Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

I_K 1.9 Face Off

Chapter 9

My body shivered with every ragged breath I took. I peeked around the corner of the tree I was hiding behind and saw the roided out zombie furball rip the tensile vine from its leg with ease.

"Looks like I'm in trouble here," I wheezed.

My snare bought some time and allowed me to create a little separation from the large and overly aggressive killer bear. He'd find me in another view seconds, easily. My first attempt at fighting up close with it nearly resulted in my death. But the only way I could defeat this thing was up close. I switched to my Basilard to get a little more range, silently cursing that I'd made my avatar so small.

"Tiny dynamo," I said. "The essence of every war goddess. Kalika."

That was my name and it meant something. Power. Bloodlust. Victory. I touched the Living Vine glyph with my left hand and tapped the ground with my right foot, envisioning the Soul Power in my body travel into the hard roots below. To my surprise the roots responded to my unique prompting and burst out of the ground below the zombie bruin, splitting the fur on its stomach and chest down the center. The beasts blood was black jelly which slapped against the forest floor with a nasty splat, but the bear was undeterred as it snapped through the hard vine and charged towards me. I let out a sigh and switched out my alchemy book for my Blighted Dagger.

"Duallies," I said, tightly gripping the handles of both blades as I lifted the Basilard up in front of me in preparation to meet the bear's first strike. I avoided its snapping jaws and the force of its charging body by leaping to the side. We recovered at the same time and the bear closed the distance between us with a gallop. I blocked its claw swipe with the sword but was thrown backwards. I already knew I was too weak to block something that much stronger than me, but I needed to be in this position. It tried to behead me with a slash from its left that I managed to duck then tried to advance on me, but I slipped to its side. I jabbed it once with my dagger then skipped backwards and planted my heels out of its immediate attack range. I put away my Basilard along with my Dagger and threw a knife at the beast to provoke it. It easily took the bait as I ensnared one of its hind legs with Living Vine. While it fussed with its restraint, I threw another knife at it to get its attention, this time the blade landed flush between its eyes.

"Bingo!" I yelled as the beast collapsed to the ground. I didn't expect it to drop like that, but I didn't waste the opportunity. It's HP was still nearly full so I ran over to it and stabbed it in the same spot that the knife landed, with my Basilard. The blow took about twenty percent of its total HP.

"Five more times then," I said watching it rise. It lunged at me as soon as I got up, but I ducked it and slashed with both blades. Now on its hind legs, it backhanded me and sent me flying into a nearby tree.

I looked at my half depleted health bar and sighed. I gulped down some Soul Fire and rushed right in. The beast greeted me with a roar and swatted away my attempts at slashing it. It wasn't at all intimidated by my lacking power and I couldn't blame it. I didn't want it scared of me anyway, I wanted it dead so I swiped at it, baiting another slash. I ducked under and jumped straight at the bear's abdomen and buried my Basilard into it's heart. As the damage was still being calculated and the bear still on its feet, I quickly switched weapons, leapt to the bear's back and landed another critical strike to it's extremities with my Blighted Dagger. It was a trick I'd learned earlier while fighting the revenants of the starter classes. The bear fell forward on it's face, taking my Basilard with it as I yanked my dagger out of it's back.

I wasn't sure if what I'd just done was a glitch or if it were just a hidden function of the combat. Whatever it was didn't seem fair or balanced, but it worked out in my favor. Either way, I'd be keeping quiet on this one too. As the bear recovered, I ran around and plucked my sword out of its body. It offered a tired grunt as I yanked and backpedaled.