Enemy Type Updated:
Skeleton (Basic Humanoid)x6 -> (Basic Orc-type)x1
Objective Updated: Destroy the enemy.
Max barely had time to mentally swipe the SYSTEM screen out of sight before he was forced to dodge to the side, a giant bone fist crashing into the wall where he had been sitting.
He was really grateful for his Cricket helmet, and the padding it had. Because if he had gotten concussed or something similar when he initially hit the wall, he would probably be dead already.
And wasn’t that a fucking sobering thought?
He finished his roll to the side and shot to his feet as quickly as he could, patting his backpack with his free hand, checking that none of the water bottles had burst or anything. Luckily, it seemed like they were good, but he didn’t want to risk losing his only secure water source for now.
Luckily, the Orc-type skeleton was massively slower than the humanoids, meaning that he was able to run across the room from it with plenty of time for him to take off his bag and chuck it in the corner of the room. He would just have to remember to grab it when he was done.
The only other option was that he died here, in which case, he wouldn’t need the bag anyway, so it was fine.
Grabbing the handle of his cricket bat in both hands, Max did his best to quell his fear as the Orc-type skeleton thudded its way over to him. It was massive. Bigger than anything else that was even vaguely human-looking he’d ever seen before, the skull contained two giant fangs on either end of its bottom jaw.
With his bag now secure, Max charged the Orc-type skeleton, watching its giant fists and sliding out of the way of its swing. Its lack of speed also seemed to affect its attacks as well, meaning that it was actually easier to dodge, but the massive jump in its strength was worrying.
He’d been lucky the first time he got hit, but he might not be the next time. With its swing missing, the Orc-type skeleton was spun around slightly, so Max brought his cricket bat down on the back of its knee, attempting to subdue it like he had the other skeletons.
As his bat connected, he felt vibrations shoot up his arms, making them ache slightly, but he managed to keep his grip on the bat. He also heard a small ‘crack’ from the knee joint, but it didn’t go down immediately.
After hitting it, he was forced to jump away as it turned again, swiping at him. Again, he thanked whatever was pulling the strings that the Orc-type skeleton was much slower, as even with him jumping as fast as he could he barely dodged the Orc-type skeleton’s hand.
Jogging backwards, he put some space between himself and the Orc-type skeleton. If he wanted to get more hits on the knees to bring it down, he would need to make it overextend somehow, needed it to give him the opportunity.
Kneeling down for a moment, he scooped up a couple of bits of stone from the ground, each of them about the size of a golf ball, and started chucking them at the skeleton. Jogging away from it as it chased him across the room, he kept throwing them repeatedly, occasionally grabbing more and more stones.
Individually they weren’t doing much, but for all of the Orc-type skeleton’s… meatlessness, as it was a skeleton, it still seemed to be getting agitated. Was this because it was an Orc-type, and there was some lingering soul-anger or some shit within it?
‘I have no real way to know, so it doesn’t matter.’
What did matter was that it started focusing more on moving quickly, and less on swiping at him at any possible opportunity, its long arms hanging low as it sped up slightly. Max couldn’t help the smile on his face as he saw the skeleton change priorities, giving him the chance he needed.
Throwing the final stone of this batch at the skeleton, he nailed it right in the skull, and if it was a regular human he probably would have broken its nose. That seemed to be the skeleton’s final straw, with whatever was controlling its actions seemingly throwing caution to the wind as it dropped on all 4 like a gorilla and charged at him.
Max gulped, grabbed his bat with both hands and rushed to meet the skeleton this time. He had a… potentially bad idea in mind, but couldn’t think of how else to get behind it suddenly so that he could break its leg off.
‘Closer… closer… one more second… NOW!’
With what practically felt like centimetres to spare, Max hit the deck, his durable motorcycle shoes and pants coming in handy as he did a quintessential cricket slide across the cobblestone floor, and in between the Orc-type skeleton’s legs, before jamming his foot in the ground and coming to a full stop behind it.
