139: The Descent, Part Two

The Descent, Part Two

She was only fighting two enemies. Two, basic enemies that came with only a set of basic attacks and basic behavioral patterns.

And yet, death's sweet grasp had nearly caught her a few times already. 

[Come on, come on! I just wanna take at least ONE of you out!] She felt that, maybe, upon doing so she'd have some small amount of breathing room. 

The ax-wielding orc swung at her head the way an MVP baseball player might during the 9th inning of the World Series, down 3 runs with the bases loaded. 

She ducked, rendering the dramatic effort meaningless, save for a few strands of sapphire hair that fell gracefully on the rocky floor. 

An arrow grazed her cheek. Apparently, the archer had been aiming for her stomach, and Neve's dodge just now inadvertently spared her from getting shot there. 

This one battle was giving her boss fight levels of trouble. 

Of course, if there was one thought she could take some consolation from it was that she had not used any potions for this, but still. If this fight was proving to be so hard, how could she hope to make it through the entire floor? 

[One thing at a time,] she thought. [Just focus on getting through this first.] 

The archer's body was suddenly covered in a red aura. It pulled back an arrow and, as Neve saw its mana go down by 25, she felt there would be something different about this next shot. 

Indeed, as the arrow fired it flew through the air, just barely missed Neve's head, and landed on the wall behind her, forming a web of cracks. If that had hit her, Neve's head may have exploded. 

[Right, shit. I studied this on the 2nd Floor. As a fight goes on, enemies will start using rarer abilities.]

As unreasonable as it was, it seemed as though the best course of action was to try to end these fights as quickly as possible. 

Keeping her enemies as simple as they could be was in her best interest under these conditions. 

With that in mind, Neve's legs moved with just a bit more motivation than before, as she willed them toward the archer. 

Her path was blocked, however, by the archer's buddy, who stepped in and planted its weapon right in front of her. 

The ax-wielder had taken so many swings already, missed so many times, and yet it did not seem like it was getting tired at all. 

Neve's 50 Endurance meant she could say the same, though she did not want to find out for how long. 

As she looked at the ax-wielder, she remembered something. It was a detail that hadn't made much of a difference to her so far, as a mage, but one she'd need to make use of here. 

[Weak points.] Neve's eyes moved down. [Right. I should be exploiting these, shouldn't I?] 

The orc raised its ax over her head. 

Neve took that opportunity and thrust her shortsword straight into the orc's crotch. 

"AUUEERGH!" 

The orc dropped its ax. Neve felt she had a chance to go for the kill, but the archer behind this enemy made that risky. 

So, she stuck to her original plan here and went straight for that opponent once again. 

At the same time, the orc shot an arrow in her direction.

This time, the shot landed. 

The arrow embedded itself in her right shoulder. 

The hit was so strong, she felt her arm nearly get torn off. 

But, it didn't. Which, when taking into consideration the fact that these orcs likely had most of their Attribute Points invested into their Strength, meant that Neve's decision to get her Endurance to 50 paid off. 

"Agh, fuck!" She briefly stopped before her mind reminded her body that hesitating here would likely be the end of her. 

Pushing past the pain, Neve closed the gap with the archer yet again. 

Learning from her mistakes, she made sure to stab its head multiple times instead of just once. 

"Fucking... die!" She shouted through gritted teeth as the orc took that shortsword to the forehead once more. She tried to get it through its skull, but only the tip of the blade would slip in with each stab. 

The orc flailed its arms to defend itself and ended up landing a backhand punch on Neve that damn near knocked her out.

Neve hit the floor. The intense sting in her mouth hinted at the fact that, though she couldn't see them because it was so dark, there were probably at least a couple of her teeth laying beside her head. 

And still, she stood up again. 

"AAARGH!" Yelling out, with one arm just barely hanging onto her torso, she raised her shortsword and ran forward. 

This time, her sword was aimed at its neck instead. 

This spot was far more agreeable, allowing her blade to slip all the way through to the other side. 

"Eck-" the orc gave a choked sound. It coughed up some blood that fell on Neve's face. As Neve pulled the sword out, the creature fell back. 

She got an EXP message. 

But, Neve had no time to celebrate this first kill. 

An ax reached her waist, sending her rolling along the floor. 

{The Undying Coward} kicked in instantly. Neve stopped and quickly got up, her mind operating on autopilot as the trait took over, silencing her thoughts. 

The second orc, encouraged to end the proceedings thanks to the awful blow it had just landed, began jogging toward her, at the same brisk pace that an underpaid lifeguard might rush toward someone who needs saving, albeit with the opposite intention. 

Neve stood up, feeling like half her internal organs were currently sliding down the side of her body but she ignored it. Even the pain that came from the blow felt like it was being numbed. 

The orc went to swing its ax at her head, this time. 

Neve ducked, falling to her knees. 

Without the enthusiastic battle cry from before, Neve stabbed the orc in the balls yet again. 

Monstrous testicles fell just in front of Neve's knees along with a large amount of blood. Neve wanted to see more, though and pulled her blade out only to thrust it in again. 

The pained cries of the castrated orc fell on deaf ears as Neve decided two stabs weren't enough and thrust her shortsword up the orc's crotch a third time. 

As the orc joined its own testicles on the floor, its body hitting the ground with a loud thud, another EXP message appeared in front of the healer-turned-crotch stabber. 

EXP Gained: 85

EXP: 85/500

WST Gained: 190

WST: 81877

She barely gave the numbers a glance, though, as her trait placed her mind's focus on her body's unfortunate state. 

Using what was left of her strength, Neve pulled out a Minor Healing Potion from her Inventory. 

Gulping the flask's contents down, Neve's body was fully repaired thanks to the Angel Set and, finally, {The Undying Coward} faded away and Neve's voice returned to her mind. 

As soon as it did, she fell back, feeling several times more tired than she had just a moment ago.  1

[Holy fuck.] 

Neve breathed in slowly and steadily. 

The fight played back in her mind. From the moment it began to the moment where it ended with Neve destroying the second orc's southern region. 

This was, very likely, the simplest and easiest fight that Neve could expect to have here. 

And, as indicated by the fact that {The Undying Coward} activated, Neve's life had nearly ended here. 

[... This floor is going to be so painful.] 

But the literal floor she was currently laying on wasn't. She felt like her body wasn't going to let itself stand up for a while. 

A donation came in, then, that pulled Neve's attention toward her notifications. 

Still on the floor, Neve went and checked her inbox. 

She'd been receiving donations all this time but had ignored them all. As she saw a familiar name, however, she actually looked at the donation's contents. 

The series of donations she received went like:

{Donation Received!} 

Charlotte <3: 9

{Donation Received!} 

Charlotte <3: 14

{Donation Received!} 

Charlotte <3: 6

{Donation Received!} 

Charlotte <3: 15

As Neve went through the message in her thoughts, she read out: 

"Info?" Neve squinted at the numbers. "I wonder what exactly they're asking for. Maybe they just want general information on what the Final Challenge is like?" 

With that in mind, Neve formulated a response. 

"... I hope they understand." 

She sent back the following amounts of tokens:

10, 4, 21, 14, 7, 5, 15, 14, 19

And, she followed that up with: 

9, 1, 13, 15, 14, 6

She then let her head fall back against the floor. 

[Hopefully, that's enough for now. Maybe knowing that will let them ask more specific stuff.] 

Her own sent donations soon became lost in the growing sea of total donations. As that happened, she exited the donation menu and closed her eyes. 

[... Okay,] she thought. [Keep going. You only have a few more days to clear this entire floor. No time to waste.] 

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