Chương 32: There’s something wrong with the difficulty curve

It was not friendly. Not friendly at all. And it was fast. Stupidly fast. Ridiculously fast. Faster than he was without his buff. Thankfully, it also jumped straight at him, and that was a simple and predictable thing to dodge. Dennis sidestepped, getting out of its way, preparing to counter by slashing its wrist. It would take just a moment for the creature to pass him and be in a perfect position for some good old stabbing. Lily was behind him.

"Fuck!" he cursed in superspeed. The moment before the impact stretched into a few more as his stats increased. There weren't many options for him from this position. Even with his speed boost active the hulking mass of muscles was approaching concerningly quickly. He rushed back, towards Lily, pushing her out of its way and simultaneously positioning his body so the blow would be only glancing, trying to follow along with the impact.

The creature was quick enough to adjust mid air, punching him in the ribs as it passed. The fact that he was already moving away was the only reason why the hit didn't simply snap him in two pieces. Instead, it added to his momentum as he was sent flying into the wall. His buff was off again and he only had time to protect his head before his back punched through the wall. If it was actually made of brick he would've been dead already, but the dust-imitation was a bit more fragile.

He was sent flying out of the canteen into the fort courtyard, frantically trying to control his momentum as he tumbled along the ground. When he stopped, his everything hurt. He coughed blood. That was concerning. While trying to blink the blurriness out of his eyes he watched the monster slowly, almost leisurely, step out of the hole in the wall. It didn't go after Lily? He didn't have time to notice what happened to her. She probably went invisible already. That was good?

Or she was dead, which would not be that good.

"Oh, you're on, fucker," he rasped. His dagger was missing. Lost while he went flying? Thankfully, he had a spare. It was useful in case he threw one at something. Or in cases like this one, he supposed. First, assess the situation. Were his lungs– The thing launched at him like a rocket. He didn't have time to plan, or to gather himself, only to rely on his instincts to keep him alive long enough to figure something out. Good news though, his instincts were the best.

He dodged the strikes with minimal possible movements, allowing the blows to pass just a fraction of an inch away from his body. The monster was bigger than him, had way better reach, was faster than him, and sure as hell way stronger than him. Good thing that all that power didn't extend to its mind. It was a machine of violence, fast and powerful and it didn't fucking stop trying to hit him, yet he danced between the blows like he was a reincarnation of Mike Tyson himself. Sadly, he was still on the backfoot.

In the span of no more than three seconds he barely–but fucking gracefully –dodged at least ten strikes. Sometimes when they missed they hit the walls or the ground, and the thing didn't fucking notice that, carving the chunks out of the environment like it was a demolition machine. The tempo of the fight was insane, and he was frantically trying to come up with a way to break it. The few counterattacks that he tried did jack shit, his dagger barely managing to pierce the skin and leave a few scratches.

The fucker didn't even bother to bleed. Hard as rock, it sure felt like he was fighting a statue. A very angry, very big, very overpowered statue. What level was that? Ten? Twenty? All stats evenly distributed, except for the Mind? Or it was just naturally stupid, so the Mind did nothing but increase its reflexes? It sure as hell had no problems keeping up with that speed. Dennis could really see the benefits of equal stat distribution at higher levels.

Must be nice to be an unstoppable machine of pure destruction with no weaknesses. Oh well… Two more seconds of frantic dodging and ineffective counterattacks didn't change the status quo, at all. Even ignoring his grievous wounds–which he probably shouldn't ignore, to think about it–Dennis was starting to feel the burn of the high intensity combat. No matter how gracefully he dodged every hit or how perfectly he minimized his movements, it didn't look like the creature was getting tired at all.

He wouldn't outlast it. In fact, he had maybe fifteen seconds or so left in the bank before his movements would become more sluggish. And that would be death. It was a blessing already that the monster didn't have the wit to grapple him. That one he would have no counter for. Though turning him into paste with a single hit seemed like a perfectly working strategy, so who knew, maybe it did know something about fighting. Fighting it as it was was not an option. He would lose. Running away? The fucker was faster.

Trying to use his buff? He had no targets, unless Lily magically appeared, which would've been very nice of her right fucking now, but would it help? He doubted he would have enough damage even with that. He could use the inertia to slice through flesh, sure, but the thing wasn't made of flesh. Or it was, but the fucking Constitution made it hard as rock, and he seriously doubted that he could slice through rock.

The fact that the few scratches that he managed to inflict regenerated in front of his eyes didn't add to his confidence either. Hiding, then? The creature didn't attack until it saw them, so there was a good bet that he could hide if he managed to break the line of sight. If only he had the speed and time to, well, do anything but barely cling to his life while avoiding attacks that came so fast that the creature might as well be screaming 'Gatling Gun' while dishing them…

"Hey, ugly!" the tastiest source of unlimited exp in the world shouted from near the entrance to the inner rooms of the fort.

"I don't know what else to say! Be taunted!" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Thank you very much, Lily.

"Glad you're alive!" he shouted while ducking under another punch.

"I didn't think further than that!" he heard a panicked scream when the monster turned in Lily's direction, preparing to lunge. Understandable. He would also be nervous. He could almost feel the invisible mental switch being turned, and the world became much less overwhelming as he targeted her. He could finally take a breath and make a plan. Metaphorically. Taking an actual breath would take way too much valuable time, he didn't have any to spare for breathing.

