be bisected. Then game over. I NEED to think of something.

-1 hp

I had no time to think, the blade wielding lunatic plummeting down towards me again. I grimaced, knowing that if I want to get anywhere, I need to go on the offense, not just dodging all over the place, but how? I can’t use windfury again. Every time it comes off the cooldown I need the wind ready to… Wait, cooldown. Every time it’s been off cooldown has been right after he’s used his poison again. So we must have the same cooldown. Ten seconds. I waited until he drew back his blade to strike again before dashing again, hopping up the stairs as he whirled around to slash where I’d just been a moment before. If we have the same cooldown, that means I can time when I know he’ll use his poison cloud again.

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-1 hp

The ghastly visage bore down on me again and the hatred was pouring out of him like sweat. The monster lowered the blade down to swing up in a crescent arch, and being on stairs I could barely hop back far enough to dodge, but I couldn’t do that twice, a thrust coming towards my face, which I managed to duck under. Before the next attack could come though, I quickstepped forward and grabbed the skirt to climb up him again. Only a few more seconds until the poison comes back. The blade chopped towards me again, but I was able to throw myself around much easier with my upgraded climbing skill. I circled around behind as he turned in a circle, thrusting blindly towards where he felt I was hanging.

-1 hp

I felt there was only a second left before I could use my bluster again, so I knew the poison was coming. I held my breath and quickly climbed his back, and just as predicted, the green smog filled the air around us again, and I contracted my pseudo-lung again, but this time the rush of wind didn’t knock him away, it swirled around my knife and I aimed at least four stabs directly into his right armpit before I heard him howl. I couldn’t see, as every time I opened my eyes the burning was too much to bear, so I focused entirely on stabbing into him as many times as I physically can before windfury runs out. One thing, when an adrenalin filled monkey is buffed with magic and focuses entirely on offense… that’s a lot of stabbing.

-1 hp

I must have gotten off maybe twenty stabs in five seconds, but as windfury faded, the smoke lingered in the air. So I was just stuck there on his back, blinded getting in one last stab when I felt one come in and sink into me. His wild flailing had managed to hit me, and not just a scrape either, the leg that was already breathing was now sinking into my thigh. I let out an involuntary screech and it took all I had to not breathe in. Falling backwards and towards the floor, which I now see was ten feet down and onto the stairs, landing with a thud.

-12 hp -1 hp

As soon as I landed, I knew I wasn’t going to be running on that leg very well any more. I opened my eyes, and I could see the cloud of putrid haze above, scrambling to my feet as I scrambled down the steps. I could move, but not as fast as before. The figure emerged from the smog, looking down at me with the swords held loosely at his sides. He spat out a sentence I didn’t understand, but could hear the venom behind the words. I rushed down the stairs, coming to the stage as I hoisted myself up, and rolled over my side, leaving a bloody smear across the stone.

-1 hp

He spoke a few more words, which even when you don’t speak the language, sounded like a villain monologue. The breathy hollow voice made all the more menacing when he levitated slowly towards me. He raised the two blades up, and where before they had shone green before the smoke appeared, this time they shone purple. I instinctively took a sharp breath in before around me, a cloud of a deep blackberry purple surrounded me. I held my breath, but as my eyes were still open, I could feel the effect. My eyelids were going numb. I jumped back, out of the smoke but even without breathing it, I could feel my body slowing. This wasn’t fair. He hadn’t used this before. What was I supposed to do about this? Though I knew the answer, no one ever promised this world was fair. Or rather, my even being here is my own fault.

-1 hp

I stumbled slightly as I felt my knees trying to buckle on me, but I kept up, only to see the smoke cloud being parted by a blade running straight down. I couldn’t make it away in time. Even a quick step wouldn’t be fast enough. I huffed a sharp bark of air, a loud whoosh surrounding me as the roar of the jet stream practically lifted me away with how quickly I moved. I knew it wouldn’t last forever, but man am I glad I picked this up. I’d moved so quickly that he couldn’t react in time, the sword’s tip slammed into the ground, bending off kilter from the impact. I couldn’t see his body through the smoke, or even where the other arm was, but I didn’t need to. I leapt up, jaw outstretched to sink my teeth into his wrist. The speed of it was so sudden that I’d dragged the arm along with me through the air before being dragged down the sword clattering against the stone.

-1 hp

I didn’t keep a hold on him this time, and as soon as I hit the ground, I swiveled to see where the second arm was, and as expected it was already reared back to chop at me again. I need to use the most of this speed while I have it, so I quickstep to the side as he thrusts, and starts to levitate up, but I don’t plan on letting him off that easily, rushing in with the knife to try to disable the arm. I dashed in with a quick downwards chop against the elbow, which didn’t do much, but I was close enough to grab with the free hand and the second strike was a stab against the bicep. The arm swung around to throw me off, but I grabbed a hold of the matted mane again. The winds around me quieted again as I took another wild stab at his face, but as soon as the winds had died, I felt sluggish again. The knife scraping against bone as an elbow came up to bash into my nose.

