Feyre

Steel met steel. Feyre pushed back and landed on one of the smaller things, making a splattering sound as her armoured boot went through its skull with a crunch and squelch. A deafening scream attacked her ears fro all sides and the big one grinned. She hadn't seen it before but it was holding some crude malformed thing slightly akin to a Kopesh which it had used to deflect her assault. She cursed and Went for a low blow against the nearest small one. She decided then that names should be given for her easier differentiation. Antapelings would be the small ones while the larger ones. if there were more than one, would be Antapes. She snickered to herself at her lack of creativity and tried to ignore the mass amounts of filth covering her from head to toe now.

As if on queue rain started lightly and pitifully pattering down. She made a horizontal slash to her left, ripping through flesh, muscle and bone to tear through the Antapeling that had approached her. She doubted she'd survive very long if they attacked as one but, as far as she could tell, They were only going to attack in pairs at most no matter how many she killed. She ran forwards again, ignoring a couple system messages that had, thankfully, only taken up a corner of her vision before she dismissed them with a thought. Her sword was death and she was a disaster. The cries of outrage from the Antapelings soon turned to agony or just cut off as she tore through their numbers one by one, painstakingly slow.

She kept at it for hours. Hours and hours were spent hacking and slashing, one attack usually meaning one kill and yet she could never find respite enough to go for the Antape. Feyre was confused about many things as she let her instincts guide her and her blade into the super soft flesh of the Antapes. She had assumed, when realising they were part insect, that they'd be some sort of coordinated hive mind. Fortunately that was not the case and so, she was stuck in place not making any progress despite her attempts to reach the Antape and maybe put a stop to this madness. She was still confused even after pondering for a while. Were these things weak or was she strong? She wasn't particularly fast with her sword movements, nor particularly skilled if the nagging feeling in her brain was anything to go by. Every now and again she'd try to think about her swordsmanship and not just solely rely on instinct and it never worked, she always ended up failing to block or dodge or something and then be wrenched back into her head by her skill.

This useless system... How are my stats 0 if I'm cleaving through this horde like that "1000 degree knife through butter" video? Honestly that stupid Neon Cat... why if i ever see it again i oughtta...

Feyre was taken from her inner monologue by a sudden shift in the Horde's mentality. Instead of one at a time she was now facing a few of them at once and sometimes even a quintuplet worth of enemies lunged at her shrieking in their creepy and livid sounding rasps and chitters. She hacked and slashed nonetheless, the gore and guts splattered on her and the ground as their bodies fell around her almost creating a mound. She was still confused about how easy it was to just cut them in twain but she didn't want it to stop so didn't think on it too hard. Now that she was fighting a few at a time she saw she was making progress towards the Antape. Wading through the small sea of blood coagulating at her feet Feyre moved with the purpose and speed of a mantis, striking and then moving forwards. Sometimes she slew a multitude of Antapelings in one swing and other times only one.

Eventually she reached the Antape. Now that she got a closer look that makeshift blade was definitely some malformed Kopesh. Feyre didn't know much about Ancient Egypt but she thought she remembered something on the best way to bypass a Kopesh. She raised her sword and breathed. All other things such as pain and morality became obsolete, inconsequential, irrelevant...

----------------------------------------

Antape

It looked at its adversary. It didn't know how this flesh-metal-thing was tearing through its children like leaves but it knew that the Great One wanted the flesh-metal-thing dead. After seeing that nothing its babies were doing was effective it had decided to do this itself. At least now the Great One might give it a mate to make more of its babies with if it wins. It stalked forwards and clicked its mandibles together in joy, also tasting the air. The flesh-metal-thing was good but she wasn't as experienced in combat. Just as the Great One had informed it. It screeched to intimidate the flesh-metal-thing and rushed forwards going for some simple but fast attacks in order to test the flesh-metal-thing's guard. The flesh-metal-thing barely moved as she easily blocked everything. It was surprised, the flesh-metal-thing shouldn't have been capable of that level of skill. It looked its murder-prey, the flesh-metal-thing, in the eye sockets and its eyes widened. Why had the flesh-metal-thing's eyes changed? This wasn't right. The flesh-metal-thing had eyes akin to the Great One. The flesh-metal-thing was not meant to have cruel eyes. The Great One had said it should be inexperienced and inept and that this should be an easy win for it. Had the Great One been wrong? No. The Great One was never wrong, the flesh-metal-thing truly was inexperienced and inept... but the Great One had not mentioned it made up for this in other ways. The malicious gaze the flesh-metal-thing gave it shook it to its core. Why was it scared? Not even Tronius Minoris' went after it, after all why would they risk the ire of the Great One? It screeched again, ear splitting and terrifying. The flesh-metal-thing stepped back. This was good. The flesh-metal-thing had realised its place. Then it saw itself shiver.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Then it saw itself freeze.

