Grey would be lying to himself if he tried to claim he didn’t panic a bit. Who wouldn’t, when spinning, sparking saws of rotating metallic teeth were coming right for your head?
A blade, a spear, heck, even an arrow flying from 50 feet away felt less imposing than whatever this was.
To make matters worse, the Skrill had this wild, unbridled, impossible-to-predict movement pattern. It was like it would just as easily be happy with killing itself as it would killing Grey.
Grey ducked and rolled.
The chainsaws sparked against the ground, digging into the cobbled stone and leaving jagged, irregular streaks in their wake.
’Holy shit. It’s still working.’
Any hopes Grey had had that the Skrill would destroy its own chainsaws went out the window. He rolled back up to his feet, his grip on Ray’s longsword tightening as he faced off against the creature again, but he found that he was forced to dodge again. And then again.
’Dammit! There’s no space to attack!’
The Skrill was like an endless ball of volatile energy. It didn’t hesitate. It didn’t feel pain.
Every time it missed and its chainsaws rebounded off a solid surface, it was already at it again.
’Shit!’
Grey dove behind a broken pillar, and the Skrill’s chainsaws revved against it. Stone dust filled the air in a thick white powder, and before Grey knew it, the pillar was already tilting the rest of the way toward him.
He was forced to roll away again, but his head slammed against a solid, invisible wall.
There was a slight tingling sensation across the forearm May’s Nexis Suit was slipped onto, but the connection was so blurry he couldn’t see what the notification said.
Grey focused on getting back on his feet, pushing away from the invisible wall. He rolled on the ground like he was trying to stamp flames out, barely protecting his arm from another double-handed slam by the Skrill.
His eyes widened as he made eye contact with the rotating blade. He was so close to them the sparks threatened to blind him.
The sound of an engine revving and broken mechanical parts filled the air, and the chain came to a sudden stop, stuck directly into the ground.
’Chance!’
Grey didn’t hesitate, rotating over and thrusting Ray’s longsword with a hand right through the Skrill’s ear sockets. The strike was so perfect it went in through one earlobe and out through the next, bisecting its skull.
He yanked it out in one fluid motion, rolling away and back up to his feet.
’Damn, I’m tired.’
Grey heaved for breath. It took a lot to dodge like that. He didn’t know what sort of stupid stamina that Skrill had, but they should definitely patch it.
Remembering the odd feeling he had gotten from his arm earlier, Grey hurried to shift May’s Nexis Suit until he lined up the nodes just right.
The notification made his lip twitch.
—
[Arena boundary crossed. Time to next Skrill appearance halved.]
—
[Time Remaining: 00:00:03]
—
[Time Remaining: 00:00:02]
—
[Time Remaining: 00:00:01]
—
’Well shit.’
"SKKKKKREEEEE!"
Another Skrill spawned from behind a pillar. It leapt over, thrusting its chainsaw into the pillar beneath it. The blades came to a sudden stop, and the Skrill leaned back.
Grey was about to rush forward, thinking an opening had just come up, only for the chainsaw to rev again.
The Skrill launched forward, arching through the air so fast it felt to Grey like it had basically teleported in front of him.
Grey felt his life flash before his eyes. That sort of thing tended to happen to him a lot these days.
’I can’t keep dodging.’
That singular thought shone through brighter than all the rest. It wasn’t pride... okay, maybe it was a little bit of pride. But Grey felt like this world kept pinging him around like he was some sort of pinball.
Nothing felt in his control, and every time he thought he took a step forward, the next corner turn showed him that he had actually taken three back instead.
There was only one thing he had that seemed to remain consistent.
His memories.
He wasn’t sure what changes to his body he could keep if he died, or if this would really be his last death or not since his pending quest read zero loops left...
But what he did know was that his mind was the only thing he had.
His memories, his thoughts, how he approached things, what he did or didn’t understand.
It wasn’t this ring, not this necklace, not this sword—none of that mattered.
The only distinguishing factor was him.
He had to stop losing his cool. He had to stop running. If he couldn’t control the one thing that he alone could manage, he’d never get any chance at revenge.
All of his emotions came to a head.
Grey dropped the longsword and his mind moved, pulling out May’s spear from his Weapon Space.
The moment he stopped panicking about dodging, the erratic, unpredictable movements of the Skrill became more than just that.
They became a series of wild patterns with countless flaws and faults.
Grey’s spear shot forward.
Where would the Skrill dodge when it was in the middle of the air? And how would its chainsaws reach him with the length of the spear?
The butt of Grey’s spear slammed right into the Skrill’s chest. He felt its sternum break and collapse, its forward momentum coming to a sudden stop as it flopped downward.
Chi.
The spear spun in Grey’s hand, and the blade sliced the Skrill’s head clean off.
Grey exhaled a breath, a crimson glow lighting his eyes.
That felt good. Almost too good.
He didn’t roar like he usually did. Instead, he focused even more.
When it was time to roar, he would. But right now, he had another Skrill coming.
—
[Time Remaining: 00:00:51]
—
Grey took deep breaths and focused himself. If he was going to improve, he was going to need to really start understand what exactly it meant to have the spirit of a Goblin Warlord.