The next few minutes were filled with the sound of a cutting blade and splattering blood.
Luca no longer needed to be cautious about his next step. What followed the clarity in understanding the structure of the Null Spawn was certainty.
Within the cold reception room, with its flickering lights and broken tiles, were the wet gurgles of dying abominations.
Luca was seen weaving through their numbers. He hovered slightly above the floor with each lunge and closed the height difference with small movements.
The Null Spawns were scattered around. Some even clustered in an attempted group attack.
When one attempted to attack, a thin line of gold would invade its thoughts.
Torn limbs floated in the air lazily. Black blood oozed out of its stump as its head was split in two.
The creature collapsed with a choked groan.
Another was caught in the mix, split halfway through by Luca's Ego-reinforced blade.
It had been standing unceremoniously, when it suddenly froze. Its trunk slid off from its top part.
Falling to the ground with a wet thud.
Luca neither stopped to witness his chaotic art, nor cared to check the numbers dwindling at an unnatural pace.
Everything he did was with full focus on what was right in front of him.
How could he notice the background when the full picture had been ingrained in his skull?
He slid beneath one with his sword's blade held in the air. Ego surged like a living tide. It blasted upwards in a straight line and carved through the creature.
Their agitated screams had become something else entirely– transformed into soft whimpers and cries of fear.
[11/20]
Another came to view, his eyes traced, his hands moved.
[12/20]
Then another. Luca used it as a foothold.
He climbed over the creature, rotating horizontally in mid-air as his sword carved through its neck.
It fell stomach first with its arms cut off and blood rushing out in a torrent. Just before its head fell off its neck.
Luca was already upon the others.
None escaped his ever assessing eyes.
Time began to tick slowly. And soon…
[20/20]
[THE FIRST FLOOR HAS BEEN CLEARED]
[PROCEED TO THE ELEVATOR]
Luca panted heavily as he stood in the world of his own creation.
Large, corrupted bodies filled the floor. Sword cuts riddled their flesh. Black blood pooled beneath his feet.
Vicious and thick, it reflected the moonlight that seeped through the windows.
Luca felt his chest. His heart still thumped. Energetically with that same rhythm as before.
He couldn't help but sigh at his own body.
'mentally, I'm tired… but physically…'
His adrenaline surged. His gaze narrowed and his pupils constricted.
'I feel alive.'
That was the only thing he could conclude in that given moment. The blood. The deaths. The thrill.
It was exhilarating in a way he couldn't deny.
Perhaps he was beginning to enjoy battles?
Luca wasn't certain.
What did surprise him, however, was his control of Ego.
'It's too much… even for a Trancer, right?'
Back in the Real World, before life had gotten a bit too real, Luca had wasted his time between school, farming and research.
What did he research? Well, that would be the Egoists and the world they lived in.
There was much to learn about them, and he had to h be invested. After all, a walking phantom knight had been haunting him for years.
His thoughts had only just begun to unravel when the world chimed and the lights sparked on.
Luca turned to his right. Across the hallways, opposite the empty rooms and the reception desk where an Elevator opened, its buttons beaming with energy.
[PROCEED TO THE NEXT FLOOR]
Luca didn't need the Trance to urge him.
He had already begun to walk up to the Elevator with his thoughts bottled back in.
He had questions, but that would wait.
There was no one other than himself to answer it, and even so, how much did he even understand?
After walking into the Elevator, he glanced at the lines of buttons. A pair of ten was arranged, but only five beamed.
'Five floors?' he wondered.
The elevator hummed as its doors slid shut.
Then the roof opened and a subtle blue beam charged.
Luca looked up and folded his arms.
'Why use the Proton Elevators if I'm just gonna arrive at the next floor?'
These were usually used for long-distance travel.
Especially between hospitals.
The beam shot down and consumed Luca.
But contrary to its sharp, blue light that would blind the common man, its display was actually quite warm.
Luca relaxed as the world blinked in his eyes. And the elevator doors began to slide open.
