A Soulsborne's Traveler System

Chapter 4: Futility

Before I analyze my latest fight(trashing) with the asylum demon I have something to do. Getting up from the bonfire I walked up to the nearest wall and used my straight sword hilt to scratch three tally marks into the wall. To keep track of how many times I fought the Asylum Demon.

Now my current problem when facing him is my lack of experience. It may be obvious but I am not used to getting a giant hammer swung at me. And believe it or not, it's very hard to concentrate on something when you see an imminent painful death being swung toward you. It doesn't matter if I know how to jump backward properly if I can't apply it in reality.

But how the hell do you not panic with several tons of crushing force coming at you!? I'm not an experienced soldier who can retain his rationality in front of danger. I'm just a guy like any other... But, I know how I can do it. But the thing is can I do it?

I know, I know that if I challenge the Asylum Demon enough I will eventually get used to performing under danger. But, how long would that take? How times do I need to challenge the Asylum Demon? How many times do I need to experience the agonizing pain of being crushed to death before I even manage to stop panicking? 10? 20? 30?

Only one way to find out.

Determined, I walked over to my execution grounds and pushed open the heavy set of doors to my agonizing death once again. The Asylum Demon, already expecting me, jumped down, ready to deliver me my cruel death sentence for the 4th time. And redied his horizontal swing. Seeing his great hammer come toward me, I tried suppressing my instinct to flinch and jumped backward.

And I managed to dodge the blow without completely losing my balance. Albeit it wasn't the cleanest jump. But I was still in the game. The demon seeing me dodge his move raised his hammer above his head and lept forward, bringing his hammer down on me.

Seeing the giant brutal hammer coming down on me I miraculously managed to jump back again. But as I narrowly dodged the hammer, the shockwave it produced as it hit the ground threw me to the ground. The Demon seeing his prey on the ground did not relent as he charged forth with the hammer still firmly on the ground. Driving the hammer in my direction like a bulldozer.

*Crash!!!*

Getting hit by the hammer felt like getting hit by the truck all over again. But instead of dying instantly, however, I was painfully launched against the thick iron doors. However, I couldn't even scream as the hammer had completely crushed my lungs. As I painfully laid against the doors unable to utter even a dying whimper I saw the all too familiar sight of the Asylum Demon raising his great hammer and bringing it down on me.

*SPLAT*

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

I woke up in front of the bonfire. Feeling the familiar crushing agony again, but without even waiting for the pain to fade, I stumbled my way to the wall and added another tally mark to my death counter. Done scratching the wall I slid down against it and waited for the lingering pain to fade.