'They're all the same. They're trying to kill me. That, I am certain of.'
He lunged at the first Spawn. His sword slid through the air like a razor through silk.
The spawn lifted its spear limbs for a block and their weapons clashed.
Wind blasted from the collision, and the cement floor quaked. Sinking by an inch beneath their feet.
The creature's spear limbs were sent backwards. A rebound from the strike. A chance for Luca.
He took it.
He propelled forward with his sword for a stab when his eyes flared as two more appeared.
Luca's sword clashed against a pair of spear limbs that slammed his back.
Luca groaned. His arms swung wide from the rebound. His ears flinched and his skin crawled.
Without even a second to grasp, he purposely slipped on a broken glass.
A giant fist, the size of his skull charged through the air in his former position.
Luca twisted and attempted to jump back. It failed.
A Null Spawn with metal for a head charged at him with an aggravated snarl. Its head slammed into Luca's side. The air rattled and so did Luca's bone.
With a shift in the air, Luca was sent sprawling through it as his mouth widened from pain.
He crashed into the walls and slipped through, floating aimlessly until he slammed through two more before hitting the wall in a patient's room, his back to it. Then, he slid into the bed.
Luca screamed.
'gods!'
He grasped his side with one hand and attempted to feel for his sword with the other.
The conclusion haunted him– GONE?!
The air shifted as something massive pounded through the rows of walls. Smashing through them as if they were paper.
Its spear-limb extended in a flash and stabbed the wall that should have been Luca's head.
Luca's eyes pulsed. Golden strings hanging by its edges as it traced the monster's movements.
He grabbed the limb with one arm and pushed forward, swinging his free arm for an uppercut.
It connected.
The air whipped and the bed collapsed.
The sound of bones snapping clicked in his ears as black blood burst out from the Creature's maw.
Luca pulled his hands back as Ego filled them with purpose. 'Not yet!'
He swung again.
The uppercut connected and reality rippled for a fraction of a second. A wet, splintering sound, like a fresh stalk of celery being twisted apart echoed.
The creature's head caved in from underneath as it fell limply on the bed.
Luca wasn't settled.
Two dashed from the sides. Spears that he quickly caught as they carved the air to his body.
He twisted and pulled them.
Their bodies were dragged across the air as he spun around. He sent the one on his left flying into the ceiling and the other by his right into the ground.
Yet, he couldn't rest!
He raised his arms in defence. Just in time as the Spawn with the shield smashed him into the wall.
Luca groaned. He pushed back with brute force when the abominations for metal as a head came crashing through.
Their heads connected with the shield and Luca was made a living paste between the wall and their aggravated form.
Their snarls wrapped disgustingly around their tongue as it echoed in the air.
A twisted, buoyant laugh when Luca caught movement at the corner of his periphery.
He wanted to hide!
The Spawn with the spear- limbs that he sent to the ceiling had recovered and its spear came drilling towards his head.
It's over!
Or so the world thought.
The creature cried out, trying to tug its limb from an unexpected trap.
Its head spun around in frantic annoyance and whipped back at Luca.
Had this human really just bitten his limb?!
Luca glared at the creature with compounding rage. "How dare you?" Golden energy rushed from his body like smoke from a furnace.
Luca was burning and his entire being felt it.
He growled as he snapped the spear out of its socket with a loud snap!
The creature recoiled back as Luca was pushed further into the wall.
Luca screamed. His hands fought against the rising tide with each second.
He had come too far to be turned into paste! These creatures wouldn't get the better of him.
The wall began to crumble. Breaking slowly as Spider web cracks spread through it.
The sound of the wind reached his ear and the cold from outside assaulted his back.
For some reason, Luca got an impending doom scream in his head. And the Trance only acknowledged it.
[WARNING! WARNING! LEAVING THE DUNGEON IS AN AUTOMATIC FAILURE!]
