MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

’Well, shit.’

Ash lowered his stance and cast [Focus].

There was little reason for him to be stingy or hold back in this situation. As for why he’d just cast it...

It was for its true effect.

The whole reason he’d selected it in the first place.

His observation skills heightened, making it feel like the world had slowed slightly.

Ash’s eyes locked onto Winter as she closed in, taking in every detail of her anatomy. He tracked the outlines of her bones beneath her pelt as they shifted with each change in direction, searching for any habit that preceded a shift in weight while also trying to gauge whether she was in a rush to gauge how far away Cross was.

It could barely be called a countermeasure, but with the little information he’d gathered, Ash would try to predict her movements.

After all, she was much too quick for him to respond reactively.

Not to mention...

Ash was quite confident Cross was aware of what was going on.

’And there’s no way he won’t come.’

Ash needed to stall until he arrived for his plan. He needed Vera here too.

To be honest, it was already looking pretty shitty.

Just as Winter entered striking range, Ash pushed himself to the limit in the final second of [Focus]. He’d been telegraphing a crosswise swipe. The instant she sprang from her hind legs to clear it, he pivoted beneath her and redirected [Sealed Fate] upward.

The sleek edge bit into Winter’s underside before snagging in her thick pelt.

The blade that could cut through Seal Scrawlers and even the Seal Centurion with ease couldn’t even break Demitra’s hide.

A purple wisp bloomed, but one stack meant little.

But...

Although Ash had landed the strike, Winter’s momentum still carried her forward. Her weight crashed down along the blade and drove Ash onto his back.

"Guh!"

One of her forepaws planted against Ash’s chest, pinning him to the obsidian.

Winter raised a hind leg to crush his kneecap, but another flame spear tore through the haze, forcing her to spring off him and retreat several paces.

Idolan’s voice reached Ash’s ears:

"What happened to the man my son fears, Ash?"

"Tch."

Ash drove a boot against the floor and pushed himself upright, then threw himself into a roll as Winter lunged. Her jaws snapped shut where his head had been a moment before.

Winter pursued him across the landing, pouncing again and again.

Ash used the little he’d learned about her to anticipate each attack, rolling beneath one swipe before diving away from the next. However, his desperate evasions were merely a stopgap. He would tire long before she did.

’Think, think!’

As he scrambled across the landing, flopping like a fish out of water, he swapped out his headgear, desperate for [Danger Sense].

[You have unequipped [Crown of the Defeated]]

His body immediately grew sluggish, some of his strength fading as the crown’s stat bonuses disappeared.

That momentary change was enough for the edge of Winter’s claw to rend his neck and cheek.

The keratin easily pierced [Scale Armor].

Ash reeled from the blow, one heel skidding across the obsidian as he toppled backward.

Winter pounced before he could hit the floor.

With nowhere left to evade, Ash thrust his left forearm between her open jaws.

An invitation the wolf gracefully accepted.

Her teeth punched through flesh and clamped around bone, trapping his arm inside her mouth.

The bite violently halted Ash’s fall. Before his back could strike the floor, Winter whipped her head upward, hauling him by the arm and dragging him back onto his feet.

Then she began thrashing from side to side, jerking Ash across the landing as she tried to tear the limb from his shoulder.

[You have equipped [Whisper of the Wind]]

’[Focus]!’

Ash let her next pull twist his left shoulder toward her, then rolled [Sealed Fate] in his right hand and swept it over Demitra’s lowered head. The edge hammered into her upper back.

It rebounded, doing nothing.

Ash raised it again, striking.

Gritting his teeth, Ash screeched:

"Geruh!"

Each blow bounced off her hide, shearing away only clumps of fur.

Demitra answered by thrashing harder, her fangs grinding against bone as she fought [Scale Armor]’s desperate attempt to keep his shoulder intact.

Whenever she snapped her head to one side, Ash went with the motion, rotating his torso and feeding the trapped arm farther into her mouth so she could never pull it fully taut.

However...

There was only so much he could do.

By the time [Fate’s Hand] reached twenty-four stacks, Demitra abruptly planted her forepaws against the obsidian and threw her entire weight backward. Ash tried to stumble after her, but he was too slow.