-4 hp -1 hp

I fell, my left canine rattling loosely inside my mouth before I spit it out onto the floor. I raised my head, anticipating a strike, but instead saw him levitating towards the sword he’d dropped. I almost tripped over myself to grab my knife again before barreling forward, full tilt, trying to slam my shoulder into his arm before he could reach, but he was still faster than me, so instead I used that speed to charge in and bite full power into the forearm. Again, something cracked and I don’t know if it was him or me, but either way the second sword flew out of his grip. I took this as a minor victory, but I was certain that the other sword was going to hit me now, and there were still another couple seconds before I got my spells back off cooldown.

-1 hp

As my teeth hung into the limb I was lifted forcefully and I could see the sword wheeling around horizontally with the clear intent to lop off everything below the waist. My stomach felt like it was shrinking into a ball the size of an acorn as I kicked fruitlessly at the air. I was going to get hit, it was unavoidable, so I did what could to minimize it, twisting around to try and block with my already injured leg. The skirt, to my surprise, wasn’t badly damaged, but the spray of red in the air let me know my leg took a big hit before my mind even registered the pain, vision practically going white for half a second as I processed the pain.

-6 hp -2 hp

As I took the hit however, I did not waste the time, and my knife slashed up through his wrist, wrenching it roughly so that the sword dropped from his grasp again. My other arm whipped out, using one of the stab wounds on his back as a grip to drag myself towards his back. Though as I did, my left leg was unresponsive. I only braved a glance down to see it entirely gored from the knee down. On top of how sluggish I already was, now I felt faint, but I couldn’t stop, my cooldown was up. I needed to end this now. I stabbed again at his neck, sinking it in deep enough that pulling it free was harder than sticking it in. I was expecting the smoke to come up again at any moment, but instead, everything went black. I’d forgotten about this one. I can’t see the sword, so I’m right back to where I was before, but I know this darkness lasts way longer than the smoke does. Either way I need to do as much damage as possible while I can. I pulled myself over to the other shoulder, knowing that one had the sword.

-2 hp

I could feel the arm raising up, getting ready to stab down at me again. I threw my weight down onto the arm, one sharp exhale and wind whirled around my knife again stabbing as fast as I could. I was still sluggish compared to the last time, but the windfury more than made up the difference, digging grooves into the forearm with the blade as he was unable to slash back at me. I was practically hung upside down when I felt his opposite hand grip onto my leg. A blinding agony shot up my spine as I was peeled off the arm and held up, dangling in the void. He said something I imagined was mocking but all it did was tell me where his head was, and my knife plunged into it, hitting something hard enough that he dropped me, but I lost the knife.

-2 hp

I landed on the ground hands first, and stayed there for a moment, writhing invisibly as my heart was close to punching a hole through my ribs. I reached for my knife, but couldn’t find it, so I reached down for the tooth instead, but I found the other pouch with the potion. I had no clue what it was, heck it could be poison but at this point I’m desperate. I gotta try it. Wrestling the cork out I threw my head back, gulping greedily as the effects slowly became apparent. It was like my skin was mint flavored. Everything felt cold and tingly, and I could tell, just a moment from now, he was going to slash at me from the side. I took a quickstep away and heard the sword sail through the air.

-2 hp

A potion that lets me see a split second into the future. Not what I was expecting, but still very useful. Especially when I’m totally blind. I jumped forward, hoping and then knowing that his skirt was going to be right there. I bull rushed into it as best I could with one leg, accidentally slamming my head into his knee, but it let me roll over and I could feel his sword is going to be on the ground to the left when I put my hand there. I grabbed it, certain that he’s going to come down and stab me in the center of the chest. So I swung the sword to block him. It was too cumbersome to use reliably, but it’s a hunk of metal that can stop his sword. I basically fell backwards as soon as the sword made contact, as I was balancing on the one good leg, but I lived, and the second strike was coming in. I ducked forwards grabbing the skirt again and basically dragged myself up with only my arms.

-2 hp

The next swing would come in a second, but my cooldown just ended, and as wind whirled again and coated my teeth, I launched myself up faster than he would have expected, climbing his chest and biting several times into his shoulder and finally into his jaw, feeling the ligaments tear as it’s ripped from its hinge. The next hit is coming, and it’s going to skewer me up the side. I had to lunge over the shoulder to avoid it, and wheel around again to get my teeth into the back of the neck, feeling the spine again and just biting as hard as I can, feeling another tooth crack, before twisting the vertebrae and pulling until the bone ripped free.

1000 XP -2 hp

The light came back in an instant, the body collapsing forward onto his chest and me tumbling over it, laying flat out on the ground in a slowly pool of my bloody leg. My sight coming back felt odd, as the glimpse of the future sight came back before the real sight like I was seeing double but one is lagging. It hurt to think about but not as bad as the leg. I panted out a breath in the now silent cave, content for just a moment to lay here and do nothing, let my heartbeat stop pounding.

-2 hp [Level too low to claim title]

Title? That’s… unexpected. Why would titles be a thing? Ah wait, monstrous king of havoc was his title. Kind of glad that I didn’t get that actually, it would make me even less popular with the humans, if they can see it. I opened up my menu to make sure I don’t bleed to death here on the floor, I pressed the level up button, raising to level 9. Just one more to level ten… yipee… I rolled over onto my back as the wounds healed, and all my energy came back again. The numbness was gone, and I’m once again not dead.