Then it saw the flesh-metal-thing running.

Then it saw no more...

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Feyre

Feyre shook her head and looked around. The Antapelings were all very quiet now. They just stared at her before running off in all directions, leaving her alone once more in the clearing. She frowned at the corpse. The Antape hadn't even tried to fight back. It had a few slow attacks earlier but otherwise it just jumped back and accepted its fate. Feyre didn't understand but also didn't really care anymore. She allowed her system notifications through again.

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 21.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 22.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 23.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 24.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 25.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 26.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 27.]

[System: You have leveled up! You are now Level 28.]

[System: Tutorial Hidden Quest Completed Kill the Chimera Ape Brood Progenitor 1/1. Tutorial Quest 2/5. P.S Good Job scary lady... Urgh i can never remember the right system messages.]

[CHARACTER]

[Name: Feyre Agrifiti]

[Level: 28]

[Class: D̷̘̺̕e̷̺͖̚ͅv̷͇̜̽͑e̶͓̬͊͑̐l̴̖̍̚o̶̻̘̍́p̷͔͈̎͒ë̵͕̭̣́r̶̰͐]

[Abilities: Acting {0}, Coding {0}, Swordplay{0}]

[STATS]

[Strength: 0]

[Athletics: 0]

[Flexibility: 0]

[Mana Potential: Ö̴̻͙͊v̴̟̺̪͛e̶̡͕̺͛̔͘ṙ̷̤͈̦̕͠f̸͛͘͜ļ̴̤̻͋̔o̸̘̚w̶͍͑ ̴̩̋E̸̜̳͛͋̽r̷̳͆͒͜r̵̢̯͇͗̍o̸͕̗͐̎r̸̥̣̳̓̈͝]

[Mana: 0]

[Perception: 0]

[ACHIEVEMENTS]

[OtherWorld Hero: 0% bonus to D̸̥̗͖̎̚e̷̟̽͝v̵̡̱̏̽e̷͈̎̾͑l̴͕͉̻͗̈́̋o̶̪̽̀̈́p̴̨̃̚͠m̴̘̲̈́͛͝ĕ̴̝͕̬͗̕n̸̝͓͔̎ẗ̸͙̱̟́̚ ̵͉̆̓a̵̺̺̮̿̈́b̷͉̍í̴̡̞ḷ̸̃́i̵̝̅̆t̴͍̖̄͑͘i̸͖̦͂̍̽é̸̗̖̾̚s̴̾͆]

[Completer Of Quests: 0% bonus to D̸̥̗͖̎̚e̷̟̽͝v̵̡̱̏̽e̷͈̎̾͑l̴͕͉̻͗̈́̋o̶̪̽̀̈́p̴̨̃̚͠m̴̘̲̈́͛͝ĕ̴̝͕̬͗̕n̸̝͓͔̎ẗ̸͙̱̟́̚ ̵͉̆̓a̵̺̺̮̿̈́b̷͉̍í̴̡̞ḷ̸̃́i̵̝̅̆t̴͍̖̄͑͘i̸͖̦͂̍̽é̸̗̖̾̚s̴̾͆]

[Secret Finder: 0% bonus to XP gained]

[QUESTS]

[Defeat Demon King: 1/1]

[Survive (The Tutorial)]

Feyre groaned. What sort of incompetence was the system made with? How come it was so inconsistent? She frowned and glared at her staus screen. Why was everything zeroes was yet another thing she was asking herself over and over in her mind as she sat. She scanned her status screen again and sighed.

"So I'm missing not only some sort of HP but also any levels on my stats? Incompetent system manager AI... The devs should just quit..."

She reaches the end of her status and growls. It had changed her quests. Survive now had the addendum of (The Tutorial) so she guessed she'd done something deserving a hint. She stared for what felt like hours trying to work out what the glitches or errors or whatever they were actually said. Her eyes seemed to try and automatically avert when she tried looking at them so she eventually gave up. Her breaths were deep and slow and it took her a while before realising all the bodies and guts strewn across the grass was gone. Instead there lay a shield where the mound of corpses lay and a bow where the Antape was slain. She barked out a harsh laugh as she looked at them.

"So... if i pick these up will the next stage of the tutorial begin? Hey System! I want to skip to the final boss! I'm bored!"

She picked up the shield first, just in case and then the bow which she instantly unstrung and put in her belt like a very bad sheath.

pop

Feyre was in a cave. It was dark but she saw it for what it was. If anyone had seen her face at that moment they might have wished they were wearing their brown pants. Her grin stretched wide and she raised her shield arm and sword ready for whatever was attempting to hide in the darkness.