Chapter 16: Still Fighting!
Although he could still feel the tension in his arm muscles, he could already swing the sword around. He’d have to watch the strength he put through. He worried that if he pushed himself too much, the debuff could increase by folds.
Still, he could feel the passive skill [Blade Proficiency] at work. It was like his psyche and his physique were being calibrated to allow him to wield the blade—whatever it was he was holding—with expertise.
He had only felt this when he was in the kitchen, preparing ingredients and creating his work of art. After decades of training, every knife, pan, ladle, and so on had become a natural extension of his arms.
Entering a zone felt...surreal, and this time it was with a weapon, against a monster that could easily kill him.
First, he sliced, and then he parried and stabbed, and soon each movement became more and more comfortable. It didn’t matter that there was no outward damage; he felt like he was growing in a way.
At the very least, he knew that if he had a better weapon, he’d be able to deal some damage. Still, he didn’t have unlimited energy, so he decided to hit its most obvious weakness: Its eyes.
Besides, it seemed like he could attack from the inside, but the monster could not attack in return. He was protected by the barrier, and he could just attack with his heart’s content—at least for now.
ROAR!
Slash, stab, slash!
It took a while because he really was too weak, but after a while, he finally managed to slash at its eye, creating a scratch. It was not big, but it was something.
ROARR!
BANG!
[-1 Defense Point]
Finn gulped and gripped his sword tighter. This should be the barrier’s "Life". Anyway, Finn focused on the task at hand, targeting the beast’s eyes over and over until it was finally bleeding.
He watched as it tried to lunge at him, over and over, in anger, but it was useless.
ROARRR!
The new feeling made him feel a little arrogant and maybe a bit careless.
At some point, while he was stabbing and parrying, the monster changed angle by chance, imbalancing him a bit.
Finn’s amber eyes went wide when the beast bit on the blade and he gasped when he felt himself being pulled out.
Uh-oh
Fortunately, he managed to let go at the last second, just before his hand was bitten off.
Imbalanced, he fell to one of the shrubs within the barrier. Huff... huff... he gasped. Outside of the ’zone’, he was reminded of how sore his body was again.
He groaned deeply as he felt the shrubs’ branches poking all over his body. Hopefully, he wasn’t bleeding, but frankly, with how sore his body was, he might not feel it.
So much for the [Monster Instinct] passive, heh.
Then again, what was "instinct" if the body couldn’t react on time?
He had a history of using his fists, and he had a ’healthy’ hobby of hiking every week, but in the end, combat instinct required something else.
BANG!
He flinched, looking at the monster that tried to bump his head on the shield, over and over.
Finn, still lying on the shrubs, tired and defeated, lost his gusto. "Would it die on its own if I just leave it be?" he wondered. That was actually the more rational decision.
In fact, maybe he should just leave all the monsters be, just waiting for them to bump their heads to death.
Pang plodded next to him. This guy definitely wasn’t used to moving.
For someone who had been sedentary his whole life, one would think he’d be more excited to move around.
Then again, a hyperactive panda felt weird, so Finn just shrugged it off.
"Why are you just staring at it, la?"
Finn, afraid to move too much because it could bury the branches deeper into his skin and scratch him, just told him about his plan while he kept still.
"Can’t we just let it kill itself like this?" he asked. He really wanted to rest now
"You think an awakened monster would die by bumping their heads on the barrier?"
Before he fought against it, the monster was already bumping its head against the barrier in an attempt to get to him.
However, in retrospect, it was only like a tap. It was as if someone was trying to push open the door continuously or knock on the door. To a weak human like him, assuming he wouldn’t get tired, even doing this for a day probably wouldn’t kill him.
And if he was to compare the monster’s skin versus his (considering how many times he stabbed it directly with minimal damage), then it was obvious that even bumping for days like this wouldn’t have made a difference.
"But it’s a bit more frantic now, isn’t it?" he asked, referring to the monster who was now exerting a bit more force, like someone slapping on a door instead of just gently knocking on it.
"You can let it be," Pang said, shrugging. "But taking time to deal with monsters tends to attract more of them."
"..."
...
Obviously, he couldn’t just stay still after hearing that, right?
"Anyway, I should get up—AHH!" he gasped when he felt a sting on his hand. He immediately rolled out of the shrub and held his hand, seeing an ant-like thing as big as a cockroach biting him!
"DAMNIT!" he screamed, taking a random rock and hitting it. It detached and squirmed its way into the shrubs.
He watched the large swelling on his arm, feeling the sting that made his eyes twitch. He shook it as if it’d make things better, but he stood up again lest another bug was nearby.
Couldn’t he even take a breather without something ruining things for him?
At this, he checked the [Room] tab under the [Inn] icon to see if there was anything he could do. Like the previous barrier, this barrier did not block bugs either, only those monsters. He wondered if it couldn’t block those little wild animals, too, like the small horned rabbit he saw before.
He clicked [Barrier] and checked if there was anything he could do to keep off the bugs, at least! What if these things were poisonous?
He didn’t think there’d be any clinics nearby if that happened. Like this, bug poisoning was therefore added to his growing list of dumb ways to die in this world.
Sadly, while there really was an [Upgrade] button for the [Barrier], it was greyed out, indicating none was available for him for now.
He heard the patter of paws approach him. Pang could see his panel, too, and he shook his furry head. "You can do that when you meet certain conditions to upgrade the barrier, but you’re jumping the gun. You can’t even scratch at the monster, la.
"And don’t worry, Pang doesn’t think you’re poisoned. Pang would be alerted if the Innkeeper were dying."
"Geez, thanks," he said, sarcasm dripping in his tone.
"You are welcome."
"..."