Chapter 12 – Craving Battle.

‘I’m really doing it!’

Rusty’s sword grazed his opponent’s cheek, causing his rage-filled expression to waver. The poison was doing its work, further weakening the adventurer. Rusty seized this opportunity to push the advantage, relentlessly pressing his attacks. The Fighter who was now visibly fatigued, struggled to defend himself against the relentless assault.

Meanwhile, the other fighter, along with the thief, was having some trouble against the other monster skeletons and living armors. It seemed they were not prepared for this type of situation, as only on the floor below did the poisonous leeches exist. Without having to worry about these status effects, it was possible that these individuals didn’t bring any antidotes for such an occasion, and Rusty’s tactic was relying on this possibility.

He persisted, slowly improving his own movements. It was a strange feeling, but he could sense his actions becoming more refined and his body reacting in a more streamlined fashion. The fact that his opponent was affected by the poison also helped, but Rusty was actively becoming stronger and learning from his first real one-on-one confrontation.

A message sounded out, but he ignored it and stepped in to deliver a blow to his opponent. Instead of the scratches he was making before, this one strike drew blood on the man’s side. Rusty didn’t go uninjured, though, as the man’s blade also made its way towards his chest. However, even though this wasn’t the first gash on his armor, he was still able to continue. His body was made of metal and ran on mana and not blood. As long as his limbs weren’t pulled apart or destroyed, he would be able to continue without ever tiring.

This was one thing he noticed about these adventurers that he didn’t have – a stamina meter. Rusty always kept his distance before attacking, and he had observed that his enemies suffered from a debuff of sorts that made them sluggish. There was a similar state when it came to him when he depleted all of his mana, but as long as he had some left, he could move around without ever getting slower.

As the Fighter stumbled backward, Rusty seized the opportunity. With a powerful swing of his poisoned blade, he aimed for a critical strike. The sword connected, slashing through the Fighter’s armor and inflicting a deep wound. The adventurer fell to the ground, defeated and writhing in pain. It was time to savor his victory and deliver the final blow.

Rusty moved in, his blade raised high as he prepared to activate his power slash skill. With one grand attack, he was attempting to dislodge the man’s head from his neck – a rather large weak point that these humanoid creatures had. The other two were close to beating the other monsters, so he needed to hurry, but before the last strike could be carried out, an unfortunate event occurred.

The attack came from behind, connecting with his raised arm that was holding the sword. It went into the metal and took his whole forearm, along with his sword to the ground. To his surprise, the three adventurers here didn’t seem to be alone, as another person appeared to aid them. He quickly turned to the person to attempt an identification check, but to his surprise, he could not perceive this person’s level – a situation that had never happened before.

The mysterious archer, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, was an enigma to Rusty. His level remained hidden and shrouded in mystery. Despite the shock of losing a large portion of his arm, Rusty was still able to remain calm. He was an inorganic being that could not feel any pain, even if his arm was gone it would not affect his psyche. The archer held a longbow and was already nocking another arrow and ready to fire.

“What’s with that living armor, it’s different from the others?”

The archer spoke out from afar and was ready to fire again, but some luck was still on Rusty’s side. Monsters from within this large chamber moved towards this man’s location and forced him to focus on them. However, this person was much more nimble than anyone that had previously visited this dungeon. With one shot of his bow, he was able to pierce through multiple monsters and embed them on a nearby collapsed pillar. It was clear that this person was vastly superior to anything that Rusty had seen before and probably not someone that he could face without subterfuge.

‘It might be time to use that…’

While the fourth adventurer was momentarily busy, Rusty decided to grab his arm that was now on the ground with a large arrow inside of it. This arrow had pierced right through his gauntlet and vambrace parts, just in the place where they connected. The ground was brittle enough for him to be able to yank it back out and after connecting it back to his body, he was able to move it around as the elbow joint went undamaged.