A chime echoed, then the new floor came into view.
'Oh…' Luca thought as his gaze landed on the group of red-eyed beings staring him down.
[SECOND FLOOR DUNGEON WILL NOW BEGIN]
[0/18]
[GOODLUCK]
Luca jumped out of the Elevator when a Null Spawn appeared in his former location. Its limb– a long, curved iron-like blade stabbed into space and the wall behind it.
Its head whipped in Luca's direction.
Its maw spread apart on multiple sides.
Then it screamed.
"kkkRRAAKKKKTTT!!!"
Luca nearly felt his ears fall off as he dodged yet another incoming barrage of attacks.
Two more appeared in his presence, one with spears for forelimbs and the other with a flesh-like great shield.
Luca propelled himself into the air. Rotating sideways. He placed a hand over one of them and jumped over it.
Landing with his sword held firmly.
'These are different.'
Not just because their features said so, but also…
[NULL SPAWNS- GRADE 2]
'Grade 2?'
His head snapped to the side where another lunged its head, anchored to a bizarrely long neck.
Luca slid across the broken tiled floor like a flexible athlete.
His sword came next and he brought it down for a vertical slash.
His eyes bulged at that moment. The air around him stifled, and five with heads the shape and structure of metal charged at him in unison.
'I won't make this.'
He abandoned his attack and ducked. His legs widened in a split. 'Gods that hurt!'
He rolled across the floor and jumped back to his feet as all five smashed into each other.
From Grade 2, Null Spawns became something else entirely. Their intelligence had begun to increase, and their physical features had usually evolved in some way or other.
Some become extremely sturdy. Their heads harden, their limbs elongate or stiffen into spears. A few more downright form weapons and worse still, they begin to think as a hive.
'They've got their backs covered so they're a team. But they're still primal at best, shove enough blood and they rush you mindlessly.'
Luca didn't intend on spilling his own blood, though.
'Though, they're different, their structure isn't. There's just a slight increase in strength and variability…'
It was more than that though. Luca knew that attacking one meant attacking all, so if his guard was down by just an inch… he would be completely overwhelmed.
He jumped back to his feet when the air around him warped.
One with bizarrely maladjusted canine teeth hung in the ceiling and two others began to close in.
So how does one beat Grade 2 Null Spawns when they seem so perfectly poised for group fights? Well, in the end, Null Spawns are at the bottom of the food chain.
Luca could feel it.
They were weak.
His sword blasted with a rush of Ego.
Pale gold formed an extension of his sword that carved its way into the floor.
Now his long sword which had barely been longer than an adult's arm was now triple that.
He kicked his leg into the air and spun, dragging his heavy sword as it rolled through it with growing hunger.
The three Spawns didn't know what hit them.
The sword sliced through their heads in perfect synchrony. It carved through the ceiling and all the way to the wall next to him before he landed with a thud. The three heads landed next to him in a thud, blood dribbling out of their beheaded necks.
Blood splashed into the air like a fountain. Black ooze that bathed him in a glow of euphoria.
Luca licked his lips as he turned around. He glanced at the hesitating Null Spawns.
That, perhaps, must have been too much to see even for these diabolical beings.
Trancers weren't meant to be as strong as him, right?
Perhaps not. What most people fail to realise is that Trancers fail to execute their powers properly. Some are even unable to grasp it. Dying by embarrassing deaths, if it were to be recalled.
Luca wasn't grounded in practice or war. He didn't know what a Long sword was until he held it.
He had seen it. Read it. But never had he truly felt it.
And at the moment, not only did it feel right.
It felt fated.
The Grade 2 Null Spawns were different though.
He had caught those three off guard, but now that the others knew of his capabilities, Luca could tell he would be having a hard time.
Still, he raised his sword. Ready to strike at any time.
The beasts beat him to it.
Four dashed through the tiled on all fours, two circled by climbing the walls and three crawled on the ceiling.
It was Luca or them. And Luca was going to be it.
[3/18]
Luca moved.