Gathering information, connecting the pieces, creating and discarding dozens of possibilities was simpler than breathing. Faster, too. This… colossus had Dexterity somewhere in twenties, but lower than twenty five. Dennis could outrun it quite easily now, but it wasn't an overwhelming advantage. He allowed himself a small test, trying to cut a chunk out of it as he took his first step towards Lily. The scratch that he made went deeper, but not nearly deep enough to pose any considerable threat.

Swapping the dagger for the katana would make his attacks slightly slower, but it was heavier and much longer so the generated inertia of a swing could be enough to cut a few fingers off, or maybe blind it if his aim was good. So he tried that on his second step as he outran the monster. In one fluid motion he sheathed his dagger and grabbed the handle of his sword, turning in the air and performing a precise slash along both of its eyes.

Could've been faster if he could dual wield, but who fucking knew that he would be pushed so much that his inability to use his right hand actually mattered. Whatever, the move still worked, albeit slightly slower. The slash across the creature's eyes was clean as air. It was a thing of beauty, the way his sword sang parting the space in its way. A perfectly horizontal cut appeared across the colossus' eyes. There was no blood. He could see the cut slowly regenerating.

About ten or so seconds before its vision would return, based on the rate of it? The thing didn't bleed and he honestly doubted it needed to breathe, so cutting its throat would be pointless. Honestly, all of his 'death by a thousand cuts' tactics seemed non-viable, and he couldn't risk trying for a deeper cut in case his sword got stuck. He wouldn't have a sword then, and there was a good chance that the monster would survive a bit of steel stuck in its neck. And it was a very expensive sword.

He couldn't see a way to kill it. Fourth step towards Lily. Halfway there, and he outran the thing enough that he couldn't reach it with the katana. He sheathed it on the fifth step as he turned back around to face the girl. The expression of panic on her face didn't change much, which was fair, it wasn't like much time passed. There were quite a few scratches and bruises on her right arm, now that he had time to notice. Okay, a new problem, which wasn't that different from the old one.

There was a giant monster lunging at Lily that he couldn't stop and she had no hope–or speed, or skill–to dodge. It was weird that it happened twice in such a short span of time. But, well, what could she do? Her options were to taunt or to vanish. Could she pretend to be a good fighter so she could be useful in a fight? But her physical stats were still shit, and he doubted–and secretly hoped that she couldn't because what the fuck –that she could have better stats by pretending to have them. Focus.

The buff made it really easy for his mind to wander mid-fight. Okay, yeah, an angry unbeatable monster behind, a very beatable girl in front, a door that leads to the living quarters to the left of her. No point in breaking what ain't broke.

"Go invis!" he shouted as he shoved her to the right, out of the way of the lunge. At least she would fall on the other, unhurt, side. It felt a bit mean, but he honestly didn't see many options here. He used the shove as a way to adjust his momentum and aimed himself into the door. The buff dropped.

Not hitting the wall in the hallway was way more difficult as he lost the clarity of the mind, and he only partially succeeded, bumping into it–the sharp pain in his ribs reminding him that they were not healthy–but thankfully not through it this time. The sound of the colossus crashing into the wall behind Lily was deafening, and he didn't waste time getting back on his legs. Then he ran the fuck away.

Leaving Lily behind alone with the thing didn't sound that heroic, or even ethical, but he had a few good reasons! First of which was the unbeatable fucking monster, and second… No, first of which was the fact that he kept her as a target for his skill and it didn't turn back on, so she was either very dead or very safe, and only the second one was the unbeatable fucking monster. Keeping his priorities straight was important. Getting the fuck away was pretty high on his priority list though.

His opinion of the colossus' intelligence wasn't that high, but there was a good chance that it had the pesky thing called 'object permanence' as one of its abilities, so he didn't dare to stop. This fort wasn't the exact replica of the real thing, but it was close enough, so he abused his nearly-eidetic memory to the maximum to run the most convoluted and filled with turns path. Quietly. He was crossing the rooms and corridors very quickly, but very, very quietly.

Once a few seconds he could feel a strong vibration in the walls and hear a thunderous sound of the said walls probably being run through, but it wasn't getting closer. Was it chasing Lily? He was pretty confident that the knowledge that she was somewhere in the courtyard should be enough for the targeting to work, so the fact that it didn't was probably an indicator that she was hidden and relatively safe. Or dead, that also was an option.

Wait, didn't her being invisible not exclude her from making his skill work? Oh fuck. Was she actually dead? The moment he thought about that his skill activated. Oh, so she was alive, but now she needed saving? Shit, he needed to run back, he– The skill turned off. Huh. He was a bit worried about the supposed lack of intelligence of his skill. Namely, that it was smarter than it pretended to be. Or was he subconsciously tuning the conditions for when it should be activated? Was that an option?

No one told him that that was an option. Anyway. Neat. The rumbling of the walls being broken got less frequent and eventually stopped altogether while he was hiding in a closet. At least he was better than those silly horror movie victims, unlike them he didn't breathe at all and no heart hammered in his chest. Perks of being sorta-undead. Or just being born superior. He also didn't relax or get out the moment he felt he was safe. He knew his tropes. Still, ten minutes was probably safe enough.

It was time to find Lily. Or her body, rest in peace. While avoiding that thing, preferably. And then to figure out what the hell they were supposed to do. Or him. If she was dead. Was there a shovel somewhere in this place?