[REPEAT! LEAVING THE DUNGEON IS AN AUTOMATIC FAILURE! TRANCER WILL SUCCUMB TO DEATH!]
'You don't need to tell me twice.'
Luca forced all the ravaging Ego towards his front. He bent it. Twisted it to his own designs.
'There's a reason why Egoists call Ego the foundational energy.'
It was a form of energy formed when given a will.
One could say, it was a mass of scattered matter, begging to be given command.
This was the same for mana seen in stories, and aura from fantasies.
Though their form had never been confirmed, they remain at large a theory that most of the New Earth had believed was real.
This was simply because of the change they had undergone. Mana and Aura were forms of Ego.
Ego was a vast form of many things… and Egoists were granted control over their own.
Its base form is seemingly similar to others, but its quantity varies greatly. This is because will is thought of differently by everybody.
For someone like Luca, Will means command.
In other words, Ego was a simple conduit that responded to his commands.
So when he commanded it to shape into a sword, it did just that.
And at the moment, a burst of Golden black spikes blasted out of Luca's body. Hardened by the principality of his thoughts. They stabbed through the Spawns like sponge cake.
Protruding out with blood dripping from its tips.
The pressure stopped and so did the overwhelming series of attacks. Luca slumped to the ground.
His chest rose and fell to the beating of his heart.
His lungs expired air. His nostrils flared and tears dripped from his eyes.
'That was close. Too close.'
Yet, he had survived.
He looked up slowly to meet the prying eyes of his attackers. They watched. They re-evaluated.
Their numbers had dropped and their assault was asundered.
Luca grimaced at the sight. 'Scary. To think these beasts, no stronger than a Mild Null Bud would be this capable at planning.'
Perhaps that was the reason why Null Spawns, despite being the bottom of the food chain, were still number one at murdering humans.
They were indeed dangerous.
Luca glanced to his side.
[7/18]
'Eleven more?' That felt like a lot.
He stood to his feet. Exasperated and spent, yes, but a bit thrilled that he was growing? Yes.
Each misstep had led to another series of critical thinking for him. He was pushing forward with bare knowledge and understanding.
Perhaps because of that, he had decided to put his all into it.
The creatures didn't strike first though, but by the time they wished to, Luca was already upon them.
The first was a Spawn that had been at the back. A small creature compared to the others with a large head.
Not strong in a metal sense, but mushy in the sense that a brain was anchored there.
The hive master.
Luca had only noticed it when their attacks had suddenly spiked after initially killing the first three.
Stuck at the back with the remaining larger Spawns with tight-fitted muscular figures as its guards.
'Do they always have a hive mind?'
His forums would say otherwise.
'No, they don't.'
A punch to the face was all he needed to carve his ego-reinforced fist into its skull and brain.
The creature collapsed to the floor. Dead.
The others had just a second to realise what had occurred before Luca rounded them up.
Without his sword, he had lost his slicing prowess. But he made up for it in other areas.
His arms and legs, now filled to the brim with Ego, moved at a pace the Creatures couldn't see.
One after the other, they fell like flies. Blood siphoned out of their chests.
Luca had chosen the obvious route. Their hearts.
Without it, the other parts of them couldn't possibly function.
So one after the other, he plunged his fingers and dug into their hearts. Smashed it and went for the others, leaving a trail of black venom in his wake.
It spammed for seconds. And that turned into minutes, until finally, the last of the creature fell.
[18/18]
[SECOND FLOOR CLEARED]
[PROCEED TO THE ELEVATOR]
The world chimed.
An elevator door opened and Luca headed towards it.
Stopping only to pick up his sword.
He walked in and folded his arms. Quietly closing his eyes as a slow sigh escaped his lips.
The elevator door hummed as it slid closed. It was followed by the charging sound of a beam, and its blast.
The second floor was left to soak in the blood of the Grade 2 Null Spawns. Its scars would forever be preserved on the four walls.
While Luca progressed to the next level.