However, the enemy that he had almost defeated had used this chance to get away. Pursuing him would inevitably expose Rusty to another arrow from the skilled archer. Instead, he hoisted his blade high into the air in a manner visible to all. This tactic successfully diverted the adventurers’ attention, as their gaze fixated on the raised sword.

“What is that thing doing?”

The adventurer who had previously appeared called out, having quickly cleared the monsters around him in less than half a minute. His gaze was fixated on the raised sword, and simultaneously he readied another arrow to target Rusty standing nearby. To his surprise, before he could release his projectile, a blinding surge of light erupted from the rusty blade.

“W-what? Damn, my eyes!”

Rusty had just enough mana in himself to use the Basic Elemental Charge skill that he had learned. Opting for the light element, he infused his sword to create a dazzling burst of radiant light. Although it wouldn’t inflict direct harm on the adventurers, it served its purpose by momentarily blinding them and providing Rusty the opportunity to escape. With haste, he dashed into one of the numerous corridors, stifling the persistent calls of the dungeon voice urging him to continue the fight.

The compulsion to heed the voice lessened upon activating the elemental skill, a perk Rusty had tested and discovered earlier. His secret technique involved fleeing while suppressing the commands for slaughter from the persistent voice. The other monsters could not hold themselves back from attacking which would keep the adventures from catching up to him. Despite being encased in heavy metal armor that hindered his speed, he remained unconcerned about traps or monsters, something the pursuers would have to contend with.

‘It might be better to go down to the lower floor!’

Rusty made his way to the staircase leading down to the lower floor. His metal footsteps echoed in the narrow corridor as he made his escape. The adventurers, still recovering from the blinding light, struggled to give chase. The archer, in particular, had difficulty adjusting his vision and the pursuing monsters proved to be an additional hindrance.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

*****

“What the hell was that? I’ve never seen a living armor act like this… or any monster before?”

“Oy, what’s the hold-up?”

Having successfully eluded capture, Rusty left the adventurers behind in the chamber where the vitality leaf spawned. As he made his way to safety, three other people arrived from behind the corridor that the archer ventured through. The one that called out to him was clearly of the dwarven race.

“I think we are finished with the scouting job.”

The archer squinted while some tears escaped from his eyes. The dwarven companion started chuckling mockingly, clearly trying to rile up his companion.

“Are you crying? Do you need me to call your mommy?”

“What? That thing just uses some type of blinding spell… It caught me off guard, it won’t happen again”

“Haha, are you sure you didn’t just pee your pants instead?”

The dwarf’s grin widened, and his laughter echoed throughout the expansive chamber. The archer, growing increasingly irritated, pointed his bow in the direction of his carefree ally. The dwarven man, in response but still grinning, raised his large halberd in a defensive stance. However, before the situation could escalate another voice resonated from behind them.

“Hey, Reistel knock it off, leave Keyon alone, we all saw the flash of light, you’d have been blinded too.”

A woman wearing dark leather armor appeared between the two and managed to calm the situation down.

“Hah, you humans are easy to rile up!”

The woman shook her head around and turned to the man named Keyon for some clarification.

“What happened? What was that bright white light?”

“I’m not sure, either the monster was using a magical blade or it’s an Irregular.”

“An irregular monster has spawned on this floor? But the information stated that strange things were happening on the second floor but not on this one? If it’s an irregular, then we need to chase it down!”

“Wait, calm down Livi, I got it with one of my arrows, as long as it has it, I’ll be able to track it. We should probably help those three newbies first, two of them seemed to have been poisoned by that thing.”

The woman, referred to as Livi, sighed and nodded in agreement. A fourth member emerged from behind, clad in a heavier set of armor and wielding a large tower shield. Without uttering a word, he moved toward one of the corridors where a few monsters began to emerge. While the trio focused on assisting the lower-level adventurers, he effortlessly dispatched the small wave of insignificant monsters, each with a single strike from his large mace.