MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

Cross fell onto his back and began scrambling away.

"S-stay—"

Ash didn’t care to scrutinize the system’s change in diction or waste energy on a response.

"Stay away from me!"

Instead, he hobbled forward and hammered his fist down with all the force he could muster.

Cross screamed again and drove his remaining fist into Ash’s chest, hurling him backward.

"You monster! Get back!"

Despite his panic, Cross was still many times stronger, especially with his ability active.

Blood streaming from his wounds, Ash slammed into the far wall.

For an instant, neither moved. Cross stared at the blood on his knuckle, while Ash slid down the wall. The prince’s severed arm lay between them, entirely beneath the spreading red.

Staring at Cross, he planted his foot and tried to rise.

Before he could, [Focus] ended, causing him to sink into the ground again.

His legs had sunk to the knees. The stone climbed around his thighs.

But... he was still alive.

Guided by thoughtless instinct, Ash immediately began returning the items to his inventory.

Cross stammered between sharp, ragged breaths, clutching the stump of his missing arm. He didn’t even try to shatter the items.

The two tomes and the bow returned to Ash’s inventory, although the eye had disappeared upon its ’consumption.’

With fear in his eyes, Cross watched as one of the two tomes materialized in Ash’s hand.

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

Then...

Ash jammed the tome against the solid ground beneath him and used it to propel himself forward. It was an awkward, bizarre method of travel, but it was also his only one.

Cross shoved himself backward with his good leg until his back struck the opposite side of the stone prison he’d created.

"Ah-Araaagh! Stay back!"

Spikes bulged from the wall behind him.

Just before Ash could reach Cross, they tore free and hurtled across the chamber, hammering against Ash’s armor.

Individually, they were small, but their combined speed and sheer volume blasted Ash back to where he’d started.

Each impact rang through the chamber. Chips of stone and shattered scales splattered to the ground.

Yet, the moment the onslaught relented, Ash planted the tome again and launched himself toward Cross.

The silver light in Cross’s eyes flared brighter. Terror had stripped away every trace of his arrogance.

"I don’t care anymore!"

Another stone stake struck Ash. This one was far larger, shaped during the precious seconds Cross had bought himself.

Once again, Ash was sent crashing into the far end of the stone prison.

Like some zombie driven by a singular, carnage-driven purpose, he immediately began lurching and bounding after Cross again.

The pain should have paralyzed him. Instead, it sharpened the single command consuming his mind: forward. He no longer cared whether he reached Cross alive. He only needed the prince to understand that distance would not save him.

The prince screamed and raised his remaining hand. Hovering above his palm was a thin stake, spinning furiously, spiral grooves winding along its length.

"Be gone!"

Cross thrust his palm forward.

The stake shot through the [Spire Serpent’s Skin] and buried itself in Ash’s abdomen.

The impact carried Ash to the other side of the stone prison yet again. This time, however, the projectile bored completely through his armor and pinned him against the wall.

For the first time since he’d cast [Focus], Ash broke free from his instinctive frenzy long enough to form a coherent thought.

’Ah, fuck.’

Pinned upright and drowning in pain, Ash let go of the tome.

He gave Cross a bloody smile, then said:

"Look at you..."

Cross flinched at his voice. His remaining hand trembled, causing the next stake to form crooked before he launched it.

With wide eyes, Cross continued to huff and hurl stake after stake at Ash’s armor. Ash could do nothing against the relentless barrage.

So, instead, he began to talk to him.

"I’ve discerned your goal... You want to kill me."

A stake smashed into the right scale pauldron, shearing it off. Another crashed into the left thigh plating, splintering the armor and scattering fragments across the ground.

"You can’t know... what happens if you... destroy all my equipment... and I fall."

"Gerh!"

Cross grunted, then sent a particularly large stake through Ash’s head, burying his face in stone and blotting out his vision entirely.

Even though he couldn’t breathe, Ash continued without reprieve:

"Weren’t you... trying to bait me... so you could kill me properly...?"

Ash laughed as he felt new fractures spreading across his armor.

"Come on... stop this... you have to make sure I die, right?"

Ash’s laughter turned manic as he screamed:

"Right?!"

Cross finally responded:

"Shut up!"

A dull crack suddenly reverberated through Ash’s ears, followed by the system’s voice.

[[Spire Serpent’s Skin] has been destroyed]

Ash’s body began to fall.

As he sank, he regained sight of Cross for a single moment.

The man stared at him with unadulterated fear, huddled against the corner.

"Ah... I didn’t lose."

But...

Before he could disappear completely, Ash reached out with his right — and only — hand.

He lost his sight beneath the ground, but felt his fingers close around something solid — the tome.

Using it as an anchor, Ash hauled himself upward and flung his naked body back above the surface, landing chest-first across the book.

He got one good look at Cross’s face, then smiled, spat blood at him, and said:

"I haven’t... given up."

Cross opened his mouth, but his thoughts appeared to fail him.

Instead, he unleashed a barrage of stakes upon the tome.

[[Tome of Might: Brute Strength] has been destroyed]

Finally, Ash had nothing left to grasp.

The last thing he saw was the stone prison around Cross begin to crumble little by little, countless misshapen limbs tearing gaps in it.

The Seal Scrawlers had arrived.

Far too many had gathered in one place when the entire chain had fallen. There were much more devastating tremors elsewhere.

’Did the eye call them?’

Ash didn’t know, but...

’Have fun with them, bastard.’

The ground swallowed Ash, and he plunged endlessly into the nothingness below.

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