Trapped In A Game World? Bring It On!

Chapter 3 - Battle & Realization

With the sword inching ever closer to Hiroki's face, the boy's instincts went into high gear. He jumped backwards while simultaneously curving his spine to evade the attack. His eyes could see almost in slow motion how a tiny part of the frontal lock of his hair swam in the breeze caused by the momentum of the sword, having been cut off by the rusty blade.

“That was close!” - Hiroki thought, jumping back a few more steps to open the gap between him and the abominable creature. His heart was thumping uncontrollably in his chest, giving him the impression that he was ready to go into cardiac arrest at any minute. His brain forced itself to try and reason out everything that was unfolding. Why was an ogre right in front of him when the purpose of using the VR technology was to carry out a simple school project? That was what hammered at Hiroki's brain.

As he saw the being adjust the sword into a combat posture again, the muscles in the boy's body tensed. He knew he couldn't let his guard down. Despite its enormous size and abundant body mass, the ogre, that should be considered slow by these characteristics alone, broke the young man's belief rather easily by it's sheer incongruity. Not only was that thing a powerhouse when it came to brute strength, but it was also fast, surpassing the speed that the teenager was aware he could attain at his top condition.

It's not as if Hiroki considered himself weak. On the contrary, he was extremely strong. The years of hard training in a myriad of martial arts, fueled by the anger he felt towards Kokujin, had transformed the young man, to the extent that if a conflict were to arise between him and Kokujin today, Hiroki was sure he would win without any real difficulty. Time and the experience of many fights made him abandon his habit of always charging straight ahead against his opponent without thinking. He learned to read the atmosphere and make smarter, less risky choices. All of that lead him to access his predicament in mere seconds, which made him come to an obvious conclusion:

It was impossible for him to face this monster, running away was the default option.

But one problem remained.

''Damn, this open field is probably my biggest disadvantage against this aberration. If we were in a city or at least a forest, I could use the environment to my advantage to trick the ogre and lose him.'' - The blond's frenzy was clear, his grimace giving visual form to that sentiment. - ''Since he's faster than me, I'll have no other choice but to dodge his attacks until he gets tired. If I can accomplish that, I'm sure an opportunity to injure him will pop up-!''

Pow!

Hiroki felt a sudden impact. His body was thrown as swiftly into the air as if it were a rag doll being tossed. In the blink of an eye, the ogre had appeared in front of the blond teen and hit him with a devastating punch.

The blue sky and the green color of the grass became a single blur as he soared through the air, coming into friction with the ground as he bounced like a ball. With each contact, the boy decelerated further, until finally coming to a halt. With superhuman pain gripping his every nerve, Hiroki's hazy eyes caught sight of something just above his head.

“What is this?”

Floating above him was the number 10 in a bright red color.

But not just the numerical display, there was also a kind of bar that read:

HP - 90/100

“Wait, you mean I'm in a game? Haaaaah, I guess I was worrying myself all for nothing.” - The boy breathed a sigh of relief. - “If I get killed by this ugly beast, I'll probably go back to the real world.” - Hiroki proclaimed to himself, but even with this newfound knowledge, his relief was coupled with a hint of hesitation.