Saving any celebrations for later, he quickly whipped around, and with both hands, slammed his cricket bat into the same knee as before as hard as he could. His face lit up with a grin as he was rewarded with a much deeper, and much sharper ‘SNAP’ noise, the bottom half of its right leg fell to the ground, disconnected at the kneecap, which had been smashed to bits.
The Orc-type skeleton, whose momentum had been carrying it forward, even after its right knee was broken, slammed to the ground, the bones it was made of making creaking noises as it slid a short distance.
“Yes!”
Max couldn’t quell the shout of joy he let out when he saw it collapse, but even as he cheered, his whole body still seemed to be running on its instincts, as he swung his bat at the severed leg, sending it scattering across the room, shattered completely.
The Orc-type skeleton was doing its best to get up now, and its enhanced strength was making it seem very possible, even lacking its leg as it did. He barely slowed down his cricket bat at all as he swung it down on the other knee this time, and it seemed that a proper wind-up made all the difference, as the second knee shattered under his bat as well, the Orc-type skeleton letting out a rattly, shrieking roar that hurt to hear.
But unlike the other monsters that he’d fought so far, the Orc-type skeleton wasn’t able to become a pushover just because it didn’t have its mobility anymore.
Max yelled as one of the skeleton’s abnormally long arms swung behind itself, and because he had gone in for the other knee, he was far too close to dodge it. Its giant palm slammed into him, sending him flying away from the skeleton.
“GAH!”
He tumbled across the ground again, his makeshift armour putting in the work to protect him, but even still he was dizzy and sore and he ached all over, and it was a miracle that he hadn’t thrown up in his mask.
Tears escaped the corner of his eyes as he coughed, trying to push himself up, shaking all over. He didn’t know if it was because of the adrenaline or something, but he didn’t feel any breaks, so that was something to be thankful for, but fuck, he felt like he just got hit by a car.
Luckily, his breaking of the Orc-type skeleton's legs meant that it was forced to crawl along the ground towards him, and its bulky size and slower movements meant that he had even more time to recover than he would have against the little skeletons.
His breathing was shaky as he finally stopped aching enough to stand up, and so with the time available to him, he focused on calming that down. He wasn’t done yet, so he couldn’t properly rest, but he’d take what he could get at this point.
If the other skeletons were anything too off, he would have to, at the very least, sever all of its extremities if he wanted to beat it. Making it a stationary target was a good idea, even if it was clear to him that he was just using the same tactic repeatedly.
‘Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
With the skeleton now pretty much immobile, Max jogged over to his bag, unzipping it and quickly unscrewing one of his water bottles, taking a big swig and returning it to his bag, all the while keeping his eye on the Orc-type skeleton.
It was flailing about, trying to attack him, but it didn’t seem to have realised that it could only attack or move, not both at the same time anymore, which meant that Max had plenty of time to recover.
He sat on the ground on the other side of the room from the skeleton with a huff, putting one knee up and resting his forearm on it. He was still shaking slightly, a natural consequence of being flung across the room twice, but overall, he wasn’t in as much pain as he expected to be.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
‘Wait…’
Maxwell Clark
[Class]: None
[Level]: 0
[Stats]:
* Strength: 1
* Dexterity: 1
* Endurance: 2
* Intelligence: 1
* Charisma: 1
* Luck: 1
[Ability List]
> None
[Spell List]
> None
[Equipment]
> None
Max couldn’t help but choke out a laugh as he read his stats. There it was, that number 2 among all the 1’s he had for stats at the moment. He glanced over at the Orc-type skeleton, which was still flailing, and couldn’t help but shudder at the idea of fighting something like that without what was possibly superhuman durability already.
He shook his head as he pushed himself to his feet again, clenching his hand around the handle of his cricket bat. He was still pretty tired, but he didn’t know if the Orc-type skeleton could regenerate if he didn’t attack it or something, so he didn’t want to rest for too long.
