Quill fidgeted on top of his little makeshift crows nest that hung from the ceiling. He basically impaled 6 daggers into the concrete after making some holes with his energy manifestation and hung some rope that he threaded through the largest breast plate he had. It wasn’t the most stable thing, but he just needed it to hold for this battle. Sucks though that every time he did fidget, the breastplate swung a little with his movement which always seemed to get his heart to jump in his chest.
“I don’t even know why you are so worried. If you were to fall from this height, the biggest damage might be a sprung ankle. Remember, placing points into your body also increases your durability. Plus with all those skills like enhanced reflexes and such, I am pretty sure you’d just land on the ground and sprint away like a cat. Going to have too anyways if this is to work”
“I know that logically. Still, the last time I was this high up in such a precarious situation was when I was debating jumping off the roof of a building. That height would have killed me and I am pretty sure presystem me would probably die or at least get severely injured if he jumped off from here. So it’s a little unsettling.”
“We are really going to need to work on your suicidal tendencies.”
He let out a small snort. “Good luck with that. All the therapists I had couldn’t. Most just opted to throw me into a mental hospital then deal with whatever issue I was having.”
“Well it’s not like I can do that. Besides, I have a vested interest in your well being. Something I doubt any of those two bit hacks could claim with honesty.”
He hesitated for a second, a question that was lingering in his subconscious mind threatening to surface when his enhanced hearing started to pick up the scraping sounds of the cursed sin coming from the tunnel and focused up, loading his crossbow with an oil soaked bolt.
He then sent faint, thin strings of his energy manifestation out and down towards the tunnel's entrance. The simplicity of the manifestation made things easier on him but because he was sending so much out, he could start to feel the strain slowly creeping up on him. He would have to hope that things progressed quickly.
Slowly the cursed sin exited the tunnel and Quill commanded his strings ever so gently wrap around as many limbs as he could while the sin finally stopped and began to pad around the platform in search of food.
It eventually found the dead rat kin with all the bombs strapped to it and began to lift it to his mouth.
This was it, he lit the crossbow bolt with a match he had found from all the supplies he had taken in the break room. Igniting the bolt before opening fire, aiming for the rat corpse as it was placed into the monster's mouth….
And he fucking missed! He hit the creature's side above the mouth with an audible thunk causing the cursed sin to freeze before biting down on its morsel and let out an audible snarl, the dead rats body and bombs seemingly swallowed by the monster.
“Really I don’t know what you expected. You have been a horrible shot since forever, even someone who had decent aim would have struggled with the shot you were trying to make.”
“God fucking damnit! Who needs to aim anyways!” He screamed in frustration as the Cursed Sins mouth snapped upward towards him but it was already too late for it. He put all of his focus and energy into the string he had wrapped around the monster's limbs and had them spin while wrapping tightly around them, slicing deep into the monster's arms. With a final push he made his string spike razors out of its end and with everything he had, used the strings to slice through the monster's flesh as much as he could.
The cursed sin went from snarling menacingly to shrieking in agonizing pain which made Quill fade out for a second as both the strain of using his energy manifestation and the horrible loud shriek made Quill lose consciousness briefly. Which also meant he lost his balance and fell from the breast plate as he temporarily blacked out. Only reawakening to see the floor charging towards him and barely managed to roll into the landing which elicited a grunt of pain from him.
The cursed sin crashed and flopped around on the tracks of the station as it continued to let out shrieks of pain and agony, giving Quill the chance to take out his health, stamina and mana potion. He promptly chugged all three as quickly as he could while scooting his butt away from the worm as much as possible and managed to get a better look at how much damage he just did.
Most of the arms had been severed, now lying down on the floor with the stumps they had been attached to spewing out green blood. Even the few arms that were still attached were clearly badly damaged with visible wounds near the base.
Quill scurried as fast as he could up the stairs after drinking his potions and feeling refreshed, before quickly loading his crossbow and firing it again into the worm's flesh. Thankfully the thing was so big even he couldn’t miss.
Once it hit the worm, Quill shouted out as loud as possible “Hey you disgusting fish food! Remember me! I took one of your hands for the first time! Now I think I’ll take all the others! How does that sound!”
“Sweetie, I don’t think the cursed sin can actually hea-” She stopped talking when the worms agonizing shrieks was replaced with vicious roars as it whipped it’s bulbous body around, its mouth facing Quill in a vicious snarl, grinding it’s large molar like teeth in rage as it pushed it’s body up off the platform and started to drag it’s towards him with it’s few remaining hands.
“Oh! Nevermind, should probably move back a bit more though.” she responded and he was inclined to agree. Quill quickly backed up, scurrying as fast as he could down the hall and past the spikes from various swords and spears he laid on the floor, walls and ceiling. Facing outward so that anything moving into the hallway from the platform would skewer itself if not careful.
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The cursed sin, while slowed down significantly from most of its arms being dismembered, still managed to pull its bulbous body up the stairs and into the hallway, its teeth gnashing and grinding in rage as it pulled itself forward. Thankfully it couldn't see as it pulled itself and impaled its body onto the waiting blades ripping and cutting into its body in the process.
