MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

Ash’s claw clashed with the thick pelt.

His nails rent wisps of the matted fur before piercing slightly deeper, scraping flesh and opening a thin wound.

Before the Snow Crawler could properly react, Ash began savagely tearing at that single spot, trying to widen the wound while also driving the stakes on the bottom of his shoes deeper into its back for leverage.

It wasn’t much, but by the time [Focus] ended, Ash’s hands were covered in thick blood. None of it was his own.

Satisfied, Ash jumped off the creature’s back just as it realized its arms couldn’t reach him and started writhing like a bull trying to throw him off.

’It’s certainly not pretty...’

But as long as Ash played the situation pixel perfect and nothing unforeseen happened, he could whittle the beast down. The only fear was the bastard adapting and realizing it should target the shoes rather than Ash himself.

Then again, with Ash’s body so vulnerable, he doubted the beast would be able to resist its instincts to rip his flesh asunder.

With [Focus] on cooldown, Ash began circling the Snow Crawler, constantly shifting around its back to remain directly behind it.

Finally calming down, the beast whirled around and bounded toward him. With how much faster it was, there was little Ash could do to evade it outright. Instead, he had to rely on his glitch.

Still, minimizing the number of hits that would have landed without it was the best bet. Every clean dodge meant one less chance for the beast to accidentally catch his boots or figure out what was going on.

’Wish I could roll.’

Kicking off the ground, Ash launched himself upward until his feet rose to eye level with the behemoth.

It instantly swiped at him with an open palm.

Ash kicked straight into its palm, stopping his ascent while halting the Snow Crawler’s swing. Using the planted foot as leverage, he shoved downward against its hand and sprang over its forearm toward its head while simultaneously casting [Focus].

Still processing the sudden pause, the beast was a heartbeat too late to react properly.

Ash crashed onto its face with his claws outstretched, driving the tips of his hooked nails deep into its eyes.

"Urruragh!"

The lumbering beast screamed, jaws snapping toward Ash as both arms swept up from either side to seize him.

’I wish I could cancel [Focus]. It would be so simple...’

Not wanting to get trapped between its closing arms, Ash kicked off its face and flipped backward over the monster’s head, clearing its shoulders before landing with a stylish roll on the ice behind it.

Rolling across the ice certainly didn’t feel nice, but he’d successfully evaded capture.

Ash popped up onto two feet just as [Focus] ended.

Smirking, he watched the beast howl in pain while blood masquerading as tears streamed from its ruined eyes and its arms swiped wildly around itself.

Eventually, it calmed enough to accept the loss of its vision and started relying on its other senses, sniffing the air before turning toward Ash’s scent.

It would charge in that direction only to pass right by or through him. Each time it overshot, Ash called out from behind it, making sure it didn’t get too far away and run off.

"Over here, buffoon."

"Uh-ur-urahruragh!"

By repeating the bait-and-charge routine, Ash kept its attention locked on him for the entirety of [Focus]’s cooldown.

With it available again, Ash began scrutinizing his options.

He wanted to end this as soon as possible — both to limit the damage he received from the environment and to reduce the chance of something unforeseen happening.

But doing so carried some risk. The fastest method would be reaching through its eye socket and scrambling its brain. Sadly, that would force Ash to remain in one place, making him an easy target once [Focus] made him tangible.

Going for the nape again and wearing it down was the safer choice. But that might take multiple cycles of [Focus], giving his biggest concern — another monster showing up — more time to become reality.

’Hmm...’

Watching the beast thrash around pitifully, Ash decided to put the bastard out of its misery sooner rather than later.

Stopping in his tracks, Ash spun and demanded:

"Come here."

"Urruragh!"

The Snow Crawler charged him.

When it reached him, Ash jumped and kicked it square in the chest, using the collision to halt both of them for an instant.

Reeling from the sudden stop, the Snow Crawler staggered. Ash scrambled up its chest, planted another kick against its upper body to stall its movement once more, then launched himself over its shoulder and cast [Focus].

Ash landed on its blood-soaked nape.

As fast as his body would allow, he hooked his legs around its neck and pulled as tight as he could, locking himself in place while forcing its jaw shut and limiting how far it could turn its head.

At the same time, his right arm snaked around to its face. His hand found its way to its destroyed eye and quickly dove into the socket.

The beast immediately reached back for him.

But it couldn’t contort its arm far enough to seize his torso, so it aimed for his right arm and leg instead.

With his left arm, Ash batted away the grappling attempts while pushing his right arm further and further in until a mushy sensation graced his fingers.

Moments later, his hand found what he was searching for. Shoving his hand deeper, he began to swirl his fingers around.

The Snow Crawler jolted violently.

Then, it stilled.

[You have slain a Snow Crawler]

[+15 EXP]

[Condition...]

’Yeah, yeah.’

Standing on its shoulders, Ash pulled his arm free of its skull as [Focus] ended.

Curiously, while riding its corpse to the ground, Ash looked at his arm covered in blood and brain matter.

’Nasty.’

Shaking as much as he could from his arm while the corpse disappeared, he looked over the drops.

’Figures.’

His lucky streak had finally ended.

’Only meat.’

However, perhaps it hadn’t...

To his right, he saw a pack of four wolves charging toward him.

To his left, another Snow Crawler.

’Quantity means higher chance, right?’

He was bound to get armor or a weapon from at least one of the five.

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