MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

Cross shouted when he saw Ash’s expression sharpen.

"Such passion in your gaze — the hint of defiance still ablaze! Come, let me smother the embers of your will!"

At his proclamation, the three stone needles he had formed shot toward Ash.

Ash managed to deflect one with the [Starter Pike], but the other two struck his armor and split apart before fading into the air. They left little damage beyond a few chips along the scales.

Cross stepped forward as if to launch another attack, only to stop abruptly. Smiling, he threw his arms out to the side, completely exposing his body. He even moved directly in front of the pike’s tip.

Cross stared at the weapon’s point, then bared his teeth and declared:

"In spite of that obvious desire to rip my heart out, why do you stay your hand?! I know why... because you can’t attack, can you? At least not without exposing yourself to the true difference in our power."

Ash tried to suppress his reaction, but his eye twitched involuntarily. The subtle movement made the silver-haired man’s grin widen.

"How pitiful you are, chimera."

’Damn it...’

Ash thrust the pike forward, aiming for Cross’s heart.

Although he’d provoked Ash into doing so, Cross glided backward and raised an open palm into the strike’s path.

The pikehead slammed into Cross’s leather-covered palm and stopped dead without a sound.

Ash’s brows furrowed.

"Why bother blocking if you have me figured out?"

Cross tried to seize the pikehead, but Ash twisted the shaft and sprang backward.

"Because it was merely a test. A successful one at that. But chimera, have you ever been told you’re an easy one to provoke?"

Ash stepped forward and drove the pike at him again.

"Quiet."

Cross drifted backward, remaining barely beyond the weapon’s reach, as a thick stake the diameter of his torso materialized beside him.

"I can tell. I was like you, once. You hold within you so much quiet pride that you can’t stand the sight of me — someone overwhelmingly superior."

Ash’s posture eased slightly. Barely registering Cross’s words, he thought:

’That’s right...’

His breath steadied.

Cross tilted his head.

"Oh?"

’I ran.’

He had fled from the Seal Sentry. He had deceived and scared Cross away the first time.

He’d retreated from both obstacles, silently accepting his inferiority.

And now, he was hesitant to use [Focus].

Ash didn’t understand mana fluctuations, but he’d assumed Cross would know the moment he activated it. He had unconsciously accepted that once he and Cross stood on equal ground, without the glitch between them, he’d lose.

He’d utterly and pitifully lose.

It was that thought — of losing, not of death — that scared him terribly.

Driven by desperate defiance, Ash slid his back foot behind him, kicked off, and hurled himself toward Cross with the pike extended, ignoring the gigantic stake.

As he closed the gap, he cast [Dragon Fear].

Cross’s face twisted into a glower, and his body erupted into motion.

The silver-haired man leapt all the way back to the edge of the stone prison he had created, then swept one hand forward.

The massive stone needle ripped through the air and passed straight through Ash’s head. As his world went black, he let his limbs go slack.

He heard Cross sigh, then murmur:

"Sorry."

Ash allowed his body to crumple.

The moment his head cleared the stake, he kicked off the ground and cast [Focus].

Cross, who had closed his eyes and clasped his hands as though in prayer, reacted too slowly.

By the time his eyes snapped open, Ash’s pike had pierced his thin leather armor and buried itself deep in his abdomen.

"Where do you get off underestimating me?"

Cross coughed up blood. His face twisted in consternation as he gripped the shaft while Ash continued forcing it deeper.

Blood sprayed across Ash’s face when Cross roared:

"You bastard!"

"Call me what you want. But thanks — you’ve helped me realize a fault of mine."

It was the first time he’d ever meant that word in his life.

Ash clenched the shaft, trying to twist the pikehead to mangle Cross’s intestines. Cross seized it with both hands and fought to hold it still.

Grunting, Ash planted his feet and drove forward.

"That deception is merely a form of desperation. Not acceptance of weakness."

Midway through the sentence, [Focus] ended.

At once, Ash sensed something in the air change.

’Is that... mana fluctuation?’

It wasn’t as though he suddenly understood mana. The fluctuation was so violent that even Ash’s untrained senses recoiled from it.

Cross’s muscles contracted, somehow clamping around the pike inside him. Ash tried to pull it free, but when he realized it was firmly lodged, he had no choice but to dismiss it, intending to kill Cross the same way he’d killed the first Seal Scrawler.

However...

Before it could even begin returning to his inventory, Cross tightened his grip on the shaft with one hand and punched downward with the other.

The pike snapped instantly.

[[Starter Pike] has been destroyed]

It had sustained enough damage to be completely destroyed.

As the broken weapon dissolved, Ash jumped back.

Cross remained motionless, one hand pressed over his abdomen. His eyes were gleaming, a faint light shining from within them.

In a low voice, he muttered:

"Be proud, chimera. You’ve earned my disrespect."

Cross removed his hand, revealing his blood-soaked palm and clothes. The wound beneath them, however, had already mostly closed.

’It seems the brother possesses some freakish healing as well...’

Ash drew a deep breath.

’Two books, a curved wooden stick, and an eye...’

The beginnings of some crude joke were all the remaining tools he had to his name. It seemed he’d have to rely on his claws and teeth.

"Now, be gone."

Cross vanished.

Before Ash could turn, the prince reappeared beside him and clamped a hand around the brown bracer.

[[Goblin’s Bracers] have been destroyed]

Ash’s eyes widened.

’Huh.’

Cross had crushed it with his bare hands.

Refusing to give Ash room to retreat, Cross caught hold of the pauldron on [Spire Serpent’s Skin].

He raised one boot and stamped toward Ash’s feet.

Ash tried to move, but Cross was too quick.

Cross’s boot phased through his leg and smashed into his sandal. He lifted his foot and stomped again with brutal precision.

[[Starter Sandals] have been destroyed]

’No!’

Ash’s body plunged into the ground. He sank all the way to his knees, where his armor ended.

Despite Ash’s pitiful state and the behavior Cross had shown before, the man didn’t smile or laugh. He didn’t talk down to Ash despite the obvious and seemingly inevitable outcome.

It was clear what Cross would destroy next. Equally clear was his ability to do it, especially now that Ash was nearly immobile.

’Fuck!’

Ash was out of options. But hesitation no longer burdened him.

[You have equipped [Tome of Might: Brute Strength]]

[You have equipped [Tome of Might: Thick Skin]]

[You have equipped [Scrawler’s Eye]]

[You have equipped [Starter Bow]]

As Cross began tearing the scales from his armor one by one, Ash grabbed both tomes and slammed them into the ground.

Using them as supports, he shoved himself upward, attempting to vault free of the stone.

Without fully considering the consequences, he activated [Focus] the moment he felt he had risen high enough.

Agony detonated within him.

"Argh!"

"Gyeah! What have you done?!"

His left leg below the ankle hadn’t made it out of the ground, and the stone severed it completely.

Part of his tail had clipped through Cross’s leg, tearing a sizable chunk of flesh from both of them.

Ash had also thrust one hand toward Cross’s chest, attempting to phase it through his body. Cross had twisted aside, having flung his arm into Ash’s path during the movement.

Their fused left arms tore asunder from their bodies and fell to the ground.

Blood poured from Ash’s wounds, yet he smiled — a crazed, defiant grin.

It was the smile of someone nowhere near surrender.

Even as he hobbled toward Cross on one leg, he threw the [Scrawler’s Eye], both tomes, and the bow at the man, who reeled backward and screamed over his missing arm.

[[Scrawler’s Eye] has been consumed]

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