The hideous monster let out another scream of pain but otherwise seemed okay as it continued to try and drag itself closer to Quill. Making its wounds worse but still didn't seem enough.
“Well, what now? Sure you hurt it a lot but I don't think any of that damage is going to be lethal you know?” She responded with ever so helpful commentary making quill grind his own teeth and frustration.
“I'm working on it!” He responded, his mind racing trying to figure out what exactly he could do next. He didn't want to retreat further out of fear that all the fighting and commotion could attract another cursed sin. It was there that he realized if his only option was to go forward then he might as well go forward.
“Uh… Quill if you are about to do what I think you are about to do, I don't want to hear shit about you claiming you are not crazy.”
“Not crazy, these are the actions of the most sane individual you have ever seen!” And with that, as the sanest individual ever, he charged into the maw of the cursed sin because what else was he supposed to do.
The worm, all too happily, allowed its prey to jump into its mouth only for Quill to take out the Rat King's throne and placed it on top of the creature's tongue, with the head of the chair hitting the roof of the mouth, preventing it from actually closing.
The Golden Throne quickly started to groan and creak as it was getting crushed by the cursed sins' powerful jaw. Quill quickly manifested several support beams with sharpened points to help prevent the Jaw from snapping shut in hopes of delaying things long enough for him to find what he was looking for. He had a thin string attached to the beams and him to keep it going. The sharpened points now digging into the creature's tongue and the roof of its mouth only seemingly to piss off the creature more.
He quickly forced his way down into the monster's gullet, feeling his skin burn as the monster's saliva started to eat away at him slowly like a weak acid. He pushed on, trying his best to keep the digestive fluids out of his eyes he moved further before finding the rat kins corpse with all the bombs strapped onto it.
Taking out a match and awkwardly lighting it, he lit one of the fuses to the rat bombs. He quickly pivoted and tried to force his way back out of the monster's digestive track.
“You are so not going to make it.” Her voice echoed in his head with a hint of amusement and worry offering a strange contrast.
He was inclined to agree and realizing his time was almost up, curled his body into a tiny ball and let his manifestation form an orb around him. He then thickened and strengthened the forcefield as much as possible before a gigantic BOOM ruptured through his entire body and launched him who knows how far before crashing into a wall. The forcefield he had put around himself completely shattered at impact and knocked him out.
He suddenly snapped awake and her voice greeted him. “You doing okay there sweetie?”
“Msgeo gfiseo sgneis” He eloquently managed to articulate which earned a small giggle on her end.
“Can you at least think out what you were going to say or was the concussion that bad?”
It took Quill several more minutes before his brain finally managed to reset and he took in his surroundings. Nearly having a heart attack when he realized he was sitting at the edge of another platform. Specifically the one across from the green cursed sin.
“Yeah that explosion fired you like a cannibal all the way down the hall and into another cursed sins platform. Thankfully you were only knocked out for a couple of minutes.”
His eyes quickly darted towards the electric sign that indicated when the cursed sin would show. He saw he still had 10 more minutes but not wanting to wait around, he awkwardly put his feet underneath him, stood up, and promptly face planted into the ground.
“Maybe wait a little longer till you can get all your body parts functioning properly?”
It made sense but even if you were to ignore the 10 minute time limit. He needed to see how much damage he did to the green cursed sin, seeing as how he did not get a notification saying he completed his Quest level up or got a kill notification. If for some reason that bloody monster was still doing okay after all of that, he figured he might as well pack his bags, enjoy the tutorial until it was over and let himself be dropped into that D grade monster nest.
He awkwardly crawled/walked/shambled up the stairs of the platform and looked down the hall with his enhanced eyesight. What greeted him was a very grotesque sight.
The cursed sin had its entire mouth blown open. Fragments of its teeth and flesh were scattered everywhere, some even embedded into the walls and ceiling. The monster itself looked like it was dead if not for the ragged pain breathing that reverberated through its body. The thing looked miserable and at this point Quill couldn't even hold any animosity towards the creature.
“Oh but I certainly can, hurry up and kill that damn thing and let it be a lesson to the rest of the cursed sins that you are not to be trifled with.” Her voice dripped with delightful venom and he had a good idea that if he delayed much longer she would take matters into her own hands.
With a heavy sigh he made his way towards the downed monster. It couldn't even muster up a growl as he approached, making him wonder if the thing would die even without his intervention.
He heard her voice clear her throat in his head and knowing there was no sense in delaying he summoned up his pizza cutter and stepped into the monster's mouth, swinging upwards and let the blade dig into the roof of the creature's mouth as he began to carve his way through.
It only took a few more swings, the monster not even being able to squirm much before finally the last ragged breath was exhaled and the entire creature started to turn to dust.
You have killed a cursed sin (larva) lvl 1. Experience nullified due to your level cap.
Congratulations! you have earned the achievement “sin killer”
The few who have earned this achievement often wish they hadn’t, despite being sought after by many. Be you noble in intention, foolish in mind, or evil in heart. Only time will tell how things play out.
1 free step point to body, mind, and soul.
Error! Could not distribute stat points to Soul. redistributing evenly to body and mind