Drew went into overdrive trying to think of a possible way out. Could they fake the creature out and run, hoping to lose it at the split in the path? Something even worse could be waiting down the other side and they would be even more winded after running twice the distance. Do they keep running and hope it gives up before they hit the entrance? Sounds like a sure way to die.
The first fight they had popped into his mind. They were able to get the drop on the first skeleton and bash its skull in from behind. Would he even be able to kill it in one hit like the other skeletons? It wasn’t as slow or brittle looking as the others. The multiple arms ruin their other tactic of tripping the skeletons and finishing them off.
The memory of the parakeet squid overshooting them due to its momentum was fresh in his mind as death inched closer behind them. Using the same method to run isn’t really an option, but using its own momentum against it definitely wasn’t out of the question.
Drew sat the small shield down and readied the torch in both hands. He heard the skeletal hands skittering on the floor approaching closer and closer. The extinguished torch was brought back farther above his shoulder in a batter's position. The large skeletal head rushed around the corner and Drew threw his entire weight into the swing and slammed into the skull creature from point blank range.
The torch shattered into pieces like a corked bat in baseball. The creature tumbled forwards from the immense blow with cracks running along its entire surface, stunned by the hit. A second of uncertainty and silence allowed Drew to inspect the situation. There was no experience notification, his impromptu club was destroyed, nothing was within range but his buckler, and the creature was still twitching.
He reached down to grab the shield and was blind sided by the stumbling creature, knocking the air from his lungs. The short charge it had executed lacked its previous power and that stopped its sure fire kill, but caught him off guard enough to topple him over. Half of the arms on its left side had been broken by its hard fall which left it just enough to rush back over right away.
The scuffle between the comparatively sized opponents carried on for 10 seconds before the multiple arms of the skeleton started to take hold of Drew’s arms, legs, and throat. The strength wasn’t enough to choke him out immediately but enough to stay attached and slowly deprive him of air.
He felt to his left side where the buckler had been pushed to no avail with it right outside of his reach.
“Nurgle…..help me….. Hit it!” The struggled rasps exited his throat as the creature slowly overcame his strength. The edges of his vision started to close in on him and the fight he gave back started to lessen more by the second. A small thwack to the arm holding his throat allowed him to finally take solid breath. Nurgle had hit it right in the joint, incapacitating the arm for future use.
“Keep hitting its arms!” Drew shouted out and, with renewed strength, caused the skeleton to focus solely on keeping him pinned while the little cyclops bashed away with surprising glee at the relatively defensive creature.
After a few more hits to its weakened left side, he managed to shatter its last remaining hand holding Drew’s right fist down. The unbalanced skeleton attempted to readjust which gave him the perfect opportunity to take back the upper hand . In a reversal of the situation, He threw the thing on its back and tried to pry its arms in the wrong direction to break them off.
“Nurgle, get me the shield!” The creature grabbed for his flailing limbs that battered its increasingly deteriorating skull body in an attempt at self preservation. The diminutive cyclops rushed for the shield of roughly the same size as his body and spun it around him like a shot put athlete. With surprising force, he launched the object through the air and beside Drew’s free hand.
Quickly equipping the shield, He reared back and bashed the creature with the metal disk that made up its build. The unrelenting force shattered bone easier and easier with each incoming hit when, finally, the struggling alabaster arms loosened their grip and the kill message entered Drew’s sight.
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+110 xp for defeating Skull arachnid [Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 175/200 xp
“Heh… Hahahaa… haaaaaa. We did it, Nurgle.” He flopped onto his back, taking in deep laborious breaths. The small creature shook the club above his head in triumph while breathing loudly. “You really saved me there. That probably was the closest I've ever been to dying. It was kind of exhilarating, not gonna lie.”
The duo basked in the glory of the situation. Nurgle slammed the club in his hands in anticipation while Drew thought deeper on the fight. There was no clear message for the boss which probably meant this was just another enemy and something even more dangerous was up ahead.
Nurgle had actually managed to throw him his shield which weighed almost just as much as the little guy which meant he was way stronger than his size let on. It would make sense with how he killed that fish in one hit and how he broke the arms relatively easily. Maybe the level ups were doing more than he thought. Nurgle seemed to understand more of his commands too.
They were so close to a level up that one more group would catapult the skill to level three. Now that he thought on the subject of the skill, what was stopping him from summoning more monsters like Nurgle?
He could have an army of dimwit beasts ready to fight the horde of skeletons. It would be like an army of ants overcoming a larger insect.
Drew sat up and readied himself for his upcoming use of the summoning skill. Maybe he had a certain amount of magic and he could only summon a few of them or something, but the thought of a small army sounded too good not to try.
“You ready for some friends, Nurgle?” The little guy slammed his club into his hand one more time and flung his head back to get the glove hat’s fingers out of his face. Drew stood up and threw his hands forward to the ground and shouted, "Summon small monster!”
https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FSkzFlZE.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/SkzFlZE.jpg]
Unable to summon Maximum companions reached for the skill level
He dropped his hands and stared the message down with a glare. He already couldn’t get any stronger himself and now the stupid system would not let him summon a small army of micro-soldiers to fight his battles for him.
“Great, looks like we are gonna have to wait for a while till we get some new friends.” This was assuming he wouldn’t die in the time it took to reach whatever level would unlock more summon slots.
“Show me my stats, give me a description of [Summon small monster], anything!”
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“Why would I need an admin for something like that? This entire world has a system. Just show me some information about myself!
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The system that governs the world is still working and is keeping track of his kills, but it didn't allow him to perform some self introspection? What kind of broken system is this that admins are his only option for some context on anything happening in this world and there won't be one on duty how literal centuries? Seems like an obvious and serious flaw in his opinion. The explanation did nothing to curb his growing annoyance at the stressful situation.
“Oh piss off!” The shouting match with the silent screens attracted the attention of some skeletons nearby and the clanging of bones and equipment alerted the duo of their approach.
“Good, something to take out my frustration on.” Drew and Nurlge stood at attention and readied their weapons for the upcoming conflict that was soon to arrive. The shield was tightly secured to his arm and a new torch was quickly gathered from further down the hall.
“Let’s kill these things, Nurgle.”