The Orc-type skeleton was still thrashing about, but he was able to stand just outside of its range, its arms too busy trying to kill him to let it jump at him.
‘Alright, Max, think. The smaller skeletons were ‘defeated’ once you fully separated all of their extremities, so this big one probably follows the same pattern. Actually, with how uniform it was with the smaller ones, it's probably the same for all skeletons.’
Knowing the rule on how to beat skeletons was nice, but it just meant that he had more work cut out for him. The Orc-type skeleton’s flailing arms, while giving him space to rest, also were a pretty solid barrier against him moving in to pry the shoulders off.
He made a few cursory attempts to get closer to it, trying to get an angle where he could pry one of its arms off without getting punched into a wall again. Still, each time he even attempted to get closer from the front he was met with wild flailing and an odd, rasping roar from the skeleton.
He wasn’t entirely sure how a skeleton was roaring, but he had bigger issues at the moment.
At the very least, his failure to get close to the thing gave him time to recover a little. He could feel the aches he had been dreading starting to show themselves as he did, however, and he wasn’t looking forward to recovering from this experience when it was over.
He took another few deep breaths before an idea popped into his head. The Orc-Type Skeleton was strong, but both relatively stupid and fairly slow. If he tried to attack it from the front, it would still be good enough to get him, but if he attacked it from behind…
‘Man, this is a stupid idea. Did the SYSTEM make me more reckless or something? I can’t imagine myself doing something like this before today.’
He rolled his shoulders, jumping in place for a moment to stretch out his legs. The Orc-Type Skeleton’s blank eye sockets followed his movements, its giant arms still trying to smear him into the walls around them.
Hefting a rock into his hand, Max launched it at the Orc-Type Skeleton’s head as hard as he could, and the instant that it was out of his hand, he was moving.
Motorbike shoes thudded loudly on the stone floor below him as he sprinted around the Orc-Type Skeleton in a circle, just outside of its range. Eventually, he got to the point where he was directly behind it, and the Orc-Type Skeleton was forced to bring its arms back in front of itself so that it could adjust to Max’s new position.
But he wasn’t going to give it time to do that.
Max’s life flashed before his eyes as he darted forward, jumping onto the Orc-Type Skeleton’s large back, his foot hitting the back of its skull to keep him from overshooting as he landed butt-first on its shoulder blades.
Quickly pulling his foot back, he stood up, his footing unstable due to the Orc-Type Skeleton’s flailing, and readied his cricket bat, ramming it into the shoulder joint on the right arm.
With its own erratic movements almost assisting the level he had created with his cricket bat, and adrenaline flooding his veins, it was almost easy for him to separate the Orc-Type Skeleton’s humerus from its shoulder, sending the now lifeless arm flying off to the side from its own momentum.
He didn’t let up, however. His footing was a bit less shaky now that the Orc-Type Skeleton wasn’t capable of moving quite as much, which made it a simple task to jam his cricket bat into the opposite joint, and it was similarly easy to remove it, leaving the giant creature of bone a limbless thing.
With its arms and legs, both severed from its main body, Max sat down on its shoulder blades again and held his cricket bat above his head, aimed at the now-still back of the skeleton's spine where it connected to the skull.
As he hammered his cricket bat into the joint, each swing echoing through the chamber until finally, the skull popped off the spine, rolling along the floor in front of him, he could feel his arms and legs and chest and… fuck, his entire body start to burn with the aftereffects of fighting so hard so suddenly.
Still, as he pushed himself off the now defeated Orc-Type Skeleton, landing on the stone floor with a soft thud, he couldn’t help the smile on his face, which only grew when this SYSTEM made itself known again.
Initial Combat Test: Completed.
Adjusted Combat Test: Completed.
You may Proceed through the TEST FRACTURE.