A wet crunch burst from his shoulder as the joint gave way.

The skin around the socket split next. Muscle peeled apart in ragged strands, while pale tendons stretched between Ash and the trapped limb before snapping one by one.

Blood sprayed across Demitra’s muzzle and painted the ground between them.

"Gyah!"

Demitra gave one final backward jerk. The last bands of flesh tore apart, and the sudden release sent Ash stumbling back.

Winter bounded away with Ash’s entire left arm clenched in her blood-covered maw.

Huffing, Ash glanced at his shoulder as blood poured down his side and spattered against the floor.

If not for the new trinket he’d thankfully equipped on his right hand, he would bleed out. Through its effect, he could tell the HP loss from bleeding would eventually stop, but he couldn’t afford to be caught again.

Ash’s gaze drifted from his shoulder to Winter.

"You saw... what I went through... down there... right?"

Ash smiled.

"This pain... pales... in comparison."

Winter opened her jaws and dropped the severed arm between them. It struck the obsidian with a wet thud.

She rasped:

"I care little how much pain you’re in."

"Little...? What an odd... word. I’d care not at all... if you were in... pain."

Winter sighed, then shook her head before charging, ready to continue the assault.

Ash glanced at [Sealed Fate]. Particularly, the many wisps surrounding the hilt.

’I wonder if she knows.’

Even if she did, did she see it as a threat?

Well, there was really only one way to find out. Keep fighting.

To that end...

Ash shouted:

"Winter! Did you know... Cross claims... he can hide from a Great Spirit..."

Demitra didn’t slow at all.

Ash spun to his side just when she was about to leap.

"Cross!"

For a moment, Winter hesitated, her body seizing as her eyes followed Ash’s.

There was...

Nothing.

However, alongside the two terrible pressures of warning winds from the beast before him and Idolan, [Danger Sense] was going crazy off in the haze to his right.

Winter huffed and shook her head, her jaws mere inches from Ash.

"Keke. Cheap bluff."

A sudden voice descended from above.

"You called?"

’How predictable you are...’

After learning Winter could monitor Ash through their bond, it was only logical to conclude Cross knew about it...

’There’s no way... he’d tell me anything... truthful.’

On the other hand, that also meant Winter heard his conversation with Idolan. Understanding that conversation was a different matter. All Ash could do was hope she hadn’t.

The sudden addition caused Winter’s gaze to snap toward it, as if Ash weren’t even there.

Even as Ash lunged, thrusting his blade harmlessly into her pelt, she kept her gaze locked on a man who drifted closer and closer, standing upon a stone.

Ash screamed, using all of his willpower.

"Just like you planned, Cross! Get her!"

Not one to read the situation, Cross simply laughed as he watched Ash.

"To think you asked to fight her and are now trying to bring me into it? Seriously... we are just alike!"

’Don’t call us similar, asshole!’

Ash used the distraction to jump away, then looked at his blade, which now had a whopping fifty stacks of [Fate’s Hand].

Yet, the blade still failed to breach her pelt.

And it wasn’t simply because of his glitch. Even in his glitched state, strands were being rent.

She was simply too strong.

She hadn’t even cared to dodge after Cross appeared.

Demitra’s eyes narrowed on the man as he descended closer.

"This was... unexpected."

She drew back a little.

Ash fell to his knee and dropped [Sealed Fate]. Then he brought his hand over his open wound.

’Ah, damn. It hurts.’

Cross huffed:

"Why have you stopped? You two may continue."

Ash grew a deranged smile as he glared at Winter.

"What’s wrong... wolf?"

Demitra’s glare drifted from Cross to Ash and back to Cross.

It seemed she was aware of the stalemate she was in...

If she continued fighting Ash, he’d almost certainly use [Focus], even knowing the likely possibility of Cross not upholding the duel’s sanctity.

Assuming Demitra had lied — and Cross’s goal was truly to save his sister — it would be the perfect opportunity to kill Ash right then and there, something she couldn’t afford to let happen, as she’d be consumed right after.

Even if Vera was strong enough after having ’consumed the guardians,’ she was nowhere close enough to establish a contract in time to save Winter, considering Vera had just felled the chain.

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