Time Remaining to complete: 33 hours, 3 minutes, 46 seconds
As he read the SYSTEM screen, he could hear the grinding on the portcullis that had previously trapped him in this room as it lifted itself up, seemingly by magic. Which… would make sense, given everything that had happened to him today.
He almost made to walk towards it when he remembered his bag, swearing softly as he turned around and jogged back to where he had put it. He brought a bottle out and took a swig of the water as well as a bite of some of the food he’d stuffed in there, before slinging it onto his back again, placing his cricket bat in between it and his jacket.
His bag secured, he trudged over towards the now-open door and spotted the bones of the Orc-Type Skeleton fading away into shiny dust as he did. ‘I guess that's what happens to monsters in FRACTURES, because that sure as hell didn’t happen with the dogs…”
He felt himself shudder at the thought of the dogs again, before shaking his head to dispel the thoughts as best as possible. As he passed through the newly opened door, he was greeted by a small hallway that led to what looked like a giant open chamber, much bigger than the one he was in at the moment. “It is what it is, Max. Just keep going. You’ve almost got it.”
Hearing his own voice bouncing off the walls of such a quiet hallway was eerie, to say the least, but not so much so as the deep, pulsing noise that entered his ears as he got closer to the larger chamber.
As he crossed through the door at the end of the hallway, he was almost flash banged by just how much brighter it was in this big room than everywhere else in the TEST FRACTURE.
The roof was either broken or just never there to begin with, giving him a clear line of sight to the open sky. ‘Wait, no, that's not the sky, what is that….’
What he had taken for the bright blue Australian sky, was, on closer inspection actually shifting void of blue energy, and now that he looked at it properly, there was even some teal and yellows in the mix, a far cry from the menacing looking purple of the entrance to the TEST FRACTURE.
Blinking to help his eyes adjust to the new light, he stepped forward into the room, moving towards the centre. It was the obvious place to go, with the floor eventually turning into a pyramid staircase up to something on the platform on the top.
It was sheer agony on his aching muscles to climb the stairs so soon after fighting the Orc-Type Skeleton, but he pushed through anyways, excited for what [Class] the system would offer him, the words of his old cricket coach burning in his ears.
“If you want to win at this game, you gotta fight for it. If you’re all out of strength? Then fight just that little bit further! You’re not done until you collapse, and even then I expect you to crawl!”
Sure, he was a bit of a prick, but from his experience, the ones willing to yell at you when you were slacking were usually the best coaches. Plus, his advice was sound. They’d won many games because of himself or his teammates pushing just that little bit further than they should have been able to.
He was pulled from his thoughts as he reached the top of the staircase, and came upon a glowing orb, its colour mirroring the ones of the void outside, that seemed to call to him.
Approach the FRACTURE’s CORE, and place your hand on it.
He glanced at the SYSTEM screen that popped up and swiped it away. It wasn’t even necessary, as one look at the orb alone had made him sure that was what he needed to do. Walking forward, he a hand onto the orb, and with a flash, his vision went black.
Colour returned a moment later, leaving him floating in the blue-green-yellow void, the building inside the TEST FRACTURE having disappeared. The only thing left with him was the orb, which now had a couple of SYSTEM screens hovering over it.
Congratulations on being in the first 10% of Humans [Terra] to complete a TEST FRAC-
Anomaly Detected. Adjusting.
Max couldn’t help the worry that spread through him as the SYSTEM screen almost… buffered. The phrase ‘anomaly detected’ was a fairly sinister one. Did he fuck up somehow and wouldn’t be getting his [Class]?
Anomaly Processed. Adjustments Complete.
Congratulations on being the first Human [Terra] to complete a FRACTURE.
[Classes] now Unlocked
3 options of [Class] will now be provided to choose from.
Selections are FINAL.
After his eyes had finished reading the box, it closed on its own, and 3 more boxes appeared in its place. He breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that he would still be getting his [Class] and began to read his options.
The smile on his face was one of almost childlike wonder and excitement as he read through the 3 screens he had been shown, his imagination running wild.